Sniffing Out Magic

"That's probably due to my magically creating clothes for myself and my friend there," the dark-haired girl said, indicating the redhead.

"You're a witch?"

"I prefer the term 'magic user'. Yes, I am. And the ability to do magic hasn't left me like all my other memories have done. But I know that I'm only a novice, and curing amnesia is well beyond my powers."

"Well for a novice you did a fine job with the clothes. But I'm afraid that I am going to have to ask the two of you to undress. I'll take your clothes into the back room, where they won't be a problem. You can have them back when we've finished."

The witch shot Jolyon a suspicious glance, but then commenced to undress. The redhead also took her clothes off, seemingly unconcerned. Jolyon took their clothes to the back room, and then rejoined them, shutting the door behind him. "The doors and walls in this building are specially treated to ensure no magical leakage," he explained.

As Jolyon took down his master's big encyclopaedia of spells and searched for the right one, he could hardly believe his luck. Not only had he acquired more silver coins than he would normally earn in a month, but he was also getting to ogle two lovely naked young women. Concenttrate on the spell, he reminded himself. You don't want it to go wrong.

Then he sniffed again. "There's still some magic in here," he said.

The witch shrugged. "It's not my doing," she said. "Unless it's a spell that I cast before losing my memory."

Meanwhile Jolyon was moving about the room, sniffing as he went. After a minute or so he said: "It's the dog. I think it must have been the subject of a transformation spell."

"And I also seem to be under a spell that allows you humans to understand my barks as speech," the dog pointed out.

Jolyon jumped. This was the first time that the dog had taken part in the conversation and he had been taken by surprise. When he had recovered his poise, he said: "I can't undo the transformation spell on you, I'm afraid. It's too advanced. I could undo the translation one, but there wouldn't be any point without undoing the other. That means that your enchantment risks disrupting the anti-amnesia spell that I'm about to cast. I'm afraid that you will have to go into the back room as well."

"But I want my memories back. I don't even know what I used to be before I was a dog."

"Let him stay," the man said. "We'll take the risk." The women nodded their assent.

Jolyon was rather pleased by this. He knew that there was a chance that the spell would go wrong in any case, as he had never tried anything this ambitious before. Now he had a ready made excuse. "Very well," he said. "But I can't be held responsible if the spell doesn't work correctly. So you won't get a refund, whatever happens."

Having obtained their agreement to this, he began the spell.

1. It worked correctly.
2. It worked on some but not on others.
3. Whether it was Jolyon'e inexperience, or the distraction of the two naked women, or the presence of the enchanted dog would never be known, but absolutely nothing happened.
4. The spell went badly wrong.
5. But before Jolyon could get very far, his master returned unexpectedly.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree