Page 173 of Sigils & Spells

I sat and I let her think. Not even a second later Ruby sat upright and swung her wand in the air, saying in a very clear voice, “Go Fish.”

From across the room, a thick leather-bound book with yellowing pages floated off a shelf and into Ruby’s raised hand.

She placed it on the floor and I had just enough time to see the title, “Fae Folk: Laws and Elfhame Customs” before she flipped it open and scanned down the table of contents and flipped to the part she needed.

“How is ‘go fish’ a spell?”

“Hmm? Oh, it’s about intention,” she said distractedly. “It’s complicated but I can prepare a bunch of spells for basic things that I have associated with the action the spell performs. Go Fish, Open Sesame, Firefly. It’s different for every witch, because you can make up your own. Sometimes they’re pop culture references. It’s about channeling the magic into the intention of the words.”

She said it like she’d explained it a million times before. I had a million more questions about witches and magic and what else was out there besides witches and fairies and werewolves, but before I could ask them Ruby turned the conversation back to the topic at hand.

“Ok, so it says here one of the enslavements that the Fae use sometimes is one of transformation. It’s trickier than regular enslavements. I spent months learning about Fae shit from my Uncle, but I don’t remember talking about this. It looks like it’s normally used when Fae want a new cat or dog or…” She trailed off and looked at me. “Or horse.”

“Wait, I’m confused. Why would an enslavement have me just randomly turning into a horse? Why aren’t I stuck in Fairy land?”

Ruby thought for a moment. “You said in the dream you didn’t finish the apple right? You just gave it back?”

I nodded.

“Maybe doing that led to you getting only part of the enchantment. Like maybe the enslavement keeps trying to do its thing, but because you didn’t eat the entire apple it only had a partial effect, leaving you free from Elfhame, but still affected by the magic that would have turned you into a horse permanently.”

I made a face. “Man, I am glad that I don’t like apples.”

She snorted and kept reading.

“Ok but why are my clothes still on? The last two times I was naked, and if I’m changing into a horse how are my clothes still there? Minho said he woke up naked.”

“I mean an enchantment is different from lycanthropy. Hmm, it’s hard to explain. While you are still the body of the horse, you aren’t exactly turning into the horse. The transformation comes from a place of magic, not physical. Lycanthropy is more like a disease. It’s a physical change from the inside out. Enchantments, especially shifting ones, are like, from the outside in. so you’ll still have your clothes on if you had them on when you changed because you're essentially replaced with a horse, rather than becoming a horse.”

“That makes perfect sense, but also somehow no sense.”

“It’s magic, Julian.” Ruby looked down at the book. “Welcome to nothing making sense ever again. Ok, here.”

She paused to read, and a moment later said, “The only ways to escape enslavements is by dying or being set free. Partial enslavements: an enslavement that is incomplete, leaving the victim with affects akin to shifting enchantments. When used in Elfhame causes permanent desire/need to return. Examples of those suffering from partial enslavements have gone crazy when unable or unwilling to return to Elfhame. The shift becomes controllable, as long as the victim does not lose sanity due to distance from Elfhame. The effects are permanent unless freed by the caster, or the victim dies. See Shifting Enchantments or Transmogrification for more information.”

“Well, that was a lot of words,” I managed. “Translation?”

“Well, you have options.” Ruby closed the book with a thwump. “You can stay this way and learn to control the shift, which will slowly drive you crazy unless you go to Elfhame. Or we find the caster and ask them to undo it.”

“Neither of those sound very good.”

Ruby pursed her lips. “Well, the castor is either Titania or Maeve. If it’s Titania you might have a chance of her letting you go. She’s supposed to be kind natured as Fae go, but unpredictable. If it’s Maeve you’re screwed. She’s the worst. She’d never let you go without some kind of deal.”

“Couldn’t I just learn how to control the shift and just pop into Elfhame sometimes?”

“Maybe?” Ruby rubbed her forehead with the spine of the old book. “But Elfhame is unpredictable too. Everything about fairies is weird and confusing. If you tried to treat Elfhame as a getaway destination it might not let you in. Or maybe the moment you set foot in Elfhame, the caster would snatch you. There are so many weird rules and quirks that come with fairies, it’s really frustrating. Fairies are less likely to kill you than demons, but at least demons kill you and then go home. Fairies will enslave you and fuck with your family for generations.”

“There are demons too!”

She shushed me and continued. “Fairies like being tricky and manipulative and confusing. They thrive off of it. They can’t lie, but they can do everything else. They’re obsessed with games and gambling, and there are a lot of stories of that being their downfall. Where was I going with this?”

“My current options.”

“Right.” Ruby looked back at the book in her hands. “Yes, I can try to help you learn how to control the shift, and help you figure out how to get to Elfhame often enough to keep you sane. But that would be forever. You’d never be free of Elfhame or the Shift. You’d be a shifter for the rest of your life. Or we could try to find the caster and find a way to get you free from it, which of course comes with its own challenges. Maeve or Titania? Would a gift to trade be enough or would we have to trick them? Are we smart enough to outsmart a Fae Noble or the Fairy Queen? I don’t know.”

I looked down at my hands. Risk going crazy, or risk being a horse slave forever. Again, neither sounded like a very good deal. But now that I was part of this world, did I really want to leave it? I wouldn’t have to leave it. I just want to stop ending up naked in random places.

“Ok.” I took a breath. “I think I want to try to undo it.”

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