The Court Alchemist - Short story from a friend

[Luidgi edit: This story was given to me by a friend. She wrote it for me. She agreed for me to share it with you all, my patrons. This is an exclusive short story. Any comments, reviews, will be given to her, as I have not altered nor edited the following story. 

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Cassandra walked back to her room, opened the door quietly, and made sure to lock it tight once she was inside.  Letting out a big sigh, she quickly threw her court robe over a chair by the door and let her hair out of the tight bun she had it up in.  Every part of her body ached, but mostly her legs and feet.  Standing for hours in court, whether she was needed or not, was becoming exhausting and her court issued uniform, down to her boots, was rather uncomfortable after a while.  She sat down and slowly took off her boots, placing them in front of her closet door.  Today had been especially bad, as one of the newer guards kept staring at her the whole time, and she just couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been trying to see through her with his eye.  She shuddered at the thought and waved her hand, magically starting a fire in a small stove she kept by her Alchemist's table.  She was the major producer of potions and tonics for the court, but they had no idea of her magical powers as well, keeping those for herself.  Magic was easy to hide behind Alchemy this day and age.

As she walked over to her table she sensed something was off.  One or two of her bottles were out of place, and one was missing completely.  Looking around the table she noticed a dirty footprint that was much larger than her own.  Frowning she looked around the room quickly, then heard a small rustle coming from her closet.  Sighing she waved her hand and the doors flew open, causing a young man to yelp from inside.  She waved her hand again and he was pulled from inside and thrown into a chair and bound by invisible rope.

“I swear!  I didn’t take nothing!  I was just looking!”  He pleaded.  Cassandra frowned and looked him over, recognizing him as the new guard that had given her the creeps.

“What is your name?  And why on earth did you think it appropriate to come searching my room?”  She demanded.  He flinched a bit, watching her hand seriously, then shook his head and focused back on her face.

“My name is Brock, and I had heard a rumor around the guards that you are more than an Alchemist and wanted to check it out for myself.”  He exclaimed.

“So you go through a room that potentially has something dangerous in it, by yourself, hoping to prove something?  Did I get that right?”  Cassandra tapped her foot and crossed her arms, now completely annoyed.  Brock appeared to blush and look away.

“Well now that you say it that way, yeah, that seemed dumb. The guys in the Barrack were all convinced that you are a mage though, and all your potions were just made from magic.  I guess maybe I hoped to see that in action.”  He sighed.  Then his face widens with fear as Cassandra snapped her fingers.  The bonds around him, holding him to the chair, tightened ever so slightly, but enough that he could feel it.

“Well, you got one thing right.  I am a mage.  And now that you know, I don’t think I can just let you go.  This needs proper punishment.”  Cassandra scowled.  She thought about it for a moment as Brock struggled in his entrapment.  Then, an idea popped into her mind, and a sly smile crawled across her face.

“No, I know what I will do with you, now that you know my secret.  This will be interesting.”  She grinned, with a slight chuckle behind it.

Brock looked scared, as he realized the danger his curiosity got him into.  He tried to struggle against his bonds, but not even being able to see them made it worse.

Cassandra just grinned and walked back over to her alchemist table.  Rummaging around, she finally found what she was looking for, and held up a small round glass bottle.  The liquid sloshing around inside was slightly tinted a reddish color.

“I am just as good an alchemist as I am a mage you know.  Do not doubt me on that.”  She walked back over to the chair she had him bound too. “All of the potions I offer up in court are real, with real herbs and medicine in them.  Now my private collection here.”  Pointing to the bottle.  “Sometimes contains a bit of magic.  Helps with the potency.”  Cassandra tilted Brock’s chin up, and teased his lips with her finger.

“Open up now.  You wanted to see how real magic worked right.”  She grinned.  Brock turned his head away, and Cassandra just laughed a bit.  She placed a single finger on his forehead and closed her eyes.  Brock got really nervous at this point, but just a small smile crossed Cassandra’s face.

“I can read emotions you know, only slightly, but I can sense desires and wants.  I don’t understand why you are fighting me right now.  Part of you really wants this.”  She grinned.  She teased his lips again and this time he slowly opened up, just ever so slightly.  She slowly poured the liquid into his mouth, then closed his lips with her fingers.  The liquid had a slight cherry flavor to it, and Brock swallowed it unwillingly, more scared about what would happen if he spit it out.

“Good, very good.  This will make you feel all tingly for a while.  It’s a potion I created, that lets you feel things at higher intensity.”  Cassandra reached over and pinched his cheek.  Brock leapt out of his chair, surprised by how much he felt it.  It was an intense sharp pain, but faded quickly.

“Can I get out of this chair now?  What are you planning on doing?  I honestly didn’t mean any harm by spying on you I swear!”  Brock pleaded.  Cassandra just laughed.

“Oh, I have plans for you.  You need to be punished for spying on me.  I can’t let you spread my secrets around now can I?”  She said slyly, walking back to her table.  Brock wiggled in his invisible binds, trying to free himself, but the more he wiggled the tighter it seemed to be.  Cassandra rummaged through her bottles again and found what she was looking for.  She walked back with a smile.

“Now this one.  This one is almost pure magic.  There are no herbs or remedies in the world that can do what this one does.  I could just cast it on you, but this is more satisfying when you get a bit of a taste to it.  It may be a bit more bitter than the previous one though.  Drink this, and I will let you out of the chair.”  She winked.  Brock bit his lower lip and then sighed.  He got himself into this mess, going along may be the only way out at this point.  He opened his mouth slowly and Cassandra instandly poured the warm liquid into it.  It was bitter and woody, almost tasting like tree bark.

“Blah, that one was gross!”  Brock exclaimed.  Cassandra, true to her word, freed him from the invisible binds of the chair and stood him up.  Brock was still bound, and could not move his arms or leg, but was no longer sitting.

“That one, will help with your punishment.  It is an invulnerability potion.  Basically no matter how much damage I do to you, for the duration of my choice you can not be mortally harmed.  Basically you can’t die right now no matter what I decide to do.  I decided to give you the 36 hour dose, so keep that in mind.”  She walked up and pinched him again.  He jumped and wobbled and fell over onto the ground.  “But!  You can still feel pain.”  She walked over and placed her foot on his stomach.  Brock winced a bit as he felt her press on his body.

“Now, what I really need is new insoles for my shoes.  Those court appointed uniforms are absolutely horrible, did you know that?”  She stepped back a bit and looked Brock up and down.  “But I have two feet, and there is only one of you.  Let’s fix that now shall we.”  She waved her hand, muttering some words under her breath.  A glow surrounded Brock, and with another wave of her hand, a second Brock appeared.

“Ah!  What is this!?”  They both said at the same time.  Cassandra laughed

“Magic of course.  I made a mirror image of you.  Way easier than a clone or a double.  Basically you now have two bodies, but one mind.  So you feel everything from both bodies at the same time, and I get two bodies to play with.”  Cassandra had a small bounce in her step now.  Brock got wide eyed and he finally put the pieces together of what was going to happen.  He tried to wiggle away, but when he saw the other body move as well it confused him.  He also kept switching between which body he was looking from, and it made him dizzy.

“Now, to shrink you both down to the right size.  I have a potion for that, but it’s not really precise.  I think I will do it manually.”  She waved her hand again, and Brock felt all tingly for a moment, then everything around him started to shift and get larger.

“Ah!  Ahhh!”  He screamed, but his screams got smaller as his body got smaller.  Cassandra concentrated, this spell was tricky to control when she wanted an exact size.  Her movements became slower as Brock got closer to the size she wanted.  Brock looked up and Cassndra was now basically a giant to him, and he started to panic just a little bit.

“Ah!  Perfect!”  She did one last swirl with her and then closed it up like a fist, canceling the spell.  Brock was now height wise the same size as Cassandra’s foot.  He wiggled and struggled some more, but to no avail, he was helplessly too tiny to save himself now, and he was still bound by the invisible rope.  Cassandra walked over to the closet where she had placed her boots when she had gotten home.  Each step was thunderous to Brock.  Walking back, she could see the fear now crossing his face as Brock accepted his fate.

“This will teach you not to meddle in things that are far beyond your comprehension next time.”  Cassandra grinned and picked up one of the small Brocks off the floor.  He wiggled in her hand and desperately cried for help.  Cassandra just sighed and shook her head.  She placed her boots on the floor and unzipped the side.  Carefully she pushed the small body of Brock inside the bottom of her boot.  She positioned him so he would be face down into the sole of her boot, that way he couldn’t bite her, if that would even cross his mind at that point.  Cassandra doubted it, but it was a precaution nonetheless.  One he was snuggly inside the boot, she picked up the second body of Brock and focused on the second boot.  Both Brocks were screaming at this point, though the one in the boot was extremely muffled.  

“Perfect fit.  Thank you Brock for at least making my day in Court today a BIT more bearable.  You won’t find any comfort in this, but then again, maybe you will.”  She picked up the boots and walked over to her table and chair and took a seat.

“I have a few errands to run though, let’s try this out shall we?’  She said into the boots.  She heard muffled screams of protest but just chuckled.  

Brock could only taste and smell the leather at the bottom of the boot, but he could in double as both bodies filled him in at the same time.  He could only wiggle in place, as Cassandra had made him the perfect size to fit in the shoe without too much extra room.  He was not cramped, but he definitely was not comfortable.  Then everything went dark as Cassandra slid her foot into one of the boots.  He felt her foot slid in on top of his body, adjusting him as it fit itself into place.  He was squished between her foot and the sole of her boot.  It was like being crushed underneath a large animal of a kind.  He screamed as the pressure got greater, but it only came out in muffled groans.

Cassandra picked up her second boot and slid her foot inside, adjusting Brock’s body as she made her foot fit comfortably just like the first.  She could feel his whole body under her foot, it was soft and squishy, unlike the normal hard sole she had to deal with.  She heard his muffled screams and just chuckled.  He began to wiggle, which made her shiver a bit at the feel.  Slowly, she got up on her feet, feeling Brocks body now bare the weight of her whole body.

Brock could feel her get up, and the immense pain he felt from being crushed under her weight was almost unbearable, and he felt it in double now as both bodies transmitted their pain to his one brain.

Cassandra gradually made her way out of her room and down to the Market area to pick up some more ingredients for her potions.  She could feel his body being squished each time she took a step, and that made her grin.  He got what he deserved at this point, she felt.  Spending about an hour in the market she made her way back to her room and closed and locked the door behind her.  Using the large amount of magic she did that day started to take a toll on Cassandra, and decided an early night would be alright for once.  She sat down and removed her shoes and looked inside.  Brock’s bodies were still intact, though maybe a bit more squished than a normal human should look.

“Oh Brock, thank you for all the wiggling, it just made this even more enjoyable for me.  Tomorrow we have another long day standing in Court then depending on what is going on I may need more ingredients from the market.  You are so comfortable there, I may not want to give you up after the hours are past.”  Cassandra chuckled.

Brock whimpered a bit as he was released from the pressure.  His body felt like an elephant had sat and rolled around on it several times over then threw him across a room into a wall.  He felt the boots being placed on the ground and internally sighed in relief.  He knew tomorrow would be worse, but did not think on it long as he passed out from the intense pain.

The End