Illun

Ok, here's the second half. I tried to keep a sense of wonder while dropping hints with this part. If something isn't clear, let me know.

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Wanda, or rather Madam Wanda, had been a stage magician for all of three months. She had gotten her start at the Roliard Theatre two years earlier as an assistant for a raunchy magic act that every week rotated which of the beautiful young women on stage would have their clothes "magically" disappear. The experience had taught her a few simple tricks, and how to showcase herself for an audience just looking for a elaborate excuses to see her naked each night. She knew she didn't have the talent for a more reputable magic show, but until recently, she had no hope of even headlining.

Fortune finally smiled on her one day, though, or so it had seemed at the time. Her grandmother had passed away when she was very young, but she had inherited, among other things, her jewelry box. One night, while feeling depressed over another humiliating night on stage, she decided to cheer herself up by trying on various jewelry that had been inside. After emptying the jewelry box, though, she realized it was smaller inside than it should have been. A screwdriver and a little prying later, she was wearing the necklace. When she reached to take it off, one of the pearls on the necklace depressed like a button. All around her the room began to lurch upwards, and the dresser she had been standing in front of was now almost up to her shoulders. Panicked, she took it off and tossed it aside, despirately hoping she would change back. When nothing happened, she reached under her bed where it had landed and picked it up again. Nervously, she put it on and tried the pearl again. Once again the room shot up around her, but this time even the top of the bed was at the limit of her reach. She sat down on the floor next to the bed and thought it through. Realizing that her grandmother hadn't been small, she knew there had to be a solution. Sure enough, pressing one of the pearls on the opposite side caused the room to shrink before her eyes. When she stood up she was once again shoulder-high to the dresser, just as before. With another press of the second pearl, she was back to her normal height. A third press, however, had no effect. Apparently she could only grow as tall as she was supposed to be, no taller.

She spent the next several weeks experimenting in her free time and came up with an act of her own. A second stroke of luck followed soon after when the magician she worked for decided to go on tour, thumbing his nose at the Roliard Theatre. Refusing to join him, she talked the Roliard into seeing her act. After a few suggestions and the appointment of her stage manager and lighting crew, she was announced as their next headlining magician.

Wanda thought over her illustrious past two months with darker thoughts now, though. After keeping her secret to herself for all this time, she had gotten careless. Her stage manager had learned of her necklace and how she shrank to perform her act. Taking advantage of what he'd learned, he had waited until her nightly practice of an act that left her temporarily naked and tiny while she went between stage props, and unseen to anyone else, stole her necklace and captured her in a mere drinking glass. It spelled the end for her career as a magician, but even worse, it was the end of her life as a normal woman. From now on what would she be? His pet?

As he dismissed the last of the crew for the night, she cursed to herself, sitting in the glass waiting for her fate. He complimented her on her show, which only served to rub salt in the wound as he spoke of sacrificing it for a "prize."

"You can't keep me like this!" She protested.

"I can certainly try." He replied, chuckling. "And I don't think you're going to be the one to change my mind, you foolish little girl."

Wanda pleaded with him, "I'll do anything you want. Pay anything you want, just let me have the necklace long enough to change back."

"You don't even know what you had, do you?" He asked.

"It was my grandmother's. It's some sort of talisman, I think."

He laughed even harder, reverberating against the glass. "So, the little magician thinks she found real magic? The irony of it all is that there's only a handfull of people who even know about this device. My grandfather, and yes, your grandmother, were among those few."

"Device?" She asked, her confusion briefly overriding her fear.

"It was developed during the last great war as an assassin's tool. Funding was cut the day Germany fell, and our grandparents' work was to be destroyed. The only way they were able to save the prototype was by your grandmother using it and my grandfather sneaking her out at far too small a size for anyone to see." He glared at the tiny woman behind the glass. "And that was when she double crossed him. Instead of waiting until they reached his hometown, she slipped out on him, kept the device and the research for herself, and he never saw her again."

"Even if that's true, what does it have to do with me? Why can't you let me go?"

He smiled, and started walking back towards the dressing room. "Poetic justice, perhaps, but mostly because I don't want to."

She sat in silence most of the way, trying to think of some way to convince him. When he did arrive, he tossed her swimsuit on her dressing table and picked up her street clothes. "What are you doing with those, you creep?" She demanded.

"Removing evidence. Without these here it will look like you went home tonight. No one will think to look for a three inch tall victim, but it's not uncommon at all for a performer such as yourself to disappear." He stuffed the clothing into a plastic bag and continued, "You really should thank me. Some looney in the audience would have eventually made a statistic out of you, the way you show off every night."

"I'd rather take my chances with them, if you don't mind." She quipped.

He set the glass down on the table and took a small mason jar out of one of the drawers. There were already holes poked in the lid as if it was intended to catch fireflies in, but she realized right away that its true intent was for her. When he removed the small board from the top of the glass, she tried to jump out, which only succeeded in making him laugh. He opened the jar and tipped the glass over it, spilling her roughly into the new container. "Welcome to your new home, little magician." Before she could respond, he put the lid over the jar and screwed it tightly shut. She stared up in horror as he picked up the jar and tucked it into his inner coat pocket.

With her tucked safely away, he took the magnet out of his pants pocket. Bunched up on the end was the tiny necklace she had been wearing. Carefully, he pried it off, then returned the magnet to his pocket. Given her misunderstanding, it was doubtful she had come across the research notes, meaning this prototype was all he had to go on to resume his grandfather's work. Taking out an ink pen and borrowing a pin from Wanda's table, he pressed on one of the center pearls and then on the enlargement pearl. Without affecting anything around it, the necklace doubled in size. He repeated the process four times, returning it to its full size. "Just to be absolutely certain." He said to himself, then pressed two of the remaining pearls and pulled at the backing, causing it to release. Inside, amongst wiring and an emitter was a small cylinder pressed between two leads. Like a primitive battery, it powered the device. With the tip of his ink pen he pried it loose, de-powering the device. He then replaced the backing on it and put the power cell in his other pocket.

***

An hour later he had arrived at his home. Being it's sole resident, he had let it become cluttered. His first stop was at his desk, opening a drawer and dropping the device's power cell into it, then locking it afterwards and hooking his keys on a nail overhead. It was the first component he intended to analyze when time permitted, since it seemed the most versatile. A compact power supply capable of sustaining shrinking technology for as long as it had, surely it could be used for other applications. He next took out the necklace, laying it carefully on his desk. Depowered, he intended to have some fun with it. Last, he removed the jar from inside his coat pocket. The sudden inflow of light got Wanda's attention, causing her to look up and survey her new surroundings. Even at her size, he could see the redness around her eyes and the tears on her cheeks. Feeling pity on her, he set the jar down on a stack of books so that the necklace wasn't easily spotted from her viewpoint. "Wait here for a moment, I will return." He had counted on her yelling and pleading, but this part he hadn't considered.

Wanda wiped the tears from her face and sniffled, but didn't respond. Hurriedly, he left, taking off his coat as he went. Wanda could hear the closet door open, and after some fumbling with a hanger, the door closing again. She hadn't given up hope yet, but after all that with no response, she realized she was so insignificant that he couldn't even hear her. Until the light returned, there had been nothing she could do but cry. Now, after being seen by him, she regretted it. He had already seen her naked, he had already seen her beg. She wished that she could at least have said he hadn't seen her break. While he was gone she tried to compose herself and show some facade of strength, but she knew in her heart that she wasn't fooling anyone.

Heavy footsteps approached, surprising her since he had walked much more softly when he left. It dawned on her after several steps that he must have taken off his boots. As he appeared from over the horizon of another stack of books, he was already looking her way. He sat down in the chair, not looking quite as pleased as he had when he first caught her. "Well." He said, letting the word hang in the air for a moment. "I must admit, I didn't think this all the way through. I don't know if you can even eat at your size. Have you ever done so before?"

"No." She lied. "I'll have to return to normal size soon or I'll starve to death." She allowed herself to sniffle.

"Don't be so dramatic." He replied. "We'll try some normal sized food first, then if that doesn't work, I'll find a way to shrink the food down to your size."

"Then you're just going to keep me in this jar forever?" She asked weakly.

"No, of course not. While you are very cute sitting in there, the novelty would wear off quickly. And then there's the matter of your biological needs. I did think of a way for you to do that safely." He pointed to an open soda can. "I'll just cut off the bottom, line the edge with clay, then set it over the sink."

She shuddered at the thought of trying to sit that high up. Needing to think of a better argument, though, she forced herself to continue. "So I'm just a trophy except when I need to piss or eat." She said in disgust.

He reached for the jar and turned the lid. After a bit of strain, it popped loose and he removed it. "No. I can't let you leave or return to your normal size, but that doesn't mean you can't have a little freedom." He tipped the jar over carefully, causing her to slide to one side and then onto her hands and knees as the side became the bottom. "Come on out."

Tentatively, she crawled forward, finally putting her hand on the book under the jar. Standing up, she looked out over the desk. To her surprise, the necklace was out in the open, but somehow it was full size. He noticed her looking at it, but didn't say anything. "Freedom." She said angrily, then looked up at him. "I'm a damned pet."

"A pet," he replied, "who doesn't have to worry about showing up on time for work, who doesn't have to come up with a new twist to her act every few weeks, who doesn't have to spend hours of work just to culminate in a few seconds strutting in front of an audience that only cares about her bust size. You could live like a queen with just a little ingenuity on my part."

"Oh yes, I really feel like a queen!" She snipped back at him, growing bolder now that she was out of the bottle's confinement. She pantomimed flailing a gown around herself. "From my royal robes down to the royal aluminum throne!"

"Just think for a minute. All I've taken away from you is your ability to grow and interact safely with strangers, something you could have lost on your own if the necklace had simply broken or its power supply ran out." He reached past her, startling her enough that she jumped backwards to avoid his hand. Behind her he pulled out a tissue. Bringing it back, he held it out for her. "At your size, even something as simple as a tissue can be a large blanket or a flowing robe. Almost anything you want could be yours."

She took the tissue and wrapped it around herself, both thankful to finally not be exposed, yet upset with herself for accepting his trivial gift. "What I want is my necklace!" She demanded, looking more like a poor waif wrapped in a blanket than a queen.

He shrugged. "I will take it back when I need it later to examine it's components, but sure. Knock yourself out." He motioned towards where it lay on the desk.

She was taken aback that he had given up so easily. It was too easy, she knew, but she had to try. The tissue was much too large for her to try to climb with, so she abandoned it, using the ends of the books as a ladder to climb down. Once on the desk's surface, she made a dash for the necklace, afraid that any moment his hand would swoop down and take it away from her again. When she reached the necklace and nothing happened, she looked up at him suspiciously, but he just watched in silence, apparently unconcerned. She lifted up the now-heavy chain of the necklace and put it over her shoulders, then sat down behind it's centerpiece and leaned across it. With effort, she was able to depress the appropriate pearl. Nothing happened. Frightened, she pressed it again, then again. She tried the other pearls and still nothing. With tears already forming, she looked hopelessly up at him and sobbed. "What did you do to it?"

He was hurt to see her crying again, but he kept his voice calm as he answered. "I told you, I can't allow you to return to your former size. I've already disabled it."

With a horrified gasp, the spark went out of her eyes. Her last thread of hope had be cruelly cut. Mouth agape, she stared blankly up at him as the tears ran down her cheeks, dripping onto her tiny chest. She didn't even move as he brought his enormous hand down and placed it around her shoulders in a misguided gesture of comforting.

***

The next morning he came to the desk again, carrying a small dish of finely crumbled scrambled egg. He set it down next to the tissue he had draped over her as a blanket the night before. Just as she had been when he left her, she stared out into space and didn't speak. "I brought breakfast." He said softly with a hint of hopefulness in his voice. Ignored, he reached down and tugged at the tissue blanket, pulling it away from her shoulder, but still getting no reaction. Finally, he pulled it off all the way and then picked her up by her midsection. For a brief moment fear shot through her and she struggled to get away from the giant hand, but the moment passed, and she simply curled up in a fetal position around his thumb. Frustrated, her sat her down on the dish next to the bits of egg.

He shook his head and sighed. "I can't force you to eat, but you really must. If there's anything else you'd rather eat, just name it." Getting no response, he turned away, picking up the necklace and slumping into the desk chair. Over the course of the night, he had begun to think about the emitter. It wasn't quite as useful as the power supply, he surmised, but it was the heart of the technology, and he knew absolutely nothing about it. At the very least he wanted to know what it did.

From a shelf under the desk he took out a spool of wire and wire clippers. He quickly measured out a foot of wire and cut it, then bent it in half and cut the bend, making two wires about the same length. After stripping the ends, he put the clippers and spool away. He left the desk after that, searching for something on the floor. After a brief search, he found a power cord and plugged it in, then sat the DC transformer on the other end of it up on his desk. "Best to try the lowest setting." He said to himself aloud, then turned the resistor dials. "Two hundred milliamp, two volt." Next he took a pair of torque wrenches out of another drawer in the desk, setting them next to the necklace. Using the same combination as the previous night, he removed it's back covering.

While wiring the two leads inside to the transformer, he tried speaking to his pet. "You know, Wanda, even after I recognized your necklace as the device my grandfather created, I never did figure out all your tricks." He stopped suddenly and yanked his hand back, having poked his finger with the wire. After childishly sucking the wound, he shook it off and resumed. "How did you managed to make the handkerchief shrink while you were on stage? It was too fast for you to have shrunk, dropped the handkerchief, regrown and then picked it up again." He glanced down at her, hoping for a reply, but she only sat on the dish, staring up dully at him. As best he could tell, she hadn't even touched the eggs. "I know, I know." He answered himself. "A magician never reveals her secrets. Even a little magician."

Returning to the work at hand, he slid a piece of paper under the overturned necklace. So as not to get confused by it's upside down position, he made note of each of the pearl buttons and their function. Turning on power to the transformer next, he then picked up the torque wrenches. With one he pressed in the center of the necklace, holding it in place. With the other, he pressed against the pearl he had labeled "reduce". A light green glow began to appear along the inner wall near the emitter. "Aha!" He cheered. "It is radiant energy. To be visible after striking a lithium target, though. It's getting blue shifted, so it has to be somewhere in the microwave range." He released the button, letting it stop.

Taking out a notepad, he stood up and started scrawling notes in it while walking toward the kitchen. "Simply astounding, grandpa." From in the kitchen came the sound of the cupboard opening. At the sound, Wanda's eyes blinked, the light returning to them. She grabbed a crumb of egg as big as her hand and took a bite.

In the kitchen the smell of coffee was strong. He had started a pot brewing before taking the egg to his little captive, and it had finished sometime since. Taking a cube of sugar out of a bag in his cupboard, he dropped it into the cup of coffee he had just poured. Picking up his notebook again, he took a sip and grimaced. "Bad as always." Jotting down a few more notes, he then made a list of materials he could try to help narrow down what frequency was being used. Technically, shrinking was impossible from a standpoint of biology and particle physics, but some of Nathan Rosen's theories did seem to imply another possibility. The trick was focusing enough energy on a single point in space. The energy output of the power cell had to be tremendous, though, if that were the case. "The leads would melt." He mused, defeating that theory.

Perplexed, he returned with his coffee to the desk. As he feared, little Wanda was still staring off into space. He shook his head wearily and returned to tinkering with the buttons and observing the light spectrum, then taking notes.

Some time later, a gong began to strike. He looked up from his work at the grandfather clock against the wall making the noise. "Almost time for MY act." He said with a smile, then looked down at Wanda. "I have to get ready for work. Be sure not to go anywhere." He put his finger against her cheek in a mock gesture of affection. "Hang in there, dear. We'll get through this." Taking his hand away, he frowned at her lack of response. When the gong finished striking for the hour, though, he realized he couldn't deal with her then and left for his room.

Half an hour later he returned, dressed in one of the suits he wore on stage. He looked down at the desk as soon as he entered the room. At first he worried, not seeing Wanda on the plate anymore. Looking around the desk, though, he spotted the tissue he had given her earlier rolled up in a ball around something small, sitting where he had left the necklace. The two lead wires had been removed along with his tools, but the tissue's location reinforced his belief that the necklace was too heavy now for her to move very far. "Well, at least that shows initiative. I told you we'll get through this, my little magician. I may be late getting home tonight, there will be a lot of questions when you don't show. I'll leave the egg here in case you get hungry while I'm out."

He glanced at the nail above his desk, but then spotted his keys on the shelf beside it. Pocketing them, he hurried out.

***

On stage that night a safe was already in place on one side, and his specially made box on the other. When showtime arrived, he put on his best face and tried to appear worried. Marching out on stage in front of the large audience, he was applauded, everyone assuming he would announce the start of the show. Instead, he spoke without enthusiasm. "I am afraid I must apologize. Our star, Madam Wanda." He paused nervously. "She has not shown up. At this moment no one has been able to locate her. In light of that, the ticket office will be issuing..." Boo's from the audience cut him off.

Suddenly, and to his surprise, smoke started pouring out of his inner coat pocket, surrounding him in a sudden cloud. The cloud dissipated, revealing the coat slumped around a smaller, more shapely frame. In place of her stage manager, Wanda smiled out at her audience. "Oh dear!" She cried. "My aim is getting worse. I wonder where he wound up." Tugging at the sleeves, she added. "I'd love to see." At that, the audience broke out in laughter and cheers at her new twist on the show's opening.

Finding himself standing in the crotch of his own pants, the former stage manager realized he wouldn't be reporting to work again. After making her appearance and opening joke, another puff of smoke enveloped them. A giant hand reached down to where he hung and lifted him up what seemed to be several feet into a crevasse above.

***

After the show, Wanda made her usual exit. Fortunately, the volunteer tonight was a regular and knew to swap out the handkerchief, keeping her act consistent. He didn't seem to mind getting slapped either. Such a good sport.

As she entered the dressing room, she pulled the door shut behind her and locked it. She dropped into her chair and propped up her feet on her dressing table, spreading them apart. Reaching down, she stuck her finger inside as if to please herself, but instead pulled out the tiny form of her manager. He was coated in fluid and seemed exhausted, but he still had the energy for his curiosity. "How?" He demanded.

"A magician never reveals her secrets." She said with a smile, then held up a familiar piece of paper labeled with the functions of the necklace. "But thank you for the instruction manual."