Story: Becoming Part of her Collecrtion

[Guyver54]

Becoming Part of Her Collection:
Part 1


27-year-old Bethany “Beth” Seth was an outcast, even by most social standards, she wasn’t pretty but she wasn’t ugly, either. She was just a Plain Jane with short, dull golden brown hair and dull red eyes that were clouding over due to heavy tears in them. She clinched the pants legs of her sweatpants tightly as she shook so violently the oversized white sweatshirt she’s wearing was threatening to slide off her slender and small shoulders.

Beth didn’t ask me much in life; she really just wanted to be left alone to her own devices. She works at a local hobby shop, which was a good thing as she gets discounts and she uses that to fuel her favorite hobby, collecting and building the models belonging to the mini-war game, Warhammer 40K.

Beth would had smiled as she remembered all the fun she had collecting and building the various different models. She had all the sets, from the Imperium of Men to the Tau Empire. She has many fond memories of playing with her brothers, the ones who got her interested in the game in the first place.

But that was all gone now! She looked around the large basement where she kept her collection, looking at the remains of it. It was mess, no, it was a disaster! All around the room were the smash remains of her figurines. Some had been so thoroughly destroy she could no longer tell which faction or sub-faction the toy belonged too.

Shaken by this turn of events, the shocked girl took a single step forward with her right foot, and felt something underfoot. She turned her eyes down as she removed her foot from the item in question. It was the left arm of a Chaos Marine, but looking a little closer revealed the initials ‘MS’ and that was the finally straw. She fell to her knees as the tears came.

Beth picked up the piece of the figurine and clinched it tightly to her as she remembered more fond times with her collection. Those memories quickly faded, replaced with questions. Who did this, and for what reason? Why destroy a simple toy collection, there was nothing to gain from it?

“Beth?” a soft voice called from the top of the stairs. “Are you down here?”

The grieving woman’s head snapped up, her face twisting into an expression of extreme rage. She jumped to her feet and spun around, coming face-to-face with her Landlord and reluctant roommate, Roxie Morris, age 29, as she descended the stairs.

Beth felt a ping of jealousy go through her as she looked at her friend, though her anger quickly overcame her jealousy, but it didn’t stop her from sizing her roommate up. At first glance, one could easily mistake Roxie for some kind of model, with her slim, near hourglass figure, and perky double-B cup breasts, and her lightly tan skin due to spending long hours out in the sun. Her raven black hair went well with her red eyes that, at the very moment, were staring at the young woman with confusion. Today she was dressed very casually, just wearing a pair of black sweatpants, high tops, and a gray tank top.

“You did this, didn’t you?” Beth snapped angrily, spiting in her roommate’s face.

Roxie kept her cool as she calmly wiped the saliva from her face, and then replied, “What are you talking about, Beth?”

“THIS!!” Beth screamed a stepped to her right and waved with her right hand.

Roxie’s eyes snapped opened when she noticed the state the room was in. It looked like a twister came in after a flood and an earthquake before the flood. Nearly every single wall in the basement had a shelf against and now each shelf housed a broken, destroyed or ruined toy. The floor didn’t fair better, toys’ remains littered it heavily one couldn’t take a step without stepping on a part that once belonged to a toy.

It was a sad sight and it tore at the young woman’s heart. While she might not have been a big fan of the franchise, she would be lying if she said she didn’t find enjoyment in playing with her friend and roommate in mock war-games. And to see the room in such a state was just disheartening.

The reality of her friend’s words hit Roxie and she quickly looked at Beth, waving her hands frantically. “No, I didn’t do any of this! I swear! I just got home from a snack run, and was wondering if you had seen Jessica, honestly!” Roxie exclaimed.

“Well, it couldn’t have been your girlfriend!” Beth snapped angrily. “Only you and I have keys to this place!”

Roxie opened and closed her mouth, the weight behind her words hitting home again. She cast her eyes around the room, recalling all the memories she had made in this room. She could remember learning how to play the game, losing her early matches and slowly improving as she went. She had some much fun she was considering starting her own collection.

And Beth is right, there were only two copies of the basement key, and she had hers on her keychain while she was out picking up snacks, and Beth probably just got home five minutes ago. So, the question on her mind was how the door was unlocked and where was her girlfriend?

With a heavy sigh, Roxie pushed all of these troubling thoughts into the back of her head as she looked at her roommate, her eyes slightly downcast in defeat. “I wish I could give you an answer, I really wish I could, but I don’t know what happened,” she put on a weak smile as she tried to reached out to her friend, only for Beth to recoil angrily, causing Roxie to sigh faintly and dropped her hand, but never breaking eye contact, “But you have to believe me, I didn’t do this. I nearly love this collection as much as you do. You have to believe me!”

Roxie was pleading by the end of her sentence, nearly on her knees as she begged her friend to try and understand that she wasn’t behind this. But Beth wasn’t having any of it. As far as she was concern her landlord was somehow involved in all of this. With an angry sigh, the grieving woman turned her back on her roommate, her shoulders slumping slightly as her angry began to slip away.

“Just…just go,” Beth spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, but Roxie heard her none-the-less.

With her own sigh, the young woman turned around and walked up the stairs, not even bothering to look one more time at her grieving friend.


(…)


I softly closed the door as I let out another sigh. I looked at the door with unfocused eyes, going over things in my head. 15-minutes ago I was sent on a snack run by my girlfriend of one year, and when I got back, my girl was gone and my friend’s precious collection, something she had gotten for her decease brothers were broken beyond repair.

I scowled as I realized that I didn’t have enough to go on, and that made me mad. Beth may not consider me a friend, but I do, and I hate seeing my friends in such states. I began to get angrier as I thought about what I could do. There has to be something I could do to help my friend with this.

“If only I paid more attention when dad was teaching me those security spells, then I could find out what happened easily,” I growled angrily.

I let out a small gasp as I realized that I can fix this, and quickly ran off to my room on the second floor. I burst into my room and ran straight for the bookshelf located on the left. My room is what one would expect from anyone my age, so I would save the trouble of describing it, as I came to a stop at the oak shelf, panting slightly.

To anyone who would stumble into my room, the bookshelf would be the last thing they would think about, probably because it’s filled with nothing by romance novels. But for someone like me, skilled in the ancient arts of spell-casting, it was so much more.

I took a couple of calming breaths, allowing my heart rate to return to normal, and then I closed my eyes. I began to mentally recite the words of the spell that I needed. My right hand tingle as it filled with magical energy, and when I felt a pulse, I extended my hand, drawing a backward C with it and sent it into the shelf. I opened my eyes in time to see a flash of light covered my books, as the many printed texts was replaced by a single tome in the center of the middle roll, kept upright by my magical energy.

I grabbed the book before the energy completely faded from it, and looked at it. At a distance, the book looks a lot like a college textbook, a large book with over a thousands pages, but a textbook none-the-less. And it is a textbook, if you don’t count the ancient rune on the cover and the words above the rune.

“Advance Spells,” I read softly as I was about to open it, only to stop as the words of my father rang in my ear, “Remember, in this day and age, always read the fine print.”

I quickly shook off that old training, and opened the book. I didn’t have time to worry about the fine print on modern-day spells when my friend is grieving in my basement. I looked at the index and find the page where the spell I needed was, flipping to it immediately. I find the spell and skimmed the words, getting the basic of the spell down, while forgetting about the fine print.

Once I was sure I had the basic of the spell down, I closed the book, and bolted from my room, the text clinched tightly to my chest. I reached the door to the basement and took a moment to collect my thoughts. I know that Beth would be grieving instead of being angry, and in a lot of ways that was worse then anger. Much like anger, when someone’s grieving they’re not thinking straight and the slightest of things can set them off. Unlike anger, grieving people are more prone to hurt themselves, for different reasons.

…Still, I wanted to do this, and I would gladly go through anything to insure my friend’s happiness. So, I took a couple calming breaths and mentally prepared myself as I reached for the handle. I easily turned it, slightly surprised to find it unlock, but quickly shrugged it off and proceeded into the room.

Despite the fact that I have been here a few minutes ago, it was still disheartening to see the once colorful place looking so bleak. And everything was made worse when I saw Beth slumped over the large table that we used to play on. Even it wasn’t immune to whatever caused all of this. The model of a grassy field with a few trees has been tore up, ripped right down the middle. Some of the trees had also taken damage which I noticed for first time was…rather odd. It was like some kind of fire had quickly come down and melted the trees within a nanosecond only to have it frozen instantly, leaving the small plastic replicas looking half-melted.

That made realize that something else was off about this entire event, but I filed that into the back of my mind as I cautiously made my way to friend’s side, not an easy task with everything that was on the floor. Still, I manage to reach Beth without stepping on anything. If my roommate heard me, she didn’t acknowledge me.

“Beth…”I called softly, but got no response. “I know you think I’m somehow responsible for all of this, but I’m not. And if you let me, I would like to help you.”

At first, Beth didn’t response, and I feared the worse. Slowly, however, I watched as my friend turned her head to look at me. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from gasping at the state she was in. Despite only being gone for a few minutes, my friend’s condition had worsened; her eyes were bloodshot, and are starting to swell a bit. I noticed the scratches on her right cheek, suggesting that she has been cuddling that toy’s arm the wrong way. But what scared me the most was her skin…it was far paler then it should have been, and I think I could see hunks of flesh looking like it would start to decay at any time.

I knew what these signs meant, what was wrong with my friend, but I just filed it into the back of my mind, waiting on Beth patiently.

“What can you do?” Beth asked faintly.

I flinched when I heard my friend’s voice. She wasn’t speaking faintly; it was more like her voice coming from a stereo that was about to lose power. I tried to ignore these signs as I cautious set my book onto the table, and looked at her directly in the eyes.

“I know you may find this silly, but I’m a modern-day witch.” I frown when I notice the expression on Beth didn’t change, and that caused me to hasten my plans.

I began to scan the room, looking anything to help with my goals. I began growing frantic when I couldn’t find anything that could help out, and I was starting to think I was destined to lose one of my close friends. I sighed with great relief when I noticed the head on one of the shelves. I recognize it because it was one of the models I had made during a blackout thanks to a thunderstorm.

“Just watch,” I said softy, looking at my friend with a gentle smile.

My expression turned serious as I looked at the toy’s head. I brought my right hand forward and began to chant in my head as I use my extended hand to draw three runes quickly. The first looked like a T, only with the tail of a J and the head of Y. The second rune was much simpler, looking like someone had cut a Q and R in half and slams them together at an uneven angle. The final rune was even more simple, just a simple line, titled even so slightly that you’d had to look very closely to see it.

I paused in my work and cast a glance at Beth. I noticed immediately that some color had returned to her face and her eyes were wide as she looked at the impossibility (to her) in front of me. I cracked the smallest of smile as I liked my friend’s improvement, even if it just a minor improvement. If it keeps the Soul-Breaking at bay, I would gladly give her the history on modern-day magic.

I turned serious again as I turned my attention to my casting. With a wave of my hand, I sent the runes into the head which began to glow slightly. The head was then lifted up by the magic in the runes and sent out a weak pulse, somehow reaching across the entire room. I watch lazily as different parts, some that didn’t look like they go together, began to glow and lift from their resting place, heading towards the head.

I cast another glance at my friend, and smile greatly when I notice that all signs of Soul-Break had disappeared from her face, as she looked at the amazing sight before her. With a content sigh, I turned and watch as my spell did it work.

The pieces began to put themselves back together as they flew to the head. Parts which were broken into tiny pieces fused together, crack and tears disappearing as paint appeared on the surface. I heard snaps at the reformed pieces began to assemble into a figure I recognized.

The process took less then 30 second, but it left like a life time before I was looking at a figure in white and green armor with yellow accent came to rest on a space on one of the shelves, wobbling because it was on an uneven surface.

I grin as I used a simple floating spell to take hold of the toy and bring it close to me. It looked brand new, like it just had been put together recently, which, I guess, wasn’t far from the truth.

“…But how?” Beth whispered breathlessly.

My smile turned softer as I looked at the awe-struck woman beside me. I offered the figure to her, and she took it gingerly, examining it for anything out of place. When she couldn’t find any, she looked at me with her eyes as big as saucers. I chuckled under breath from my roommate’s expression. I had forgotten how cute she looks especially when she was surprised.

I frown as I felt a light headache forming in the back of my head. Thankfully, it was gone just as soon as it started, and that allowed me to hear Beth next question.

“But how did you do it?” she asked bewildered.

I couldn’t help but chuckle, though I didn’t under my breath and replied causally, “As a modern-day witch, I was taught that everything, even something like plastic and paint, has a soul, and using the “repair by the soul” spell I could repair anything that has been touch my soul-” I looked down at figure in Beth’s hands. “-Like that figure. I put that together myself, so part of my soul was infused within the figure’s own soul.”

Beth looked at me, her mouth falling ever so slightly. I could see the gears in her head turning and she knew what she wanted. She looked at me, with those hopeful eyes of her and opened her mouth…

“…Can you really fix it all?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, and sounding like a child who had just broken their first toy.

I simply nodded and smile softly when I saw my roommate’s entire face light up. Man, how could I forget how cute my friend was when she was smiling? I frown again as I felt my headache return, only slightly worse. And like before, it was gone just as it was getting started, and that caused me to frown mentally.

Does this headache have something to do with my magic and the fact that I hadn’t used it for over a year? No, that can’t reason, I once went three years without using my magic, and after using it after such a long time, the only ill-effect I suffered with a chocolate fix that lasted for a mouth.

So what was the cause of this headache, and why does it only seem to act up when I’m thinking about Beth in certain ways?

“Roxie, are you okay?” Beth asked in concern, snapping me back to reality.

I gave my head a quick shake to get rid of the cobwebs and smiled gently at her. “I’m fine, just a small headache,” my expression turned serious as I looked at her directly in the eyes. “Now, for this to work, I need your full cooperation. Can you do that for me?”

Beth nodded eagerly and that only made me smile. I wiped that smile from my face, and began to focus on the task at hand, focusing my magic forward as I brought my right hand up and held it in front of me. I mentally chanted as I began to draw the runes for the first part of my plan.


(…)


Beth watched as her roommate began to draw runes faster then it should be possible. Within a few second, Roxie had drawn seven runes, but before the young girl had a chance to study one, Roxie slapped her hands together, crushing the runes between them. She next gently thrust her left hand out, sending a burst of energy into Beth.

The social-awkward girl shivered a bit as she felt a strange feeling go through her. It wasn’t a bad feeling or painful by any means, it just caught her by surprise. The feeling faded quickly, leaving the young woman in confusion. Beth looked to Roxie for an explanation.

“I just tendered are souls together,” Roxie said softly. “With this spell in place, I will channel my other spell through you that will, in turn, fix your collection. Are you ready to begin?”

Beth, at a loss for words, just nodded eagerly, nearly jumping with giddy at the thought of having her precious collection back. She was even wishing that she was her smaller so she could give each and every toy a much needed hug.

Roxie smiled quickly at her friend’s energy, and turned serious as she looked at the basement. With a quick, calming breath, Roxie began, collecting her magic as she draws the familiar runes. Once she had the first set made up, she began moving counterclockwise, drawing another set of runes. She repeated this two more times, leaving her with four set of runes around her.

Before she continued with her spell, the young witch looked her friend right in the eyes, her face dead serious. “Now, during this next part, don’t try to move much. If the spell is disrupted by any means it could end poorly for us. Got it?” she asked softly.

Beth nodded nervously, scared stiff by her friend’s words. Roxie smiled a little guiltily as she didn’t want her words to have that kind of effect on her friend. Still, she pushed that thought aside and focused on the task at hand.

With another calming breath, Roxie pushed her hands out, sending the sets of runes into the room. The runes were enough to cover the entire room and everything in it, casting the destruction in a soft light. At first nothing seems to happen, and Beth was wondering if it wasn’t going to work. She heard, thanks to the silence that has been hanging in the air, a faint rattling noise, but didn’t dare to look, due to her friend’s words.

Beth gasps as she felt something tingle in her body she couldn’t locate. But before she had a moment to think about where the tingle was coming from, chaos broke out as the remains of the massive collection was suddenly thrown into the air, and began swirling around like a violent storm. It didn’t take long for the various pieces to begin to fuse into familiar shapes, some already becoming recognizable to the young woman.

As she watched the sight before her, Beth fails to notice several things happening to her specifically. First was the different in height between the two friends. Originally, the two only have about an inch and half difference between them, but now…Beth was eye level with Roxie’s chin, and the young woman’s head was traveling farther down with each passing second. This alteration was also causing her already ill-fitting outfit to become desperate to stay on the woman’s shrinking frame.

But what was more shocking then the fact that Beth was shrinking was her hair. It was growing faster then her body was shrinking. It was already down to the base of her neck, and showed no signs of stopping. It was also starting to brighten, going from a golden brown to a pure blonde within a few seconds.

And yet, Beth noticed none of this as she wiped a tear from her eye, completely oblivious to the sleeve and how big it has become. She let her arm fall, failing to notice as the sleeve completely swallowed her hand, as she watched the completed figurines returning to the spot where their belonged. She sub-consciously pulled up her loose pants as she dared a look at the shelves and was giddy at she saw at how far things had come. All around the room, toys were restored to their former glory and placed back on the shelves where they belong. If she would have to guess, she would say the process with close to 50% done, and show no signs of stopping. Within a few more minutes everything would be back to normal, and she had Roxie to thank for it all.

She looked at the girl responsible for this miracle with a smile, only for that smile to vanish when she noticed her friend. Roxie’s body was twitching violently, but she managed to hold her stance. But that wasn’t the only thing the oblivious shrinking woman notice about her friend. Thick drops of sweat ran down Roxie’s face, and her shirt has already been thoroughly soaked. Her skin had lost a lost of color, and there were thick, black bag under the witch’s eyes, like she hadn’t slept in a long time.

To bad the shrinking non-witch failed to notice that she was looking at her friend’s shoulder, or that her friend was quickly getting taller.

Beth gasps as she covered her mouth with her hands, inverting causing her pants to drop around her ankles. She didn’t notice this as her glee from having her collection restored had changed into fear for her friend. She knew that her friend was doing this for her, but it didn’t seem worth it now, not with the condition her friend was putting herself in.

“Roxie…that’s e-nough,” Beth trailed off as she noticed something.

She was looking at her friend’s forearm, and the longer she looked at it, the farther up it wanted. Like waking from a long daydream, Beth looked around her for the first time since everything has begun. She noticed that the room was larger then it should be, and the table at the center? It was nearly up to her chin.

Slowly, and somewhat cautiously, she looked at her body, and felt her stomach drop at the sight. Her pants lie around her feet, the exposed area covered thank to her shirt, which nearly reached to her knees. She lifted her arms as looked at the sleeves of her shirt and notice how far their hang over.

Beth quickly connected the dots and suddenly become even more afraid. She wanted nothing more then to throw caution to the wind, and find someway to wake her friend up. She was about to follow through with her plan when a sound caught her attention. She reluctantly looked away from her friend and her eyes snapped opened.

Her collection was 70, no, 80% completed, the broken pieces that made up the storm has thin greatly, and the ceiling could be seen again. With her glee returning, her fear forgotten for the time being, she happily watched as her toys were put back to together and returned to their rightful place, some even returning to the gaming table in front of the two woman. Even the table has been restored to its former glory, with the tear in the center gone and the trees back to the way they looked this morning.

Beth gasp as she saw herself become eye level with the table, and realized that her shrinking was speeding up. She watched as the table quickly rose up before her, and she felt her sweater weighting her down. Her fears returned with a vengeance, and she turned to her friend, once more throwing caution to the wind as she began to move closer to Roxie.

“Roxie-AAH!” Beth had forgotten, in her frightened state, about the item around her ankles, and that caused her to trip.

The shrinking woman hit the floor rather hard, and even with the sweater softens the impact a bit Beth still found the wind knocked right out of her. Her head swim violently as she tried to get air in her lungs, failing to notice as her body was swallowed up by her sweater, or the long strains of hair that now blocked her version.

Beth finally, after a near minute has passed, refilled her lungs, and her head had stopped swimming. She took several smaller breaths as the last of her lightheadedness cleared, and then she tried to stand. She didn’t get every far as the weight of her sweater proved to be too much for her to get onto her feet. So, with an irritated sigh, the shrinking woman began to crawl to the neck of the sweater.

“At least it feels like I stop shrinking,” Beth muttered to herself.

It didn’t take long for Beth to reach the neck of her sweater, and exited the oversize article of clothing. Her eyes widen as she got to her feet, both awestruck and fearful of the sight around her. Once she stood in a familiar space, knowing what every angle had to offer, but that wasn’t the case anymore. All she could see now was an alien landscape, with unseen dangers. Thoughts about returning to her sweater crossed the small woman’s mind, until a load sigh reached her eyes, and she looked to her right.

Beth nearly chocked on a breath of air as she watched her friend, now a giant to her, fall to her right knee, panting like she had ran two 15-mile races back-to-back. And even from her point of view, she could see how mad her friend’s condition had become. Her skin was absolutely pale, and she was sweating so much it looked like a thin pool of the salty water could form around her at anytime.

Beth, her own plight forgotten for the moment, began moving closer to her friend, to see if there was anything she could do to her. The shrunken gamer suddenly stop as her friend’s shakily got up, her entire body visibly trembling as she began looking around the room. Beth was feeling faint as she stared up at her friend, even fiber of her being telling her to run and hide like some kind of mouse.

“It may had taken longer then I thought, but I see the spell did the trick,” Roxie said tiredly, her voice so loud Beth nodded to cover her ears.

The giant woman turned to looked at her friend, only to frown when she notice no one standing beside her. By chance, she looked down and spotted her friend’s outfit and the woman who were worn only a few minutes standing in front of it, still covering her ears. The shrunken woman and the giant’s woman’s eyes looked for about half a second before screaming started.

Surprisingly the one who was screaming wasn’t the shrunken gamer, but her giant friend. But the screaming did cause Beth to continue to shield her ears from the noise.


(…)


If I would to weather a guess of how small my roommate had become, I would say she roughly six-inches tall, maybe a little taller. But it wasn’t just her size that was altered, her body had under some cosmetic changes as well. Her breasts had grown enough to give her a kind perkiness, and her ass has firmed up slightly as well. Her skin also looks healthier, giving the still pale color a healthy shine to it.

Next up, was Beth’s hair. It had grown greatly, reaching pass her ass now, and had turned a bright gold color that shines in the right light. Her eyes were the last thing that had changed. They were now a deep silver color with noticeable red tint to them. All-in-all, she looked good. She may look like something for a foreign cartoon but she look incredibly beautifully.

Unfortunately, I barely noticed these changes. My brain has stopped working when I saw how tiny my roommate had become, but I was more startled when I notice how calmly she was taking this entire thing.

I knew through firsthand experience just had terrifying having your size alter could be, so you imagine my surprise when Beth took her change better then I thought. Then again, Beth has always been able to control her emotions. Yes, I could see the fear in eyes as I looked down at her, but she didn’t act it. It takes something like her entire collection being destroyed by some mysterious guy to get something out of her.

Unfortunately for my tiny roommate, seeing her like that brought back a lot of bad memories, and I screamed without thinking. Thankfully, my body was in no shape to handle screaming for long, and I gave out after a full minute of the action. I was left gasping for air as my throat had become horsed due to a number of reasons, but mostly thanks to my own negligence with my magic using.

To her credit, Beth approached me as I was getting my second wind. I looked at her in the eyes, or as best as I could given my friend’s current state. I could see the fear so clearly in her eyes, but she wouldn’t let something like the massive size difference stop her from seeing how her friend was.

Soon, I had gained my second wind, and Beth gained a little more confidence with her alter size, asked about her collection, though I had problem hearing her. To correct that oversight, I cast a sound modification spell on her, that way she could talk without straining her own voice and my voice wouldn’t caused her eardrum to burst.

After that was taken care of, I gingerly picked up my small roommate and showed her the fruit of our labor. Her tiny eyes sparkled as she looked at her restored toys, practically shining as if they had just freshly painted. I would be smiling at the scene myself, if my mind wasn’t on other matters.

How did my roommate shrink in the first place? The spell was supposed to only repair object through the connection made with the owner’s soul and the soul in the object. So there should be no reason why I was holding my roommate in the palm of my hand. I groan under my breath as I realized where the answer to this little pickle could be, and I was kicking myself because I didn’t take the time needed to prepare for this.

I suddenly become aware that Beth was talking to me, and snapped out of my thoughts as I looked down at the incredible adorable woman in my hand and asked awkwardly, “What did you just say?”

Beth suddenly looked really shy, and I would admit she looked really cute at the moment, if not for the small, but sharp pain that suddenly went through my head. Like the last time before, it was gone before it could do any real harm, and luckily I didn’t drop Beth either.

“Are you okay?” Beth asked in concern.

I forced a smile onto my face and said, “Yeah, I think I overdid it with my spell casting. Now what did you say again?”

Beth suddenly became shy again, and looked at the palm of my hand with a light blush going across her face. I kept myself from thinking how cute she was as that seems to cause my weird headaches, and waited for my small roommate to say something.

“Can…can I hug my toys?” Beth suddenly exclaimed her entire face turning beat red, which my own face quickly joining in on the red color.

I would skip the next hour and fifteen minutes for a numbers of reasons, and skip to the part were we were in my kitchen. Beth was currently dipping her magically shrunken cup into my cup of tea as I looked over the spell that I used. And I felt like kicking myself.

“Always read the fine print,” I muttered bitterly.

“What’s that?” Beth asked curiously.

With a light sigh, I closed my spell book and looked at my little friend with heavy eyes. A part of me still can’t believe how calmly she’s taking this. One would think being shrunken to the size of a figurine would be cause for alarm. And yet…Beth had managed to adjust quickly. I couldn’t help but admire that, but didn’t dwell on that thought as I focused on the task at hand.

“Most modern spells come with a second effect,” I explained calmly, gesturing to the cup in her tiny hand. “Take the spell I used to shrink your cup. The spell can only alter non-living items, but I can also affect it from a distance, I can also use it through something like a wireless signal.”

Beth stared wide eye at the cup in her left hand. I started to chuckle, thinking of how cute she looked, only to moan when a sharp pain shot through my head. I slump over my spell book and held my head with my right hand, trying to get rid of the feeling in my head. It wasn’t like other times, this time the pain in my head stayed longer, and got worse with each passing second. The pain was getting so bad I thought I would throw in at any second.

Finally, the pain started to subside, and my vision slowly returned to me. I blinked once as my eyes came into focus and looked down at the concern face of my little friend.

“Are you okay?” Beth asked in frantic concern.

I forced a smile onto my face and gently reached out with my left hand, gently patting the figurine woman over the head, which caused her to blush slightly. I decided to focus on the task on hand, and swipe any thoughts about my friend’s overall cuteness aside for the time being.

“I‘m fine,” I said seriously. “Anyways, as I have read, when a “repair by the soul” spell is used, the spell leaves the person’s soul in a state lf flex, allowing a number of things to happen. So, I just to know…what were you thinking about when the spell was cast?”

Beth suddenly looked away, and I noticed the blush on her face. I actually had a pretty good idea what ran through my friend’s mind during the casting, but I still needed to hear it from her. So I waited patiently as my tiny friend worked through her own problem. Finally, after a near five minute wait, Beth looked at me with bashful eyes.

“Promise you wouldn’t laugh?” she asked shyly.

I smiled gently and urge her to go on. Beth let out a sigh and walked up to my book, frowning cutely when she notice how tall the book currently was to her. With another sigh she walked around the book and looked me in the eyes, or as close as one could get when you’re roughly six-inches tall.

“I-I wanted to hug my toys,” Beth said meekly, blushing so fiercely I thought her entire body might turn right. But I just smiled with sincerity and Beth saw this, seemingly giving her enough confidence to say, “Can you fix me?”

I was caught off guard by the sudden question, but kept my composure fairly well. Truthfully, I have waiting for this question since we both learn just how small she had gotten. And if I was being honest with myself, I wasn’t looking forward to what was coming next.

“I can,” I reluctantly said, which caused my friend to broke out in a big smile. “But I can’t do it half way. I would need to fully reserve the spell to restore you to normal. Meaning your collection would be ruined again. And thanks to a failsafe built into the spell, I wouldn’t be able to cast it without shrinking you again.”

Beth stared up at me for about half a second, turning over everything I just said in her head. I really hope that she would understand and allow me to reverse the spell. Thankfully I knew several ways to stop Soul-break before it got to worse.

“Then I guess I better get used to be being small,” Beth said in an all too chirpy voice, probably because she was thinking about her collection.

My jaw came unattached from the joints as I stared at my tiny roommate, shocked beyond words. My brain was slow to start back up as I went over the recent events. I couldn’t imagine why someone would sacrifice their entire life just so they could keep a simple collection of toys. Finally, my brain started back up, and I decided to take the bull by the horn.

“Beth…” I spoke softly, “I know that collection means the world to you. But I can’t understand why you would want to throw your life away for some simple toys. The spell become permanent are 24 hours, and due to another stupid failsafe, I can‘t use another spell to alter you even temporality. So please…reconsider your decision.”

Beth expression suddenly changed, becoming colder then I would have expected, as she turned her back to me and folded arms over her chest. She leaned up against my book, and I got the feeling I just touched a very sore spot.

“You’re right, you don’t understand…not that anyone understand why those “simple” toys are so important to me?” Beth replied coldly.

I nearly recoiled from my friend’s tone of voice. In the three and half years I knew her I never heard her use that tone before. Then again, except for a few times, I don’t think I ever heard my roommate and tenant talk about her talk anything outside of her brothers, the ones who left her half of her collection.

With a sigh, I cast me eyes to my book, thinking over my next words. “You’re right, I know next to nothing about your collection,” I muttered weakly and turned a weak smile to the back of my roommate. “But you know I’m willing to listen. So please, I want know why you’re so willing to throw your life away?”

Beth didn’t response at first, and I fear that I did something to farther upset her. Finally, I heard a faint sigh and looked over her right shoulder, a light scowl on her face.

“…Fine,” my tiny tenant mutter bitterly and face me. “You know that my brothers gave me that collection, but what I don’t tell most people is that my entire family worked on those figures. It was fun times, and each figure represented a fond memory…until the night before my brothers were leaving for college.”

Suddenly, I was getting a very bad feeling about this. Something in the back of my mind was telling me to let it go, to respect my roommate’s choice. I gave my head a small shake to get rid of that thought. I needed to know this; I needed to know why she was so connected to those toys.

“It was the night before my brothers were supposed to go off to college. We’re sleeping at the time when a fire broke out. No one really knew what caused it, but it happened so quickly it didn’t matter. Some would say luck was on my side, as my dog Skips woke me up and I was able to get others up.” I notice how my friend’s face darkened considerable as she moved onto her next part, “I manage to out but the roof had came down just as I was able to get out of the front door, but the rest of my couldn’t get out, and I was forced to watch as my childhood home burned down with my family in it.”

I watched as my friend dropped onto the table and crawled into a ball, crying soft tears. Boy, do I ever feel like an ass. I had heard about that fire when I moved to this place a few years ago. The local believed that some sort of arson was afoot, setting fire to houses at random, though that was just a rumor. But I would never guess Beth was involved in one such incident. And I had just made her relive those memories because I just I couldn’t let her decision go.

I let out a bitter sign and did the only thing that I could think of. I reached out with my left hand, and softly began stroking Beth’s back with my index finger. I could feel her entire body shaking as I softly run my finger over her back, and this made me feel that much worse about all of this. She was no doubt reliving that horrible day, and that made me feel like kicking myself to the higher plains.

I don’t know how long we were like this, but eventually Beth got her sobbing under control and began to speak again, her voice coming as quietly.

“They said I was the lucky one, but how can that be luck when you witness everything you held near and dear goes up in a fire?” I removed my finger as Beth got into a sitting position and lean up against my book, hugging her knees to her chest. “My brothers had planned to give their collection to a charity event. The only reason why it survived the fire was because they were in my dad’s car, to be dropped off after we dropped my brothers off at the situation. But I just couldn’t part with them; they were the only things that I had left to remind me of my family.”

I blinked as things started to come into focus. The reason why her soul-break was so bad was because that collection was the only thing she had left to remind her of her deceased family. And once again, I felt like an ass. If I had known what this collection meant, truly what it meant to her, I would never had said those things.

With a bitter sigh, I said, “Sorry, if I had known about any of that, I would never have said those things. I just hope that you would be able to find it in your heart to forgive me.”

I was meant with silence for nearly a minute, and I feared the worse. But I soon heard a faint sign and saw Beth lift her head and looked at me with a small smile.

“...Maybe. Besides, it not like my life was very-” Beth was rudely interpreted by a violent shudder, causing her to wrap herself in tight hug. “What the hell? Why am I suddenly so cold?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at my friend’s expression. I knew it was wrong, but I found it incredible cute, though I quickly push that thought aside as I felt that all too familiar pain creeping up on me.

“Looks like the soul bound finally wore off,” I said heartedly, and I got a blink stare from my tiny tenant. “You weren’t cold before because your soul was still tethered to my own, and my soul is currently feeling warm, and that cause her soul to feel warm and ignored the fact that you’re butt naked.”

Beth just continued to looked at me like I was crazy before letting out a faint sigh and said offhandedly, “Why is magic so confusingly complex?”

I chuckled lightly as I replied, “Trust me, I had asked the same thing over and over during my life and got no answer. If you want I can help you cover up?”

Beth looked at me uncertain for a few seconds, but quick shiver helped her to make up her mind, and she nodded. I smile softly as I began to chant in my head, drawing a rune that looked like a heart with a Q in the center of it.

“Please stand straight so this measuring rune can get a good measurement,” I said softly.

Beth looked a little uncertainly at the rune, but did as she was told and stood up straight. With a gentle push, I sent the rune toward Beth. My little roommate gasps as the rune passed through her quickly, and then returned to me, the rune more solid then it was before. With the rune safely floating by my side, I next tore a large piece fabric from my shirt and lay it across the table. I draw a new rune, one the looked like a lopsided B with a T down the middle of it and, grabbing the measuring rune beside me, combined it with the new rune.

Beth watched with growing curiosity as I thrust the combined rune into the piece of fabric, and it glowed as the spell began to work immediately. The fabric thickened, changed, and divided as the outfit I had in mind came into reality. The light died down after a minute and half as the outfit was completed. Beth walked up to the outfit completely speechless as she took in every little detail.

“Well, what do you think?” I asked heartedly. “I decked out in the pattern of the Space Marines, your favorite army.” Beth just looked at me with a wide grin, still at loose for words, and the only caused me to chuckle lightly. “How about you get dress and I get something so you can see the ‘new’ you.”

Beth was clearly confused by my comment, but just shrugged it off and began to get dress. I smiled gently at this, and I began to draw a rune with my right hand. The rune was simple in design it basically looked like a lopsided H with an extra leg in the center the bottom ends curved slightly. I sent the rune into the house and waited for the item that rune is connected too.

“Why do you do that?” Beth asked curiously.

I looked at my little roommate and saw that she was slipping on the skirt, but was looking at me curiously. I just smile gently as I placed my hands onto my spell book.

“You mean why I draw runes when I spell-cast?” I asked softly and Beth nodded. “Well, it’s because I used what is called spiritual spell casting. All I need to do is draw rune while I’m mentally chanting the spell in question to cast it.”

Beth frowns in a cute way as she slipped on her blouse and began to button it up. “Are there other kinds of spell casting?” she asks curiously.

I chuckled and opened my mouth to reply, when I felt a tingle in the back of my mind. I knew what that meant, and looked over my shoulder as my vanity mirror floated towards me. I gently snatched it from the air and looked back at Beth. She had finished putting on her outfit as I gently pushed my spell book aside and sent the mirror on the table.

My tiny tenant walked up to the mirror and her mouth fell as got her first look at herself. The outfit was a standard army uniform, only with a slightly shorter skirt, knee-high boots and colored blue, like the Space Marines of the game, and with their symbols all around the uniform. She also has the five stars of a general, because she was a true master of the game.

But I got a strong feeling she wasn’t looking at her outfit, but the changes that had occurred in addition to her shrinking. I chuckled under my breath as I watched small gamer began to examine herself curiously. Once she had given her herself a thorough examination, she looked up at me, eyes slightly wide with confusion.

“How?” she asked confusingly.

I just sigh faintly and said, “I honestly can’t say,” I couldn’t help but smile affectingly as I studied my little roommate, “But I most say…I like what I’m seeing. I feel like the skirt and the boots really pull your new look-GAAAAHH!”

I held my head as a head-splitting headache suddenly race through my skull. I had had bad headaches this entire day, but this was worse one by far. It felt like my head would split open at any second. And if it didn’t stop soon, I feel I may lose my lunch and that could be bad for Beth. Thankfully, the headache subsided quickly, but I was still left gasping for air as my head swam violently.

“Are you ok?” I heard the concern voice of Beth ask as sense began to return to me.

I tired to put on a comforting smile as I said in a strain voice, “Yeah, just a side effect of overusing my magic.”

Beth gave me a skeptical look, like she didn’t believe me and I had to admit I was slightly impressed. She knew next to nothing about magic and yet she doubted me. I was starting to think that my small roommate was more magically aware then I first thought. That would explain why she nearly suffered a Soul-Break when her collection was destroy.

Still…she was looking at me uncertainly and I quickly put on an easy smile as I said, “Say, since your collection is restored, how about we play a few rounds? I can even spell a couple of spells on your figures so you could control them without having to move them? What do you say, General Seth?”

I could see the conflict in my friend’s eyes grow considerable. On one hand, she wanted nothing more then to play with her toys in a way that she thought impossible. On the other hand, she knew I was keeping something from her, and wanted to press until I spill. Given, there wasn’t much she could do, not in her state, though I would never hurt my friend in any way.

I heard Beth sigh and just looked at the ground as an embarrass look cross her face. I knew that look and what it meant. With a light chuckle I stood up as I slowly reached out and held out the palm of my hand. No words were need at this point, as she stared at my hand for five seconds before she walked up to it, and took a seat on it. Smiling softly, I gingerly lifted my occupied hand into the air and walked to the basement door, a comfortable astrosphere settling around us.

We reached the basement door, and I reached handle, suddenly stopping as my hand hovered a mere inch over the handle. Since I have been using my magic so much today, my inner sixth sense had kicked in, allowing me sense magic in the air, and the magic I was sensing on the handle wasn’t my own. And while I may be rusty in sensing other magic signals, I knew for a fact that the one I was sensing wasn’t my own, or the ancient power that had long since resided in this house.

So, that begs the real question, who does this signal belong to and why is it in my house?”

“Roxie…? Are you ok?”

I snapped my out of my thoughts and looked at the tiny gamer in my hand. Beth was looking at me with concern and worry. I put on an easy smile as I turned the knob and opened the door.

“It’s nothing. I thought I saw a bug, and was trying to think of way to make sure you’re safe, with your new size and all,” I answered quickly.

It was lie, a poor one at that, but it seems to work as my little friend nodded and looked ahead as we descended the stair. She was no doubt eager to get the game underway, and that brought a real smile to my face.

Yes, there was indeed something weird going on here, and I would probably need some help to sort everything out. But, all that can wait until later. Right now, I’m getting ready to have my ass handed to me by my tiny tenant.