Chapter 5

Sara spoke up, “No need. We have our van right over there. It’s loaded with our gear for the con, but we should all fit.”

Sara then turned to me, “We have a room upstairs in the convention center, and I have a load of leather I can use to make you a costume for the booth.”

I sent out my senses and saw a fab shop on the other side of the square. I walked over to the back fence and saw loads of scrap sitting in a dumpster. It contained high end nickel, titanium, and stainless alloy scraps that I thought I could use. I walked around front and into the office of the shop. After a conversation with the owner, I purchased some assorted scrap and tossed it over the fence, where Sara loaded it into the van.

In my youth, a favorite past time was cosplay at the various comic cons in the area. Thinking about it, I remembered some of the costumes I’d made and wished there actually were such beings about. Now I knew they were real, my sore dick being evidence of it. After getting back to the van, I pulled all the metal into my ring, thinking I’d no longer need to keep it locked up at home. I was also remembering the sense of independence I once had prior to meeting Alecia. I’d grown too reliant on them. With the memories and abilities I now possessed, I could go it alone if needed. The whole slave master setup was gnawing at my conscience anyway. It was time for some changes.

I saw Alecia frowning and knew she was listening in. So, I sent her a message mentally. “I’ve got to get back to who I was before meeting you. I wouldn’t be who you think I am otherwise.”

She didn’t lose the frown, but she did nod at the statement. I then locked down my mind. She looked startled but didn’t say anything.

Everyone loaded up and Sara drove us over to the convention center. With all the help, her booth was set up rapidly. She had an entire custom jewelry set up and several display cases of custom jewelry and metal work.

I definitely needed to assimilate her memories soon.

The doors would open in two hours for the late Friday kick off, so we went to the room after getting our passes. The asshats running the booth rental charged Sara double for the number of people she needed passes for. Apparently, several other vendors were trying to get their friends early access.

I went into the elevator and rode up to the top floor with Brandy. Before stepping off, I told her to glitch the security cameras for five minutes.

Once done, I pulsed my senses and picked up eleven fey in the building. There were eight of us, so there were three more here we didn’t know. I chuckled at the probable reaction from those three after they felt the pulse.

We made a hasty exit down the stairs and into the room. All eyes turned to me when I entered.

I said “There are three unknown fey in the building. I imagine they were a bit startled after the pulse.”

Bethany said “Not just them, if I’d been human, I’d have shat myself after feeling the strength of that pulse. It felt like the artifact the inquisition used to hunt us down after they killed one of the masters.”

I looked at Sara who was busy working some leather and ask “What are you doing?”

“Making your costume so you fit in tonight.”

I looked at the image on the table she was working on. I’d never seen the cartoon or show, but after looking through Sara’s memories I saw what it was. It was Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher series.

I said “Leave it, I’ll make it myself.”

I then put up a shield in the room.

Pulling out some Nd from my ring, I melded it with some nickel, using the same method as I did to create the ring. I shaped it to match the pendent in the image, and used two rubies for the eyes. I then pulled in a small spatial rift making it a spatial device. After blooding it, I hung it around my neck.

Everyone was staring at me at this point. After stripping down, I looked in the mirror and began the process of masking myself in the image of the print outs. Once I had the image down, I embedded it to the pendant.

What I had done was something from Sara’s memories. I couldn’t change myself like they could, but I could use an artifact to emulate all of their functions. Including the storage space. If I took off the pendant, I’d revert to my normal appearance.

Sara looked startled and said “Holy hell, I never thought to combine them like that.”

Looking in the mirror, I was a dead ringer for the character in the image. The long white hair was a bit much but it was only a facade, so I let it go.

Turning to Brandy, I said “I need your special abilities to give this image an official I.D.”

She pulled out my laptop and soon her eyes were glowing.

Looking at the leather, I passed my hands over it and shaped it into the image on the paper. When I was done, I touched it bringing it into the pendant then from there onto my person.

Next, I pulled the scrap metal out of the ring and began shaping the swords. I used a touch of Nd to power the glowing runes on the silver sword. With that, I was done. Wearing it all, I turned and ask “What do you think, does it pass muster?”

Lisa said “It definitely passes, maybe too much. You’ll need to be able to explain the scars, hair, and the glowing bits of the costume.

Alecia asked “How did you change your body so much?’

“The same way you do” I answered. “When you go back and forth, part of you is moved into a spatial rift tied specifically to you. The mass of your body doesn’t actually change, it just moves into the rift. That is how I made this” said while I held up the pendant.

“If I’ve got it figured right, the extra mass was part of the curse as you call it. You could actually breed if you had a place to store the extra mass you carry. Or someone like me could do this.” I then shrunk myself storing the extra mass into the pendant.

There was total silence in the room. Looking around, it was clear I’d stunned them all.

“I don’t know how viable the hypothesis is, but I suspect that mass you carry around is acting like an anchor. You can’t conceive in human form, because you likely leave that ability behind in the spatial rift, I mean that literally as well.”

“What you need is someone who can transform in reverse with all necessary parts intact. The creator you speak of, likely forced the change on the male as a failsafe to prevent your procreation. The extra mass on the male has to be stored somewhere, and this artifact does just that. It is the combined memories from all of you that makes it possible to understand. The final piece of the puzzle came from Lara. Her knowledge includes a very detailed understanding of spatial magic. Once applied to your abilities to shift in and out of your true form, it became apparent you all were missing something critical.”

Continuing I said “What I don’t understand yet, is the compunction all of you have to serve a master. Once I get that one figured out, it should be possible to break the curse as long as you have an artifact to artificially align your energy with the world energy. As much as I like all of you, I’d prefer it to be voluntary and not forced.”