Further Outside her Comfort Zone - Part 2

By Vaughan


Ian took the released wrist shackles from Karen and dropped them in the box. "How about if we do another illusion, but this time we see if we can get you to expand your comfort zone, because the sooner we can get you ok with doing the more risqué stuff, the sooner we can start charging more for a show and you can start making more money."

"Would I have to be naked this time?"

"Why don't you go and try on the bikinis in the dressing room and see if they fit. We can do it in one of those; if they don't fit, you'll just have to do it in the nude."

"What about my underwear? Would that do?"

"Yes, if you can find it. I didn't think about your underwear when I changed your costume, it may still be in the dress, but it may have gone."

Ian headed to the prop store sending the freight elevator up, but taking the stairs. Karen went back to the curtained dressing cubicle. She checked the black dress which was hanging on the rack in the place the outfit was now wearing had been; her underwear was nowhere to be seen. She stripped off the red velvet and fishnet and looked at the two bikinis. The white one was a conventional set with shoulder straps, the other was a black one and strapless. The bottoms seemed ordinary enough that she decided to try each of the tops and decide which she liked better.

The black strapless one was far too tight and squeezed her breast to the point that they looked misshapen, so she quickly gave up on it. The white top was nearly as bad, pushing her breasts together to the point of almost looking as if her boobs had been moulded into one bigger boob.

Karen's disappointment that the tops did not fit, made her wonder if she was really cut out to be a magician's assistant. She almost put her own clothes back on, ready to apologise to Ian for wasting his time, then leaving. She suddenly remembered her resolution to be a better magician's assistant than Becky and tried to think of a way round the problem of the bikini tops.

The solution she came up with appalled her self-consciousness, but she was determined to do her best. She pulled on the black bikini bottoms and then went back to the stage to wait for Ian to return with whatever illusion he had in mind. While she stood there, she held one arm across the base of her ribs supporting her tits and the other across the front in an impromptu bikini top. Soon the whirr of the lift descending was heard and the clatter of Ian racing it down the stairs.

The race to the ground floor was a dead heat, but instead of going to open the lift, Ian stood for a moment regaining his breath and spotted Karen. "I guess that the tops did not fit and you couldn't find your underwear. I half expected you to forgo the chance of a paid for lunch, in favour of maintaining your modesty."

"This isn't about a free lunch (nobody could get me half-naked for the price of a free lunch). This is about me committing to being the best assistant I can be. Standing here, with only bikini bottoms on is more than any boyfriend has even see before the first month. Just don't get any ideas; I'm here to be an assistant, not a girlfriend." She kept arms arms across her chest.

"That's good, because I need an assistant much more than I need a girlfriend, at the moment. Not that you're not girlfriend material; you are. But I feel I need to keep this relationship professional for the time being. Is that ok with you?"

"Yes, I understand. So what is this illusion you've got that requires at most a bikini."

"Well, you remember the last illusion we did last time?"

"The one where you had me naked and divided me into lots of pieces? Yes, I remember that."

"Trying it out with you, made realise that it was a bit slow as it is. So, I've worked out a way to make it quicker and more interesting for the audience. Are you game to try it out?"

"I guess so. It's not like I haven't done something like it before. So, what have you done to improve it?"

"I worked out while I was doing last time that there was a lot of time lost in constructing the cabinet around you; I felt that the risk of making things less, erm, less basic and clear, if I had part of the cabinet pre-constructed on a couple of stands so that you just stand between them then and I close them around you, that would speed things up. And the second thing was using one blade to cut and then inserting the dividers was a waste of time when the dividers can be made into cutting blades, but what we tried last time was a prototype, so I did not really expect it to be perfect, just a basis to learn lessons to make the real thing better. I also made some cosmetic alterations."

"Ok, let's see the Mark 2, because even under that cloth it looks a lot different to how it looked last time, even after it had been build."

"I'll bring it up so you can get a better look at it. And maybe you'll feel relaxed enough to drop your arms, because there's no way you can be a good magician's assistant with your arms clamp across your chest. The only time you arms should be across your chest is when you're being sawn in half; I guess that'll seem a doddle compared to being cut into the twenty-some pieces this will manage."

"Hey! wait up, a second. Wasn't I divided into fourteen pieces last time?"

"Yes, but in the quest to make things simpler I found some more pieces; if you get what I mean."

"I was amazed when I was broken into fourteen parts. What are the extra pieces?"

"Give us a moment to get it up there and you take a good look at it. And try to relax a bit. There's only you and me here and nobody will get to see the video of this, other than us two."

"What?! You're videoing me half naked? now?!"

"Of course. What did you think the camera was for?"

"I thought that was so we can see ourselves practising. I didn't know you were recording too."

"Well, how am I meant to analyse what we've done, to know what is going well and what needs more work?"

"Put like that, it sounds perfectly reasonable, but I think you ought to have let me know."

"I'm sorry. I assumed you'd be used to having cameras pointed at you and being filmed."

"I'm sure I told you that I had never got a job from an audition before, so I've never been in front of a camera before."

"I don't remember that; maybe you did. But can we take it as read that in future if the camera is running it is recording and the recordings will never leave this building."

"Ok," Karen said with a slightly sullen tone.

"I'm sorry. How about once we finish trying this thing out, I take you for lunch to somewhere a bit more classy than the Macdonald's I was originally thinking of. What about a meal at Mulligan's?"

"I can't go there! That's where I work. The girls would be excessively curious if I went there with a man. They'd want to know everything about you. All I've told them is that I'm working on my break into show-biz."

"Are you ashamed of being a magician's assistant?"

"No, but I'd be a bit embarrassed to admit that some of it might involve being topless or naked, because I've told them I'd never do such a thing. I don't want to tell them what I'm doing until I have something to show for it, or I need to take more than half a day off a couple of times a week."

"I wondered why I'd thought of Mulligan's. Ok, how about Pedro's? Do you like Italian?"

"Yeah, why not? I've heard good things about it. Lets get this thing done so that I can get dressed and we can go to lunch."

There was a short delay while Ian wheeled the Mark 2 illusion the long way round onto the stage with Karen holding the curtain to the side as best she could without flashing too much boob. The upright cabinet was wheeled by a handle at the back and as it came through the backdrop, the covering snagged on something and was pulled off as Ian steered it to the centre of the stage area.

"Well, the arms are new," commented Karen, as the apparatus was accidentally unveiled.

"Yes, they gain us, four more pieces and a modification to the head and hip boxes gains us a further three and the chest now does four instead of two, because your arms won't be in the way."

"I've already lost count. I also notice that some of the holes have see-through panels on."

"Those are so that some bits of you that won't reach the outside of the box can still be seen, because the edges of those panels have a ring of LED lights to illuminate the inside."

"I hope that works in practice. So, how do we get this started?"

"First we unlatch these hooks of the base and pull on the side handles to open it up into its three sections to start. Then we can get you in and start putting blades in."

"Ok, I think," agreed Karen; she was not entirely certain of the wisdom of agreeing to be cut into an uncertain number of pieces, while topless.

She was slow off the mark and Ian undid both catches at the front of the illusion cabinet. "Take the handle at waist height and pull it a few feet that way and make sure you don't get hit by the arm; an assistant with a black eye is a bad look; and I don't suppose it'll help with your other job either."

Karen kept her head down while she grabbed the handle and took a large step backward. As she raised her head, she felt her hair touch the horizontally extended arm of the illusion and flinched.

"I guess I'm going to have to give that a bit more thought; or maybe get a member of the audience to do that dangerous bit and generally help out."

"I assumed that being cut into pieces was the dangerous bit."

"I kind of is, but it isn't." In response to Karen's puzzled look the magician continued, "In most cases, getting ready to do the magic is more dangerous that the actual magic part, which is why we'll need to do some rehearsal, even though I could do most of the stuff I've got in the store to anyone unrehearsed. The problem with that is the secret that some magic is real, would become widespread, and lead to people being less easy to impress."

"That's as may be, but are we doing with this thing? Because it doesn't look like anything yet."

She looked at the three sections of the cabinet, each on its own section of base. The two side sections mirrored each other and half a boxy person with an arm straight out sideways. The inner edges of the side sections were not straight, but from the level of what was the hip level box it was different depths from the outside at each level to accommodate the section that were held up by the back of the centre section. This centre section was supported on a post at the back and had panels fixed to the pole. Above the head height box, there was a short pole jutting forward the narrow width of the cabinet and then a third pole down the front with more panels fixed to it. Ian went behind the illusion and rotated then centre section to show that the area between the two sets of panels was empty.

"I doesn't look like any cabinet I've ever seen. Admittedly, I am not exactly a obsessive fan or anything like that, but I seen my share of magic shows on TV."

"It's time for you to get into the cabinet."

"How? At the moment there seems to be two nearly half boxes, with an arm on the side and a bit in between that barely deserves the title of a box at all."

"You step onto the base of the middle section, so that you're between the front and back facing forward. Then you stick your arms out to the sides, so that when I push the sides back into place, they can be inserted into the arms of the device. Got it?"

"Won't that show my tits?"

"Yes, but not immediately, because they will need to be brought out of the front holes in this panel." He tapped the chest-level panel with its two rounded holes, lined round the edges with foam rubber. "I even put this soft bit round the edges to make it more comfortable than if your tits rested directly on the edge of the panel's plastic." He looked at Karen, who did not seemed convinced that this was wanted. "The whole point of this illusion is to divide you up into a lot of pieces, with a visible piece of you in each piece. And of course I designed it to be, erm, sexy is the wrong word; I know; titillating for sexier shows, so no-one is going see it performed until you're ready to performing in it's full glory. And before you ask what's the point in trying out at all, when you're not ready to perform topless or nude; in the meantime it will get you used to showing more of your body than you are currently accustomed to, then you'll feel more comfortable and happy in some of the skimpier outfits on the rail."

"I guess you're right; being in that assistant's outfit felt terribly exposed, but I'd far rather be seen in that than topless as I am now." Karen noticed that she was not covering her bust with both arms and wondered when that had happened. "And I supposed, so long as you don't make me regret it, I might become more adventurous, in costume choice (or perhaps lack of costume) and the illusions I feel happy to do. I guess, after this, being sawn in two will be a snap."

"Something like that. But being sawn in two is different, because instead of standing there and letting this happen to you, for the sawing you need to be able to act and react to the situation as it progresses; you shouldn't just lie there like a piece of human lumber, you'll need to follow a planned presentation, screaming as I run the saw through you on Halloween, or be the stoic, put-upon assistant, or goofy comedy character, or whatever we decide is best for a particular show."

With a little satisfaction that her drama classes were not going to be totally wasted by changing path from actress to magician's assistant, she tried to step into the gap in between the front and back of the middle section of the cabinet. She found that she needed to remove her hands from her chest in order to squeeze sideways into the narrow space. Once in, she looked out through the face hole and could see her breasts peeking out though the holes at chest-level; she also saw her belly behind a window below that and the bikini bottoms below that.

"You're nearly in position; you just need to raise your arms to the sides so that they thread into the arms of the cabinet, while I push the sides back into position. I'll start with one side at a time; if we decide to get someone to help out, we would try to do both sides at once."

Karen put out her hand and glanced sideways to spot the hole she was meant to put her arm through. As the side approached she raised her hand to where the hole was.

"You'll have to hold your arm out straight, because you're not going to have the space once the cabinet is back together, or even partially together, to manoeuvre your arm in."

When the side came within reach Ian paused briefly to allowed Karen to get her hand into the hole, then continued to close up the space that had been opened up to allow Karen to get in. "It's just occurred to me that we only really needed to open one side of the cabinet to let you in. You'd stick your arm out and thread it down one arm, then thread the remaining arm in like we're doing now. That way we would not need a helper, who could prove troublesome, if we're doing a lad's party or a stag do. And it would mean there wouldn't someone on stage with us, making you feel more nervous than you'd already feel, or possibly doing things you would rather they didn't do."

Karen found she could picture, some drunken lout, being too free with his hands on her practically immobilised body, then she imagined the possibility that he might take away a part of her, leaving her with a piece missing until it could be retrieved. Her horror deepened as she created the mental image of that stolen part being one of her breasts, knowing, from her experience at the audition, that she could feel what was happening to her detached parts.

She was suddenly brought back to the here and now, but a pressure between her first and middle fingers. She turned her head and saw, through the window at the side of the head section, that the finger had slipped out the gap in the arm about halfway down. As she said "Whoa!", Ian stopped, feeling the resistance, and looked to see what was happening.

"I'll pull it back a little so you can get your hand line up properly. I think we both need to concentrate a bit more."

The side section was pushed into place and latched there without further incident, the other side went similarly well, partly because Ian slowed the pushing of the cabinet's other side as Karen's hand crossed to gap to give the chance to find the opening to the furthest part of the arm assembly. As he leant down to connect the side that been closed to the rest of the cabinet, he said, "Just a little more adjustment, before we get to the bit with the blades."

He went behind the cabinet and Karen heard a grinding noise as the front panels travelled an inch or two backwards, squeezing her until most of her front was in contact with the panels on the front and her breasts were sticking out of the holes designed to accommodate them more and her face was against the hole in the front of the head section. She could also feel the back of the cabinet against her back and the padded edges of the buttock holes at the back of the hip section.

"Ok, now things are adjusted you need to move your feet apart so that they are in the legs sections with the toes and knees located in the cut-outs as they were in the previous incarnation of this thing."

"You mentioned blades, but I don't see any blades. I hope I not going to be stuck in here while you go and fetch them."

"No, of course not. Because these blades are custom made for this illusion (you can't get a set of blades for this off the shelf) I designed the bases to store the blades; that way it'll always be ready to do, and the blades are safe from damage."

"Ok, so, don't keep me hanging; let's get the cutting started, before I chicken out, like I intended to when I arrived, this morning."

"I could start the cutting, but there is a little more prep I'd like to get out of the way before the dividing begins." He pulled two flat pieces of metal and a thick rod with slots down its length from the base under Karen's left foot.

"What are those, if they aren't blades?"

"These are covers to cover the insides of the legs boxes, so that there is no risk of your legs falling out of the boxes. And this," he brandished the rod, "will help keep things in place."

One of the covers was slotted into position beside her foot and shin. The rod was fitted next at the base of the hip section, through a hole at the end of the downward connecting rod at the front and between Karen's legs to a similar hole in the rear post, passing less than an inch below the bikini bottoms. The second cover that had been leaned against the outside of the part of the cabinet enclosing her leg, was fitted on the  inside of the knee to thigh section of the cabinet, sliding down one of the grooves in the rod. A similar pair of covers were fitted to the leg sections of the other leg.

"Are you done yet? I can see what you mean about this being a bit slow."

"Just one more thing to do. I suspect your not going to be very happy about it, but even if the sexy version of the show never happens, we're going to have to get used to being in close proximity and touching each other, in ways that strangers wouldn't." He looked straight into Karen's eyes, then flicked his eyes down the the chest box and back again, with a smile.

"And why do they have to be out at all?"

"Technically, they don't, but before you get upset, from a performance standpoint, them being visible is necessary, because how better to show that you are still in those sections when the cabinet is a pile of blocks? I guess, I could make some domes to cover them without obscuring them, but it will be more convincing if they can move a bit when those sections are moved. Then there's the moment when I do this," he gently scooped Karen's left boob from its half way out position, "every member of the audience will wish they were me; and getting to audience to identify with the performers is important; we want them thinking, I'd like to be able to do that, rather than look at those two showing off." As he scooped her right breast to match its partner. "And finally, I hope, you will be more comfortable, physically, with your breasts in that position."

"I have to admit this is less uncomfortable, than they were resting halfway out, but consider the rest of the explanation taken with a pinch of salt."

"Take it how you like, but since this isn't going to be seen by any of the public until we're doing shows with a nude assistant, it does not really matter so much until then. And by then you'll have had some time before an audience to learn some these things first hand."

"Are you going to start cutting me to pieces? I'm beginning to regret not taking the offer of a tea break earlier."

"Alright, enough chit-chat; let's get on with it."

Karen found it a little difficult to follow the action as Ian's body got in the way of seeing what he was doing. But she felt blades slice into her legs mid-calf and high on her thighs. After a double prick as the razor-sharp edges made contact with the smooth skin, it felt as if she was being tickled with a soft brush; the tickle was more that of a lover gently stroking the skin than the prodding of someone intent of inducing hysterics.

The blades above her hips seemed to be one solid blade as did the blade below her protruding breasts. The last of the horizontal blades was the one that the one that made her most nervous initially, but felt best so far; despite being at the base of her neck, the sensuality of the tickling sensation was the most intense so far. She caught herself sighing and wondered if she was really enjoying the experience or under Ian's influence in some way. The part of her that wanted to be better than Becky had been, pushed this speculation aside, with the though that if Ian could influence anyone like that, why had Becky left? or even been able to leave. She concluded that being cut into pieces felt good.

The next thing she felt was a cut tickle her on the middle of her left forearm. She could not turn to see what was happening, but on the TV she could see Ian standing behind the arms of the cabinet, systematically inserting blades through each of the major arm bones starting at her left forearm and progressing to her upper arm and then to the right upper arm and the right forearm, leaving her exposed hands and elbows, seemingly isolated from the rest of her. A flex of each arm and hand then toes and knees was enough to convince Karen that even if there was a blade, or many blades, separating her extremities from her brain, she was still in some form of control of them.

"How's it feeling so far, Karen?"

"Not bad, the blades feel pretty much as I remember them from last time. And I still seem to have control of my hands and feet. So, how many pieces is that?"

"Why don't you count them? You're going to have to become accustomed to knowing how many pieces you are in and enumerating them, and showing that they are real."

"Ok. Correct me if I go wrong! two feet, two hands, two knees and two elbows, to start, that's eight, already. Then my body is in, um, three parts; hips, tummy and chest. And my head tops it all off with a grand total of twelve. And we haven't even got to dividing the body sections."

"Ok, let's start dividing the sections. We'll start with your belly," announced Ian.

"Why start there?"

"Because it is the simplest division and the dullest part of your anatomy."

As Ian bent down to collect the blades needed, Karen asked, "What do you mean by the dullest part of my anatomy? Is there something wrong with my tummy?"

"Absolutely not," the magician declared, recognising a feminine trap. He slid a blade into the corner of the abdomen which reached the centre of the section before stopping. "There is nothing wrong with your tummy, you obviously do the right kinds of exercises to keep it trim. But compared to the obvious fascinations of your breasts, or hips and your lovely legs and graceful arms, even your cute face, it is not the first thing most people are going to say is the most interesting part of your body, unless they are a doctor specialising in gastro-stuff."

The second blade was already inserted separating the left quarter of her abdomen from the rest. As he pushed the third blade in to the centre to meet the edges of the other two and making the small of her back another piece, he added, "It's just that we need to keep any audience engaged and if your tummy is the last section divided then they are likely to think it an anticlimax." The fourth blade went in towards the centre, making the front and right parts into isolated pieces.

"Ok, so you've divided my tummy into what felt and looked like triangular sections, what's next?"

"Next is the chest section. It's probably the most complex part."

"Wow! I didn't see that coming." her tone implied that she found it totally predictable.

"So, you'll totally surprised when I do this." Ian lifted a blade and pushed it into a slot that ran from the blade at the base of neck to the blade at the base of her ribs between her breasts. "Are you ready for this?"

"More ready than I was last time." She cast her mind back to the previous time and tried to remember the intensity of the pleasant tickling.

She felt the blade edge press into the valley between her breasts, for a moment it was uncomfortable, then the edge penetrated and passed smoothly through the skin and the breast-bone beneath, as it continued into the gap between her lungs she breathed out a sigh of contentment, which was interrupted, when the blade begin to split her spine to emerge through the skin between her shoulder blades. As the blade sliced her spinal cord she felt the lower parts of her body more intensely, as if the sensations had been suddenly switched to HD. She could now feel exactly where each blade went in and the feeling of the blades within her body, despite having no internal sensation of touch.

"Wow! That was a bit intense," commented Karen.

"Not too much I hope, because if we're ever going to do this for an audience, reacting like that is probably something we don't want to happen. But that's a way off and we can work out what we want and how to present it. That's it for that section for the moment, Just two more sections to go, then we can start taking you to pieces."

"Ok. I guess the hips is next, but I can't see how you're going to do that without ruining the bikini."

"Of course, when it comes to the final version of this illusion, that won't be a problem, because you won't be wearing any. Until then I have two potential stop-gap answers. First and easiest, is to carry on, but damage the bikini in the process; we have two sets of bottoms that will not matter if they get a bit shredded. The second, which will require a bit more trust from you, would be to remove the bottoms to get the blades in and then put them back when I reassemble you."

"And what would you have done if I had been able to find my underwear?"

"I think, I would have had to offer you the same options before that blade went through your chest."

"And how would you remove the bottoms? It's not as if you can just reach in and grab them." Karen's eye's went round with surprise when she put her question together with the fact that he had included that very thing as a possible solution for the problem they were discussing. "You can't; can you?"

"Yes, of course, the advantage of that is that I can put them back when I rebuild you, so you don't end up naked at the end. If I damage them there is a good chance that they will not hold up and you'll end up with nothing on."

She looked at the image on the TV screen and noticed that there was a window in the front of the hip box. She concluded that it was intended so show the front of her groin. For a moment she did not know how to feel about that, if she got as far as performing this her sex would be on display, but there was some relief that it would not be accessible to being touched. "Ok, remove the bottoms, but don't illuminate the stuff behind the window down there."

"You know it'll have to be done eventually, right?"

"Yes, if I get as far as doing a nude show, but I'm sure you realise that we are more likely to get there if we take smaller steps."

"Ok. And they're gone."

"What?" asked Karen, as she felt that the bikini bottoms had disappeared. "How?"

"It was quite easy. Certainly easier that removing the black dress and replacing it, while you were in a bag in a box with your hands shackled. Now for these two blades." The blade was slotted in the front; Karen felt it touch her inside the centreline of her right thigh and follow a diagonal path through the hip section to emerge on the right edge of the dividing line between her buttocks. The second was inserted symmetrically into a slot on her left. The blades passed through Karen felt some vibration induced by friction between the blade and the various bones of her pelvis.

"That felt nice, not like last time."

"I decided that there were two good reasons to not cut directly, like I did last time. The main one being that you reacted very strongly and it took you quite a time to be paying attention again, this is likely to be a problem if we want to keep a show moving. But also it is a difficult thing to display a half thing that people are used to seeing whole. You know what I mean?"

"I think so. A tit sticking out of a small box is acceptable, but if you tried cutting 'It' in half, nobody would believe it; is that it?"

"Something like that; there are just some things that don't make good mental images."

"Ok, my hip section is done. Oh, no! You're going to divide my head again, right?"

"Yes, only this time, instead of just cutting your face off, we going to divide your head into four, like I did your belly."

"I guess that means you won't be dividing my face in two, which I think is a good thing."

"I'll be dividing your head into a face section, two side sections with ears on show and a back section that will show some hair. The bad news is that it may effect your thinking and modify how your brain works for a short while."

"Too late for me to back out, I suppose."

"Definitely," the magician said as he slid a blade into the rear right corner of the head box until the sharp edge reached the centre of the box.

"That felt very weird! Ooh! That is very weird indeed, I can taste the words I'm saying." In a mood of experimentation with this new phenomenon she said, "Strawberry." Then immediately said, "Urgh! Remind me not to say that again! It tasted horrible."

"If you're getting effects like that, it is probably better if you only speak when necessary." The magician slid in the next blade separating the back of Karen's head from the rest of it. The third and forth blades went in without incident. "That's the second round of divisions done. Now to separate you, this will be stage one of that."

Ian stepped to the side, releasing the catch holding one of the side sections of the base to the centre. With one hand on the handle beside Karen's hip and the other hand reaching behind the apparatus, he pulled and the side section of the cabinet rolled away from the rest.

Karen watched the screen in disbelief. The sections containing her lower leg, her knee and her entire arm, slid sideways, taking with it one of her breasts, a part of her belly, a section of hip and a section of head. Ian moved the cabinet part so that it rotated through 360 degrees, giving Karen a look at one of her bottom cheeks and a shoulder blade as he turn it.

Karen was less surprised but no less astounded, when the other side of the cabinet made a similar journey to a point several feet away, taking the matching parts with it. This left her face, her belly and the mid section of her hips visible on the middle part, which Ian turned about showing the camera the back of Karen's head and the small of her back.

"Now to separate you even more. You ready?"

Karen said, "I suppose. It's not like you're going to make me into more pieces, by moving my pieces about. Just be sure not to lost anything or get left and right parts mixed up!"

"You'll be glad to hear that, each of the section has an 'L' or and 'R' on the back so they can't get mixed up." Ian began removing the sections from the three parts of the cabinet and presented each of them to the Karen and then the camera before making several piles on the front to the stage.

The last sections left on the frames that had held the cabinet together, were Karen's two chest sections and her face. "Alright, a last couple of divisions and then we're done."

"What can possibly left to divided?" asked Karen. She looked at the TV screen and said, "Oh. Why didn't you do that division earlier?"

"Because your arms were in the way." Ian said as he slid a blade into the side of a chest section before demounting a shoulder blade and a breast. This was repeated on the other side.

"Ok, now that you got me a pile of, I've lost count of how many pieces, what happens next? I don't think you can do the rebuild and partial reveals that you did with the previous version."

"Well, I had originally intended to rebuild you and let you out, but I think that would be a bit dull. So I came up with an alternative."

The magician fetched the cloth that had covered the cabinet in the first place and tucked it under his new assistant's chin. She felt a click as the section with her face in was released from the frame work.

Karen could see her face floating above the cloth, via the TV screen, as Ian moved around the stage hiding the piles of body parts from the camera's view. When he moved away the stacked parts were gone. When the stage had been cleared of loose pieces of Karen, he ducked her face behind the cloth for a fraction of a second, then whipped the cloth away and threw it to a back corner of the stage.

In front of Ian stood a fully restored Karen with her legs slightly parted and her arms straight out from her sides. It took Karen several seconds to take in the scene presented on the TV screen and bring her arms in to cover her breasts, but she was glad to see that the black bikini bottoms had been replaced.

"I think, that'll have to do for our first rehearsal. You can go and get dressed, then meet me in the office and we'll make a date for the next rehearsal."

Karen rushed to the changing area with as much speed as she could manage compatible with keeping her chest concealed. She kept on the bikini bottoms and put on her clothes.

In the office, they arranged their next rehearsal and Ian told Karen that he would be emailing her a list of all the illusions he had and hoped that she would look it over and perhaps come up with performance suggestions or ideas for other illusions. "And, of course, we need to create a signature illusion, but we'll see what seems to be working best for us during rehearsals and go from there.

There was a honk outside. "You better go now, I booked you a taxi to take you to your other job. I'll see you next time."