“I felt some movement. Am I in two pieces?” I was cut off from asking more by the telephone repeater sounding.

“Yes.” he answered my question then added, “I'd better go and answer that.” He stepped through the space between my two halves and headed for the door that led to his office.

“What about me?” I was concerned that I could get myself into trouble in current unfamiliar situation.

“You'll be alright.” There was reassurance in his tone, although it could have been taken as dismissiveness. “I'll only be a couple of minutes. In the meantime you can enjoy being in two boxes at once and the boxes not being inside each other.” Not a point of view that I would have thought of.

After about thirty seconds, I was beginning to get a bit of a buzz from being in boxes. I moved my hand down my body towards where my crotch should have been, but almost stubbed my finger on the blade through my waist. I remembered Tom mentioning side-doors to the sawing box, but quickly discovered that these were still latched shut. It was a little frustrating, but the best I could do to stimulate myself was stroking my nipples and that came at the cost of a couple of elbow bumps.

Somehow, despite my self-absorption, I heard the outside door slide open. It was probably because there was an extra caution to how the door was slid aside; as if whoever was opening it was not meant to be there. I froze. Then I did what I could to listen to what was happening.

Whoever it was stepped into the room and with similar stealth re-closed the door. They stood there surveyed the scene; I felt lucky that they could not see my head, but wished I could see what was going on. Then I remembered that my bare feet would be on view and tried to freeze stiffer; I think I twitched my feet in the process.

Trying to hold my feet still quickly became a strain. The tension built up, then I had to move my feet or risk cramps. I hoped whoever had come in would be looking somewhere else and not notice.

It took me a moment to come up with a theory for what was going on, because I felt that the chances of random intruder picking now to burgle Tom's place was vanishingly small, especially with three vehicles parked out front. My mind suggested that Tom had finished his phone call quicker than expected and gone round to enter the back way and mess with my head.

“Is there someone there? Tom?” I called out. I hoped that if there really was an intruder it might scare them away and if it was Tom it would let him know I was on to him.

For a moment I thought I heard the intruder stiffen at the sound of my voice, but then Tom walked back through the door by which he had gone. He was in the middle of saying, “Sorry that took so long, but I have another booking, and have arranged to call them back to arrange the details, so I could get back to release you. …,” when he noticed that there was someone else in the room.

There was a pause, then he said, “Oh, Hi, Milly. I wasn't expecting you quite so early. If you could visit with the animals for about five minutes, I can get Hannah back together and on her way, so we can rehearse your special bit in the show, weekend after next.” At least he was expecting the person that had entered, even if it was not quite so soon.

Instead going back out of the door by which they had entered, the intruder took a few quick steps towards Tom, so that we could now see each other. I saw a girl in school uniform. She reacted to seeing me by asking, “Mum?!?!”

With this extra clue, I was able to identify that this schoolgirl was my daughter. “Milly! What are you doing here?” My tone was accusatory, because I had been caught in what felt like a compromising position; sawn in halves, naked in the home of a man that I probably should not know. But if I was not supposed to be here, why was Milly here?

She replied, evidently as surprised to see me as I was to she her, “I've come to rehearse my feature illusion for a show that I'll be performing with Mr Wonder. You should know that; you signed the forms from school so that I could have a job.” This seemed reasonable; I had a vague recollection of signing a part-time job form from the school, but my mind had been so busy with work stuff that I did not enquire further, just glad that Milly would be doing something responsible, rather than hanging out with those other girls from school.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. She had found me where she was not expecting to see me at all; I felt that I owed her an explanation. But how do you explain being naked, in two separated parts in the home of someone the other person would have assumed would be unknown to you; at least, for now, she did not know that I had no clothes on; unless she had spotted my folded clothes on the table at the side and put two and two together.

I made some excuse about helping Tom with his magic, helped me reduce the stress I was getting from work. She immediately suggested that Tom was my lover; while not untrue, I was avoiding telling myself that potentially awkward truth.

“I didn't know you were into magic” she commented. “I thought that getting inside boxes and cupboards and other stuff was your weird thing, but I guess it kind of makes sense.”

Hooray, somewhere relatively safe to steer this conversation. “I didn't know I was into magic until I tried it. Angela recommended it to me.”

“I know that she's into magic (and a bit, Tom), because he was doing magic with her at that sleepover I came back early from a month or so back.” Was there a speck of jealousy? It's not like Angela had not mentioned that she had fucked her body with Tom's, or Tom and I were exclusive to each other. In fact the topic had never come up.

Milly's mind returned to the current situation. “How many times have you been sawn in half?”

“Well, actually, you caught me in the middle of my first time.” I blushed; how can someone living out the magician's assistant fantasy with a real magic-using magician not have been saw in half at least a few times. Actually in our situation it made perfect sense; he was tailoring his magic to my kink and being chopped into pieces was not part of that; I was still a bit shaky on why I would occasionally allow him do the sword box on me, even though the box part was easy to explain, the sword part was not.

“I've come to rehearse being sawn in half for the first time.” That explained why the sawing box had been set out. And was in no good position to object, because I was currently sawn in half myself.

Tom suggested. “Maybe I should get Hannah back together, while you go to the changing area and you should try on your new costume.”

“No need to hurry on my account,” Hannah said. Having been left alone to be in two different boxes, I was quite enjoying it. That was until the unexpected arrival of my daughter.

Tom volunteered, “I do have another box that we could use to rehearse Milly in; it'll work; I just haven't finished repainting it. That way you get to enjoy being in a pair of boxes for a while longer and to see what I plan to do to your daughter Saturday after next.” He turned to Milly and said that she should go change into the costume he had set out in the changing room. I wondered what kind of costume thought was suitable, because the only costume I had preformed in was my birthday suit and, from what I had seen on the video, Ann had fared little better, having been appeared in a dress, which was promptly cut into two pieces and she spent most of the rest of the show in the all together.

Before Milly got through the door a thought occurred to Tom. He warned and apologised that he would not have time to warm the blades, because I had got the set of blades that he had warmed and it would take too long to fully warm another set. Either he is learning to communicate more about what he is doing and planning, or he was trying to impress me that he was being careful with my daughter; either way he earned a few points.

With Milly out of the way for a short while, he wheeled my top half to the props table, telling me that I would get the best view from there. He also pointed out how much more embarrassing it would have been for me if his young assistant had been someone else's daughter. Probably more  embarrassing, true; but less of a shock.

“Where do you want me to put your legs,” he asked.

“Somewhere I can see them,” I replied.

He offered to put the by the door, which was the other side of the performance/rehearsal area. I moved my head the best I could manage for a nod, given the stock at my neck, but he got the idea. “If I'm not going to get to touch myself, my legs might as well be as far away as can be,” I rationalised out loud.

He suggested I might like him to open the side door on the leg box, but I declined, because Milly was getting too many ideas about what Tom and I were to each other and I did not want to encourage this. Before he went to find the sawing box to use on Milly, I asked that he hide my clothes. I occupied my time by looking around as best I could and marvelling at the fact the I controlled my feet despite them being further away than normal. As my gaze wandered, I spotted the condom on the sword handle and told Tom that it needed to be hidden too. He removed it once the sawing box had been wheeled into the rehearsal space. After that he busied himself with preparing the newly arrived box for use.

After that he fell to general tidying, but not for long. On some cue that I missed, he looked toward the door the Milly had gone through, as she returned. “You look as good as I had hoped. It might be lost on the kids, but the parents will appreciate it.”

I had to change where I was looking to see who he was talking to. Milly stood there. Her costume was rather generic; a dark blue leotard with a mid thigh length skirt. It did note the added cup-size, which had to be the garment rather a bra underneath, because Milly does not have any strapless bras and I doubt Tom would have been thoughtful enough to have got her one. The enhancement may have been added to by the tightness about the abdomen slimming her waist by a little. Neither of these effects were too much; just made a little more of Milly's assets. Despite this she seemed a little self-conscious about the costume, almost as if there was something missing, rather than it being skimpier than her beach wear; which it most certainly wasn't. I took the chance to boost her confidence. “You look gorgeous, love.”

Tom was immediately down to business. He was opening the lids of the sawing box while he said, “Let's see if we can spread that beauty further,” then he invited Milly to get into the box.

Milly went over to look in the box. From my angle there did not seem to be anything. She saw something because instead of sitting in the end and scooting back, she diverted to the props table and picked up a cloth to use as a duster: good job that I had had Tom move my clothes. She dusted the inside of the box, but it was clear to me that she was not only moving the dust out, but also feeling for the evidence of the illusionists' art and artifice; she came up disappointed. She dumped the duster on the lip of the origami table, then asked which end was which. A fair question as there did not seem to be the evidence from the bottoms of stocks in the ends; the end that I could see had low profile guides in, which went down to the table.

Tom burbled something about this being a bit different hence his lack of hurry to fully refurbish this one. He seemed to think that fitting the stocks to the assistant and then the stocks into the box was a novel thing to do; sometimes he is so vanilla.

Milly considered which end to make the foot end, she chose the nearest and sat into it. She made a move to scoot back, but Tom stopped her, picking up a piece of wood that he had transferred onto a shelf under the table while he was preparing the box. The stocks that he briefly showed were made of wood the width and depth of the end of the box, hinged at one end and with a pair of cut-outs between the inner edges to accommodate a pair of ankles. I noted some fabric padding inside the cut-outs, before he was kneeling to fit them around my daughter's ankles. Once they were on, I spotted Milly pointing her toes, presumbly to see how secure they were about her ankles; her ankles might not be particularly knobbly, but the knobs were not going to fit through the holes.

There was some manoeuvring as Tom helped Milly shift back in the box so that he could slot the stocks into the end of the box and clip them into place. He then closed the lid; Milly had to hurriedly leaned back, because she had been leaning forward to check out the stock securing her ankles. A suspicious look crossed her face, as if Tom was trying to conceal what was happening, rather than just getting on with the preparations to saw her in half.

Tom picked up another stock the same size as the previous one, this one had a neck-hole and two wrist holes. Milly soon had her wrists trapped beside her neck and was helped to lower herself so that the stock lined up with the slots at the other end of the box. The lid was closed and latched shortly after.

The blades were picked up and clashed near Milly's head; I could see enough to tell that she flinched. One of the blades he dumped on the lid over her legs and Tom moved to insert the other one. “Hey, wait a moment,” Milly objected, “Aren't you supposed to be SAWING me in half?”

He told her that most of the time he would be just inserting the blades, to avoid the act giving the kids nightmares. Then he shoved the blade in his hand into the gap between the two halves of the box; the only warning being a comment that the blade might feel a bit cold. Milly made a surprised noise and appeared to shiver briefly. The second blade followed just as quickly.

“Did you just put in the blades that quickly?” Milly asked. “You didn't give me a chance to move out of the way, so they must be tricked or something.” He replied with nothing but a confirming nod.

I was beginning to sense that Milly did not really believe in magic and thought that this was all a bunch of tricks.

“What happened to the pull on the head thing?” she asked.

He told her that the kids love that kind of stuff, but this evening was about getting the basics down and that they would work on the polish at their next rehearsal. “Are you ready to be divided?” he asked.

“I don't think so,” she said, then mentioning that she could still feel her feet and the foot stocks around her ankles. She then told Tom that she could feel the blades and that she did not believe that they were through her.

Being in a very similar position (cut in two pieces), I assured her that they had gone right through her.

Tom leaned over the box to release the catch nearest to the notional audience, then challenged Milly to explain the fact that he separated the two sections of the table with the boxes on top and stepped into the gap that he had created. Milly moved her hand to get a better view of what had happened in the studio mirror.

“How does that feel?” he asked. I think my instruction on consideration and consent was getting through.

She moaned in a minor way about the coldness of the blades and that she could not work out what the movement she had experienced had been, because it had not lasted long enough. She then asked what she was supposed to feel.

Tom mentioned that his previous sawees had not hung around to tell him what it felt like, before noting that I seemed to be more than ok with my situation. He moved on to asking if she would be alright with her current level of discomfort, if the blades were warm, so that he could invite kids up to check what he had done to her. He also suggested and alternative way of convincing the audience that she was in two pieces; light tickling. He demonstrated at this point what he meant, by running a thumb up the flexible sole of the slippers she was wearing. Milly's feet squirmed to avoid the touch.

“That's perfect.” he said. “If you can stand that and maybe let out a giggle at the same time, that'll let the kids know that you're not having a bad time.”

Milly expressed some doubt if she could giggle convincingly on demand and Tom said that was something that they could work on.

Tom spent a little time thinking, then said, “So, what shall we do now?”

“I assumed you had a plan for this evening,” said Milly. “Why don't we just carry on with that plan?”

“I had a plan, but that only involved you, Milly. But, now, I have two lovely ladies sawn in two, perhaps that might change what I have the chance to do.”

Uh Oh! That sounded like that illusion where the legs of two assistants get swapped, I combined that with the knowledge that Tom could do real magic, not just illusion, and a vague memory of Milly telling me that he had done the same sort of thing at the sleepover that she had attended and Angela mentioning a bodyswap with Tom at the same event. 'He's thinking of switching our legs!' I thought.

“No, you're not doing that!” I stated as firmly as I possibly could; not that I was in a physical position to make my demand stick. I needed some time to process being in boxes spread across the room, before I took further steps towards the more extreme experiences that Tom's Magic had to offer. Angela had told me that she had found being bodyswapped with Tom to be quite a pleasant experience, so I did not want to cut off the chance that I might get try it out sometime, but not today.

I said as much, but possibly not as clearly, because Milly asked what I was talking out about, so I clarified for her that Tom was talking about swapping our legs.

She reacted with “OH! The double sawing in half! Isn't that just a costume trick?” It seemed that she was still stubbornly ignoring the fact that she was divided in two.

Tom cited recombining a couple girls called Andrea and Heather and his bodyswap with Angela as examples of him doing the kind of stuff that he was proposing to do to us. Milly admitted that she had no idea how it was achieved, but stuck to her guns about the costume she was wearing not having the hidden parts to make the costume change possible. Tom made up some excuse about the boxes not being compatible for such a thing to happen; hence it being among the boxes awaiting restoration.

I tried to make it clear with my expression that I disapproved of being put through the fear that he might reveal my nakedness to my daughter by attaching my lower half to her, only to have it revealed that it was not possible anyway. Milly looked a bit smug, as if Tom's not doing it confirmed her idea that the magic was not real.

Tom brought my legs back to my side of the room, then restored Milly. He sent her to change back out of her costume, while he restored me.

“Would you really have swapped our legs, if I hadn't objected?” I asked, once I was back in one piece and standing on my own bare feet.

He parked the two tables together; demonstrating that there was indeed a height difference of about two inches between the tables. “If you had both consented, I think I would have found a way. But with you being a 'not now' and Milly being in denial of the reality of magic, it would not have been right, right?”

“Ok, maybe I'll get the chance to try it with Angela, sometime; I think she might be up for it,” I suggested.

He said that if I got Angela to come to one of our 'rehearsals' it was a possibility, given enough notice for him to find a pair of boxes that matched properly.

I moved on to asking where my clothes were; I wanted to be at least dressed, or, better still, gone when Milly got back for the rest of her rehearsal. I remembered that he had hidden them in a box earlier, but could not recall which one. Instead of pointing which box, he laid a hoop with cloth attached on the floor and invited me to step inside. When I did, he lifted the hoop to about head height and the dropped it. I was dressed; don't ask me how.

Our rehearsal had had the desired effect; I felt more relaxed and ready to face the work of re-doing the presentation to meet the clients concerns. Then a thought occurred to me.

“Oh, crap! In my hurry to get here, I left my laptop at the office. I'm going to have to collect it. And if I'm going back to the office, I might as well do whatever work I'm going to get done this evening there, because I'll have easier access to the information I need. Let Milly know that I'll probably be late home tonight,” I said, before rushing off for an evening at the office.

----------

When I got home, I found Milly at the computer watching a video of some magician doing something with a stick with pom-poms on different length strings at each end and following along with something that looked very similar. I asked if she had eaten and got told that Tom had ordered pizza; not ideal, but better than her not eating.

She asked how my evening at the office had gone. I was glad to tell her that I had made a breakthrough that might end up improving the project and making us more money. I did not tell Milly, but I think it was having a bit of down time with Tom let me take a step back to see the bigger picture. I also did not want to make things feel awkward by having her ask about what Tom and me got up to at our rehearsals.