I try not to yawn.  It's not that it isn't a fine show, and a display of well-honed talent, both mystical and mundane...I just don't really care for magic as entertainment.  I applaud when everyone else does, no sense in insulting anyone.

That seems ironic, but it isn't (and not for the tired, pedantic, complainy reason which is technically true but never helpful).  It's that magic is practical for me.  A tool that has many uses, only the first of which was lifting me out of squalor.  I get why it largely has the form it does now, it's very convenient for the modern era.  But it's still kind of lame.  At best, it's like watching the shopping channel on cable...getting a close look at things I might or might not decide to buy.

At least Stanza seems to be enjoying herself, but then she has the anticipation of participating to keep her going.  Any invites or contracts here have been long since worked out, there's no way for me to get on stage.

Of course, hopefully I won't need to...though I'm still a bit unsure about the 'cant from Jock.  I used Google Translate on it, obviously, but it's not too hot with Koine, even in reverse.  The broad strokes seemed solid, though.  And while I don't trust Jacques exactly, I do feel like I can count on him.  If that sounds contradictory, I envy the life you've led, free of such subtle distinctions.

Maybe I'm just nervous about the idea itself.  I've never tried this before, never heard of anyone trying it, piggybacking on someone else's Invite.  Maybe I'm just the first person to think of it.  Or maybe everyone else knows it's so obviously dumb that no one thinks to mention it.  It's too late now, anyway.

I occupy myself by trying to think of what I'll do if my plan is discovered and...disapproved of.  Running won't help if I leave Stanzie...as my Apprentice she's got a traceable link to me, plus there's the Binding and the bootlegging incant on top of that.  I could just command her to Vanish and then run, but there's no telling who might pick her up, and any good set of terms I gave her to use would take too long and be overheard anyway, making it pointless.  None of this is making me feel less nervous.

When Stanzie finally catches a rose, the enthusiasm of my applause is largely out of relief.  I can't help smiling at her expression, though.  If this is going to go bad, it probably won't be bad for her.  For me...at least I won't have to worry about it any longer.  Though as it happens, I find other things to worry about.

The rose in her hand jerks rigidly into a fixed position, and I feel something imprint on me.  I stifle a sigh of relief.  Good old Jacques.  But I also get a bit dizzy and my vision goes wobbly, which is not at all a good sign.  I blink repeatedly, trying to clear things up, but it doesn't help.  I instinctively clutch the armrests of my seat when I feel myself fly into the air, but my eyes are giving me a confusing mix of my own lap and the floor, plus a view of the audience from high above.

I close my eyes, and what's happening finally becomes clear, as I can still see, but how I move my head doesn't change the view, and my dress is white...I'm seeing through Stanza's eyes, feeling what she feels.

God dammit, Jock.

I manage to convince my hands to let go of the armrests and put my face into them, covering my eyes to more fully block out the light, and try to relax.  Maybe this was the only way he could get it to work?  Still, he might've warned me.  But at least it is working.  I can feel she's got a serious Gravity Block, which is way better than a simple Levitation, and it imprinted on me just as it did her.

I explore the sensations I'm getting...it seems like purely kinesthetic stuff is coming through.  I can feel my...her heart racing, the feel of her dress trapped between her thighs.  The music and applause sounds a bit weird as she gets further and further from where I am, there's a subtle reverb to everything.  But I'm not getting her thoughts or emotions, just the echoes of them on her body. I can tell she's less tense now, but still excited.

They banter, and she nearly blurts out her Truename.  I'd give her a stern look if I wasn't covering my eyes, but I can see that she's not looking in my direction anyway.  I wish I could see properly from my own position, but I don't have any way to block the view from Stanzie.  Still, I laugh at her joke, and the amused surprise on the magician's face.

"Fair enough," he says, once he pulls himself together.  He turns to address the audience.  "I'm going to let you in on a secret.  All my illusions follow the same formula...I start with something simple, classic, and then I give it a twist.  Call me lazy, but I think you'll agree it gets results, yeah?"  He nods at the scattered applause.  "So, in that vein..."  Music begins playing, instantly recognizable as "Let's Twist Again".  The audience begins to clap along, and the magician begins the dance, encouraging me...her to do likewise.

I sigh.  Not terribly useful, this one, but I'll take what I can get.  At the least, I'll be largely immune to a broken neck and a lot of other spinal trauma.

Once Stanzie has started an awkward, minimalist twist, the magician bounds back into the wings, quickly returning with the illusion frame rolling before him, a small platform with a large box on it, suspended on four legs, with a smaller box on top, open in the front and back.  He opens two doors in the front of the large box, showing it empty, then extends a hand to my Apprentice, guiding her into the box, and using his free hand to bow her head.

I feel her back in, then raise her head back up through a hole in the top of the large box.  My...oh, whatever...our view is blocked by the sides of the small box, but he's doing something to the side, and then I feel a soft pressure on either side of our face, growing until it's firm enough we can't move our head at all.  He leans in front of the box and gives us a questioning look and a thumb's-up gesture.  We raise our hands, our expression bemused, as if to say, "Yeah, aside from my ears being squished, I'm super."  Light laughter from the audience.

He does something else above our head, and the box forces it to turn slightly, right, then left, then back right, but further.  I feel our neck strain, but he's turning the box very quickly, and there's a sudden tingle and "pop".  I see the back of the stage, then the magician, his arm extended to the crank I can't see above me, then finally the audience again.  We make a surprised face, though I am not terribly surprised and I doubt Stanzie is either.  But we reach up, tracing our fingers over the slightly twisted skin of our neck, and our heart races a bit.  The audience applauds a bit, then goes back to clapping with the music.

"Hey, it's all right...it's just a trick, you know?" comes a whisper from my left, and I feel a hand pat my shoulder.  I'm confused for a moment until I realize it must be anniversary-woman, and remember that my real body has been hiding her face in her hands for some time now.

"Oooh, just tell me when it's over," I whisper in mock-horror, keeping my face hidden.

Meanwhile, the magician moves in front of us and closes the front doors, then back to the side.  Immediately our head is forced to turn right again, around and around and around.  The strange pressure around our neck quickly spreads downwards, and I can feel our body twisting against itself in unfamiliar ways.  Our legs are pulled together as it reaches our thighs, and we totter a little, trying to keep our balance, but our lower legs are largely supported by the pull from above...in fact we have to push down a bit to keep our feet from moving.  I can feel our dress inching up our legs as it twists as well, until it seems bunched unevenly on one side, near our knees.

The magician again crosses in front of us, opening the doors.  We wiggle our fingers, only half-extending from within the twisted column that is most of our body.  Moderate applause from the audience...this one is old hat for them.  He makes a cutting gesture in front of his throat, and the music stops in mid-bop.  He retrieves the microphone from his jacket pocket.

"So...how's that feel?" he asks, then holds the microphone up to our face.

"Uh...pretty weird!" we say.  It takes a concerted effort to avoid answering with my real mouth as well.  The audience laughs a bit.

"I believe it," he says.  He reaches in and holds a few of my fingers, "shaking" my hand, to more laughter, then closes the doors on the front of the box.  The magician moves out of my view again, and I feel the small box around my face move slightly, but he doesn't begin reversing the twists.

"Anyone remember rubber-band airplanes?" he asks the audience.  "Stanzie, go ahead and try lifting your feet up."  This is a bit off script, but I feel us bending our knees.  As soon as our shoes leave the platform, I feel the pressure on our body rapidly lift upwards, and it feels like our feet are heavier.  I raise my head and cautiously uncover one eye.  It's still hard to sort out the two different views, but it looks like Stanzie's legs are spinning like an ice-skater's as she unwinds from the bottom up.  Both my face and our face are quite surprised.

Our shoes lower as they spin, and scrape the platform a bit on the last turn.  We wince a bit, and tense up, though I don't feel any pain.  I don't have time to try to figure that out, though, as I'm distracted by the burst of pure ecstasy we feel when our body returns to normal.

I let out an involuntary gasp, and might've made even more awkward sounds, but I bite my lip hard to stop it.  It's mostly drowned out by the loud applause from the audience, but I feel a comforting pat on my shoulder again.  If the stupid woman says anything, I don't hear it.

So that's what it feels like for her...good lord.  But even having experienced it, I can't explain it...it's never been that way for me, and I've never even heard of anyone else hinting at it.  Maybe, given what it feels like, they're just...embarrassed?  I certainly would be...

The magician helps us out of the box and makes a gesture, urging us to bow.  We straighten our shoulders and drop into a curtsy instead, and laughter mixes in with the applause.

"I guess you guys liked the extra twist, huh?"  Mild cheering and more applause.  "Well, we're just getting started!  Are you up for more?"  This last is directed at us, as much as the audience, which applauds encouragingly.

"Do I have a choice?" we ask, our voice a little shaky.

"Always...even if the rose picked you out, you're still a volunteer...but you don't want to disappoint these fine folks, do you?  Come on, people, give it up for Stanza!"  The audience cooperatively doubles-down on its applause.

"Fine...twist my arm, why don't you..." we say.  Loud laughter.  She's really a natural, the audience is eating this stuff up.  If my real body was on stage, I wouldn't be able to resist hugging her at that moment.  Though analyzing that impulse feels a bit awkward, so I resolve to ignore it.  I uncover my eyes again and slowly raise my head.  It's not so bad if neither of us is moving, I can mostly make sense of what I'm seeing now.  From off-stage, he's fetched a ring about three feet across, with cloth bunched up around it, and placed it on the stage.  He makes a gesture towards it.

"First we need a little wardrobe adjustment.  Step inside, please?"  We look at him a bit suspiciously, but do as he asks, standing in the center of the ring.  "Could you lift your dress?  Just a little!" he adds hastily.  We laugh, then gather fabric at our thighs, pulling the hem up until our shoes are visible.  "Perfect."  He turns to the audience.  "First floor, ladies' footwear and hosiery," he sing-songs, then lifts the ring just a couple feet, the cloth blocking the audience's view, then quickly drops it.

I feel a thump on our heels and we stumble a bit.  We look down, and we're now standing in pale blue ballet shoes...there's no sign of the silver heels.  Plus, the nude nylons seem to have become white...and from the different feel on our legs, dance tights.  Applause.

"Continuing upward...second floor, ladies' activewear."  Again he raises and drops the ring, all the way up this time.  In a second, our dress blurs and clings tighter, and when the ring falls, we're somehow wearing a pale blue leotard, shiny, with a matching tutu.  We openly gape, brushing a hand over the smooth fabric.  I can feel our cheeks heating, and we look up at the audience, our eyes wide, one hand over our mouth, laughing nervously.

"It's ok, it's ok, stay with me!" the magician insists, lightly holding our elbow.  "Doesn't she look great, folks?"  The audience again backs him up with applause and cheers, some hooting.  Watching from the outside, Stanzie is clearly a little embarrassed, but also smiling sweetly at the attention.  But after a moment, I feel our heart start to race, and a tension in our stomach.

"Third floor...accessories and makeup," the magician continues, once more lifting and dropping the ring.  We can't see any change this time, though I feel an odd pressure at our back and twist slightly, trying to reach an arm back there.  From my seat, I can see that Stanzie now has doll-like makeup, complete with red cheek-circles.  Her curled hair has become even more so, elaborate blonde ringlets in pigtails, tied with pale blue ribbons.  Finally, there's a large brass-colored wind-up key sticking out of the middle of her back.  The audience is laughing and clapping, and we give them a confused look, which prompts more laughter.

The magician gently pulls our shoulders so we're facing sideways, towards him, and gives us an intense look.

"Now I just want you to look into my eyes, only my eyes, and listen to my voice..." he begins, in an unnaturally even tone.  Several horrible realizations quickly pile onto me, one after another.

He's trying to mesmerize her.

The only good reason to do that would be because he's going to do something that might hurt otherwise, and that means he's going to do an effect he's designed, rather than imprinted.

The mez probably isn't going to work, because I've already Bound her will.

When it doesn't work, he might be able to figure out why.  And it'll derail the whole performance, so he'll be personally pissed on top of that.  Plus, while Stanza might not be injured, she'd definitely feel a bunch of pain, possibly quite a lot depending on what the effect is.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit...

I think frantically, trying to come up with a plan to fix the situation.  I could release the Binding right now, but she needs to hear me, I'd have to shout it, and then every Revealed here would realize what I'd done.  I'd already decided to live with the consequences if Stanza decided to turn me in after I released her, and that was one thing, but it seemed like quite another to just confess in public.  I couldn't risk it.  Maybe I could try to whip something up in off-the-cuff Latin, but if there's another Sorceress in earshot, same problem...

I stand and begin moving fumblingly towards the nearest aisle, whispering curt apologies to the people I'm squeezing past.  I speed up as much as I can when I get in the open, but that's not much, as I'm still hampered by my dual perceptions, my view overlapped by the magician's face and eyes.  A few people look curiously at me, but I probably just look drunk, or sick.  I somehow manage to make my way to the ladies' room without falling over or bumping into too many things, and dive into a stall, latching the door and sitting.

So, I need something to mimic mesmerization, something that I can transmit at a distance..."cogitationes", maybe, and-

My desperate efforts to compose something are derailed when, through Stanza, I hear the magician whisper something in Latin.  I feel my Apprentice's breathing become regular, and she grows quite still.

"Thank God," I say, leaning forward with my forehead on my hands, elbows propped on my knees.  Apparently he could tell the mesmerize wasn't working, and he was able to come up with something custom that worked around the problem, though I didn't recognize it.  I do my best to tune out the sensations from Stanza, concentrating instead on returning my breathing and heart rate to normal.  I was definitely panicking there for a minute, and I don't feel very impressed with myself.

It takes several minutes, but I eventually manage to calm myself down.  Only when I've started paying attention to my dual senses again, do I have one last horrifying realization.  The Latin he used for his workaround, it was generic in bypassing existing enchantments...and I'd felt no telltale tingle of it being shared with me as well.

I don't really have time to panic before I'm battered by a paralyzing pain in my left wrist, and then all I can do is desperately try to muffle my own tortured screams as they rise in time with each new level of impossibly increasing agony.