Inky Mischief 4

Time became meaningless.  Time in my silky nest soon passed without marking, my mind sleeping without stimulation.  Time in my lovers’ hands was just as impossible to judge, for the opposite reason.

Without warning, I had a body once more.  It took me a long time to realize that it was my own body, correct in every detail save one.  There was a glowing mark just below my bellybutton, a Z in a circle.

I moved to touch it, but my hand was batted away.  “Not yet, give yourself some time to be human.”

My puzzlement must have been written across my face, as she explained that they had eventually read the pen’s ‘manual’ – a simple slip of paper.  The mark glowing on me was the glyph of restoration, and it worked both ways, touching it again would return me to the form I’d become used to.

“Does it work if anyone touches it?” I asked, curiously.

She nodded, grinning hugely.  “The pen can erase the mark.  Shall I?”

I shook my head.  “What else can it do?”

“It can also duplicate, turning you into a copy of whoever or whatever touches the glyph.”

I thought about that, and about certain inconsistencies in how she’d been acting.  “Oh my... you’re Kory!  Where is she?”

With infinite sadness Kory-in-my-love’s-body said, “It also erases.”