“And… am I right in thinking the witches are women and the mages are men?”
“Sort of, but not exactly. They’re actually entirely different species. In the witches’ species, there are both men and women, but only the women can use magic. For the mages, it’s a little different. They’re generally referred to as men, but they’re actually non-gendered. They reproduce by essentially cloning themselves.”
“So I could meet literally anyone walking down the street, and they could actually be a Chalandrian wearing a magical necklace, and I would never know the difference.”
“That’s basically true, yes.” He considered when would be a good time to impress upon her the dire need to keep that a secret, but decided to give her a little more time for the shock to wear off first. “So what do you think?” he asked, trying to make the situation a little lighter. He held out his arms and glanced down at himself again. “Do I pass muster as a human?”
Lynette’s face turned a little redder. “Oh, um… Uh…”
“Do you have a mirror I could use?” he asked, needing to see for himself. One possible long-term plan would be to get obsidian jewels for all of his men – and figure out how to protect the vreki some other way – but first, he needed to know that he could actually pass as a human. And so far, Lynette’s reaction had not been encouraging.
“Um… yeah. There’s one in the bedroom.”
Lynette got up, stumbling slightly as she tried to walk sideways so as not to take her eyes off him. Koradan stood up and picked up the lantern from the table, then followed her to her bedroom. There was a large mirror on a stand in one corner, and he set the lantern on the nightstand, taking a long, hard look at himself. He was a few inches shorter than he had been as a salas – presumably to fit in more with expected human heights. His hair was black, as was the stubble darkening his chin. But aside from that, he seemed remarkably similar to the other men in the village. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt, and he made a mental note to talk to Lynette about that in the near future. He wasn’t sure the village would have anything large enough to fit his men, but sooner or later – and whether they were disguised as humans or not – they would need new clothing.
But that could wait until Lynette wasn’t paralysed with shock. “Are you all right?” he asked her. She was standing by the door, still staring at him.
The question seemed to finally snap her out of her daze. “Yes. Sorry. Um… that came as quite a surprise. But I’m fine. How are you? How does it feel to be a human?”
He glanced down at himself again. “A little strange. But I’m more interested in how I look. If you didn’t know I wasn’t human, would you notice anything unusual?”
Lynette’s eyes travelled down his body, and she swallowed hard.
“Tell me the truth,” Koradan said. “This jewel wasn’t designed for me, so there’s a chance the magic didn’t work properly. And if it didn’t, then I need to know. You don’t need to worry about offending me.” He gave her a wry look. “I’ve got used to being a very ugly salas. I can deal with the news that I’m an ugly human.”
Lynette made a choking sound. “You’re considered ugly as a salas?” she said in surprise. “I hadn’t realised. You’re actually the least ugly of the five of you, as far as human standards go. Sorry, I don’t mean that the way it probably sounds,” she corrected herself a moment later. “I’m not trying to say you’re ugly. I’m just…”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m not taking any offence. We have different standards of aesthetics. And I don’t expect you to understand salas culture. But I do need to know where I stand as a human.”
“You’re… um…” Lynette came to stand beside him, looking into the mirror with him. “You’re… perfectly human. No one would think you were anything else.”
The news came as a relief. And as he stood there staring at himself, he noticed that he actually recognised himself a little. His nose was the same shape and size. His hair was the same length and colour, with his hairline traveling in the same straight line across his forehead. His mouth was largely the same, though when he drew back his lips, he noticed that his sharp upper canines were smaller and blunter. It was not an unpleasant face, all things considered.
He was so caught up in staring at his reflection that he didn’t hear the footsteps approaching outside the house. There was a sharp knock at the door, and he recognised Morgan’s voice as she called Lynette’s name, but then, before either of them could react, Morgan flung the front door open and burst inside. Seeing the light in the bedroom, she charged in that direction. “Lynette, Fen’s foot is absolutely killing him. Sorry to just barge in…” Morgan pulled to a sudden stop, her words trailing off as she got a look at Koradan, still in his human form.
“Who is that?” she asked, her eyes darting sideways to glance at Lynette before settling on Koradan again.
“Uh… this is Koradan,” Lynette said, before Koradan could tell her not to say anything. “There’s, um… He made a spell. And it made him look like a human.”
Morgan stood there, as shocked as Lynette had been for a good few seconds. Then she said, “Holy shit…” on a breathy sigh. “Gods damn, Koradan… You make one fine looking human!”
Koradan’s eyebrows rose – his new, human eyebrows, slightly thicker and bushier than his salas ones. “Really?”
Morgan lifted a hand and fanned herself with it. “Spirits alive, if I wasn’t already married…”
Koradan felt an entirely unfamiliar warmth spread through him. Sigmore had always been the one on the receiving end of female attention – a fact that Koradan had tried hard not to be jealous of. Melowin had garnered his share of it with his outgoing personality and amiable nature. But even as a young man, Koradan had been hard pressed to gain the attention of even the female servants who cleaned the palace and swept the floor, and as he’d got older, even the few brief dalliances he’d managed to have had dried up. Certainly, no woman had ever looked at him the way Morgan was looking at him now.
“You can’t tell anyone about this,” Lynette blurted out, before Koradan could get his brain in gear to tell Morgan the same thing. “If anyone found out…” Lynette suddenly turned to Koradan. “There are Chalandrians hiding in plain sight all over the world, aren’t there?”
“Probably,” Koradan admitted. “I don’t know any first hand,” he said honestly. “But there have to be some around.”
“If any soldiers or people like Ann found out about this, they’d start hunting them down and murdering them,” Lynette told Morgan. “So you can’t say a thing. Not even to Fen.”
Morgan’s face paled. “Ann wouldn’t… Do you really think she’d…? Well, yeah, I see your point,” she said, rambling a little as the ideas played over in her mind. “Um… Yes, okay.” She looked at Koradan. “My lips are sealed. Absolutely. How did you do this, though? And why didn’t you do it the first night we met you?”
Koradan held up the gem on the end of the necklace. “Magical gemstone,” he said succinctly. “Lynette had one tucked away in her husband’s old things, though she didn’t realise what it was until now.”
“Wow,” Morgan breathed.
