Most people don't realize how hard magic is.
They think it's all about waving a hand or a wand, muttering something, and then watching in awe as something cool happens.
In reality, magic is hard. It was a lot more mental effort than I was ever led to believe, and oftentimes it was easier to just walk over and light the candle than to come up with the spell to do it from your chair without accidentally setting your carpet on fire.
Of course, it didn't help that I decided to specialize in magic healing. That meant dealing with lots of plants, and anything alive was infinitely more complicated than anything else in the magical realm.
So, there I was, staring at what essentially was the magical equivalent of a thorny cactus. I was in one of the magical wards in the school that kept magic from wandering out and provided some basic protection from mistakes. It was also closed off from the main hallway with a magical lock that only the occupant could unlock.
The task was to extract liquid from inside the plant without destroying the plant itself. Oh, and I couldn't touch it, either, because the outside was poisonous. Or was it venomous? A toxin? My brain was too fried to think about it. Anyways, the point is, one touch would paralyze someone for hours.
Essentially, the problem was that the plant was too small for me to manipulate magically with the finesse that I needed to open it up, extract what I needed, and then repair the damage.
I needed to make it bigger, I realized. I rummaged through my textbooks. I'm sure there was a spell that could--
There! It was a pretty standard spell, really. Okay, yes, there is some magic that just requires you to wave a hand, mumble something, and then watch in awe.
The incantation required repeating it multiple times over several minutes, but it wasn't difficult. As I started to mutter the incantation and fall into a mindless drawl, my mind wandered to the homework assignment I had in another class.
The cactus exploded. I shrieked as thorny vines sprang out from the plant. Limbs wrapped around my leg, and I felt a slight tingle as it fell numb. I fell to my knees. The plant continued to grow, wrapping itself around my arms and crawling up my skirt, pulling my legs apart. I groaned as one of the vines wrapped around my chest and breasts. The tingling sensation continued to crawl up my body until everything underneath my neck was completely paralyzed.
The poison or toxin or whatever it was didn't affect one's ability to breathe, which was fortunate, but I could still feel my breathing grow more ragged. I hated not being able to move because it made me feel so claustrophobic. I was in trouble. It could take days for my body to acclimate to the poison and free itself of paralysis. And even if I could use my limbs, the plant was wrapped so tightly around me it would be difficult to pull them off me.
"Sylvie? Are you okay?"
I yelped, surprised at the sound of someone outside. "Oliver? Is that you?" Relief. Oliver was one of the best wizards I knew. He would get me out of this.
"Yeah, I heard you scream. Are you okay?"
"Sort of. Not really." I released the spell on the door. Oliver walked in, his eyes wide at my predicament. I felt myself blush. This was really embarrassing to be so prone in front of him.
"What happened?"
"Growth spell went wrong."
"Let me see..." he reached to pull on the plant.
"Wait!" I said. "It's venomous...or something. It paralyzes you."
"Poisonous is what you're looking for," he said. "That does make things tricky." He paused for a moment, thinking. "There's one thing I can think of, but--"
"Great! Just get me out of this!" I said.
"Wait," he said. "It's not that simple. I could conjure up magical fire. It's a contained fire that burns everything except for the skin. It would burn the plant off you."
"What's not simple about that?"
"Well, it would burn off everything. Meaning your clothes, too. And you would still be paralyzed."
What he was saying sunk in. He could free me, but I would be completely naked and unable to cover myself at all.
His eyes flicked up and down my body, and I felt myself blush. Some of the thorns had run up my shirt and even down my skirt, and while the enlarged plant covered most of me, there was still a good amount of skin showing. Realizing what he was doing, he shook his head. "Bad idea. Let me think--"
"Do it."
He looked at me, a little worried. "You sure? Maybe a professor--"
I shook my head. The thought of one of my professors seeing me naked was even more horrifying. I was already struggling in classes, and I didn't want to give them another reason to doubt my ability. "I just want to get out of this as soon as possible. There are worse things than being seen naked."
"Okay..." He raised his wand and started to produce the spell. Fire trickled out of his wand and wrapped itself around me. The plant started to fray and disintegrate, and even though I couldn't move my limbs, I felt the pressure release and my own breathing settle.
Then the fire began to chew at my clothes. It burned through them much more quickly than the plant, and the sensation of the fire on my skin without burning it felt odd.
The fire retreated in Oliver's wand, and suddenly I was there, naked, in front of him. He was trying so hard not to look, it was kind of adorable, but his eyes definitely glanced at my chest and pelvis once or twice. The vines had forced my legs apart before they had been paralyzed, which meant that Oliver could see everything.
My muscles strained to move my arms to cover myself, but, of course, my body was paralyzed to do anything. Even if I could move my body, I wasn't sure if I would've been in the right state of mind to cover myself. Part of me kind of liked the attention Oliver was giving me and my body, and my paralysis was enough to give me an excuse to being in such a position where he could admire me.
Oliver coughed, catching himself staring at me again. "The poison is another problem," he said, moving his hands to my shoulders to hold me upright. With him only a few inches from me, I felt so exposed. Oliver would never do anything, but it was still humiliating and so embarrassing. "Your body is going to be paralyzed for a while until we can get it out of your system. There is one way that would be faster, but..."
"How do we do that?"
He blushed. I wasn't sure if he or I were more embarrassed about the whole thing. "Well...There's a potion--a lotion, really--I could make...but I would need to rub all over you fairly quickly. Every inch, even if it wasn't touched by the plant, or the poison could linger and spread. It could be...awkward. You would still be paralyzed, but only for about fifteen minutes instead of several hours."
What he said ran through my head. He could apply it, but he would have to do it faster than the paralysis could wear off, so he would be doing the whole thing himself. "You can't use magic to apply it?"
