Old World Magic

Chapter 5 -- Rinascita

There were no visions this time, no dreams. I didn't travel to a far off realm to relive past sexual exploits. There was simply nothing. There wasn't even the empty nothingness that I had felt, because at least I had been aware of that. No, I simply felt my life fade out, fade to black.

Then in the next moment, I was startling. A strong smell filled my nose and made me try to pull my head away. Ammonia and something else... minty... plant like... eucalyptus maybe? I opened my eyes and saw Renia's Japanese face floating above me. I blinked, confused. The light in the room was completely different than it had been earlier. It had been late morning earlier, but it was dark in the room now, late afternoon I'd guess?

"Whuuuu," I started to say trying to push myself up to a sitting position.

"No no no," she said pressing a hand against my chest, my naked chest I noted. "Lay still. The propofol is out of your system by now, but you need to go slow to get used to the changes to your body." Then she stood up and moved away. She was fully clothed again I noted.

But I wasn't. I could feel cool air across my body. I could feel the carpet beneath my back. I could wiggle my toes and feel that they were unencumbered. I could feel... I shivered...I could feel that I was colder than I had been earlier. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked down at my body. No, this wasn't my body. My body was that of an older man, a man approaching 40. My body was one of American excess, too much salt, too much beer, too much fat and fast food. I was looking through eyes at a body that wasn't mine.

Renia helped me stand and I moved slowly, not trusting the feeling of reserved, bunched, wound up energy in my muscles. My limbs felt like they were ready to explode into action, ready to run a mile or lift weights, or play sports. My eyesight too had changed. I was getting farsighted in my old age, and knew that I would have had blurry vision at things this close, within an arms reach, but everything was crystal clear, perfect. She stood me and moved me to a cabinet in her office. I marveled at the grace and balance the muscular legs had as they carried me the few steps. She opened the cabinet and I saw a full length mirror mounted to the back of the door, clothing inside the cabinet.

I couldn't help but gasp as I looked at the image in the mirror. Truly I understood now, the man in the mirror was not Michael Gray. My body had been transformed. I looked to be about the same height, around 6 feet, but it was hard to tell. Normally you compared height against your own eyeline, but if mine had changed, how could I compare my own new body against it? My new body was lean and muscular almost to the point of obscenity. I had rippling muscles that stood out, defined, on almost all my body. I felt a hand run across the six pack abs and down to the muscular V below. Then there, hanging between my muscular thighs, an impressive looking cock. Hairless and thick, even though flaccid, it was almost a handful while soft. It was pillowed atop a full, healthy nut sack, also hairless. I realized then that there wasn't a single hair on my body. I looked up at my head and ran a hand across the bald skin from brow all the way back to my neck. Then I realized, I did not even have eyebrows or eyelashes.

I turned to Renia, "I have no eyebrows?" One brow ridge went up in a questioning gesture, and I'm sure it looked silly with no eyebrow there to define it.

Renia smiled mischievously, "You said when you were fucking me that you didn't like hair."

I shook my head, "I never said that, I only thought it."

Renia pursed her lips, "Well you thought it loud enough that I heard it."

"You can't leave me without any hair!" I moaned, "I need to fit in."

Renia sighed, "Oh, all right. Hold very still." Then reaching up she drew her thumbs along my brow line and eyes. Then I bent slightly and she rubbed her hands along my head. I felt a slight warmness, but no change. I looked at her questioning. "It will grow in now. Unlike the rest of your body."

I turned back to the mirror and saw my completely hairless cock swing slightly as I turned. Never having to 'manscape' again? No hairy feet or arms? I could live with that."

I spent at least ten minutes looking at my new body. The biggest change, to me at least, was the face. While my body may have been good enough to land me a male modeling career, I couldn't quite say the same for my face. It was ruggedly handsome in a way, but also at the same time, quite plain. Strong jawline, large broad chin, large 'roman' nose. Ears that were tight against my scalp, but not overly small either. One of the crowd, something nondescript, and not especially unique. I might say my new face was handsome, but I wouldn't be winning any beauty contests either. Of course, the lack of eyebrows was a bit odd, maybe when they and my hair grew in I'd be rather pleasing to look at.

I looked down at my cock again after a while and wondered. I stroked it once and then gasped. "What the fuck!?" I exclaimed. "Did you heighten my sensitivity or something?"

Renia shook her head no. "You know, it's amazing how people forget what a teenage body is like. Your body now is in the absolute peak of it's perfection, something most people achieve anywhere from age sixteen to their early twenties. In your case, I'd put your body right around that twenty year mark. Not an ounce of baby fat on you, just all hard muscle. But that also means your hormones are at that level, and your sensitivity." She paused and then added with a wink, "I did give you a slight boost to your...shall we say... virility however. So don't be surprised the next time you're with a partner in bed."

I gasped, stroking my cock lightly as she said all this. My dick grew hard almost immediately, easily eight inches in length, and thick, as I was used too. The fat, circumsized head of my cock bounced above my belly button and bounced off my abs. If it felt that good to simply stroke it, I couldn't wait to try it out. I turned and smiled at Renia, "Do you get off on taking away your client's virginity as well? I've never had sex in this body after all and you could show me exactly what sort of changes to my virility you mean."

Renia smiled and shook her head, with one hand patting her stomach she said, "No thanks Mike, I've got everything I need from you."

Suddenly I remembered how just as I faded out of consciousness, she had laid down with her hips elevated. I remembered that my wife, Renee, had done that for months when we had been trying to conceive a child, before we had finally given up on it. I looked at her and said, "Wait a second, you wanted me to get you pregnant?"

She frowned, "I want you to have nothing to do with any child I may have, and I think that you should mind your own business. Besides... the man who will be the father to my child, Michael Gray, is dead." I gawped at her and she continued, "One of the downsides to magic use is that it renders us somewhat infertile. We have almost no chance of conceiving with a non-mage. Even with the added virility I gave you, you'll find it next to impossible to impregnate a normal person. With a mage, it's possible to sire a child, but it's difficult. But of course you know I'm a flesh crafter, a worker in the magic of the body, so I can increase my chances greatly... I just needed a donor, a magic using donor, to help out."

"Renia," I started slowly, my cock wilting as I realized what she'd done, "I..."

"Look Mike, you've got a new life to start. I was going to get with child sooner or later anyways. I just needed a verile magic using man who needed my help at a time when my own cycle was at it's peak. You just happened to be the one to come along when I was ready. So forget about it." Then she leaned in and whispered, "and if you think you have any say in this, just imagine what I can do."

I cocked my head, giving her a look that said I didn't understand. She explained in an angry whisper, "In just a few hours I completely reshaped your flabby older body. I took away your age and gave you youth. I banished fat and restored muscle and health. Do you really want to think about what I could also do if I wanted to reverse my powers?"

I shook my head. There was more going on here than I was prepared for. I had better go with the flow for now. Renia pulled a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt with FBI printed on both out of the cabinet. Handing them to me she also retrieved a pair of 'slippers' that seemed to be disposable. They fit well enough and at her direction I dressed.

We didn't speak much but after I was dressed in the meager clothing she went to her desk and handed me a wallet and a sealed shipping envelope. I opened the wallet and found a social security card and a NY Drivers license both under the same name, "Mike Naughton." The picture didn't exactly look like my face, but I guess it was close enough.

"The envelope has Mike Naughton's history. Where you went to school, etc. Make sure you memorize it later. But for now, let's go," she said gesturing towards the office door, "I want you to say goodbye to your old body." I followed her out of the office and down an elevator to what was obviously a morgue. There under a sheet, was me. Well, obviously it wasn't me, but it was a corpse, and that corpse was exactly me. The corpse had my old face, it had my paunchy beer belly, it had the hairy chest that my wife used to complain about. I even saw that birthmark on my thigh and the burn scar on my arm that I'd gotten as a child. In every sense of the word I was looking down at my own body... the body I'd worn for the last several decades.

Renia spoke, "Michael Gray died at ten am this morning of a massive heart attack. His body hasn't been found yet, but we will place it somewhere where it will be discovered shortly. Your wife will get the sad news, and have to come here to NYC to identify your body. Blood type and dental records will of course confirm it. Luckily for Renee Gray, there was a life insurance policy in Michael Gray's name that is going to pay out well. One set up a few years ago by Adam Saks in Michael's name.

I nodded numbly. A few years ago? Adam had been planning this for a few years? A part of me realized that he was doing it so that Renee wouldn't ever come looking for me in my new life, and another part of me was glad that he'd done it. If Renee was happy and financially taken care of, that was good. I would be glad that she wouldn't be over burdened by me leaving her to start a new life. It would be better this way, her not knowing, her thinking I had died. Yet, a part of me was annoyed... Adam had been planning this for years, hadn't he?

- - -

Later that evening Adam and I were in a town car heading towards JFK international Airport. After meeting Adam back at the hotel, the two of us went shopping and purchased me a small wardrobe that would fit my new body. After that it was off to the airport to catch a flight out of NY State to Adam's home in Nevada.

As we drove, my emotions got the better of me and I finally had to ask Adam what I wanted to know. I knew the driver of the town car could hear us, but I couldn't wait any longer. "You had a life insurance policy in Michael Gray's name? For over two years now? You'd been planning on this for that long?" I think anger tinged the sound of my voice, but I didn't care. This new, young body came with hormones and while I wanted to stay calm, I felt very angry and possibly betrayed by Adam's deception.

"Relax Mike," Adam said holding out his hands in a gesture that was meant to be pacifying, but to me seemed to be a bit aggressive. I felt a touch on my mind, a light brush, almost as if checking to see if my mental 'door' was closed. I quickly envisioned that door in my head again, and imagined what it would look like with a solid deadbolt lock on it. Then I imagined flipping that deadbolt to keep anyone out.

"You're learning quickly," he said, pulling back from me, both mentally and physically. "But to answer your question, yes, I'd been watching Michael Gray for about four or five years now. Along with a few of my other..." He paused and looked at the driver, not wanting to say too much, "...distant relatives." I knew he meant people that were distantly related to him by blood... his descendants.

"Michael Gray showed a lot of potential for the... 'family business,' and it was little work to set up a life insurance policy in his name. Two years of payments isn't a lot of money when you consider the pay out. Besides if he had decided not to come to New York with me the other day, then I could have simply let the policy lapse, and I was out a few hundred dollars. Trust me, he wasn't the only one I had a policy for. I've got about four other active policies out right now on distant relations. But have yet to contact them." He smiled, "Maybe, Mike, You'd be interested in coming to meet them some day. When both you and they are ready of course."

I grit my teeth, feeling my anger sliding away. I wanted to stay mad, I still felt like I had been manipulated. "But why? How did you know that I... I mean... that Mr. Gray, would be... would be... open... uh... to your business opportunity?"

The driver of the towncar looked at us in his rear view mirror and Adam sighed. He leaned forwards and put his hand on the shoulder of the driver. Speaking in a clear voice he said, "You can't hear what we're talking about. Every time you hear us talking, it's something very boring to you, the nature of soy bean crops in china. Do you understand?" The driver nodded and then Adam sat back and looked at me, "Say what you want now, he can't hear us."

"Well?" I asked, "How did you know that I'd come with you? That I'd even believe you?"

Adam shook his head, "I didn't. It was a risk. I've been watching you for a while now, and everything I knew about you said that you'd be a good candidate to become a mage, to become my apprentice, but nothing told me for certain that was true. When your powers became active, last night with the girls I hired, some mages call that an awakening or an eruption of ability. It was always dormant inside of you, waiting for the moment to burst forth. You had to be properly stimulated of course, stroked to a fever pitch, and then a gentle nudge, and then," he clapped his hands together, "Boom! Your powers explode into being."

He nodded as JFK International airport loomed in the distance. "Once we're out of this car we can keep talking, just try to keep things a little vague. You'll be amazed what you can talk about in front of everyone and how much they will ignore it. Especially in a crowded place like this."

"So you were watching me? You were waiting to see if I'd erupt on my own before you approached me?" I asked finishing his previous train of thought.

Adam shrugged his shoulders, "Sort of. I was also looking to make sure that you hadn't buried the seed of your abilities so far down that you'd never erupt. Between not having a child with your wife, losing your job, the death of both of your parents, and moving away from New York City to live upstate, your life had gotten a touch bleak. I was afraid the crushing reality of this world might have taken your spark too far away from your soul to erupt ever."

"No," I said slowly, "Those things... they... they made me believe even more. Whenever things happened in my life, I thought there must be a reason. Maybe there is a God, or a purpose to my life, or something... but I just felt like it couldn't be the whole world shitting on me."

"Yes," he said, "and I sensed that in you. That's why I approached you. It's why we are flying back to my home. So I can train you."

"Nevada?"

"Yes. Pahrump."

"Excuse me?"

"Not a fan of legalized prostitution eh Mike?" Adam chuckled. I raised an eyebrow... well... brow line I guess, in question. He filled me in. "See, out of all fifty states, only Nevada allows legalized prostitution. But just because something's legal doesn't mean that people want it thrown in their faces. Over the last twenty or thirty years, Las Vegas has changed a lot. They've cleaned up their image from the city of Sin, to what amounts to Disneyland for grownups. People plan their family vacations for Vegas now, take the kids and ride roller coasters on the tops of the casinos. Sure, dad might be taking out a lean on the house to pay for the craps tables, but god forbid if they see girls walking the streets trying to make a buck. So the city council pushed the prostitution off the strip and into the corners. Places like Craigs list and telephone adds get the girls to the hotel rooms now. But if you want to run a brothel, you're not going to do it inside the city limits. So the next closest city is Pahrump, to the west. It's about forty five minutes from McCarran International Airport in Vegas, maybe a little more or less depending on traffic. Plus, if you're coming from the other direction, it's only a few hours to LA. With a fast car you could make it to Long Beach in a little over three hours... as long as you watch out for the cops."

Just then the driver pulled into a parking spot and we decided to continue to conversation later. Security was fairly easy, I found a passport in with the materials in the envelope Renia had given me. Between that, and the fact that we had very little luggage, it was no time before we were sipping way overpriced and heavily watered down scotch in an airport bar. When I asked about Adam's Jaguar, he laughed. Apparently the little trick he did in my home town, to borrow someone else's car, it worked even better if you could find someone who wouldn't be using it for weeks at a time. I took some small consolation in knowing that Adam hadn't put the mind magic on one of my favorite tv star / comedians, but only the owner of the garage where the Jaguar had been kept.

We ate a late dinner at the bar, and I was pleased that while the scotch was watered down, the steak was excellent. I was astounded that one meal wasn't enough and I was still hungry. Ordering a burger for me, Adam explained that it was a side effect to the body crafting I'd gone through, that my hunger would taper off very soon. But I had a different hunger as well. I felt like I'd been nursing half a hard on ever since I woke up in Renia's office. Adam assured me that in a few hours, when we got back to his brothel in Pahrump, he'd have a special friend take care of those needs for me.

The plane ride was to take about five hours, and I was a little displeased to learn that the luxury might be coming to an end. The tickets were only coach. Adam smiled and tapped his head, "Remember, we need to hide in plain sight. You're a college drop out and I'm a self startup businessman. We aren't the kinds of people who buy first class plane tickets. Now... that being said, finish your burger. I'm going to go talk to the woman about how I requested an isle seat and was stuck in the middle row."

He smiled and was gone for about ten minutes, but when Adam came back, he was all smiles. "Well, you're bumped up to business plus, a bulkhead seat, so you should have plenty of leg room to stretch out and get some sleep. You'll want to get a bit before we land, the time difference alone can mess with you."

"And you?" I asked.

"Well, I guess I got lucky. An upgrade to first class because I'm such a valued customer. Sorry I couldn't get you in, but like I said, get some sleep."

Damn, I thought, I needed to learn that trick quickly.

- - -

I did catch some sleep on the airplane, but woke up with the sound of dozens of thoughts in my head. They weren't my thoughts either. Again, it isn't easy to describe what a person's thought 'feels' like. Any attempt I would make at doing so would be a pale imitation, like trying to describe exactly how something tasted. Oh, you could say that it was bitter or salty, or how it felt as you chewed it, but you're not really giving another person the essence of what that food tasted like. So understand that when I describe someone else's thoughts, it's only a shadow of what the experience really was.