A Cool Blue Mage’s Cassock

This follows the Crainstock, LTD. stuff you’ll find somewhere else on 1000 Days

The extended warmth of the traverse and the uncanny sensation of being piped like frosting onto a cake told Kera she’d stepped through a portal and not just a door. There was a déjà vu hiccup mid-trip she wondered about, but soon forgot as she was deposited onto the black sand of a broad flat beach. The sunglasses in Donna’s pocket made sense now.

Twenty-five mages circled a great metal band and hummed a low continuous monotone. Kera had expected a torus instead of a band. The band was…

Donna roughly twisted Kera around, placed her free hand in the center of Kera’s back and guided her without apology to a white tent. Kera got her hands up in time to part the flap as Donna pushed her through. Magic cooled the air inside and flattened and packed the sand to a black gloss. At the back—in a ring of padded folding chairs—Mr. Balasubramanyan sprawled across a pair of them with his head in his knees; he didn’t look up. Donna pushed Kera behind a tri-fold. “Get undressed. All the way. Earrings, contacts, patches. I’ll get you a cassock.”

Kera heeled off her sandles, shuffled out of her Levi’s, and quickly unbuttoned her blouse. She hesitated a moment before unclasping her favorite flower bra, but then continued and stacked that neatly on her growing pile of clothes. Donna returned and tossed a blue mage’s cassock over the top of the tri-fold.

“Tattoos too?”

“Don’t be flip, Miss Woods. All. All your ink was natural or you wouldn’t be in our employ in the first place.”

Donna’s repeated word struck just as Kera slid her panties past her knees; shame…

xxx words on day 879

Not Just a Warm Body

Presuming the door was older than the ones she used in the newer building G, she tried a more emphatic approach. She placed her foot on the glyph and her hand on the wall. When she pushed she felt the door there this time. It felt found but locked. She tried again, still locked. Donna would have to come back out and get her.

The older woman appeared back in the hallway looking more frustrated than apologetic. “Sorry. Give me your wrist,” Donna said.

Kera offered her right one, but, shaking her head, Donna snatched up the left instead. The MPM stripped the backing off the end of a one-use Tyvek wristband with her teeth and looped it snuggly around Kera’s wrist.

“Is there anything I need to know, or am I just a warm body?”

“That’s tight. Sorry. Mr. Crainstock just spelled it. Let me know when it’s warm, huh?”

“Crainstock?” Kera didn’t know if that added or subtracted from the strangeness of the evening, but it was unexpected.

“Mr. Crainstock, Miss Woods.”

“He…ooo!…it’s ready.” Kera held up the wristband.

Donna smiled, “Juiced it, huh?”

“Just a little.”

“Kera?” Donna asked permission to use her first name and Kera assented. “Kera, I know this is all very unexpected. It’s not how I’d planned this evening to go either as you can imagine. This is real magic in here—not the mundane stuff you’ve been doing on the bench. It will feel the same, probably, but it isn’t. And, yes, you are a warm body, but you don’t have to be just a warm body.” Donna pulled her through the door.

215 words on day 581

Still in the Bowels

“Why didn’t you mention that earlier?” Kera skipped to a backward jog further down the corridor expecting Donna to match pace at least some. The MPM pushed her face to a flat grin, pointed to a glyph on the ground then at the featureless wall with her clipboard, and stepped into it’s surface.

“Right.”

Kera hopped back to the spot Donna vacated. She stepped into the featureless wall banging her nose on the masonry block just a little before getting her hands up. Kera used doors like this every day, so finding one she couldn’t get through surprised her.

Presuming the door was older than the ones she used in the newer building G, she tried a more emphatic approach. She placed her foot on the glyph and her hand on the wall. When she pushed she felt the door there this time. It felt found but locked. She tried again, still locked. Donna would have to come back out and get her.

119 words on day 580