Yes, even Nadia was now a he, she discovered looking down at herself. At her midriff, there was a washboard of abs instead of a gentle curve. Nadia bit his, not her, nails again. "My husband to be!" she gasped. "What if Cyrus finds out?! Come on, we must leave!" Nadia squealed in earnest. But Aiden was much less inclined to leave his current spot.
"If you ask me, your lot in life just improved!" Aiden commented picking his teeth with one fingernail even if it was not just gruesome, but unwomanly. "Wizards don't put a lot of value in their women."
"That's not true!" said Nadia, her man's voice rumbling out. "Only some of them are like that, although there is an imbalance of power between the female and male mage circles."
"Don't be unladylike!" said Fiona tugging Aiden's hand away from his mouth so he couldn't pick his teeth. "If you must be a woman, at least don't go embarrassing the family."
"Put your shirt back on, Aiden!" Anwen squeaked. "You're revealing far too much!"
"Godric is doing it, too!" Aiden protested, referring to his older brother who, like him, had loosened the ties of his armor to remove them.
"Godric is keeping his tunic on, at least!" reprimanded Fiona as the aforenamed knight tugged on his, now her, thin shirt.
"Um, do you think I can borrow some clothes, Nadia?" the now female knight modestly asked. "You know, something to help with these," said Godric tucking one arm under her breasts and pressing them up into a supported position.
"You mean like a bra or a corset?
"Yeah!" said Godric. On her face was a cute and innocent look. She looked down at her chest which, while not as massive as Aiden's, was still of notable size, especially to Anwen.
"Gah!" the elf sputtered suddenly covering his crotch as its muscles flexed. "I need some air!" Anwen said hurrying in the direction of a window at the far opposite of the room as quickly as possible to hide his excited masculine features. Aiden laughed.
"Ooh, 'sister' of mine," Aiden said. "You're quite a 'girl'. All the guys are hot for you."
"Elwrath, save me!" Godric clasped folding her hands piously together.
"Nah, don't do that," said Aiden calmly. "You're only making it worse."
"Aiden's right," said Anwen, hunched over in a corner. He was holding the bridge of his nose now to keep it from bleeding.
"Why don't you go over there and 'comfort' that fine looking elf over there?" Aiden snickered giving Godric a shove. But Godric just flushed beet red instead.
"Aiden! Stop it!" she whined with a high pitch, giving Aiden a soft punch in the shoulder. "I wish this hadn't happened! What if I'm stuck like this for the rest of my life?"
"How did it happen?" asked Fiona, perplexed. "Nadia, did you mess up a spell?"
"I...I might have," Nadia struggled through the words. "But there might be something wrong with the gate, too. Something like this has never happened before."
"How often do mystic gates break?"
"Never!" said Nadia. "But this one was used rarely. I wonder why."
"This is all your fault, Nadia!" Aiden growled, less amused than before. "I liked being a man, thank you!"
"And I was courting Prince Alexei!" Fiona countered. "Don't feel sorry for just yourself."
"Friends, I am so sorry!" Nadia announced, nearly moved to tears. "I will find a way to reverse the spell if I can. But please, for now, let us leave this place. I do not want Cyrus to see me like this."
"The wedding'd be off huh?" observed Aiden. Nadia snapped her fingers and a red and blue flying carpet sailed into view. It hovered in the air before her a few inches off the ground.
"This will help us get down the staircase in good speed."
"Why didn't we just take this in the first place?" Aiden grumbled.
"Aiden!" reprimanded Godric. She strolled forward to take seat on the magic-infused tapestry. "Anger towards Nadia will not solve our problems. We must do as she says and work together to find a solution."
"So says the righteous," said Aiden. "I think you should join a convent when we get back home," Aiden commented.
"No thank you!" Godric said. "I would come to terms with this misfortune eventually." Anwen seated herself behind Godric.
"Godric has no need for a convent!" Anwen protested. "I'd marry her before I let that happen! We'd stay in the Silver Cities if we had to!" Anwen wrapped a hand round Godric's shoulder. Godric pinked.
"Enough, enough!" raged Fiona, her hands fisted. "Everyone do as Nadia says! Especially you, Aiden!" she said glaring at her younger sibling. At last, they all seated themselves on the magic carpet. As fast as a gust of winter wind, the carpet soared a few feet off the ground all the way down the long stairs of the minaret to the ground at its base. But the carpet did not stop yet. Instead, it lifted higher off the ground just enough so that it sailed above the pedestrians on the street, then swooped down to make a gentle land near a shop. There was a long back porch there. On it, a man in a turban was sewing a dress on a manikin, taking advantage of the sunlight. He looked up at their sudden arrival.
"Hello!" said the man. "Welcome to Izim's dress shop! Can I help you with something?"
"Shopkeeper Izim, do you have any women's lacings?" said Nadia. "And some pants for Fiona."
"What?" asked young woman, who now transformed into a man, was cross-dressing by wearing a long blue gown. She looked down at herself and grew flustered. "I see what you mean. If he has any men's clothing that fits, I'll take it!"
"This way, noble patrons!" said Izim. "I hope you have brought lots of gold."
Nadia herself did not change his clothes, for they were pants and a top to begin with. They were not shockingly inappropriate like Fiona's queenly gown was. Soon, the emerald green gown was folded up into a box and Fiona came out wearing puffy legged pants, a white tunic, and a wide belt. To complete her look, she had gotten herself a little pillbox hat.
"How do I look?" she asked.
"Less harsh to my eyes than your former brothers," said Nadia. "Now they are ladies more attractive and charming than we were ourselves! Even if I do manage to unwork the spell which changed us, I'll never get that image out of my mind," said Nadia holding a hand over her heart and looking sick.
It was true. Godric's gown was a conservative dress of embroidered white and golden colored cloths with a tiara on her brow. She looked saintlier than ever. Aiden had found a two-piece outfit like Nadia's so that her midriff showed. The puffy fabric of her crimson red pants and top only made Aiden curvier, especially since the collar was cut low to show off the tops of her breasts.
"Please wear a scarf over that!" Fiona complained, putting a hand up over her eyes. "Father would be so ashamed if he knew!"
"As long as you don't tell him using your necromancy, he'll never know!" Aiden said narrowing her eyes at his sibling. "As long as I'm stuck as a girl, I might as well enjoy it! So where to, now?"
"We'll go to the adventurer's tavern," said Nadia thinking deeply. "Then from there, you'll split up into groups of two to search for a solution. Anwen and Godric, you go to the counsel of senior wizards. Aiden and Fiona, you go the gatemaker's workshops. I will go to the library and try to figure out if my spell was to blame."
"Very well," said Godric boldly. "We will do as you say."
"Let's go!" said Aiden trying to step onto the magic carpet but wobbled and fell over as the carpet unexpectedly shifted. "Ow!"
"Hold still!" Nadia scolded the magical construct as they all hopped on once again. Nadia caused their ride to loop three times over mushroom-capped steeple of the local adventurer's tavern so everyone could get a good view of it. On the outside, it was just another wizard's building but empty barrels of dwarven ale were stacked outside.
"Let's go!" said Nadia. "And remember to meet back up here as soon as you can."
"Fine," said Aiden.
"Very well," said Godric.
"Great!' said Anwen grinning.
"I will do my best to complete this mission," said Fiona gravely, for she knew all of their futures and the futures of their kingdoms weighed on their success or failure.
Inside the tavern, the plain wooden tables were much the same as any pub in the Griffin Empire. Nadia pointed to a table in the corner before they dispersed.
"Okay! Whether we succeed or fail, we will all meet up here for an ale tonight! Agreed?"
"Yes," said all. Then, with the grimness of uncertain prospects, they all dispersed into groups as Nadia had suggested. Nadia hastened to the wizard's largest library, then immersed herself in the stacks. She chatted with the librarians for clues. Anwen and Godric made their way to offices of the Silver Circle's best professors. After much explanation, the senior mage cast a handful of dust into fire and spoke to his fellow elders. Soon, fifteen senior mages all stood around Anwen and Godric taking a good, long look at them.
"So do you have a cure?" asked Godric, hoping.
"No," said the first wizard they had contacted. "But my fellows are discussing setting aside some gold to fund the study of you two as a research project. We might find a solution for you two in…. twelve years."
"Great," Godric grimaced.
"Well, that's that, I guess!" said Anwen not as sadly as one might have expected under the circumstances. The reason why Anwen was not so sad was made plain as soon as they were alone again. Anwen snugged his arms around Godric's back, fanning his breath against her cheek. "Living in the Silver Cities for twelve years isn't such a harsh sentence. If we're stuck this way, we might as well get used to living this way, my lovely maiden," Anwen teased. "I know we've changed, but do you still like me?"
"Yes," Godric stuttered out.
"Good!" said Anwin before tugging Godric away from the wall, hands intertwined. Godric picked up her skirts and skipped down the street alongside Anwen.
But elsewhere, Fiona and Aiden were taking their quest for a cure far more seriously. They rung the bell to an enormous marble-walled building and stood before two broad copper doors. A gremlin opened a tiny window in one of the doors and peeked out.
"Yes?" it rasped. Aiden and Fiona stared back at it. Compared to some of the creatures the had learned to summon as generals of demons and the undead, the gremlins looked almost cute to their eyes.
"We'd like to speak to the master of this workshop about a gate," Fiona explained to the gremlin. "We'd like to have a word with as quickly as possible, if we may."
"Wait here," hissed the gremlin. After some time, five new gremlins pulled open one of the solid copper doors.
"You may come in," said the gate-keeping gremlin. They entered.
"This way!" said one of the gremlins. He led Fiona and Aiden past stacks of stone, sheets of metal, workbenches, hammers, anvils, and barrels full of fine powders. There was a forge at the circular building's very center. But the gremlin led them past all that, out a rear entrance, and into a walled courtyard. Past the courtyard, over a quaint wooden bridge and beyond a tiny, man-made stream, stood a small palace-like building with a cheerful, bright red door.
"The master," said the gremlin bowing. Fiona grasped hold of the handle to the door.
"Hello?" she said calling inside. Another gremlin greeted her. This one wore a bowtie and trousers instead of the overalls.
"The master," it said, bowing before a fat man in tall chair, smoking a cigar. At his side was a table with eight different kinds of wine, a half-finished glass, and a partly eaten plate of chicken and vegetables. The man snuffed out his cigar and set it aside.
"Well," said the owner of the workshop staring at Aiden with hungry eyes. "A beautiful woman! This is a surprise!"
"My 'sister' and I have come," said Fiona, frowning at the man's interest in his sibling. "Because there was a freak accident with a gate. We are hoping you could explain to us what went wrong, to cause the effects it did." Fiona went on to explain in fine detail. The workshop owner rubbed his chin.
"It is incredible what happened to you," said the mage. "But not impossible. It is my thought that you overloaded the crystal with more magical energy than it could transport and your changes are the result of a backlash of expended energy. All five of you are generals, are you not? I would believe that the combined powers of five masters of magic would be too much for any one mystic crystal to transport at once. Hence, it broke. I could rebuild the gate with the same flaw to try to replicate the reversal magic which changed you. But it would take a crystal of the exact kind that broke. Let's see," said the man snapping his fingers. A gremlin placed a scroll in it. The workshop owner pinned a pair of spectacles to his nose to read.
"That particular gate was built using a Yarbil Stone purchased from Gedoin the Merchant. A wealthy, powerful, not particularly savory man. You must ask him for one like it. Only then I might possibly be of assistance."
"A Yarbil Stone, eh?" said Aiden looking determined. "We'll get one, sir!"
"Yes, you might," warned the workshop owner. "But be wary of the price you may have to pay. Gedoin is one of the wealthiest merchants in the Silver Cities. The price you have to pay might well be steep."
"Thank you, sir," said Fiona properly. "And farewell for now." Aiden and Fiona went out to find their friends at the tavern and to inform of them of the fragile yet promising lead they had found.