Transcendence

Nicole smirked as she looked down to the book in her hands, the tome sparking an interest which she hadn’t felt in years. For once, she was driven; she had purpose. She would become a goddess.

Just when the teacher had begun to regret doubling down on a career in linguistics, this little tome had landed on her doorstep, courtesy of the archaeology department. Apparently they’d uncovered something in a tomb which was written in a dialect that nobody had understood, so they’d rushed it to her for a first crack at it.

It made sense: she was the most talented linguist on campus, though she knew nobody in the department would admit as much. Moreover, she was the only one who had half a clue at how to treat ancient texts such as this.

That said, she really didn’t need that training. This book had somehow perfectly endured though the ages, rendering it as pristine as the day it was first inked. At first, Nicole had chalked this up to some ancient hermetic seal.

Now; however… Now her suspicions were beginning to shift to the occult. The book spoke of nothing save of ancient spells, and power that lay beyond the mortal realm. And, while normally she’d treat such things with an air of skepticism, Nicole couldn’t help but feel a pang of curiosity from the pages.

She’d debated on what spell to cast first; each of the pages seemed to be written in a different language-though their titles remained in an ancient dialect of the Tanis. She’d been leafing through these, noting interesting spells such as ‘Alchemy’ or ‘Irrigation’. Then she’d found ‘Transcendence’, and immediately she’d set to work.

It had taken almost a day to decrypt the page, its text having been encoded nearly three times. But finally, her trials were at an end. She had a full page of ancient syllables before herself, and all she had to do was read.

So it was that Nicole did exactly what every horror movie warns not to do: she read from the book.

“Nefarit amatra thokemet…” As she began to speak, a strange feeling of power coursed through her body, a wave of something she dearly hoped wasn’t just in her imagination. The words poured past her lips like water, spilling out in a torrent until they flowed into final, proud, “Bastet!”

Nothing happened.

Nicole blushed as she realized that nothing had come of her little incantation, and she began to feel a little silly for believing in such a thing as spells or magic. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment; then with something entirely different altogether.

A small gasp escaped her lips as a strange sensation flowed across her face, like her face had been dipped into a warm bath of honey. Yet Nicole was unable to stifle her doubts; unable to overcome that earlier embarrassment. “This… This has to be in my mind…”

A sharp tingling in her teeth spoke otherwise, and Nicole yelped as she felt her canines ache. It was a sensation she hadn’t felt in years; almost like a dentist pulling on them, trying to tug them out. Her eyes crinkled with discomfort as the feeling spread to her jaw, and Nicole began to realize that something was wrong.

Unfortunately, there was little she could do to stop it; she hadn’t translated any other pages of the book. Instead, she could only fall back into her chair and cup her face in her hands as a loud crack from her nose marked its transition into an animal’s, bridge and tip alike sinking back into her skull.

She regretted her decision to rest her palms on her cheeks almost immediately. Her bones felt like they were shifting, as though something had given them the ability to shift and move beneath her skin. The teacher groaned with nausea; then with distress as pain blossomed throughout her face.

This time, it was like her very skull was reshaping itself, from the sharp tugs on her ears to an agonizing ache in her jaw as it began to elongate. She crossed her eyes in horror to find that she was growing some sort of animal’s muzzle, and her heart clenched as she realized she was transforming into something inhuman.

Had she mistranslated the page? Was this a punishment for her attempts to be something divine? She was too distracted by the sensations flowing across her head to care, and the woman let out another low groan.

New muscles settled along her growing jaw, and she worked it with an experimental, shocked frown. It was a little hard to believe that this boxy muzzle was hers, but she couldn’t deny what her eyes told her. The sheer alien sensation of having a snout was almost enough for her to miss the feeling of her ears travel to the top of her head; but not entirely.

These new ears twitched as the woman brought her hands up to them, her sweat-dewed face contorted with distaste at what had happened to her. As her fingers brushed against them, Nicole’s eyes widened in shock. They were pointed and large, seeming to move with her every thought. And worse, they were covered in a thin peach fuzz.

Nicole realized her changes weren’t even close to over, and with a half-sob, half-scream she ran to her bathroom, desperate to see this latest wave of change. It was mercifully gentler than the growth of her snout; though maddeningly itchy.

Finally, she rounded the corner; knowing what she would see but unable to sate her curiosity. Sure enough, a lioness’s visage greeted her eyes, in time to watch long and golden fur sweep its way over her face. Her eyes brightened to a rich gold, and the teacher stared at her visage in shock.

Worse yet, this seemed to be the extent of her changes. From the neck down, she was still the same, tanned woman she’d always been—though her body looked a little younger now. Still, even the promise of renewed youth wasn’t enough to keep the woman from sinking into despair.

“I’m… I’m a cat-faced freak…” She whispered, marveling at how her new head was capable of English and hating it all the more for it. The changed woman stumbled towards her bathroom sink in horror, grasping it with her hands and working her leonine snout with a numb sense of detachment.

She didn’t notice how the tile of the sink was lightening to gold at her touch; nor did she notice how the clouds outside brightened, an almost musical wind gracing the air outside of her studio apartment. All she could focus on was the transformation that had left her with a feline head; and how she could possibly cope with this tomorrow.