Two weeks ago, a woman introducing herself as Ada Loaflace contacted me to propose a trade. She wanted to purchase no fewer than 100 high-end shrinking wands from me. I neither own a factory nor sell my magical artifacts in general, though the payment we agreed on would make up for the inconvenience. I cleared the workshop in my home and summoned a bunch of imps to get the work done by tonight, 2 weeks later.
However, I have received a guest in my home since then. The coin-sized woman was spying on me and my imps in my own house. Catpiercer, the crow living inside with me, naturally captured the miniature intruder and brought her to me for a proper interrogation. It only took a few tortures to learn that she works for Ada Loaflace and came to gather information about me. Smelling a rat, I questioned the miniature spy further till she revealed their plan.
Ada Loaflace actually cares little about the wands. The trade she proposed is only a way to lure me into this meeting and capture me. She and two associates will use my own wands to shrink me and neutralise my magic. Here is why she insisted on obtaining wands able to reduce the powers of its target proportionally to their mass. Only halving my height would almost divide my power by 10. The size of a toddler, I would be virtually powerless.
However, my own plan will counter theirs. I will let all of them get a magic wand as they planned, unaware that I rigged them to backfire when they try using it on me. If the spy was right and they reveal their true intents, these fake traders will neutralise themselves.
In the meantime, since the tiny spy keeps refusing to give me information about miss Loaflace’s organisation itself and the reasons why she wants to capture me, she is currently learning her place, trapped inside my panties. I hope to learn more from Ada Loaflace herself and her bandit friends.
Two women and one man get off the car, all of them wearing French maid outfits. I don’t sense any weapon inside these unusual uniforms, as the spy said. The meeting is happening according to my plan and theirs so far. One of the maid traders gets closer. “Good morning, I am Ada Loaflace. Nice to meet you Lady Tamara” she greets. “We came here with 120,000 euros and 100 millilitres of spirit water as you wished. Please show me the wands.”
“Nice to meet you too, miss Loaflace. Your merchandise is right there, please show me the money and essence” I require while I walk a few steps back to the chest at the warehouse door. The maid trader opens it to find the rows of wands I promised. Elegantly shaped white branches with carvings and a red ring marking their shrinking effect. “Your wands look great, Lady Tamara. Let me try them” she says, to my surprise. I expected the three of them to try attacking me together. I will have to neutralise the associates if only miss Loaflace uses my wands.
Even though she will fail to shrink me, my heartbeat accelerates when Ada grabs a wand. I grin in anticipation. Though instead of aiming at me, Ada points the shrinking wand towards the male maid and tries it on him instead. As one can expect, nothing happens to the boy. Ada is the one shrinking into a doll-sized version of herself, naked in the middle of her now giant maid outfit. This is exactly how I imagined the backfiring attack, though it makes the situation delicate. Both her teammates gasp in surprise, the young man immediately jumping into their car. I hope they really had ill intentions because I am technically the one attacking them right now. It is too late to think about it. I cast a shrinking spell on the second girl, giving her the same doll fate as Ada.
While his second teammate shrinks before my eyes, the boy maid comes out of the car with the most unusual rifle I’ve ever seen. Without warning, he shoots a blinding beam of light at me. I cannot see anything anymore though I can feel myself shrinking under the beam effect. When my vision returns, my opponent is much bigger and much closer. Yet, he is still aiming at me. One second later, I get engulfed in another blinding light that reduces my height even further. All I can do is shielding my eyes with my increasingly tiny hands. Somehow, both my clothes and magic powers shrink with me. His rifle may not be as powerful as my wands, though it appears capable of neutralising a magic user by making them tiny enough. I try casting a last spell, in vain. My height has hit half a millimetre tall and I cannot feel magic in any single part of my body anymore.
“The crow!” the second woman’s soft high-pitched voice screams in the distance. The shrink ray stops and I see Goodomen furiously descending towards the male maid bandit, beak first. The giant aims at the sky and tries shooting my loyal crow. “Go Goodomen!” I cheer at the top of my lungs as it dodges the beam. My crows are saving the day once again. Goodomen crashes against the maid’s skull with enough inertia to make the giant lose his balance. The giant falls backward while the crow falls next to me.
Goodomen does not leave him any chance however. It instantly gets back on its legs, flies to the giant and starts frenetically scratching his face. I cannot help but relish in the bandit’s groans of pain, serves him right! Though it does not last as Goodomen gets hit by the rifle, used like a 10 kg bat by the giant to send the poor bird crashing a few metres away. Black feathers fly all around the place, as evidence of the impact.
Realising that Goodomen was knocked out, I want to run away before the boy maid recovers enough to care about me. Though Ada is already here, towering above me in all her nude glory. I am so tiny even the shrunk trader looks gigantic from here. She effortlessly picks me up and smirks at me. “Aww the tiny witch tried double-crossing us, that’s so sad” she taunts. I know she is a liar, though I don’t give any other answer than a frown. My already delicate situation will require me to cooperate for a while.
After the young man is done covering his bleeding forehead with bandages, he packs the wands, his teammates’ lost clothes and the 3 of us into the car. A few minutes later, all of us are gone and almost no trace remains to testify about what happened in front of the warehouse tonight.
For now, everything I hope is nobody finds the spy inside my panties.