"Another time. I've got a bunch of studying to do tonight."

Margaret nods in understanding. "Alright. Let me know if you finish up early and want to hang out."

"You bet, Mom. I will." After the woman retreats back into the laundry room, Bri pulls the book from her pocket to take another look at the silly fantasy spells while the microwave timer counts down. This thing really has all kinds of stuff in here. There are spells to animate things in your vicinity that would then work to bind you, spells to bind the spirit only, whatever that means, and spells to actually conjure up something wherewith the user would be bound.

Some spells have large, wordy warnings included, about various risks or dangers associated with them, but they're dry and uninteresting.

*DING!*

Bri snatches her hot plate from the microwave and hurries up the stairs to her room in the far corner of the house, kicking the door shut behind her to hastily set the food down before her fingers burn. "Oooh! Ahh! Chhh!" The food will need a minute to cool back down to normal, safe-to-eat temperature levels, so Bri settles down onto her bed in a cross-legged position to explore and fantasize.

One spell jumps out at her as having quite a silly incantation. It's early in the book, listed as requiring virtually no preparation besides intent, and being completely harmless to do incorrectly: a perfect beginner spell.

"Hm... A simple spell to conjure a single length of weak spirit cord. Just picture a simple tie, assume the proper position, and speak the words. Cord remains until words are repeated or ten minutes pass. For longer duration spirit cords, see blah, blah blah other spell in the intermediate section. Okay, that's fun."

Opposite the description of the spell were a series of small sketches of basic arm, leg, or body positions that could be accomplished with the simple spell, as well as a note saying the sketches are just examples.

Bri, already plenty excited by the fantasy of magical bondage and having nothing else to do for a few minutes, puts both her hands behind her back and focuses on the little drawing of a basic, "inescapable" wrist tie.

"Faffamoo!" she says with a laugh, squinting to read the tidy writing in the book.

Immediately, Bri feels a strange sensation and movement on her arms and she yelps, thinking there's a bug or something but falls on her face on the bed, her arms still held tightly behind her back. Rolling onto her side, she blinks, unable to process for a moment exactly what just happened. She pulls again and sure enough, her hands are firmly bound together. No amount of squirming or straining with her fingers gives her any clue about what, exactly, has bound her, but one thing is clear: the spell worked.

"Holy shit!"

She rolls herself awkwardly off the bed, managing to land more or less on her feet, and moves to the mirror, straining to see over her own shoulder. A strange, pure black cord of unknown material had formed around her wrists in a handsome tie that looped around each wrist three times. She couldn't spot any actual end to the rope, just a seamless length of it.

"Holy shit. Faffamoo?"

The cords vanish, instantly freeing Bri's hands and arms. Her mouth falls open in total shock. "This is insane. A magic bondage book? What the fuck!" Bri can't help but laugh as her mind runs wild with possibility. "It's all real?" She recalls the awkwardly scribbled note in the first page, now realizing it may have been made by someone who was bound. "It's all real!!"

Feeling bizarrely silly in the face of what just happened, Bri shares a look of excited astonishment with her reflection. "We gotta play with this, right, me? Oh yeah, you know it!"