A vial

"Okay, here it is," he says, pulling a small ebony box out of one of the cardboard boxes. He then opens the ebony box, takes out a small glass vial of green liquid, removes the stopper, and gulps it down.

"Uh, what was that?" you ask.

He points at you and says something that sounds like "ee-oo skenziz mee-roo deavib."

"Wait, was that a spell?" you ask. He nods, and you notice his body has begun to shimmer, and the tips of his ears are now pointed.

"A secret spell," he explains as he takes off his shirt, "so you won't -- can't -- tell anyone what's going on here." You notice that his hair is growing longer and turning to a dark green, and his skin is changing to light green. Not only that, but his facial features are altering themselves, and then you watch, mesmerized, as you see the reason for removing the shirt, as two orbs quickly swell out of his -- her chest, becoming the size of volleyballs, sitting firmly and proudly, the dark green nipples at attention. She kneads her breasts and says, "Ah, much better."

The scent of flowers wafts into your nostrils. Of course you've seen magical Fae porn on your computer at home, but this transformation happening live in front of you is probably the most erotic thing you've ever seen. In fact, you realize there's now a sticky substance inside your pants.

Speaking of which, she slithers out of her pants, which pool around her shapely ankles. She now stands nude before you. All you can do is state the obvious: "You turned yourself into a nymph!"

She laughs, her musical Fae laugh that seems to cut directly into your brain's pleasure center. "No, I turned myself into Mike. This is the real me. My name is Kaleene."

"But you -- I mean, I met your parents, and carried stuff in from your car --"

She waves her hand dismissively. "Just some illusions I created. Most of the rest of this is an illusion, too." She turns around and makes a quick gesture; the suitcases and cardboard boxes disappear, leaving behind only the yearbook, the ebony box, the now-empty vial, and a couple of other odds and ends. "I can create new stuff whenever I need it, so owning things isn't a real big deal."

You're a little stunned. Creation of objects is an incredibly advanced type of magic, something that you probably won't be tackling until graduate-level thaumaturgy courses, if you make it that far. But what you really need to ask is the obvious question: "So why turn yourself into Mike? I'm sure you could have gotten in here as your real self, no problem, but now you're here under false pretenses, and you'll probably get kicked out once you get discovered. I mean, it's not like you needed to share a room with a guy --"

"But that's just it," she interrupts. "It's so unnatural to the Fae lifestyle to be segregated by gender for any reason, but even at this supposedly Fae-friendly university, roommates have to be of the same sex! And some schools still have single-sex dorms -- outrageous! It's symptomatic of the bigger problems with Earth society. I recognize things have changed quite a bit since the Celestial Conjunction, but not quite enough to suit us."

You ask, "'Us' -- you mean all the Fae?"

She replies, "Well, a group of us who are exceptionally talented magic users who met on the Internet. We're going to **** some societal change. We've got a Reality Spell all ready to go."

You gasp, "A re--", but you don't finish the thought. The thought of a group wielding a Reality Spell is as terrifying in these modern times as, back in your parents' generation, the thought of a group with a suitcase nuke or sarin gas. It might even be worse, since a Reality Spell has the power to rip apart the very fabric of space-time, allowing the caster or casters to rewrite the universe as they see fit, leaving most of its sentient inhabitants with no inkling that anything has changed, and the rest with only a vague feeling of something being not quite right.

It's believed that the initial disappearance of magic and magical beings from Earth was caused by an almost perfect Reality Spell (evidence of the one-time existence of magic was left behind in the form of the collective human mythology), and some are of the opinion that the Celestial Conjunction that returned magic and magical beings to Earth was the result of a much less perfect Reality Spell. If it had worked right, the theory goes, it would have seemed as if the Fae had never left, but instead, they had arrived with a bang.

At any rate, Kaleene tries to reassure you. "Don't worry -- this room is going to be one of the nodes of the spell. That's why I first had to make things happen that resulted in a dorm room with opposite-sex roommates. The Reality Spell will work to make this perfectly normal for everybody." She thinks for a moment, and then says, "I'd better do some redecorating. You might want to stand up."

That suggestion doesn't really register with you until she gestures and the bed you're sitting on disappears, causing you to hit the floor ass-first. Another gesture, and the identical bed on the other side of the room expands into a double bed. Dark green satin sheets and pillows appear on it.

You sit on the floor and watch the gorgeous green-skinned nymph busy herself with some more magical decorating. On one hand, you're intrigued by the prospect of sharing a room with a beautiful, horny Fae. On the other hand, you're worried about the world getting screwed up somehow by the Reality Spell -- but because of that "secret spell" that was cast on you, you may not be able to tell anyone about it before it happens.