Controlling magic is difficult and embarrassing

"The first thing you must learn is control, apprentice." Mistress drawled, as Marcus knelt at her feet and hung on every word. "Magic can accomplish wonders, but it is a double-edged sword and can easily turn on its wielder. There is only one way to ensure you understand the cost, and that is to experience every agony for yourself." Even through the haze of love he felt staring up at her, Marcus frowned slightly. It almost sounded like she wanted him to hurt himself. "Do not fear, apprentice." She continued. "I will shelter your body from the worst effects. You will not perish or be damaged in any permanent way."

"What do I do?" Marcus asked, feeling a frantic need to impress her welling up inside him like a tidal wave. It washed away all his anxiousness, and suddenly the thought of pain wasn't even scary anymore. Not compared to disappointing her anyway.

"Look inward." She explained. "You should be able to feel the power inside you." Marcus tried to do as she said, feeling a little silly kneeling there and focusing on his own naked body. Sure enough, he could quickly feel that something had changed. There was this odd feeling inside him, like a buzzing hum of something flowing just under his skin. His head felt funny when he focused on it, a throbbing pulse in his temples. "Good, I see you're touching your powers now." Mistress purred, the satisfaction in her voice making him shudder with delight. "Now time for you to try and use them. We'll focus on something easy at first." She held out one hand, palm flat, and suddenly there was a white rat sitting there on its haunches. It's pink eyes found Marcus, long nose wrinkling as it sniffed at him. "I want you to make this animal grow larger, apprentice."

"How do I do that?" Marcus asked, staring back at the cute little rat.

"Magic requires will and imagination, apprentice." His goddess continued. "You must see in your mind's eye what you desire, in this case the animal growing bigger. The sharper and more focused the image, the more powerful and controlled the effect. Once you are certain you have a clear enough impression, touch your power again and try to make it flow into the animal's body. Your gift wants to be used. It's crying out to me even now. All it will take is a thought."

Marcus nodded, kneeling up straighter. She was right. He could feel that same tingling need to test these new powers simmering away inside him, like an itch he couldn't scratch. He closed his eyes, summoning up a vision of that same white rat somehow getting a little larger, it's nose and legs stretching out while its fluffy little body bulged. Not much larger or it would be scary, just maybe the size of a cat so he could stroke it's back and rub it's ears. Nodding to himself, he opened his eyes and found the animal again. It seemed so very calm there, curled up in Mistress' lovely palm. He wished he was small enough to do the same.

Just like she'd told him, he focused inward, trying to find that humming power locked away inside him. It rose up to meet him like a sea of tingling energy. Clenching his jaw, he imagined it all flowing forward, stretching out from his arm to touch the rat instead. It responded, and he could almost see the trembling tendril that was his magic probing through the air. Just a little more. He tried to summon the image of the rat growing again, but something was wrong. It felt slippery in his head, like he couldn't properly imagine that happening anymore.

The power wanted to be used. It surged inside him, filling up his body. He tried to pour it towards the rat instead, but there was just way too much. Suddenly it was crackling like a wildfire across his skin. He shrieked in panic, knowing something was very wrong, but he had no idea how to stop it. His **** gaze found Mistress, pleading with her to help him, but she just stared back and smiled thinly, still holding out the rat. It's head was still fixed on him, sniffing away. Hold on, it was getting bigger after all! He'd done it!

His smile flickered away in an instant as he realized there was something going very wrong. The rat was getting larger, but so was his goddess. He barely stood up to her waist now, her outstretched palm as big as his head. It wasn't only her, even the walls seemed to be shooting up around him. The ceiling of the throne room suddenly seemed impossibly high, and it was towering even further out of reach.

"What's happening to me?" He screamed, watching in horror as the world around him just grew and grew. No, he realized to his awful shock. It wasn't the world that was growing. He...was getting smaller! Way smaller! It showed no sign of stopping, or even slowing down until he was barely bigger than one of the marble tiles on which he stood. He had to be even smaller than that little rat by now!

Just like that, the crackling of his misfiring magic died away. He gasped frantically for air, his panicked gaze flickering over the impossibly large world around him. The pillars lining the throne room had become these huge stone monoliths, each one looking like a building all it's own, while the floor just seemed to stretch out forever. It was so disconcerting it made his stomach turn.

"How very amusing." He heard the rustling of fabric as Mistress crouched down beside him, her silvery laughter booming in his tiny ears. She loomed over him even now, each of her bare feet bigger than his whole body. "It seems that rather than causing you agonizing pain as I anticipated, your errant magic has instead backfired. Your image of what you wanted must not have been clear enough, my dear apprentice." She reached down to him, the tip of one finger larger than his head. Marcus whimpered in terror, but instead of squashing him, she just gently wrapped her hand around his tiny body and held him in her fingers. Her warm skin pressed against his entire body, the smell of her filling his every breath. Wind whipped past him as she lifted him up towards her face, her ruby-red lips curling into a thin smile right in front of him. "I think I will keep you like this for a short while, so that you learn your lesson about focus." She chuckled, staring at him with those gorgeous purple eyes. "Convenient, no? I can carry you wherever I wish without even the need to use my own gift."

"Please!" He gasped, his voice a tiny squeaking noise. This was so scary! Couldn't she fix it for him?

"Sorry, dear." She drawled, delight shining in her eyes. "These are lessons that must be learnt the hard way and I will make sure to teach them to you. Now, what should I do with my cute little apprentice, hmmm?"