Emilia will see you now

You immediately forgot about the guy next to you as you stepped inside toward Alice. "I need to see Emilia right now, I have a problem with the..." You glanced back, and saw the guy standing there with a quirked eyebrow, like some puzzled Herculean figure. "...with the thing from earlier."

Alice looked between you and the guy, who just shrugged. "I can wait. Ladies first," he said.

"I'll deal with you later, then." Alice rolled her eyes and motioned for you to follow. "This isn't a very convenient time, Coinbearer, Emilia's working on another project. You really should have called first." You started to protest, before you remembered that the card you got way back when this all started did have a phone number on it. Whoops.

"I panicked. This is serious."

You hurried along as Alice's heels tapped swiftly along the old wooden floors of the century-old mansion. Before Spiral City even existed, the King mansion existed in the same state as you saw it now. Other than the modern electronics like the cameras following you at every turn in the hallways, it would seem. Alice opened a door to a room on the left of the long hall, and led you inside.

You saw Emilia, flipping through a book, as she directed two other people who were working on some sort of... device. It reminded you of a giant mechanical jellyfish, although upside-down, with a dome the size of a van hanging from the ceiling. The cogs and tubes and gears extending upward as its 'tendrils' were affixed to the ceiling.

You wanted to ask what it was, but this time you stayed quiet. You really needed Emilia's help this time, and you didn't want her storming out on you without answers. When she did eventually look up at you, she offered a warm smile. Warm-ish. "Ah, Jane. It's lovely to see you again, although I didn't expect it to be so soon." She glances back at the weird dome after noticing you were staring at it more than her. "Fascinating, isn't it? The German scientists who made it in the late 19th century called it the Geistermaschine. Hence, we call it the Ghost Machine. It was one of the first truly unusual items in my grandfather's collection, after he found enough non-enchanted ancient figurines and pots and swords and whatever else to satisfy him. He really wanted some unusual items in his collection, and he became very excited when he heard about a machine that could turn someone into some sort of 'astral energy' version of themselves for a period of time, that sounded like a truly worthy artifact."

You blinked, staring upward at it. "It can really do that?" With the coin in your bag, why are you even surprised?

Emilia shrugged. "I can't say for certain, not yet. A century of neglect has the entire thing seized up. We're not even sure what sort of fuel it might use, and on and on. It might be anywhere from weeks to years before I can say definitively that it functions for its intended purposes, or if it just shoots sparks and little else. But I don't think someone would go to all this trouble when flint and steel would suffice. The scientists wanted to turn soldiers into these astral-selves so they might possess enemy combatants and make them fight one another."

You gulped. What on earth would Emilia want to do with a thing like this, if it worked? You dared not ask, but when she snapped her book shut you hopped up a little in surprise, before putting all attention on her.

"So," she began, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

You nodded, and began fishing around in your bag. "The coin... it's not working anymore. I tried flipping it earlier today, and it landed the side up where I thought I'd be normal again, but... well, nothing happened."

Emilia frowns, as she held out her hand once you produced the coin. "That shouldn't be a problem as long as the coin is whole. We have run a test where a coin is broken in half and the magic ceases to function, but this looks intact." She examines it carefully, motioning to an assistant who brought her a magnifying glass. "I can still read the inscription, there are plenty of details on the faces such that I can know which side is which... to me, this is a fully functional coin." Emilia sets the coin down on the book in her lap, Mars side up.

You shifted a little, not feeling any different. You pulled the hoodie forward, and your cleavage greeted you. You reached down and tugged the fabric up, looking at your hips, noting their roundness and fullness. Your hair still tickled at the back of your neck as you did all this. "Nnnnnope. Still me."

Emilia furrowed her brow, picking up the coin again. "Strange. This isn't something we've observed before, we might have to get this documented and further studied. Do you have a free day tomorrow? We could start then, but I will need to do a little reading tonight." A curious Emilia set the coin down, this time setting it Venus-side up, just as you had tried earlier.

The instant she did that, while you didn't feel any different, you heard a loud yelp echo through the hallway. Taking a few steps outside of the room, you looked left and right out the door to the 'Ghost Machine' room, and squinted when you saw the culprit.

Felicia was standing next to Alice, wearing the same t-shirt and pants that the mysterious guy had been wearing before. When she realized you were looking at you, she offered up one of her patented grins. "Oh, hey Jane."

Emilia was slow to follow, but when she managed to stand and walk to your side, she glanced out as well to see the changed Felicia, but somehow this result didn't even faze her. "Well, I'd say we solved that mystery quite clearly. You two must have switched your coins."

Author's note: for possession-focused tales focusing on the Ghost Machine, they are continued in this story.