Part 1 of The Sizemancer Queen.
A Queen without a Kingdom.
That's what she was now Louisa reflected as her and her remaining two guards made their way through the woods. She had always suspected a day like this would come though and had made plans. Her younger sister had always been unhappy with the hand life had dealt her and had done everything she could to undermine Louisa, so it didn't come as a surprise when she marched into the throne-room with her traitorous collaborators. Thankfully she hadn't known about the escape tunnel beneath the throne that Louisa had secretly commissioned.
The escape had gone smoothly, now it was time to fight back. There were many practitioners of magic in the Kingdom she could turn to for help, each with their own speciality. She could have travelled far and wide, bringing them all together to form her own rebel force - but Queen Louisa had decided long ago that all she needed was a sizemancer.
She knew of only one practitioner in the magic of size; a hermit who lived in the most remote woods in the Kingdom. Despite her guards' protests she had insisted they travel straight there after their flight from the castle. Now, heading into the dark of the woods she started to question her plan. The stories of the sizemancer had fascinated her when she was young, but that was many years ago. He'd likely be a great age by now, it was possible he - and his speciality of magic, were gone from this world. As Louisa considered this, she felt great sadness - if it were true her whole plan would fall apart. But she was pulled from this melancholy by the call of one of her guards, he was pointing at something. She turned to see where he pointed and saw a small hut, and stood at the door; a man in wizard's clothing.
After introducing herself and explaining the situation she was able to confirm that the man stood before them was indeed the sizemancer. He invited them in and showcased the results of his magic. Shrunken tools and trees adorned his walls, and his pantry was full of enlarged foods. Satisfied by what she had seen, the Queen then made her ask.
"I need you, to make me into a giant."
"Your majesty?" one of her guards interrupted, but she held up her hand imploring him to be silent.
"Oh, is that right?" asked the sizemancer.
"Yes - to restore myself in the hearts of my subjects I need to win back my throne myself."
"Hmmmmm?" the sizemancer pondered in such a way that seemed to prompt for a response, but Louisa offered none.
The sizemancer thought about the request for a moment before offering his thoughts.
"I'll be honest, it sounds a lot of work. I'll have to grow you - which requires a lot of power by the way. Then when you've won back your kingdom you'll want to be shrunk back which again takes power."
Louisa corrected him, "Actually, you don't have to worry about shrinking me back if that makes things easier."
"Hmmmm?" the sizemancer pondered questioningly again.
"I'd actually prefer to stay big." Queen Louisa informed the sizemancer, before clarifying, "To keep the Kingdom safe."
"Really?" the sizemancer questioned, "Despite the extra cost to the kingdom to keep its giant Queen clothed and fed? Despite the fact you'd never live a normal life again?"
"Costs I am willing to pay."
The sizemancer made the same pondering noise again, "Hmmmm?"
"If you have a question come out with it!" demanded the Queen.
"You could go to a pyromancer and have them burn the enemy army. Or a hydromancer and have them flood the enemy out, but instead you come to me. Why?"
"Well, they'll expect traditional magic, few know about your abilities."
"Even so, wouldn't it make more sense to shrink the enemy down, rather than turning yourself into a weapon?"
"I'd thought of that but it seems more effective to make me huge and..."
"Its because you want to be big." interrupted the sizemancer.
"Of course, to smite my enemy beneath my foot."
"I bet you've always wanted to be big."
"N-no." faltered Louisa.
The sizemancer sighed, "I've had plenty come to me over the years asking to be made giant - not many women mind you, but a few. They all admit to having a fascination with being giant eventually."
This gave Louisa a lot to think about.
After several minutes of contemplation she spoke again, "So... I'm not alone?"
"No, you're not."
"That's so good to hear." Louisa sighed to herself,
The Queen thought some more more about the revelation she was having about herself.
"I always wanted to be a bit bigger." she admitted after some more reflection, "At least bigger than my younger sister. She was always so tall - and buxom. She stole everyone's hearts. Everyone seemed to forget I was the one destined to be Queen - that's why no one came to my aid when she marched in with her hired swords and turncoats. If only I was just a bit bigger, or maybe just bustier, they would have accepted me as their Queen better."
The sizemancer nodded in understanding of her story.
Louisa continued, "I daydreamed of it, becoming bigger - but then my mind wandered - taking it to extremes. Not just bigger, but much bigger - big enough to squash her and any of her suitors under my boot. or crush them in my... oh - sorry. I get a bit carried away sometimes."
"Its alright your majesty." was all the sizemancer said in response.
After a few moments of silence, Queen Louisa had to ask the question that had been playing on her mind, "What happened to the others like me? The ones who wanted to be big?"
"I turned them away." admitted the sizemancer, "Making giants is a dangerous game."
"Oh...", was all Louisa could reply.
She had another question to ask, she feared what she now suspected the answer to be but she had to ask it, "So... you won't fulfil my wish?"
"Is it a wish or a command?" asked the sizemancer pointedly.
"Command." decided the Queen after little deliberation.
"Then I guess I have no choice." said the sizemancer, now heading over to his tomes.
"Great!" declared Louisa with glee, "I need to be taller than the castle at least."
"And how high is that?" asked the wizard, searching through the pages of the biggest book before him.
"I'm not sure" said the Queen, "two hundred feet, maybe three hundred?"
She turned to her guards for clarification but they just shrugged in response.
"Well, which is it?" the sizemancer queried, distracted by whatever he was reading.
"Does it matter? Just make me grow and I'll tell you when to stop." demanded the Queen.
"You know what, this isn't right..." uttered the sizemancer as he checked the runes in front of him, "I really shouldn't be growing you."
"But I commanded you..." complained Louisa, before turning to her guards, "Men - some persuasion may be needed..."
"No, no need for that. I mean - it'd be better if you could grow yourself." clarified the sizemancer.
"You mean you would teach me?"
"All royals get taught the magical basics right?"
"Yes, I know the foundations and a few protection spells - its one of the reasons I was able to survive the coup."
"Ok, then this should be easy for you." said the sizemancer as handed the tome to the Queen.
Louisa stared hungrily at the writings within the books pages. This was the stuff her dreams were made of, the steps needed to magically alter size - specifically her own.
"Read it and memorise it." instructed the sizemancer, "Books get hard to read once you surpass a certain size."
The Queen flicked through the tome, realising that, despite its size, there were actually few pages contained within it.
"Is this it, the secret to all sizemancy?" she asked.
"Yes, its really just one spell - a size altering one. There's some modifiers but I don't often bother with them."
It only took a few hours for Queen Louisa to commit the whole book and its spell to her memory. She closed the book with satisfaction and looked around for something to test her newly learned magic on. One of her guards was unfortunate enough to catch her eye. She murmured the incantation, moved her hands to appropriately channel her magical energy and focussed the spell on him. Before she knew it the knight was shrinking, faster and faster. The sight of him becoming more and more insignificant before her was intoxicating, she had to stop herself from shrinking him out of sight - thankfully stopping his reduction in time to leave him one inch tall. She could barely hear his protests, even when holding him up to her face.
At this moment the sizemancer re-entered the room from his kitchen with a fresh pot of tea. He saw the tiny guard in the Queen's hand and smiled.
"Impressive, you shrunk his armour too." he stated approvingly.
"It's incredible." stated Louisa, studying her handiwork on the terrified guard, "And so simple."
"It looks like you've taken to it." the sizemancer complemented her once again, "Shrinking anything living like that takes a lot of power."
"Well, I am of royal blood - it is said to be rich with magical potential."
"Yes, I know - which is why I thought you'd make a good student."
"Please, you're only teaching me because I commanded you to help me." clarified the Queen.
The sizemancer scoffed, "Oh please, I don't have to follow anyone's commands. I'm a sizemancer - I could have shrunk you and your guards down at any time and left you for the rats.
"Oh, Then why didn't you?"
"My magic is nearly spent" confessed the sizemancer, "The time has come to pass on my knowledge. Someone with a strong magical baseline and a keen interest in size is the perfect successor."
"Oh, thank you - I'm really honoured." gushed Louisa with genuine thanks.
The sizemancer smiled in reply, before adding, "Also, I really want to see how big you can get."
"Oh really?" asked Queen Louisa with excitement, "Then lets go outside and find out."
Outside Louisa readied herself. She knew the spell inside and out and had plentiful magical energy - but she was still shaking. She wasn't sure if it was nerves or excitement. What if being big didn't live up to her expectations? What if she couldn't get to a size she was happy with? What if she messed up and shrunk herself instead? All these fears nearly stopped her - but something spurred her on. It was own desire, her desire to be big.
The Queen once again whispered the incantation, now performing the appropriate gestures to channel the size-changing magic into herself. At first she only felt a warmth from the magic within her bubbling up. Then, with a sudden start, she jumped up in size. The jolt was not unpleasant, but she decided it was not appropriate for a royal magic user like herself. She performed several course-correcting hand gestures to level out her growth into a more smooth transformation. She watched as the ground moved away from her and everything started to get smaller. Below her the sizemancer and her one remaining normal-sized guard became like tiny figurines to her - she'd have no chance of seeing the guard she shrunk now. Soon she found herself looking over the forest and down on the sizemancer's hut. All her fears washed away as she revelled in the pleasure of her growth.
Eventually the sensations of growth threatened to overpower the Queen, she needed to take a break from it. She performed the hand gesture to sever the spell's effects and her gentle increasing in size halted. She looked down on her gigantic body with satisfaction.
"So, how are you finding it?" came the tiny voice of the sizemancer below.
"This is everything I thought it would be, and more...." gushed Louisa so loudly that it sent animals in the forest all around scurrying.
"That's a very impressive size, especially for a first try." came the tiny voice from below again.
"Thank you." replied the Queen, now finishing with studying herself and instead turning to find the source of the tiny voice.
Eventually she was able to find the sizemancer and her remaining guard, they were like mice next to her feet. She sighed and bit her lip with pleasure upon seeing the size difference between herself and them.
"Not bad right?" she asked the tiny men before her, nearly knocking them over with the power of her voice to her great pleasure.
"Yes, very good." shouted up the sizemancer, before adding, "But..."
"But?" questioned the Queen.
"But, to be honest... " elaborated the tiny sizemancer, "I expected you to be going bigger."
Queen Louisa smiled, the sizemancer was obviously a man after her own, now gigantic, heart.
"Oh, I will." she confirmed, "I'm going to win back the castle at nightfall so I've got plenty of time to get to the size I want before then. I just want to try something first..."
Louisa once more repeated the spell, but this time she made sure to wave her hands in a way that would redirect the growth more to where she wanted. To her satisfaction she saw what she wanted; her growth resumed but her chest was now slowly enlarging more than the rest of her.
"Interesting choice of modifier." shouted up the sizemancer.
"No doubt this'll win some of those letches in the court over to my side." she explained to him, before trying to justify it further, "It'll help with the transition..."
"Sure, And you'll crush them later?"
"You know me too well already." she replied, smiling down on the tiny sizemancer.
"Well, we must be of the same mind - to be attracted to this magic." came his thoughtful reply.
The Queen found herself in complete agreement with the tiny man.
After a few minutes, Louisa's chest would now have been the largest she'd ever seen on a woman - even if she was normal sized. She decided that would be enough and again made the gesture to end the spell.
"Lets see how that little usurper and her followers like their Queen now." she laughed when studying her newly transformed body.
Her attention was then drawn back to the sizemancer by her feet again, now looking more like an ant to her.
"Hows that for a student?" she asked with pride.
Louisa then had to bend over to hear the sizemancer's tiny reply.
"You are no student now." she heard him bellow, "You are the master!"
She regarded the tiny man in front of her, next to his insignificant hut and realised what she needed to do next.
"In that case, I'm sorry to say... I need to keep you out of enemy hands." she apologised with genuine sympathy.
The sizemancer shut his eyes as the shadow of her foot fell over him and his home, accepting his fate. The guard stood by him however was less accepting and tried to outrun the huge foot descending from above. But the edge of the foot was too far away for him to reach in time and he too was extinguished by the Sizemancer Queen.
Louisa looked up and away from the devastation her foot had just caused and towards the horizon. At her new height she could see her castle's towers from here. Despite it having taken days to reach the sizemancer's woods, it only seemed like a short stroll back to the castle - then she would show them all.
The time was approaching to take back her kingdom.
Meta: I've been wanting to write a sizemancer story for ages. The problem is my cut outs and scenery shots don't really work for a full-on fantasy setting. Luckily this shot of Louisa Khovanski fits the theme perfect so I made the effort to tie it to a scene with no signs of modernity. I've got a lot more sizemancer stories to try and tell so I'll make an effort to keep them in mind when collecting materials for future collaging sessions.
I added some silly effects and played with lighting to make those effects seem less tacked-on. I actually didn't use lighting tools or filters but manually drew lights or applied lightening brushes - I then applied blur effects to the layers where I'd added the lighting to blend in better. I'm happy with the subtle growth effect I managed for this, it was as simple as copying Louisa's outline to a new layer and applying a zoom-blur to it. I recently tried using triangles to denote growth in another collage, I do want to try them again but wanted to keep this collage simple. I think the effects around her hands sell the growth enough that extras aren't needed.
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