Free Web Novel**
"Is it, though?"
Ariana opened her mouth, closed it, and then — to Aaron's genuine surprise — actually paused to consider the accusation instead of immediately steamrolling past it.
"...Okay, fine, it's a little accurate," she admitted. "But hear me out this time, because this one actually has logic behind it instead of just curiosity. Your biology is still actively forming. The wings haven't finished growing. The bone density is still adjusting. None of what's happening to you reads like a slow, finished process — it reads like something still in progress. If ambient mana saturation accelerated Alyssa's growth this dramatically, there's a real chance it could do something similar to you."
"Or it could do something else entirely, since we don't actually know what 'something else' looks like yet." Aaron kept his arms crossed. "She got taller. Fine. We don't know what changed on the inside. You're talking about putting me in the same water before you've even finished writing up what just happened to her."
Ariana opened her mouth to argue again, then stopped, actually stopped, pen hovering mid-air.
"...That's annoyingly reasonable."
"I have my moments."
"Don't get used to me agreeing with you, it'll ruin my reputation." She tapped her pen against the desk, the excitement visibly downshifting into something more methodical, more controlled — the same flip-of-a-switch transformation he'd seen her do back at the inn. "Fine. Order of operations. First, I finish documenting what just happened to your mushroom friend, because frankly she's the more interesting result right now and I don't want to lose data by getting distracted. Then we figure out exactly why this happened — saturation levels, exposure time, absorption rate — before anyone, meaning you, gets anywhere near a variable I haven't controlled yet."
"That's the first sensible thing you've said all morning." freёweɓnovel.com
"I say sensible things constantly, you just don't notice because they're usually surrounded by other things." Ariana turned back toward Alyssa, who had moved on from examining her fingers to examining her own reflection in a polished steel cabinet, leaning in close and making faces at herself with unrestrained delight. "Alyssa, darling, can you come here? I need to check a few things now that you've finished growing. Assuming you've finished."
Alyssa abandoned the mirror immediately at the prospect of being addressed and walked over — properly walked, with the coordinated gait of someone whose legs were now long enough to actually carry her with some dignity, rather than the determined little waddle she'd had before.
"Am I done growing?" she asked, sounding equal parts hopeful and faintly disappointed, as though some small part of her had been enjoying the process and wouldn't have minded a few more inches.
"Let's find out." Ariana held up the same flat, glowing device from earlier, running it slowly along Alyssa's cap, down her shoulders, along the length of her now-proper arms. The blue glow pulsed steadily, evenly, with none of the spiking intensity it had shown during the growth itself.
"Saturation's stabilizing," Ariana murmured, mostly to herself, jotting notes in handwriting that had returned to its careful, controlled baseline now that the immediate event had passed. "Settling well above her original baseline, but the rate of increase has flattened almost completely. I'd call this complete. Or complete for now."
"For now?" Aaron asked.
"Biology rarely deals in absolutes, brother. She might have another spurt in her if she's exposed to something similarly potent again. Or she might not. Mushfolk physiology isn't exactly a well-documented field, mostly because most of them live in places that don't have research facilities conveniently attached." Ariana set the device down and studied Alyssa properly, the way you'd evaluate a finished piece of work. "How do you feel? Genuinely. Not the exciting answer. The honest one."
Alyssa considered this with the same gravity she'd given the earlier question about feeling warm.
"Strong," she said eventually, flexing one arm experimentally and looking faintly delighted at whatever resistance she felt there now that hadn't existed before. "Strong, and a little hungry. And my head doesn't feel heavy anymore. The warm feeling went away."
"Good. That means the process actually completed instead of just pausing somewhere uncomfortable." Ariana made one final note and closed the folder with a satisfied little snap. "Alright. Full blood work, mana resonance scans, and structural measurements by end of day, but that can wait an hour, because apparently growth spurts and lab visits both require food and I have been an inconsiderate scientist."
"You say that like it's a recent discovery."
"It is a recent discovery. I usually forget my test subjects need food at all. Feel lucky." Ariana stood, stretching slightly, looking like someone who'd just had an unexpectedly productive morning, in spite of — or perhaps because of — several things going sideways.
She headed toward a side door that Aaron hadn't noticed before, gesturing for both of them to follow.
Alyssa trailed after Aaron with the careful, slightly wobbly steps of someone still getting used to a body that hadn't existed in this configuration twenty minutes ago. She kept glancing down at her own legs as she walked, like she didn't quite trust them yet to keep doing what she told them to do.
"Sir Aaron," she said, tugging lightly at his sleeve once they were through the door, into a smaller side room that turned out to be some kind of staff break area — a table, a few chairs, a counter with what looked like a kettle and some basic supplies. "Everything looks so close now."
"Closer?"
"Mm. Before, everything was far away and big. Now things are close and normal-sized." She climbed up into one of the chairs, which fit her properly now instead of swallowing her whole the way it would have an hour ago, and swung her legs slightly, testing the new reach of them against the floor. "It's strange. Good strange. But strange."
"You're handling it well," Aaron said, settling into the chair across from her, the small domestic normalcy of the moment a welcome contrast to the clinical intensity of the lab they'd just left.
"I like being big!" Alyssa announced, swinging her legs with renewed enthusiasm. "I can see the top of tables now! And I don't have to be carried in pockets all the time, even though pockets were warm and nice."
"You're welcome to keep using the pocket if you want," Aaron said, mostly teasing. "Might be a tighter fit now."
Alyssa giggled — an actual giggle now, with a slightly different timbre than the squeak she used to make, the sound shifting along with the rest of her. "I think I am too big for the pocket now, Sir Aaron. I would get stuck. That would be embarrassing."
"Marginally less embarrassing than the alternative, which is you not fitting and me trying to force it anyway."
"You would not do that."
"I might."
"You would not," she repeated, with the absolute, unshakeable confidence of someone who had decided this was true and saw no reason to entertain other possibilities. She reached across the table and patted his hand with her now-properly-formed fingers, the gesture carrying the same easy affection it always had, just delivered through a hand that could actually wrap most of the way around his.
Ariana returned a few minutes later carrying a tray loaded with more food than three people could reasonably need — some kind of warmed bread, a selection of fruit Aaron didn't recognize, and a steaming pot of something that smelled vaguely like tea but probably wasn't.
"Eat," she said, setting the tray down. "All of you. I refuse to be responsible for my test subjects fainting from hunger, it looks terrible on a report." ƒгeewёbnovel.com
"Is that your primary concern? How it looks on a report?"
"My primary concern is your wellbeing, brother, the report concern is secondary but still very real." Ariana sat, pouring herself a cup of the not-quite-tea and watching Alyssa attack the bread with the unrestrained enthusiasm of someone whose body had apparently spent a significant chunk of energy over the last hour and intended to replace every bit of it immediately.
Aaron watched Alyssa eat for a moment, something settling in his chest that he hadn't quite expected. She looked different now — taller, more defined, her face carrying traces of an adolescent shape rather than the rounder, smaller features she'd had before. Not an adult by any measure. Still clearly young, still clearly the same enthusiastic, occasionally indignant creature who complained about being poked and squealed about pockets. Just... more.
It was a strange thing to witness. Not unsettling, exactly. Just strange, the way watching anything grow up faster than expected tends to be strange.
"You're staring, Sir Aaron," Alyssa said between bites, not bothered by it in the slightest.
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
"About how I'm going to explain this to Eva and Claire." Aaron rubbed the back of his neck. "I left with a mushroom the size of my thumb. I'm fairly sure I'm coming back with something closer to a small teenager."
"Tell them I am still me!" Alyssa said brightly, as if this solved everything. "Just bigger me. Same me on the inside."
"That's actually the easy part to explain," Ariana said, sipping her drink with the satisfaction of someone enjoying herself thoroughly. "The hard part is going to be explaining why I'm now extremely interested in your mountain's entire aquifer system, and why I may need several more buckets, and possibly several more mushfolk, before this research wraps up."
"You are not getting more mushfolk."
"I was thinking purely in scientific terms."
"You're never thinking purely in scientific terms." Aaron reached for a piece of bread himself, the practical hunger of the morning finally catching up to him. "But fine. Document what you need from her. Just — nothing else without asking first. She doesn't get experimented on without her say in it either."
"Duly noted, and somewhat touching, brother." Ariana smiled, the expression genuine in a way that cut through some of her usual theatrical edge. "I promise, anything further involving her happens with full consent and full transparency. I'm a researcher, not a monster."
"Debatable," Aaron muttered.
"Heard that."
Alyssa, for her part, had stopped paying attention to either of them, fully absorbed in testing what her new arms could reach across the table without needing to stand up. She knocked over a small jar, caught it before it could spill, and beamed with pride at her own reflexes like she'd just won a competition nobody else knew was happening.
Whatever else this day had in store, Aaron decided, watching her settle back into her chair with the easy, unbothered contentment of someone perfectly happy in their own rapidly-changed skin, at least she seemed to be taking it better than he was.
