"It’s certainly the most peculiar enchanted item I’ve ever made..." Isara admitted.
The prototype was definitely one of a kind - instead of a neat circle on the inside of the mask, the runes were scribbled all over the thing, channels zigzagging on the wooden surface.
"Do I need to bleed on it to test into out?" Calen asked.
"No, blood is not necessary to check whether the enchantment functions correctly."
"Alright then, do you want to do the honours?"
"Yes I do." She grinned.
Isara took a small magic stone she prepared beforehand, and inserted it into a specially prepared indentation on the mask’s forehead.
The magic circuit flickered with a subdued blue light, but then it got brighter and more stable, until it looked completely normal.
"Looks like it works."
"Yeah, but we have to test the effects." Isara insisted. "Put it on."
"Because I said so. Now shut up and put it on, it will burn out in a few minutes."
Calen sighed and grabbed the mask.
When he secured it on his face he suddenly felt very strange - like something was off about him, but he couldn’t tell what.
From Isara’s perspective the change was much more visible, and frankly a bit disturbing.
The moment Calen put on the mask it disappeared, and his facial features began shifting - a few seconds later the man in fron of her was unrecognisable, if she didn’t know it was him, she would have never guessed.
"So, does it work?" An unfamiliar voice asked.
"Yes, a bit too well even - take this thing off."
For Calen it was as simple as removing a mask, but to Isara the process looked like he ripped off his face, revealing another one underneath.
"If it’s this effective on regular wood then I’m afraid how it’ll work on rune-oak." Calen paused. "But aren’t we missing something? If it was as simple as that lots of other people would have come up with this."
"I’m sure someone has come up with a similar enchantment to use for robberies and such - but that’s because we’ve only completed one part of it." Isara nodded. "I kinda lied to Alfred about the blood, it’s actually a crucial part of the magic circle."
"Yeah, I guessed that much - binding the spell to him wouldn’t make sense, since the mask is supposed to be used by other people as well."
"What we currently have is the visual part of the spell, and a basis for the rest - to complete it we need to write the name of whoever will be using it with their own blood." She pointed at a suspiciously empty space on the design. "It’ll go here."
"Have you checked how to spell his name with runes though?"
"Of course I did, who do you take me for?" She paused. "...you can bring me the rune dictionary, just in case."
"Certainly, miss prepared-for-everything." He chuckled and got up to retrieve the dictionary from his room.
"Take the blood from Alfred while you’re at it, I’ll get the real thing engraved while you’re gone."
Calen returned a few minutes later with a bulky tome in one hand, and a bowl full of blood in the other.
"Where did you get a bowl?" Isara frowned. "And why did he give you so much blood?"
"That’s not the order in which I would ask those questions." He chuckled. "I made the bowl with magic, obviously - it’s one of the most useful things you could learn to make with a spell."
"He wanted to give us enough so that he won’t have to cut himself open more."
"That’s way too much though - a quarter of this would have been more than enough."
"I told him that, he just didn’t listen. Elira is now is now trying to treat his cut with the scraps she has left."
"Eh, put the surplus in one of the everfresh canteens you got in Asharil, maybe we’ll need it for something else in the future."
"I just hope no one will go through our things, a flask full of blood isn’t a great look." His gaze fell on the box with Isara’s enchanting tools. "Do you have something to write with? I hope you’re not thinking of doing it with the engraver."
"Worry not, the set has a suction quill - although now that I think about it it’s kinda weird we normalised writing with strange liquids so much that there’s a dedicated tool for it..."
"Enchanted ink is expensive so people find cheaper alternatives. Calen shrugged.
Israra dipped a long quill with a hollow interior in the bowl of blood and watched it slowly fill up with the crimson substance.
"Good thing master was loaded, I couldn’t imagine writing scrolls with barghest saliva, or some other shit like that."
"You know that Elira uses way worse stuff for her potions, right?"
When the pen was finally full Isara started to quietly scribble Alfred’s name on the mask.
It would be ready soon.
"So how does this mask work exactly?" Alfred asked.
"Once you put it on it’ll choose an alternate appearance for you, and distort your voice and aura to make them unrecognisable.* Calen explained. "It will always turn you into the same person though, so if you want to change your appearance again we’ll have to reset the mask."
"And I just need to put it on?"
Alfred stared at the mask - it’s not that he didn’t trust his new allies, but he was anxious to return to his home as a complete stranger.
Still, it was the only option.
He put on the mask and instantly felt himself change, at a very fundamental level.
"You weren’t kidding, this thing really works..." Elira commented. "Although I must admit... this wasn’t the transformation I expected."
Isara was also mildly surprised by the transformation which just took place.
"Well, the changes made by the mask are supposed to be random, but I didn’t think something was possible."
"Why are you reacting like that? What happened?" Alfred’s squeaked. "...what the hell is this voice?"
"I think it’s for the best if you see it yourself."
Isara handed him a hand mirror she brought from her room.
In the reflection instead of seeing his face Alfred saw a young boy, no older than 16.
"You gotta be shitting me..."