Alchemist’s Apprentice

"Ok so learning how to cultivate," Cathryn announced as she led me into our bedroom. "First step obviously is to get undressed. Out of those clothes Valeria, then get yourself comfortable ontop of your bed."

I wasted no time pulling off the thin tight top then I unlaced the short skirt and slipped it off too. I left both on the floor next to my bed for now, and finally lay down on my back with my head on the small pillow.

After a moment I tilted my head to look at my sister as I frowned, "That's the second time today I've stripped in front of you without a second thought. Is that... It's because of that Limited Obedience thing you mentioned last night?"

She smiled, "Good catch little sister. Perhaps we should talk some more about that before we begin the lessons?"

I pulled myself upright and sat on the edge of my bed facing her, though I didn't bother trying to cover myself. And Cathryn moved to sit on the edge of her bed, so we were facing each other across the small room.

My sister's expression became serious as she explained, "Neither that potion or any of the others I gave you have taken away your free will Valeria. I haven't made you my slave or anything awful like that. You still have your own opinions and your own thoughts, my potions haven't changed anything about your personality or your likes or dislikes."

She paused incase I had any questions or comments, but I just nodded to let her know I was listening.

"As for the Limited Obedience effect," she continued, "All it does is if I give you a firm direct order, you'll be a little more inclined to do what I say. It doesn't force you. You can refuse, especially if it's something that goes against your nature."

I thought for a few seconds about everything she just said, and what she'd said last night. There were definitely some surprises after all those potions, but honestly none of them were unpleasant. And I was beyond grateful for what she'd already done for me, my new appearance was better than my wildest dreams.

There was only one thing I could think to ask, but I already figured I knew the answer. I asked anyways though, so I'd have the peace of mind of hearing her say it.

"You're still going to teach me to be an alchemist right? All this isn't just an elaborate scheme to make me into your perfect obedient assistant?"

Her tone and expression were both completely sincere as she replied, "I'm going to teach you everything I know Val. I promise. You're starting out as my apprentice, but you'll be an alchemist too soon enough."

"However," she added in a firmer tone, "You're not allowed to share any of these secrets with anyone else. The things I'm teaching you must remain between us, or both our lives will be in danger."

Now that I knew what was going on I realized she'd just given me another order. I could almost feel it when it clicked in. At the same time I also understood why she felt she had to make that an order. There was a reason why magic was only taught at expensive schools, they didn't want those secrets to be shared with just anyone. Cathryn was probably breaking some big rules by teaching me, so it was in both our best interest for me to keep quiet.

"I get it Cat," I replied. "I wouldn't have told anyone regardless, you didn't have to make it an order."

"I'm sorry," she replied, and she sounded like she meant it. "Best to be certain though. This way there won't be any accidents or slip-ups."

I shrugged, "It's ok. Um, I guess I'm curious now what else those potions did to me?"

She smiled again, and her expression left me feeling a combination of nervous and excited.

"Apart from the second potion, they all had multiple effects. Blending separate potions together like that is what made this my master work, by the way. Getting four potions to do the work of a dozen was a feat of genius, if I do say so myself."

She paused for a deep breath, then began explaining what each of the potions I drank actually did to me.

"The red potion was a blend of three effects, called warmth, arousal, and limited obedience. I've already told you about that last one. Arousal is just like it sounds. It made you horny, which was necessary for the next step. And warmth just increases your baseline body temperature by a few degrees. It's rather nice in winter, but in warmer weather you'll find the less you wear the more comfortable you'll be. Arousal wore off as soon as we had sex, warmth and limited obedience both normally wear off in seven days."

She continued, "The pink potion did just one thing, it gave you that body. We call it a major transformation, and normally it can last up to a month. It's a powerful, complicated potion and couldn't be blended with anything else, which is why that's all it did. After drinking it, you needed to have sex with a girl to trigger the transformation, that's why the first potion included the arousal effect."

"The white potion blended a few different effects which will aid your cultivation and help you be an ideal assistant for me. The first is called sensitivity, the second's known as volume, and the third is called lactation. All of them normally wear off after a week. They all do what you'd expect, the first one makes your erogenous areas more sensitive to sexual stimulation, the second increases production of sexual fluids, and the third one makes you produce milk."

"Finally the last potion," she said as she got to the end, "It was another blend, but for now I'm only going to tell you about the most important effect. It's called permanence, and you already know what that did. Any potion still in effect on you at that time had its duration extended indefinitely. Or in other words, all the other potions became permanent."

My eyes were wide as I took all that in. "So I'll never revert back to my original shape, which is good. And I'll always feel warmer than normal, always have that limited obedience to you. And I'll always..."

I blushed and mumbled, "The three things from that white potion will always happen too."

"That's right," Cathryn nodded. "You're my beautiful little sister, my apprentice, and my perfect assistant."

I was definitely happy that the transformation would never wear off. The other effects were surprising, but I didn't hate any of it. So far everything I'd experienced had been pretty good in fact.

While I was still thinking it all through my sister added, "Incase you're wondering, I'm very familiar with the effects of each and every one of those potions, including how they actually feel. Over the last three years I've had first-hand experience all of them. I wouldn't do anything to you that I didn't already know was safe and pleasant."

That surprised me, though it was a nice surprise. I asked, "Even the obedience thing?"

Her cheeks took on a pink colour as she nodded, "Even that. I spent a week doing almost everything my roommate asked of me. It wasn't so bad, she made it fun for me as well as herself."

I blushed as well, but thinking about my sister trying all the different potions she just told me about reminded me again of the one she took last night. I glanced towards her groin as I asked, "What about that blue potion? Will that one wear off?"

Cat shook her head, "It won't. It was another blend. Minor transformation, volume, and permanence."

"Wow," I said quietly. Then I frowned as I glanced down at myself, "So you'll always have that penis forever, I'll always be a girl forever, and all those other things you mentioned... Warmth and obedience and um, volume, all that is for the rest of our lives?"

"Ah," she smiled again. "That's not necessarily the case. Permanence is maybe not the best name for it? It doesn't prevent subsequent potions from having further effects. It just extends the duration of existing potions so they never wear off."

She explained, "Pretty much any potion can be countered by another. Either a direct antidote, or something which produces an equivalent but opposite effect. Like the limited obedience for example, let's say in a few years your apprenticeship is over and for whatever reason you're not my assistant anymore. We can brew up a potion which will cancel the limited obedience and remove that from you."

"Or in my case," she continued, "Perhaps someday I'll tire of having a penis, I can brew another minor transformation potion which will remove it from me. And in either case, we'd follow it up with another permanence potion to ensure the antidote didn't wear off."

I was quiet for a few moments as I thought that through, then asked "How does the permanence potion know which ones to make permanent? Like the one you took was mixed into the blue potion, the one I took was in the clear one, but it worked on everything I drank?"

Cathryn shook her head, "It's not like that. It doesn't 'know' or 'select' what to make permanent, it just changes every potion currently affecting you to never wear off."

"Oh ok," I nodded. "So you said you took another potion last week to stop you getting pregnant. That's permanent now too?"

My sister's eyebrows shot up and she looked surprised for a moment. Then she smiled, "Good catch little sister. You're right, and I forgot all about that. That's one reason they don't teach us how to make permanence until the fourth year of our education. It's potentially dangerous and can have unintended effects. Though in this case it's not harmful, and I'll take it as a bonus."

She added, "Actually that'll be at the top of my to-do list, I'll brew up another contraceptive potion for you and another permanence as well, so you won't need to worry about accidental pregnancies. We can always undo it down the road with another potion, if you decide you want children at some point."

That made me blush again, and once more my eyes wandered towards her lap and what I knew was hidden beneath her skirt. At the same time I frowned though, "If they don't teach it till the fourth year, how did you learn it already?"

Cathryn smiled, "Like I said, as soon as I got your letter I started reading ahead and doing extra studies. I learned as much as I could before the money ran out."

"Oh yeah," I nodded.

My mind wandered slightly as I continued staring at her lap, and I marvelled at how much had already happened, and she hadn't even been home a full day yet. In that short time we'd had sex together twice, I'd become a small cute girl, and she'd grown a huge penis.

The whole situation was still sort of unbelievable, and I found myself grimacing as I commented "Dad would absolutely lose his mind if he saw us now."

I'd been kind of joking, so I really didn't expect Cathryn to react as strongly as she did.

A dark expression flashed in her eyes as she clenched her teeth then stated angrily, "Then he shouldn't have gambled the family fortune chasing a fucking title! And he shouldn't have gone off and got mom and himself killed chasing more gold to try and fix his fucking mistakes!"

My eyes were wide as I stared at her. I couldn't remember her ever being so angry at our father before. Or at least, I'd never seen or heard her express it.

"Sorry Valeria," she sighed. "I'm not angry with you. I don't know that I'll ever forgive dad though, for getting mom killed and leaving us in this situation."

"It wasn't even his fortune to lose," she added as her voice shifted back to anger again. "Our great grandfather was the one who made the family what it was. Our granddad preserved it and grew the legacy. Dad just inherited it, and in the end it was his delusions of grandeur that lost it all."

I gave her a sad look, "I know Cathryn. Dad broke some of the big rules he taught me, rules that great granddad laid out way back when. But it's done now, and there's nothing we can do about it. So no point getting angry, right? All we can do is start over, and try to rebuild things."

My sister slumped back on her bed and stared at the ceiling as she responded, "You're right Val. And you're handling things a lot better than I would have if I'd been in your place."

I wasn't so sure of that, but I didn't argue. After a moment a new question came to me and I asked, "What would have happened, if dad didn't lose everything? Would you still have given me those potions?"

Cathryn turned to look at me and admitted, "I wouldn't have given you those four specific potions. Or at least, I wouldn't have done it like that. I definitely would have offered you the transformation potion, along with a permanence. You know dad might have disowned you though, right? He'd have expected you to take over running the family business after him. And he'd have expected you to be his son in order to do that."

"Yeah," I grimaced. After a few seconds to consider the pros and cons I added, "I think I'd have accepted the potion and taken my chances with dad."

My sister smiled, "Good girl. That's the sort of strength and resolve that's going to see us through all this. Like I said, we're going to be the best damn alchemists in the land. We're going to rebuild the family fortune, and we're going to do it together. As sisters and as partners."

"You mean as business partners, right?" I asked as I looked at her.

Cathryn smirked, "Sure, we can do that too."

Before I could respond she added, "Anyways this was supposed to be your first cultivation lesson! So let's get started."