Rob slid into Facit’sold body shell and found it intensely claustrophobic at first, buthe could see how the lenses allowed relatively good sight. Bymentally chanting a calming mantra he was able to keep theclaustrophobia at bay while learning to walk, which he foundrequired considerable balance and coordination. It took him anotherfive days to succeed in walking with relative grace.
Now that Rob wasconfident about shape changing to a Logicon shape, he needed tounderstand the other's nature. To do this the two were going toswap spirits. In this way Rob could truly feel what it was like tobe a Logicon, as his spirit would be in Facit’s body and Facit’sspirit would be in his own body.
The magical spirit swapritual was complex but considered to be not too dangerous. It tookabout half an hour, but only lasted for a few minutes, and if theystayed relatively close and within visual sight of each other, whenit ended their spirits would return to their own bodies withoutproblems. If they were too far apart when the magical effect ended,then their spirits would stay permanently in the new body until theritual was used again.
When Facit completedthe ritual, Rob had the strange sensation of turning into mist andstreaming out of the top of his body. Fortunately, he was told tolie down before it happened, otherwise his body would have toppledover and perhaps been damaged. His spirit was attracted to Facit’sbody and flowed into it while concurrently Facit’s spirit flowedinto Rob’s body.
The feeling of being inthe Logicon body was quite strange. Over the last several days hehad imitated the Logicon body but always felt that he was thinkinglike a newman. In the new body the feeling was changed. Facit’sbody was interacting with his newman spirit. He viewed the worldand his situation in a different, less emotional, more logical way.He also found that the body shell was no longer claustrophobic butgave him a definite feeling of protection and safety. He preferreddarkness to light and liked the taste of the floor and the air whenout of the body shell.
Rob learnt aboutLogicon behaviour both in and out of the shell. He learnt how torecognise their state of mind by their actions and postures. In thebreaks between behaviour sessions and allowing his source torecharge, Rob learnt to speak a little of the Logicon language anda lot about their codes of ethics, their love for learning, theirpolitical views, and so on.
Rob became sointerested and so eager that he asked Facit if he could try tolearn to shape shift to look like himself starting from Facit’sLogicon body. This would give him a better understanding of how tomimic another person or creature. Facit agreed with the logic andhe and Rob shifted their spirits between the two bodies manytimes.
To do this they set upa large mirror so that Rob could monitor his shape, and Facit’sspirit in Rob’s body would act as a model to copy.
He spent a day tryingto get his jelly like body to rise off the ground, and only afterexamining some scrolls on the anatomy of animals and newmansrealised the virtue of having a bony skeleton. At first it was astrangely unreal feeling, having mental control of his body shape.It was like a weird dream, but very addictive. He spent hoursadjusting parts of his body adding hair, changing shapes and skincolours.
It took him a couple ofdays just to get a good average newman shape and then severalfurther days to perfect it into that of a passable newman. He hadmany laughs watching himself in the mirror. He could make his legslong and arms short and stubby then reverse the process in secondshaving short fat legs and long thin arms that dragged on theground.
He studied drawings andpaintings of people and tried to mimic them. He would place aportrait beside the mirror and work on the subtle facialdifferences until he became them. Eventually, the novelty wore off.He had reduced changing to a Logicon from a newman and vice versadown to a memorized routine and it was time to show the family.
Rob’s idea was for themto both to go as duplicates of Rob and ask his family members toidentify who was who. Later he would show them how he could mimic aLogicon. He knew that they would immediately ask questions thatonly Rob would know, so after they had done a spirit swap and Robhad shape changed from a Logicon back to an imitation of his ownbody he created a mindlink between Facit and himself and they bothwent to see Granddad.
‘Ah at last!’ saidGranddad. ‘I see you’ve made a lot of progress and are going tochallenge me to pick the correct Rob.’
‘Yes, Granddad!’ theysaid as one.
He smiled and walkedaround the pair looking for clues, but he couldn’t see any obviousones. Both duplicates had minor differences but nothing that mightsuggest which was which, so he asked them to walk around a little,again finding no clues. Next he asked each duplicate severalquestions which each was able to answer.
‘Very good indeed,’ hesaid, then Rob felt a surge of mind magic and noticed thatGranddad’s eyes glowed briefly indicating that he had modified hisvision, probably to detect illusions and other deceptive magic. Helooked at them both for a few moments and then figured out whatthey had done.
‘I wouldn’t recommendusing that spirit swap ritual in dangerous situations. It has ledto considerable grief at times and is outlawed almost everywhere.However, I’m sure it would have helped you gain a shape changer’sperspective Rob.’
‘Facit has beenwonderfully patient and a great tutor, Granddad,’ Rob offered.‘Where are the others?’
‘They’re all out at themoment except for Melanie who’s around somewhere. See if she canpick the difference,’ Granddad said with a chuckle. ‘Tonight we’llhave a celebration and
