Free Luck of the Draw (Xanth) by Piers Anthony

a commanding presence, wearing a formidable-looking sword. She was a breathtakingly lovely thirty-seven.
    “Bryce?” the man said, shaking his hand. “Trent. This is my wife Iris. I understand you’re from Mundania.”
    “Yes, recently. I’m still adapting to this remarkable land.”
    “I spent twenty years in Mundania. I remember it well. But I was in a different time.”
    “You are going to marry Harmony?” the woman asked sternly.
    “No!” Bryce said. “I mean, this isn’t my idea. I’m older than I look, and she’s a virtual child.”
    “How old are you?”
    “Eighty.”
    “I am a hundred and fourteen, youthened to thirty-nine. My wife is a hundred and ten, youthened to thirty-seven. So we’re a generation beyond you.”
    “I have to believe it,” Bryce said. “Because it happened to me. But I am amazed regardless.”
    “Magic does change things,” Trent said. “Let’s get out in the field where we can work on your talent.”
    “My talent isn’t much. One eye sees ten seconds ahead.”
    “That’s enough,” Iris said. “Stand where you are. Orient on me. Use your talent.”
    What was she up to? Bryce stood and watched her.
    In half a moment his left eye saw her clothing become translucent, then transparent. He saw right through it to her bra and panties. They were excellently filled. Then she turned around, and he saw her panties from behind.
    Fingers snapped near his ear. “Snap out of it,” Trent said. “Your second sight won’t help you that way.”
    “I—I must have freaked out.”
    “Exactly. She flashed her panties, and you were gone. You have to learn how to protect yourself from that. Otherwise a damsel and a dragon could wipe you out without even a token fight. Do you think dragons associate with damsels out of mere niceness? The damsels earn their keep.”
    Obviously true. “How can I protect myself?”
    “Put your second sight in second mode. Damp it down halfway, so that the panties lack sufficient detail to freak. Then, forewarned, avoid the view with your right eye.”
    Bryce had tried to do something like that before, but with inconsistent success. They worked on it, and Bryce began to gain the control he needed. Then Iris tried him again. This time when her clothing faded, so did his vision, fuzzing the details. When she turned around it was almost as if she were wearing tight pants; they impressed him without freaking him. When it started with his right eye, he simply gazed at her head, no lower, knowing exactly what to avoid.
    “But I must say,” he said to her, “you have a most impressive figure for your age. Either age.”
    Iris laughed. “It’s all illusion. I was never that sexy in real life.”
    “Illusion?” He had been told, but somehow had not really picked up on it. In Mundania illusion usually meant sleight of hand.
    “Remember, she is the Sorceress of Illusion,” Trent said. “She can make anything appear. We shall be seeing more of that soon.”
    “I am impressed, regardless.”
    “Thank you,” Iris said.
    “We will start with illusory threats,” Trent said. “When you can navigate those, we’ll try some real ones.”
    “I appreciate your effort,” Bryce said. “But I can’t see why I am worth your attention.”
    “Two reasons,” Trent said. “Retirement gets dull after a few decades, so we don’t mind helping out when needed. We also value our offspring, and all five great-granddaughters are remarkable girls. Harmony is perhaps the most practical of the triplets, and we hope to help steer her right.”
    “The others went wrong?”
    “Eve married Pluto, the Demon of Hades. Dawn married a walking skeleton. Oh, he has a good skull on his shoulder bones, and he is Xanth’s most talented musician, but perhaps you can appreciate the social awkwardness.”
    Bryce did not want to criticize his hosts. “They seem to have made a compatible family.”
    “Indeed, and those crossbreed children are cute. But we had some worried