Inside-Outside-In

Shae

Zena looked very satisfied.

Shae glared at her.

Zena giggled.

Shae scrunched up her face.

Zena laughed.

“I can’t help it, okay!?”

Still laughing, Zena said, “I just didn’t expect someone so good at moving her body to be so bad at dancing. It was adorable!”

“I’ve only danced once before! And I wouldn’t really call my prom a good dance experience.”

“What’s that?”

“Students at the type of school I went to this big dance event during the final year. It was open to all the students in that year, and others in lower years if they were invited by the older students.
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“Anyway, it was a bunch of dumb kids who didn’t know how to dance, and they would be separated whenever the chaperones thought they were getting too intimate, which was often.”

Who were the king and queen again...? Never mind, I don’t care.

“Sounds silly.”

“It was. My parents pressured me into going because they were convinced I would regret it if I missed it. I hated every second of it.”

“So do you dislike dancing?”

“Not at all, I’ve just never had anyone I actually wanted to dance with before.”

Zena smiled and snuggled up to her, laying her head on Shae’s shoulder. They were currently sitting at a table in the inn, hoping the person with the absolute mess of a name would show up tonight.

Sometime later, a voice off to the side called out, “Shae?”

Looking at the source, she saw an unexpected familiar face.

She blinked. “Merrin?”

Merrin approached, looking a bit bewildered. Beside her was another woman Shae didn’t recognize until she noticed her claws.

“…And Elna?”

Elna pouted. “I’m hurt.”

“Last time I saw you… Well, you looked like shit, to be honest. And we didn’t interact much.
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“You were bedridden at the time, I was a bit distracted, and I also couldn’t speak Tiirve yet.”

She chuckled awkwardly. “That’s fair.”

“What are you doing here?”

Merrin asked, “What do you mean? We’re here for you.”

“Huh? What for? ...Ah! You’re Anmerrinciathet!”

“’Merrin’, to people I’m associated with. I forgot to tell them which name to use. Can we sit?”

“Yeah, of course. Sorry, I just didn’t expect this reunion at all.”

“Understandable. It’s been, what, six months?”

“Seven and a half.”

Zena asked, “Shae?”

“Oh, sorry. These are the people who saved my life when I was just a pile of meat on the ground. I don’t remember that moment, but I’m quite glad about that.”

Elna chuckled. “You’re looking well? It had seemed like your body wasn’t a good fit for you.”

Shae sighed and explained everything that had happened.

“I see… I’m so sorry you went through all that.”

Shae waved her off. “Don’t be. You saved my life, and you had no way at all of knowing what I used to look like.”

“I may have saved your life, but I also put you through a great ordeal. I really burned myself out doing it, and I had somewhere I needed to be, so I couldn’t even stay until I was recovered enough to do it again. I can finally do it now, though.
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“So, do you want to go back to how you were before? Or something different? I won’t charge you for it.”

Shae paused. It hadn’t been that long since she had decided she didn’t mind her new body anymore. She looked at her girlfriend.

Zena spoke seriously, “If this is something you need to do, then do it. Don’t hold yourself back because of me.”

It was another minute before Shae finally breathed out. “No. I’m fine. It was hard, but I’m happy now.”

Elna nodded lightly. “That’s good. I’m glad you’re not burdened anymore. I still remember the feeling…”

“I do have two requests, though. As long as you’re offering.”

“Okay? Let’s hear them.”

“First, remove my periods.”

Flesh magic is capable of making it so a person will not be able to get pregnant or get someone pregnant, and it's completely reversible, too. It's a common way for flesh mages to make money.

She nodded. “And the second?”

“I’ll bring my sister to you one day, and I would like you to do her reshaping.”

“I’ll do both requests. I’m curious, though. Is reshaping in your world even more expensive than it is here? I wish I could charge less, but the process is all tied up in legal things. When I’m doing it professionally, anyway.”

“It’s expensive, requires medication for the rest of your life, and even surgery, depending on what you need or want to get done. But there’s a lot of hateful and violent people who really want to prevent it from happening.”

Everyone else at the table cringed.

“Before you go thinking it’s completely terrible, from what my sister described, both the medication and surgery actually wouldn’t be much of a problem. It’s the people who actively work against letting them get what they need that make it so hard.”

“I can imagine how things might work without access to a flesh mage, but the idea of unrelated people behaving that way is difficult to fathom.”

“Yeah, it’s weird and bad.”

“Anyway, I’ll gladly help her when the time comes. I’ll add you to the list of people who can write to me, so just send me a letter when the time comes, and I’ll come as quickly as I can.”

Most mercenaries don't have addresses, even if they remain in one place for a long time, so the Mercenary Center had long ago introduced a mail system specifically for them.

“Thank you.”

“Now, give me your hand so I can take care of your first request.”

Shae did so, and a clawed hand wrapped around her own. There was a brief sensation of something shifting slightly in her abdomen, and then it was over.

Shae stared incredulously. “That’s it…?”

Elna smiled. “Yep! Unlike a full reshaping, this is minor.”

—

NEW! [Flesh Adaptation]: The woman you both cursed and praised did you a favor.
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[Passive]: Unwanted changes to your flesh are less likely to occur.
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[Active]: You may cosmetically alter the form of your body.

—

Cool, got it more than half a year too late. Though it probably wouldn’t have been able to make a permanent change to myself anyway, even fully adapted.

I’ll still have to play with it later. Oh! Could I make my tongue long like Zena’s? I hope so!

Zena looked at Shae enviously, unknowing of what was going on in her head.

Elna rolled her eyes. “Just now was a favor for Shae, but I’ll give you a discount.”

“Deal!” she exclaimed, thrusting her hand out.

Merrin interrupted, “Anyway, we came to Marlonn hoping you would still be here, because Elna felt guilty. Unlike her, however, I won’t be offering my services for free. It won’t be something so pricy as a reshaping, though.”

Shae replied, “Thank you. Right now, I have a sub-skill that allows me to manipulate space mana, but it’s so thin that it’s taking forever to improve.
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“Once I get it up to 100%, the sub-skill will change. Based on the other sub-skills I’ve gotten to that point already and what I’ve learned about how they work from other sources, I’ll probably become able to generate it on my own.
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“Any advice you can give me on how to use space magic, specifically for teleportation, would also be greatly appreciated.
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“Oh yeah, and it’s only half the strength of what a true space mage at the same level would be capable of.”

Understanding what Shae needed, the two then hashed out the fee and a schedule. Merrin wasn’t going to be around all day, every day, just for Shae.

She has a life, too, after all. And she isn’t going to stay in Marlonn indefinitely, either.

They made a plan to spend one day every week working with space magic for several hours, with the first one being tomorrow.

Shae’s saviors left afterward, leaving the girlfriends on their own. One of them was particularly excited.

 

———

 

The Mercenary Center had training rooms for staff to train new members, and additional training rooms for the older mercenaries to use as they wished, within reason.

Shae and Merrin were in the corner of one such room. A few other mercenaries were also using it, doing their own things. Her teammates were all on their own for now. Elna wasn’t here, either, so it was just the two of them.

Merrin started, “So, the first thing we need to do is fully adapt your sub-skill. The fastest way to achieve that is for me to generate space mana, and for you to manipulate it.”

Shae asked, “What about attacking me with it?”

“Then you’d have to spend additional mana healing the injuries. I assume you have a healing adaptation as well?”

“I do, yeah. And that makes sense.”

“Yep. I won’t be able to teach you much while you’re only able to manipulate the mana, and I don’t want to distract you by talking about the ways space magic can be used when you can’t even begin to do those things yet, so it’ll be boring for you until it’s fully adapted.
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“There will be some small pointers here and there, but it’ll almost entirely about just getting it to level 1.”

Shae nodded. “Let’s get started, then.”

Merrin sat down and opened a book, and Shae sat next to her, moving the generated mana around. She didn’t need to be standing for this part.

I’m on my way, Vicky!

 

———

 

The team had to plan their missions around Shae’s schedule, but it was only one day a week that she was busy training on her own with Merrin, so it wasn’t a huge issue.

Her space magic, which had been improving at a snail’s pace up until now, even while selected as her Main sub-skill, suddenly skyrocketed in speed. She tried to increase that speed even further with a second mind, but it didn’t help, since she was limited by the amount of mana she could manipulate.

Her first session with Merrin had gotten it from 18.7% at the beginning, all the way to 33.2% at the end. Needless to say, the results left her ecstatic. It took six training sessions in addition to her practicing outside of them to finally get it to Level 1.

—

[Space Adaptation]:
[Active]: You may manipulate and create space.

—

The addition of the two words, “and create” was a small one, but it carried a massive impact.

When she used her Active ability now, the space around her distorted, as if she were trapped in waves and an ever-shattering mirror.

But the weirdest part was that, from an outside perspective, her body seemed to fractalize slightly. Small bits of her body would momentarily look like they had smaller copies of those same bits growing out of them, but they would vanish nearly instantly.

I am beyond glad that it’s only the appearance of that happening and not actually happening. It’s weird enough as it is, and I don’t want to become an eldritch creature.

Merrin was standing way too close, staring intently at the impossible aura surrounding Shae.

“Uh…” Shae uttered.

Merrin explained, “This is just… the raw space mana emitted by you… bending and warping and twisting itself. It looks extreme, but it’s only a visualization of your space mana. It’s incredible, really.”

“You haven’t seen something like this before?”

“I have, but not focused so neatly around a person. It’s a fascinating way of using space magic, but it’s cosmetic.”

“Can I use space magic without the aura?”

“No. Both of us are space mages—I’m a true one—but the Skills we have that allow us to use the magic are drastically different in nature. Different paths to the same result.
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“Your ‘path’ results in this aura being emitted as you use the magic. The aura itself doesn’t cost you any mana, though. It’s natural to your body.”

“Huh. Well, as bizarre as it is, it’s also kind of cool.”

Merrin chuckled. “I agree. Now turn it off. It’s time to study.”

She pulled something that looked dangerously like a physics textbook out of her bag.

No! I hated that class!

She laughed again. “Relax. You don’t need to get deep into the inner workings and math of it all. That’s for people who want to study how the universe works.
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“For you, it will help form the basis of space spells. You don’t need to study space so much as feel it. There are pretty pictures inside that will help you visualize.
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“Studying can help, though, but I’m not exactly suitable for teaching something like this.”

Shae groaned. “I had to study that stuff in school, and I got good grades even, but I didn’t enjoy it.”

“Then this will serve as a refresher.”

I have to go back to physics class. This is my toughest challenge yet.