The Outlands

“And…well, that’s where we are now.” Tess said, folding her hands in her lap nervously. “It’s…a lot to take in, I’m sure.”

“That’s…one way of putting it.” Jacob said, giving her a disbelieving stare. “I…I, well, to be frank, I can’t believe it. I don’t really want to call you a liar, but…well, it’s too much. Obviously, yes, you somehow turned into a girl, and you clearly got those claws somehow, but…you two being direct servants of the gods? A whole other set of dimensions? You’re…just yanking my chain, right?”

Tess braced herself, and sure enough she soon felt a sort of…tingle that she knew on some instinctual level meant that Fortune wanted to Descend. So, she let Fortune in, and the tingle strengthened to that electric, powerful feeling that Tess had come to associate with Descent.

“Hello, Jacob.” Fortune said.

Jacob straightened immediately, a sort of awestruck look filling his eyes as he looked at Tess and Fortune. “Um…hi?”

“I would ask that you not doubt Tess and Ellie any further, everything is as they say. Still, I know you are not familiar with me, so if you wish we could have Life or Death speak to you as well. I just elected to do so because Ellie is less…used to being an Appointed and it takes a much greater toll on her than it does Tess.”

Jacob shook his head vigorously. “N-no, ma’am.” He said meekly. “That won’t be necessary.”

Fortune laughed. “Very well then. I shall take my leave now. Tess, Ellie, I think it would be wise to take him to Evan and have him swear an Oath. I know you trust him, but we cannot afford the risk at this crucial point in time.”

And with that Fortune left, and Tess gave Jacob a nod. “It’s just me again.” She said.

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. “That scared the living daylights out of me.” He said. “I…I’ve never felt anything like that, is talking with the gods…always like that?”

“Yeah.” Ellie. “It’s to make sure that people don’t try and impersonate them. When they talk, they want you to know it’s them talking. You get used to it.”

“I’m…not so sure.” Jacob said nervously. “It’s…super nerve wracking, you know? I didn’t know any of this existed until today. The gods were just…something that were there in the background, so I just…I’m overwhelmed.”

“That’s fine.” Tess said. “It’s a big thing to just drop on someone. If you would like, as soon as we get Gramps to have you swear an Oath, we can send you back home and we can come back to this whenever you’re ready.”

Jacob shook his head. “No, I’m fine, I just…give me a minute or two more before we go on, I’m still kinda processing the whole Thomas thing. It…I just didn’t even think anything was off, not in the slightest.”

“Sorry again about the rough handling.” Tess said. “There wasn’t really any pleasant way to do that, not until we’re ready to take that away from everyone, and we thought you deserve to know the truth.”

“No, I’m definitely glad you did.” Jacob replied. “How…did you guys do that, though?”

“Ah, Fortune did that.” Tess said. She hadn’t known that herself until just earlier. “She just worked a bit of magic that would prevent people from remembering anything was wrong.” Magic was probably the wrong term to use, since Worship…technically wasn’t magic, but Jacob wasn’t allowed to know about that, so it was the best alternative.

“I suppose that figures. There’s no way things could have been this smooth otherwise.” Jacob replied. “It was just so…fast. I never, in a million years, would have guessed that something like this was the real reason you were out of school for a while. Though, I must say that after I visited, I thought you looked remarkably good for someone who was, supposedly, out with some sort of serious illness.”

“Yeah, I’m actually in the best shape of my life right now.” Tess said. “But it’s not like we could give the real reason, I’m sure you understand.”

“Yeah, I get it, I don’t think I would want to come to school for a bit either.” Jacob said.

There was a long, awkward pause where no one was quite sure what to say, and then Jacob spoke up again. “So…what now?” He asked.

“Well,” Tess began, “I was planning to wait until you had collected yourself, and then we need to go get Gramps to have you swear an Oath.”

“What is this Oath thing anyway? Can’t I just swear one with you two?”

“No, it’s more complex than that.” Ellie said. “It’s done officially using someone connected to the god of Fate, and physically prevents you from breaking it. Well…not physically? Magically? Point is, once you swear an Oath, you can’t leak anything, even if you wanted to. And, well…like Fortune said, as much as we trust you, this is too important to have even the potential for a leak. Most of the people we work with are under similar Oaths, so it’s not just you or anything.”

“Yikes.” Jacob replied, scratching the back of his neck. “Well, I can’t say I don’t see why. Um…where is Mr. Los, though?”

“Probably in his office.” Tess replied. “He tends to have good timing about these sorts of things. We should be able to just pop in and see him, then we can show you about the place if you’d like. Just…try not to stare too much, alright? We don’t want people thinking you’re a weirdo.”

“We’re…going to another dimension? Now?” Jacob replied, somewhat incredulous. “That’s…”

“Not as big a deal as you’re thinking, actually.” Ellie finished. “It’s more like…well, there’s not really a good analogue here, but it’s more like just heading to another city. It’s a pretty normal thing for a lot of people.”

“Yeah, but not here it’s not.” Jacob countered. “This sort of thing would rock society if it was made public.”

“We’re working on it.” Tess replied. “We’re going to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible, so we don’t end up with a total collapse of order. It’s gonna be a little harder here since there’s not really any magic, but most of the other planes have gone through something similar at one point or another. It’ll all work out, don’t worry.”

“If you say so.” Jacob replied dubiously. “How are we going to do this? Are you going to open a portal or…?”

“We have a hidden door in the house. You just pour a bit of Mana in, and it pops up and you can go between The Outlands and Mael at will. Easy as that.”

“Easy as that? You’re having way too much fun with this.” Jacob said, shaking his head slightly. Still, he was wearing a small smile, so it seemed they hadn’t pushed him too far.

“Just let us know when you’re ready.” Ellie said, reclining slightly.

“Well, I think I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be today.” Jacob said, standing up. “Where’s this door?”

Tess stood, and she and Ellie brought him to the hall where the door was. She poured a bit of Mana into the wall, and the door bled its way into existence, much to the shock of Jacob. Tess opened the door and stepped through, finding herself in Gramps’s office.

“Ah, Tess, is it safe to assume you’re coming with Jacob?” Gramps asked, looking up from his desk.

“Yeah. We just had an…incident at school, and we let him in on everything. We need him to swear an Oath so he’s secure, so we were hoping you could do that.”

“Well, you can tell me about it later.” Gramps said. “Go on and bring him in, we’ll get this taken care of.”

Tess nodded, turning to the still-open doorway. “Come in,” she called, “Gramps is here, he’ll have you swear that Oath now.”

Jacob stepped into the room, stopping as he saw the windows and the forest beyond. “Woah.” He said in an awe-filled tone. “That’s…woah.”

“Come on.” Ellie said, gently nudging him forward so she could get through. “You’ll have plenty of time to look later, Grandpa’s a busy guy so we don’t want to take up too much of his time.”

“It’s fine.” Gramps said, smiling. “I thought something like this might happen, so I blocked out an hour or two.”

“How did you know, Mr. Los?” Jacob asked. “It all seemed pretty sudden to me.”

“I have my ways.” Gramps said, smiling mischievously. “So, any questions before we begin?”

Jacob blinked. “Now? Won’t there need to be some sort of…ceremony or something, since this is magical and all?”

“Not really.” Gramps replied, standing up and walking over. “Just grab my hand.” He said, holding out a hand.

Jacob tentatively reached out and took the proffered hand, and the atmosphere around Gramps changed, becoming much more serious as he cleared his throat and began to talk. “Jacob, I ask you in the name of the god of Fate if you will swear to tell not reveal the existence of these other planes to people who are unaware of them until the day they become public knowledge on Mael.”

Jacob paused, then nodded. “Yes.”

“Furthermore, will you swear to tell no one about Tess and Ellie’s positions as Appointed or any associated abilities unless you have been given express permission by Tess, Ellie, or one of the gods?”

“Yes.”

Gramps nodded, letting go of his hand. “Then it’s done.”

“That’s it?” Jacob asked.

“That’s it.” Gramps confirmed. “Anything else you need from me? I can talk a bit if you would like.”

“Um…I was kind of hoping that I could get a look at my stats or whatever.” Jacob said. “How do I do that?”

“If you want, you can sign up for registration at the guild here. It’ll provide a form of ID for you and you’ll get your status scanned as part of it. You won’t be under any obligation to actually do anything if you don’t want, so I’d highly recommend you sign up if you’re planning to visit here again. Mael IDs aren’t accepted anywhere yet, so it’ll be hard if you end up needing one.”

Jacob nodded. “Alright, I’ll do that. Um…how…”

“We can show you.” Tess said. “Give me a second…” She took a brief moment to turn on Kemonomimi (Fox). She had been using that in place of the wolf version ever since Ava had given it to her before going to the Vermillion Arc, and it would feel strange if she went out without it.

Oddly enough, no one had commented on the difference. Not that she had really had close interaction with anyone other than Graham, her receptionist, but he seemed to have noticed and then chosen not to say anything.

“Tess?!” Jacob exclaimed, eyes going wide. “What are those?”

“Did…we not tell you?” Ellie asked. “She masquerades as beastkin to help make her claws seem more…normal. Also, because I like it a lot, but that’s neither here nor there.”

“Sorry, it just slipped my mind.” Tess said sheepishly. “It’s sort of second nature to put them on at this point, I forget they’re even there. Also feels a lot more natural to use my enhanced hearing like this, since…well, dunno, it just feels like human ears shouldn’t hear that well. It always kinda catches me by surprise when I hear something I really shouldn’t.”

“Oh.” Jacob frowned, then began to blush slightly. “If you have enhanced hearing, mm…back when I visited did you, did you…”

“Hear you talking after you left the room? Yeah, sorry. I can hear most of everything that happens in the house.”

Jacob groaned, putting his head in his hands. “Sorry about that. I was kind of flabbergasted seeing you for the first time. Didn’t know that then, but…well, that makes a lot more sense now. Was sorta a shock for reasons I couldn’t quite place.”

“What’d you say?” Ellie asked curiously.

Tess could make out a faint blush through Jacob’s hands. “I said something like ‘I swear she wasn’t that hot before’, which…well…yeah, makes sense now.”

Ellie laughed, placing a hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “I had the same reaction, can’t blame you at all.”

“It’s fine, I understood.” Tess said. “Don’t worry about it. Um, anyway, Gramps, is registration something we can go to a personal receptionist for or should we use the general-use lines?”

Gramps frowned, tapping his chin. “Better use the personal receptionist line.” He said after a moment of deliberation. “Normally you shouldn’t, but circumstances are a bit…extenuating, so it’s probably for the best if you do. Just tell Graham that Jacob’s a friend from school and he’ll get the gist of things.”

“Alright, thanks Gramps.” Tess said. “We should probably be on our way, then.”

“Very well, let me know if you all need anything!” Gramps said, giving them a wave.

Tess and Ellie led Jacob out of the room and began working their way through the halls of the guild.

“Remember, try not to stare.” Ellie whispered. “There are a lot of non-humans about, so you’re going to draw attention if you act like that’s unusual.”

“Is it bad like in books, where someone will challenge me to a fight or something?” Jacob whispered back. “I don’t think I could handle that.”

“No, nothing like that.” Ellie replied. “This branch of the guild is much too orderly for something like that to happen. You just might…get a reputation, you know?”

“Hey, Tess, Ellie! You’re here early, shouldn’t you still have school?”

Tess whirled to find Alice walking down the hallways towards them, smiling brightly. “Who’s this with you?” She asked, coming to a stop next to the group.

“Oh, Alice.” Tess replied, giving the older girl a quick hug as she approached. “This is Jacob, he’s one of my friends from school.”

Alice raised an eyebrow. “From school? But wouldn’t that make him from Mael?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jacob replied politely. “Um…I just sort of found out about all of this now.”

“Weren’t you two waiting to do anything until after you graduated?” Alice asked. “You still have a week or two left, right?”

“Yeah, there was sort of an…incident at school, and we decided it would be a good opportunity to kick things off. So, we decided we’d let Jacob in on it too, since we figured there was no point in waiting until after school was over to give him answers.”

“An incident?” Alice asked, a worried expression on her face. “Is everything alright?”

“Do you remember that Aaron guy I told you about? He apparently had some sort of video of the last time he confronted me, and played it in front of the whole school to try and out me. So…I did him one better and used my abilities to get to him and give my side of the story, then I left. The next little bit is going to be…interesting, but I can handle some random people thinking I’m a witch or whatever.”

Alice nodded hesitantly. “If you…say so. Just remember I’m open to talk about it if you need to, okay?”

“Of course. If things start getting bad, I’ll let you know.”

“Good.” Alice replied, ruffling Tess’s hair before turning to Jacob. “My name’s Alice, I’m one of Tess and Ellie’s teachers.” She said, sticking out a hand. “Dryad, if you were wondering.”

“Oh. Um, nice to meet you, I guess.” Jacob replied, shaking the hand. “Like Tess said, my name’s Jacob, I’m just a friend from school.”

“Nice to meet you as well.” Alice said, turning back to Tess. “So, can I take this to mean that regular training is going to be on hold for the day?”

“Yeah, I was kinda thinking we would spend a while showing him around, maybe even run him through Slime Tower once or twice if he’s feeling up to it.” Tess replied. “At the very least, right now we’re going to get him registered so he has ID and we can see his stats.”

Alice nodded. “Alright, I’ll let the others know. If you’d like, I could tag along once you’re done registering, we could sort of hang out and then I could take you all to dinner or something.”

“As long as Jacob and Ellie are fine with it, I am.” Tess aid.

“I’m down.” Ellie said, giving Jacob a glance. “No pressure on you, though. We’ll totally understand if you don’t want to spend the rest of the day with someone you just met.”

Jacob shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I like meeting new people, and the offer of food is tempting, so I don’t see why not.”

Alice smiled. “Perfect. I’ll wait in the usual room, so come find me when you’re done, alright?”

Tess nodded. “Gramps is having us go through Graham, so it shouldn’t take too long.” She said. “We’ll see you in a bit!”

With that, Alice left, and the remaining three left for the main room, ready to get Jacob registered.