The Outlands

Tess collapsed onto her bed, curling up into a ball underneath the covers. Everything had gone so wrong that day, and it was all catching up to her now. The one bright spot in it all was that her stats were low enough that transitioning back to Mael was easy; it seemed that levelling up automatically adjusted your body to the stat increases, and due to Mael’s low magic density one’s full strength couldn’t be brought out. Therefore, coming back resulted in a sort of odd lethargy, which apparently only got worse as your stats increased. Ellie was already having a rough time of it, although Gramps had told them that they would get used to it and barely even notice after going back and forth enough.

Speaking of Ellie, her uniform was laid out on Tess’s floor, and Tess had no intentions of touching it until she had to tomorrow morning. She really didn’t want to accept her new reality, but it looked like her new reality had already accepted her; her driver’s license had already changed to reflect her new name and appearance, the photos in the house all showed Gramps with two girls, and she could only assume her other documentation had been changed as well.

But…how would her friends treat her? She was mostly friends with guys, so would they be weird about her? Probably not, but the dynamic would have to change somewhat, right? There now existed the possibility of one of her friends becoming romantically interested in her, and she didn’t really like that possibility.

Fortunately, it seemed like her sexuality was unchanged, at the least. She made sure to check by looking at some pictures, and she didn’t feel any differently than she had that morning. That meant that her dating pool had narrowed significantly, and, as far as she knew, would unfortunately exclude her current and most of her previous crushes

Well, and Ellie, but Tess had written her off as a lost cause a long time ago. While she did really like Ellie as a person, and had liked her romantically for quite a while, Ellie had never shown even a shred of interest in Tess, so she had decided to move on and be content with their platonic relationship.

There was a soft knock on her door, snapping her out of her fugue. “Come in.” She mumbled, not bothering to emerge from the covers.

The door opened and then shut, and soon there was a weight on her bed. “Um…do you need to talk?” Ellie asked hesitantly. “Today seems like it’s been pretty crappy for you.”

“Just trying to accept that my life’s taken a bad turn and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Ellie laid a gentle hand on the blankets above Tess. “Hey, it’s not that bad. If you ignore the whole sex change thing then you got just as much out of today as I did. The Rumors are saying you have top tier talent, so it’ll just be a matter of getting there. And if you don’t want to, then you’re more than capable of living an easy life here on Mael.”

“The sex change thing is kind of a big deal.” Tess responded, “My whole social life has just changed, and I’ve got no idea what to do about it.”

“Your friends are good people.” Ellie said reassuringly, “I’m sure they won’t treat you any different if you don’t treat them any different.” She paused for a moment, then proceeded. “Do you still like girls or…?”

“Thankfully, yes.”

Ellie sighed in what Tess was nearly tempted to say was relief. “That’s good. It shouldn’t be too hard a transition, then. And being a girl really isn’t that bad, half the population has no trouble with it whatsoever. You’ll just need some time to get used to it, that’s all.”

Tess snorted. “Easier said than done.”

“Well…your transformation updated your body so this all feels normal, right? So…it’s just the other stuff you have to get used to. Not that there isn’t a lot, but I don’t think it’s going to be as hard as you’re thinking. And I’ll be with you every step of the way, so you can always count on me.”

Tess sighed. “Thanks. Right now, though, I think I just need some alone time. We’ll talk about it in the morning, OK?”

“Sure thing.” She gave the area close to Tess’s head a couple of pats. “See you tomorrow.” The weight on the bed vanished as Ellie stood up.

“Night.” Tess muttered.

“Night.” Ellie responded, leaving the room and once again leaving Tess alone with her thoughts.

---

Like she did every morning, Tess laid in bed and stared at the ceiling, waiting for Ellie to come and get her. She could have just gotten up, but she really didn’t want to leave the safety of her bed. Doing so would mean she would have to face the day ahead, and she wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

Time lagged for a while. Ellie…didn’t show up. Not like she usually did. So, Tess stared and waited.

Distantly, she heard the sound of the garage door opening, a car being started, and then the garage door closing. She waited more.

Eventually, there was a quiet knock on her door. “Tess, can we talk?” Gramps asked softly.

Tess didn’t reply, choosing instead to roll over in bed.

“Well, that’s fine.” Gramps said gently, “I’ve excused your absence from school for the foreseeable future, as I realized last night that you probably need more time to adapt. Um, I…forgot that not everyone is as open to change as I am. Go back to sleep if you want, I’ll get you later when I drop off some day clothes for you, and then we’ll talk about things, alright?”

Gramps left, and a relieved Tess let herself drift to sleep.

---

“Hey, kid, you should wake up now.” Tess jolted awake as a massive hand gently shook her. “It’s not good for your mental state to just lie in bed like this.”

Tess groggily opened her eyes. “Ker? What…why are you on Mael?”

“The Guildmaster was busy, so he gave me special permission to come talk to you, so long as I stayed inside the house. I thought you might need a little pep talk.”

He tossed her a shirt and pants. “Put these on, I’ll wait outside until you’re ready.” Ker carefully made his way out of the room, crouching to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling.

Tess grabbed the clothes and looked them over. They were…nearly identical to her old favorites, just tailored to fit a woman. Curious, she opened her drawer and grabbed those clothes, giving the two a side-by-side comparison. And, aside from the different sizes, she wasn’t able to find any notable differences. That…actually made sense now that she was thinking about it; she had gotten the old set from Gramps, and he said that most of her old clothes had been from Rachel, and she had worn that particular set more than any of her others, so Gramps must have had Rachel make a replica.

They felt nice and fit perfectly. That wasn’t too much of a surprise, considering the rather extensive measurements that had been taken the previous day. She pointedly tried to ignore the memory as she finished putting everything on, then opened the door.

Ker was sitting with his back against the wall, watching the door. Once Tess stepped through, he got up into a sort of crouch that just barely let him not hit the ceiling and motioned down the stairs. “Let’s talk over some food.” He said, “I find it always helps to face life on a full stomach.”

They made their way to the kitchen, where Ker sat Tess down at the table. “You sit there, I’ll make the food. You wouldn’t guess it from looking at me, but I’m a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself. Good food makes freelancer work much more tolerable, so I made a point of learning how to make things that didn’t taste like garbage.”

Tess fidgeted for a moment before asking about what was on her mind. “Um…why are you going so far out of your way for me? We barely even know each other.”

Ker laughed. “Doesn’t feel that way to me, but that’s probably because the Guildmaster won’t shut up about you and Ellie. I’ll bet you anything he’s already bragging about how his grandchildren have some of the most raw potential he’s ever seen. But, even aside from that, I can’t just ignore someone who’s clearly suffering like you are. Not all of us are fortunate enough to be able to pick our lot in life, and sometimes life chooses to put you through the wringer.”

A timer rang and he opened the oven, using his bare hands to pull out a tray of orange rolls that must have been baking since before Ker woke Tess. As he started glazing them, he continued. “And I’m going to be honest, life threw you a couple of lemons yesterday. But you were also given a blender, so I want to make sure you make lemonade, if that makes sense.”

Tess scratched the back of her neck. “I think so? I’m…um, not so sure I want to use my abilities, though.” She said, frowning. “It’s…not an experience I particularly enjoyed. The end result is nice, yeah, but the process is so disconcerting that it seems to balance out.”

Ker popped some bread in the toaster, took a skillet out from the satchel at his waist, and put it on the stove. “Forgive the slight tangent, but let’s say you had everything going for you that first day, that you and Ellie had switched places, would you want to be a freelancer?”

Tess blinked. “Yeah, I’d want to try it, at least. It sounds way more exciting than just sitting around here doing nothing. Who wouldn’t want to try out magic and explore a whole new world?”

Ker cracked an egg and began to scramble it. “So, you do want to do freelancer work.”

“I suppose, yeah.”

“I guess what I’m getting at is that it comes down to what’s stronger in you; that desire for adventure you were talking about, or your fear of your new body. And I hate to break this to you, but that body isn’t going away any time soon. Not even your grandpa has the money that would be required to purchase the necessary items, and you’re not getting any of those items yourself without utilizing your abilities.”

Ker got out some butter and a knife, preparing to butter the toast once it was done. “You mentioned that your alternative would be coming back here and winning the lottery, and yeah, you could totally do that. Thanks to the blessing Fortune gave you you’ll never have to work a day if you don’t want to. But, let me tell you a secret; that gets empty fast. People aren’t built to just sit around and do nothing. Go ask Alice; she comes from old money, and she could live just off of the interest her money generates, let alone all the businesses she owns. She tried the whole ‘do nothing’ thing, and it did awful things to her. So, she went out and became a freelancer, and she’s been much happier since.”

He snatched the toast as it popped up, deftly buttering it and putting more bread in the toaster. “I think she sees herself in you, and she really doesn’t want you to make the same mistakes she did. And I think that, to a certain extent, she has a point when she says to just get used to your body. If you do really want to be a freelancer, then you have to accept that discomfort is part of the job. You don’t have to like it, but just know that it’s not all going to be sunshine and rainbows.”

He finished the eggs and put some food onto two plates, sliding one to Tess and taking the other for himself, sitting down across from her at the table. “As someone who’s been around for a couple hundred years, let me make a recommendation. Give it a shot. Use your abilities to their fullest, but only on the small stuff. Gradually work your way up, find out what your tolerance is. After you’ve done that and tried freelancer work for a couple of months, if you really hate it, then go back to Mael, win the lottery, and find something to do with your life. Maybe start paving the way for Mael to get into contact with the rest of the League of Planes, maybe something else. But, in the end, that’s just my recommendation; it’s your life, so it’s your choice.”

Tess ate her food in silence for a while, digesting what Ker had told her. “Alright.” She said eventually, “I’ll try it out for a while. If I do, will you help keep Alice off of my back when I don’t try and absorb something like Bertha’s core right away?”

Ker smiled gently. “Of course, kid.”

After the two finished their meal, Tess helped Ker save the leftovers. “Um,” she said, putting the remaining orange rolls in a sealable bag, “You mentioned that you’ve lived for a couple hundred years. Is that a goliath thing or…?”

Ker smiled. “Perk of the job, actually. Anyone who gets to a high enough level stops aging. If you get to a really high level like your grandpa, then your aging even starts to reverse until you get back into your prime.”

Tess frowned. “But Gramps is still old, and he certainly hasn’t gotten any younger since I’ve known him.”

“Has he gotten any older?”

Tess froze. Gramps…hadn’t. She hadn’t really thought about it, just assuming that he was at that point where people would look the same for quite a while, but Gramps hadn’t even shown the miniscule changes that most people would. It was hard to notice, as being around him so much made looking for differences day-to-day hard, but she was pretty sure if she looked closely at each of the photos they had, then there would be no difference in his appearance, save for injuries or changes of clothing.

Ker chuckled. “The anti-aging doesn’t work as well in places that have low ambient mana like Mael, so he still ages while he’s here, but he spends enough time in the Outlands that it just cancels out. He was guildmaster when I joined about a hundred years ago, and I see no sign of him quitting any time soon.”

“So, theoretically…”

“You could become ageless, yeah. It’s not based on stats, it’s raw level. We’ve found that your aging slows at level fifty, you stop aging at seventy-five, and aging begins to reverse at one-hundred. Those are all approximations, of course, since it’s hard to quantify something so slow as aging, but it’s a completely achievable milestone. It’ll take you ten or twenty years…” He paused, looking Tess over, “Scratch that, you and Ellie you could probably make it a lot faster than that, but most people take ten or twenty years getting to seventy-five, and another thirtyish to get to one-hundred. Getting beyond that is an absolute nightmare, though. The required experience jumps up drastically, so it’s slow going. The only reason anyone’s made any real progress is because of a few super high-level dungeons found way out in the wilds of the Outlands.”

As they put the last of the food away, Ker gently shepherded Tess to the door to the Outlands. “Now that we’ve finished, the Guildmaster would like to talk with you.” He said, “I’ll wait outside the office for you, but I think this is probably a discussion best had with just the two of you.”

He knocked on the door, and, moments later, it opened. “Come on in!” Gramps said, ushering the two inside.

Ker came out of his crouch, stretching a little. “I’ll leave the two of you to it. See you in a few, Tess.” Without waiting for a response, he made his way out of the room.

Gramps had Tess sit down on one of the couches and sat on the one across from her. “I mentioned it this morning,” he began, “But I’ve pulled some strings and got you excused for a while. The pretense is that you’ve got some awful sickness that might take a couple of months to fully get itself out of your system. Ellie will be bringing you your homework every day, which you can turn in when you go back to school.”

He sighed. “I think we should set some ground rules on how you’re going to go about life in this little adjustment period. I’ll give you a week to just loaf around, get physically used to your new body, and come to grips with your situation, but after that you’re going to have to do a bit more.”

“First,” he said, holding up a finger, “You have to do your homework every day. Second,” he held up another finger, “You must come to the Outlands every day. I don’t care if you’re doing freelancer work with The Rumors or if you find something else to occupy your time, but you have to be in a situation where you can interact with other people. And if you do freelancer work you do have to work with The Rumors, just to keep you talking to people. Finally, I want to hear your thoughts about the day every evening. And that’s all. Does that sound doable?”

Tess nodded. “Yeah, I suppose. Ker convinced me to give freelancing another shot, so I was going to do that anyway.”

Gramps smiled. “Good. Now, what would you like to do for the rest of the day? It’s up to you.”

“I was going to go talk with Ker, and I’ll figure something out. Maybe do some training or something? I don’t know.”

Gramps stood up, walked over to Tess, and gave her a hug. “That sounds good. Just let me know what you decide, alright?”

“OK, Gramps.” Tess replied, returning the hug.

“Atta girl.” He said, letting go of the hug. “Now hop to it, you’ll feel better once you’re doing something.”

Tess nodded and left the room. Ker was just outside the door, waiting. “All finished?” He asked.

“Yeah. What’d you want to talk about?”

“I was just wondering if you wanted to do some dungeon diving, just the two of us. We can invite the rest of The Rumors if you want, but I figured that you might want to give Alice some time to cool her head, and if we excluded just her it would probably make her attitude worse, so…”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Tess replied. “Let me tell Gramps, then we can go.”