The Outlands

Nolan knocked on the door of Tess’s house, an odd apprehension filling him. She and Ellie had invited him and the rest of the regular crew to their house for…something important, but they hadn’t specified what. More curiously, however, they had instructed Nolan to bring along his girlfriend, Sarah, the woman who had literally tried to get Tess killed a few months ago.

Sarah gripped Nolan’s hand tighter. He could understand her worry; though he was loathe to admit it, he was still a little afraid of Tess. Though she had claimed to be pretty chill with the whole “set a Hunter on her” thing, not many people really could just drop something like that. Nolan probably couldn’t, and he doubted Sarah would be able to either, thus the nervousness.

“Oh, seems I made it just in time to not hold anyone up.” Jacob said, walking up behind the two of them. “I –”

The door opened, and an unfamiliar but strikingly beautiful woman about Nolan’s age greeted them. “Ah, Nolan, Sarah, Jacob, please, come in.”

“Nice to see you, Maven.” Jacob said.

“You as well.” The woman, Maven, replied, flashing Jacob a smile. “You two haven’t met me yet, I’m Maven. We’ll explain more inside, come meet us in the living room.”

Maven vanished back inside, and Nolan shot Jacob a curious glance. “You know her?”

“Best to let them explain.” Jacob said.

The three of them entered the house, Jacob shutting and locking the door behind them, then they walked into the living room, where everyone was already waiting.

“Oh, good, everyone’s here.” Tess said, giving the three latecomers a smile. “Please, take a seat.”

Nolan couldn’t help but notice that Pastor Faust and the Hunter, of all people, were also in the room, sitting next to Tess, Ellie, and Maven, Jacob heading over to sit next to them. This…was more than a little disconcerting; whatever was about to happen, it wasn’t going to be normal. Nolan squeezed Sarah’s hand comfortingly, gently leading her over to the two empty chairs left in the room, then looked up at Tess.

Tess gave the room a quick glance, then nodded. “Okay, I’m going to need you all to bear with me for a bit.” She said. “This is going to be very unpleasant, but unfortunately it has to happen before we can actually start talking. Rest assured, you’ll be perfectly safe, Jacob, Pastor Faust, and Marie have all been through this.”

“You’re sorta creeping me out here.” Max, another of their friends, said. “This isn’t anything…supernatural, right?”

Tess sighed. “For a given value of supernatural, no. However, let me make one thing abundantly clear; I harbor no ill will or resentment towards any of you. Yes, even you, Sarah; you’ve grown and though you were snobby and rude about it, calling a Hunter likely was the right thing to do in your situation, given the knowledge you had. I am doing this strictly because it is necessary, and not because I wish to see you uncomfortable.”

Tess sat up straighter, taking a deep breath. “Let’s just rip the bandage off; before I took my break, I was a boy named Thomas.”

Nolan was assaulted with a sudden headache, something in him really wanting to tune out whatever Tess was saying. But, try as he might, Nolan couldn’t ignore the small part of him that was saying that this was right, that there was merit to what he was being told.

“The memories you have of me as Tess are fabrications the gods put in place to help keep my transformation secret.” Tess continued, giving Ellie a nod.

Nolan’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and reflexively, he turned his attention to it, the part of him trying to run away from the situation seeking refuge in the distraction. Unfortunately, as he opened the notification, he was greeted with a picture of a strikingly familiar man, one he swore he had seen before. In fact, it looked like –

Something inside of him snapped, the pain vanishing and a flood of memories returning. He whipped his head up, giving Tess a baffled look, and he could see his friends doing the same. All, that was, except for Sarah, who wasn’t in the group chat the message was sent in.

“The gods? What? I…my head…” Sarah stammered.

Nolan wasted no time, shoving his phone, picture still open, into her line of sight. “Look at this.” He commanded. “You’ll understand.”

She obeyed, and then a moment later she looked up at Tess in shock. “You…”

“Yes, hello everyone.” Tess said awkwardly, waving a hand as if she was greeting them. “Sorry, we had to get this out of the way. To pre-empt some questions, I have fully embraced my life as a woman now, and I would be happy if you kept calling me Tess. Yes, my break wasn’t due to illness, it was me adjusting to becoming a woman, among…other things. Before that, I was a perfectly ordinary human, no magic of any sort.

“We’ve called you here today for a few reasons. First, Ellie and I would like to announce that we are getting married, with the ceremony being held in a couple of weeks, and everyone here is invited. Second, we’d like to introduce you to Maven, our party member and fiancée. And, lastly, we are going to introduce you to the wider world, the stuff Mael is, as of yet, in the dark about.”

Maven stepped forward, a demon’s horns and tail sprouting as she dropped into a curtsey. “I am Maven Sarlienne, former crown princess of Paumen. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“W-wider world?” Sarah stammered, her eyes glued on Maven’s tail. “What are you talking about?”

“Mael is just one plane of existence, the newest one.” Ellie said. “There are hundreds of others, all joined together with magic. Grandpa is one of the most powerful magicians who have ever lived, if not the most powerful, and leader of the Freelancer’s Guild. Many call him the most important man alive, and he’s here as an ambassador of sorts. Tess and I, likewise, are serving as ambassadors.”

“Life and Death are helping oversee the process of integrating Mael with the wider world, as you might have gathered from the whole ‘godly memory manipulation’ thing.” Tess added. “And today, you’ll be visiting one of the collection of planes that makes up the group known as the ‘Outlands’, neutral planes effectively governed by the Freelancer’s Guild. We’ll be holding our wedding there, and it would do you well to get familiar with it. During that process, you will almost certainly learn magic; it’s a very natural part of life everywhere but Mael, and it’s much, much easier than you would think.”

There was a stunned silence, but Ellie quickly filled the space. “I know this is sudden, but it’d really do you well to get used to it now. In…thirty, forty years at the very most, Mael will be officially introduced to the wider world, and everyone will know. Life as we know it will be forever changed, and even aside from the huge benefits you’ll get from just…doing things over there, you’ll be put way far ahead of everyone else when the time comes that the system is expanded to Mael.”

“The system?” Nolan asked. “Sorry, this is all a bit much, you’ll have to forgive me for being skeptical.”

“The system is what lets people use magic.” Ellie said patiently. “When Mael is formally connected with the other planes, the system’s functions will be expanded to it. As you may or may not have noticed, we have one of the church’s buses with us, and we’re going to show you how to get from Mael to the Outlands, we’ll explain more on our way there.”

“I…I don’t know about this.” Eric, yet another of their friends, said tentatively.

“This is not optional, unfortunately.” The Hunter said. “This is a mission granted to us directly by the Appointed of Life and Death. I know you are not familiar with Appointed yet, but they are the gods’ hands and feet in the mortal realm, even going so far as to have the gods Descend into their bodies when needed. Their instructions are more than just instructions, they are divine commands.”

The eyes of most people in the room strayed to Pastor Faust, who nodded gravely. “Marie speaks the truth.” She said. “The Archpriest handles matters of doctrine and the day-to-day minutiae of the religion, Appointed are the ones who do dirty work, and who perform audits of the church when necessary. Consider them as something similar to the Hunters, just significantly more connected with the gods.”

As she spoke, Pastor Faust’s expression morphed into one of shock, her eyes locked on the hallway to Nolan’s left. Nolan turned to follow her gaze, only to find that a woman was standing in the hallway; even though she was close, he couldn’t quite make out her features, the only thing he could really feel was a sense of…intimidation, like she was some sort of greater power. He felt like a mouse staring down a cat, small and cornered.

“I am the Appointed of Life and Death, here with Life himself.” She said. As she spoke, there was an odd sense of two people speaking, the voice burrowing its way down deep into Nolan’s soul, leaving him with the undeniable knowledge that Life was speaking with her. “And I would ask that you listen to them. This is a vital step for the growth of Mael, and my girlfriend, the Appointed of Fortune, and I have been working closely with these two and their grandfather to help prepare Mael for the transition.

“In all things they tell you regarding the other planes, and religion in particular, consider them as speaking for the gods. We have given them careful instructions on how they are to teach you, and it is absolutely vital that you listen well to their words. I expect none of you have issue with this?”

She waited for a moment, then nodded approvingly. “Good. Farewell.”

She suddenly vanished, and the room’s atmosphere returned to normal, Nolan letting out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “That…was Life really with her? I felt like it was true, but with magic…”

“Whenever the gods speak, you get that feeling.” Tess said. “If anyone ever tried to replicate it, they would be struck down where they stand. Life was there, yes.”

“I thought she was going to wait until we were in the Outlands.” Marie said weakly.

“Apparently she decided that her presence was needed now.” Ellie said, standing up. “All of you, follow me, it’s time to leave.”

---

As Ellie explained things to the rest of Tess’s friends, Jacob sidled up to her. “Who was that?” He whispered. “Ellie was right there, so who…”

“That was Life, in a female body.” Tess whispered back. “We made a snap decision since the gang was looking a little too overwhelmed. You, uh, took it with a lot more grace than they did.”

“And you also Descended almost immediately.” Jacob said. “Besides, I was just coming off of the whole yearbook signing incident, the shock hadn’t worn off and I was just relieved to have some immediate answers.”

Their conversation was interrupted as another of their group, Jean, approached the seat Tess and Jacob were sitting at. “Um, Tess, can I…talk to you alone for a bit? I know we’re supposed to be getting instructions right now but I can’t concentrate until I get confirmation on something.” He asked.

Tess gave a nod. “Jacob, you go help Ellie and Maven explain.” She said. “We can pick this conversation up later.”

Jacob stood up. “Yeah, sure.”

He left, and Jean took his place next to Tess. “Um…I…don’t know how to say this, but…whatever happened to you, is it…common?”

Tess shrugged. “The sort of thing? Yes. The exact thing? As far as I’m aware, I might be the only one alive in this particular situation, there were some…extenuating circumstances.”

Jean fidgeted nervously. “So…sex changes aren’t normal, then?”

And suddenly, Tess understood what was happening. “You’re trans, aren’t you?”

Jean, blushing furiously, nodded. “Um, I think so. I’d been questioning and then when you lifted that memory thing, I realized I was actually really jealous, and so I thought I might as well ask on the off-chance that…well, you know.”

Tess smiled. “You’ll be pleased to know that sex transformation spells are readily available. Now, that being said, if you want something that changes your base form, that’ll cost a bit since you need a powerful mage to do it, but ones that last until dispelled are pretty cheap. Either way, I can probably swing something with Gramps to get you fixed up.

“Still, it’s going to be hard to explain a change like that, and the gods are very unlikely to be willing to do the memory thing they did for me because, and again I’ll remind you that there are extenuating circumstances, I literally cannot change back without some national-treasure level items. But, even with that being the case we still have options.

“If you want immediate results, you can try and arrange a few months away from home, we’ll get you a place to stay in the Outlands and we’ll transform you immediately. If you don’t want to leave home quite yet, and are willing to wait, in a couple months we’ll be really ramping up the ‘paranormal happenings’ around here, and transforming you would be totally in line with what we’re trying to do, but you’d also become something of a spectacle.

“Really, though, it’s your choice, and even if you choose the latter option, you can change your mind at any time. Uh, that being said, do you have another name you want me to call you? And should I start using female pronouns for you?”

“Not yet.” Jean replied. “Um, can you give me some time to think on this?”

“Of course I can. And if it would help you, we can even transform you for a day or so, to give you a taste for it so you can be absolutely sure it’s what you want.”

“That sounds wonderful.” Jean replied. “Um…would you mind recapping the instructions Ellie’s giving for me? I kind of missed a lot of them thinking about this.”

Tess smiled. “Of course. So, first, on religion…”