Staring up at the brown dwarf in the sky above, Svetna nodded. “Oh, it’s tidally locked... I should have figured that with how close we are.”

  “Ah, you are familiar with the term?” the Lanthonean assistant that was showing her around the w css unities oar-ward side of the p replied.

  “Mhm, Earth’s moon is also locked, so you only ever seen the one side of if,” Svetna said, looking up still and finding it iing she could feel a bit of warmth shining on her despite the star being darker than the rest of the sky.

  “I had heard iing things about the Earth and its moon,” the assistant said. “Is it true that your wets perfect eclipses between the moon and sun?”

  “Yeah, though I’ve never actually gotten to see one in person,” Svetna replied. “I heard Ottawa’s supposed to get a good o year, though. Hopefully I’ll be oh for it.”

  The Lanthonean woman nodded, marking something iablet before leading Svetna off to go shake more hands and tell union representatives about her history as a retail worker. Just because she lived in a paow didn’t mean she’d fet her years in the w css.

  At least she hoped it wouldn’t.

  Slowly waking up, Augusta realised she was in a bed. The room around her was made of earth... as in soil, not as in the Earth. Presumably. Highly anic shapes of wood seemed to run supports for it, allowing the ceiling to form a gradual dome above her head. Strips of light ran along the soil, glowing a soft and warm e light that made the small room very cozy. She found herself not minding the ck of windows or the way she felt she was underground.

  “Ah! You’re awake!” Thisbe said, rushing into the room. “Are you alright?”

  “I am fi...” she began to reply, before she remembered what had caused her to faint.

  Qwa had rather cracked her worldview open. Somehow it all seemed so f now. Just like the room...

  “Is there something in the air?” she asked, suddenly curious as to why she was feeling quite so calm.

  “Yes. The lights help, but it’s mostly pheromones released by Qwa’s roots. They’re calming. Apparently sometimes people don’t haheir versations well, so they’re brought here to rex a bit,” Thisbe replied.

  “Ah,” Augusta said, feeling as if she would normally be insulted.

  Under regur circumsta would probably have reminded her of her father’s patronizing attitudes, not respeg her as an adult. As her own person. Somehow, though, this seemed different. It seemed like Qwa genuinely cared.

  “Do you mind if I ask what happened?” Thisbe asked, projeg her own feeling of , though not worry.

  It seemed the room was calming to her as well.

  “Qwa told me something that would make my life easier after nearly thirty years of fusion and struggle,” Augusta said.

  They had also told her that it was fio accept the easier path. Somehow it had also served to tell her that there was no honour in undue suffering, no dishonour in finding happiness. And now the idea brought her peace.

  Oh. But she hadn’t told Thisbe what Qwa had actually said.

  “They looked into my heart,” she expined. “And saw... what is the term... genderfluidity! Yes. Genderfluidity.”

  Blinking, Thisbe seemed to take a moment to process that. “Oh.”

  “It’s quite surprising to me as well... but it seems I processed some of it while unscious and... and I suppose there is no harm in seeing how I feel by trying it?” Augusta said, nodding slowly.

  “A--alright,” Thisbe said, looking... worried now?

  Well, she would surely accept things once Augusta had travelled away from Qwa. As much as she didn’t want to. It was so o feel something a sort of parental... no, more than that, a divine sort of love with no demands from her side. No judgement, only kindness.

  Getting up from the bed, gd to find she was still wearing everything she’d been wearing before (apart from her shoes, which were on the ground beside the bed) she ged the subject to asking Thisbe what she’d been told. Apparently Qwa had been ied in her position as a possible champion for supernatural rights. They apparently found such discrimination a stain upon the gaxy.

  It seemed to serve as a good enough distra to get them to where Bokarza was waiting, the horned woman too tall to fit in the rooms where Augusta had beeing. Ohey reached her side Bokarza was more than happy to discuss her own discussion with Qwa while leading the others back outside.

  As it turned out they had been staying in a series of tunnels beh the forest that was Qwa, the ‘copter still waiting for them in the clearing where they had left it. A different priest would be the pilot for their trip back to the p’s primary y, though this one was just as quiet as the first.

  The forty or so mi took to fly back (the vehicle was somehoable of supersonic flight despite running on propellers) were enough time away from Qwa’s direfluence fusta’s peaind. The things they had said still rang just as truthful and wise as they had before.

  “Is there a gender assig i this world?” she asked.

  “There is indeed. We d o it,” the priest replied, apparently unsurprised to receive such a request.

  Perhaps even with the gaxy’s open and passionate approach to gender mistakes could be made and a discussion with Qwa could help find correswers. Or, perhaps priests of Qwa were simply very rexed individuals. They had seemed to have a sort of hippy-like nature to their unities from what little Augusta had seen.

  Whatever the case, Bokarza was rather more surprised about the request.

  “You... you’re...”

  “I am uaily where the bance lies, but Qwa suggested it is not where I thought it was,” Augusta said. “So I would like to try to learn.”

  The short detour was not enough time for any major versation. It turned out that the gender ic had its own nding pad, and momentum carried Augusta up until the reception desk. Only when the receptionists shuffled about to find someone who spoke a nguage she knew and she was then handed a form to fill out (clearly meant primarily for bookkeeping, there was no challenge demanding sed opinions) that she found some doubt creeping ba. It was also so dramatic... but it was fully reversible, wasn’t it? So what was there to lose by giving it a try? If she didn’t like it she could switch bad put the whole silly enthusiasm behind her.

  But if she did like it... then...

  If she did like it then she could rub everything her father had ever said about his disappoi in having a daughter in his face. She would be able to embrace the best of both worlds and prove herself ond for all.

  So she sig before her self fidence gave out any further. Bokarza and Thisbe both gave her words of encement as she headed into the ba. It reminded her vaguely of an x-ray mae. Though, wood, as everything on this p seemed to be made of wood or earthen materials.

  “One moment,” the tei said, once she was standing on the marker on the floor.

  There was a fsh of light, and then... well, the room felt slightly smaller. Her clothes seemed a little tight, as well. And... and something itg at her ski gone.

  “Wait, was that it?” she asked, only to realise her voice had e out deeper and a little rougher.

  Or... his voice?

  That felt very strao think about, a was somehow thrilling at the moment. This was... this was the fidence Augusta felt in womanhood some days, but was so absent others. It wasn’t merely wavering self worth. It had been something clear and solvable, all this time.

  “That is it. Now, I see on form... you wrote ‘fluid’ with question mark...” the Kobaroian man said, his English a little shaky. “Must warn: only one zap each day. More to on body.”

  “Y-yes. Of course,” Augusta replied, figuring that was fair.

  It was transf at the cellur level. That was clearly energy intehough there seemed to be some degree of servation of mass though. Augusta had only grown slightly while having clearly lost some body fat as a result.

  It was enough that his clothes still vaguely fit, the military chidrogynous enough for him to feel the outfit was still acceptable.

  Stepping out to see the others, he could help but smile as he reached them. “This... this really is nice...”

  Though he realised it probably meant his ces with either Bokarza or Viviaruly sunk... right? Or... maybe those days he was a woman the improved self uanding would make her less argumentative and improve her odds?

  “Huh...” Thisbe said, staring at him with an ihat drew his mind away from those theoreticals. “You feel so much calmer emotionally... and you also remind me of someone.”

  “I do?” he replied.

  “Mhm. I ’t quite remember who... but you definitely look good,” Thisbe said.

  Plynx had not been expeg Bokarza and Thisbe to return with a man apanying them. Finding out that the man was Augusta was even more surprising that learning the two had simply picked up a very lost human who had arrived on Qwa’s world by mistake.

  The even more fusing part was that Augusta suddenly seemed so much more rexed, instead of always ag like something was bitiail.

  Luckily it only took a few minutes of needling on their way back to the port to get an argument going again. Proving that Augusta had not been repced by some sort of weirdly mellow mimibsp;

  Vivian a foot massage as they watched the news, Svetna wasn’t sure she was managiher very well. Still, Vivian was happy for even slightly clumsy efforts due to the disforts of the st part of her pregnancy, and Svetna was getting a vague idea about the current state of the gaxy.

  “Oh, it’s the girls,” Vivian said with a ugh as new ce cut to ce of the sed world the others were t.

  Only...

  “Whose the guy with them?” Svetna asked.

  “I...” Vivian began to say when the reporter identified the blond human male as Augusta.

  “Huh...” Svetna said.

  “Somehow... somehow I’m not actually totally surprised?” Vivian replied, staring at a wall for a moment. “There was definitely something more than just being snooty that teo fizzle my i...”

  “I’m just a little sad to learn it this way... couldn’t they have called?” Svetna said.

  At that noh popped out of his dis to stand at Vivian’s side. “Ielr unication reys have a several minute g, so a call would not have worked... it is also possible they felt a written message would be too distant?”

  “Ah, yeah. That makes sense. Emailing your wife to tell her you’re trans is a bit... weird as a way to do it,” Svetna said, nodding to herself.

  Even if finding out via a news broadcast was even weirder.

  Watg another newscast as she ate her lunch, Svetna stared in fusion as she now saw Augusta female again and waving at crowds o another world.

  “Did it not stick or is this genderfluidity?” she mumbled to herself with no one else in earshot.

  Maybe she o send a message over to Augusta.

  Svetna fot to send that email.

  The name ‘Auguste’ had been very easy to shift to. It was hat it was mase in Frend feminine in German, so seemed perfectly ral to someone of Franco-Austriaage... the influence of Auguste’s Russiaage on the name was still unclear.

  Now, maybe it was a little too servative and easy of a switch, and so Svetna and Cartridge would have entary on the ck of creativity. Thisbe, however, found it useful in how natural it was. Especially at the moment as she blurted the name happily at times, between moans of happiness as the suddeionally healthier Parisian had ended up in her bed that night. And he was surprisingly good at things, for his first time with the new... equipment.

  Only, in a moment of particur joy, Thisbe found another name escape her lips. “éloi!”

  Auguste froze, staring at her in fusion. “Pardon?”

  “Sorry... it just struck me now who you remind me of as a man,” Thisbe replied, a weak smile.

  “Mai?” he replied, apparently too shocked to use English.

  Which robably fair, one didn’t usually bring up past loves during sex, but...

  “I’m sorry, it was ba the 1940s, so that... wow, it’s 80 years ago now,” she mumbled, before shaking her head. It had really been so long. “He was quite good ioo. A member of the French resistan Strasb... something of a rebel against not just the occupying force, but also his parents. They wanted him to marry an Austrian woman of all things... so he must have thought having a fling with a fn vampire to be even more daring than joining the resistance... good memories...”

  Auguste’s eye twitched slightly. “I... I am gd to know the memories are good, but I think I would like to get back to--wait. éloi? In the resistance? Marrying an Austrian?”

  “Y-yes?” Thisbe said, now w where Auguste’s mind was.

  Suddenly he rolled away and sat up, fingers gently trag the spot on his shoulder where Thisbe had bit him in a moment of passion. As she had a habit of doing during moments of passion... poor Svetna and Vivian had several bite marks on them.

  At least those weren’t just hers, though. Plynx could also get a bit bitey in bed from what she’d heard.

  “I had always wondered where he’d gotten those odd double scars,” Auguste muttered.

  “W-who?” Thisbe asked.

  He grew flush, the effect likely not visible to most in the dark room, but a vampire could sehat rush of blood.

  “My... my great grandfather. éloi Be, who was a member of the resistance, married my Austria grandmother to secure the family ties to the Hozenbergs after the war, and had had two little marks on his shoulder that were visible when he wore a loose colr,” Auguste replied, growing somewhat withdrawn as he spoke.

  “Oh. Small world,” Thisbe replied with a shrug. “I suppose that expins why you seem like a better looking version of éloi, if you’re reted.”

  Blinking, Auguste turo her. “I’m better looking?”

  “Better ioo... not that he was bad, but you’re better,” Thisbe said with a nod, befrabbing Auguste’s hand. “Let’s get back to it then, shall we?”

  “I--but... this seems...” Auguste stammered, before his resistance seemed to melt. “I suppose it’s nothing pared to great grandmother’s family...”

  Whatever that meant, it was enough to get them back to the euphoria of a few minutes earlier.

  O’tmyil stepped bato the imperial apartment, having been finishing up some efforts to track down all of the pace’s fihere were some secretive iments she had been aware of that had apparently been fotten about ierveniuries that showed promise in improving the finances of the House of Fujikawa, making them no longer depe upon the Issiod’rian and Kobaroic royal families.

  Her feelings of satisfied success quickly slipped her mind, however, when she discovered Svetna sat at the dining table with a marker in her hand and a rge piece of bristol board in front of her.

  “... May I ask what you are doing?” she said, walking over to Svetna.

  “I’m making a sign to hold up fusta, sihey’re due ba a couple hours,” Svetna expined, as if that were perfectly logical. “You would not believe how hard it was to find bristol board in this pace.”

  O’tmyil nodded, before reading the sign oable. The marker letters read ‘grats on the genderfluidity’ in capital letters, a small gap between the lines leaving a pencilled area that said ‘probable’ just befenderfluidity’, though Svetna had not filled that in with marker just yet. Raising an eyebrow, O’tmyil khat Svetna could feel her uainty and so no question would have to be asked.

  “Sihey’re in jump space right now I ’t email them to check... I should have messaged them before, but between w about Vivian and all the travelling around on Throne World, it kept slipping my mind,” Svetna said. “So... I don’t know for certain if Augusta is genderfluid now or not. But putting ‘probable’ on the sign seems silly.”

  “I...” O’tmyil began, not certain what to say. That had not precisely been her question.

  It was more the idea of the empress of the gaxy holding up a wele sign at the space port that seemed questionable from a de standpoint. Before she could mao find her reply, however, Vivian and noh hurried in, the tter seeming to not quite be certain what he was doing, only that he should be doing something.

  “My water just broke,” Vivian said.

  “It... it did?” Svetna replied.

  “I firm from the shift in her metabolic signatures,” noh said.

  “Uh... I guess we’re not meeting the others at the nding pad, then,” Svetna said, scrambling to her feet. “We should--wait, do we go to an infirmary or do they e to us?”

  “They will e to us,” O’tmyil replied. “I will make the call. Though we should be able to dey the birth until after the others arrive if you would like?”

  “I think I prefer to--mrphm,” Vivian winced, grabbing noh’s shoulder tight enough to cause the holographi some obvious disfort. “Yep, that’s a tra. It’s now.”

  That was not, in fact, an ungeable course of events, but O’tmyil and her brother both quickly exged silent messages to agree it robably best to just get the birth out of the way. The others could make their way to the residential rooms from the nding pad quite easily. As suyil hurried to the external call sole, a security barrier between the imperial residend any cyber attacks. The doctors insisted they would arrive shortly and enced her to move Vivian to a bed.

  A few moments ter she was set up, ying down and squeezing Svetna’s hands when new tras hit from time to time. Pants and underpants had been removed, and O’tmyil had just remembered that removing her socks might be best while noh watched the entrao give the women some privacy.

  “Ow,” Svetna squeaked after a particurly tight squeeze from Vivian.

  “If you think that hurts I’d gdly trade roles with yht now,” Vivian muttered as the doctors arrived.

  “Well, it’s oable for ime,” Svetna replied with a smile. “That only seems fair after I did this to you.”

  O’tmyil could tell she was being genuine when she said it.

  “You’re early,” the Lanthonean doctor said, pg a monitor pat Vivian’s neck. “Apologies for having not been ready.”

  “You seemed quiough?” Vivian replied.

  “There have already been tras... that is unneeded disfort,” the Kobaroian doctor said, before Vivian a small cup of water and a single pill.

  It apparently did not seem enough to Vivian in the moment, but she seemed to assume it was just the start and so popped the pill in her mouth and dowhe water to swallow it. A moment ter she realised the Lanthonean woman had produced a needle and was already iing further medication into her thigh.

  “I... are you just really good at that or are spaeedles better thah needles?” Vivian asked. “Because I didn’t feel that at all.”

  “Likely a bit of both,” the doctor replied.

  “Very fair,” Vivian said, before a shiver ran through her. “What was... that felt sort of like a tra, but... way less intense.”

  “We’ve tuned down your paiion,” the Kobaroian woman expined. “While also providing some additional energy to the muscles involved. The process should plete more quickly now.”

  “How much more... ohh....” Vivian said, shivering again. “This feels so.... weird.”

  “This is anted you to have the child off of Earth,” O’tmyil replied.

  “I do feel like I’m getting... getting tired... but it doesn’t hurt,” Vivian said.

  “That is to be expected,” the Lanthonean doctor said, moving around to get a better look at matters.

  And then, almost before she repared for it, Vivian found a small baby bundled in a b sitting in her arms. The doctor had pced one of those sticky pads she’d put on Vivian’s neto the baby’s chest, but that seemed to be all that was o decre the child healthy.

  Svetna leaned against Vivian, leaning in to gush over the baby as Vivian ed an arm around her. Sure, she was tired, but far less tired than she’d expected and in substantially less pain. It felt more like a detly intense workout than how she’d expected giving birth to go.

  “I just... I ’t believe we made this little thing,” Svetna said. gently running a finger along the baby’s face.

  “Hey. I did most of the ‘making’,” Vivian said with a ugh.

  “Mhm... I helped with the fun part, though,” Svetna replied with an impish grin, before dropping it to give a mentle expression. “Did you e up with a name?”

  They’d agreed before that she got to pick the name since she’d gohrough the whole pregnancy part, though Svetna had requested some level of veto powers. That had seemed pretty fair.

  “Well, I was thinking if it was a gir--wait,” Vivian said, turning to the doctors when she realised how well buhe infant--her child was. “Are they a birl?”

  The two doctors stared bnkly.

  “It is a newborn?” the Kobaroian woman said.

  “... Right. That’s how they do things here,” Vivian mumbled.

  “I kind of approve,” Svetna said.

  “Fair. Very fair. I just... I hadn’t specifically thought of a gender ral name,” Vivian said.

  AnnouAlright. So I was a little slow writily. But I'm almost back to schedule.

  ...Just more reason to sign up on patreon to get the two buffer chapters?