We'd been warned about the Hall of Demons back on Floor 5, so I wasn't too shocked and upset by the fact that all my friends had disappeared, leaving me alone. Still, I wasn't too happy about it.

  The Hall of Demons had been described as a personalized psychological challenge, leaning farther into the conceptual side of things than the rest of the dungeon. Inside it, we would face some contradiction at the core of who we were- our inner demons, essentially- and we would have to make some kind of peace with that. It wasn't quite Magic Therapy, mind you, but... well, honestly, it was the sort of thing that would probably make you need therapy afterwards.

  I found myself in my childhood home, eerily still and silent, and sighed. Well. No point delaying the inevitable.

  I marched up the stairs, heading to my bedroom. The door was unlocked, and standing by the far window, looking out over the street, was a young teenaged elf, with long red hair and soft cheeks. He turned to look at me as I walked in, and he sighed, closing his eyes.

  I shut the door, and leaned back against it. I might as well make the first move.

  "You look like a younger me," I said. "So, lemme guess, you represent... my loss of childhood innocence? Fear that I'm disappointing my father? Tell me, little man."

  "I'm the you who realized we were a woman," he said quietly.

  I blinked.

  "I'm the you," he continued, opening his eyes, "who learned Occult magic and used autohypnosis to repress that realization- to keep us living as a man, to keep us from ever having that realization again. Because I'm the you who knew just how badly humans treated elven women, and knew... We couldn't survive that. We're not as strong as Talia is. We're not capable of dealing with how much worse humans would treat us if we were a woman."

  "That's..." I paused. "I wouldn't... Would..." I frowned. "...I mean, yes, I do sometimes use autohypnosis to repress pain, but like... That's more because I've only had healing spells for a little while now, and before then, I had to push past the pain to keep going. I wouldn't do it for something like this."

  "You absolutely would, and did, use your force of will and mental discipline to suppress pain that you couldn't productively address in the name of pressing onwards," he said. "Of course... I, we, didn't do the best job of it. The block was supposed to suppress the bodily gender dysphoria completely; that hollow ache in your chest is what that is, and we didn't manage to actually get rid of it. And it was also supposed to make you stop poking around at Occult magic, thinking it was something Mom had forbidden, but... well, who knew you were drawn to the forbidden and taboo, huh? Who could've guessed that you'd become a Mage-Knight who pushes the boundaries of what's technically virginal, and who sleeps with a married woman and her daughter you were hired to protect?"

  "Okay, I think we're getting a little off-topic here," I said, warily. "So, Mom legitimately never had a problem with me studying the Occult, that's just something I tricked myself into believing so that I'd stop messing around with it?"

  "That's correct," he said, nodding. "But... Well, now you're halfway to being a Bard. Already a legendary hero. You understand, now, why you have to keep living this lie?"

  "What? No, you've lost me," I said, frowning. "I thought your contention was that I am, in fact, a woman."

  "Yes, and if you want people to believe your claims of being a legendary hero, you can't let them know that," he explained. "Remember what I just said about how Hikaano treat women, especially elven women? Your accomplishments will be erased, stripped from you, swept under the rug, declared fabrications- anything to avoid acknowledging that a woman, especially an elven woman, is worthy of respect."

  "Huh?"

  "And so what if it would make you happier?" he continued, starting to grow heated. "We're a Mage-Knight, after all. Just as much as actually having sex with Talia would make us happy, we understand full well that we can't do that, that it's the wrong choice right now, and that we have to set aside our own bodily desires for the sake of the future of our people."

  "Women can be Mage-Knights just fine, you little shithead," I said. "Did you somehow forget that Aunt Rosenthal was a Mage-Knight too?" I didn't understand this kid- he seemed to equate 'being a woman would be politically inconvenient' with 'being a woman straight up isn't an option for me.'

  "Not according to the Hikaano, and that's the problem!" he yelled. "You don't understand! They'll tear you apart and eat you alive for daring to be a woman with higher ambitions than being some dipshit's broodmare! They'll make you beg for death, and leave Mom and Dad with barely anything to bury!"

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Oh. That was it, wasn't it? That was why he was drawing that connection. He was afraid. Afraid of what the humans would do to me if I came out to them as a woman. As an ordinary woman. He was afraid. And to that... I could only laugh.

  "Child," I said, grinning. "I do not give a fuck what the humans think about me. I am not afraid of some mob of shithead humans who think transgender women are demons, and I am not afraid of what they would try to do to me. Maybe you're afraid of them, but me? I've killed people. Decapitated them in the streets, shot them down in the desert, crushed their skulls beneath my fists. I am a fucking Mage-Knight, you little pissant, and I'm supposed to be afraid of human misogyny? Fuck. That. Shit. I'm not fucking scared of them. They are going to be scared of me."

  I flared my magicka, dispelling the illusion before me, and bellowed out to the Hall itself.

  "You fucking hear me?!" I yelled. "I killed a Demon King, bitch! I ain't fuckin' scared of you! I'm Catherine fucking Ironheart, I'm the faggiest tranny dyke you're ever gonna meet, and I'll burn your fucking house down!"

  I heard cheers from the other side of the bare room I now found myself in, and turned to regard my adventuring party. And Summer, temporary addition she was, who nonetheless was instrumental in finally getting the message through my thick fucking skull.

  "Go ahead and say it," I said, walking over towards everyone. "I know you're all thinking it."

  "I fucking told you so!" Talia yelled, a wide grin on her face.

  "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," I muttered, nonetheless opening my arms to accept a hug from her. "Hey, Emily," I added. "You said you like women, yeah?"

  Emily answered this in the most succinct way possible: by pressing a soft kiss to my lips.

  "So, what's transitioning gonna look like, here?" Summer asked.

  "Well, I'm gonna politely ask Talia here to use her Druid magic to give me tits," I said, before bending down a bit to kiss Talia as well. "And if it doesn't work like that, then I'm going to figure something out while I'm here. It's Mount Fate, there's an absolute fuckton of powerful spellcasters who live here; they'll have something for me. And..." I hummed quietly. "...Well, I'm probably gonna have to go by the office and get my name changed in the paperwork."

  "I can give you tits, but it's gonna be a slow process," Talia said. "It's going to be, essentially... Well, y'know how your body has a certain equilibrium that it tends to move towards? Well, now your equilibrium is going to involve having boobs, and that's just where fat's gonna deposit and form from now on."

  "Should we stop for today?" Faith asked. "This is a pretty big development..."

  "Sounds good to me," Summer said.

  "Great, because I also told you so, Cat, and I will be demanding kisses in exchange for you hearing the end of it."

  "Can someone please explain to me what the hell happened here?" Volex pleaded.

  "Oh, I used autohypnosis and Occult magic to repress the realization that I was actually a woman back when I was fifteen," I said easily.

  "You what?!" Volex demanded.

  "I didn't do a great job of it, though, and it fell apart after a few years, and now I'm realizing that I can just be a woman without having to change much about myself, and if anyone has a problem with that, I'll feed them their own teeth."

  "Wait, hang on," Talia said. "Volex, did you not know she was a woman this whole time?"

  "No!" Volex said, her voice going almost shrill. "No, I was not aware that the Occultist who took me as his Familiar was secretly a woman, to the extent that even she didn't realize she was a woman! That's fucking insane! What the hell!"

  "I, uh... You're not upset, are you?" I asked cautiously.

  "I'm mad that I missed this, but..." Volex collected herself, and took a deep breath. "...I'm very happy for you... Catherine, was it?"

  "Or Cat," I said. "Not Kitty, though. I'm not submissive enough for that to work."

  "I wonder if I can transfer skills I've gotten to other people," Summer muttered. "I mean, I got Shapeshifting from Volex, so maybe that'd let you transition faster?"

  "I don't think that would work too well, no," Volex said, shaking her head. "I'm made of ectoplasm, and Succubus shapeshifting is essentially just a solid illusion. Very convenient and nice to have when you shapeshift a lot, but not the best for when you only need to do it once."

  "I do know there's Wizards who can do organic transmutations that change your body instantly, but..." Emily trailed off. "...Well, if J- if Cat, sorry, doesn't already know those spells herself, I don't think anyone else here knows them, either."

  "I have a general and theoretical understanding of how they would work," I said, "but that's more, 'If I was locked in a room with a lot of paper and my spellbooks for a year, I could probably reinvent it myself.' But hey, it was a good thought."

  "Oh, one last thing," Summer said. "Since you've accepted that you're a woman now, does that mean I can finally see what skills I get from you?"

  "Horny," I said, pointing an accusatory finger at her.

  "Yeah, and? What're you gonna do about it?"

  "Fuck you."

  "Yeah, I sure hope so!"

  I chuckled, and gave her a quick kiss.

  For the first time in a long time... I felt like everything was gonna be okay.

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