Complete panic. That was what went through my mind as I realised I’d been recognised. Not only that, but that name. Why did it hurt so much to get hit with it? Like a gut punch out of nowhere, it had me mentally doubling over in pain, confused as to where the hurt was coming from.

With a monumental effort of will, I pushed the tumult of emotions aside, and turned sideways to the gurg who now stood paralyzed, on the brink of fleeing. I needed to make them fuck off, I could have an internal meltdown once the threat of death was taken care of.

Taking shadow form, I stalked towards a group of gurg at random in an attempt to intimidate them. Except this time, my shadow form was different. I could feel it, a sort of instinctual urge.

Raising my hand, I pointed at a nearby surviving gurg officer… and watched with as much surprise as everyone else when tentacles of dark energy whipped out and grabbed him. The next move jerked him viciously towards me, and I spun as the tentacles dissipated, a bladed spike of shadow manifesting in my hand. The officer was cut clean in half, guts and other viscera spraying across the ground behind me to land at the feet of another group of his compatriots.

That did it, they broke, first in ones and twos, then more. I’d run too if I was on the other end of whatever the hell monstrosity I’d just become. Dayum.

With the gurg in full rout, I dropped all my angry shadowness and turned back to the band of pathfinders. They were all staring at me, and I recognised more than a few of my classmates in the group. Leon was there, obviously, but also Victoria and two or three others. I tried to find Joan in the group, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Hey Leon,” I said, my voice quiet and far deeper than it was naturally now. I couldn’t deal with questions about my body and gender right now.

“Where have you been?” he asked, stepping forward out of the group, the first to do so.

A classmate I recognised but couldn’t place a name to spoke up, “He has a thieves’ cloak on.”

I knew she was a classmate because I’d seen her in the goddess’ hall before we were separated, but I had no idea which of the remaining girls from our class she was.

“That’s right,” I nodded, keeping my words short. I was having trouble keeping my voice down this low. It hurt, both mentally and physically.

“It’s a slate snakes cloak too,” someone said, a guy who looked to be an Anamoor native.

I nodded again, not feeling the need to speak. It was awkward, this whole situation was awkward.

A man stepped forward from within the group, wearing battlemage getup, robes with armour over the top. He looked older, scars all across his face and hands. A veteran pathfinder, if I had to place him.

“Thank you for saving us, young man,” he said, smiling amicably. “Quite the work you did there. Never seen someone able to cast so quickly.”

“I’m not casting,” I told him quietly, my tone just slightly below conversational level. It was all I could manage. “I’m fae. Court of night.”

That pulled him up, surprise on his face. I gently lifted my hood, turning my head to show my ears.

“That’s just divineling features,” Leon said, also looking confused now.

I shrugged. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m apparently a child of the fae court of night. You saw me turn into a shadow monster thing.”

“Pointed ears is a sign of this, that is true,” the veteran guy agreed. “Not our greatest concern right now, however. The gurg may be back, and I advise we all prepare to make for the surface.”

There were exclamations of relief throughout the pathfinders as he said this, as well as many glances for the stairs. Couldn’t blame them. They looked all sorts of beaten and battered, many missing parts of their armour, and others bore wounds.

The veteran guy began giving orders, making sure the wounded who needed help got it, while others were sent to scout the way upwards. I kept my distance, watching. I felt strange here, with these people. Like I didn’t belong.

Leon, Victoria and a bunch of other classmates approached, and instinctively I pulled my hood back up. I didn’t want them to get a look at me, I didn’t want to face the questions. I couldn’t.

“You should come up with us!” Leon said excitedly. “You’d make such a good pathfinder, oh my god. Imagine how far down we could get with your help!”

My gut went cold. “No thank you.” The idea of leaving behind the slate snakes was awful in the extreme. I loved them, they were my family now, truer friends than the people I was speaking to now.

“Why not?” Leon asked, sounding and looking hurt.

“Yeah, you’d be able to get like, silver rank really quickly with your skills!” a guy said excitedly, I think his name was Jamie? I wasn’t sure, but his character… or rather, he looked like he used to back before everything.

“He’s a slate snake now,” Victoria pointed out, eyeing me up and down critically. “Won’t be long before we’ll be able to collect a bounty on him as well as his friends, I expect.”

That pissed me off. I warped, moving quickly through the shadows to stand directly before her, yanking the mage pendant off her neck and placing a blade to her throat. “Anyone here tries to collect a slate snake bounty and I will hunt you down and make sure you die slow,” I growled, my voice cracking, back to my normal voice.

“W-whoa,” Leon blurted in sudden fear. “Hey now, I mean… no one would actually try that. You guys seem super cool anyway, helping the poor out and stuff.”

I blinked backwards to my original position, still holding Victoria’s necklace in my hand. I stared her down, watching with grim satisfaction as her face drained of colour. Fuck this, fuck them. I tore my hood back and pulled my mask down.

“You ain’t shit,” I said, dangling the pendant from its snapped chain. “I help you, run blindly into your little fuckfest with the gurg and you turn around with that same cold shitty attitude you had back on earth? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I-I… I was just,” she stammered, terrified now.

“You were just nothing, dipshit. This place is not a game, anyone you kill is a real, thinking, breathing, loving person. Think twice before you go throwing that bounty bullshit around,” I spat, fury suffusing me like venom infecting my bloodstream.

“Dan, calm down dude,” Leon said worriedly, taking a step forward.

“Do I look like a dude to you?” I roared, something inside me freaking out over his continued masculine gendering of me.

All of them stopped for a second at that. Staring at me in confusion before their fear filled eyes saw what was right in front of them.

“Holy shit,” Leon breathed, and several others echoed him.

“Yeah,” I said coldly, throwing the pendant back to Victoria, who fumbled it, but managed to keep it in her hands. To her, my tone was acid, “Maybe now that I look like a chick, you’ll calm the fuck down.”

“I’m not the one who isn’t calm,” she said quietly, staring down at the necklace in her hands.

That took the wind out of my sails, and I took a long, deep breath. Fuck, her idle threat had sent me into a full on rage, and yeah it was a bit much to take it out on everyone else here. I couldn’t feel bad for putting her in her place though, those were my friends she was talking about, my family.

“I’m sorry,” I finally sighed, but my gaze didn’t lose all of its intensity. “I’m serious though. The slate snakes are good people, don’t fuck with them or I will get revenge.”

“We won’t, none of us will, right guys?” Leon asked, turning to the rest of the group. The nods came in fast, thank goodness. Even Victoria.

“Thank you,” I said, finally relaxing. “Thank you.”

There was silence for a few moments, and then the obvious topic came up. Victoria was staring at me, and without blinking she asked, “You’re a girl now?”

“No,” I replied, pulling my mask back up reflexively.

“You look like it,” Leon blurted, also staring at me. Goddess damn it all.

“I’m not a guy either,” I told them all. “I’m not sure what I am, all I know is that my name is Mist now.”

“What, are you like, a futa or something?” Jamie asked with a disturbing amount of excitement.

“Dude, what the fuck,” I groaned, placing my face into my palm. “I’m not answering any questions about what is in my damned pants. Real cringe dude.”

“Yeah that was gross man,” the chick who’d pointed out my cloak agreed, rolling her eyes for my benefit. “Jamie here thinks he’s living out his fuckin’ anime fantasies or some shit.”

That had me laughing, and I gave her an appreciative smile. A smile she couldn’t see, obviously, but it reached my eyes. “I don’t recognise you, sorry. Who are you?”

“Beth,” she grinned, stepping forward to offer a handshake. “Nice to meet you Mist. Unlike the rest of this lot, I’m really grateful that you came and helped when you did.”

“Oh, it was no problem,” I blinked, feeling almost shy.

“Yeah he came in clutch, hey?” Leon said, seeming excited to get back to praising me again. I really hoped he wasn’t going to turn into some fanboy.

“They came in clutch, but yes,” Beth agreed, stepping back and giving me a wink.

They? That had me mentally spinning. It was so simple, but… I liked it? I didn’t need to pick a side at all, as it were. Just Mist, they. Although… I mean I’d said I wasn’t a girl, but Bassi referring to me as one had been nice too and… oh god. This was all way too confusing.

“Uh, I’m going to go now,” I said softly, avoiding everyone’s eyes. “Need to get back to base.”

“Right, right… well um… come and say hi later, okay?” Leon asked, eyes pleading and hopeful. “We’re at the Coclot Pathfinder hall, if we aren’t out in the city or down here.”

“That, is an unfortunate sounding name,” I said, feeling a little of my mental stability return with my amusement. “Slate snakes is way cooler.”

“Nah,” Leon laughed, puffing out his very beefy chest. “We own the name. Don’t diss d-uh… friend.”

“Bye everyone, see you all later,” I waved, then promptly shifted into the weird other place. I rushed through them and away, down a corner where I could freak out in private. Goddess, I needed to get back to the house.