Lucas was exhausted when he got home. It was still dark, and he had been walking for almost an hour and a half. On the bright side, he didn’t see any unusual cars, and Vithi didn’t think they were being watched magically, so they seemed to have given their pursuers the slip. After making sure nothing important was missing, and that all the doors and windows were locked and covered, Vithi came out. Lucas eyed her. “I’m going back to bed. I’m going to call in sick to work and sleep in, so don’t wake me up again unless it’s important.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“It’s fine, it needed to happen.” He paused. “Is the body double still in my bed?”

“Oh, yeah, let me get rid of that.” Vithi scampered off to his room, and he sunk into a couch. He took off his shoes and inspected his pajamas; they were muddy and torn in places from the walk through the forest. Vithi came back and noticed him looking at them. “Sorry, I can fix those if you give me a second.” She didn’t wait for a reply, instead striding over to him and muttering a few words. Soon, he felt the fabric move and the clothes knit themselves back together. He raised an eyebrow.

“Wow, these look new, thanks.”

“Transformative magic is a particular specialty of djinn, and that was an easy fix. Not a big deal.”

Lucas nodded, then stood up and yawned. “Night, then.”

“Night.”

He made his way into his room, left a message for his boss, and fell asleep quickly.

Lucas woke up still feeling a little worn out. He groaned as he groggily made his way out of bed. Vithi was playing a game in the living room, as per usual. When she noticed him, she paused the game and got up. “Finally! I’ve been waiting!”

“For what?” Lucas asked.

“You remember the thing I was telling you I had in my lair?”

Lucas sat down on a couch and thought for a moment. “Sounds familiar? I’m a little hazy on details. Last night was a bit crazy.”

Vithi sat down next to him. “There’s this weird thing with my alchemy stuff that say it’s for you.”

“Oh, right, that. What about it?”

“Well I wanted to show you it.”

Lucas looked around. “Where is it?”

“In my lair. I can’t move it because it’s surrounded by a barrier.”

“So, how do I see it?”

Vithi smiled. “You can come into my lair now that we’re bonded like this.”

Lucas frowned. “But aren’t I the doorway or something? How can I go through myself?”

“It’s more mental than anything. Your body will still be here, you’ll just have sort of a spiritual duplicate over there.”

“Alright, so how do I get in?”

Vithi stood up. “First off, you should probably lie down. That way you won’t fall to the floor or anything weird.”

Lucas complied, but he was too tall for the couch, and his legs hung awkwardly off the side. “Maybe I should move to my bed?”

Vithi nodded. “Might be a good idea if you don’t want to come back with your legs feeling weird.”

He got up and made his way into his room, trailed by Vithi. “Huh. You keep a much cleaner room than Tunem.” She observed.

“How are his rooms?”

“Books and paper everywhere. Real mess.”

Lucas laid down on the bed and looked at Vithi. “So, now what?”

She frowned slightly. “I…think I have to go in, and then metaphorically open the door for you? Not quite sure.” She quickly vanished, smoke funneling into Lucas’ body. Alright, the “door” is open. She informed him, I think you just need to focus on coming in, like how you do when you focus on casting a spell.

Lucas concentrated on Vithi’s lair and felt himself grow a little lighter. Encouraged, he focused a little harder, and there was a sudden dropping sensation. He landed standing up on a carpeted floor. He looked around, noticing the white walls, small doors, and general…normality of it. “Oh, there you are!” Vithi exclaimed. “This way!” She motioned towards an open door and hopped through.

He entered the room, which seemed to be a garage-like storage space. There were lots of shelves, filled with all sorts of interesting jars and bags on them. Before he had time to expect any, Vithi grabbed his arm and towed him towards a nearby aisle.

“Whoa, what’s the big rush?”

“You kidding? I’ve been dying to figure out what this thing is! Aren’t you curious?”

“You seem awfully excited to help me work out stuff like this compared to before.”

Vithi rolled her eyes. “One, curiosity. Two, like it or not, I’m stuck under you. It’ll be better for both of us if you’re actually able to defend yourself.”

“I could just release you, right?”

“Please don’t, or at least, not now. I don’t feel comfortable being exposed so soon after those people came around.”

Lucas just nodded. Soon, he was standing in front of a…thing. It pulsed and oozed but felt strangely comfortable to him. He reached out a hand and grabbed it.

Vithi watched as Lucas grabbed the thing. Suddenly, his eyes glazed over, and his grip tightened. He took the thing out of its place and began to walk away. “Hey, Lucas, what are you doing?” She asked, hurrying to follow him. He didn’t even look at her as he rounded the corner and approached the door to the hall he came in from. “Lucas, are you OK?”

He remained silent. Vithi tried to grab him but was rebuffed by a barrier, similar to the one originally surrounding the object. Lucas didn’t even seem to notice, continuing onward as if nothing had happened. Vithi sighed but decided to follow him. After all, this thing probably came from his wish, right? Might as well see what the thing does, and I can always try and stop him doing…whatever he’s doing if it gets out of hand. He made his way out of the room and started down the hallway. Where’s he going? That leads to the room I usually use to look at my surroundings. He kept moving, and soon Vithi found herself walking through the room towards a door at the far end. She frowned. That’s not usually there. What is that? Lucas opened the door and went through without hesitation. Vithi followed curiously and found herself in a dark chamber of sorts. Ahead, she saw a wall of sorts, rippling slightly. Wait a minute, is that Lucas’ magic? Lucas approached it, and then shoved the thing into it forcefully. There was a burst of light, and then Lucas was gone, and Vithi found herself back in the viewing room.

“…as? Lucas? Oh, thank goodness you’re awake.” Lucas groaned and sat up. Vithi was standing near the bed, looking worried. “How do you feel?”

Lucas thought about this. “A little tired, but otherwise normal.” His voice sounded odd. How long had he been out? He stood up, letting out a small sigh of relief as his wings and tail freed themselves from the confinement of the bed.

“Are you sure?” Vithi asked cautiously.

“Positive. Why?”

“Bathroom.”

Lucas cocked his head. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

Lucas shrugged, but headed into the bathroom. Upon entering, he was greeted by a reflection not his own. “What in the world?” The reflection looked familiar, yet alien at the same time. There was a girl who looked a lot him, save for longer hair, a devil’s tail, and angel wings. Quivering, he reached back and touched the tail. He felt it flick away from his hand. Cautiously, he checked the rest of his body. No doubt about it, that was his reflection. “Vithi!” She shouted, now noting the higher pitch of her voice. Vithi came in almost immediately. “So, uh, you noticed, I take it?” She asked.

“Yes I “noticed”! How could I not?!” Lucas demanded, turning to face Vithi.

“You didn’t notice when you woke up.” Vithi pointed out.

Lucas paused. Yes, this body was different, but at the same time it felt like she’d had it her whole life. “Weird. This just feels normal. Even if I touch anything,” she said, patting a wing, “the sensations don’t feel weird. Logically I know I shouldn’t have these, but it just feels…normal. Do you know what happened?”

Vithi hesitated. “So, while you were out, I did some identification spells on you…”

“And?”

“Well, I think it has to do with your magic before. You remember how I said that it was walled off or something?”

“Yeah”

“I think your wish removed your Domain wholesale and gave me that thing.”

Lucas frowned. “What makes you say that?”

“When I did the identification spell now, your Domains showed up.”

“Domains? Plural? Which ones do I have?”

Vithi shuffled a bit. “Um, all of them.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Well, that would explain the wings and tail. Why am I a girl, though?”

“I’m pretty sure the spell just copy-pasted my Domain onto yours when it gave you the djinn Domain. As far as I can tell your djinn Domain has exactly the same Traits unlocked as I do. I’m guessing that since Domains have to do with your body, when it copy-pasted my Domain onto yours it copy-pasted some of my body onto yours as well. Not really sure why it changed just your sex, though. That’s really weird, sorry.”

Lucas sighed. “Couple more questions. First, why would the wish bother with removing my Domain and then giving some weird artifact to you instead of just adding Domains onto mine? Second, are you sure I have all the Domains? If I do, why do I just have these wings and tail?”

Vithi tapped her chin. “Maybe it had to do with your wish for my freedom? You being undetectable by magic did help shake those guys earlier? That and I’m guessing it would use less effort to have you put in the new Domains yourself. Tweaking someone’s Domains is a big work of magic, so it would take a lot of magic to add in the new Domains one-by-one. Better to put them all together somewhere and remove your Domain so you would grab hold of the first few you got.”

“As for having all the Domains, first off, the list my identification spell gave me was long. REALLY long. I couldn’t think of a single Domain that wasn’t on there, and you have even more I hadn’t thought of. As far as I can tell, you even have all the sub-Domains too, which shouldn’t be possible. But the biggest clue was the “Perfect Chimera” Domain, which, as far as the greater magic community has been able to tell, only comes when someone has all the domains. As for just having the wings and tail? I’m not sure. Perhaps it just chose those because they’re familiar to you? Theoretically, and mind you I don’t know for sure because there’s been four Perfect Chimeras in all of recorded history, you should be able to change that around at will once you get more powerful.”

Lucas nodded hesitantly. “Well…now what?” She asked

“We could go test out your abilities?” Vithi suggested

Lucas tapped her chin. “Yeah, but if we do it here, won’t we draw attention from those guys looking for you?”

“Oh, right. Uh, we could walk to an abandoned building or something.”

“Looking like this?” Lucas motioned to her wings and tail. As she did, something popped up in front of her. It looked rather like a popup window you might get in a game, showing dialogue. “Vithi, what is that?” Lucas asked

“What’s what?”

“This window?”

“There’s no window.”

“Yes, there is, it’s right here!” Lucas said, pointing at the window.

“Oh! That must be some sort of magical message. Often message spells, identification spells, and other spells that convey information show something only visible to the user or recipient.”

“Alright, but why does it look like a game window?”

“It just picks something familiar. Read it!”

Lucas nodded, and began to read out loud.

The window vanished after Lucas finished, leaving her somewhat confused.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” Vithi said, “but do you have any idea why you’re getting all these messages? Usually you won’t get something like this unless you have an identification spell active.”

Lucas was greeted with another pop-up as she pondered this.

“Well, that’ll certainly be useful,” Vithi remarked, “What was that first Trait? Suppression?”

Lucas nodded. “Think I should try it here?”

Vithi thought about this for a moment. “I think so. It popped up after we were mentioning needing to get out of here, and I doubt squashing magic is going to leave a magical trace. Give it a go.”

Lucas paused. “How?”

“Just like I taught you with the fire spell. Using Traits or Abilities is generally the same way.”

Lucas concentrated on suppressing her Domains and was rewarded with a gasp from Vithi. “I take it that means it worked?” She asked.

“Yes and no?” Vithi responded. “I mean…your wings and tail are gone.” Lucas looked back at her reflection in the mirror. Sure enough, the same girl was staring back at her, sans wings and tail.

“Guess it was too much to hope for to go back to myself.”

“Well, your Human Domain was removed too, so I guess this is your new default.” She thought for a moment. “Although, given your domains, I see no reason why you couldn’t eventually get back to your old default, or at least close to it.”

At that, Lucas brightened considerably. “Well, looks like I have a goal to work towards. Better than just aimlessly doing stuff, I guess.” She turned around and walked out of the bathroom. “I’m going to go experiment. You coming with?”

“Way ahead of you.” Vithi replied, already beginning to shift into smoke.

Fighterman481

Alright, we finally hit the genderbending portion of this. Before anyone says anything, Vithi is wrong about the reason behind the sex change, but we'll get there later. You'll also note that Lucas is just...chill about this. There is also a reason for that. I forget if/where I explain this, but most magic that changes the user's form in some way also grants limited acceptance of the body, so the user isn't constantly tripping over their own feet while trying to move around. This is not that, and is actually quite a few steps above, but we're not going to get there until quite a bit later.

Also, pronouns. So, this is not going to be the only genderbending in the story, and the way I've decided to deal with pronouns is this: it all depends on how the person in question is feeling at the moment. If they're unhappy with the new sex or are unaware, they use their old pronouns. If they are ambivalent or welcoming, it's pronouns for the new sex.

Fair warning, most if not all genderbends are going to be male to female, so keep that in mind.

Anyway, skills! Windows! Excitement? Right now I'm just going with this for the windows because I can't figure out how to format them to look nicer. If anyone has pointers, I'd be more than happy to mess around with it.

And from here on out we get into the real meaty stuff. Less setup, more magic stuff happening. Don't have much else to say about this now, to be honest. Expect a lot more of that in the next couple of chapters, though.