I’d hoped that Gavin might follow me out so I could ask him some questions. I’d been using him to learn the local common sense, and just casting a single stupid ball of light seemed to have destroyed that chance for me.

Using dark magic, I blended into the shadows, sticking around for a few minutes in hope, before I left. During that time, I saw the temple knights put themselves back in order and depart. I was a little surprised they didn’t try to start a hunt for me then and there, but I guess I’d been overwhelming enough they thought better of it.

After all, I had taken down most of them without even using an actual attack. Only the one guy inside took a blow.

Sighing in resignation, I headed off to find another place to stay the night. I wanted to go to the upper city, but doing so right now was asking for trouble. I had the appearance of a young woman, by herself. I decided to do something about that.

Although I was non-binary, being a mix of the two, I preferred to be primarily feminine in appearance and pronoun, but didn’t shy at taking on more masculine forms when I needed, or wanted, to.

Finding an empty alley, and making it perfectly clean, I put up some wards to hide the place and myself. To be safe, I had to remove my clothes first. I could shift without doing so, but I’d experienced what it felt like to get clothes stuck inside me once before, and didn’t feel like risking it if I didn’t have to. I had shifted clothed before, without problems, but only during emergencies.

Focusing on the masculine form I wanted, I started the shift, working my way from the bottom up. My feet and legs thickened, still slender, but with corded muscles. My hips narrowed, though the twig and berries disappeared. My stomach had been relatively soft, hiding my abs behind a thin layer of flesh, now that layer disappeared and a six-pack appeared. My torso reformed to make me broader, though my breast disappeared. My arms did like my legs, thickening with muscles, and my hands grew, though they remained slim and dexterous, though calloused from handling weapons.

Finally I came to my head. I didn’t feel like messing with an Adam's apple, so I left it out, though my vocal cords changed to produce a high baritone when I’d speak in the future. My face became hawk-like, though still not entirely feminine. My eyes turned from emerald to a dark brown that was nearly black. And last of all my hair… It had reached down my back to just over my posterior, but now became shoulder length, and changed color from crimson to silver.

With the changes, I’d gone from being around five and a half feet tall to a bit over six. While I still retained traces of femininity in me face and form, no one would think I was one, my appearance more than enough for observers to place me firmly in the male category.

I quickly threw on some new clothes, shivering slightly. Shifting always left me feeling that pins and needles feeling, and the cool breeze coming in off the ocean did not help at all.

I chose clothes that had a definite foreign feeling to them, but no so strange as to garner too much attention. I wanted to fly under the radar for a bit. No chest revealing tops for me, though I’d considered playing barbarian with strappy leather armor without a shirt when I saw it on my list before moving on to something reasonable.

Reequipped, I headed out and started hunting for a room for the night, blending in with the other adventurers out relaxing after a hard day of work.

After hitting up three inns that were full, I ended up back at the one I’d run, walked, away from. All traces of the encounter were gone, though I overheard people talking about it as I made my way to the bar.

Luckily, the innkeeper still had a room available, so I took it at once. I hated having to pay for it a second time, especially since it ended up being the exact one I’d been in before, but I let it go. I didn’t pay for meals. The waitresses collected those in exchange for food, so I could still use the ones from earlier for dinner and breakfast.

Not wanting to stand out, I’d dumped my bag in my room before returning to the common room. The bag didn’t contained anything important, since I refused to trust people until I got to know them, and for all I knew the innkeeper swiped stuff from the guests. It’d happened to me in the past, though not to the level of the one from Les Mis.

In the common room, I looked for a seat, but the place was pretty packed, until I saw a table in the corner with a single occupant. Gavin. As it was the only place with seats available, I headed that way, catching a waitress on the way to place my order.

“This seat taken?”

My voice pulled him from whatever he’d been thinking about, causing him to shake his head, so I sat. I daren’t pull out a book to read, so I grabbed some leather cord from a pouch at my hip and started playing with it. The cord was made from a high rank monster, so was actually stronger than steel, which is why I was using it as a material for a bracer I was making. It’d take and hold defensive enchantments well.

Gavin barely noticed, frowning and giving off an aura like an abandoned puppy. Since there would be a bit before the food arrived, I decided to strike up a conversation.

“What’s got you so down, girlfriend dump you?”

He looked up at me, taking note of what I was doing with my hands before moving to my face. He didn’t reply at once, but when he did, his voice held some derision.

“We hadn’t gotten that far, but now it’s impossible. Even if I found her again, I doubt she’d want anything to do with me.”

“What’d you do to piss her off?”

“She came from another land, and ran afoul of the church because she didn’t know any better. And I did nothing to help her.”

My hands stopped, which drew his gaze, and I focused all of my attention on him, narrowing my eyes.

“Can you go into detail? I just arrived recently as well, and I’d rather avoid problems if I can.”

He took in my clothing, noticing finally that it wasn’t like those he knew. Drawing a deep breath he spoke, giving me the information I’d been lacking before.

The church had a monopoly of light magic. Though they didn’t care for magicians in general, anyone using light magic that wasn’t part of the church was considered a heretic, a witch or warlock depending on their gender, and was either forced to join them under a magical contract, or imprisoned and likely executed.

Technically what they were doing was illegal, since the kingdom had no laws restricting the use of light magic, and enslaving or killing those who could use it broke laws that were supposed to protect the citizens.

Unfortunately, the church was so powerful here that it was given free rein when it came to what they considered theirs. It wasn’t just light magic that they restricted, but any form of healing, including alchemists or even non-magical health care like doctors and midwifes. If they weren’t working with the church, they suffered or disappeared. And as the leaders of the church were mostly greedy bastards, the cost of healing services was sky high.

Even necessary services were expensive and difficult to obtain due to their greed. Things like purifying the sewers to prevent plagues or blessing graveyards to prevent undead from rising were sorely neglected, leading to many deaths that should have been avoided. People had tearfully taken to cremating their deceased, which went against tradition, in order to not have their corpses become cursed.

F-.

OK, I don’t want to stay in this country. I might have the titles of Hero and Saint, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get into the nightmare that this country has let itself become.

So I asked about other nearby countries, wanting to know about where I could go so as to avoid the most annoying parts of this world I could. Were any others under the influence of the church like this one was, was there discrimination against the different races, how did the nobles act, etc.

Sadly Gavin didn’t know enough to help me figure out where to go, though he did say that the next country south, Merrow, didn’t allow the clergy, from any religion, any form of political power, harshly crushing any who tried to make power plays.

It sounded bad on the outside with the crushing part, but I felt it was likely for the better. I grew up in a place that supposedly separated church and state, though there was still places they mixed, like in taking oaths.

Since he couldn’t help me, Gavin directed me to the guild. They had information in their library to assist members who wanted to travel, keeping it reasonably up to date, since things changed over time.

Our conversation continued for a while, diverting from time to time to other topics, some of which contained useful information, some that didn’t.

As far as other warning went, he advised me to be careful of the Thieves Guild. They ran the slums, a place to avoid if at all possible, as well as controlling the pickpockets, beggars, and slave markets. They also ran a few shady places where one could buy information from them or get hooked up with the black market.

It wasn’t an entirely evil organization, but it was one to be wary and respectful of.

We talked and drank late into the night, splitting up only because he had to get some sleep as he needed to earn his wage in the morning. It amused me when he asked if I might be interested in joining his party. I declined, but why it was funny was I finally learned what they’d been doing today. This drunk and his friends had been taking requests to act as guards on a ferry to a nearby island.

As to why that was funny, it was because the island was considered a part of the city, with the ferry going back and forth multiple times a day. It was a part of the city that I hadn’t been informed of its location, though I knew it would exist somewhere. The place was a ‘resort’ island where one could relax and be well treated in the various establishments where the employees were well paid to see to their clients ‘needs.’

Nope! Never going to that island for any reason. I turned him down, a little red in the face, though hopefully he thought that was due to the alcohol. We’d had a good amount to drink, though with my poison resistance, I needed far stronger stuff to get beyond a light buzz.

We parted ways, never to see each other again.