Asra looked perfect, not that it was a surprise. She wore a one-piece green dress with white lace around a U-shaped collar, and string pooling down the front of her chest. Seeing the way it curved around her body sent a stab of envy through his chest, but he smiled through it. She smelled a bit like perfume to his demon sense, so he threw out a compliment,
“You look beautiful! I’m told you’re in on Lyra’s little scheme?”
The smell flared, and she had a pleased smile as she answered, “Yep! First shopping while she cooks dinner, and then we eat in the courtyard.” That was what normal people called it, but August had been raised by an otherworlder, so it took him a second to remember that was what the backyard was called.
“Sounds like a plan. Where do we start?” She carried the scent of a lovingly prepared meal that needed to be eaten in specific order, and he felt no need to be a contrarian.
For the second time that evening, August took the greatest ten-minute ride of his life in a noble’s carriage -he assumed it was Sophia’s- toward the market district. He knew it was disgusting, but he couldn’t help but keep sneaking glances at Asra the whole way. Her hair was let down for once, the red waterfall spilling down her left shoulder, and August would have paid actual money just to run his fingers through it. In an effort to be less god-awfully creepy, he reminisced of the day out with his eldest and youngest; gushing about Vayla’s improvements, threatening to castrate temple elders, and whispering new gossip about their love lives as if he was a giggling maiden in a noble court.
“Those bastards have a local monopoly on Living Weapon knowledge and experience, and they damn well know it. It makes it feel like walking on eggshells whenever we’re under their jurisdiction for literally anything!” Vayla groaned.
“Is it really that bad? I’ve sent more than half my kids
and always just thought they were stuffy or strict…”
“The others could get away with some stuff because they’re abnormally strong and bring pride to the organization. Vayla sounds like she’s hitting all of their snobby little boxes, and her talent isn’t straightforwardly overpowered either.”
“Makes sense, when you put it that way. Speaking of straightforward though, you might already know this, apparently my little Vayla is bent, too! That puts the ratio to ten out of twelve…”
Talking about his children was the easiest and sometimes only way to get him genuinely excited, though sometimes runes and soulcraft also made the cut. He could ramble though, so he had to make sure to give Asra turns to talk too. She had been having trouble doing anything lately due to the huge scandal last year, with fears that she was gaining too much power over nobles. Luckily she was at least able to busy herself with the Otherworlders Guild stirring chaos, but she couldn’t tell him exactly what it was because of confidentiality.
When they arrived, the first thing they did was buy something for Asra’s friend. The sun was setting over the walls, casting long shadows between shops as many of them began closing down. They walked for a long time, eventually coming to a stop next to a tent flying a strange rainbow and triangle patterned flag at the top. It was near the Otherworlder’s Guild Hall, making him raise an eyebrow. Puzzle pieces were sliding into place, but nothing was fitting quite yet.
“Well, here we are! Let’s go.” She dragged him inside before he could overthink it. Inside the tent was lit with lanterns in the center of tables that had been arranged instead of shelves, arranged into sections with labels he didn’t understand except for the gay and lesbian, which he only knew thanks to Asra. She had explained the concept when explaining she liked women when they were young. Quite a few labels were also quite… promiscuous.
“Oh gods, I don’t know why anal cleansing potion is next to dick-morphing balm, and I don’t think I want to know…” He whispered.
Lyra giggled. “Good, keep your innocence. I just have to get something over here.” She wandered to a section labeled for what he thought was for transmorphing women and picked out a bright pink potion labeled Eluna’s blessing.
She saw him looking and explained, “It’s a potion that was mainly used by women to treat painful menstrual cycles, but if a male drinks it, it has… other effects.” She ended lamely, looking away. After going through this song and dance so much, his nose could detect a hint of something she was putting off for later.
August would’ve pressed if he wasn’t so mortified at stepping over some sort of arcane unspoken gender rule. This whole store made him feel uneasy, actually, and oddly exposed, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. As was starting to become a theme, he was quickly distracted from the feeling by a soft glow catching in the corner of his eye.
Sitting in the same section near the back was a luminescent silver vial that immediately made August’s heart race. It was a potion that he’d long forgotten about; an object of both his past fantasies and nightmares. The Question Potion. It was one of the few legal mind magic potions that crossed with divination, that would answer any three questions you have using the information you already have. The bloody thing was drunk like wine by the higher nobles, and it had always been too expensive to even think about for himself. But now…
A hand landed on his shoulder, and he turned to see Asra’s smiling face. “Did you find something for yourself?” She asked.
Her touch felt electric, and her face was close enough to count the small freckles dotting her nose. Remembering the need to answer, he fumbled his words, “Uhm, kind of. It’s expensive though, so I should just save up instead…”
“Come on, what is it? I can pay half if you want.”
“No, it’s just that Question Potion. I don’t have anything important to ask about, it’d just be a frivolous expense really.” He lied.
Her eyes narrowed, and he didn’t need to smell the concern and annoyance in that look. He glanced away, feeling distinctly like he was a boy again and getting told off by his mother. “If you don’t buy it, I will for you. When’s the last time you got something you wanted for yourself? I don’t mean for the forge, not for your daughters, or a present. Just you getting something because you wanted it.”
He already knew the answer to that question. It was never. Buying something for himself was nothing but a waste of valuable, limited money, so he’d never even considered it.
“You can’t even remember...” She stated.
The look on her face made his stomach twist, so he quickly said, “I’ll get it! I understand.”
I’m buying it so she feels better. That counts as a necessary expense, right?
Arriving at the desk, they placed their items. The clerk smelled strongly of herbs and chemicals, and he had no idea if they were a man or a woman; they wore a stained apron that covered their chest such that he couldn’t tell if it was full or not, but their face and body was leaning more feminine. The hair was also dark blue and cut just below their ears in an equally ambiguous manner. They smiled, and said, “Captain Asra, it’s good to see you! Have you found another egg already?” In the most confusingly mixed voice he had ever heard before. He couldn’t place their smell for the first time in a long while.
“It’s pretty likely, but we’ll most likely figure it out tonight.” Asra answered with a grin, flicking her eyes to him again. August had no idea what either of them were talking about, and the clerk could tell judging by the growing amusement on their face.
“You’ll probably get it eventually, sorry. It’s nice to meet you, you can call me Squirrel.” They named the price of the potions and bartered for a bit before settling on something that didn’t feel like a blatant scam.
“I hope the question potion will serve you well. And Asra, don’t be scared to stop by for advice if they’re a tough one to crack. Tell me how it goes!”
“Don’t be too eager, there’s no guarantees for anything.” Asra took his arm and left at that cryptic line. Once they were outside, she asked the question that had been on his mind the entire time.
“So what do you think of Squirrel?”
August scratched his head. “Well, it’s an interesting name for an interesting person, I’ll say.” Maybe the blue hair was indicative of some species other than human whose naming culture he didn’t know about. “I was waiting for you to call them he or she so I wouldn’t have to be embarrassed.” He added.
Asra nodded cutely, as if he’d landed on the right answer. “Well Squirell is an Otherworlder that called themselves non-binary, which means their gender isn’t within the limits of boy or girl. Their preferred pronouns are they/them.”
August’s brow furrowed in complete confusion. He didn’t even know where to start. He opened and closed his mouth before settling on, “Preferred pronouns?”
“That’s right. Did you know that gender is actually something seperate from sex? It’s not only an Otherworlder oddity either. In the lands of Lerisin there are cultures that have a third gender role, and in Wildwood, the concept of combining one’s feminine and masculine soul aspects is common in many areas, and respected. Tirasil also has the concept of rulers who have no gender.”
It was only because Asra was guiding him that he hadn’t bumped into anything now. He felt like the ground was tilted diagonal, and he was about to fall down the road.
“It… Is it a magic thing?” August questioned weakly.
“Nope, it can be anyone. There are also many who change from one gender to another completely, like male to female and vice versa.”
The walk was quiet after that, but his head was buzzing with noise. Conflicting emotions in his gut declared war, formed alliances, and switched sides enough to form a political drama fiction novel. Formless questions bubbled to the surface and were vivisected alive faster than they could rise. He was too distracted to even notice the calculative look in Asra’s eyes. August snapped out of it when the door to the carriage closed, suddenly realizing that he’d been silent for far too long to be normal.
He laughed awkwardly, “Sorry, it was just confusing to wrap my head around. You’d just think a girl would have a girl’s body.”
She smirked. “Actually, that’s not as clear cut as most think either.” At the look on his face, she burst out laughing. “It’s true! There are many cases where children are born with a mix of both genitalia, or hormones, or genetics. Though that last one is only claimed by Otherworlders for now.”
“Then what do we call them? I haven’t heard of it.” He asked.
“The Otherworlders call them unisex, but they’ve usually been treated as disabled by us, so we just assign them a gender at birth, boy or girl, so we don’t have to think too much. In some cases it’s not even obvious.”
“Gods, this all feels like either a strange dream or an absurd prank. But then again, that goes for anything introduced or discovered by Otherworlders, so that’s nothing new…”
Asra snorted. “Oh, don’t get me started. There was an uproar in the Monster Hunter guild just recently when some Otherworlders told them they should stop killing deadly predators.”
“That one wasn’t just a rumor!? Actually wait, I think Hannah might’ve told me about that one…”
The rest of the carriage journey continued in a similar fashion, listing off all of the weird, insane theories and knowledge brought over from the mysterious non-magical world beyond the veil. It was really no wonder that Lerisin, who had a council exclusively made of Otherworlders, was such a chaotic, secretive mess. And then there was Terisil, which was completely consumed by monopolies after trying a similar strategy to the point that the actual government was just a puppet.
By the time the carriage rolled to a stop and the gates closed behind them, the two were speculating about the insane lives Otherworlders must’ve lived in order to have such information to be integral to their personality. August was completely convinced that the one who introduced fireworks was a pyromaniac who got off to colorful explosions of death, and Asra was hugging her stomach with laughter. He tried to exaggerate it as much as possible, trying to burn the sound and image into his memory as if he could make it into a branding iron. She always looked the prettiest when she laughed.
