The Seal Breaks

"There's something I want to try," he told her. "Give me a moment to undress first. I'll lie back, and if you sit on my chest . . ."

He had accepted her strangeness; now it was time to accept his own. He guided her cock between his breasts, pressing them around it, just as he'd seen in one of the books he'd stolen from under Horace's bed. He couldn't quite manage to lick the tip, but she didn't seem to care as she relaxed atop him, letting him massage the sides. "You're . . . awfully good at this," she managed to say, but she did little else but moan until she suddenly spurted, drenching his neck and face like she'd upended a bucket over him.

It was then, as liquid magic soaked into his skin, that he finally said what he'd wanted to say for years. "Astra, I love you. Will you marry me?"

She looked like he'd just hit her with a brick. "I'm sorry. I should have known you'd ask this."

He didn't quite process it at first. "I've loved you since we were children, Astra. I've been waiting all that time to say this. It doesn't matter how much we've changed."

She said it bluntly, with no room for doubt. "Grand Priests mustn't love."

"But--Astra--you--"

Even in his shock, he recognized the tone of an impending religious lecture. "If I was just a High Priest, I'd be happy to make a match with you. I am sure that you would raise our children up strong and wise. But I do not think I can have children with my body like this, and even if I could, my duty is to the Divine." She softened her voice, seeming to realize that she was getting carried away. "You remember the parables don't you? How Grand Priest Silas fell in love, and fell from grace? I can't just ignore the rules set down by the Divine."

"So . . . this was just so I could become a High Priest. You don't feel anything more for me than that."

"I respect you as a fellow follower of the Divine, and as my friend. Even if you sometimes need to be corrected."

His whole body tensed, and for a moment, he was completely still. Then he raised his fists and hammered at her chest. "Get off me! Get the fuck off me!"

Those of Void have a natural discipline (some would say indifference) that makes them difficult to tempt or sway. Energy's focus will do you a world of good, but Shadow will make you lose track of your motivations.

--The Primer of Talents

"What are your terms?" Astra asked.

They were gathered in the clearing, at a time when most of them would normally have been at prayer. To the sides, four faces showed varying mixtures of worry and excitement. Sahe's expression was hidden under his padded helmet, but she knew his determination mirrored her own. "Three matches, each to first hit," he told her. "If you win all three, I'll do whatever you want. If you lose even one . . . Well, I won't do what you want. We'll use what's left of the runes as our combat circle--no leaving it, and no calling in friends. Everything else is legal. Do you accept?"

"If I told you two not to do this," Merritt asked, "would either of you listen?"

"Just watch," Perrin said. "Sahe's going to lose the first two rounds, then come up with some crazy last-ditch plan to win the last one."

Astra ignored them as she took a position at the edge of the runes. "I'm ready to fight. Horace, you can call the start."

"Go!" Horace shouted. "Pulverize her!" Alban added. Astra wondered which 'her' was to be pulverized, but as Sahe advanced with alarming speed, she strongly suspected it was herself.

She'd never watched him fight before, and she wasn't certain what style he'd use. Now that he'd backed her against the edge of the circle, she wasn't sure he had a style at all. Her thoughts seemed to speed up and slow down at the same time as she parried one attack after another--downstroke, sidestroke, sidestroke again, and then a ramming blow that she barely blocked in time. She was acutely aware that there was no way her new body could keep up with this for long.

Well, if skill wouldn't work, why not psychological warfare? "We were wrong about everything," she called out.

"Eh?" he asked, easing off from his assault. "What are you--"

Her downstroke knocked him flat. "Clever," he groaned.

"Round one complete!" Horace declared. "Break it up, and prepare for round two!"

This time, she didn't let him back her up. "Why do you think it changed?" she asked as she circled around him. He made no answer, other than to turn and block, but she continued, "Why can we use magic? A woman and a Scorned?" As he pressed his assault again, "I don't think it changed at all."

This time, he made sure to backpedal. "I don't understand."

"Who would have blessed us, if they thought we couldn't use magic? And since they'd never bless us, we'd never learn we could. The Divine is broader than we ever imagined--"

He tried to cut off her speech with an over-the-shoulder blow. She dropped to one knee to block, then swept his feet out from under him. "Round two complete!" Horace called.

"Come on, Sahe, you can beat her!" Alban called out.

Sahe positioned himself at the edge of the circle, waiting for her to come to him. "Anything more to say?" he asked, in a tone that strongly suggested Any last words?

"I don't think there's a difference," she told him as she advanced. "Between Blessed and Scorned, or men and women--"

With a flash of light, she found herself motionless. She struggled to speak as Sahe approached. "Out with the old, in with the new!" he shouted as he rammed his staff into her chest.

Her muscles didn't respond again until her back hit the dirt. "You--you--" she coughed.

"Told you!" Perrin crowed. "Crazy last-ditch plan!"

"I wanted to see if I could beat you fairly," Sahe explained. "I couldn't, so I beat you unfairly. Anything goes, remember?" He saluted her as formally as any opponent. "I am a man. The Divine can't make me a woman. And it can't make me a slave."

Merritt was the one who broke the resulting pause. "So that's that?" she asked. "You got the shit beaten out of you, and used . . . what was that, a time crystal . . . to beat the shit out of him, and now you're just going to walk away?"

"Those were the terms."

"The terms were that you wouldn't just do what he wanted. At least give us a chance to talk this out. Astra's not as bad as you think he is."

"There's nothing to say. You have your ideas, I have mine. No one I know and love would want the Divine to come back--" He paused, as if something had just occurred to him. "I need to talk to someone. Not any of you. I'll tell you what he says."

None of them were able to catch up to him. "I'd suggest nailing her feet to the ground," Perrin said, "but it'd be like trying to catch the wind in a bucket. All we can do now is wait and see what happens."

"What's this about, Sahe?" Kyrie asked. Sahe had asked him to come to the edge of the woods. All she'd said was that this discussion wasn't appropriate for The Boar's Head.

"I think I've found your why. You, too, are a man in the body of a woman. Am I correct?"

Kyrie reddened. "Most people don't catch on this fast . . . Wait, 'too?'"

"The past two days have been strange for me. A woman named Astra asked me to join her in a ritual . . ." In her terse fashion, Sahe unfolded a story that strained Kyrie's belief.

When she'd finished, Kyrie stared at her--no, him--for a very long time. "Let's pretend I buy this," he said. "Why are you telling me about it?"

"In Jovan's time, your protest could never have happened. Without magic, the world's slowly getting fairer." Sahe bowed his head in Kyrie's direction. "Each of us was born lesser, and refused to be lesser. Together, we can decide whether magic should come back."

"Wow," Kyrie said. "That's . . . quite a big question. What you're afraid of is the Church of the True Divine, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"You'll need Astra to bless new High Priests, and new Void priests. She'll run the church, and she'll have the say. But you'll be able to bless new Energy priests, and you don't care about the church. This 'Alban' will bless new Light priests, and it sounds like he doesn't care about the church anymore. Just bless everyone you see fit, and let Astra bless who she sees fit, and I think things will work out." A pause. "I'd like to see the Divine, anyways."

"Why? You've lived all your life without it."

"I'm Blessed. I've grown up with stories of a world full of magic. It wasn't always fair, but they say it was beautiful." He smiled ruefully. "Besides, I have a personal stake. I'd like to see what this magic will do to my body."

"I can't say I'm happy with what it did to me."

Kyrie did something then that he hadn't planned at all. He gave Sahe a hug. "It's not really so bad, to live like this," he said. "You're still a man in your heart, just like me." He snuggled his body against Sahe's. "These pillows of yours only make you cuter . . . I'm kidding! I mean, I'm not kidding! I mean, ah crap, you know what I mean!"

When Kyrie arrived in the circle that evening, he was confused to see five robed men standing quietly in a row. Then one of them called out, "Drop the illusion," and all of a sudden, they were five naked women.

"Simple magic," the largest of them called. She was tall and strong, a red-haired warrior, but her voice was quite familiar to Kyrie. "Once we've blessed you, we'll show you how it works."

"So, you went through with it . . ." I was just humoring the cute crazy girl. I didn't think it was real.

"I did it with Astra. I hope I never have to again. I told her about you, and she said whoever wanted to could try to bless you." She gestured to the rest of the group. "I was able to talk everyone into it except her."

"We figured we'd pay you back for getting Sahe to do this," a plump brown-haired girl said. "Magic for magic, you know?"

"So, how do I get blessed?"

"We wondered that, too," a perky Scorned girl said. "Astra has a cock, so the magic comes out of that. But we don't, so . . ." She squeezed one of her nipples, and Kyrie was alarmed to see a drop of glowing liquid trickle out.

These are five guys, just like me, Kyrie reminded himself. Of course, they were five guys who looked enough like girls to give him a metaphorical boner. Five guys who looked like girls, and lactated magic . . .

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, even in the depths of insanity. Upon their instructions, Kyrie undressed, letting his robe fall to the ground. He made his approach to the newly changed Sahe, and she pressed his head to her breast. It was a struggle at first to swallow the warm liquid, but the taste wasn't so bad--oddly spicy, but not bad--

"Nothing? Energy must not be your element. Your turn, Alban."

This girl's body was all angles and no curves, almost a parody of how a Blessed might look to a Scorned. But her hair was rich and golden, and her milk was sweet. This time, Kyrie felt the change instantly, flowing through his head to the tips of his hair, then farther down his body, as something grew out, out, out . . .

Released from Alban's grasp, Kyrie looked down to disappointment. "That's it?" he complained. "Just a dick, nothing else?"

"Your hair's yellower," Sahe said from behind him. For her size, she was surprisingly quiet when she moved. "I'm sure you'll change more as you gain power. Besides," giving his nipples a tweak, "if I have to have breasts, you have to have them.

"You know," Kyrie remembered, "they say Light doesn't go with Energy."

"I'm willing to share. Who wants to give his cock a try?"

The tiny blue-haired girl didn't even need to bend over to take his cock in her mouth. Behind him, Sahe moved her fingers lower, circling them around a familiar hole just below--"I wonder whether both parts come at the same time." The plump girl used her own fingers to make sure the blue-haired girl wasn't left out--"You have to try this next! You won't believe how much she stretches!" Off to the side, the Scorned and the ultra-Blessed were making their own fun, the former's head between the latter's legs.

Kyrie had never been very religious. But at the moment, he couldn't help but see the Light--not to mention listen to her moans. And with Energy and Cessation both doing their best to make him come, he couldn't have been more certain that he'd found the Divine.