"So, how're you feeling?" Talia asked.

  "Tired," I said.

  We were lying in my bed together, curled up and cuddling, and we were alone. Volex's reliquary had been handed off to Faith, who was, in all likelihood, spending some quality time with Emily... or possibly with Volex instead. After all, who could bme Faith for wanting to get intimate with a Succubus?

  Tonight, though, it'd just be me and Talia, like it used to be, before this crazy mess started.

  "How do you feel about the whole... being a girl, thing?" Talia asked.

  "Honestly?" I said. "I don't feel that much about it. Relief, I suppose, at finally knowing who I really am, and not having that stupid autohypnotic block in my head anymore, but..." I sighed. "...I'm not really feeling any kind of excitement or happiness about the prospect of being a woman, not really. It's all theoretical to me right now; I know my body doesn't define who I am, and all that, but... It's going to be months before your hormonal Druidcraft bears fruit, and longer still for me to learn organic transmutation and finish the job to my satisfaction."

  "That's... Honestly, that's fair," Talia said, nodding slowly. "I know you've been dealing with a lot, and... Well, I was hoping that this would be, y'know, a silver arrow, solve it all in one fell swoop."

  "Nope," I said quietly. "No, I've got problems that can't be solved with the judicious application of tits. A crying shame, I know, but the fact that I feel like I've been made personally responsible for the future of elvenkind isn't something I can solve with tight pants and D-cups."

  "I mean, maybe?" Talia suggested. "Like, the thing about being a High Elf that you love to harp on the most is that we don't py the Hikaano's stupid games. We didn't take any convincing to let women be warriors, we don't have any problems with gay or transgender people, and we're just... We don't do the usual Hikaano bigotry. So, y'know, the fact that you, a High Elf adventurer who's already done so many impressive things and is reted to so many impressive people, are also a transgender lesbian? Well, that's you flying the Rosewood fg high and proud, telling people that they don't get to ignore the trans dyke with the nice, long legs, because she'll kill 'em before they even blink."

  I sighed.

  "...Not a fan?" Talia asked.

  "I mean... I guess it helps to know that me being a woman is doing more than just make us happy," I said. "The idea that it's actually an important political signal is, honestly, kind of nice. But... I don't know, Talia. I know it's important that I take the lead and fly the fg and do what I can to lead our people into a better tomorrow, but holy shit is this stressful to think about. I'm just a kid! I'm eighteen years old, I still read comic books and py with building blocks!"

  Talia just pressed tighter against me, and sighed.

  "I know," she said quietly. "It's not fair. I... I've been watching this build for years, Cat, and I always thought it was unfair. I... I know you liked learning to be a Wizard, and you were fine with the martial arts training, and you enjoyed machining, but... I mean, there's a reason I was so insistent that you keep up your monthly subscriptions, y'know? It wasn't because my family needed your pocket money, it was because you needed something normal to do. Something rexing, with low stakes, that had no impact at all on you shaping yourself into the perfect hero for all of elfendom."

  "Thank you," I said, closing my eyes.

  "I... I shouldn't have voted yes on coming here," Talia continued. "I thought... I was thinking that, if you got out of your parents' house, saw the world, went to college, then you'd mellow out, and realize you shouldn't be carrying the world on your shoulders. But, uh..." Talia coughed. "Well, I let myself be fooled into thinking Mount Fate would be a normal college that just had a weird gimmick."

  "I hate this pce already too," I said quietly. "But..." I sighed loudly. "...I mean... We're already here, and I really, really want to just... Keep studying magic. Not because it'll make me a better hero to my people, but because I like doing magic. I wanna learn how to shape ectopsm because I want to shape ectopsm for hobby projects. I wanna learn how to do organic transmutation so I can give myself giant tits, try 'em out for a little while, and then end up shrinking them to a more reasonable size. Not because I think that it's gonna make me a better hero, but... because I want those things."

  Talia nodded wordlessly.

  "I'm gonna try and pick up some of the sck, with Alchemy and stuff," Talia said. "I know that... I know that you've felt like you couldn't rely on us as much as you'd like, and... I want to be stronger, for you. I want to fill in the gaps, and bring stuff to the table that isn't just 'what you can already do but worse.' I'm gonna try and improve my Druidcraft, too- I've been mostly specializing in stuff that makes everyday life easier, but... well, we're adventurers, now. Druids can throw fireballs around too, I just never took the time to learn how."

  "Thank you," I whispered.

  "You don't have to do everything yourself," Talia promised me.

  I squeezed her tightly, and exhaled loudly.

  "...So, how did your first Sorcery lesson with Jason go?" Talia asked.

  "Badly," I muttered. "Sorcery is... Okay, lemme back up and give you historical context. Dragonblood Sorcery was what most people, aside from the High Elves, resorted to when they needed Arcane magic done, because the spellcasting tradition that we would recognize as Wizardry only really came into its own after the Scientific Revolution, five hundred years ago. Where Wizardry relies heavily on understanding theory, and knowing how you're doing what you're doing, Sorcery is more about craft knowledge- you know what works, and that it works, but you don't have to know why it works. And it is... a deeply frustrating experience for me, because I'm already a Wizard, I already know what I'm doing, and trying to do Arcane magic through a method that doesn't really involve knowing what I'm doing? Absolute pain in the ass."

  "Yeah, I bet," Talia said.

  "The real problem with Sorcery, though," I continued, "is that it's an organic, seamless fusion between the Arcane and the Occult. The same skills that let you throw a fireball will also let you cast a transtion spell, and spells that blend big spshy effects with more subtle concept-based effects are a lot more doable with Sorcery than they are with Arcane or Occult magic."

  "Oh no," Talia murmured.

  "So, y'know. I'm gonna feel like a jackass if I stop learning Sorcery just because it's an unintuitive pain in the ass," I continued. "But hey, what's one more css on my pte?"

  "...Cat, how many csses are you taking this semester?"

  "Too fucking many," I said. "Sure, I'm smart, but normally, I'd look at this kind of workload, shit my pants, and cry. But, well... now, I'm a Cleric of The Father, the God of Time, and I've been given permission to use time magic to manage my course load."

  "I feel like if you've hit the point where you have to use time travel to manage all the csses you're taking, then you're taking too many csses," Talia said.

  "I'm an immortal High Elf," I pointed out. "I have an infinite lifespan. Also, part of the reason I need to time travel is because some of these courses only have a single timeslot per semester, and Applied Teleportation and Intermediate Ectopsm Shaping are taught at the same time on the same day, so..."

  "You can just take one of those next semester," Talia said.

  "I'm impatient," I said with a shrug.

  "Cat, I love you, but this is the kind of self-destructive manic bullshit that I'm trying to make you unlearn," Talia pleaded. "Please fucking rex. Don't keep doing this constant work bullshit, it's going to burn you up from the inside out."

  "It'll be fi-"

  "If you're too busy and stressed, you're not going to learn properly," Talia pointed out. "And 'I didn't learn how to teleport properly' is the sort of thing they write on a gravestone."

  I opened my mouth to object, paused, and then sighed. She was right, of course.

  "...Alright, fine," I muttered. "There's some fat that could stand to be trimmed, anyhow. Mounted Combat sounds interesting, but Faith's already taking that one too, and she can just show me whatever drills they run through and I can do those in my free time. And... Well, teleportation is a neat trick, but we're not going to be going on more than a single token adventure this semester with whoever our mentors end up being, and we've got the van, so I don't really need to know how to teleport..."

  "How many csses does that narrow down your courseload to?" Talia asked. "Actually, hang on, what courses are you pnning to take, anyhow?"

  "So my original pn was eight courses, or 24 credit hours," I said, sitting up in bed and reaching into my pocket, pulling out a copy of my course list and prospective schedule. "Those were, in no particur order, Mounted Combat 201, History 101, Language Arts 101, Music Theory 101, Occult Magic 201, Arcane Architecture 501, Applied Teleportation 502, and Intermediate Ectopsm Shaping 302. I'm cutting Mounted Combat and Applied Teleportation, because I've remembered that I don't really need a tutor for martial arts- Dad already taught me the forms and drills, and all I can really do is keep doing them- and because I don't need to be able to teleport this semester."

  "That's..." Talia paused. "...Actually, that doesn't look too bad, aside from the two overpping csses."

  "Well, you've gotta bear in mind, the general expectation is that every hour you spend in the cssroom will be paired with two hours spent studying the subject," I said. "That's why five csses, at 15 credit hours, is considered the standard full-time-student workload- fifteen hours in the cssroom means thirty hours in out-of-css studying, and forty five hours is a little more than a standard full-time job."

  "...Hm. I'm, uh... I'm gonna have to tweak my own schedule a little, aren't I?"

  "Probably, yeah," I said, nodding. "Want some help?"

  "Please."

  I chuckled, and we started doing paperwork. Despite all that, though... there's nowhere I'd rather be, and nobody I'd rather be there with, than right here with Talia.

  "I love you," I said quietly.

  "I love you too."

  And for this moment, at least, all was right with the world.

  AnnouncementAs always, if you like Ironheart and want me to keep making it, the best way to do that is to leave a comment, here or on my discord server.

  Also, I'm taking suggestions for public bonus chapters in between books. The ideas I've currently got range from "The remaining Kings of Hell react to the political upheaval caused by Paimon's death" to "Joseph Ironheart visits a neighbor and pys dominoes." Anything goes.