A short step, then another, and Olivia's attack hummed past, the girl's already tenuous balance completely wrecked by the missed blow.

Cadence couldn't help a small giggle as she danced in. She didn't even need to use her sheathed weapons–she just stuck out one foot, and Olivia went down in a heap, sprawled out in the fresh snow.

Cadence giggled harder at the sight of her friend's petulant face as Olivia struggled to her feet, trying to dust off the frozen snow before it chilled her to the bone.

"It's been a month since your transition," Cadence noted, "and I think you've gotten worse, which is honestly kind of impressive."

Olivia huffed a sour breath. "It's not my fault! I spent my entire life learning to fight in a very different body!" She gestured briskly at her simple linen tunic, which was currently being stretched past the point of decency–a problem the freshly-transitioned girl had seemingly regardless of what shirt she wore. "I don't know how anyone fights with these… these… counterweights on their chest!"

Cadence managed to stifle her laughter for a brief moment–then she noticed the cloth tassel that had slipped out from under Olivia's shirt, and the slender celestial collapsed into another unavoidable fit of giggles.

Olivia glared at Cadence–until she noticed the direction of the girl's stare, and the looseness around her chest.

"Oh, Noble's fist!" the girl swore. She reached down and tugged at the tassel, and felt the rest of the binding cloth she had so carefully wrapped her chest in that morning simply unspool and fall out of her shirt as well, leaving several feet of thin linen cloth wrapped around her legs, and triggering a fresh gale of laughter from Cadence.

Farris made it look so easy, why couldn't she get that tucking motion right? Wrapping herself in the binding cloth was the only option Olivia had while they were stuck in Valley Hearth, but even after weeks of trying to use the ribbon of fabric every day, Olivia just couldn't get it to stay in place. Most days, she had to rebind herself five or six times throughout the day.

And that was ignoring the untenable situation of her armor. The cloth-of-steel tunic she had bought in Jellis, which had served her so well for the past months, had been a perfect match for her previous body's broad shoulders and muscular chest–but since her transition, it fit uncomfortably at best–loose around her shoulders and far too tight on her… changed chest.

"Are you done?" Olivia asked her friend.

Cadence's laughter didn't relent, and Olivia just heavily sighed.

"Well, I'm going back to the inn for lunch."

"Okaaay, okay!" Cadence just barely managed to rein in her laughter–although more giggles still bubbled in her words. "Calm down, I'm coming, I'm coming!"

#

"Well, that's what you get for going so busty," Allana told Oli carelessly. Even as she talked, the wraith girl was fiddling with a bracelet, carefully stringing a length of tin wire through a series of arranged beads–many of which glowed, subtly, with their own internal light, the result of the life magic Allana had slowly imbued into them over the past several days.

"It wasn't exactly my choice," Olivia replied sourly. She folded her arms–but the motion just further emphasized her most noticeable new features, even briefly drawing Allana's violet eyes away from the bracelet she was working on.

"Wasn't it exactly your choice?" Tenebres pointed out. "I thought the whole point of the Mendicant's ritual was that you shaped your own body through the transition."

Olivia felt her cheeks heat up a little bit. "Yeah, well… I didn't have conscious control over it! It was just taking some deep set thought in the back of my head, or something like that! It's not like a message popped up asking me 'Do you want an inconveniently sized chest?'"

"So you just subconsciously pictured yourself with those?" Cadence clarified, her tone carefully helpful despite the laughter still dancing in her eyes.

"N-no! I just–Look, I mean, I really just, like…" Olivia huffed and buried her face in her hands, trying futilely to hide her blush. "I hate you guys."

Really, the transition had been everything Olivia could've hoped for. She had, for the first couple weeks, found herself frequently distracted by her own reflection, tears popping unbidden to her eyes when she saw her own face looking the way it was supposed to. She could still see her old face, subtly, in her new features, but it was like catching the faintest suggestion of her old body through the placid waters of her transition. Her long, wavy brown hair fell past her shoulders now, stray strands occasionally falling of their own accord across her face.

Her body was as strong as ever, her attributes more than able to compensate for any changes in her body's musculature as her transition preserved the fruits of a lifetime of training–but fighting was about more than raw strength and speed. Her new body, tall as it was for a woman, was still several inches shorter than her old one. When she walked and sat and did normal, routine things, her arms and legs felt the same, as if she had the marginally shorter and more slender limbs her entire life, but when she fought, she was all too aware of the differences, as her sword and shield fell a fraction of an inch out of place, what would've been a perfect dodge or lunge in her old body insufficient in her new one.

And that was to say nothing of the considerable changes to her balance that she had to adjust to.

Olivia knew, in her heart, that this was the right body for her, and that she would never, not in a thousand years, ask the Mendicant to change her again. But it was still going to be a long road to reclaim her crucial fighting abilities–and that road only grew longer as Olivia was forced to spend time figuring out how she was supposed to dress with her new body!

While the town lacked any true gifted weavers, a few of the residents of Keystone had some talent with sewing and were able to modify some of Oli's clothing to better fit her. Allana, Adeline, and Beryl had each even contributed some articles from their own spare wardrobes to help. But none of it was really a perfect fit. Allana was only a few inches shorter than Oli, and built as powerfully as her, but her curves leaned towards a litheness that made her tight leathers a poor fit for Olivia. Adeline's curves were much more a match to Oli's–but she was significantly shorter and more slender than her squire, even after Oli's transition. Beryl's clothes were the largest, and therefore often the most comfortable, but Beryl had more in common with Oli's old build than her new one, and the girl often had to tuck or tie off Beryl's baggier shirts to make them fit.

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It was one of those very shirts Olivia was wearing now, a baggy green tunic. However, as Olivia's chest rendered the neckline nearly scandalous, she had been forced to pull the collar over to her shoulder, better concealing one part of herself while leaving a broad expanse of her collarbone and shoulder bare.

Keystone's inn was fairly busy, as it was most nights during the winter; playing host to not just the four adventurers, but a handful of wardens and a couple dozen locals who had been left homeless in the wake of the Battle of Keystone. Still, the entire taproom went quiet for a brief moment when the inn's door opened to admit Adeline.

Even tired, cold, and road weary, the Knight-Gallant just had that effect on people.

Oli kept her face in her hands, not wanting to show her embarrassment to her mentor.

In the weeks since Olivia had transitioned, a small space had grown between her and Adeline, one that she knew she was mostly responsible for. After months of training with Adeline, and even more experience gained on the road, Olivia's transition had posed a significant setback to her carefully cultivated abilities, and she found herself too embarrassed to put herself into another bout against Adeline, not until she had fully adjusted her skills to her new frame and build.

The knight seemed content enough to give Olivia the space she needed while she tried to get more confident with her body, but it had still left things a little uncomfortable between them–especially as Adeline herself seemed to be more cautious around Olivia lately, a change Oli had brushed off as a result of her near-death experience during the battle.

Nonetheless, Adeline confidently walked straight to the table the four youths were eating at and plopped a large cloth sack in front of Olivia. It clinked a little when it hit the table top.

Olivia dropped her hands, interest siphoning the blood from her cheeks and letting her function again while her friends were too distracted to keep up their teasing.

"What's this?" Olivia asked.

"A gift," Adeline said simply. "Tobias was doing a supply run to Correntry, and I got him to grab me a few things while he was there."

As a high-levelled wanderer, Tobias had the ability to rapidly teleport between certain points, and throughout the winter, his supply runs to Correntry had been critical to keeping the season from taking its toll on Keystone's exposed populace.

"He must've loved that," Tenebres observed dryly.

Olivia nodded her own agreement. "Those trips are way too important, Adeline; you really shouldn't have."

The silver knight arched a pale golden eyebrow down at the girl. "We've all been listening to you complain about your… ah… body, for weeks, Oli. Trust me, it's worth it."

While Oli opened up the soft cloth bag to look at what was inside, Cadence, across the table, watched Adeline's face.

Transitioning hadn't made Olivia any less oblivious to the people around her, but Allana and Cadence had been building a theory for a while now. Cadence was pretty sure that, if she hadn't been looking for evidence, she might not have noticed the faint hint of embarrassment in Adeline's voice, or the way her cheeks had gained a little extra color despite her coming in out of the chilly winter air.

Cadence traded a look with Allana, but the girl hadn't put down her current project–though she did pause long enough to give Cadence a brief wink.

The celestial sighed and stood up. "C'mon," she told Oli and Adel, "let's go upstairs so you can check it all out."

"Have fun," Allana called out absently, while Olivia and Adeline both moved to follow Cadence. Tenebres shifted his weight a little as well–until a small thump implied an impact under the table that made the little wraith sit back down.

As they went for the stairs, Cadence couldn't help a little smile, as she heard Allana firmly reminding Tenebres why he wasn't allowed to go watch Olivia try on her new clothes.

#

"This," Adeline explained, tapping the long bundle of white cloth, "is a runed binding cloth. It's designed for women with your…needs."

"There are other women with needs as big as Oli's?" Cadence asked with a grin.

Adeline rolled her eyes. "You haven't seen any noble courts, Cadie. You'd be shocked at what vain people with access to transmutation magic and the desire to stand out are willing to do to themselves."

While the two bickered, Oli had picked up the cloth. As Adeline had implied, there were some runes sewn in silver thread into either end of the long strip.

Adeline, noticing the squire's movements, turned back to face her. "The runes will automatically adjust the cloth to the ideal tightness, without making you too uncomfortable. And they'll bind themselves to hold shape and tightness without becoming unwound every time you stretch the wrong way."

"Cool," Cadence breathed. Neither she nor Allana had much need for binders, as both preferred tight leathers that shaped and held their own chests comfortably, and the celestial was interested to learn about how the fabric bindings worked.

"Very," Oli acknowledged. "But… if this is enruned, then…"

Adeline flicked a hand. "Don't worry, it wasn't too expensive. If you really want, I'll just take it out of the reward money the order paid you."

"...Super." Oli reached back into the bag and pulled out a simple, if thin, leather garment of some kind.

"It's called a bustier," Adeline explained, holding it up so Oli could see how the garment was supposed to fall, the way two straps would wrap around her shoulders while a stiff band supported two simple cups of padded leather. It looked something like the top half of a corset to Olivia's eye, although the lack of rigid shaping below the chest piece would make it much more usable in combat. "It's a common choice for female battle-gifted–it offers support and comfort without slowing you down. It's not quite as effective as the binding cloth, but it's a lot more comfortable–and this one has simple runes for durability and cleanliness, just like your cloak."

Olivia bit her lip, obviously ready to argue with another lavish gift–but then she shifted a little, stretching her back and shoulders, and decided against it. Instead, she reached into the bag again and pulled out a loose, draping chain shirt–though it was unlike any she or Cadence had ever seen, and the celestial quickly crossed the room to examine it.

"It's so fine…" Cadence observed. She put her hand under the chain, and watched the way the tiny little links flexed and moved around the shape of her fingers.

"It's called silkchain," Adeline explained. "My armor is made of the same material–for agile swordswomen who need armor they can comfortably wear, you can't get any better."

"Is it magical?" Olivia asked.

"Not really," Adeline explained. "Though there are a few plates on it for holding runes. But it's just simple steel–the magic comes in forging it to be so incredibly fine. Only a skilled smith can do it, and they need a weaver to handle the shaping. With this-" Adeline pulled out a simple leather belt, "-under your chest, it should be plenty comfortable while still keeping you safe."

"Adeline…" Olivia's voice was a little tight. "You really didn't have to…"

"I know I didn't have to, dumbie. But I wanted to. Think of it as… a belated birthday gift. For your new birth."

Oli looked up at her mentor, her dark green eyes magnified by the tears in them to seem even larger in her fine-featured face.

"And now," Adeline said, her voice thick with emotion, "you don't have an excuse to avoid practicing with me anymore."

Watching the display of tears between the two women, Cadence couldn't help a small eye roll. "Oh, I'm pretty sure she'll come up with a new excuse."

Neither of them even pretended to hear what she said.

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