“That's it? I thought you would have more to say,” Jasmine told him, clearly surprised by his rather straightforward answer.

  “I think it's best we quit while we're ahead. He gave you his answer, now let's not question it before he starts changing his mind,” Rose intervened, giving her friend a raised eyebrow before her gaze proceeded to move towards Tesilim, unless as she expected him to suddenly take back his answer.

  “I don't think he would do that, and though I approve of his choice, I would love to hear his thoughts on why he chose this path,” Alyx said, his eyes focusing back on the elf in question.

  “I think you guys are putting too much weight on his earlier words. I believe that unless Jasmine's secret had been world-changing or was something truly horrifying, like she needed to eat babies, he wouldn't have turned them away,” Lili addressed the room while she still messed around with Tesilim's hair.

  “Yeah, she's right, I mean, don't get me wrong, your secret, and everything that's happened to you is incredibly insane. And I can see why you've kept it a secret; however, unless we had just been strangers and you were kind of a bitch, I don’t think it merits destroying the party. That said, I will alleviate your thoughts and tell you that I did think about this, and after going into a few details, decided that, due to our current circumstances, which include a multitude of gods and their limitations, as well as our general spot in the grand scheme of things, having you along wouldn’t be the biggest detriment,” Tesilim told them, his voice as serious as any of them had ever heard, which truly impacted how they received his words.

  “That's good enough for me,” Alyx told the elf, and Rose nodded with agreement, but her eyes looked to Jasmine, to see what her best friend would say.

  “Alright, I will not question it anymore. I just wanted to know you had at least thought about it. That said, are you two still willing to sign a contract?” Jasmine asked, her words going from resolutely accepting Tesilim's explanation to hesitantly asking her question.

  “As long as you pay for it, I don't mind. What do you think, cutie?” Tesilim answered, his head tilting back to meet Lili’s eyes.

  “Same, it's not a big deal, plus it will give us an excuse to not talk if we ever get kidnapped,” Lili said with a smirk, her words making Tesilim frown.

  Hearing the words of her two teammates, Jasmine felt much better, but was still worried because she definitely did not have the gold to pay for any contract. As such, her eyes quickly slid over to Alyx, who nodded to her unanswered question. Seeing this, she gave the gnome a brilliant smile, which he returned. Alyx had no problem helping with the contract since it all fell under his research spending funds, at least mostly. Plus, it wasn’t like Jasmine was under the same restrictions as Tesilim.

  Finally, with the real heavy conversation out of the way, the party spent the next hour or so talking about Jasmine’s revelation. Granted, this was mainly led by Tesilim, who had all sorts of questions about the moon and the two gods, along with a few other ones he had been holding back about gender swapping, dating implications, and the magical physiology of sexual identification when dealing with bureaucracy. Of course, the questions related to the moon, lunar phases, and gods were easily answered, but the rest were much more awkward.

  “So, if we kill Luxana and Setiel, what are the chances of you two becoming the two new gods of the moon? Actually, never mind, I was told we can’t become gods. However, that brings the question: can we kill gods? Like, what would happen if someone were to steal the moon? Perhaps with a shrink ray? Actually, can magic shrink the moon?”

  “Uh, yeah, no godhood for us, probably,” Jasmine said, her last word getting a raised eyebrow from Alyx and Lili, who then shared a glance. Of course, Rose was too busy glaring at Tesilim, and Tesilim was too busy hearing the rest of Jasmine’s answer as he thought of new questions, that he just glanced over the words.

  “As for killing gods, I haven’t heard of it being done, not sure if it can be, at least outside of the known ways, like destroying the planet. Also, I am pretty sure the Eldritch God has technically stolen the moon, and everything is still fine. And yes, strong enough magic can do a lot of things like shrink a moon,” Jasmine answered happily, enjoying the banter.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Hmm, okay, good to know, now for the really important stuff. Is it weird switching genders?”

  Smack.

  “Ow, what the heck!” Tesilim exclaimed as he looked over his shoulder to look at Lili.

  “That’s very rude to ask,” Lili told him.

  “It's fine, and yeah, it’s a bit odd; we usually try to be asleep for it,” Jasmine answered with a giggle.

  “What about dating? Is that weird, like, have you ever been broken up with cause they didn’t want to date someone with a dude inside them?”

  Smack.

  “What?! She said it was fine!” Tesilim said as he massaged the side of his head.

  “It’s not, we don’t ask those kinds of things,” Lili answered with a sigh.

  “Fine. Never mind, Jasmine, you don’t have to answer that,” Tesilim added, but was given an answer anyway, and he didn’t miss the flicker of Jasmine’s eyes as she glanced at Rose. Meanwhile, Rose was trying her best to look anywhere but in Jasmine’s direction.

  “Well… I don’t know… I haven’t had a boyfriend or girlfriend yet,” The sweet twin answered shyly and carefully.

  “Oh, okay,” Tesilim said, then he connected the dots between Jasmine’s answer and her earlier look at Rose, and couldn’t help but blurt out, “Oh. OH! I see!”

  Smack.

  “Ah… I mean, yeah, no worries. Though, back on the previous topic, is there like a multi-box check thing for people here? I never saw one when filling out my paperwork, but like, if you’re a shape changer, do you have to like show you’re part bear or something?”

  “Usually, it depends, Tesilim,” Alyx began, taking over, seeing as Jasmine was a bit too flustered, “I know some places require changelings to identify themselves as whatever personas they have; however, for the most part, something like the Adventurers Guild or other high-level organizations use soul essences to identify people.”

  “Oh, right, I forgot about that. Wait, so how does it work for these two?” Tesilim asked, curious about the twins' condition.

  “Hmm, I am assuming their soul has been modified to give two different essences depending on who is in control. Actually, I should probably test that. I don’t know why I haven’t yet. Because honestly, I haven’t noticed much difference in their soul when one or the other is in control, well, outside of the different godly mana they use,” Alyx explained.

  “Guys, I am sorry to interrupt, but I think it's time for us to leave,” Jasmine said all of a sudden, having finally gotten herself together.

  “How come?” Tesilim asked.

  “Well, tonight is a new moon, and it's almost midnight.”

  Once they all heard that, they quickly began saying their goodbyes, deciding to go their separate ways. That said, Jasmine did promise to eventually show them all her so-called full form. So, with that promise, they all headed to their homes. Well, Lili was already home, so technically she went over to Tesilim’s place. Either way, they had had quite the night and were looking to rest, as even though tomorrow would be a relatively calm day, they knew a storm was brewing. Plus, for some, the night still held a surprise or two.

  ***

  Alyx spent his walk home thinking about an incredible number of things. His brain pondered whether the World Crystal was this mysterious benefactor. After all, it was likely; he just wanted it confirmed. Of course, that brought his thoughts about the World Crystal and what a certain dragon was working on involving such an entity. Those thoughts eventually led him to remember that Tesilim had a deal to make with the dragon, and he wondered how that would turn out. Obviously, thinking about Tesilim had him thinking about Chaos Mana, and he wondered what new nonsense would happen. More importantly, he thought about what they had already spoken about and what their party had gone through and would go through in the future.

  Thinking about the party made him think about Lili and what her past held. However, his mind was more preoccupied with the twins and wanting to see their full forms, as well as wanting to experiment with the new mana revelations he found while Arelion absorbed mana. Thinking about mana, he couldn't help but think about Lush Mana, and that brought his mind to the upcoming expedition that was definitely going to happen. He wondered what things he should begin preparing for the expedition, if anything at all.

  Eventually, as his mind kept cycling through the various topics, he reached the temple but never really paid attention to his surroundings. He had mostly been on autopilot since he left Lili's place, and at that point was considering how he had forgotten to check the essences of the twins, when he walked into the small room he had placed his door in, only to be rudely surprised.

  “Surprise!”

  “Happy Birthday!”

  The words came from many people whom he quickly noticed as the room’s light came on. There was the Grand Cleric holding a cake, along with many other researchers. Seeing them and hearing their words, Alyx was confused and looked around, as if searching for whom they were talking to. Then, with the following words from the Grand Cleric, everything made sense.

  “Happy 23rd Birthday, Alyx!”

  That’s right, it was the 1st of Octus. It was his birthday, how did he forget?