“So,” said Oberon, turning back to Elise after Freddy left. “Do you know what you did wrong?”

    “What?” asked Elise, confused.

    “The first test, and the second lesson,” he said.

    Elise’s mind went blank for a moment before she suddenly remembered.

    “Oh!” she said. “I forgot.”

    “Yes, you did,” said Oberon, shaking his head in disappointment. “Not a good start. Fortunately for you, Freddy didn’t have any ill intentions, but you barely asked any questions. To be fair, he was quite clear about the general conditions, and there was no contract, so nothing is set in stone, but there was much more you could have done. For example, you should have asked what ‘take action’ meant. Is that assisting in an evacuation? Fighting off enemies? Preemptively taking out threats? If he was a fey and not a demon, you could have been forced into doing any of those things.”

    Elise shuddered at the thought of being forced to go on an assassination mission.

    “Exactly,” said Oberon, seeing her reaction. “ set the terms yourself. Fey typically aren’t that powerful in direct combat, so we depend on trickery. This is also our weakness, since agreeing to a bad deal can mean enslavement or death.”

    “I understand,” said Elise, nodding solemnly.

    “Good,” he replied. “Fortunately for you, there’s a very easy way to get into the habit of this, and that goes back to lesson 2. I bet you wouldn’t have made that mistake if you were using {Fey Bargaining}, right?”

    Elise thought for a moment before nodding in agreement. “I would have been consciously trying not to get sucked into a bad deal.”

    “Correct. So, in the future, use {Fey Bargaining} whenever possible. It will not only level the skill, but it will also train you to think through your words before agreeing to any kind of deals.”

    “But won’t people notice if I’m constantly using the skill on them?”

    “Only very rarely,” he said, shaking his head. “Other fey know when you use the skill, and anyone with {Aether Sense} will know, but you don’t really have to worry about that. It’s an incredibly rare skill. Vampires have it by default, high tier fey can have it, and very rarely, high-tier humanoids specializing in mental skills can learn it, but you will not be meeting many of those. Well, not outside of your Ostra connections, at least.

    “Oh, and dragons can also tell. try to use {Fey Bargaining} on a dragon. It’s a fantastically stupid way to commit suicide. That won’t come up often either, but I figured I should warn you, since Irylax here right now. Definitely don’t try using it on her. And you should probably avoid using it on her disciple too. She may not have been in her right mind when she made that girl her disciple, but even so, dragons are fiercely possessive. Honestly, I wouldn’t even try to use it on the disciple’s family. Even that might set Irylax off. Really, you should just avoid dragons in general.”

    “...I see.”

    “Other than that though, you can really use it on anyone without worry. Just don’t do anything too crazy. Big deals will level the skill faster, but it’s kind of hard to be subtle about those. And you get bonus experience for making a deal that the other party doesn’t notice.”

    Elise frowned. She wasn’t sure if she liked where this was going. Forcing people into deals they didn’t realize they were making sounded a bit… villainous.

    “Oh, don’t worry,” said Oberon, catching her expression. “They can be simple. Like not even true deals. Here, let me show you an example.”

    He paused for a moment, and Elise nodded for him to continue. Then, her eyes widened as she felt the familiar icy sensation of a deal being made.

    “And there’s your example!” he said with a smile. “It was also a test, which you failed. Remember, .”

    He was still smiling, and seemed jovial, but Elise was internally berating herself. Her initial reaction at having been tricked was indignation at Oberon for tricking her, but at the same time, he had also literally just told her not to get tricked like that. It was a harmless trick, but served as a good lesson for her.

    “I understand,” she said.

    “Anyways, as you just saw, the bargains can be for literally anything. For example, you can ask someone to help you carry something. If they agree, they’ll technically be contractually obligated to help you, but if they agree, then they’re already going to help you, and they’ll fulfill their end of the deal, so they won’t notice the compulsion.

    “It also helps to keep them vague so that you can set the completion yourself. To use the carrying example, what if you ask them to help carry something, but then an emergency pulls them away before you reach your destination? Well, as long as you never actually specified a destination, you can consider their end of the deal done whenever they leave. Or better yet, as soon as they pick the item up. Then, it’s risk-free and unnoticeable.”

    “Hmmm,” said Elise.

    His examples did indeed seem quite harmless. She still wasn’t too keen on the idea of forcing people into deals, but she could do at least this much.

    “I have an idea!” said Oberon suddenly. “How about tomorrow, we go get you some practical experience?”

    “What do you mean?”

    “Well, I’m going to spend today giving you some more theoretical lessons. We got interrupted when Freddy showed up, but there’s still a lot I can teach you before you even start practicing. Also, we’re going to need to get you some proper changeling clothes later today. Your current dress is lovely, but it’s a stopgap measure. We need some automatically resizing clothes if you want to use {Lesser Transformation} to its full potential.

    “After that, Freddy will probably want to have a nice formal dinner, since he really likes those, and then it will be too late to do anything. Tomorrow though, I know a way where you can not only get practical experience, but you can level up of your fey skills at the same time. At least the ones that can level. And the ones that can’t, you’ll get experience in using them, at least.”

    “I’m going to need more details first,” said Elise.

    “Very good!” he said, beaming. “So, basically…”

    When he first started explaining, Elise was totally on board with the idea, but as he went on, she grew unsure. It certainly sounded effective, but… well, she wouldn’t really want to be seen doing it. Somehow Oberon managed to convince her though, and after double checking the conditions and activating {Fey Bargaining}, she agreed. This earned her an approving smile before Oberon resumed the lessons.

    He wasn’t exaggerating when he had said there was a lot for him to teach her. They talked all the way until lunch, and then the lessons continued well into the afternoon. Elise switched out of her human form fairly early, so by the late afternoon, it was back off cooldown, just in time for Oberon’s personal tailor, a changeling woman named Ava, to arrive. Oberon left at this point, leaving Elise alone with Ava, saying he had other business to attend to. Though Elise didn’t dare use {Inspect} on her, she assumed that the other changeling was at least 8th tier. As the other woman worked, a sudden thought sprung to Elise’s mind.

    “Do you know Mindy?” she asked.

    “Oh, Mindy?” replied Ava, smiling at Elise as hundreds of threads wove together in the air beside her. “Of course! She’s one of my best students! Did you meet her at Ostra?”

    “I met her in Greenwood, actually.”

    “Oh, wow. It’s a small world, I guess. By the way, are you interested in being a tailor? I only have one student at the moment, and he’s graduating soon, so I’ll be lonely.”

    “Thank you for the offer,” said Elise. “But I don’t think I’m interested in working as a tailor.”

    “Ah, shame,” said Ava. “Well, nothing that can be done. Now, if you’ll give me a moment, I need to concentrate a bit for this part.”

    She turned back to her work, and Elise watched in fascination as the weaving of the threads grew even more complex, and more mana got poured into the fabric. A few minutes later, it was done, and Elise found its appearance a bit lackluster compared to what had gone into its creation. Especially its size. So much thread had been used, and all it made was a shirt and a pair of shorts. She knew it wasn’t so simple though, so she eagerly took it when Ava offered it and went behind a wooden divider to don it.

    Whatever effects the clothes had were not immediately obvious. They were comfortable, but that was about it.

    “Not bad,” said Ava, nodding in approval. “Now make them a dress.”

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    “Imagine them as a dress.”

    Elise did so, imagining them as the same dress she had just taken off, and as she watched, the threads seemed to unravel and reform. Her shirt stretched out, extending down to her knees and turning from its original white to red. She lost track of what the shorts were doing, since they were covered by the dress, but she felt them growing a bit tighter and shorter underneath so as not to interfere.

    “Now you then.”

    It took Elise a moment to understand what Ava meant, but a moment later, she decreased her age. As she shrunk, so too did her clothes. She aged herself back up, and the clothes returned to their original state. She tried some other modifications, growing thinner then fatter, then muscular, then scrawny, and each time, the clothes changed to accommodate her body.

    “This is incredible!”

    “It is, isn’t it?” said Ava. “You’ll eventually get some more customizable clothing skills as you level up, but honestly, nothing beats actual, physical clothes. Clothes created by skills are convenient, but there are some downsides too. They cost mana to create, and while it’s low, they also cost mana to maintain. Also, since they come from a skill and are made of mana, they can be dispelled, which is always unpleasant. None of that is a concern for these clothes. They passively feed on atmospheric mana, and they only require mana to change, not to exist. It’s all real fabric too, so none of it can be dispelled, and if you do find yourself in an anti-magic field somehow, they will hold whatever their current form is.”

    Elise cringed at the mental image of someone dispelling her clothes while out in public, and nodded along with Ava’s explanation. These did indeed sound better than clothes conjured by a skill. She recalled seeing some anti-magic field generators around the teleportation pads at the teleportation hubs to prevent magical interference, and she definitely wouldn’t want to end up nude every time she wanted to teleport anywhere.

    “How many other humanoid forms do you have?” asked Ava.

    “Uhhh…” said Elise. “6, I think? Elf, half-elf, dwarf, drow, ainar, giant. So yeah, 6.”

    “Do you know how to categorize your transformations?”

    “Oberon explained it briefly, but I haven’t really messed with it yet.”

    “Well, one benefit of categorization is that it lets you maintain a single outfit or article of clothing across different forms, and those clothes I just gave you will automatically alter to fit any of those forms. So you should put them all in the same category so that your new clothes get applied to all of them.”

    “What will happen to the clothes I already have on them?”

    “Ah, if you want to keep those, you should take them off before you set the category. Otherwise, they’ll be overwritten when you switch to that form. Poof. Gone forever.”

    “Where do they go?”

    Ava shrugged. “I dunno.”

    Elise had actually already categorized those forms together under a general “humanoid” umbrella when Oberon taught her about it, but quickly undid that as she shifted back to her changeling form to start the cooldown. The main benefit of categorization, as Oberon explained it, was that it would allow Elise to avoid the cooldown incurred when switching between similar forms. Of course, the System had to agree that the forms were similar enough for them to be allowed to be categorized, but it considered all humanoids to be roughly the same, so as long as the category existed, Elise would be able to switch between them without going through her changeling form first.

    Oberon hadn’t explained this until after she had already switched back to her changeling form, setting herself on a cooldown, but now she was glad he had. If she experimented with it before Ava explained things to her, she probably would have ruined all her clothes. The clothes made by the dwarves and drow weren’t all that valuable, but they had some sentimental value to Elise, and she wouldn’t want them to get overwritten or destroyed.

    She chatted casually with Ava for a bit until the cooldown was up, then went back to the divider and began stripping the clothes off her other forms. It was a bit of a tedious process, since they were still uncategorized, so she had to wait out the cooldown half a dozen times, but when she was done, she was very satisfied with the results. As promised, the new clothes changed to fit each form, accommodating even her giant form without being damaged.

    That left her with some unworn outfits that she now had no idea what to do with, Ava swept her hand over them, making them all disappear before taking a bracelet off her wrist and handing it to Elise.

    “Is this… a storage device?” Elise asked holding it like it might break if she grabbed it too hard.

    “Yes!” said Ava. “Oberon had me make it yesterday for you.”

    Elise inspected it and found that it had a space inside at least ten times the size of the space in Astrid’s Star. It couldn’t hold living things like the dwarven necklace could, but for carrying things like clothes or coin, it would be a much better option.

    “Isn’t this, like, insanely expensive?” she asked.

    “Yes,” said Ava happily. “Oberon paid me well for this. He also told me that if you tried to turn it down, to reject you and tell you to go talk to him about it. He’s the one who paid, after all. I’m just the crafter.”

    “I guess…”

    Elise wasn’t entirely comfortable receiving such a grand gift, since she knew a storage device of this quality would probably be worth as much as a castle. If he was giving her such an item, he definitely wanted something from her in return, even if he wouldn’t frame it that way.

    Unfortunately, she didn’t see him again until dinner time, and she couldn’t ask him about it there, since Freddy, Irylax, Maia, and the Grays were also there. It was a delicious meal, and Freddy and Oberon turned out to be excellent conversationalists. The others didn’t seem to notice, but Elise saw that whenever the conversation started to steer toward more uncomfortable topics, one of them would subtly guide it away, keeping the mood light and pleasant the entire time.

    One odd thing about the experience that Elise noticed though was the way Nick looked at Freddy. Oftentimes, when he wasn’t directly involved, she noticed him staring at the golden-haired man with a confused frown on his face. At one point, he had asked Freddy if they had met before, to which Freddy responded that he was a minor noble in Jelor, so it was possible they had crossed paths while Nick was doing his knightly duties. Nick wasn’t entirely satisfied with this answer, but didn’t press the issue further.

    After the dinner, Elise still didn’t get a chance to talk with Oberon again, as he, Freddy and Irylax had to discuss some Ostra business. Oberon told her that they should just talk in the morning, which frustrated Elise a bit, as she was certain he was doing it on purpose. There was nothing she could do about it though, so she just went back to her room, deciding to experiment a bit with the things Oberon and Ava had taught her. Just as she reached her door though, Sophie called out to her from the other side of the hallway.

    “Snowberry!”

    Elise turned just in time to be pulled into a surprisingly strong bear hug that almost knocked the wind out of her. She reciprocated it, though more hesitantly, and after a few seconds, they broke apart.

    “So, Nick and I were talking,” said Sophie. “And we had an idea. Actually, wait. First, thank you. Freddy said you risked your life to try to find and save us.”

    “You’re welcome,” said Elise.

    “Anyway, our idea is basically this: what if we adopted you into our family?”

    “What?” asked Elise.

    “So right now, you don’t really have anywhere to go, right? And I know that you didn’t stay with us for that long, but you spent a long time looking for us, and you seem like a pretty good person. Nick and Bianca are going to buy a house when they get back to Jelor and settle down a little bit. You could come with us and live with us. Or even if you wanted to go out into the world, you could still come back whenever you wanted. It wouldn’t be that fancy, but you’d have a home to come back to.”

    Elise was stunned and didn’t know how to respond. This was so far removed from what she had originally imagined her reunion with the Grays that she was starting to feel stupid for ever thinking they’d respond badly. The fact that she had worked hard to save them definitely factored into their reaction, but even so, she now realized that she probably never actually had anything to worry about.

    “Are- are you sure?” asked Elise. “I’m a monster.”

    “Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone!” said Sophie. “Your secret is safe with us! Plus, Nick and I are both half-monster by now anyway.”

    “What?”

    Elise knew about Nick, but she didn’t understand how Sophie was.

    “Well, I’m still full half-elf right now,” explained Sophie. “But Iris- I mean Irylax says that it’s actually possible for me to evolve into a true dragon later on. And I already have some skills that give me dragon traits anyways.”

    “Oh.”

    “Anyways, what do you think?” asked Sophie. “Want to be our sister?”

    Elise had had bad experiences with adopted siblings in the past, but she already knew that this would be nothing like that. And what Sophie had said about having a home to come back to… Elise had never had that. Home was always a place she dreaded returning to, and the dorms were ephemeral, changing every year.

    “...I’d like that,” Elise said, barely stopping herself from choking up.

    “Awesome!” said Sophie, wrapping Elise up in another hug. “Now I’m not the youngest anymore!”

    Elise let out an involuntary snort of laughter at those words. Then, she smiled and leaned forward so her mouth was right beside Sophie’s pointed ear.

    “Can you keep a secret?” she whispered.

    “Of course,” Sophie whispered back.

    “I’m actually older than your brother.”

    “What?” said Sophie, pulling away.

    Elise took a step back and started opening the door to her room. “See you tomorrow, younger sister.”

    Sophie stood dumbfounded in the hallway as Elise closed the door behind her. When she got inside, she shifted her clothes to pajamas and flopped down on the bed, still smiling. For the first time since coming to this world, she felt happy. Not everything was sunshine and rainbows–she still had a funeral and a warg hunt in her near future– but overall, things were good.

    The Grays were rescued, Kaia would be able to be saved soon, Jag was at least stable, Elise finally had time to relax, she had a 9th tier fey tutoring her, she would be reaching her next evolution and getting a permanent human form soon, and after that, magic school. There were lots of things to look forward to, but even as she tried to think about those, she found her mind turning back to Sophie.

    She wasn’t sure if she should have agreed to that. She was even less sure about telling Sophie her age. Those decisions had been made on impulse without really thinking through the consequences. However, while she wasn’t sure if they were the best option, she also didn’t regret them, so after a few minutes of worrying, she decided to just accept it. The Grays were family now, for better or worse.

    She had been planning to experiment with her skills and clothes a bit before bed, but as she lay down, she soon found herself getting drowsy, and eventually drifted off to sleep. If she thought the previous night’s rest had been satisfying, it was nothing compared to this one. What little stress she had still been holding onto was almost entirely gone, and for the first time in a long time, her dreams were all pleasant nonsense.

    She awoke feeling extremely refreshed, and in an excellent mood. However, this mood only lasted until she returned to Oberon’s office, and she was reminded of the plan that Oberon had come with the previous day. After that, the pleasantness and joy vanished, replaced by a singular thought