The Things That Never Change (2)
"Nervous?"
"Uh… do I look like someone who wouldn't be?"
Even from the sidelines, it was obvious that nerves had gotten the better of her.
Yona stood glaring at the entrance of the Wizard Tower before her, her pale face frozen stiff. And beside her, Alec quietly studied her profile.
There has to be no way. There just has to be.
Alec didn't actually believe that Yona had once been a man.
To be precise, it wasn't full disbelief — it was that exact middle ground where a faint, nagging unease coexisted with his doubt: the possibility that maybe her words were true, that she really had been a man once, and had really come from another world. Just that much.
Setting that aside, though — what if a magic existed that could change one's sex?
Not some argument about whether Yona had originally been a man. Simply a spell that could turn a woman's body into a man's. What then?
Yona wouldn't think twice. She'd just ask them to do it.
That was what scared Alec. Which was why he, too, couldn't quite shake off his own thread of tension.
And so the two of them, standing before the Wizard Tower and its doors, each took a long, deep breath — one praying there had to be a way, the other praying there couldn't possibly be one.
"R-right. Let's, let's go."
"Yeah. Let's go."
Saying that, Alec gave the thoroughly immobile Yona a shove between the shoulder blades, and together they stepped through the entrance of the Wizard Tower.
At the familiar reception desk — in front of the very same receptionist they'd spoken with just yesterday — Alec, stepping in for Yona whose face had locked up completely, offered his most courteous smile.
"We've come to see Alevian… sir. Would it be possible to meet with him?"
The receptionist clearly recognized the two of them. Then again, with such distinctive looks, forgetting them would have been stranger than remembering.
"Yes, you're the ones with the appointment, aren't you? If you'll just head this way and—"
She never got to finish.
A blond fairy appeared out of nowhere, sprinted over, and snatched Yona into a crushing embrace — leaving the receptionist wide-eyed, staring at a sentence half-spoken.
"Our pretty one. What took you so long?"
Wrung tight in his arms, Yona squirmed and shoved at Alevian with everything she had, but whether it was a difference of strength or simply the iron grip he had on her, she couldn't pry him off no matter what she tried. Having exhausted herself wriggling to no avail, she eventually gave up on resisting and just stood there.
Alevian buried his face in the crook of her neck, savoring her scent, and only released her once he was good and satisfied.
"There, there… come along, Yona. And Baldy, you're here too. Perfect, you can come together."
His strange eyes glittering, Alevian flashed a smile at Alec as well. When Alec reluctantly managed some awkward approximation of a smile in return, Alevian seized Yona's hand firmly and strode through the lobby, deeper into the tower.
The receptionist watched their retreating backs with a dazed expression.
"By the way, Alevian — what are you even doing here?"
It was the question she'd forgotten to ask yesterday. She'd meant to let it slide, but curiosity had a way of gnawing. Why was a woman who belonged in Evian standing inside the Wizard Tower? And what kind of scheme was she cooking up this time?
"I'm a mage, that's why. I hold a fairly respectable position here at the Tower, as it happens. Besides, with our pretty one gone from Evian, I hardly see the point of lingering there myself."
"…Uh. I have an apprentice back in Evian, though?"
Freaky. The goblin mage. Alevian's apprentice, and a working adventurer besides.
"An apprentice is an apprentice. Pretty is pretty. And Pretty matters more, doesn't she? To me."
"Ugh…"
Yona's face scrunched up. Freaky adored Alevian, followed him around devotedly — and to hear him say something like this to her face left a sour taste in the mouth. …Then again, come to think of it, maybe she didn't actually like him all that much.
"Baldy. Have you been taking good care of my Yona?"
"Uh, ah… well. Getting by, more or less."
Alec had no idea why Alevian doted on Yona so absurdly, but with nothing to say for himself, he could only offer an awkward laugh. Most people kept their distance from Alevian, and Alec was one of them. An elf who inspired an inexplicable wariness — that name was Alevian.
"Wh-what is that?"
Yona instinctively took a step back. Alec moved in front of her on reflex, and Yona's hand flew to his shoulder before she even realized it — that was how badly it startled her.
"Don't be so alarmed. He's already tamed. Perfectly gentle."
Alevian held out a hand. The fairly massive beast crouched before them stretched out its birdlike head so that his fingers could reach it, and Alevian slowly began to stroke it.
To Yona's eye, the shape was quite familiar: an eagle's head and forequarters, a lion's hindquarters, great wings spreading from its back. Familiar only in the way of games and novels she used to love — by name, a griffin.
The beast was some five or six times her size, and yet, unexpectedly, it was rumbling out a deep, contented purr under Alevian's hand.
Yona knew what it was, intellectually. But seeing one in the flesh was another matter entirely, and privately, she was terrified. If that enormous eagle beak decided to peck her—
"It's fine. Come now, Griffin. Be a dear and carry us."
At Alevian's unhurried words, the griffin let out a low growl and lowered itself even further. Up close like this, she could see that a saddle had been fitted between the wings on its back — a proper one, complete with backrests to keep a rider's hips from sliding off.
"If you want to reach my quarters, riding him is the fastest way. You're my honored guests. I can't very well treat you like everyone else, can I?"
When he put it that way, there was no arguing. And with Alevian already swinging himself onto the griffin's back and waving them up after him, refusal had become practically impossible.
"I'll get on first."
A beast that size meant a saddle with six seats. Alevian took the frontmost one. Alec stomped his feet with a series of heavy thuds, vaulted up, and dropped into the third seat.
"Yona. Here."
Alec held out his hand. Yona stared at it for a moment, then took it and set her foot in the stirrup.
"Hup."
With a light pull, her whole body swung up and plopped down neatly between Alevian and Alec.
"Right then, we're off. Hold on tight."
As Alevian spoke, the griffin's wings began to beat — slowly at first. Each downstroke of those snow-white feathered wings sent gusts of wind billowing up, and Yona watched the spectacle in open wonder.
"That's amazing."
"Yeah. It really is."
The section of the griffin's back not covered by saddle was furred rather than feathered. Running her hand over the brown pelt, she found that short fur's characteristic coarseness still held — but beneath it, the more she touched, the softer it felt. Ahead of her, the snowy-white nape of an eagle's head. Behind, a lashing tail tipped like a scorpion's. And glancing down, a lion's paws and an eagle's talons, side by side.
This is genuinely incredible…
"Ready — up we go."
At Alevian's voice, the wingbeats intensified, and a great wind rose. Then, buoyantly, the body lifted — and because the eagle's head rose first, Yona toppled backward before she knew it.
"Kya—kyah?!"
The instant she tipped, Alec caught her. Without meaning to, his hands ended up wrapped around her waist — and while his face burned scarlet, Yona didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
"Hey — hold on properly. If I fall off, what then, huh?"
"Ah, s-sure. Right."
She was practically begging him to grip her tighter, so Alec squeezed his arms firmly around her waist. One hand locked around the saddle's handhold, the other wrapped around the soft, yielding warmth at Yona's middle — and Alec let himself savor the feel of it.
Wind rushing through her hair. Villages shrinking into hazy miniature far below.
It had been frightening for only the first weightless moment; Yona adapted to it almost immediately.
"Wow, this is actually incredible?"
"Y-yeah."
She was grinning wide as a child at the water's edge. Her hair streamed on the wind and tickled across Alec's face, and oblivious to the fact that Alec was quietly intoxicating himself on the faint fragrance drifting from it, she kept looking down, then up, then down again, gasping in admiration over and over.
"We're almost there."
Alevian glanced back at her and smiled. Yona, laughing like a kid, looked every bit as innocent as she acted — and he'd always found that side of her thoroughly charming.
The griffin flew for a good long while. A straight ascent would have gotten them there quickly, but Yona was enjoying herself so much that he'd deliberately circled the tower, stretching the flight considerably.
Their destination was the tower's thirteenth floor.
When the griffin set down atop a prepared mound of hay in a rush of wind, Alec hopped off first and reached up a hand.
"Careful coming down."
"Mm."
Yona took his hand and climbed down, and Alevian dismounted after her.
"Now then, shall we go, Pretty? To the one who can grant that long-held wish of yours."
"Wait — really?"
Her eyes lit up at those words. A long-held wish — for Yona, there was only ever the one.
And at Alevian's words, saying they were going to see it granted at last, her heart began to pound.
"It's really possible?"
"If I were handling it, I'd give you a firm answer, Pretty. Unfortunately, I'm not. So I can't promise certainty. But in that particular field, no one living is more of an expert than she is."
"…It's really possible?"
If Yona's voice brimmed with hope, Alec's was saturated with despair. He'd prayed there would be no way — and Alevian's words, saying there might well be one, made the despair sink that much deeper.
"Perhaps."
Wearing an unreadable smile, Alevian walked on ahead. Yona, brimming with expectation, and Alec, despair written plainly across his face — the two of them, their contradictory emotions wound tight on their faces, followed behind him.
"Here we are."
Alevian stopped before a door bearing a nameplate: Life Conversion — Escara.
"Life… Conversion?"
"Think of it as the name of a school of magic. Explaining what it means would take far too long. That's not why you came, is it?"
True enough. But tension began to frost over Yona's face all the same.
"Escara — may we come in?"
Yes.
With that note of assent, Alevian threw the door open without ceremony.
The room revealed beyond it was little different from a library — and the scent that rushed out the moment the door swung wide was as clear and crisp as flowers, delicate and cool against the tip of the nose.
"Completely different from Alevian's lab."
"Rude, Pretty. That's just rude."
"But it's true, though."
Alevian gave her cheek a light tug, then stepped inside.
The room was quite spacious — the bookshelves lining it numbered five or six on each side alone. And beyond the shelves, at the room's center — a desk visible the moment one entered, a rectangular table set before it, and black leather sofas arranged around the table, all immaculately ordered, announcing at a glance that the room's owner was of a tidy disposition.
"Welcome, Alevian. And this is the child you spoke of?"
Hair trimmed into a short crop gleamed violet. Her eyes, too, were shaded purple, sparkling like starlight and brimming with intelligence. A crisp, fresh face smiled brightly, looking vivid and new; and a frame just a little taller than Yona's showed off her slender figure to good effect.
"Come in, come in. So then — your name is—"
"Yona. I'm Yona."
Every one of those unhurried, graceful movements declared the woman her elder, plain and simple. Even under that easy, natural condescension, Yona felt no resentment — and found herself answering in polite form before she realized it.
"Yes — Yona. A pleasure. I am Escara. My specialization is Life Conversion magic."
"I-is that so."
Not that she understood any of it, but Yona nodded along regardless.
"Come and sit. We may as well begin right away, don't you think?"
Escara settled naturally into the seat of honor on the sofa. Alevian took her left; Yona and Alec sat side by side on her right. And once they were all seated, Escara snapped her fingers with a crisp crack.
From somewhere, a tea table came gliding forward. No one pushed it, yet it drifted toward them smoothly of its own accord, and with a musical clatter of porcelain, saucers and teacups came sailing gently through the air, setting themselves down one by one before each of them.
"Whoa…"
Alec kept his mouth shut and stayed quiet, but Yona couldn't hold back her admiration. After an unbroken procession of wonders, there was no hiding the thrill quickening in her chest.
The cups settled into place, and then a teapot floated over, pouring into each with a soft trickle. A plate of pastries took its place at the table's center.
"Now then — shall we get down to business?"
"Y-yes!"
Yona hadn't so much as touched her cup, or the pastries. At Escara's words, even Alec tensed — and both of their gazes fixed on Escara at the same instant.
"You were originally a man. You lived in another world. Then you were suddenly summoned to this one — and in the process, you became a woman. So now you want to go back to being a man. That's the gist, am I right?"
Yona's head bobbed so vigorously it nearly rattled. Precise. Exactly right. She didn't even feel the need to explain further.
"Escara — you said her case matched exactly the one you'd been looking for."
Alevian alone sipped his tea in leisurely composure, watching Escara and Yona in turn with an odd little smile.
"In any case, it's not without precedent. It was a very, very long time ago — but there was one person who went from being a man to being a woman."
"The God of Matrimony… you mean?"
"Yes. And you… well, from your dress, I can tell you already know of them. Of course you do. In any case, there is precedent, so it's right to consider it possible. And a great deal of research has been built on that foundation, too."
Escara smiled warmly as she looked at her.
"If you really were a man originally — just as you say. And if some inexplicable turn of fate gave you a woman's body, then… yes. Yes."
The only sound in the room was Yona swallowing hard.
And then Escara said it, in a tone of utter conviction:
"It's possible."
In theory, though.
But Escara did not say those words aloud.
At the ones she did say, joy blossomed across Yona's face.
And on Alec's, in its place — despair withered into full bloom.