"Aeterium biology makes me do this. We can morph into a different gender at will. Body and Soul Reconstruction isn't just for healing. It can also do full reconstruction. Skin, voice, everything."
"Oh, really?" Denisia asked from her couch. "You mean you can just... just change? Whenever?"
"Not just gender. Any humanoid form we want. We can't shapeshift into other people or races but eye color, hair color, skin tone... it's all adjustable."
To prove the point, Vastarael's body shimmered softly. One blink and the dark bronze complexion was gone, now replaced with snowy alabaster skin that gave them an ethereal, moonlit glow. Their curls stayed, but turned jet black. Golden eyes darkened to violet. The room gasped as one.
"See? Fully customizable."
And with that, she shimmered again, returning to her dark bronze hue, those luscious white curls bouncing as she casually took a seat beside Elyonari. Who, by the way, was still in the middle of a silent crisis. Vastarael leaned in and gave her a warm, delicate hug.
"So this is what hugging as a woman feels like..."
Elyonari twitched. A high-pitched internal scream echoed inside her chest like a siren. She looked down at Vastarael's very obviously feminine figure and then just slowly turned her head away, blinking like a frozen deer.
"Am... am I bisexual now?"
Vastarael chuckled in low, husky, dangerous tone.
"Only now?"
The room didn't survive that line.
Farrynelle's hand slapped over her mouth to contain a snort. Xander actually choked on air. Natalis turned away to hide a blush. Even Adelasta visibly flushed, glaring daggers at the floor as though it had offended her.
"That's it. I'm getting wine," Eldrigan muttered, abandoning his breakfast and stomping to a cabinet.
"Veneri," Natalis said faintly, "please stop being... like this."
But Vastarael wasn't done. Stretching like a cat, she sighed dreamily and murmured.
"If Phaenora were here, she'd love this."
And the universe, apparently, had heard her.
"Ohoho? Would I now?"
Every head snapped around as they saw her.
Her sapphire blue hair tumbled down her back in soft, lazy waves, catching the light. Her golden eyes glimmered with something far too playful to be legal. Her tanned skin glowed beneath a thin white summer dress that barely obeyed gravity. All the women in the room instinctively straightened their backs. All the men suddenly forgot how to breathe. Phaenora was a walking voluptuous beauty.
"Phae?"
Vastarael lit up with joy. She didn't even let them finish.
Phaenora lunged forward with a laugh and tackled Vastarael to the floor in a tight hug that knocked over two cushions and a chair.
"Veneri! I missed you, you idiot!"
She shouted with a grin, her arms clinging around Vastarael like she was never letting go. Vastarael laughed back, wrapping her arms around Phaenora.
"You're here?! Where's Asenane? And the others?"
"Coming in a few hours. I came early."
Then, without a second's hesitation she kissed her on the lips.
Elyonari, already in emotional chaos, just said:
"I've seen men kiss. I've seen women kiss. But... this?"
She covered her mouth like she'd seen something too sacred to witness.
"This is a religious experience," Natalis whispered.
"This is blasphemy," Denisia added with a shaky breath.
"This is... doing things to me," Farrynelle muttered under her breath.
Even Adelasta had nothing. Her eyes were wide. Her mouth was parted slightly in shock. Eldrigan returned from the kitchen holding a wine bottle in one hand, his jaw swinging open.
"Well, the world is already messed up. I wonder what I'd look like as a woman."
Xander nodded like a dying man. "I'm not even mad. I'm just confused. I didn't even know I had these feelings."
Vastarael and Phaenora finally pulled apart, both laughing and glowing.
"You are still Darling. Just with more assets now. Oh, I love this version. You are so not going back anytime soon."
That's when Peroncerea leaned back into her couch, crossing one leg over the other with a lazy smirk.
"You look like we haven't seen each other in years," she said, eyeing Phaenora. "What happened? You leave Richinaria and ghost us."
Phaenora's sapphire hair bounced as she turned, grinning like she'd just been caught in the act.
"Three years ago, we left with Erna... no Asenane, Shimmer, and Runner. We needed time for Veneri's fate to be reshaped. So I figured... world tour."
She said it so casually, as if packing up two immortal children, a former island guardian for a three-year journey was just a normal errand.
"I thought it would be nice to let the girls see the continents for once. They've only ever known Erna Isles as home. So we traveled. We ate food in Nesmarone, danced under starlit vines in Mintheris and watched auroras and moons rise in Xypelia's mountains desert skylines. Veneri called it 'training,' but it was just life."
"Romantic," Peroncerea replied dryly, like she wanted to be annoyed but couldn't commit to it.
"And now," Phaenora said, stepping closer to Vastarael's new form and running her fingers across her man's chest, "we're here in Inexpelcae Islands. But no one told me my Darling had... evolved."
Vastarael just blinked. "Phae–"
"Oh no no no," she interrupted, pressing a palm to Vastarael's very real, very shapely breast. "This is... wow. This is real. The Aeterium gender-shifting thing? I thought it was theoretical but this is art."
"Please stop," Narisva said, rubbing her temples, voice full of static warning.
Phaenora didn't. She turned to Vastarael with mock innocence.
"Can you stay like this? Just for a few days? For me, please?"
"No," Adelasta said instantly.
"Absolutely not," Elyonari added.
"Over my scorched existence," Narisva agreed.
But Vastarael gave a one-shouldered shrug and said, "Sure. I don't mind."
The entire lounge went silent like someone had pressed mute. Adelasta stared at him, stunned by his... her answer.
"You don't mind?"
Elyonari's eye twitched. "Veneri."
"Darling," Narisva said, "she'll take over your life."
"I mean," Vastarael scratched the back of his neck, suddenly way too nonchalant, "she is technically linked to my power and soul. It's hard to say no to her. It always has been."
Phaenora wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her chin on Vastarael's shoulder with that devil-may-care grin that screamed 'I won.'
"Told you. You may be in relationships with him but I own him body, soul and trust. He is all mine and I'm his."
Adelasta's face darkened like a winter storm.
"This is exactly why I didn't want you coming back."
"Oh?" Phaenora tilted her head sweetly. "You think I came back just to get in the way?"
"I know you did. You wormed your way into him with that shiny 'Omniscient' label and never let go."
"Please. You had three years without me. You basically had him for that much time..If he's still mine now, after all that? Sounds like a you problem."
"ENOUGH," Elyonari finally snapped, her calm demeanor fracturing like glass. "This isn't a turf war."
"Oh no," Narisva said, smiling without warmth. "It is. And she just fired the first shot."
Vastarael stood between them like a peaceful wall in a hurricane, unfazed.
"Can we just sit down? Please?"
Phaenora leaned in and whispered into his ear, "This version of you makes them so nervous. I'm keeping it. At least for a while."
He gave a helpless, slightly giddy smile.
"Yeah, alright."
Adelasta stared at him, betrayed. Peroncerea, sipping wine from Eldrigan's glads, just whispered to herself.
"I missed this mess when Phaenora was gone."