I'm pulled along all the way to the street trying to get her attention before I manage to stop the taller girl. Placing my hands on her shoulders, exasperated, I speak.

“Listen! I'm really sorry about your friend. I may not have known him but I do know how he felt. I think the pain he was in was just like mine. I think he must be In my body now. If that's the case, I don't believe he would want to come back. We can still figure out if that's the case. But if you care about him, you'll give him this chance to be happy.” I calm my tone as I go, ending in an attempt at a comforting voice, trying to figure out what to say to calm both her and myself.

The girl's eyes stare wide, searching my face. Tears begin to well, and as they roll down her face, she pulls me in for a hug, sobbing into my shoulder. I was never good at comforting others when they cry, so I just stay silent, gently patting her back.

I hold the girl in my arms for a while. There are few passersby at this time, and those who do see us simply avert their eyes, acting as if they didn't.

“You really aren't him. He always knew what to say when I get like this.” she whispers, releasing me, and drying her eyes on the long sleeve of her brown wool sweater. “So I did lose him after all. And the last conversation we had I said those terrible things to him. I have to know that he’s okay. We may not know each other, but please help me. I have to try to speak to him, and you’re the only part of him that I have.” she begs, her eyes red and puffy from her shed tears.

“Of course I’ll help you.” I say. “You said there's a library? I'll help you figure out what happened to your friend and I if you help me learn about this world.” I propose

“Well I couldn't just let you wander out and get his body killed. Deal.” she says, still slightly shaky.

She leads onward down the smooth cobblestone streets, clearly walking slower than if she was on her own, to let me keep up. The town is pretty in the morning sun, townsfolk appearing now in greater numbers as the shops open. Grocers wheel their merchandise into the street to hawk their goods, the hammering of a blacksmith working iron replaced the calls of birds roosting in their rafters. Many shops, however, stay closed. Their windows displaying nothing but signs reading ‘for rent’ or ‘eviction notice’

Having composed herself, the demon speaks up once more. “I guess I haven't really introduced myself. You said your name is Lilly, right? I'm Cynthia, but you uh.. You can call me Cinder.” she says awkwardly.

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m glad I have someone here to help me figure things out.”

“Yeah, me too. This is the building here.” she says, pointing out a building connected to a larger complex made from carved stone. The building has a few steps leading up to an open pair of double doors. “We aren't actually members of the college so when we get in, just dont talk to anyone and we should be okay.”

“Wait, this isn't a public library?” I ask, confused as to why we’d need to keep out heads down.

“Hm? Oh, no. It's really for students of the college, technically we aren't allowed in but as long as we don't take any of the books they probably won't kick us out.” she explains, ascending the steps to the clean building.

Following Cinder inside, we head through a door past a librarian who eyes us strangely as we pass by. Walking through wide shelves each labeled with different topics, Idecide to ask what we're looking for exactly.

“So where do you think we’ll find information on what happened?”

“Well, it’s obviously magic, it must be either transmutation or conjuration, right? So we’ll start there.” she says, with a false cadence of confidence.

Walking past rows of hand bound leather books on intricately carved standing shelves labeled things like ‘astronomy’, ‘underworld studies’, and ‘monster romance’, we reach an overhead sign reading ‘magic’ and quickly find a pair of shelves each labeled with the schools of magic we’re looking for. Surprising, but I'm glad they're the same schools as in dnd so that I’m actually familiar.

We each start skimming books on the shelves, looking for anything that may relate to body swapping. Unfortunately none of the titles were ‘souls and how to swap them’ so I grabbed ‘body transmutation vol III’ and ‘the heart and soul, discovering the astral plane’. Seeing nothing else jump out to me, I turned to Cinder to see if she had found anything. Shaking her head after going over the shelves twice more, she came back up to me.

“I don't see anything relevant. It would help if I actually knew any magic, but I don't think there's anything else of use here. Let's take a look at what you found.” she says, hopefully.

Finding a table in the corner of a connected sitting area, we sit side by side, opening up the transmutation book, we start skimming. For a book about magic, it still manages to make me hate reading, droning on about nothing for pages on end, though Cinder takes her time to ensure that nothing is missed. In the hour of skimming through the boring words of some old dead guy, the only useful pieces of information gleaned is that the mind and body are linked to such an extent that too many cosmetic spells can cause madness, and that such spells are well beyond any commoners price point.

Disappointed with our findings, we move on to the next book, hoping for something more useful. The moment the next book is opened, however, the stern librarian we had passed by earlier appears behind us, her thin glasses perched at the end of her nose.

“Do you ladies have your membership cards?” she asks, leaning over us like a vulture inspecting a flattened piece of roadkill.

My face flush at the unexpected question, I put into action my acting skills gained from years of questioning from overbearing, transphobic parents. “Ah, must have left them in my dorm room.” I give an excuse, patting my jacket pockets.

“Well then I must recommend you go and fetch them, and make sure you have them when you return. I’ll take the liberty of reshelving these for you.” she states condescendingly, picking up the books and ushering us up.

“Of course, ma’am. We’ll go and get them” Cinder stammers out, picking herself up and pulling me back out the way we came.

Exiting the building into the midday sun, she lets out a relieved sigh.

“That didn't go great.” she says, dejectedly. “I doubt we can come back here any time soon, and we didn't learn much of anything.”

“I’m really sorry we didn't find anything to find your friend.” I apologize.

“It’s alright, I won't give up that easily. I’ll think of something. Thanks for your help by the way.”

“I'm not sure how much I actually helped with that librarian, but no problem.”

“you did, but not just that. Thank you for staying to help me instead of just running off. I know you aren't Thal, but having you with me still helps calm me down.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Of course, I couldn't just leave someone who needs help. Now, where to next?” I ask, following her down the now busy street.

“I’m glad to hear that. Less glad that this was my only idea. We could try hiring a wizard but It's not cheap, and there's no guarantee they could help. there's a traveling fortune teller that comes through once a year or so. Thal and I were going to see her this year.” she finishes with a twinge of sadness in her voice. “she should be coming by a few months from now, which should give us time to save the gold.”

“A few months is a long time.” I remark

“yeah… I've still got to fulfill my promise, though! Lets head home, you can tell me about your world and I can fill in what you dont know.” she explaims, optimistically.

Arriving back at her apartment, I notice now that im not rushing through the small first floor that theres a food court style counter with a polite looking young human man in nicer clothes than my own sitting behind the counter, a small lockbox on the counter in front of him.

Cinder approaches the man, untying a small coinpurse which hangs around her neck, previously hidden under her sweater. The man, upon looking up from thick book in his lap, Greets her.

“ah, good day, Cin! Thal! Your usuals?” he asks enthusiastically.

“Oh. Uh, yeah just our usual.” she says, pausing to look at me for a moment before speaking, handing the man a few copper coins.

The man takes two bowls from under the counter, picking up a ladle from one of the basins in the counter which I can see are large clay pots, he fills one with a deep burgundy stew, chunks of meat and vegetables visible within the dark liquid. From another, he scoops a much lighter soup, semi clear white with a thin layer of oil. He then takes a scoop of shucked shellfish and white meat from a third, adding it to the steaming broth.

Tucking her coinpurse back into her sweater, she takes the bowles, giving him a quick thanks, handing me the lighter soup, grabbing a couple spoons from a nearby tray of silverware, and leading us back up stairs.

Entering the small apartment, she instinctively sits at the small table, Waiting for me to have a seat across from her. Taking the seat I set down my bowl, picking up the ladle shaped spoon.

“Sorry I didn't ask what you wanted, I didn't know what to tell Gaeth. That's Thals favorite, I hope you don't mind seafood.” she apologizes.

“It's alright, thank you for the food.” I say. I didn't mind seafood but it was never my favorite. Taking a spoonful to my lips, the taste is more delicious than anything I've ever had. The saltiness balanced with the creamy fat of the broth works perfectly, and I quickly finish the bowl, Cinder looking at me throughout.

“wow.” she says. “you have his taste then, he was always ravenous for more.” looking at her own soup, she looks back at me inquisitively. “Here, try mine.” she says, sliding her hardly touched bowl to my side of the table. Still reveling in the taste, I take a spoonful of her much thicker stew. I was surprised to find that what I expected to be a warm dish was actually ice cold. The dark broth tasted like a mix between burnt tires and chili powder, And the meat was raw and gamey, the vegetables hard and uncooked.

Spitting the vile mixture into my hands, I shot the demon a betrayed look, seeing her giggle softly to herself.

“yeah, he always hated chilled carnavora.” she says, handing me a cloth napkin after pointing out the trash can for me to throw away the calamity i had put in my mouth.

After finishing her own meal, which she ate with much reverence, she took our bowls back downstairs. Upon her return, she suggests that we begin our conversation.

“so what is your old world like? What do you see here that you don't have?” she asks.

Where to begin. “Well, magic is only fantasy where I'm from, we have to rely entirely on machines, my job was writing the instructions for those machines to follow. We don't have menus with skill points or abilities or anything either. There are only humans there, no demons or elves or cow people. I say, gesturing to myself.

“devils and holstaurs you mean, and no magic at all? I don't cast many spells myself but enchantments are vital to city infrastructure. And the system is vital to every living being.”

“I think that's most of what I've noticed so far, but I’m sure there are other differences I haven't seen yet.”

“Then we'll start with those. Magic will take some more time so we'll do races first. There are two types of creatures; folk, and monsters. All folk can interbreed, and all monsters can interbreed, but a folk and a monster can never create a viable offspring. Folk are races like human, holstaur, devil, elf, merfolk, and lots of others. Most differences between races are obvious physical traits, like my tail or your ears. Some races, however, have racial powers, these powers are innate physical abilities and aren't listed in the system. Merfolk have a song that draws you in, lamia can produce venom, holstaur can-” she pauses, looking at me for a moment before continuing.

“um… monsters come in varying levels of intelligence, ranging from completely unthinking blobs of slime to highly intelligent magic users. The variation isnt only between species, but within. So a slime for example could be as intelligent as you or I.” she finishes her explaination.

“I see, a lot of that is similar to fiction we have in my world. What was it you were saying about holstaurs racial ability?” I ask, ushering her to finish that part of her speech.

“well, um. Thal didn't like to hear or talk about it, but if you'll be in his body for a while I guess you'll have to learn eventually.” she admits, her face flushing even more red than her natural tone.

“holstaurs are usually bakers or farmhands because… they dont require pregnancy to produce milk. Holstaur milk is also more valuable because its so nutritious.” she blurts out quickly, averting her gaze. “sometimes when we really need money Thal will apprentice a baker and sell milk.”

We stare at eachother for a moment, both of our faces red as can be. I can't say I never thought of, uh, milking, but I didn't expect it to come up. Still, an easy source of income isn't something to ignore, maybe I'll put it to use.

Cinder finally deciding to break the silence, she moves on.

“The system is pretty self explainatory, by which I mean you can ask it to explain any part of its self. It governs all sentient things, allowing control of abilities, spells, etc. It lets you see what status effects you have, what your health is at, your mana. If you plan on pursuing one job all your life, you can choose a class. That allowes new abilities to be learned and grants certain powers depending on what is chosen. Umm, oh, levels are gained through earning experience. Killing things, and earning achievements earns xp in differing amounts based on difficulty and what level you are. Xp earned decreases as level goes up due to things getting easier.” she takes a few breaths, having been speaking for a while.

“I see. In my world we had games that we played on our machines that had similar rules.”

“sounds like your world had it's own versions of everything. That was a lot though, maybe we should continue this later, I'll have to remember everything I know about magic.” she says.

“why dont you tell me about yourself, personally I mean.” she suggests. “everything you've told me has been very strange, if Thal is truly in your body, I'd like to know more about where he is, and why you said he'd be happy?”

“OH, you didn't-, I thought I made it obvious. I was the same as Thal. Transgender is what it's called, I'm a woman who had a masculine body.”

“oh. I see why he would be happier like that.” she says softly.

I continue. “I lived in an apartment like this one, though the building was much, much taller. The city was also far larger, with enormous buildings. As I said, there are only humans, and everyone is connected, able to communicate using small machines that we carry with us everywhere.

“That all seems kinda like magic to me, but not much has to do with you specifically. What kinds of things do you enjoy?”

“Yeah, I guess it does, and I mostly just used to work, play games, and feel bad about myself. I realize that's pretty boring, but there wasn't much else I could afford to do.”

“we're sort of in the same boat there.” she sighs, looking into the coin purse around her neck.

“Oh right, what do you do for work and fun?” I ask, realizing that I haven't made much of an effort to get to know my generous host.

“Well, Thal and I have been doing odd jobs since we left the children's home. We helped plant a new crop of wheat about a week ago, so we've been okay on funds since then, but we'll need to find more work soon with rent coming up, plus the gold we'll need for the fortune teller.”

I decide not to ask about the children's home, as she seems to draw back slightly upon mentioning it.

“I'm sure we won't have a problem making some money. What do you do for fun?”

“well…” she says, giving me a wicked smile.