Arcturus and Valin were escorted to the teleportation dais, and in a few moments, they were whisked off home, and he was promptly set upon by his immediate family. There was much exchange of hugging and kissing and tears, as well as questions firing off all over the place. But eventually, Valin got to the question that he really wanted to ask.

“Has anyone told Ariadne yet?”

There were a few questioning looks between his parents and his siblings, before they arrived at the answer, no.

Valin sighed deeply. “Well, I guess I’d better get on that. Can’t put it off.”

He was nervous. How would Ariadne react to this? He unconsciously reached up to touch his newly pointed ears.

He took a deep breath. Sure, this kind of thing was unusual, in fact, completely unprecedented, but that wouldn’t really affect their relationship, would it? What was he thinking? Of course it would. How could it not? They had bonded over their relative lack of magic, after all. And now he had this massive reservoir of it inside him, planted by some kind of extradimensional goddess. Not to mention the weird physical changes that he’d gone through.

He gulped. He was never one to put off unpleasant things, but this time he was getting the urge to. But no. It wouldn’t help anything to delay.

Valin went inside and grabbed his smartphone. He texted Ariadne: [I need to see you ASAP. Can we meet in the usual spot?]. After a moment’s hesitation, he took a selfie of his new appearance, and sent that too.

Her reply came a few seconds later. It was just one word, [yes].

Valin gulped again. She obviously typed that in a hurry. What did that mean? Only one way to find out.

A few moments later he was on the teleport pad, punching in a set of coordinates, and he was off. He felt the world shift around him, and soon he was standing on an old, worn stone dais in the middle of a forest. It was their own private oasis, away from all their problems. He set out, walking towards a nearby meadow and settling under a familiar tree. Or at least he tried to. He got back up and started pacing, his nerves a bundle of energy. Luckily there was a curious golden flower that caught his attention. He’d never seen one like it in this meadow before. He picked it, examining its curious triangular shape.

It wasn’t that long before he saw Ariadne striding across the field toward him, looking gorgeous in a pink spaghetti strap tank and a pair of cutoffs. His heart was pounding in his chest as she walked closer and closer to him. Then they were face to face, Ariadne staring curiously at his pointed ears and violet hair. He allowed himself to appreciate how beautiful she was, with her olive skin and shiny black tresses. She reached up to touch his left ear. She ran her fingers across it and said one word. “Wow…”

Their faces drew closer and closer, and then they were kissing. For the first time, it felt like there were no worries, no weight in Valin’s heart as he wrapped his arms around Ariadne. Then they were tearing each other’s clothes off.

Ten minutes later, they were cuddling beneath the trees, gloriously naked, basking in the afterglow. Valin looked up at the swaying branches as he felt Ariadne’s hair tickling his chest and sighed happily. She reached up to stroke his ear again.

“So, you gonna tell me how this happened, babe?” She asked with a giggle.

Valin regaled her with the whole fascinating story, while Ariadne listened with rapt attention. When he was finished, all she could say was “Wow…” again.

“Soooo… Can I see some of this amazing magic?” She asked after a few moments.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Valin summoned up his magic for the first time since that fateful night. He went as delicately and as slowly as possible, not wanting to summon a huge deluge like last time. He was able to condense the water like he usually was, but it was hard to shape it when he wasn’t used to his own strength. Ariadne watched patiently as the globes of water moved back and forth through the air. Until…

“Val, what’s happening to your hair?” She asked.

Valin jumped. Distracted, the water he was manipulating fell to the ground. It was happening again! Valin squirmed, and Ariadne watched, fascinated, as he became a she once more.

He ran his hands over his changed body. It was the same as before, a bit smaller than average for a woman, curvy, with the same otherworldly hair and eyes.

Ariadne reached out to touch him. “Is that really you in there?” She asked.

Valin jumped. “Y-yes… Ooo!” He had quite forgotten his new, melodious voice. Looking at Ariadne, he realized that he was now smaller than her! He shivered slightly. It was weird being smaller than his girlfriend. “Why is this happening?” He asked plaintively.

“Hmm….” Ariadne said, eying Valin with a clinical stare. “Well…. Both times you had just used magic right? So maybe whenever you use magic, you turn into a girl?”

A blush spread across Valin’s face. If that were true, then he’d need to be a girl for like, half his life from now on. He shook his head. Was he really ready for that? It would mean taking all his college classes, or at least the practical ones, as a girl.

Well, he supposed he had no choice. If that was what it took, then that was what it took. Having breasts occasionally was a small price to pay for being able to live his dream.

“Hmm… I guess that makes sense.” Valin looked over at Ariadne. “So… what’s being a girl like?”

Ariadne scratched her head. “You know… I never really thought about it that much. I just sort of… went with the flow. I mimicked what the other girls did, and it just fit? I guess it’s something you don’t notice unless you’re specifically looking for it.”

Valin nodded. It made sense; He had never really considered what being a guy was like. He supposed he’d have to now, considering he’d be spending half his life as a woman.

“Everything’s just so… jiggly now.” Ariadne snorted with laughter.

Valin pouted. “Well, it is!”

“That’s what we have bras for.” Ariadne thought for a second. “Come to think of it, we’ll probably have to get you some…”

---

Valin and Ariadne were standing outside a shopping mall. It was a nondescript building in a city they’d never been to before. Mundane, naturally. Mages didn’t bother to manufacture things when the mundanes could do it just as well.

The country they were in at present was called Lemuria, which dominated the continent whose name it shared. It had, until about 80 years ago, been one of the imperialist powers struggling for dominance among the nation states of the world. Those days were long past, but they still had the world's largest economy, and one of the places mages most liked to go when interacting with the mundane world.

One of them was looking very uncomfortable… and not just because it was Valin’s first time in public as a woman. He was wearing some of Ariadne’s old clothes. The bra was too small, the panties were too tight, and Valin never thought that he’d be this eager to go shopping for underwear.

The pair of them strode in together. Ariadne had put a glamour on Valin’s ears, but she hadn’t bothered to do one for his hair. As a result, Valin was turning heads the moment they set foot in the place.

It was… disconcerting. Valin had never really been aware of whether or not other people paid attention to him, but now it seemed like every other man, woman and child in this mall was staring at him. Twice he caught a guy leering at his body, and he had to fight the urge to hide behind Ariadne.

Valin looked up and noticed that they were passing Talia’s Secret. “Can’t we go in there?” He whined.

Ariadne blushed. “You don’t want slutty underwear, do you?”

Valin pouted. “It’s not like anyone’s going to see it!” But Ariadne dragged him off just the same, and in a few minutes, they were standing in a department store changing room.

“Strip.” Ariadne commanded.

“Not even going to buy me dinner first?” Valin said with a wink, but Ariadne just rolled her eyes. Valin hastily started to take his clothes off.

Ariadne rapidly measured every part of Valin’s body she could get her hands on. Not just for underwear, but for anything that he might want to put on. Valin noticed that she seemed slightly uncomfortable touching her naked female body. It made sense, it was probably the first time that she’d ever touched another girl like this, Valin reasoned.

After Ariadne was done, Valin waited patiently as she went out into the store to find some clothes for her. It wasn’t too long before she returned, laden with tops, bottoms, and underwear. Valin noticed that none of the clothes that she brought back were very revealing, which he appreciated.

“Ooo!” Valin squealed happily as he slid the panties up his smooth legs and across his butt.

“What?” Ariadne asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing… It’s just, I wasn’t expecting them to feel so… soft.” Valin replied, blushing.

“Sounds like someone likes her new panties! C’mon girl, try the rest of this stuff on, or we’ll be here all day.”

Valin blushed deeper. It was the first time someone had actually referred to her as female.

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to… It’s just when you look like that, you’re just so…” Ari said with a blush of her own.

“No, um… It’s ok. It just makes sense to treat me like a girl when I look like this, doesn’t it?”

She hastily got to work trying on the bra.

---

Thirty minutes later, they were at the checkout counter. Valin was wearing a simple unisex white T-shirt and a pair of jeans. All the stuff had fit. Valin especially appreciated the way the bra cradled and protected her breasts, though she had saved her reddest blush of all when she had seen what size it was. Her boobs really were perfect: Nice and round, just large enough, while not entering fetish territory. Even wearing just a T-shirt, they were impossible to miss.

They walked out of the mall together. Valin was still turning heads, but she was starting to get used to it. It wasn’t long before they were standing on a teleport dais. They were usually concealed in subway stations or other types of mass transit when a mage needed to enter the mundane world. A few moments later, they were whisked back to Valin’s home.

They stood in front of Valin’s front door. As she usually did, Valin leaned in for a kiss, but to her surprise, Ariadne pushed her away.

The look of hurt on Valin’s adorable face immediately made Ariadne feel horrible. “S-Sorry,” she said, “I just… It’s weird being romantic when you’re like this. I’m not… you know…”

Valin nodded. Of course she wouldn’t be into her when she was female, but it still hurt to be rejected like that. She managed an awkward smile. “Well, um… see you soon, I guess!” She opened the door and dashed inside, leaving Ariadne looking pensive. She almost didn’t notice the swirling lights of an aurora shimmering above her house. When she asked her mom about it later, she mentioned that it’d been doing that since the incident.

---

Valin stared at the ceiling of his room, his favorite habit when in emotional turmoil. The transformation had worn off a few minutes after he had gotten in the door. Luckily, he managed to strip down before his swelling body had ruined his new clothes.

He kept replaying the scene outside the house over and over in his mind. He had no idea why he found it so… upsetting. It was only natural, after all. Ariadne wasn’t attracted to women. If he was in her position, if she had turned into a man, he would have reacted the same way.

It was just… She had never done that before. Maybe that was the reason. She was treating him differently when he was a she. But he didn’t feel any different, at least on the inside. Or did he? Come to think of it, it was bizarre how at peace he was when he was a girl. He would have expected to feel uncomfortable, or something similar.

He thought about his brother, Edrin. He remembered vividly when he had come back from his gender reassignment surgery as the tall, strapping man he was today, and the way he described what being trapped in a female body felt like. He had described it as “existential torment.”

Valin hadn’t felt existential torment when he was a girl. He hadn’t felt any torment at all. Sure, the difference in height and proportions was disconcerting for a few moments after the change, but only for a few moments. He felt the same way after he changed back too.

It wasn’t like he felt any existential torment when he was a guy, either. In fact, the last few days, despite all the craziness, had probably been the happiest of his life. He had no idea how the weight of his desire to become a mage, and the fear of not achieving it, had dragged on his soul. When he woke up this morning, he was smiling. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Hell, he wasn’t sure it had EVER happened.

Was it that simple though? He thought back to what Ari said about going with the flow. Is that what he’s been doing all this time?. The all consuming desire to be a mage had taken up so much of his bandwidth that he’d never thought about his gender much. When he’d hit puberty and felt the pangs of desire for women for the first time, he put himself in the “heterosexual male” box automatically. Training his body, like training his magic, became second nature to him. After all, that’s what women liked, and Valin was nothing if not disciplined.

But being a girl was… different. There was a curiosity there. An urge to explore that didn’t exist when he was in his male body. He liked looking at himself in the mirror when he was in his female form, as opposed to the disinterested numbness he felt whenever he had to shave. Valin had always found femininity enticing. He loved it when Ari got dressed up, did something interesting with her makeup, or painted her nails different colors. He’d always chocked that up to his “natural heterosexuality.” What if there was something more there? He imagined himself in girl mode, making herself beautiful, and shivered.

Bah. Sexuality is too complicated. He shook himself out of his reverie. All this self reflection was going to give him grey hairs.

---

Valin was eating breakfast the next morning when he heard a knock at the door. He didn’t pay any attention to it until his mother came in, a slightly worried look on her face.

“I’m afraid it’s time for your first ‘appointment’,” dear.”

“Appointment?” He asked, confused.

“You know, the government study program we agreed to to get you out.” His mother said, a dark look passing over her face.

Valin gulped. He had completely forgotten that aspect of his release in the excitement of the last few days. He had planned to pick Edrin's brain about the finer points of gender dysphoria this morning, but apparently that would have to wait.

Apprehensively, he made his way to the front door. He had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping when he opened it.

Standing outside was a beautiful young woman, dressed in a lab coat, a scarlet blouse, a black pencil skirt, stockings and black heels. Her long honey blonde tresses framed a passionate face, brimming with youthful enthusiasm. Valin was completely disarmed. He wished he’d had a chance to shave. His facial hair was much more noticeable now that it was purple.

“Uh… are you the… um…” He stammered. He wasn’t usually caught off guard like this.

“Yes, I’ll be the one liaising with you and your family. The agreement was for only two people from the government to have access to you, and I was the lucky pick. I’m Electra. Electra Kalasonde.” She extended a hand and Valin noticed that her nails were painted a bright cherry red.

He shook it. He made a mental note never to mention Electra to Ariadne.

They walked over to the teleport pad together. As Electra walked in front of him, his eyes were drawn to the way her long legs moved in her perfectly aligned stockings. He shook his head. Keep your mind in the game! Valin noticed that the coordinates on the pad were already locked in. That’s right. He remembered Arcturus saying something about being studied at a location his family controlled. He heard the sound of the front door open, and saw that his mother was standing there, watching Electra, a cold, suspicious look in her eyes.

A second later, Valin felt a familiar tingle, and they were off. He found himself in a towering hall. It was airy, spacious, and well lit, with sunbeams glittering in from the walls and ceiling. It was not what he expected for a research lab, that’s for sure. There was a short, stout woman with greying hair that looked to be in her 50s sitting behind several monitors. Valin vaguely remembered that Electra had mentioned that two people would be studying him. She gave a lazy wave, then went back to work.

“Your family generously provided this space for us to use,” Electra said. “I figured we’d need a large, open space for you to test your magic. That’s Doctor Tymat, she’ll be monitoring and adjusting the equipment. Now, if you’ll come this way…”

She led him to a door, which led to a hall, which led to a room that looked like a hastily constructed doctor’s office.

“Take off your clothes, if you please,” said Electra while setting up what looked to be a recording device.

“Uh…” Valin said as he watched her making adjustments.

“Sorry,” she said apologetically, “But you agreed to let us record you for these sessions.”

Valin blushed but started stripping down. He’d never had a female doctor before or been videotaped naked.

What transpired next was a typical physical, save for the fact that he was being examined by a drop dead gorgeous girl. When she was examining his testicles, he tried very hard to think about the weather. Eventually though, she had whacked his knees, looked in his ears, listened to his heart, and they were done.

As Electra was cleaning up, Valin asked innocently, “Do you want to examine my female body?”

“What?” She replied, dropping the lens cap.

So Valin explained all that he had discovered over the last few days about his magic, and the fact that whenever he used it, he turned into a woman.

Electra seemed quite fascinated by this. “I guess we’ll still need this.” She said, quickly setting up the camera again.

Valin did what he usually did when he needed to transform, manipulating the water in the air as delicately as possible. Electra stared avidly as his hair grew, his body reshaped, his breasts swelled out of his chest, and his penis shrank away into a pussy.

Valin tilted her head as she looked at Electra. The other woman seemed oddly flushed. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yes!” Electra said. “I’ve just… never seen something so incredible before. I mean… that’s supposed to be impossible, right? Like… you need to have a bunch of surgeons to do all the alterations and it takes hours and…” She cut herself off, blushing.

Valin blinked. Electra sure was acting weird.

The examination that followed was basically the same, except for a few obvious differences. She winced as she was speculumed, and blushed as her nipples hardened when her breasts were examined, though not as much as Electra. She supposed that being this close to a naked woman was pretty uncomfortable for her, just like it was with Ariadne. Weird trait for a doctor though.

“Oops!” Valin said after they were finished. “I completely forgot to bring my female clothes. Oh well… At least I can wear my T-shirt.” She leaned over to pick it up, not noticing how Electra couldn’t keep her eyes off her perfect ass.

Valin hummed to herself as she walked through the hall, back to the auditorium where they first entered. Electra followed, trying as best she could not to be distracted by Valin’s adorably innocent manner or her heavenly body. Doctor Tymat, for her part, barely seemed to notice them, engrossed as she was in her equipment.

Electra produced a questionnaire for Valin to answer. There were a ton of questions; Everything from her psychological state, past and present, to her use of magic over the last week.

Valin then proceeded to demonstrate her newfound wellspring of magic, while Doctor Tymat measured her abilities with various devices she had brought along. Valin was happy to learn that she had a magical capacity that far outstripped any previously recorded, and Electra was happy to have anything that could distract her from ogling Valin.

“It’s going to be so embarrassing going home like this,” Valin said with a blush after they were finished. She looked up at Electra. The doctor was taller than Ariadne, making her about six inches bigger than Valin’s female body.

Electra thought for a second. “Hang on, I’ll get you something to wear. Probably won’t fit very well, but it’ll be better than those male clothes you have.”

About five minutes later, Electra came through the teleport pad, holding another lab coat. “This’ll be a little big on you, but it’ll cover everything.”

“Thanks!” Valin said cheerfully, and bounded up to the teleport dais. Electra sighed deeply. This was going to be a lot more stressful than she thought.

---

After Valin got home and into some proper clothes, she looked around for Edrin. She found him lounging languidly on the couch in their airy living room on the first floor. He was idly scrolling through something on his phone, and let out a bored yawn. He smiled gently as Valin nervously waved to get his attention.

"How're you doing, 'lil bro? I can't imagine this is easy for you," He said, lazily indicating Valin's female body with a wave of his phone.

"Well, that's the thing..." Valin paused for a second. "It's actually... not what I expected. I remember you describing what your went through before your GRS, and I figured that I'd feel something like that but I just... don't."

Edrin raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes... Ariadne called me a girl yesterday when we were shopping for panties," Edrin snorted back a laugh, "and I didn't mind it."

"Well, that's probably for the best, considering your condition. All the magic in the world isn't worth it if you're going to be dysphoric whenever you use it."

"But what does that say about me?"

Edrin laughed and ruffled his little sister's hair. "It means you don't mind being a girl, silly! And there's nothing wrong with that. If that's how you feel, that's how you feel. It's not like Mom or Dad or the rest of the clan is going to give a shit if you embrace womanhood."

Valin blushed deeply, and Edrin laughed again. "Seriously, Valin, I know how hard you've worked, and that it hasn't been easy for you. You've held yourself back for so long. Why not enjoy yourself a little?"

"As a girl?"

"Well, you're in the unique position to pick your gender at the moment. Just... consider where your mind went when asked you that question."

Valin just blushed deeper.