Chapter 21: Chapter 19

Maria stood in the closet, looking over her clothes. Over the past few weeks she’d managed to get herself a decent wardrobe that doesn’t consist mainly of work shirts. And though the expanded wardrobe did make the budding demon happy, it did present one problem. It made it harder to decide on what she wanted to wear, which had never really been a problem in her life before now.

“Are you still trying to find something?” Edith chuckled as she poked her head in the closet.

“I just can’t decide. There’s too much!”

“Maria, your side is literally still a fourth the size of mine. If anything, you could still use some more clothes.” Maria didn’t know how to respond to her demon, and just scrunched up her lips, still looking over the clothes. Edith shook her head and walked in over to her girlfriend. “What about the dress you wore last week to my parents? I think you look pretty good in that.”

Maybe. It was a cute dress, and though it might have embarrassed her a little bit to wear, it did make her feel good. But she had already worn that and she still had some clothes to try out. “I think I want something different... Something I haven’t worn out yet.”

The demon shrugged and looked back over at the clothes. “What about this?” Edith asked, pulling out a nice purple blouse that matched the color of her horns, eyes, and fingernails. That’s right, her nails were no longer pink. Never need to really ever paint them again. Well unless she wanted something besides purple.

“Really? You don’t think it would be too much purple?” She did like the top. She wouldn’t have bought it if she didn’t.

“Not at all,” Edith said with a smile. “It’ll just highlight your eyes.” The demon leaned forward and kissed Maria on the forehead, making her blush. “I think you should go for it.”

“Okay, fine,” the budding demon said shyly, taking the top from her girlfriend “But what are you wearing tonight?”

“Oh right.” Edith turned around to her side of the closet. Fanning her hand over her clothes, she stopped at a nice black button-down top. A black that matched her wavy hair perfectly. Taking it off, she fanned over to find a pair of light gray pants and took that off as well. “Done.”

“How is it that easy for you?” Maria said with a little pout. Edith always found an outfit within seconds of walking in here, while it took Maria a good handful of minutes to pick something.

Edith shrugged and said, “I know what I like. I know what I feel good in. That’s really it.”

“So you just have no planning and pick what feels right at random?”

“Pretty much yeah. Though sometimes I plan ahead of time. Not often though.” Gods, if only it was that easy for Maria. Maybe one day though, when she can get used to her new wardrobe. “Alright, better get ready dear. Don’t want to be late meeting them.”

“What time is it?”

“Four thirty.”

“Oh fuck!”

The next fifteen minutes were a massive blur of getting ready for the night. Maria didn’t even give herself enough time to put on the light makeup she wanted. Which wasn’t the worst considering she rarely wore it anyway. It would have just been a little fun thing to do. Then again, the reason they were running late was because they had been doing a little fun thing to do earlier. Well, in Edith’s case the fun thing wasn’t so little.

Hoping off the trolly after a rush to make sure they caught the right one, the demonic couple started down the street. Edith’s arm was, as always, wrapped around Maria’s waist while Maria happily leaned into her lover’s embrace.

“I didn’t think we would make it in time,” Maria said, a little panicked.

“But we did, and that’s what’s important. Though, I doubt Ahti or Sammy would be too upset that we were a couple of minutes late.”

“I know, but it’s Sammy’s first time here and I just want to be there.”

“They’ve already been here for a day and a half.”

“Yeah, but they were sleeping for that first day!”

“Still, they’ve been up since this morning, and going out with Ahti.”

“Okay, fine, but still. I just want to see my friend, okay? I didn’t even think they would be able to come here ever.”

“Of course, Sammy would be able to come here. Not only are they your friend, but Ahti has really taken a liking to them, so there was no way they weren’t coming here.”

“But you said humans couldn't withstand magic, and that the Gate is magic.”

“You came through the gate whilst you were still human,” Edith corrected.

“But we had a pact, so there was already magic inside me.”

“Yes, but I still had to take a lot of precautions to make sure you really would be okay and didn’t suffer magic overload. Same as what Ahti did for Sammy. Though in Sammy’s case magic overload could kill them.”

“Oh...” That made sense. Okay, fine. Maria doesn’t need to wonder about every little detail, like some nitpicky commenter on a web novel. All she should focus on is getting to see their best friend in the world she now lives in. “Oh there they are!” Maria felt excitement rush through her as she spotted her friends. Reaching up, she waved over at them.

Ahti spotted them first and quickly pointed them out to Sammy. It didn’t take long for Maria and Sammy to rush over to one another, whilst dragging their girlfriends behind them. If you could call Ahti Sammy’s girlfriend.

“Hey Sammy!” Maria said, pulling the enby into a big hug.

“Hey Maria,” They said with a smile.

“How are you doing?” Maria asked, pulling away.

The enby responded by widening their eyes and taking a deep breath. “It’s a lot,” they said with a nervous chuckle.

“Yeah, Sammy’s been finding it a little overwhelming at times,” Ahti admitted.

“That makes sense,” the demon chimed in. “Maria was like that at first.”

“But I got over it pretty quickly, and so will you Sammy,” the budding demon gave the human a gentle smile.

“I really hope so.” They chuckled once more, as their eyes wandered over the afternoon crowd. “So many different beings. How do you even remember it all?”

“You typically get used to it and pick up on that kind of stuff in your first few centuries. Though, I will admit, Celesque will always throw something new at you,” Ahti commented.

“Oh yeah,” Edith chuckled out. “Most people don’t really care if you don’t know what they are specifically, as long as you're nice.”

“Yes, but nice can vary with cultural differences.”

“Fair.”

Not only did it seem a little daunting to the human, but Maria was feeling it a little bit as well. She had only been here for about three weeks, and she could only name maybe a quarter of all the people she saw. But she’ll have a long time to get used to it. Like a really long, long time, which was daunting in itself.

“Maria?” Edith said gently, shaking Maria’s shoulder.

“Huh, what?”

“You okay? You were spacing out again.” Looking around, it appeared that Sammy and Ahti had also noticed it.

“Oh. Right, yeah. Sorry. I was just kind of having some existential dread...” Now the three around her seemed to really start worrying. “Don’t worry. Everything will work out.” At least she hoped, but she shouldn’t focus on this right now. She should focus on having a fun double date.

“You sure?” Edith rubbed her back lightly, as her tail gave Maria’s calf a little squeeze before pulling away so that no one would see.

“Yeah. Let’s just move one. So,” Maria turned to the other couple. “What did you guys get up to this morning?”

“Well, it took a while for this cutie to get out of bed,” Ahti smirked down at Sammy.

“Oh?” The curious and excited smile on Edith’s face, told everyone what her mind was thinking.

“N—not like that! I was still groggy from the Gate and it was hard to get up.” The blush on Sammy’s face was cute as always.

“Maybe one day it’ll be for a different reason,” Ahti said with a wink, which practically turned Sammy’s face the same shade as Edith’s. “But that can wait for now.” The jackal chuckled.

“Anyway,” Sammy started, trying to change the topic. “After that, we went and got my phone upgraded.” Their excitement about that was clear to see. “Finally, I can try Athena’s podcast!” Sammy did a tiny fist pump, causing the rest of them to chuckle.

“Then we had a nice lunch at the fay restaurant on Syn Street.”

“Oh the one we met at?”

“Did you try the sphenid?” Edith seemed excited by the prospect.

Ahti made a disgusted sound. “As if I would taint this cutie with that,” the jackal said, pulling Sammy into a side hug. Edith pouted at her best friend, clearly wanting someone else to also like it.

“What’s sphenid?” Sammy asked Maria quietly from Ahti’s side.

“I still have no idea, but it looks disgusting.” Maria shivered at the memory of the dish.

“Hey! I heard that you know,” The demon said, faking being hurt by Maria’s words.

“Oh I know,” Maria teased back. “And I will forever judge you for liking that dish.”

“And I’ll always judge you for liking that weird yellow phallic fruit.”

“You mean a banana?” The enby couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

“Yes! If you going to put something that shape in your mouth you might as well just suck a di—”

“Edith! We’re in public!” Maria yelled, horrified that her girlfriend was just about to say that in public. There could be children around! Okay there weren’t because it was a school day here apparently, but still! The demon and jackal just chuckled at Maria’s reaction. “It’s not funny. Someone might have heard!”

“Dear, we’re speaking English. Nearly no one on this plane speaks it. We would have been fine.”

“Well, you guys are, I’m not,” Ahti said with a shrug.

“Yes, you are.” Sammy looked up at the jackal confused.

“Nope.” Ahti was pretty nonchalant about it. “Just using a spell to translate what I’m hearing and what you’re hearing. I don’t even speak English.”

Now that really took the enby by surprise. It reminded Maria about when she found out she wasn’t speaking English. Sammy’s mind seemed to be working a mile a second as they tried to process this new information. They just quickly shook their head and said, “Okay. Anyway, should we get moving?” They seemed to just be opting to accept and not question it. “I don’t want to be late.”

~~~

“Fuck that was amazing!” Sammy couldn’t hold in their excitement. “I've never seen anything like that before!”

Ahti chuckled. “Of course, you haven’t. You’ve never seen show magic before.”

“Still, it was pretty fucking awesome,” Maria added, still thinking about the amazing performance one of the local bard groups just gave. Also, yes, bards! Like the whole fantasy expectation of bard troops using magic to enhance their show and tell amazing fantastical stories. Apparently, that’s Celesque’s version of theater, and most other planes as well. Though movies are still a thing, it’s still mostly left up to humans and earth to make those. But there are some movies and shows made by other beings. But anyway, fucking bards!

Edith held Maria close as the four of them made their way out of the amphitheater. The group had to wait for the majority of people to leave, so that they wouldn’t get caught in the crowds. Crowds were still a little overwhelming for the human in the group. Well, not seeing them from a distance, but being caught in one really made their head spin.

“It was fun. I actually haven’t been to a show like this since I was a kid.”

“Oh really?” Maria asked her demon. “How old were you?”

“I was probably nineteen at the time,” Edith replied nonchalantly, causing Sammy to almost miss a step.

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“You know, I’m only two years older than that. I don’t like thinking of nineteen as a kid...”

“Different races age at different speeds,” the jackal chimed in. “Just something you have to get used to. Though many races kind of accept twenty-five as being an adult.”

“So we’re not even considered adults?” The enby asked, refereeing to them and Maria.

“No, you are, since you're human. Or at least were human,” the demon added, giving their budding demon a squeeze. “And like Ahti said, it varies. Some races are considered adults when they reach ten, some at a hundred. Just all depends.”

“Gods, it’s just better if I try not to think about it,” Sammy mumbled, rubbing their temples.

“Probably,” Ahti chuckled. “Though one day you’ll have to get used to it, but you’ve got time.”

“So where to now? It’s not too late yet,” the budding demon said, looking at her phone for the time.

“Let’s go get some food,” Ahti said as her stomach gave a light growl. “I know I could use it.”

“Same here,” the enby chimed in.

“Alright. What kind of food are we in the mood for?”

“Well, we already had fey, so not that.”

“Wasn’t there a little diner place you said was really good?” Maria asked Edith, remembering a conversation they had the other day.

“Oh right, Temors. It’s got pretty good food.”

“But the walk is quite a ways. The trollies don’t stop too close to it if I remember correctly, the jackal commented.

“True, but walking will do us good,” the demon said. “Give us all more time together. What do you say?”

“Sure,” Maria answered with a growl of her own stomach.

“Works for me.”

“I’m sure I’ll find something I can eat,” the human said with a nervous chuckle. Getting used to the food of a different culture is always interesting, let alone an entirely different plane. Maria was still getting used to the food here, too. Not that it was bad at all. Well, Sphenid looks pretty bad, but so far most of the food has been good.

“Alright. To Temors then!”

Temors was as close to a dinner on earth as one could really get here. Though the aesthetic was pretty close, complete with red shiny plastic booths, and a jukebox in one corner, that was where similarities ended. Having been used to diners, Maria would have thought it would have been a bit of a cheaper place to eat, but it was actually a rather nice restaurant. Luckily Sammy had no indication of how expensive anything was so they didn’t freak out and want to pay for their own meal. Not that they could anyway. They didn’t have any correct currency.

“God’s, I haven’t eaten that much in a while,” The demon said with a chuckle, as she stretched, leaving the dinner.

“Seriously, how did you even eat that much? I’ve never seen you put away food like that before.” Maria was a little concerned for her girlfriend, having just watched the demon put away two full entrees as well as.

“Oh, Edith can eat people out of house and home when she wants to. She once ate nearly the entire cake at one of my birthday parties, by herself,” The jackal chimed in, seemingly amused by all of this.

“Oh my gods, Edith!” Maria yelled while scratching an itch on her arm.

“What? I was hungry and no one else was touching it.”

“Still, how?”

“Demon’s have a pretty big appetite. We don’t really need to ever eat our fill, but we can, and it’s a lot more than most would think.”

“Seriously? So like all the meals we’ve had until now are what? Just small meals?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Though it’s never like I’m starving or hungry afterwards. I can just put away more if I want to. And that’s what I did in there.”

Fuck, was that going to happen to Maria? Probably. She is becoming a demon after all. So her appetite is going to change. Great. Though there are bigger changes than that already starting. Like the tail that’s poking a near solid foot out the back of her pants. Yeah, it’s too big and annoying to keep tucked away, but it’s still stubby and small. Enough that it’s a little embarrassing to be showing. Though maybe that feeling also stems from the tail being an engorged zone that’s just fully on display.

“Well, it was impressive,” Sammy said. “You would put my roommates to shame if they ever saw how much you eat. Though at least you don’t need to actually eat that much, because groceries with those three guys are expensive.”

“Yeah, but Edith didn’t know what I liked when she brought me here, and just stuffed her fridge and pantry full of stuff. We still haven’t made a big dent in it yet.” The itch on her arm still wasn’t going away.

Ahti chuckled while Edith replied, “Hey. I just wanted to make sure I had food you liked. Can you blame me for wanting to provide for my girlfriend?” Edith pulled Maria close.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Maria said from the comfort of her demon’s arm. She also noticed Ahti just pulled the same move with Sammy, causing the enby to blush. “It was just cute. Though, could we maybe stop talking about food?” Maria shifted her arms from itching to rubbing her suddenly upset stomach. “I think I ate too much and I’m starting to feel it...”

“Sure. We’ve got a bit of a walk to the trolly stop, hopefully walking it off will help.”

“That’s what I’m doing,” Sammy chimed in with a light chuckle.

“Oh, already filled, are you? I was hoping we would save that for later tonight,” the jackal said with a smirk.

“W—what?” The enby quietly said, looking up at Ahti with wide eyes and a blush as red as Edith.

“Oh fuck...” Maria groaned quietly, clutching her stomach.

“That’s what she meant,” Edith replied with a quiet chuckle.

“No... Fuck, my stomach.” Pain flared to life inside of Maria, as her skin started to itch all over. The budding demon bent over as the pain shifted from her stomach to her lower tummy. With the shifting it increased tenfold. “Fuck!”

“Maria?! What’s wrong?!” Edith’s voice was filled with worry, as she held onto her girlfriend, keeping her from falling over. Wherever their skin touched, Maria felt the itch start to burn.

“Maria?” Sammy rushed to her side, gently grabbing onto her arm, but unlike Edith it didn’t make her skin burn.

She could barely hear Sammy calling their name over the pain that was erupting inside of her. She didn’t hear Ahti come up either. It hurt so much. She had never been in this much pain before. Fuck!

“Maria, what’s happening?” The panic in Edith’s voice somehow made it through the haze of pain she was in. Maria didn’t like hearing Edith panicked. She didn’t like that she could see how scared Edith was through her blurry, tear-filled eyes. She didn’t like any of this at all.

Then suddenly, blackness took over...

~~~

Everything ached as Maria slowly started to come to. Her skin was overly sensitive to the sheets and her stomach still wasn’t the happiest in the world. But she was feeling a lot better than she had when she passed out. Wait, she passed out?! What the hell happened?! Opening her groggy eyes the first thing that Maria saw was Edith sitting in a chair next to where she lay. The demon’s face was in her hands, while her tail twitched from its normal place around the budding demon’s calf.

“Edith?” Maria called out.

“Maria?!” The demon looked up to her before bolting over the short distance between the chair where she sat and the bed Maria laid on. Wait, Maria was in a bed? “Are you feeling okay?” There was still a hint of panic in the demon’s voice. The same panic Maria has heard just before she passed out.

“I—I think so,” she said.She tried to sit up, but couldn’t. Her body felt too weak and tired. “What happened? Where are we?” The budding demon looked around the room they were in, and the best way to describe it was hospital. Maybe. It still had the Victorian aesthetic, but it looked like a hospital room.

“You passed out suddenly on our walk back. We took you to the closest hospital because we were worried.” Edith reached a hand out and grabbed Maria’s hand.

“We? Sammy and Ahti are still here?” She didn’t see them in the room, but it wouldn’t surprise her if they had stayed.

“Yeah. They’re getting some snacks and drinks.”

“But we just ate.”

“That was a couple of hours ago...”

“It’s been hours?!” Edith nodded. Fuck. Maria 's eyes went wide as she looked over her lover, not really sure what to say or think.

“The doctor should be coming in soon, now that you're awake.” Edith squeezed her hand again and Maria casually looked down at them.

Then she froze as she stared at their hands. Edith’s was her usual red color with black nails, but hers... Well, her nails were the same violet color that they had been for a few days now, but her skin... It was a pale pastel lavender, no longer her normal skin tone. Unholy shit... She was purple... Her eyes trailed up her arms, seeing if they could find where the color stopped, but found that it disappeared into her clothes. How far did it go? Was there even a stopping point? Or was she just entirely lavender now? Fuck, she needs a mirror.

“E—Edith, can you pass me my phone?” Her voice was shaky, and she could tell that Edith knew why. The demon didn’t say anything, she just grabbed Maria’s small purse and pulled out the phone before handing it to her. With a purple hand that still shocked her, Maria took the phone and turned on the front facing camera. Just as she expected... The coloring seemed to entirely cover her if her now lavender face was anything to go by. Without thinking Maria, reached up and touched her face as if to make sure it really was real.

That wasn’t the only change her face, or rather head, had undergone. Her small bullet-like horns were now a solid half foot long, and curled back over her head, similar to Edith’s, only they had a more feathered pattern than Edith’s gentle fluting. Maria just stared at her image as Edith helped her to sit up fully. And it was then that she noticed her tail was nearly three feet long. Long enough that she could easily grab onto Edith’s with her own. And as if on cue her tail did exactly that, which caused the scarlet demon to gasp and blush. It made Maria blush as well, which seemed to turn her face more purple instead of red.

“Maria!” Sammy suddenly called out from the doorway. “By the gods, you’re awake.” Sammy rushed into the room, quickly followed by Ahti. Both carried a couple of snacks and drinks. As they came in Edith quickly went to pull her tail away, but couldn’t as Maria’s wouldn’t let her go. And it wasn’t that Maria was consciously holding on, it was just doing that on its own. Maria literally had no control over it. “How are you feeling?” Sammy asked, taking another one of the empty seats in the room.

“B—better,” Maria said with a light chuckle. “Wasn’t really ready to wake up with purple skin, though. That’s still kind of sinking in.”

“Well, it looks good,” Ahti said, taking the spot next to Sammy. It was also clear that Ahti was looking at their tails, which really wasn’t helping the blush that was now permanently on Edith’s face.

“It does,” Edith added, trying to pull her tail away again to no success. “Though, I can’t imagine how it feels to suddenly wake up like that.”

There was a knock on the door, before a man in a typical doctor’s scrubs came in. He was tall. Like really fucking tall. Must have been easily eight feet. Also, maybe not something worth mentioning, but he looked like a dragon, or maybe was an actual dragon. Cool, paging doctor dragon...

“I see you’re awake,” The doctor said. Maria nodded. “Good. Are you comfortable with everyone in the room staying, or would you like some privacy?”

“I’m okay with everyone here,” Maria answered. The dragon nodded before coming over and gently grabbing her wrist and checking his watch. There was a little awkward moment where Maria and Edith’s joint tails got in the way, and only then did Maria’s tail decide it was a decent time to let go, much to Edith’s relief.

“Well, it seems the acceleration has finally calmed down. Your heart beat is also back to normal, which is good. Are you aware of what happened?” He asked kindly. Maria shook her head, still not really sure what was going on since having just randomly passed out. “Well, it seems your transformation took a rather dramatic and accelerated shift. Your transformation is from a nuptiae pact, correct?” He looked between the two demons in the room. Both of them nodded. “Well, it seems like it’s over now, so you should start to feel fully better within a couple of hours. Rushed transformation can be really hard on the body.”

Maria nodded, before asking, “Do we know why it happened? I thought it was meant to be slow.” From the way everyone else looked at the doctor, they didn’t know either. Good, so it wasn’t just Maria out of the loop.

“Well, there can be a multitude of reasons for an accelerated shift. Have you drunk any potions lately with the attempt of making it happen faster?” Maria shook her head. But was that a thing? Could she just take a potion and get it done with? From the light shock in her demon’s eyes, it appeared that Edith didn’t know about that option either. “Have you been casting any joint magic with your wife?” Maria shook her head again. “Have you been around any excess or large displays of magic recently?”

“We were at a minstrel show earlier tonight,” Ahti said.

“And did you take any precaution beforehand for magic overload?”

“N—no. Is that a thing?”

“It should have been in the packet you received upon declaring you had made a pact,” the doctor said, turning to Edith.

Edith just looked up at him with a confused stare as her brain seemed to try and think back. “Oh fuck,” the demon finally said, having recalled the right memory. “I can’t believe I forgot...” Edith looked really upset with herself for having forgotten that crucial detail. Maria couldn’t blame her though. She had seen the packet and by the gods it was thick.

“It’s okay, Edith,” Maria said, giving her girlfriend a smile. She really wasn’t mad or upset with her at all. Shocked that this happened, yes, but mad, no. Not at all. Edith still didn’t seem to fully accept Maria’s statement.

“Alright, well it seems we’ve found the cause. We would like to keep you here for another hour to make sure the acceleration has truly ended, and if so, you are free to go home after that.”

 

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