Vanniall Trans -

And for the first time in three hundred years, she is not wearing a disguise. She is simply trans . Transformed. Transparent. True.

The air in the Gloaming Bazaar always smelled of rust and cinnamon. Vanniall hated it. They had hated it for three hundred years, every day of their life as a ledger-keeper for the Whispering Scales. Their body, a sturdy, square-shouldered vessel of brass and dark oak, felt less like a self and more like a very old, very boring suit of armor.

That night, the Silversmith returned. He didn't offer coins. He offered a single, iridescent scale, like a shard of frozen rainbow. “A transmuter’s chip,” he whispered. “One wish to change a single, true thing about yourself. No more, no less.” vanniall trans

Vanniall looked at their reflection in a polished soul-coin. She saw a face of polished silver, with eyes like twin amethysts. She saw herself .

The Gloaming Bazaar still smells of rust and cinnamon. But now, there is a new shop near the weaver-moth grove. A tiny stall selling starlight-bottles and mended dreams. The owner has a silver face and a lilting laugh. Her name is Vanniall. And for the first time in three hundred

Every morning, Vanniall would polish their brass faceplate, tracing the sharp, angular grooves that denoted a male-presenting construct. The grooves felt like lies etched into metal. Their true self, the one that hummed a soft, lilting tune while sorting soul-coins, was all curves and silver light. They were Vanniall, and for three centuries, they had been playing a part.

I wish to be seen as I am.

A spindly creature named the Silversmith stumbled into the shop, leaking starlight from a cracked carapace. He couldn’t pay his tithe. Vanniall, moved by a mercy their stern exterior wasn't supposed to feel, quietly forged the ledger. They marked the debt as "void."