Vanniall — Trans

I wish to be seen as I am.

The Gearwright, her father, stormed in the next morning. He found the ledger-keeper’s stool empty. He found a note in a flowing, graceful script: Gone to be what the forge could not make me. The debts are paid. – Vanniall. vanniall trans

They pressed the scale to their chestplate. I wish to be seen as I am

The part was simple: be the stoic, unfeeling son of the Gearwright. Keep the books. Speak in a low, grating rumble. Ignore the way your core ached when you saw the weaver-moths dance in the lantern light, their shimmering wings trailing colors you wished you could wear. He found a note in a flowing, graceful

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 .

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a soft, silver heat bloomed from their center. The brass didn't crack—it flowed . The sharp, angular faceplate softened into a gentle, feminine curve. The dark oak of their shoulders lightened to pale birch, rounding into slender, elegant lines. The grating rumble of their voice melted into the warm, lilting melody they’d always hummed.

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."