My name is Claire, however, it has been a long time since anyone has called me by it. I grew up in a world where the roles people play in life are dictated by things like gender, nobility, or magical gift. I got the short straw on the first two, born female and with no nobility to speak of in my family history. However, what does run in both of my families is a long line of magical prowess.

From my father, I received a gift for changing muscles composition within my body. He came from a long line of warriors with the ability to be hulking muscle bound terrors in battle, but then revert back to a more normal size for social interaction or fitting through doorways.

From my mother, I got size manipulation. I can, at will, change my height, bringing all of my proportions to fit the new height. I have never know where the mass comes from or goes to with either or my gifts, but I suppose that is why it is magic.

My mother was a shrine worker, fulfilling her role of talking to the gods, of very womanly thing to do. I, however, longed to follow my father’s path, but was told that it would not be suitable. So, I left my family and travelled to the city of Graum, where I abandoned the name Claire.

I spent many moons perfecting an altered look. I made myself taller, so that I was well above average for a male. I shifted the structure of my muscles, bit by bit, to take on a mare masculine physique. I widened my jaw. I tightened the muscles in my chest while decreasing the fat composition of my breasts, effectively flattening them. I made sure each muscles group was defined, but not overly bulky, so that I was not expending too much energy just trying to hold the shape. Exercising regularly made the process a lot easier, as there became less for me to change. I even went so far as to elongate the muscles in my throat so that my voice deepened. To the outside world, I was the ever clean shaven man named Seth.

After perfecting the ability to hold my shape for up to a week at a time, I applied to join Graum’s mercenary guild, where I could be trained to fight and eventually be given assignments. I made my way up through the training regiments as a cadet and was soon given the rank of official guide member. I had no plans of achieving anything higher than a senior guild member, but knew that such a title required years of service and excellent credentials. I was just glad that I passed as male and got to participate of my own free will.

My first job took me outside of the city, to a desolate and not heavily populated town to the north. There, I and a number of other first timers were needed to stand in as the town’s policing force. Bandits had been integrating into the town and the officials in Graum did not want them getting a foothold in a town. It was miserable work, but I learned it quick and did it well. After a year I was given leave to return to Graum to look for new employment with better conditions. That town to the north, Felle, became the place where the guild sent its newest recruits to learn the ropes. I was just glad I had learned them enough to return.

Which brings us to my current situation.

I was standing in the guildmaster’s office, staring at my shoes, trying not to show the frustration that colored my cheeks. “This is a babysitting assignment, sir.”

“That it is.”

I joined the guild to be able to use my gifts to help people, to fight off bandits, and keep peace within a city, so I was taken aback when the guildmaster had told me I was being assigned to a noble household as the personal bodyguard of the daughter of the household. “Is there no one else?”

“No. The father requested a member of the guild, not a cadet. You showed promise in Felle and, frankly, all of our more senior members are busy or over qualified.” He sighed. “I can see about making it a short term contract, rotate you our when someone new comes along, but the father seemed to think that one guard for a few years would be best.”

I flinched at the idea of being stuck in such a job for years. “Sir, I would very much appreciate any effort you can spare.”

He chuckled. “I know you would, son.” He stood from his desk. I saluted, as was customary. “You will need to report to the LeBlanc manor, on the west residential district. Do good work and I will see about getting you out.”

I sighed, but nodded, heading from the room. My internal fuming made me lose track of time and I found myself at the gates of the manor well before I had time to prepare my own introduction. I made my way up the long walkway to the front door, knocking with more force than might have been necessary.

The door was opened by a maid who conspicuously avoided my eye. She directed my through the foyer to a sitting room to the left. There I was made to wait, sitting in the lusciously adorned room that made me feel foreign to that way of life.

A commotion drew my attention, first as distantly loud voices, but they were moving closer, and soon I could make out what was being said. “Would you listen?” one voice yelled.

“I have heard quite enough, young lady,” came the equally loud reply.

“Fine, I am leaving!”

I rose, following the noise back into the foyer, looking up the stairs at the people who were coming down. First was a woman, who I guessed to be about my age. She looked as if she had been in the process of doing her hair when she had gotten into the altercation she was having.

Following her was a man well past his prime, who I determined to be her father. His hair was greying and he looked like he had been put together before he worked up a sweat in the yelling match with his daughter.

She had made it to the ground floor and was headed for the door. Her father rounded the corner on the stairs, still a full floor behind her. He noticed me, standing just out of the way of his daughter’s path. “Stop her!”

The command spurred a response and my hand flashed out to catch her wrist as she passed, and a smooth tug shifted her momentum towards me. “Gah, you men are all the same,” she spat.

“To be fair, he is paying me,” I offered in my own defense.

“To be fair,” she mimicked, “you still have your hand on me without my express permission.”

I was taken aback by the venom in her words and a sense of guilt, but did not release my grip. The woman tried to pull her arm away from my grip, but to no avail. I could hear her father almost to the base of the stairs, behind me. She thrust her hand against my chest and I felt a shift in my body. I knew what was about to happen, but it was entirely out of my control.

The world began to shrink away, in a quick burst. I hastily released the woman as I dropped to my knees, huffing with strain such a rapid shift had on my body. I felt the power ebb drastically, releasing me from its grip. With a clearer head, I was able to survey my change, estimating that I was thirty feet tall, hunched over the bewildered woman. Her father was not moving, stopped in his tracks.

“What did you just do,” I exhaled the breathy question.

“I have never seen anyone with a gift like yours,” the woman replied, already recovered.

“Never have I not been able to control my gift,” I retorted, still wary.

She was not listening to me, her thoughts apparently elsewhere. She skirted around my leg so that she could see her father. “I have changed my mind. This one can guard me.”

I mental berated myself. That was what they were arguing about?! So, if she had just, you know, gotten passed me, I might not have had a job to do here?!

I lost track of the woman and her father’s conversation, still too stunned by everything that had happened. I had, until that point, tirelessly trained myself to be able to maintain control of my gifts.

“You will have to excuse my daughter,” the man addressed me, catching my attention. He and his daughter had moved so that they both stood before me, looking up. “She has a gift. Hers is different from your own, in that it allows her to control other people’s magic within them.” I gave a nod, but my main focus was on trying to gather up my magic once more, pulling it inward and bringing my world back to normal. “My name is Nolan LeBlanc and this,” he motioned to the woman, “is my daughter, Autumn.”

“I go by Seth, sir,” I responded when I was standing once more. 

"Come! Let us discuss the terms of your service!"