I happily take the bottles to the study, where Geneva is waiting. She returns my smile with a grin of her own, tail swinging with amusement. “How was it, my summoner?”

“Number three.” I hand her the bottle with the smell Kierra liked, setting the others on the table.

My strange request had an important purpose. For a while now, Geneva and I have been trying to build my ‘prime form’, a culmination of my shapeshifting prowess.

A prime form, according to Geneva, is the one a shapeshifter wears most often and the form that should define them. The way she describes it, it has an almost spiritual significance to shapeshifters. When I asked her what her prime form looks like, she seemed reluctant to comment.

Her smile never wavered as she tried to brush away the topic but I just…had a feeling. So, I’ve been thinking very hard about what my prime form should be, especially since I can shapeshift with an ease that Geneva assures me would make a few of her peers spit blood in anger.

With the ability to be absolutely anything, I have, in my opinion, a very rational fear of losing my sense of self. Yes, I was reborn as the daughter of a god, as my ‘base form’ will reflect, but I am still very much the human Lourianne Tome. As inefficient and weak as it is, I’m attached to my human self. The appearance of my human self.

However, Geneva sold me on the idea of incorporating elements of other creatures to enhance my ‘human’ form.

There isn’t much I want to copy from a troll. To be brutally honest, they’re rather ugly. Unfortunately, my elf is obsessed with them. Luckily, not every part of them. Oh, she enjoys a certain organ but that’s not what draws her to them, what makes her melt faster than snow being assaulted by a fire caster.

It’s their smell.

To me, they smell like an animal that hasn’t been washed in years but one whiff and my wife is a drooling mess. I didn’t know what to think of it but Geneva enlightened me to something. Creatures have things called pheromones. A scent they release that can affect others. Usually, members of their own species but some can also affect other creatures.

Geneva has two theories. The first is that Kierra was born able to perceive troll pheromones and become affected by them. Therefore, when she smells a male troll, she reacts like a female troll in heat. As in, she’ll jump on anything close to her.

The theory has one major hole; the fact that Kierra has successfully hunted said trolls before. If she really were born susceptible to them, how was she ever able to fight them?

Which leads to the second theory which is a bit…unsettling.

That night, when her team was ambushed by trolls and she was about to die, had to be traumatic. Terrifying even, for my elf who is so proud of her own strength. To be in a situation where she wasn’t sure she could survive, where there’s no time to think and instinct takes over.

Kierra has a pure physical affinity. With a thought, with a wish, she can manipulate her own body with a mastery someone who has trained their magic for a hundred years wouldn’t be able to match.

In that moment, with a troll bearing down on her, she wished to survive and her magic responded. She had extensive knowledge of trolls and subconsciously realized the only thing that can curb their aggression is their sexual drive. So, she must have made herself appealing to the creature, mimicking the pheromones of a female, saving her life.

But how could she, a proud elf, sleep with a being her people deride as little more than pests? Even more so, the ones who had just killed her friends and subordinates? She couldn’t. Not consciously.

So, her magic acted again. It changed her body so that she would be affected by the trolls’ pheromones, clouding her mind with a lust so powerful she couldn’t think about what she was doing. After that, well. She redesigned her body to enjoy sleeping with them and my wife isn’t one to deny herself pleasures of any kind.

I have to admit, it makes sense. Far more than she’s actually attracted to those man-pigs. Good for me, because that means I don’t have to shape myself like them to surpass them. I just need that one little piece.

“Now that we’ve isolated the pheromone that she is attracted to, it is a simple matter to form a body that produces it. Of course, it will also attract female trolls so you should be careful of that.”

I shiver. If they are anything like their male counterparts, that is a horrifying idea, but a consequence I’m willing to endure.

“Do you have any other requests? Since we are crafting your personal scent, you can take the time to make it more…pleasing.”

“What, am I going to start smelling like roses all the time?”

“If you want.”

I blink. That was a joke. “Seriously?”

“Of course, my summoner. Smell is a result of biological processes. Have I ever smelled anything less than enticing?”

She smells…soft. It’s a little difficult to describe. Something like freshly laundered sheets that have a bit of the sun on them but smokier. Or maybe warm milk with a hint of cinnamon. A smell that reminds me of a warm home.

“I don’t have any perfumes, my summoner.”

“I never noticed. Does that mean that you can make it so I always smell like I’m fresh out of the bath no matter what? Even after foundation training?”

“Indeed.”

That’s a definite yes. But, hm. What do I always want to smell like? This is kind of difficult.

“There is no need to commit to a single scent. Just how humans become odorous while sweating, you can change your scent as well. You could make it reactive to the temperature. The amount of sunlight. The presence of water. The time of day.”

“Alright, alright.” I get what she’s trying to do. My biggest weakness in shapeshifting is my lack of creativity. I keep thinking I know what I can do but it’s just my human experience imposing false limitations on this miraculous body. “This’ll take some consideration. Maybe even a trip to the Grand Market.”

“Good. I propose we lean on Maxine Guiness to procure a space. We should attempt the transformations out of the house if you wish to keep this secret from Master.”

“Is that smart? There’s a hundred different eyes to avoid in the city as opposed to a single person here.”

“You would compare any individual in the city to her? I will be honest. If she were to become too curious, I am not certain I could keep her from finding out without using extreme force.”

“Ah.”

Geneva smiles. “Shall we go on a date, Lou?”