It took

  SIX.

  FUCKING.

  MONTHS.

  before Zerel and Ramel produced a functional feminizing treatment.

  The drug sucked, too. It wasn't very effective, and was, frankly, kind of gross in a number of ways. Zerel had to collect certain body parts from mammalian monsters and mix them with a crude alchemical solvent, then reprocess that into a thick, safely consumable solution that tasted awful. The size worked out to be a gss every day.

  Developing it had been tedious. Ramel was very cautious with alchemical experiments and Zerel agreed with her methods - not that she had much room to disagree, as a novice. Magically augmented chemistry was a potentially dangerous process no matter how you slice it. It took them two weeks to even come up with a solid methodology to test different recipes and Zerel still got sick half a dozen times in as many months.

  As gruesome as the process was, it worked, so the witches could refine it. At their current rate of improvement, the older witch guessed they’d have reasonably good medication for this purpose within a year. They were even close to developing a hormone testing spell to properly regute the process.

  Zerel's future started to look bearable again.

  Within a month, Zerel's seniors found some relief in the change to the apprentice witch's demeanor. Her rampaging fights against local fauna died down, for the most part. With the prototype feminizing potion starting to show its effects, she even started to open up to the rest of the cn. It was a great relief for the young transmigrator, who was more than happy to be transitioning again at a younger age, given her misfortune so far. She had privately started to ruminate over what her breaking point would be.

  Somewhat unfortunately for Zerel, her socialization with the rest of the Ademhill goblins came with unexpected consequences.

  It turned out that her peers were quite interested in the moody and reclusive apprentice witch. She could wrestle nd drakes and at least three goblins had begged her for mercy after accidentally misgendering her. Zerel eventually made it clear to the entire cn that interrupting the conversation to plead was not preferable to simply correcting oneself. Several of her sycophants tried to court her to no avail, as the young witch made it clear that she was only interested in girls. One particurly persistent suitor found himself buried up to the neck, stopping that particur annoyance.

  Despite the occasional terrorizing of the more clueless cnsfolk, Zerel became rather popur. She was as well known as any of the hobgoblins under Chron’s command, and liked to tell stories from her past life to the interest of many bored goblins. She had been a bit of an 18th and 19th-century history buff and liked to talk about the regency and Napoleonic eras. Zerel had a personal appreciation for aristocratic dramas that bled into Ademhill's popution. Some of the more vain goblins even started trying to recreate the eborate dresses and suits Zerel had described, to limited success.

  For Chron, a little bit of bureaucratic coaching and a few choice recommendations from Zerel were bringing the cn closer to a point of stability. Appropriate delegation and work team assignments in the cn had organized Ademhill into a thriving community. While limited, they had some amount of education happening, as well as a number of enriching activities that Zerel had come up with. Once they found a good method for making the ball, Ademhill goblins became highly invested in pying literal underground full contact soccer. Zerel even begrudgingly taught a few of the more zealous pyers how to run an ever increasingly popur sports league that she showed up to the occasional game to watch.

  When the others asked her favorite team, she lied and said she didn't have one. Zerel wouldn't give Sachi the satisfaction of knowing she liked to watch him py. The hobgoblin was a tremendous athlete but he had enough ego already.

  Still, Chron was happy and it wasn't a big secret to the more savvy members of the cn where he had gotten these ideas. Most of the influential cn members agreed that if Zerel had the smarts to help develop their community, they'd gdly help her with her big side project. Which worried Zerel, because she wanted something that they thought was impossible.

  Zerel wanted access to better ingredients, better information, and more people, which would best be found by negotiating with the nearby imperial settlement. Some Ademhill residents believed that if they were simply discovered by the imperials, then their whole cn would be purged. So she told them they didn't have what she wanted, and confessed her actual desire to Ramel.

  After all, the senior witch mented some of the same issues.

  So they commiserated over their subpar materials and their subpar tools and their subpar access. Ademhill was even farther into the wilds from Ramel's st cn and, before colpsing, she had a near complete set of alchemical gssware. Much of it didn't survive, and the witch often mented the things she simply couldn't do anymore without better equipment. A few months ter, they finally brought it up to Chron during one of their breakfast meetings, who then did a surprisingly good JK Simmons ugh, despite having never seen Spider-man.

  “You're serious?” He asked.

  “Yes, chief,” admitted a nearly apologetic Ramel, “we wanna see if we can bargain widda local lord. We think we can trade wit em.”

  Chron sighed, rubbing his face, “look. I'm twenty-two years old - the oldest hob in the cn. I've never seen an imperial guardsman that didn't try to kill a goblin on sight. Any runt that approaches the gates of an imperial city isn't living long. How do we begin to negotiate that? Even if it's a good idea.”

  Zerel spoke up this time, “We’ll have to offer things they want. We have monster parts and herbs from our area that Ramel and I think might be valuable, and we can offer assistance to local imperials against monsters from the south. We already have to keep the warren safe from some of those, anyway. If we can help them make money they probably won't want to hurt us.”

  Chron narrowed his eyes at Zerel, “How can we be sure they won't just kill us and take over our home?”

  “We can't,” Zerel agreed, “but that's the same as trusting the guy next to ya to not take ya stuff-”

  “He won't do it if he can't get away with it…” Chron rubbed his chin, “are you saying we show our strength and be known as a threat?”

  “I'm saying we hint at our strength and present ourselves as a potential ally,” Zerel suggested, “present, uh, ‘carrot’. Imply stick.”

  Chron's brow furrowed in thought as he spoke slowly, “I think I might understand what you mean. What is a ‘carrot’?”

  Zerel sighed, “It's a vegetable. It could be any reward or benefit though.”

  Chron nodded, quietly thinking for a long moment. When he spoke up, he softly demanded, “I want a wall. And a fort. If we reveal ourselves to the imperials, that will be an unacceptable risk without securing an area for ourselves. You two can try to negotiate. If we create a defensible position first.”

  The entirety of the Ademhill witch coven blinked back at Chron. Both Ramel and Zerel didn't know whether to be happy there was a chance or frustrated because of the immense hurdle. This could take years.

  As overboard as it seemed, Zerel could at least understand Chron's request. A fortress town would take a minimal amount of military force to overcome, so it might be easier for imperial forces to just negotiate with the cn in that situation. It'd secure them a more manageable position in most cases.

  This was going to take years. Zerel supposed she wasn't that old for a goblin but still, three or four years seemed likely. They'd have to source better materials for the defensive structures for them to even be moderately resistant to other magic users. Chron was exacting enough to want something that would hold against imperial raids, Zerel was sure of that. While they couldn't secure Ademhill against any serious military force, the cn was at least savvy enough to know the Comnad Empire was at war. Smaller purging forces wouldn't be enough to break an actually fortified position.

  Damn it. Zerel hated it but Chron's request wasn't just reasonable. It was helpful. They'd have a much better position to negotiate as the residents of Fort Ademhill.

  “Fine,” she said, to Ramel's surprise, “We'll build a fortress. Gimme a week or two to pn it.”

  The older witch was torn, of course. She wanted access to better materials, but this was a big ask from Chron. “Zer!” She sputtered, “we're witches, not buildahs!”

  Zerel shrugged back at her mentor, “both of you know I have other goals.” She pointed, “I can't get this treatment to the people who might need it if we're completely isoted.”

  Ramel frowned while Chron stayed calm and unreadable, preferring to let the witches figure it out themselves. He had breakfast hash to munch on while Ramel ruminated.

  Zerel spoke up, trying to mollify her mentor, “look, if it's that much of an issue, I can lead the project, Ram. You'll just help out whenever we need ya.”

  “No,” stated Ramel, “ah’ll help, it's just a lot ta take in.” Turning back to their chief, she asked, “really, though, Chron. Ya want tha works and everything, don't ya? protective wards and magic reinforcement.”

  Chron nodded in affirmation, “I do.”

  Ramel sighed, expressing her dejection, “this'll take years.”

  Both Chron and Zerel ughed at the comment for different reasons. Before long, the three were working on prepnning what would soon be their cn's biggest project. At least until another goblin interrupted, quietly making his presence known.

  Isra was a couple of years older than Zerel, and a couple of months younger than Ramel. He mostly kept to himself and did whatever he was asked, within reason. His sudden appearance was a mild surprise to the witch and the chief, but Zerel suspected she might know what the goblin was here for.

  She was almost positive when Isra spoke up about his reason for visiting, “it okay if I speak to Zerel in private? I… I got some questions ta ask.”

  The two older goblins were confused when Zerel brought the meeting to a quick conclusion and rushed off to talk to her kinsman. They figured it was just another odd quirk to the transmigrator, but both found out the reason soon enough. Ramel understood in a few days, when Zerel informed her they'd have to ramp up production on their feminizing treatment. Chron found out a few weeks after that, when Isra nervously asked him to change the way he referred to her.

  By the time they were building the first walls for their fort, a second goblin came to Zerel, seeking help with a simir problem. Thankfully, the witches had discovered a masculinizing formu during their experimentation - something Zerel had kept a small stock of for ‘personal’ reasons - as they hadn't focused on that vector of change so far. Sandalph was pleased to see the changes, though, and gdly hunted down some of the materials for his own treatment. It took the expected mammalian parts, of course, but the process wasn't too dissimir.

  Zerel was happy to see that her efforts were already bearing results. She had done her best to be open about transitioning, and not just to help fit herself into the community. The cn had a few hundred goblins, so it stands to reason that if a goblin can be transgender, then there should be some number of unrealized trans goblins that aren't just Zerel. Isra and Sandolph seemed to prove her theory. Zerel guessed that there was either active suppression or limited understanding of trans people in the societies of her new world. She wanted to find out and do something about it with the resources she had already needed to make for herself. She'd have to get Chron to allow interaction with the empire, first.

  The old goblin was adamant, even months ter. They would only reach out to Thraes Hold once Fort Ademhill was finished.