At this point Dawn figured that even in the context of her previous life she had always been a transgender woman. A couple of conversations with Zerel had left her thinking about it, and now? Dawn couldn't really deny it. She had at best begrudgingly accepted the manhood thrust upon her in her previous life. With the perspective of her at-this-point undeniable womanhood, her past self seemed so clearly repressed.

  She was thankful that she was born female in this life. Sort of. It's complicated! By the time she was self aware she was a beautiful and terrifying monster woman, but Dawn had a sneaking suspicion her phenotype at birth might have been more snake than woman. She couldn't quite remember those details, though, since the whispers of the serpent's Eye seemed to take precedence.

  Along with Zerel, Hilda, and half the expedition, Dawn was climbing the temple steps as she tried to recall the knowledge it had granted her. Hilda was speaking of her experiences with trading card games to her girlfriends and Zerel in the nguage of this world. The goblin queen was kind enough to occasionally summarize for Dawn in English, and she greatly appreciated everyone's efforts at reducing the nguage barrier. It helped her with learning the local nguage faster. The serpent woman still found herself listening idly, focusing on the sky, and feeling out her divine id.

  Her instincts were telling her that she should break open another of the serpent's bones for the delicious marrow. Dawn was unsure what to do with that impulse since it was hardly eldritch knowledge. On a basic level she at least knew that the bones of a - what did Hilda call it? God beast? - would definitely have unique properties. The marrow would be a more satisfying meal than the expedition's rations but the power in it was diminished compared to what she'd already eaten. It was better as set dressing, and her mother would have preferred it this way.

  It was strange of her to think like this, wasn't it? As if she didn't know these things.

  Dawn and her companions arrived at the entrance to the temple, and as the expedition members began exploring the building, she soon found herself looking across the central sanctuary at the door to the garden. Zerel whistled and said something in that other nguage before telling Dawn, “I knew the city had been populous, but this really emphasizes it. This's a big auditorium.”

  “I've read that worshippers of earthly divinity used to take pilgrimages here.” Hilda said, “People came from all over to worship at the temple and visit the garden of the gorge.”

  Frowning slightly, Dawn asked, “just the garden?”

  “The temple's clergy considered the rest of the gorge to be too sacred for most people. Few were granted the privilege, and most that received it were prominent worshippers anyway.”

  “Hm,” Dawn harumphed, “the garden is more sacred now.”

  Dawn started sliding down the center aisle as Hilda transted to the others, and Zerel followed, calling after her, “Are you okay, Dawn?”

  “I'm okay.”

  As she reached the stage and looked up at the doors, Dawn heard Dalia ask something in Imperial before Hilda transted, “Dalia asked if you're implying that this pce is more sacred because you were born here.”

  Dawn ughed as she put all four hands on the door and started pushing, “No! Well, maybe someday, but right now, I'm not making it more sacred.”

  Zerel was giving her a concerned and confused look while Hilda seemed lost in thought as she approached the doors with Sheryl. Dalia was pacing slowly in the back of the pews as was the other human, both alert and clearly apprehensive. A few of the hobgoblins were surveying the room, even in the balconies now, but everyone paused to look as the entrance to the garden opened. The doors slowly swung out to reveal the spidering channels, roundabout paths, ornate bridges, and pristine plots of the temple garden, all dominated by the skeletal serpent's coil around Dawn's egg in the center. The skull was easily visible, behind the nest through the orbital rib formations for the serpent's many eyes. The central socket stared back at the occupants of the temple sanctuary.

  The canyon held a stillness that emanated from the garden into the sanctuary. She hadn't noticed it before, but Dawn had now spent a few days slowly getting used to the rest of the world, where things change and make noises and shift in small ways. The flowers did not budge. No wind blew there. She recognized the atmosphere of her birthpce, bringing all but the flowing waters of the river to a terrifying stillness.

  Dawn heard the human and the cat speaking in hushed tones, and smirked when Zerel spoke up next to her in simirly quiet English, “Dawn, are ya sure yer alright? Yer actin different.”

  Amusement at their reverence quickly faded as Dawn thought about the question. Was she being different? How should she be acting? She… supposed that if she was acting ‘not different’ she would at least warn her blue friend about the skeleton, “I feel alright. You should be careful around the serpent's remains. Don't move through any eyesockets.”

  “What?”

  Dawn slithered ahead with Zerel close behind until she was next to the towering ribs of the skeleton and put her hand on the rim of an eyesocket. She could feel the empty husk of the serpent's power within, “I don't know what will happen if anyone passes through one of these. I think I'm exempt or something? Slip between a couple ribs if you don't want to risk walking through an eye.”

  The hobgoblin gave her a funny look, “you really can't help sayin the most ominous shit, can ya?”

  Snorting, Dawn admitted, “things have made more and more sense, now that you've told me about this pce. About this serpent. It fits better in my head with an expnation. I have the context for the things I know.”

  “Will I die?”

  “...what do you mean?” Dawn frowned at Zerel.

  “Well whaddya think I'm riskin?”

  “I… I guess it would be something vision reted? Um, probably not physically harmful.”

  “Alright,” said Zerel as she walked right inside the skeleton.

  Failing to process fast enough, Dawn simply watched Zerel walk through the eye. The goblin queen became guarded as she paused inside, gncing around in apprehension at things no other could see with ears swaying and twitching side to side, “Dawn?”

  “Zerel?”

  “Okay, you're still there. I'm still in the garden. I can sort of hear what I see, but it feels off. There's a battlefield…” Walking forward, Zerel passed through the opposite eye to the one she entered. A moment ter, she flinched and yelped, then gasped. In a surprisingly fast motion, for both others and herself, Dawn wound her way through the skeleton and in front of Zerel, “Are you okay!?”

  Holding a hand over her eyes, Zerel reassured her friend, “I'm okay. One second.” Holding up a finger, Zerel revealed a slight furrow to her brow while she seemed to concentrate, eyes closed, “I'm getting a vision.”

  “Of what?”

  “Giants.”

  “What do you mean ‘giants’?”

  Zerel opened her eyes, starting back at Dawn and smiling, “to be honest, I'm not sure. They were killed by smaller people…” Turning around to see the mercenaries and a couple of the hobgoblins approaching the coil, Zerel called out, “Hilda! What do you know about giants?”

  “Giants?” the noblewoman wedged a hand under her chin in thought and looked to the side, speaking in Imperial for a moment - presumably repeating the question. The other human, Aramis, said something to Hilda as Sheryl inspected the skeleton. Hilda nodded at him, “All the giants on this continent were killed in an ancient inquisition. We don't have much information from elsewhere in the world but there are rumors that some still live in seclusion. Why?”

  “Are hill giants green?”

  “I don't think so? No one has seen one for a thousand years in this part of the world, though.”

  Zerel said something else in imperial that Dawn could understand enough to know it was a warning about the visions. A few ropes were quickly produced, and Sheryl climbed the skeleton with catlike skill to hitch a way over. As a couple of the hobs began to climb, Aramis decided to walk through the eye to the left of Zerel's path.

  The man shouted and immediately drew his sword, assuming a combat stance before Hilda dashed forward and kicked him in the back. He was ejected into the nest and crumpled on the ground with his hand over his eyes. Hilda stood there inside of the ribcage and absently gnced around. In concern, Dawn started to move toward her before Hilda finally stepped through, also wincing and closing her eyes, “that's bright.”

  As one of the Ademhill hobs - whose name Dawn thought was Sachi - helped Aramis up, Dawn asked Hilda, “what did you see?”

  “A secret moment in history. One that I already knew about, though” Hilda smirked, “why are we… here?” She gestured.

  Sheryl then prompted a quick exchange that drew in both Hilda and Zerel as the felind said something in a matter of fact way that seemed to confuse the other two.

  “Sheryl says yuh obviously here to go in the big eye hole,” Zerel eventually transted. “What happens if ya do that?”

  Raising an eyebrow at the catgirl, Dawn confirmed, “She's right. For me, it should help me recall what it told me. For you or anyone else… it might actually kill you.”

  The Imperial conversation between the others restarted for a minute. It mostly seemed to be Zerel and Hilda asking Sherry why she knew that, before Dawn interrupted, “I'm going,” and moved toward the skull.

  As the three girls followed her, still speaking quietly, Dawn realized she hadn't seen Dalia in the garden. Had the fae stayed behind? A gnce-by-hand at the gate confirmed the elf was nowhere in sight.

  Before she could start lifting herself up on the skull, Zerel reached up to grab Dawn's fingers and stared at her eye, “Are you sure you'll be okay? What are you trying to remember?”

  “I'll be okay,” reassured the serpent woman. Then, lowering herself and giving the goblin her attention, Dawn hugged Zerel, “I'm trying to remember how to see.”

  The blue goblin giggled, “Yeah that'd be pretty important for you wouldn't it.”

  Dawn chuckled along before breaking the embrace, promptly scaling the skull, and after a momentary breath of hesitation, she slid into the void of the serpent's Eye.

  The ghost of her mother's consciousness imposed itself upon her.

  It hurt.

  It was the pain of impossible formations within her mind that would destroy a mortal. Her whole nervous system lit up in searing agony. Forbidden knowledge took its toll on her mind and body.

  Yet, the sensation was meaningless to her. Dawn wasn't mortal, so it could not kill her. She would recover, and nothing was at stake.

  She had been… born to be like a mortal. The Eye had long watched, and It wanted to be like the things It saw. There had been a desire to act and live along with the mortals of the world, but the Eye was not mortal. It was a divinity above the lives of those that died of age. It knew this, and researched a method so that It could actually die, and fulfill a pn to be reborn.

  It denied Dawn its memories since her life wouldn't be a fresh start, otherwise. She was to be the new Eye. One that lived amongst people, and her actions were not to be polluted with the serpent's life. Instead, it taught her to see.

  The focus Dawn had been putting into the Eye was too acute. She had been seeing everything, to the point that it could be felt by those she saw when she perceived every particle. She only needed to see enough to comprehend, and she had been looking at so much more than she needed. Creativity in her perspective was practically nonexistent. She could see anything, so what did she want to see? The answer was clear.

  Dawn opened her Eye and looked for the thing she wanted to see most. Seeing everywhere was a strain to her nascent form, but she had to know. She had to have hope.

  But Rachel wasn't anywhere in this world.

  Dawn closed the Eye, and sighed. Her tears had run out for now. She was still sad, but she didn't want to worry the girls. Hilda and Zerel were there for her in this mad predicament, and she enjoyed their company. She felt they were becoming easy friends. As she pulled herself out of the socket of the Eye, she saw the two other transmigrators and the cat patiently sitting in the sand.

  The three watched Dawn climb down from the skull as Zerel called, “Hey! How was it? Are ya alright?”

  Dawn approached them and smiled, “I'm alright. It's painful but it's nothing that can actually harm me… can I ask you three a question?” When Zerel gestured a go-ahead, Dawn asked, “can I look at you with the Eye? I want to see something I'm, uh… personally curious about.”

  Zerel and Hilda had intrigued yet consternated expressions. Sheryl seemed less concerned at the transtion and her consent was clear to Dawn without even knowing the words. “She says yes,” Hilda said, “I'm okay with it as well.”

  “Same,” Zerel affirmed.

  Nodding, Dawn warned, “It might be painful for you to look at. I won't be offended if you look away or close your eyes.”

  Waiting a moment for Sheryl to get the message, Dawn thought of what she wanted to see. Perhaps it was motivated by vanity, but she hoped it was more out of curiosity. When they looked ready, she opened her Eye with a focus on their emotions, and all three of them stared back. Hilda blinked rapidly for a moment as she saw, and Zerel tensed up with concentration. Sheryl stared unblinkingly, but her ears folded back in discomfort.

  Even with the turbulence in their hearts from seeing her Eye, what Dawn saw warmed her heart and reddened her cheeks. They were already her friends for sure, and all three were interested in more than that. It only took a few seconds until Dawn closed the Eye and looked away in nervousness.

  “Th- thanks, girls.”