“One last question,” the voice echoes out again. He’s asked a lot of questions, some I expected and some I didn’t. My every response is supposed to convince them to let me live. I’m not even sure why I want to live - but I do. I don’t have a family any longer and I’m no longer even human, yet I can’t abandon this life. Somewhere along the way I developed this feeling and I have no idea why. Could it have been in the forest when I was a kid? What about when I was defending my family in the barn? Maybe it’s from confronting that water elemental. These all feel somewhat correct and yet not enough to justify my betrayal to Xavier.

“Do you know how to manipulate elemental souls?” His tone is sharp and cold.

“No,” I’m sure Xavier purposely didn’t tell me. What he did tell me is that he doesn’t care what I do, as long as I survive. I suppose that should let me feel better for giving away everything he said. Still, the abnormal familiarity I had with him makes my stomach sour at how easily I relayed every bit of information. Maybe it’s Xavier’s words that make me desperate to live. I had a very strange bond with him. He told me to survive no matter what and now he’s been absorbed by me. Can it be that his last wish internalized within me when the last of him was absorbed?

“Alright, we’re done here,” the voice finalized. The sound of wind whistling through the room comes in past the glowing barrier. The inability to feel the wind though I could hear it makes me a bit disturbed. The sound gathers to my left and as I turn I see a dark skinned man’s head lit by a ray of light behind me. He emotionlessly watches me with a silver item reaching from ear to ear. It’s not easy to see because of the distortions in the box but his features look rather narrow.

“You will stay here while your case is being looked over. The result will be conveyed to you through your cell, the box you’re in. If it disperses then you will continue to wait for someone to lead you elsewhere. If the judgment is death then you’ll be killed before you realize.” Right after that the light turns off and I hear him opening a door. After he closes it again lights appear in the ceiling, almost like the sun in my core but within an obvious orb. Even through my cell I can see the glass containing each light source.

All I have left is to wait. My whole future depends on the council who tried to kill Xavier. Supposedly, the reason they wanted to kill him was because he knew how to transfer souls. I’m not sure, but maybe the initial reason I was supposed to be killed is because I absorbed Xavier’s soul; so they thought he might have told me how the process worked. I’m really, really glad he didn’t. There’s also the fact that I was originally human and now no one knows what will happen to me because of that. I have the accumulated power of the strongest in the history of Xavier’s tribe, a rare ability, two elements, and unknown potential. The first, second, and third aren’t unheard of since that could be said for any of the successors of strength, depending on their chances. The strange thing is the question pertaining to my limits. All elementals have limits because of their souls; all humans have limits because of their bodies; What happens when a human’s soul merges with an elemental’s and gains an elemental body? That seems to be the main reason why I’ve been kept alive so far, curiosity.

For the next hour or so all I can think of is what’s already happened, why it happened, what I did wrong, and what I should have done. Like I told the man from before, I think a lot. Not a moment goes by that isn’t filled with analysis and suffocating regret. I used to be able to tune everything out and focus on silence but that’s only when I’m in the fields, trying to control my emotions. The same emotions that spurred me on to act like a child and run away from my parents in a fit of stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID... misplaced anger. Xavier did say that the action of running away from the water elemental was the right idea in the sense that he’s dangerous. I suppose he’s dangerous because he took me here and I’m waiting for judgment on my life.

While I imagine the chances of my answers resulting in death I lie in the middle of my green, glowing box. There’s suddenly a small buzzing sound coming from the corners. For a moment I think I’m driving myself crazy but it grows louder as the light from the box dimms. My body shoots up from the floor and watches the scene. Within seconds the box disappears and four pebbles fall to the floor, rolling around with four others nearby. Without the first set of walls surrounding me I get a good look at the second set. Stone. It’s all just stone. There has to be something special about this since I can just punch my way out of here if it’s just normal stone. I really want to test it out. Although it’s tempting, If I’m caught the decision to let me live would quickly be revoked. I did tell them of my one known weakness, like an idiot! How is it that after the initial danger has passed I suddenly start thinking clearer? I didn’t have to tell him that water hurts my eyes. He didn’t ask about my physical weaknesses specifically and yet I blurted it out along with everything else!

I sigh to keep myself from spiraling into a pit of regret. It’s okay to regret since I can learn from it but I can’t dwell on it or I can’t learn properly - another thing Mama taught me. The thought brings my energy further down than expected since I’m reminded of the idiocy from yesterday. Once more I do my best to put my regrets to the side and distract myself with the pebbles.

These eight tiny pebbles have something to do with the box I was in. They’re reflective, dark green, and have the shape and size of a pea. “I’ll take those,” a woman’s voice cuts through my thoughts. Turning away from the pebbles I find an extremely curvy, peach looking woman. Everything about her makes me think of pink roses and sunshine. She has light brown hair tied into a wavy ponytail, light brown eyes, and round facial features. She’s wearing clothes with pale colors: a light blue simple dress and a woven jacket type cloth wrapped around her shoulders that hangs off her bust and shoulders. Another woman next to her walks up and forcefully takes the pebbles from me. This one must have been the one who spoke. She’s shorter than me but probably as tall as I was before the elemental event - so... average height? I can’t really tell since I don’t have anything to compare myself to. This second woman gives off the vibe of a fox, she has shoulder length dark orange hair, solid yellow eyes, and is very quick. She’s wearing a thick, gray, long sleeved shirt and black pants. The image that comes to mind is a gray fox surveying her territory. I’ve come across a few on my walks through the woods and they don’t bother me unless I get too close. This woman might be the same.

“Here,” the peach woman has a voice that matches her soft appearance. She approaches and holds out a stack of folded clothes for me. I take them and thankfully slip them on. I’m now wearing a sleeveless white dress that fits well and reaches a little past my knees. I was also given a vibrantly white pair of underwear… but no shoes. Taking a look at the other two, I see the fox woman was wearing something like leather boots while the peach woman wasn’t wearing any shoes either. “Oh good, they fit!” The peach woman rejoices gleefully at the fact the clothes fit me. She looks me in the eyes with nothing but warmth, “I was worried that they’d be too big since you have fire as well as earth but it looks like your physique takes after the earth element.”

“Are these yours?” Everything’s white and the dress is a bit frilly.

“Yes! How did you know?” She genuinely looks amazed and I have a feeling she’s going to be exhausting; she talks and moves like a child in a grown woman’s body. I don’t mind children, I watch over them a lot, but I can only handle them an hour at a time at most.

“Just a lucky guess,” I automatically put on the face I use on the kids, momentarily switching personalities. It’s a lot easier to handle them if you act like you’re extremely happy. The peach woman accepts my facade and the fox woman is entirely disinterested in the whole interaction, like she expected it. It’s not like I did it intentionally, it just happens, if I slip up and my siblings find out I can’t stand playing their games I’m in deep trouble. This woman brings out one of my more shameful attributes: the ability to use fake personalities (I call it acting). After the event in the barn, if anyone saw me get upset or annoyed in the slightest they’d distance themselves whether I want them to or not; this usually results in Mama telling me to control my emotions better. I’m glad for her help a lot of the time but it should be okay for me to get upset sometimes, Papa told me that once. Therefore I developed the ability to fake emotions… most of the time.

“That’s enough, Una,” the fox woman stopped us before Una could respond. Una probably does this a lot. The fox woman takes the lead and Una steps back without a negative emotion to be seen. “You’ve been judged by our leaders and they have decided that you will integrate into our society. If you don’t follow our laws you’ll be punished accordingly.” Her originally calm face reveals a hint of severity, “and just to be clear, this is the only safe place for you. Our race faces many dangers; most threats are unnatural - whether it be slavery, genocide, or being hunted for our cores. This place is an escape from all that, a sanctuary for elementals.” I nod, unsure of what to say. No one mentioned anything about slavery or being hunted. Xavier should have mentioned something about this since he wanted me to stay away from the other elementals. Could it be that she’s lying?

“First thing’s first,” the fox woman changes her attitude again to a slight sense of pity, “you need to learn how to change form.” Una nods like a child acting grown up. “We’re both here because of that, each element does it a bit differently. It’s actually a natural instinct but the officials were worried since you just recently awakened. Since we awaken in childhood it’s supposed to be quite easy.” There’s a pause of thought, “how old are you, anyway?”

“Eighteen,” I answer without restraint. There’s no sense in hiding anything anymore and these two seem to understand the situation.

Una has an amazed shock on her face but the fox woman only has surprise. “Helen, is this normal?” Una turns to the fox woman.

“I’m not sure, Mechanics must be different from the other races.” I have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about and Helen picks up on that. “You’ll learn about the races later but I’ll tell you now that we call your former race ‘Mechanics’ for a couple of reasons. We’re getting off subject.” Helen gets irritated at the tangent I unintentionally led her into. She glances at Una and nods to signal something. Una goes through the door and shortly afterward she brings out a huge mirror to prop it up against the wall. “The simplest way is to imagine yourself looking ‘human’ while focusing on your fire moving around.”

“The same with the earth, move it around and focus on what you want to look like,” Una adds.

“Your hair and eyes probably won’t change color though, so don’t be surprised.” Following Helen’s last tidbit I go through with their instructions. This is the first time I’ve looked into such a huge mirror. I’m just about as tall as Una with similar proportions: wide hips, slim waist, muscled limbs, and big boobs. Honestly mine are a little smaller than Una’s and I’m pretty glad since hers look like they get in the way of everything. My wavy white hair rings like tiny bells when I try to push it away from my face, back over the back of my head, and jostling the rest of it hanging down my back to my waist. The bright light from my eyes flashes in the mirror and even though I squint it doesn’t die down so I do my best to ignore it. My completely magma body swirls around inside the clear diamond casing when I do my best to focus. Although I say focus, I look like I’m glaring at myself. It’s slow at first but speeds up little by little. Helen and Una’s instructions aren’t very helpful since I don’t have just earth and fire so I take turns focusing on the black earth and the white hot fire mixing around.

Once I get everything to a satisfactory speed I focus on human skin. From within the center of my chest I see minute changes. Getting excited, I force more of it to come through. The image in my mind spreads it out and changes the diamond encasing as well. Soon the pale flesh spreads out to my shoulders and over my chest. I now notice how thin this dress is and almost lose focus. As I force the flesh to continue it crawls down my arms and legs leaving hair in specific places as well. When it rises past my neck I find a familiar face, albeit changed just a little. The whole body is pale whereas I used to have tan lines and of course this includes my face. My previously pink lips have turned dark to a red clay color, my jaw is more mature without the childish roundness, and my eyes aren’t green anymore. Instead, my eyes are a bright, light yellow color that almost look like they’re glowing with the contrasting white circlets. My hair, like my eyes, did change even if they said it wouldn’t. The white, crystalline strands change from the roots onward into a dark, almost black, red. The light from the open door causes a bright, red shine within it which reveals that it’s truly not completely black. With all these surrounding colors my eyes seem to glow even more so.

“Well done!” Una squeeks.

“I don’t look like how I used to,” I comment more to myself than to them.

“It’s probably because of your change in race. The hair change is more like a combination of your two elements rather than what your elemental body uses. There are actually a few other signs of this.” Helen doesn’t seem as annoyed as she did before. I notice that she has a glossy stone in her hand as she speaks. “There’s the trademark Earthen figure and height, Firite eyes, and combination lip and hair colors.” Glancing over myself as she speaks I take it all in a second time as a finished product. Something I didn’t really notice before was how muscular I am now. It’s not like you can see every sinew. It’s soft looking but obvious with my big thighs and shoulders. My hips are still proportionate with my shoulders so it’s not like I’m unproportional, I have an hourglass figure. Realizing that I’m probably going to turn vain at this point I stop and set my attention on Una and Helen. I’m not sure if they noticed my little moment but Una smiles at me kindly and Helen’s still analyzing me. Her focus is making me uncomfortable and I remember how thin this dress is so I cross my arms in an attempt to not be so embarrassed. She soon retracts her gaze and turns around with Una following in suit.

“What now?” I ask.

“You’ll be taken to your guardian. Depending on your progress you’ll be staying with them for a while,” Helen reports.

“You’ll get to learn all sorts of stuff about our city and people. Even if it’s not a nice person this is for the best so try hard,” Una cheers me on. These two somehow get along well even though they’re so different. Una follows along with Helen and Helen treats her better than she does others; well, when I say ‘others’ I mean me. They both lead me out of the room and into a hallway similarly built and lit like the room I was kept in. At a steady pace they both kept silent with only the sound of footsteps. Helen’s boots clop against the floor, Una’s feet almost stomp even though she’s not trying, while I unconsciously walk on the balls of my feet. It’s a habit I picked up a long time ago. Ever since I got heavy enough to shake the house with each step I started walking like that and easing the rest of me down after. This results in a tiny jolt throughout our house but only a small tap in this stone hallway. Heather doesn’t seem to notice but Una looks back at me in confusion before glancing at my feet and tilting her head.

“Una,” Helen calls, “let’s go.” Una jolts her head forward and keeps up with Helen’s pace once again. For a few more moments I notice Una glancing back at my feet and making weird movements with her feet to only result in a louder stomp when her heels reach the floor. I try not to laugh at her attempts to which she doesn’t notice. I usually don’t rest my heels on the floor when I walk. Helen did notice Una’s strange footwork but ignored it. I wonder if Una does strange things often. I resist the urge to teach Una how to walk like me, it’s so hard to resist. Helen might get annoyed at the disruption and I’m mildly amused at Una’s vain attempts. I’ll teach her later if she asks me. This thought prompts an uncomfortable realization: how long do I plan on staying here? With all things considered I’m tempted to stay for a while. Then there are Xavier’s words or should I say his mistrust of these people. It could have been biased on his part but it also could have been based in truth. He had been hiding from them for a long time and they still tried to kill him in the end. I can’t just ignore that. What am I going to believe? Can I trust them now? Could they possibly have changed?

“Hello, Feline.” A warm voice in the distance brings my stare off of the floor ahead of me and up to the end of the hallway. Waiting there is a slightly tan, blonde headed, woman in her 30’s. She’s dressed in warm colors along with wooden sandals. “My name is Winifred, you can call me Winnie, I’m your guardian from now on.” Helen gives Winnie a curt bow while Una bows slowly. Winnie nods to them and smiles at me as she pats me on the shoulder. I want to shrink back but she pushes me around the corner with said hand before I even try. Helen slips by to open the door now in front of us and at our feet I find something I’ve never seen before.