I’m sorry, Merdilen, Kayline Sherdaine thought, a tear slipping down her cheek, as she ran to kill the man she had been hugging seconds ago. So much had happened during the last month. So much pain. But she had a mission. And she had to succeed—no matter how much it hurt.

She hadn’t thought about Merdilen’s lightning-fast reflexes. He quickly spun, slashing backward by instinct alone as he felt the unregistered presence approach.

But Merdilen hadn't accounted for Kayline’s own speed. As Merdilen slashed backward in a rushed attempt to defend himself against whatever was about to attack him, Kayline ducked, evading the sword slash. Merdilen’s eyes widened as she sprang at him.

“Kayline?!” he exclaimed, confused. “What are you—”

She slammed into him, taking him by the legs and tackling him into the ground. Kayline wouldn't actually kill him. She didn't kill. Not anymore. She just had to knock him out, and then somehow turn him back to reason once he woke up.

“I’m sorry,” Kayline muttered as she pinned him down against the ground. “But I have realized… this isn't a mission I can turn my back on.”

“What are you doing?!” Merdilen demanded.

“You need to change!” Kayline said. “You won't keep going like this! I can't allow it!”

Merdilen's eyes suddenly widened.

What? Kayline thought, frowning. Is he so surprised to–?

“Watch out!” Merdilen shouted, pushing her away with one big push.

Kayline grunted, rolling through the ground and getting right away to her feet, facing Merdilen again to—

Just to see his head being bitten off by the forgotten shadow monster.

Merdilen struggled for a few seconds, waving his arms desperately around in front of the shocked Kayline. Finally, his headless body fell forward, and the shadow monster swallowed, running away satisfied.

Kayline fell to her knees.

What… just happened?

She could do nothing but stare.

That was my mission anyway, she thought. So why… do I feel… so sick?

Kayline didn't know how long happened until she finally got to her feet. She touched her face, unexpectedly feeling it wet with tears.

What just happened?

I succeeded, she told herself. It is over. The last Transmutator is dead. Then why do I feel so bad?

Kayline felt empty. As if she had just destroyed something very, very precious to her.

But she was right, wasn't she? She did what she had to do. She had succeeded in her original mission. It was all finally over.

Kayline forced herself to close her eyes shut against the gruesome sight in front of her. Now it was time… to finally… go home. She was so tired…

But there was something she had to do first. Kayline was a soldier. And so she needed to report her success. To report she had… successfully killed Merdilen Arthenmon, the last Transmutator. She felt her stomach lurch as more tears threatened to spill.

I… did what I had to do, she forced herself to think. I did… the right thing.

Kayline knew where to find the remnants of the Fergahnian army. Finally, it'd all be over. She'd then go home.

Kayline found herself doing something else instead first. She stood in front of the small dirt tower that was Merdilen’s—her best friend’s—tomb.

Why did it have to end like this? Kayline thought, feeling empty inside. Why did I have to betray the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team? Why did I have to join Merdilen, befriend him? Why did I have to try to change fate if it would all lead to the same result?

In the end, most of what she's done had been useless. She'd gotten back to square one anyway, having her loyalties all messed up. All her travels with Merdilen and Alvoren, they had ended with two final, terrible deaths. But… through it all… Kayline discovered that she did not regret it. Any of it. Sure, it had ended horribly. But she’d had a good run. She’d fought the fine fight, she’d had the good fun. And, as with all things, it was time for it to end. She let out a slight smile.

We had our fun, she thought, didn't we, Merdilen?

Now, it was time to move on. She strapped her twin swords to her back, along with Merdilen's sword to the side. It was time to move on.

Kayline stumbled emptily south through the wasteland that was the world for the whole next day, forcing herself not to think about what happened.

I did my job, she kept telling herself. I just did what I had to do. I did the right thing. The right thing.

Kayline didn't want to give up yet. She was so close to fulfilling her quest, so close… She had already finished the job. Now it was just a thing of claiming the bounty, and she'd be able to go home.

A rising insecurity suddenly surged within Kayline. What if they didn't pay her? What if, considering her a traitor, the Fergahnian army simply decided to not mark her quest as fulfilled? She couldn't worry about that now. She needed to take the risk. As she was not going home empty-handed.

And then, finally, as the sun started to set, she saw it. A massive black fortress, golden against the falling sun. Its multiple spires rose high into the purple sky, extending towards the clouds. It was simply massive. It seems to all be solid obsidian, or a similar material. Morkilen Farenthar's fortress. Had a single Transmutator done all this?

This would have been it. If things had been just a little different, here, the fate of the world would have changed, with its history, forever. But not now. Now here was just a lonely soldier, getting back to her army, reporting her success, and then, going home. The catastrophe had been averted, and mankind had won.

Then why did Kayline feel so empty?

All throughout the fortress she could see Fergahnian soldiers. It seems at least a small chunk had survived the shadow monster attack. That was relieving to Kayline, somehow. She was so tired…

Kayline walked through the open land towards the fortress, not trying to hide her presence anymore. As she reached the bottom of its steps, three figures came down to meet her. A knight, an assassin, and an archer. Sir Grendar, Jarleren, and Salvatore. The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team.

They were starting at her coldly, their expressions hard as stone.

“It is done,” Kayline muttered to them. “The last Transmutator is dead.”

“You killed him,” Sir Grendar said.

“...I did,” Kayline nodded weakly.

“Good. Now hand yourself over and pay for your treason.”

“I need my payment,” Kayline said. “I completed the job.”

“No,” Sir Grendar replied. “You are a traitor. You’ll be imprisoned here until we can confirm what you say. Hand yourself over.”

Kayline had no strength left. She could no longer fight. So, looking down, she let her twin swords and Merdilen's drop. She extended her arms forward, and Sir Grendar came to her, handcuffing her. The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team pulled her inside the fortress, taking her down several sets of stairs until they reached an abandoned dungeon. Pushing her inside the last cell, the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team locked the cell door, leaving her deep underground, alone.

There, with all seemingly over, Kayline cried, fallen on the obsidian floor. She cried about everything. Alvoren was dead. Merdilen was dead. They had both died saving her. And, even so, she had failed.

Kayline had her gaseous matter Manipulation. She could probably escape her cell if she wanted. But, what was the point? She couldn't fight the whole Fergahnian army in the fortress above. She wasn't nearly strong enough.

But… that long ago, had she thought herself strong enough to take on a Transmutator? Had she then thought herself strong enough to turn her life around for what she believed in? Had she thought herself strong enough to cross half a post-apocalyptic world and face her father's wrath? Had she, finally, thought herself strong enough to complete her quest?

No. She had never thought herself strong enough. But she had fought anyway.

Kayline had promised her mom she'd be back. She'd hugged her little brother with a ‘see you soon.’ She intended to keep her word. After all, locked down, beat up, exhausted, with her best friends dead… what did she have to lose?

Then, what was she going to do? Kayline analyzed her options. Locked in her cell, she just had her clothes on her. Physically, she had nothing else. The obsidian walls, floor, and ceiling gave her nothing to work with either. Besides, she was still handcuffed; the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team hadn't taken any chances. But she had something no one knew about. She had her Manipulation. It was one small tool to fix one massive problem; a gamble, as her whole journey had been. Would it be foolish? Absolutely. Did she have a choice? No.

Breathing in deeply, Kayline concentrated, preparing to Manipulate the air around her. There wasn't much air at all here, deep underground, so pushing it away from her wouldn't be very wise. Crouching near the cell door’s lock, she focused on the air that surrounded her, summoning it to rush towards the lock. The lock shook, but it wasn't nearly enough to cause it any damage. Kayline breathed in again, Manipulating once more, this time focusing all of her power into the lock. The lock shook around, but the enduring steel still didn't break.

Clearly, trying to shatter a block of pure steel wouldn't work. But maybe she could do something else. In a sudden moment of illumination, she peeked inside the lock’s keyhole. It was tiny. But maybe, focusing and being as precise as she could be, she could…

Kayline Manipulated a fraction of a cubic centimeter of air, just enough to fill the keyhole. She then Manipulated to make the air spin strongly, just enough to what she thought would replace a key. And, to her surprise… it worked. The cell door opened slowly with a screech, and she breathed out, both out of relief and out of nervousness of what was to come.

Well, on with it. She couldn't waste a second out here. Kayline sneaked out of her cell in a crouch, looking left and right through the cell block’s hallway.

Two guards at the far right. Few enough. None to the left. Good. Kayline walked in a crouch towards the right as silently as she could, approaching the guards. She had to get rid of them as fast as she could; if they raised the alarm, it was over. Fortunately, they weren't wearing their helmets, instead holding them in their hands. Of course, who would attack them over here? Confident fools.

As she got close to them, Kayline extended sharply her arms to he sides, Manipulating the air around them and pushing it from the center to the sides. The guards were abruptly pushed by the air towards the walls, their heads slamming against the obsidian, and they dropped to the ground unconscious before they could utter a single word.

“Sorry,” Kayline whispered to them as she sneaked by, realizing she might have used just a little too much force.

She kept going up floor after floor, managing to sneak past as many guards as she could. When she couldn't… well, she had her Manipulation and speed for that.

At the end of the dungeon’s second floor, fortunately, Kayline reached a small armory, where she found her trusty twin swords, along with her leather jacket and boots. She equipped them, feeling much more confident as she did. Overall, it wasn't a lot of confidence, but still. She then, in a strike of faith, slammed her shackles against the edge of her blades, successfully snapping them—without cutting her hands out either. Good. Now, it was just a thing of reaching ground level and getting the heck away from the Fergahnian army. As long as she hurried and managed to get out before anyone noticed she was missing, it shouldn't be that hard. ...Right?

Kayline kept sneaking through floor after floor, wondering with a frown how deep the fortress actually was. But then, as she stealthily got ready to take down another pair of guards, she overheard them talking. Saying something very, very interesting.

“Hey, seems we're finally going home, huh?” the first guard said.

“Indeed. I never doubted our skill,” the second replied. “The General already got the Transmutation serum out, and so, once the damned Transmutator’s body is found, we’ll be ready to go back to Cornaler.”

“Finally. I'm damn tired of this—”

His words cut out as Kayline hit both their heads with her swords’ pommels. They both fell to the ground.

“Transmutation serum, huh,” she muttered.

What would the Fergahnian army do with it? Examine it? They'd be hypocrites not to destroy it. It probably wouldn't be long before they did.

My family, Kayline suddenly thought. My mom needed the Transmutation to save her life. To heal her body.

An idea—a dangerous idea—slowly started to form in Kayline's mind. The Transmutation serum was here… Maybe, in the right hands… Kayline’s mother… Running away…

Kayline looked up after a few minutes. She now knew what she had to do. For her mother.

Sorry, Mom, she thought. Guess I'll be late for dinner.

After a while of more sneaking, the fading golden sunlight started to light the stairs instead of torches, and Kayline knew the moment had come. Guards were becoming more and harder to evade. At the end of the last set of stairs, Kayline stuck out her head silently from the staircase, looking into the floor above.

Only to see about a dozen Fergahnian guards pointing their swords at her. She paled.

“Oh, hey…” she stuttered. “Didn't… see you there.”

“Up,” a guard commanded her. She slowly complied, raising her hands. Well, change of plans. She still had her ace under her sleeve. Nothing to worry about. ...Right?

The group of guards pulled her up through the fortress, pulling her away from the entrance and its freedom. They pulled her up the black stairs, all of them surrounding her, until they reached massive black twin doors. The guards knocked.

Sir Grendar Bartel’s voice spoke deeply from inside. “Come in.”

The guards pulled her inside as they opened the doors, into a gigantic office full with military papers and weapons. At the very end, surrounding a long desk, was the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team. And, in the middle of the desk, a small serum with a light-blue liquid stood. The thing Merdilen had been looking for all along. The one thing that could save Kayline’s mom. The enhanced Transmutation serum.

“So you almost managed to escape,” Sir Grendar said in a low voice. “Where did you get the strength to defeat the guards…? No matter. It's over.”

“Just kill her already,” Jarleren sissed beside him.

Well, this is awkward, Kayline decided.

“It's been a while,” she said instead. “And, after all this time, I have returned successful in our quest. Is this how you treat the one who fulfilled our mission?”

“That doesn't attone for your treason,” Salvatore said, eyes narrowed.

“What now, Kayline?” Sir Grendar said coldly. “Your escape attempt failed. You'll now try to persuade us with your tongue? What will you do now?”

Kayline shrugged. “Improvise.”

With that, she breathed in deep, and Manipulated. She commanded the winds around her to push her forward, and she soared across the room, away from the shocked guards and toward the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team.

“Get her!” Sir Grendar roared. But it was too late.

Kayline grabbed the enhanced Transmutation serum as she flew pushed by the Manipulated winds, slamming feet-first against the far wall. She fell to the ground, quickly getting up and holding the Transmutation serum hostage in her hands.

“Let me go,” Kayline warned, “or I will inject this Transmutation serum into my arm. You don't know what kind of power this holds.”

“Kayline,” Sir Grendar said. “You don't know what that will do. You don't know what side effects it can produce. None of us do. But we have our suspicions. The book said—”

“I don't care what the book says,” Kayline said. “Well, I was gonna do it anyway.”

This one’s for you, Mom, she thought. Clutching her eyes shut, she pierced her shoulder with the enhanced Transmutation serum, and everything changed.

Kayline felt everything. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team charging her with shouts, the arrows flying at her, and the back wall standing hard against it all. Her head felt as if it was about to explode. And the power. The power was burning within Kayline, waiting to be unleashed to her merest thought. And so she did.

Kayline imagined the wall behind her just melting, rushedly willing it into whatever melted substance she could Transmutate into. She had never had any idea how Merdilen did it. She didn't have any idea if it would work. But she jumped backward anyway, in one of her life’s stupidest leaps of faith.

And it worked. Kayline fell right past what had once been a wall, gravity pulling her down as she plummeted down towards the surface right below the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team’s bewildered eyes.

There was so much going on. Kayline could feel everything all around her as if she was directly touching it with her hands. It was overwhelming. So much power at her fingertips… Her head hurt so much as well. That simple Transmutation, which Merdilen had always performed so easily, left her weakened and feeling burnt. But she had no time to hurt right now.

As she fell, Kayline Manipulated the winds up to stop her fall, levitating slowly to the ground. Right as she did, she broke into a run, dashing away from the fortress and into the wilderness.

Did that just happen? she thought, overwhelmed, as she left the shouts behind. She kept running, running, running until she didn't feel her legs anymore. It was long after nightfall, and she could barely see where she was stepping. But she kept running.

It wasn't much later that the voices started.

It is your fault.

Kayline jumped, scared, looking around for the source of the voice. But there was no one around.

You killed him.

In fact, the voice seemed to resound inside her very head.

What?! Kayline thought, paling. What's going on?

“Who are you?!” Kayline shouted, looking around. “Show yourself!”

You started this war and threw us all into chaos.

Kayline unsheathed her twin swords, slowly turning around, looking for whoever was uttering the words. But there was no one there.

This is all your fault, Morkilen Farenthar.

“Morkilen Farenthar?” Kayline asked out loud. “The first Transmutator?”

Farenthar, you should just die.

“I am not him!” Kayline exclaimed, wincing. “Who are you? What are you saying?”

No reply. The voices stopped.

Shaken, Kayline kept walking into the night, in the direction she thought to be north. Well, then. Reporting clearly hadn't worked. But, was she… was she a Transmutator now? A Manipulator and a Transmutator?! She was scared. Too much power for one person… Too much power…

Would she end up like Merdilen as well? The thought terrified her. But it was for her mom, right? Yes. This time, it'd be different.

After a while more of walking, her eyes started to close. So… tired…

Let's test… Kayline thought, what the fuzz is all about.

She crouched, focusing, trying to Transmutate the ground into blankets at least. The dirt and stones transformed, indeed. But, what was that? It transformed into a mushy, plastic-like yellow substance, barely in the shape of what could be considered a blanket.

What?

Kayline frowned. Why had it not come out as she had thought up? A terrible suspicion rose up in her mind. Did she need to… know what materials made up the thing? Its ‘recipe,’ per se? Was it not enough to simply think of what she wanted to do? How many years of training had it taken Merdilen to learn to do what he did? A shiver ran down Kayline's spine.

Kayline was no biologist or physician. Would she be able to heal her mother if she didn't know human anatomy? Was there no hope for her after all?

Kayline curled up in a ball on her supposed-blanket mass, anxious. Was all she was doing for nothing? It took hours for her to fall asleep. And when she did, she started to wish she had never fallen asleep at all.

Nightmare after nightmare covered her dreams. War, destruction. Whose memories were these? The answer came to her naturally as she shivered in fear. Morkilen Farenthar’s, the Transmutator that had created the serum she had injected into herself. What really were the ‘side effects’ Sir Grendar had mentioned? She didn't know, but she was starting to fear.

The night's dreams were a collection of horrors from the Transmutation War. Death and suffering. Kayline was experiencing everything the first Transmutator had. The enhanced ‘Transmutation serum’ hadn't just been Morkilen Farenthar’s powers. It has been his very life. And it had now come unto Kayline.

Kayline woke up breathing hard and sweating cold. It had barely been about four hours since she had fallen asleep. She was exhausted, hungry, and cold. But she had to keep going. Slowly, she got to her feet, and started walking again.

Kayline would get to Cornaler. No matter what, she would get back to her family. She was a Transmutator now. The voices still haunted her. The Fergahnian army would now hunt her down as they did Merdilen. But, unlike him, she was pretty sure no one would be at her side. Besides that, she didn't know if she'd be able to Transmutate her mom back to health without… killing her. She didn't know if she'd be able to reach Cornaler in the first place. And the voices… they still came from time to time, uttering memories and fear.

It would be easier to just lie down and die. After all, she had been through a lot, hadn't she? She deserved to rest. But Torlen was waiting for her. Her mom was waiting for her. She had made a promise, hadn't she? She had promised her mom she'd return to her.

Kayline kept walking, starting the long trek through the wilderness that would lead her back home. Ignoring the voices, she clenched her fists. She would get her freedom back. She would reach her home.

She intended to keep her word.