The party of three stood in silence as they absorbed the pages of files, documents, status updates, and new information that seemed to fly past their faces in a blur. For 10 minutes, they stood in thought, processing the information. The first to break the silence was Ythane. “Well, there goes any chance of you not knowing how soul magic works,” she lamented. “Just when I thought… Never mind.”

The other two stared at her. “How does this change anything? There were the Class D biomachines, but how does that change anything?” Kain asked.

“It wasn’t the entirety of Class D, but Class D-0 that is the problem.” They looked at her as if to say ‘go on.’ “Alright, the reason why you normally need to learn everything you can about Ether before soul is because of what soul is: it is what you are. Changing your soul, to either change what you can cast with Ether or to cast soul magic, changes your very being. To change what you are in the future, you need to understand what you are now. A common analogy that Soul Shapers tell initiates, who study Ether to the point of mastery, goes like this: imagine if you were a bird in a forest of unimaginable size. You are currently perched atop a tree that is almost indistinguishable from every other tree around you. The tree you are on is what your soul currently is. Now imagine, if you will, that your species of bird must always know where their first tree is in order to travel to other trees. This means that you must know what your original tree is, or your original soul form is, before you can move to another tree, or change what your soul is. Otherwise, you can end up lost, which will lead you to personality fracturing or, perhaps even worse, personality death. The first can do anything from giving you split personalities to causing a personality-based war in your soul. The second makes you almost entirely autonomous, which means that you lose soul energy, you lose even the ability to cast Ether, and become more like the ‘simple biomachines:’ puppets of flesh and blood performing whatever instinctual actions you were doing in your final moments,” she explained. By that point, both Kain and Luna were sitting on the ground listening to the floating serpent’s lecture.

Luna shot a paw up, “I didn’t understand any of that!”

“I think what she means, and correct me if I’m wrong,” he began, shooting a glance at Ythane, “is that we need to understand what our souls are now to be able to change them properly. Otherwise, we can kill our personalities,” he elaborated, earning a nod of confirmation from Ythane.

“But if that’s the case, why’re fleshbenders so connected to the idea of the soul?” Luna asked.

Ythane sighed. “Yes, well, your soul is very connected to both your physical body and your self perception. The soul’s connection to your physical body dictates what kind of Ether casting you can do, and your self perception holds what your soul is connected to in place. By figuring out how to freely change your shape, without limits, they figured out how to disconnect the soul from your self perception. That, in and of itself, can cause massive problems. Theoretical problems, of course, because it has always been impossible! How in the hell have they done this!? They managed to create a formless mass that is a sentient being and not an animal! That has been tried by so, so many species, nations, and even religions, but has been proven to be impossible!” she ranted, her hologram-like construct shivering with every crescendo of confusion. “I-!” she sighed, “I apologize. That was… unsightly. It’s just that... I have spent my life making breakthroughs in the field of the soul. I thought that the soul gem or soul crystal or whatever I have been calling it would have been my magnum opus, would have been the thing that put me in the history books of, not only the Duvalad and Duvalid, but of the world! And yet, as soon as I awaken from hundreds of years of tortuous mundanity, I find a civilization that not only created the soul gems using less expensive, less rare materials, but also created a way to sever the link between self perception and the soul. I just feel… undeserving,” she monologued, her head hanging and her body floating to the ground.

“Undeserving of what?” a voice cut in. It did not have the edge of already understanding nor the heaviness of experience, but had innocence and curiosity.

Ythane looked up and saw Luna hop over next to her and sit down, looking at her. “I guess… undeserving of being a leader… undeserving of being responsible for the hundreds of Duvalid that served me.”

“Did they choose you?” Luna asked.

“... Yes, they did. They were the ones that joined my expedition into the great western woods. They trusted me. They believed in me. But all I could do was hide my soul in a gem in the end. I lost more than just a bunch of soul energy that day. I lost my people,” she said, tearing up.

“If they chose you, then they chose you. They didn’t choose anyone else but you. So… uh… big brother, I’m not good at this, help,” Luna blubbered.

He sighed, softly smiling. “They didn’t choose anyone but you, so don’t feel too bad about it. No one could have predicted what happened, so it can’t reflect poorly on your ability as a leader. Nothing you had could stop whatever attacked you and your people, you still tried to fight, and you never meant to run. All in all, you just seem to be a woman who fell from grace through no fault of your own. If you really want to make it up to your people, then just try to remember as many of them as you can. From the cooks in the kitchen to the warriors on the front line, from the gardeners on the top floor to the one who made the dimensional amulet. Just try to remember them all.”

Ythane looked up and stared the other two in the eyes, slowly nodding. “Yeah, yeah. I just need to… remember them. Sorry… It all just flowed out. I was a proud Soul Shaper, world renowned for my work, then I fail to save the Duvalid under my care, then I fail to properly make the soul gem, then I learned that I failed at something that these people had been doing for years,” she blathered, emotion threatening to take hold of her once again.

“You were doing your best. No one can fault you for that. All of this, just this whole dimension, makes no sense. You can’t compare yourself with people you barely know. Maybe they’re able to sense soul energy. Who knows,” Kain soothed. “Besides, we can only move forward, right?”

Luna nodded heavily. “Mhm! If I gave up every time I was cornered by those goblins, I would have died tens of times over!” she cheerfully stated.

Kain shot a questioning glance at Luna, who gave a joyful expression in return, and turned back to Ythane. “Well, either way, the problem you always had with the link between the soul and self perception is that it’s in place to maintain stability, right?” Kain asked.

“Y-Yes. The necessity of mastering the Ether you are born with comes from the necessity of forging a proper self perception. Without it, you become something other than you,” she replied.

“Wait, so what if your self perception is one focused on change? That you can be anything?” Luna asked, cutting in.

The other two looked at her, mulling over her thoughts, when the serpent’s eyes went wide. “That… that could work! The problem was always rejection of the new form, but having someone thinking like that would ensure that any form they take would be accepted by the soul! How has no one thought of that!?” she ranted.

“Maybe it has to do with the lives those people lived? Maybe the people who had the resources to perform these experiments were always people who had a very solid self perception of who they were and what they were,” Kain theorized.

Ythane nodded. “Yeah… that would make sense.”

“Well! Either way, we’re wasting time. There’s something more important we need to talk about!” Luna stated, earning a look from the other two. “We need to figure out who’s going to become a fleshbender!” she cheered.

They looked at each other. “You””You” they said.

“Wait, why me!? Wouldn’t it be better for her to get the new body?” She asked.

Ythane shook her head solemnly. “No, it wouldn’t work like that. I have had hundreds of years of isolation to solidify my self perception, not to mention the other hundreds that preceded it. I can’t shake off my self perception so easily. I think, however, that you will be able to; from what you have told me, you only gained sentience a little while ago, so I don’t think that your soul energy has properly connected your self perception with your body yet. Besides, I feel that you are much more flexible than anyone born sentient, so you should match,” Ythane explained.

“Do… Do you really think so?” she asked. “Big brother, is it alright if I… become a fleshbender?”

He smiled. “It’s all up to you. I still have my reservations about the safety of this thing,” he said, pointing to the glass sphere, “but I can’t stop you if that’s what you want. Besides, you were so upset about not being physically strong, so you’ll be able to change that.” She nodded. “Alright, let’s see…” He stood up and walked over to the terminal, clicking the last option.

[Transfer to a Class D biomachine]

[What Class D Biomachine do you wish to transfer to?]

[1. Class D-0 ‘Fleshbender’]

[2. Class D-1 ‘Standard Form’ (Form can be chosen from any of the standard races)]

[Class D-0 ‘Fleshbender’]

[WARNING: It is possible that the soul of the individual involved will not be compatible with this biomachine. Scanners will examine the being involved and determine if he/she/they/jek is compatible]

The machine suddenly hummed to life. The metal tubes that were connected to the sphere began to vibrate. Two of the metallic cylinders that were lying about the room floated upward and connected to the tanks on either side of the sphere, filling them. Without another word, Kain removed Luna’s cloak and red gem necklace and placed her within the sphere, rubbing her head and reassuring her as he closed the hatch. The sphere was suddenly filled with dim light that pooled around Luna. The screen changed.

[Scan complete:

Soul Rating: young (Optimal)

Self Perception Rating: loose (Optimal)

Mind Compatibility: 104% (Perfect)

Body Compatibility: 98% (Optimal)

Overall Subject Compatibility: 101%

Operation Success Chance: 100%]

[Would you like to begin the procedure? Y/N]

Kain looked into the tank and saw Luna looking at him. She nodded resolutely.

[Y]

[Operation begun]

The machine somehow seemed to come alive even more than it already had. Luna seemed to slump over, asleep, as the sphere was flooded with a bluish-green liquid. Her body dissolved, leaving Kain stunned. Before he could move, Ythane pointed to the screen.

[Soul containment successful]

[Body reintegration successful]

[ERROR: Void-touched DNA of extreme quality]

[Would you like to override the Void-touched DNA saving systems? Doing so would strengthen the final Biomachine by 28% Y/N]

[Y]

[Command successfully executed]

[Estimated time until operation completion: 17 hours]

Kain looked at the screen and sighed, trying to calm himself down. He sat on the floor next to Ythane, anxious. “I think that she’ll be fine,” Ythane said, trying to break the tension. “But either way, now that we have so much time here, I can get something off of my chest.”

He sighed. “And what would that be?” he asked.

She looked him dead in the eyes as she spoke, “You do not seem to know anything about imbuements.” He simply looked at her in baffled confusion.