Carmen sat down, eyeing the man in front of her warily. He was pretty average looking, if you ignored the fox ears and tail. Brown hair, brown eyes, a little short, the most notable thing about him was the sharply tailored clothing he was wearing. But the effect was ruined by his friendly smile and general demeanor; he had the feel of someone who was ready to make friends with you if you showed even the slightest of openings.

His name was Yamato, and he was one of the Council members, their specialist on transformation magic, if she was recalling correctly.

“Hi there, I’m Yamato!” He said, sticking out a hand. “Thanks for agreeing to meet with me, I know you’re probably not…really favorably disposed to any of us Council members, given how much interaction you’ve had with Elenoa, but I can assure you we’re not all like that.”

Carmen shook the proffered hand, trying to get a feel for him from it. “And I’m Carmen, pleasure to meet you.” As the handshake ended, Carmen became certain – she didn’t trust this man as far as she could throw him.

Actually…that was pretty far now, so that was probably not the best metaphor. Regardless of that, no one gets into positions in government without some skeletons in the closet, and there was no chance he was as friendly and open as he was trying to project himself. Everything was just…too flawless an act for that.

Ignorant of Carmen’s inner monologue, he continued. “I know we’ve technically met before, but we didn’t really have a chance to talk, and then Elenoa sort of…did her thing, so I don’t think it really counts. Anyway, I was hoping to see if we couldn’t figure out why you can’t seem to transform yourself like you can other people, maybe even get you transformed back into a man if you would like.”

Carmen shrugged. “I suppose we’ll see what happens.” She said. She wasn’t particularly worried about becoming a guy again; in fact, should she ever figure out how, she would probably stay a woman. It was the form she was…for lack of a better word, born in, and she felt quite comfortable.

“Of course.” He said, then motioned to a large machine at the side of the room. “This is…well, think of it like a kind of x-ray, but for magic. It’s something I’ve put together to help figure out how people’s bodies react to magic. I understand you may not be comfortable hopping in some foreign machine, so we don’t have to use it if you don’t like. I can do everything it does by myself, it’ll just be slower. Your call.”

Carmen eyed it warily. “I suppose we can use it.” She said. “But if I feel things are getting…dangerous, I reserve the right to break out any time I wish.”

“Naturally.” Yamato replied. “I would prefer it if you let me know first so I can shut it off, but I won’t blame you if you don’t.”

Carmen nodded, walking over to the machine and laying down on the bed next to it. Yamato moved over to a terminal at its side, pressed a few buttons, and then the bed retracted, bringing Carmen into the machine. Several metallic arms ending in some sort of soft padding came down from inside and began gently placing themselves on various parts of Carmen’s body, and she could feel currents of magic begin running through them.

“Can you hear me alright?” Yamato said, his voice coming in through a speaker some ways behind her head. “There’s a microphone in here, so just talk back normally, I’ll be able to hear.”

“Yeah, I can hear you fine.” Carmen replied.

“Good. Right now, I’m having the little arm things run some tests through you to determine how resistant your body is to change. Everyone is slightly different in this regard, so I’m just getting a feel for it. While we wait, though, I thought it might be nice if I gave you a bit more context on the Council. Is that acceptable?”

Carmen raised an eyebrow, though she didn’t know if he could see that. “I suppose, but why now?”

“Because I think it’s unfair that some of us are trying to use you while leaving you completely in the dark.”

“Some of us?” Carmen said. “Are you saying that you’re trying to use me as well?”

“As much as I would like to say no, I’m not, that’d be a lie. Unfortunately, you’re in a position where just about any important person you meet is going to want to use you. You’re the magical equivalent of a nuclear weapon, and everyone wants to be the person with the codes, so to speak.”

He gave a sigh as he continued. “And, well, I’m going to be totally honest, I really, really don’t want that person to be Elenoa. But, even more than that, I think our interests align.”

The magic stopped flowing through the machine’s arms, and the sound of typing came in through the microphone. After a moment, Yamato spoke up again. “Please change your right arm using Eldritch Abomination, I’d like to see what that looks like, magically speaking.”

Carmen did, and the flow of magic returned. “You see, there are three main…let’s call them factions within the Council, all formed around how they feel about Earth. The largest one is, unfortunately, the…well, we don’t really have names, but think of them as…not quite anti-Earth, but they don’t like it.

“That’s Elenoa, the other angel, Gabriel, and the dwarf, Baern. I’m sure you’ve picked up on the fact that Elenoa is trying to keep you on a very tight leash, to be used as a personal weapon, and that sorta ties into her philosophy on Earth. She wants to keep it completely in the dark about magic, and then just…steal all of its technological growth while giving nothing in return.

“She wants to use things for her own gain and for nothing else, and Baern isn’t much better. He doesn’t really care about Earth or Haven, he’s…to be blunt, he just hates humans. Most of the people he knew were killed by humans during the war, and he’s held onto a huge grudge ever since. If it were up to him, he’d exile humans from Haven entirely, and he’s made no bones about the fact that he doesn’t like how you were originally human.

“And then there’s Gabriel. He’s actually a great guy, and tends to agree with me on most subjects, but he’s…a puppet, essentially. Elenoa’s got a tight grip on the hierarchy of the angels, and since two Council seats have to go to the angels, she basically picks who’s in that other seat. So, he has to toe the line and do as she says or get replaced, and he would prefer to keep things as is, so he can counterbalance her in whatever ways he can.”

The magic flowing into her right arm stopped, and she once again could make out typing. “You can go ahead and change your arm back.” Yamato said. “Next, I’m going to try a few minor transformations of increasing power, see how strong something has to be before it can affect you. Don’t be alarmed if you transform a bit, okay?”

“Got it.” Carmen replied, changing her arm back as instructed.

All the arms resumed their flow of magic, though it was a bit stronger this time. “I think you get the picture with them, though. Next would be Tunem and Enna, they’re neutral on most issues, Tunem because he’s just…generally neutral, and Enna because she’s in charge of the defense of the cities and that eats up almost all of her time. She doesn’t really have it in her to care about Earth right now.

“So, you don’t really have to worry about them too much. That only leaves Kali and I, we’re the…progressives, you might say. We believe that re-integrating Haven and Earth is long overdue, and that right now we’re essentially punishing people for what their ancestors did, and that’s not fair or acceptable.

“Of course, seeing as you’re a Perfect Chimera who was originally from Earth, we’re hoping that we can use you as a tool to get people to realize that humans from Earth aren’t monsters, and that peaceful coexistence is possible. We shouldn’t have to cut people off from such a huge part of life for essentially no reason, you know?”

The magic stopped, the arms retreated, and then the bed slid back out. “But that’s enough of politics for now.” Yamato said. “I do hope you’ll consider working with Kali and I on re-integrating Haven and Earth, but I’m not going to force you either way.”

He stood up, walking over to Carmen and helping her up off of the bed. “You can take a seat in the chair over there, would you like to hear what I found?”

“I suppose.” Carmen said, walking to the chair and sitting down.

“Great. So, as it turns out, you have an extraordinarily large resistance to effects that change your body. That’s probably why you can’t use your normal magic to change yourself. Eldritch Abomination…well, the eldritch works strangely, but it seems that it’s just…even stronger than your resistance, as far as I can tell.”

“That sounds about right. So…what now?”

“Now I’d like to do a few more personalized tests.” Yamato said. “Hopefully we can find a workaround for you. And, as a matter of course, I’ll teach you about what I’m doing, too. Consider it payment for helping satisfy my curiosity. Sound good?”

Carmen nodded. “That’s acceptable.”

“Perfect. Let’s get going, then!”

“Right, so, I think we’re ready to move onto phase two.” Kali said, leaning back in her chair. It was a couple of weeks after Lilith had begun her “training”, and she had begun to settle into a rhythm of sorts, but it looked like that was about to change.

“What’s phase two?” Lilith asked.

“Well, it’s…not as much something that you’re going to be doing as much as Mae is, but there’s one more thing we need to get up and running before we can start rolling the new system out to the world. You see, I’m taking a page from my old administrator and I’m adding dungeons to the world. And, dungeons are going to be…sort of living beings, and that means they have a Racial Class.

“And, of course, that means you have that Racial Class, and because you do, you have access to everything dungeons can do. And that’s something you can definitely abuse to become stronger, so I want to get that ball rolling.”

Lilith nodded. “Alright, so, what do we do?”

“We need to establish a core, and then we need the dungeon to be babysat for a bit while it gets started. Go ahead and call Mae if she’s not already paying attention, we’re probably going to need the spare avatar for this.”

I’m listening. Mae said. Should I bring it here now or would you prefer to explain first?

Kali nodded. “We’re going to move to a different room later, so might as well wait until everything’s explained, that way we don’t have to move the avatar twice.”

Understood.

“Right, so…like I was saying, we need to set up a core. And, as things stand now, that has to be the spare avatar. Cores can’t leave their dungeon until they get much, much further into their abilities, and we just don’t have time for that.

“Furthermore, if someone lays their hands on your core, and it doesn’t already have a master, they can become the master of the dungeon and, essentially, master of you. That is obviously not ideal, but I have a couple of solutions.”

Kali held up a finger as she continued. “The first is to make another Parallel dedicated to running the dungeon, make her avatar the core, and do a little trickery to make the system think that you’re separate people for long enough to make you the dungeon master.”

Kali held up another finger. “Second, we just use the spare avatar as the core and do the same trickery, but that’s not preferable either, since the dungeon’s going to be crippled because the spare avatar just doesn’t have the Mana production a Parallel’s avatar would. And, finally,” she said, holding up yet one more finger, “we make the spare avatar the core and have Siph or I be the dungeon master. That has basically no upsides compared to you being your own master, though, so I don’t recommend it. So, what are your thoughts?”

Lilith frowned, tapping her chin as she thought about that. She didn’t really want someone else to be her dungeon master or whatever if she could do it herself, so option three was out. Option one sounded nice, but creating another Parallel for the sole purpose of having it be a slave to the dungeon seemed…unethical. So, option two seemed like the best one, but she wanted to hear what everyone else had to say first.

“Mae, Kali, what do you two think I should do?” She asked. “I’m leaning towards option two, but I want your feedback.”

The first option. Mae said instantly. The more Parallels we have, the stronger we are. I cannot think of any reason we wouldn’t go with that. Frankly, I don’t see the draw of option two or three myself.

“I would agree there.” Kali added. “Option one is far and away the best in terms of sheer efficiency. So…out of curiosity, what’s drawing you towards option two?”

Lilith shifted uncomfortably. “Well…creating a person for the sole purpose of doing one thing for their entire life sounds…wrong. Like, slavery or something.”

I’m right here. Mae said. And, for what it’s worth, I’m completely content with my life.

“But you were designed that way!” Lilith protested. “That’s practically an artificial feeling.”

Excuse me? Mae replied incredulously. Your biology “designed” plenty of things about you. For instance, the fact that you’re attracted to women. Is that artificial?

“That’s different!”

How? I fail to see any meaningful difference; they’re both things that greatly affect your life that you have no control over.

“It…it just is.” Lilith said weakly.

“You’re not really creating a person.” Kali soothed. “You’re just giving any of your desires to design a dungeon a wider set of emotions. It’d be like creating a mouse for the sole purpose of eating cheese all day. It gets to do what it loves, and the person who presumably has too much cheese gets rid of some cheese, so it’s a win-win. Plus, no one said the Parallel has to spend all her time doing dungeon stuff. It doesn’t need to be a full-time job by any means.”

“I…” Lilith faltered. Their arguments made sense, but something in her was still resisting. It couldn’t be that simple, right? This was basically a whole new person they were talking about.

I would also like to say that I much prefer this existence to no existence. Mae said. I would prefer this existence over any other anyway, but that’s irrelevant to my point. Even if I was no fonder of this sort of thing than you, I would rather be alive than…nothing.

Lilith sighed. “Alright, fine. But if I feel that this is becoming too cruel, then I reserve the right to bail her out of this.”

“Of course.” Kali said. “I’ve got a few ideas for what I want her to be like, but I want to go over them with you first. You deserve to have input in how she is, after all.” She moved over to a computer desk and opened up some sort of document. “If you’d come read this with me…”

Fighterman481

So, here's a rather...dramatic change from the original that I honestly was not planning on at all.

As a quick refresher for those who read the original - in the original, a scene similar to this one occurred, but Lilith ended up deciding that this was the time to start putting her foot down and she would not be making another Parallel.

I was going to go through with that here too, but...funnily enough, the very same thing that kept me from having Lilith make the Parallel in the original kept me from having her...not make it here. Namely, I tend to write...by the seat of my pants (for lack of a better term), and just let the things I feel like the characters would do happen, with some forethought as to the general direction.

In the original, I really wanted to make a new Parallel at this point and just couldn't because I felt like Lilith wouldn't let that happen, despite the logic given to her. In this, and...maybe this is just me being used to writing future Lilith influencing me writing past Lilith, I felt like it would be too much to have her put her foot down and say no here.

A bit of an odd dynamic, but it is what it is. So, we're moving up that Parallel's introduction by like...thirty chapters. 

But that's all I really have to say, so next chapter we're going to introduce her, and then...well, we'll see where things go from there, so look forward to it, I guess.

And, as always, thanks for reading!