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Goosebumps prickled Sora’s arms at her mother’s voice, the flaming goddess of vulpes giving her a wave that made her want to cry and laugh at the same time.  She almost lurched to her feet to tackle the redhead, but reality quickly caught up to her stunned brain; this was a projected dream version of her mom.

She felt a little lightheaded, yet her energy was returning at a fairly steady pace to counteract her brain fog, which was probably due to her literally being on the moon.  Between breaking Fen free and creating this realistic dream, Sora was starting to understand some of her limits; there was still so much she had yet to explore with her change.

“Mom,” she choked with a chuckle, trying to fight the emotion in her cracking voice.  “Are you really coming home?  You said you’d send me a dream, but I didn’t expect it this fast, and heh, you sent it to the wrong girl!”

Her mother chortled, shifting to stare at the study desk in the corner with its tucked-in chair.  “I didn’t send it to the wrong girl, Sora.  Once your change was completed, I couldn’t interact with you, or it would cause trouble…

“Wendy,” she rediverted, showing the brunette a small smile, “if you could pull that out for me, then I’d love to explain…  I’m, umm, I’m more than a little nervous, and there are some things I need to say that may be… difficult for you to accept, Sora.”

“Uh-huh,” Wendy mumbled, jumping up first to comply as the woman stepped back to give her room.  “Should I, uh, call you Ms. Moore?”

“Thank you, Wendy, and no, Mia would be wonderful,” the fox said.

“L-Lady Mia—”

The chair half pulled out, Wendy froze as the nine-tailed vulpes’ voice turned harsh, the woman shifting her intense, flaming irises onto the quaking Huli Jing.  “Do not speak or move a muscle, Fen.”

A lump formed in Sora’s own throat at the venom in her mother’s voice, and she watched as the three-tailed vulpes almost fainted as panic and stress flooded her aura, keeping her gaze locked on the floor.  She didn’t even so much as squeak a reply, snapping her jaw shut; it was almost as if Sora could feel the heat in her mother’s very words scorch her cheeks.

Wendy mechanically finished pulling out the chair in the lingering tense atmosphere as her mom kept her focus on the fox slave.  And after a few seconds, she folded her tails together in her lap and sat, frigid ruby irises fixated on the dark-haired woman; she wasn’t finished, though.

“Wait in the hallway, and place a muting spell within this room.  Do not tempt me, Fen, and if you get within two meters of my daughter again, I will erase you.”

Sora felt stricken at the abrupt ire that was thrown at the Huli Jing, her mind trying to catch up as Fen pressed her face further into the carpet before casting the area in a magical bubble to remove sound; it almost fell apart as she gulped and crawled out of the room, stiff tails tucked against her side.

Utterly baffled and somewhat taken aback by her mother’s spontaneous blow-up, Sora’s eyebrows came together.  “Mom, that was… that was so rude!  Why did you do that?  Sure, Fen’s been a bit prickly and sarcastic, but she’s a slave.”

Her mother’s temper simmered as the hydraulic door snapped shut, and Mia took a deep breath to calm herself.  “Sora, let me explain.”

She returned her gaze to them, ears pulling back and suddenly the exact opposite of the vision of hellfire she’d been before, rubbing her elbow with a melancholy expression.  Wendy was biting her bottom lip and hugging herself as she settled back in beside her.

“Again, I apologize, Sora, Wendy, but… there are things a mother must concern herself with, and the threat that Fen is to you… to all of us, including herself, cannot be overstated.  She will not listen to us out of fear because fear rules her, and she fears Inari more than me.”

Now back in reality after the slap-inducing greeting Fen had gotten, Sora’s bubbly feelings became more grounded, and she took Wendy’s hand to help comfort her friend.  “For the record, Mom, not the way I wanted Wendy to meet you… but okay, I’m listening.”

Complying and expecting a good explanation, she glanced around at Fen’s barrier; it was strengthening now that the Huli Jing was outside and further reinforcing it.  “What’s the problem with Fen?  I get that vulpes don’t have the best reputation, especially Huli Jing and Kumiho, but Fen was kind of warming up to me… I think.  Wait, how can she be dangerous for you?!”

A long sigh streamed out of her mother’s lips as she stroked her bristly fur, clearly upset at having this conversation.  “You two becoming close is my concern, Sora…  This will be challenging for you to grasp, but my sister has infused a tiny portion of her power inside of Fen’s tail.  It’s a complicated process, and something I cannot do anything about without alerting her.”

Sora sucked in the corner of her lip, vision moving to Wendy’s posters on the wall.  The conversations about her aunt over the last few weeks returned to the forefront of her mind.  Jin hated Inari and her Kitsune, so that raised some red flags, but she’d started to see things differently after having the rug pulled out from under her feet regarding Kari.  There was always another angle to consider.

Then again, she was beginning to have her speculations as to the reason her mother did this from their previous talk.  At the same time, she had strong feelings about seeing other people getting bullied, and Fen didn’t really do anything wrong.  In fact, Sora had been the one to put her life in danger by jumping the gun; she’d done a lot of that over the last week.

“Let me guess,” she sighed, “you don’t like Aunt Inari because it’s complicated.  Yes, she doesn’t know about me, and… I’m lost from there.”  She reflected on what her mother said, attempting to work through her own thoughts.  “Let me see if I’ve got this straight.  We’re in this big house that is Grandma’s territory, and you split it in half with Aunt Inari, or something.  I get that, but why would her Kitsune candidate be on your side of the house or cause us trouble?  I’m just trying to wrap my head around it.”

Her mother rubbed her cheeks and let go of a low groan.  “I debated whether a strong or weak approach would be better, but I’m not good at dealing with things that scare me…  I lash out,” she mumbled.  “It’s a flaw, I know.  Haaa.”

Sora huffed and crossed her arms as the brunette kept her mouth shut.

“You’re trying to derail me, Mom.  I don’t get why you wouldn’t see I’d have a problem with that kind of introduction.”  Her tail flicked to the side, ears twitching while trying to figure out her mom’s angle.  “It’s not like you didn’t think this through before sending this dream.  I’m confused.”

The dream representation of her mom knotted her fingers in her lap and took a moment to respond while staring at the floor.  It reaffirmed to Sora that this wasn’t really her mom but a recording of sorts.  Yet, it was so real and interactive that it appeared genuine.  It also meant her mother had predicted precisely how this scenario would turn out, and she couldn’t see her desiring an argument to start this conversation off.

“You… wanted this reaction?”  Sora tentatively questioned.

“Sora… you must understand,” her mother implored, “I see and know things that are to come… so many things… terrible things.  There are things I desperately want to prevent, and I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could wipe Fen from Existence so that the threat she poses to you is gone… the threat Inari is to you.”

Her mother looked up to stare right into her eyes without a hint of humor, and it wasn’t the awkward or powerful figure she’d seen up to this point; there was genuine fear in her red eyes as her big ears drew back.

“My sister’s power is inside one of Fen’s tails—an insignificant amount—yet Inari is so skilled and powerful that one of a few scenarios could collapse everything.  Yes,” she insisted, glancing at Wendy as she peeked a look.  “Everything, as in everything.  If I or Sora were to interact with Fen… there is a real chance that Inari could sense it and, quite literally, burn the house down to reach you.”

A shiver ran down her frame at the statement, making Sora scoot closer to Wendy.  Sora’s fingernails dug into her lap at the image her mother had painted.  The house represented something mind-boggling; universes were specks of dust in this structure, and she didn’t want to believe her aunt was some heartless, totally evil person.

“That didn’t happen, though!  This is your prediction, not fact.  You told me all of these things are predictions.  I already interacted with Fen, and everything is still here.”

Her mother was swift to counter her argument.

“No,” she flatly returned, lightly shaking her head while rubbing between her eyes.  “I am not trying to manipulate you, Sora, but to express to you how seriously I am taking this situation.  Fen is very, very dangerous!”

Red eyes opening, she directed them toward the door where Fen waited outside, emotional aura spiraling out of control, thinking she could be erased at any moment.  Yet, her mother slapped Sora across the face with her inexperience as she explained what Sora had done to the woman.

“When you broke the seal that bound her powers, you only interacted with the binding spell, not Fen’s spirit itself.  If you were to so much as graze tails… you could trigger one of the countless sensors waiting to activate from my sister’s weave… and, in the worst case, be spiritually transported out of my territory.  I would need to battle my sister to get you back, and… I’m not sure how well that would turn out for all of us.”

“Why would it do that, though—the teleport part?”  Wendy whispered.  “If Fen is so low on the totem pole, and not even a Kitsune, then why would it do something like that?  Why would Inari care?”

Mia sighed and ran her fingers through her hair to shake it out to the side.  “Because Inari has a thread attached to every candidate she accepts.  Think of it like a spider’s web, and it spans everywhere.  She can pick up tiny signals from the vibrations along that thread, and if snapped, it is intricate enough to give her an idea of how it was severed with its surroundings.”

Sora pressed her free hand against her stomach, looking back at all the insanity that had been the last two weeks—at least, two weeks as far as she knew since it could be a month for all she knew.  Her mother was trying to look out for her, and while she would be lying if she said she didn’t want to meet her mom’s side of the family, she could understand that.  That being said, she knew the risks of diving head first without thinking from her blunder in the Miami Monster Council and just recently with Fen’s seal.  That still didn’t change her opinion, though.

Setting her resolve, she saw a pained smile on her mother’s face that said she knew what she was about to say.  “Okay.  I get what you’re saying.  You are doing this to warn Fen and to try and show me how serious you are about this…  But you also told me that you can’t see or know everything since the more single beings in one place, or whatever, the harder it is to predict the future.  Do you know Fen will cause trouble for me, or is it a guess?”

Sitting back, her mother shook her head.  “If I were to put a number behind it…  After this incident, I’d say you have a 78% chance since I’ve put the fear of, well, me into her, and that is rounding it down.  Note that this number is not just the potential of drawing in Inari but other disasters she could open you up to.  Fen is a Huli Jing.”

Wendy shifted uncomfortably before squeezing Sora’s hand with a smile before letting go.  “Why do you say that as if it’s a bad thing?  I get pop culture’s take on them.  Still, why is she different from other vulpes?  Aren’t they individuals and can make their own decisions?”

“You aren’t entirely wrong,” her mother whispered, glancing toward the door again, “but it isn’t so simply stated.  There is a reason Huli Jing culture and stereotypes exist.  Huli Jing do not gain their energy from natural forces, as Nogitsune or Kitsune do,” she educated.

“Kumiho needs human flesh so their own doesn’t decay, and Huli Jing can only rebuild their power by sapping spiritual energy from others.  Huli Jing culture hates the other vulpes races and is jealous of them, believing they have the worst requirement to live since, to reach their nine tails, they must take life force.  They especially despise Nogitsune.”

Sora chuckled, crossing her arms and grinning.  “Easy!  I’ve already saved a Succubus from hunger.  I could just give her a Seed like…”  she trailed off as her mother’s previous statement hit her in the forehead.  “Wait, I can’t use my magic on her, can I?”

“No, Sora,” Her mother firmly confirmed.  “You can’t even try to defend yourself against her with your magic without Inari being made aware.  That is why I want you to remove her from your life…  There are other vulpes you can meet.  Hehe.  Yes, Wendy, fox boys,” she winked, making the brunette blush.  “Nogitsune who can use some friends.”

“Not pivoting at all,” Sora grumbled, trying to come up with another solution.

Sitting a little straighter, her mother breathed out a long sigh.  “I know you don’t feel good about rejecting someone when you feel like you’re discriminating against them.  Yes, it does reinforce the idea of stereotypical terrible Huli Jing… and I have tried to be the bad guy here, pushing her away so you don’t have to… but you aren’t the type to be frightened off by probabilities.”

Sora looked down at her lap and straightened her dress a little; she was now thinking about the short interactions she’d had with the sarcastic, jaded Huli Jing, and a solution did pop up courtesy of her mother’s previous explanation.

“Hmm.  I hear what you’re saying, Mom…  I get it’s potentially dangerous.  Honestly, I’m starting to worry that even Aunt Inari is a probability to you.  Like you told me, you don’t know, and that is what scares you…”

Her mother swallowed and closed her eyes with a shiver running down the goddess’ frame.  “And… I feared letting you know that reality.  Yes, I don’t know what my sister would do… but I know what she has done and her obsession.  It will only cause pain for all of us; I’m almost positive.”

Her focus returned to her melancholy, shaking mom, forcing a smile.  “I can’t live like that, though.  I don’t see a billion timelines or how scary things are.  I know the danger with Fen now, so that’s good, but I feel like shoving her away may cause even more problems.”

She bumped shoulders with Wendy and laughed, drawing a smile out of her best friend as she dispelled the tense atmosphere.  “Life is fun because of the randomness.  Hell, I might actually become Kari’s friend!  Am I terrified of all the craziness that I just went through?  Absolutely!  Wendy was turned into a werewolf for crying out loud.  Dad was hurt…”

Sora could feel herself becoming more comfortable as she went on; it felt right.  “But since I’ve been better understanding why Kari is the way she is, and how wrong I was about Daisy…  No, yeah, I’ve just been seeing a lot of sides to people I didn’t think existed.  I want to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

Wendy curled in slightly.  “Even if you get hurt?  I, umm, I couldn’t really make more friends after I… I abandoned you.  I felt guilty…  I still feel guilty.”

Reaching over to bring her into a hug, Sora squeezed her tight for a moment before slackening and letting her go.  “I get that…  I do!  I felt guilty for getting you involved with Kari.  It’s not like it was either of our fault,” she reasoned.  “It just sucked, and feelings suck!  But… I can’t deny how I’m feeling now.  I want to help Kari, I think—I don’t know—I’m figuring it out,” she laughed, making her mother sigh.  “I have a plan!”

“By a plan,” the redhead whispered, gulping and drawing in her bottom lip, “you mean you have reversed my explanation regarding what you did to Fen’s seal and applied it to yourself… creating a separation field that will automatically repel you and her from ever touching.”

Flashing her teeth and giving a thumbs up, Sora giggled.  “Don’t think you’re not sly and said that to give me the idea.  A desire that our magic, aura, and spirit never meet, and boom!  An anti-Sora repel zone is created.  Problem solved.”

It took a moment before her mom responded, looking at her in a way that reminded her of her dad, and after a second, she slowly nodded.

“…Hmm.  Given your temperament, and how alike you are to me when I was your age, it is the best solution to my worries that has the least likely chance to fail… Haaa.”  Her mother hugged herself.  “You are going through a very challenging developmental stage, Sora.”

“Well, I am sixteen!”  Sora snickered.  “I’ve got to hit my rebellious phase sometime.  Dad will be happy you’re coming back for that.  Mom?”

Her mother gripped her elbows and glanced away, ears falling back.  “I always feel like a failure.  Haha-haaa…”

Sora’s cheer diminished, seeing Wendy’s apprehensive face as she connected the dots.  “Dad… isn’t going to be waking up for a bit, is he?”

Red eyes downcast, her mother shook her head.  “Your father is… unique—things have changed—and it isn’t as easy as it once was for me to fix the damage.  It could be months or a year, and it is because of that, mmgm…”

Swallowing her nerves, the nine-tailed woman lifted her head to give her a firm stare. 
“I don’t think I can be the mother you need me to be from the sidelines anymore… maybe I was always wrong to do things the way I did… which means I need to do something drastic.”

Sora forced a laugh, brushing her bangs out of the way as she looked at her lap.  “Eh-hehe.  What, give up your powers and confine yourself to a mortal body or something cliché like that?”

Her mother didn’t blink.  “Yes.”

Heart coming to a complete stop, she choked.  “W-What?!  That’s… would that even work?”

Changing positions to sit on the bed beside her, Wendy scooted over to allow them to be side-by-side as her mom pressed her fingers against her lap; Sora could sense the sparkling flames the illusion was crafted out of tickling her skin from the proximity.

“It isn’t that simple, and it will cause some grave concerns… at least they are to me, and Fen is high on that list.”  She looked up to stare into her eyes.  “This magic that allows me to speak to you is yours and not mine, and this is only a role-play session I did in Wendy’s mind through Astral Projecting my Intelligence, which is separate from my spiritual and physical presence.”

Sora tried to grab her hand, only for her fingers to slip right through it.  “Hold up!  That’s crazy…  Won’t you tear yourself apart if the smallest thing happens that you could have stopped?”

Vision narrowing, her mother’s voice became hoarse.  “Maybe I will… maybe I won’t.  I have… never… never, in millions of years, limited myself to such a state.  I am going to insert my Intelligence into an artificial body with a newly crafted spirit, unrelated to you, while placing my immortal spirit and body in a safe place…  I am going to become essentially no different than a human since there is no other way for me to be the mother you desire… that I desire to be.”

“Mom…”  Choking up, Sora fought back her tears.  “Are you sure?”

“No,” she chortled, tears leaking out of her own eyes.  “No, I can’t even retain the smallest degree of power since that has a 100% chance to trigger your change and kill you, but I’m as sure of this decision as you are that Fen won’t be a problem.  I know, to you, it is a horrible thing to wish for Fen’s failure, but I hope she does not get an invitation to Inari’s Kitsune Academy… or that I’m wrong about my sister.”

“Kitsune Academy?”  Wendy repeated, Sora’s own mind latching onto the concept.

“Aunt Inari has… a Kitsune Academy?!”  Images of a giant, magical city, filled with vulpes attending classes sparked inside Sora’s mind.  “That is what a single white tail means?”

“Not exactly.”  Her mother shifted back to her seat, wiping away her tears and adding a cute smile.  “I know you two are obsessed with such concepts.  Wendy, your otome games are quite fun to observe.”

Sora’s grin widened.  “Oooh!  You got hooked on those, huh?”  she teased, nudging her best friend and glad to move away from the more depressing and sober topic.

Wendy’s cheeks colored.  “Oh, shut your tail, J-Drama zealot.”

“Sailor Scout fanatic!”

“Okay,” the brunette grunted with a laugh, “now that’s a self-own because we both know you’re into that, too.”

“Hahaha.  True!  True…”  Attention returning to her mom, Sora sat at the edge of the bed, now interested in the topic of a magical school after her mother brought it up.  “Aunt Inari really has a school that teaches fox girls?  Could Wendy learn magic, too?  Not from that school!  I’m just asking in general.”

Wendy’s bright brown eyes darted to the fox mom, holding her breath for confirmation.  Sora expected her to stonewall or bash it since she was anti-sister, but instead, she leaned into it.

Crossing her legs, Mia rested against the side of her chair.  “First, let me clarify things.  If you manage to help Fen become more in line with your aunt’s moral framework, and she changes her way of life… then she could earn the right to enter the Kitsune Academy.  It is the dream of countless vulpes, including those who live in other territories, or houses, as you understand it.”

Wendy gulped and looked at her with stars in her eyes.  Sora felt the same way after hearing those two magical words put together, feeling invigorated by the topic.

“Uh… sorry, Mom, but that sounds awesome!  Kitsune Academy?  Like, sign me up!  Right, Wendy?”

“Mhm!  Mhm!  Is it filled with fox boys?  Please, tell me it has a bunch of hot fox boys!  What about Sora’s question: can I learn magic?”  She paused, eyes going big as her fingers tightened around Sora’s.  “Wait!  I turned into a werewolf, right?  So, could I turn into, like… a magical werefox?!”

“That’d be so cool!”  Sora chimed, eyes sparkling as she saw visions of her and Wendy going to a giant, fancy academy for vulpes.  “I want to go to a school like that!  Wait… but what if you start growing hair in weird places?”

“Pfft.  You can fix that with your super-magic, right?”  Wendy played off.  “Besides, I think it’d be so cute for us to get our tail fur trimmed at the barber.  I mean, we go and get haircuts anyway, so why not tail trims while we’re at it, right?”

“Good point!  Good point!”  Sora flipped to her side on the bed to face her best friend, tail wagging.  “Magic fox girls by day and mysterious fox heroines by night!”

“Can you magic our outfits on and off—you know, like Sailor Scouts do it?”

“You know it,” she boasted, puffing up her chest with pride.  “My magic can basically do anything I want.  Well, so long as I have the energy to dump into it.  Maybe you’ll find your bad-guy-turned-lover trope you talked about when we were thirteen, hmm?”

“Oh, bite your tail; I’m so over that right now!”  Wendy giggled, reaching over to grab a pillow and hit her in the face with it.

“Until you’re not!  Oof…”  Grabbing it mid-strike, she peeked over with a wink as her tail curled around.  “Okay, what about tall, dark, and handsome villian kidnapping the poor Sailor Scout—trapped in his dungeon—the romantic tension!”

She snicked as Wendy’s cheeks started to flush, but there was a smile on her lips.

“I expect him to torture me, but instead, he invites me to dinner, and we talk…  Mmmgm!  Stop it, Sora!  You’re putting thoughts in my head!”  she yelled, trying to fight back the pillow to hit her again.

“Hehehe.  I’m getting so pumped!  Way to go, Mom.  I want to go!”

Her mother forced a smile at their rebounding vigor and giggles.  “Not… to ruin your fantasies, girls… I doubt Wendy would want to be a, ahem, full furry fox that feeds off the sensual desires of men.  Also, it’s a new life drained every month as a price to keep your sanity for werefoxes.  They also tend to, eh, have a very potent smell.”

Their shared dream shattered.

Shooting a dull glare at her freckled mom, Sora huffed.  “Way to kill the vibe, Mom.  Is there seriously no way for Wendy to share in my foxy lifestyle?”

Wendy secured her bangs behind her ear with a weak chuckle, timid voice returning.  “No, it’s okay, Sora.  I was just having a bit of fun…  I’d be happy with just fox boys!  Well… unless they’re racist against humans.  Unless… hehe, unless there was a handsome prince fox boy that would stick up for me and defy the—shut up!  Shut up!”  she self-chided, hiding her flaming face.  “Besides… what would my mom think if I suddenly got powers?”

Shoulders abruptly slumping, the brunette chuckled.  “Yeah, she’s probably worried sick about me.  And we had such a big fight before… Jenny’s whole thing.  She’s okay, right, Ms. Moore?  What happened?”

Tension bound around Sora’s chest at the pivot, seeing the pleading look on her best friend’s face.  Wendy really did care about her verbally and emotionally abusive alcoholic mother; she didn’t get it.  It was so obvious that Jane didn’t care about her.

Mia’s expression softened, and Sora felt the message running out as she gave them her parting words.

“There… are a lot of changes that will happen shortly, Sora, and I’d like to discuss options regarding Wendy when I make it home in two days.”

A pained note came to her mom’s voice as she shifted to face the brunette.  “Wendy, there will be things that make you feel powerless…  Hard things to accept.  I have made arrangements to provide you a way forward.”

Aura mixing with apprehension, goosebumps ran along her best friend’s arm.  “That… scares me a little, Ms. Moore.  Why me?  What is it?”

Red locks shifting with her shaking head, Mia lifted to her feet.  “It is not something you can be prepared for…  However, don’t discard your dreams of going to a magical school just yet, girls.  Have a little faith in your mom knowing what her daughter wants, Sora,” she winked, vanishing in a swirl of sparkling fire.  “I respect your decisions and desires, My Little Ember…  I only want to make you happy.”

Sora’s heartbeat increased at the implications and warnings as her mother’s illusion vanished.  Trouble was coming, but she couldn’t imagine her mom not setting everything up for her to succeed after the lead-up to her chaotic birthday; sure, things would probably spiral out of her goddess fox mom’s predictions every new day once she took on a mortal form, but if they could spend time as mother-daughter, then it was a sacrifice worth gambling on.

“Mysterious!  Huh, Wendy?  My mom’s coming home!  Ahhh!”  she squealed.

Eyebrow creasing, Wendy looked at a Sailor Scout poster on her wall.  “I’m kind of worried about what she said about me…  And was she talking about our heroine dream or the magic academy dream?”

“I say both!”  Sora cheered, yet her chipper mood fell back into orbit upon aiming her ears at the door.  “Hmm.  I’m still not happy about her shooting down Fen…  She’s the first other vulpes I’ve met, and she just literally said, ‘If you come near my daughter, I’ll kill you!’  Not cool,” she huffed, making Wendy chuckle at her framing.

Wendy rubbed her elbows, trying to be brave and not worry about what might be around the corner.  “I’m sure you can give her a piece of your mind in two days.  So, uh… what next?”

Silence suddenly gripped them as their eyes wandered the room, and Sora’s mind returned to the situation at hand.  They were on the moon, and someone in this shady organization wanted to have dinner with them.

Hopping off the bed, she went to the girl’s closet to extract one of her dresses; most were a bit small on her since she likely hadn’t bought a new one since Sora’s last gift.  Yet, the beauty of a dress was the fact it could work regardless of height gain.  Waist and bust size, though?  That could pose a problem since her best friend seemed to be filling out faster than her.

“Hmm.  Let’s… go back to my room and look through my closet,” she said with a strained smile while flipping through her options.  “Have you bought anything new?”

Wendy’s cheeks colored as she got up and went to bump her aside, rummaging through her items.  “Not as fancy as your designer crap, but I bought this with my own money, thank you!  What do you think?”

She plucked out a vertical-stripped, shin-length, shoulderless pink summer dress with pouf sleeves.  “I, umm, had it for when I went on my first date… whenever that would be.  Are the pockets cringe?”

“No!”  Sora lied as she held it up to her figure.  “I like it!”  Wendy’s creased mouth said she didn’t believe her, making Sora rub the back of her neck and look away as she confessed.  “Okay, yeah, you know giant pockets like that aren’t my thing.  It’s like, whatever you put in them makes it look terrible; that’s why we have purses.  I like the rest!”

“Not love, though,” Wendy huffed, looking down at it with concern.  “I thought I looked cute with, like… four fingers in a pocket?  I don’t know…”

Sora summoned up an illusion beside her best friend to demonstrate what she described and was surprised at how adorable the look was as she held a purse in one hand while her other was tucked into the pocket.  “I stand corrected; super cute!  You hungry for answers and food?”

“Starving!”  Wendy groaned, folding it over an arm to rub her face.  “Where even are we?”

Happily sending a pulse of magic to the window blast shield, as she’d seen Fen do, it lifted with Sora’s grin.  “Wendy, welcome to the secret moon base!”

Wendy’s dress fell to the floor as she stumbled forward to stare out of the window at the spaceships coming out of cloak to dock or take off, transporting supplies or people.

“Don’t gawk,” Sora chided, scooping up her dress to hand to her best friend, “we have a moon dinner to get to, and my mom provided the appetizer.  But… before that, I need to have a proper chat with Fen…”

Her heart returned to all the hate and disgust she’d sometimes felt about herself throughout her three years of being bullied.  There were times when it first started that she’d thought she was the problem: her looks, half-Asian heritage, wealth… there were so many things to hate about herself when she was thirteen and fourteen.

Eventually, she’d come to the conclusion it was their problem, not hers, but she knew what it was like to hate yourself for things outside of your control.  Still, that only came after Dr. Hallmark had supported her through that phase in her life.  At least, before Jenny got to him and forced him to betray her, which was why his comments to Mary had hurt so much.

Her fingers tightened; Sora could feel the self-hate and anger within Fen’s magic, her animosity toward her mother and her… but most of all, she resonated with the Huli Jing’s feelings of powerlessness and mistrust for others.

It took Mary months of effort, digging to find the truth, and proving to her that she was on her side without a shadow of a doubt for Sora to start opening up again.  Sure, her transformation had helped; that being said, Mary was a huge part of gaining her initial confidence back, and she wanted to give that same lifeline to others.

Making up her mind, she strolled to the door, with Wendy lost in her own thoughts regarding the ominous portion of the message they’d received.  “I’ll be outside with Fen.  Go ahead and get ready; I’ll do the touch-up when you figure out what you want to wear.”

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