Chapter 55 – Creating an Identity

[Okay, is everything ready?] (Syrus)

[Yes.] (Eva)

[Good, I’ll be taking the lead then.] (Syrus)

It had been two days since Anna took refuge in the cave. They would’ve liked to have gone to Ihere already, but it took longer for Eva to control her Morph attribute than she predicted.

However, looking at the reflection in the water, Eva was happy with their appearance.

It was still the same as before, but the horn was finally gone.

Over the training, Eva was able to learn that she could: Increase and decrease her size by about 2%, grow out her hair, change the colour of her eyes and hair, and elongate parts of her body–easiest being fingers and nails, and remove her horn.

Luna preferred if there was no indication of her Moonlight attribute on the body. Cutting that segment of hair didn’t work, as the colour just faded to white as mana flowed through their body.

[I do think Morph has something to do with the permanent shift from our initial transformation and the one that happened after we awoke.] (Luna)

[Agreed, but I’m unsure of what that difference is.] (Eva)

Even though Eva now had control over her attribute, it was far from perfect and she still didn’t understand everything about it.

On the control side, Eva couldn’t maintain multiple changes at once for long, with more changes increasing the difficulty of it. However, she found she could maintain one small change without a drain, so she chose the horn, which solved the issue of causing a ruckus if she entered towns.

But there was still way too much she didn’t know.

Then there was the sudden change into Syrus that occurred.

They were able to learn at least why that happened, but not why this change occurred within them, besides just saying it appeared because of all the other changes.

When one person was in control of the body, the body would change into that person’s form.

This didn’t mean that only one person was in the body, but more if they were the only one in the front seat. 

Luna and Eva decided on the terms front seat, back seat, and soul seat, to describe the positions. If there were more than two people in the front seat, then the body would change back to normal, and from their testing, they found it harder to stay in the back seat, as they would often accidentally enter the front seat position. The soul seat just referred to being in their Soul Space.

When the body changed, their physical appearance looked similar to their soul forms, but not exactly. Hair didn’t change length unless Eva changed it beforehand, and they didn’t grow to the height of Syrus’s soul form. 

[Morph… Is definitely being activated when the changes occur.] (Syrus)

[But it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything?] (Eva)

[Hmm… I think it’s an automatic function of the body at this point, as I felt the attribute come out of the muscles of the body.] (Syrus)

[I understand the concept of that… people have found ways to store their raw attributes within the body for use; I guess this must be a variant of that?] Luna hypothesised, but she was still unsure.

[It does use mana to change between forms, but I’m curious what will happen if we run out. If we will either stay in the current form or revert back to ‘Anna’.] (Eva)

[That could be dangerous to test.] (Luna)

[Agreed, the result shouldn’t matter anyway. But we should test what happens if we suddenly pass out.] (Eva)

[How are we supposed to do that—smack our head against a rock?] (Syrus) 

[We’ll figure something not that dangerous out.] (Eva)

They found they could still use their attributes when in the backseat, but moving any part of the body was a no-go. Which was something they took note of for later.

After all the changes and practising were complete, they were finally ready to leave the forest and search for the children and Elly of the village. They did keep an eye out for them, but they found nothing in the nearby area.

That led to their current plan to enter Ihere.

Anna still looked like Anna, which was good for them, but they didn’t want anyone else to see them like that for the moment. They doubted people in Ihere would actually realise they were Anna, but they were risking nothing.

So Syrus was going to be in control.

The tall, crimson-haired women walked into town wearing everyday clothing. Syrus had also chopped her hair before to keep it short, only to her shoulders. While they could grow out their hair when needed, she felt it was better to keep it at a standard length for the three of them while their body was recovering.

[I still can use Manipulation to a good extent.] (Eva)

[Meaning?] (Syrus)

[That we can still say your attributes are Fire and Manipulation. Until I become better at using Morph, I’m not sure if I can hide all our attributes in our main form.] (Eva)

[Hmmm…] Syrus thought about it for a moment, [Yeah, that could work. We can hide our attributes between the three of us.]

[That would mean I’m still stuck with Moonlight because of my appearance.] (Luna)

[Yes…] (Eva)

[Don’t be sad for me; there is nothing we can do about it.] (Luna)

Luna's white hair was the biggest indicator of her attributes and led anyone to suspect she had one of the Light attributes. That wasn’t something they wanted to deal with while near church territories.

Syrus walked into the town of Ihere, looking normal but feeling melancholic.

There were still a lot of props from the festival hanging up. Seeing them made Eva feel sick in the stomach. She was glad to be in the Soul Space to watch this happen; otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to control herself. Luna and her were in the Soul Space to ensure they wouldn’t make any mistakes.

She walked to someone she knew wouldn’t be able to keep their mouth shut.

David, one of the morning guards but also who ran a fruit stand at lunch, said, "Welcome, Miss, haven’t seen you around here.” David thought Syrus looked a little young, but her physique and attitude made him think she just got a lucky roll.

“Yep, I’m just passing.” Syrus started the small talk. “I had something to deliver to Elly, work materials, you know.” Elly was famous in the nearby area, and so Syrus was using that to her advantage.

“Oh…” The man's eyes darkened. “You haven’t heard yet?”

“What, I just got here?”

“A wildfire tore the place to the ground.”

“Yikes… I hope most of the villages are okay.” The line made Syrus sick. People should be able to escape from a wildfire but that was not what happened.

“No, no one survived.”

“...I’m going to need a moment.” Syrus bought a bag of fruit. They took money from their house and from the attacker's body–which was stolen in the first place.

[...Do you want to try and push for more?] (Luna)

[Yes, but not from him.] (Syrus)

[Elly’s friend?] (Luna)

[Yep.] (Syrus)

Elly had a business partner she trusted who sent out the goods from Ihere and collected any of the bigger orders sent Elly’s way. It was too difficult to send everything to Elly’s house after all.

Syrus turned down a quiet street and found the house she was looking for. It was small and cramped between two others.

Knock, Knock.

Syrus tapped lightly. “I have a question.”

“What?” The woman opened the door slightly. A dark-skinned woman with greying brown hair and orange eyes appeared through the gap.

“I’m looking for Elly, Mrs Bree.”

The woman's eyes panicked and looked around to see if there was anyone behind Syrus. “Didn’t you hear they all bloody died!” She tried to slam the door, but Syrus caught it.

She leaned forward and said, “I know she’s alive; don’t worry, I just want to make sure she is safe with the kids.”

“Who… are you…” The women began to sweat.

[Looks like we caught our golden goose.] (Syrus)

[Don’t call her that, you have frightened her.] (Luna)

“Someone she tried to save, but still somehow made it out after staying behind.” Said Syrus, “Now can I come in, I don’t want to cause a commotion.”

“Yes…” The woman quickly weighed her options and decided this was the only course that increased her safety.

Bobple

Yo, chapter is here! I got this one done early, probably could've made it longer but busy week was coming up, so figured I might give myself time to breathe. It also mean I'm slightly ahead of schedule! Maybe I won't be finishing next week's chapter a day before it's due! 

I do wish I mentioned Elly's friend a little earlier. I mentioned she had business partners, but saying one lived in Ihere might've worked better.

Anyway, have good day/night everyone.