Ariel closed her eyes again. Eris was right: her body was no longer of DNA, but a chorus of magical energies that she could sense - and change. she imagined herself with a full head of long, silky black hair, flowing gracefully down to the middle of her back. She could feel her magic "DNA" change with her suggestion. Sure enough, her hair grew exactly the way she wanted it, fluttering down her back, and it shined with the silkiness of hair well kept.

She opened her eyes and pulled a few strands in front of her. She felt them in her hands and admired their sleekness. "So soft... So smooth... So... Feminine," she purred. Awash in euphoria, magic began to shape her body throughout. She slimmed and shortened slightly, her skin taking a slightly paler shade than before to reflect her new thinner feminine skin. From her feet to her face, nothing was untouched. Ariel crossed her legs instinctively, never feeling what had changed between her legs - she just knew it had. Still brushing her new hair against her face, she felt subtle changes to the face. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt a newly feminine face that belonged to her. She didn't need a mirror; every touch and sensation told her exactly what her face looked like now.

She opened her eyes - revealing them to now be a brilliant amethyst color - and saw the transformation she had undergone. With a notable exception, her body was the reflection of everything she wanted to see... But before she made the final change, she knew she wanted to get herself decent first. Her outfit had to change...

She glanced at Eris. Again, that outfit wasn't anything like she expected of a genie. No bra barely containing her chest, no harem pants - heck, there didn't seem to be a hint of jewelry anywhere on her. She wore something that was just normal...

... Which meant Ariel could choose anything she wanted! But first, she needed to do some maintenance. The socks still functioning as her breasts melted away, melding into the other clothes. Her bra became fuller and thicker, widening a little more to be perfect for her new form. It is here that her true breasts formed, filling into small but noticeable bumps on her chest. Had fate been more kind, she would have grown bigger on hormone treatments alone - a fact she now knew thanks to her newfound powers - but she had never desired a large chest.

Her previously threadbare gray shirt filled in and repaired itself. The pink skirt was held together by duct tape no more, as the seamless repairs revealed themselves when the duct tape fell away and disintegrated. Both the shirt and skirt became the same color, the sky blue that adorned her flashlight vessel, and began to merge into one silky flowing dress. The sleeves melted into the dress, moving more matter to the bottom of the dress, granting it more length. It had become a sleeveless silk dress, shimmering in simplistic elegance.

Turning her attention to her soleless boots, they began to reform. They shrank considerably, wrapping around her exposed feet and turning into shimmering sky blue ballet shoes. New black sheer socks formed within her shoes and moved up her leg, covering over her knees but not all the way up. Made of magic, they would never tear and be softer than anything anyone could make.

Mostly satisfied, but not quite done, Ariel decided she needed a "flourish" of some sort to represent her new power. She formed small bands around her wrists and the base of her neck. The wrist bands became silver rings, the only jewelry adorning her entire body - same as her vessel, and neutral enough that she could wear it with any outfit she might conjure in the future. Finally, the band on the neck became an elastic black band, from which a sheer black cloak formed, draping over her arms and back. Within, a rainbow of sparkles glittered like the stars of the night sky.

Ariel's transformation was finally complete.

Eris, spectator to it all, was impressed. "You’re beautiful, Ariel!" She conjured a mirror of ice from the surroundings. "Go ahead, see for yourself!"

Ariel gazed upon herself in the mirror. Herself. A woman. Finally. The image she had in her head of herself all these years was right there in front of her, reflected back by something physical, tangible, real. It was overwhelming, and Ariel, hugging her body, fell to her knees and began to cry.

Eris rushed over and squeezed her tight. "I'm sorry, Ariel. I didn't mean for-"

"No, it's okay," Ariel said, trying to wipe away her tears. "This is the first time I’ve ever looked into a mirror and loved it. That was ME I saw for the first time. And it's that way because of what I am now... I shaped myself into that with only my thoughts and feelings. If only it were so easy before..."

"I admit, I was similar when I first transformed. But why don't we go into your vessel now? I think you probably still have some work to do in there, right?"

Ariel wiped away her tears. "Yeah, I do. I already have an idea of what I want to make in there..."

"Alright, but if you need me to be there with you, you need to take me in when you go inside. No one can get into a genie vessel without an invite."

"Will do. Now... How do I...?" Ariel wondered as she searched for the commands that would get her inside the vessel. Quickly, her legs turned into an amorphous mass of blue cloud-like energy, recognizable as a genie's tail. "I think that's step one?" Then the cap on her flashlight unscrewed itself and opened, her tail connecting to the opening. "Okay, now I think I can get inside!" Eris offered her hand, and Ariel grabbed it. Both fully shifted into clouds of energy, swirling together into Ariel's vessel. The only things left in the tundra were Ariel's flashlight and Eris's lipstick tube, as her vessel which could not follow her into another genie's vessel.

Both reformed inside. Well-lit but bare, Ariel and Eris were surrounded on all sides by gold, save the portal entrance, which was a swirling mass of light at one side of this otherwise empty void. Neither of them had reformed their legs, not that they needed any at the moment, floating in the middle of the space with nothing to stand on.

"Wow, I didn't think there was that much space in here!" Ariel remarked.

"It's your own personal pocket dimension. It can be as big - or as small - as you want. It is your own world to master and shape as you see fit."

"How big can I make it?"

"Tales tell of genies who, bored out of their minds, crafted entire universes within their vessels. Others fit entire civilizations within, saving them from certain destruction..."

"Err, I think I am going to stick with my own personal home for now... I think a planet or a universe are out of my league at the moment."

"No problem! I'm approaching eight hundred and I still keep mine to a nice little house... Although I think it might be more accurately a mansion at this point, with all the extra space I've added over the years..."

"I think I know what I want for now..." Ariel began waving her arms around, conducting things to appear out of nowhere. Wood panels and planks of various colors swirled around them, forming new walls and floors piece by piece. "You see, whenever I was feeling lost and alone, I imagined a place where I could feel safe. A cabin of sorts, with a fireplace and a comfortable couch, where I could sit and let it melt all of my stress away..." As she reminisced about the dream, a series of smooth, round rocks formed and stacked themselves into a fireplace, a fire roaring to life within before settling into a calm dance. A couch formed next to Ariel, with a good view of the fire's soft glow. As Ariel sat into it, Eris felt the new furnishing. It was divinely soft, like sitting on a cloud, reassuring to the touch.

"I take it things didn't go well for you to have to imagine a place like this... I saw some of your memories while I was delivering the Edict to you, but they were rushed because you were dying. I couldn't make out many of them, but I saw some things. How you wanted to be a girl from a young age, how you had bullying problems growing up... And how your parents rejected you when you came out."

Ariel looked down. "Yeah. I tried making friends, but I was too sensitive and too girly for the guys, and I was too much of a guy for the girls. If only they knew..." Then she closed her eyes. "I knew my parents weren't going to be happy with it. Eventually, I had to say something, but..." Tears started to form.

"I’m so sorry you had to go through that. How long ago was that?"

"One year ago and some change, my eighteenth birthday. They kicked me out the same day, with nothing I once owned."

"How did you get to starving to death on the streets?"

"Once I was kicked out, the streets were all I had. At first, I was able to make use of services for homeless people. I thought, with enough time, I could get my life on track... Then my parents legally declared me dead, and every service shut its doors on me. Because I was 'technically dead,' no one using my legal name could possibly be alive to use services. I couldn't get anything. That was a month ago."

"That's... Horrible."

"If my parents wanted me dead, then... They almost succeeded."

"Maybe, in a way, you did die?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Who you were, the boy they knew that had that name... That was you, but now you’re a powerful magic being that is definitely not a boy and goes by another name. The boy you were 'died' so you could be reborn as Ariel the Angelic Genie. You are not beholden to your old life anymore."

"That's a nice way to look at it at least... No one is going to look for the old me any more..."

If only she knew…

More of Ariel's new home was coming together, with some pieces flying in from who knows where, placing themselves where they belonged while others simply materialized in place. Her multi-level home was coming together nicely, with a complete kitchen in open view of the living space that she formed first, and a spiral, black-coated metal staircase forming to make its way to a second-floor balcony observing the space.

"I've noticed you made some mentions about your own life. It seems like you had quite a ride yourself. Care to share it?" Ariel asked.

END OF PART 3

By Erica Chrisman (CrystalSeaDragon44)