The room was very plain. There was a bookshelf with a scarce amount of books, a cupboard holding a few crystal glasses and plates, a drawer that supported a framed painting of a famous musician, and a set of crystallized glass doors that likely went out to a balcony. A very small amount of personal items were visible. Otherwise, it was a regular room with a large quilted bed.

“Pretty great, huh?” Lucelle asked sarcastically. She went over to the drawer. “One moment, please.” She rummaged through the top one and pulled a small, pinkish-gray sphere from it. She carried it to the center of the room and held it up, then it began to glow. To Emily’s surprise, it began shooting beams of energy against the various walls, manifesting items from almost nothing. A magical oakwood desk and chair formed near the bed. A tall glass pillar full of luminescent fish in water appeared in the corner. The painting on the drawer came to life, lifted up a painted lute, and began to play a song. Lucelle let the sphere stay up in the air and it floated, now emitting light blue rays of light. The sun no longer shined through the glass balcony doors.

Emily looked with eyes full of wonder. “This is amazing, how did you do this?”

“Charms and enchantments. Your mother taught me, Emily.”

“It looks great, honestly.” She walked over and sat down on the bed. As she sat down, the covers began to mold around her. It felt like she was sinking into the bed, but when she looked down, she was able to see that layers of the sheets and blankets had disappeared, as if a hole was cut around where she sat. She put down a hand on the bed, seeing the same thing happen. “Wow, what is this for?” She noticed that her hand felt as if it was covered and warm.

“Don’t have to make my bed, silly. It keeps itself in place even though I sleep in it. Well, when I’m here, that is.”

Emily looked up at her. “Who was that man and woman?”

“‘Nagin’ is what he said to call himself. I think he is just a glorified bodyguard, but I guess we will really see soon enough, huh? The other one... Belle or something was what Lady Ever- Er, your mother called her. I’ve never seen her before.”

“He was being a jerk. She was really pretty, though, don’t you think?”

Lucelle nodded. “A lot better looking than I am, that’s for sure.”

“I don’t think so,” Emily debated. Lucelle looked over, not sure of what to say. Emily continued, “I think you have a special charm to you. You’re genuine, unlike many of the patrons and women I used to have to deal with.”

Lucelle still wasn’t entirely sure of what to say. “Thank you, Emily. It means a lot to me.”

“I bet people would still like you so much even if you weren’t such a beautiful woman. You really know how to make someone feel good, Lucelle.”

“Do you think so?”

“I know so,” Emily concluded.

“Hm.” Lucelle looked down at her hands. She stood up and walked over to the cupboard where there was now glowing liquid in each of the crystal glasses. She opened it up, took one glass, and downed it in seconds. She shook her head quickly and put the glass back afterwards, then went to sit back down. The sphere above them dimmed a bit and Emily had a hard time picking out the finer details of Lucelle’s features. “I’m not exactly what I say I am,” Lucelle said quietly.

“I don’t think I understand.”

Lucelle stayed silent for what seemed to be a long time. After a while, she opened her hands in front of her. The palms were a distinctly different color than her seemingly natural pale shade of skin. Emily stared wide-eyed as Lucelle put her hands up to her head. From them, her skin began to change color as well. It became dark gray and black with an odd, extremely smooth texture. She almost appeared to have just shed herself to reveal a silky, new, and blackened hide. Her hair became scaly and maroon-colored. It appeared to have thick layers over many other layers, thickening her hair without actually growing. From the left and right sides of her head, the skin ruptured without bleeding and iron-colored spikes began to grow.

“What...?” Was all Emily could muster during the change.

Lucelle kept her eyes closed and her hands to her head as the spikes grew into two curled horns. She removed her hands once all of the changes were made. Her fingernails were now black and clawed. Inside her slightly ajar mouth, Emily saw fanged teeth. She opened her eyes to reveal bright yellow, cat-like pupils. She stood up and pulled on the rope around her waist before shrugging off the robes. Emily backed up, perhaps out of fear, while Lucelle’s figure was revealed. Her whole body appeared silky. There were no nipples on her chest and her bellybutton was nonexistent. Her underside curved but had no signs of natural female parts. From the bottom of her lower waist, Emily could see a lion-esque tail protruding from her body. It curled around Lucelle’s right leg as she went to sit back down.

Lucelle looked over at Emily, showing confidence with a hint of worry on her face. “This... is me. The... real me.” She blinked, showing secondary, nearly transparent eyelids. After Emily kept staring, she looked down and away. “Not as beautiful as you thought... huh?”

Emily whispered something incomprehensible under her breath.

“What?” Lucelle looked back up at her.

Emily spoke up. “Amazing.” Lucelle said nothing, and Emily went on, “Absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen anything so... exotic and unearthly.” She inched forward and held out a hand, hesitantly reaching to feel her right horn. After being allowed, she wrapped a hand around it. “You are a work of art.”

“You are... Just saying that to make me feel better.” Lucelle frowned, holding back tears.

“Not at all,” Emily persisted as she went to run a hand through her hair, feeling each strand nip at her fingers with its spiky texture. “So exquisite, so delicate, so magical...” She then went to take hold of her hand and feel each individual claw. “The parallel to the baby of a demon and an angel. Absolutely out of this world, Lucelle.” After running a hand over her almost slippery thigh, Emily went to feel her tail which, as expected, wrapped around her arm. “Is Lucelle your real name?”

“It is,” Lucelle sounded like she felt better. “You don’t think I’m morbidly ugly?”

“Why would I think that? You’re way more amazing-looking than I could ever hope to be.” She tugged lightly on the tail, receiving an “Eep!” from Lucelle. “Oh,” Emily laughed, “I’m sorry!”

Despite her appearance change, a very faint, yet distinguishably red blush formed in her cheeks. “It’s fine, just know that you’re touching a woman. I am not that naïve, but still.”

“I apologize, I just can’t stop myself.” She let go and then returned her hands to herself. “Why don’t you show this part of yourself?”

“Why would I? People see my looks and… I’m a demon, a monster, an abomination. People don’t look up to this. I’m much better off with my regular appearance.”

“I would like to see you more like this.” Emily smiled.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Who knows?”

“Only your grandparents and your mother. Caviere has suspicions whenever he 'becomes' a priest, but he always forgets and doesn’t question me.”

“What did my mother think about it?”

“She respected and admired it, just like you did. However, she felt it was necessary to not be all this around others.”

Emily stayed quiet for a few minutes, simply looking over Lucelle’s new body and skin. Finally, she asked, “Where did you come from?”

This question took Lucelle by surprise. She looked around, then away, and then back at Emily. “I’m not sure,” she said with a small voice.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not exactly sure where I came from. I just… was here.”

“You don’t remember?”

Lucelle shook her head. “Your grandfather found my sister and I near the dungeon a long, long time ago, back when there was only one ritual room. He thought we came in through a portal that had accidentally opened.”

“He thought you were from some other world?”

“Well... I can’t be that far off from you. Your grandfather had a theory that a lesser demon had a child with an Elf or some kind of fairy, which explains my Psionics expertise, but that means I’m the bastard child of an interspecies relationship.”

“Interspecies isn’t bad, I don’t think.”

“It’s wrong, Emily.” Lucelle snapped her head over, then realized her mistake. “I... sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

Emily looked away with a confused expression. “Why would you be sorry for saying that?” After Lucelle simply dismissed the question, she turned her head back to look at Lucelle’s blackened, silky skin. It looked like it was in a constant wet state, but would be almost completely dry to the touch. “How do you do it?” she finally asked.

“Do... what?”

“How do you hold this in all the time? I imagine it would be easier to just let it out sometimes.”

“No, it isn’t easier, really. The fear of what others around will see me as is what keeps it all in. I don’t want to let loose in front of someone I trust and then be something completely different to them in the end.”

“I see... I think, uh...”

“Think what?” Lucelle peered over.

“I... think I-” Emily’s words were cut off by knocking on the door.

“We leave in ten minutes!” Caviere’s voice called through the door. Footsteps followed right afterwards, and Lucelle looked down. Without letting Emily finish her sentence, she focused on the transformation back to her altered self. Her iron-like horns shrunk back into her head, her hair thinned and became blonde and wavy again, and her claws dwindled to fingernails. Her tail disappeared into her body and her skin became splotched with pale white spots.

Emily absentmindedly looked slightly down as Lucelle had begun to look like her “normal” self again. “Wait... how do demons reproduce?” She noticed the smooth underside had stayed.

Lucelle noticed and shut her legs almost instantly, the same blush from before appearing again. “W-well, I don’t really know. I’ve read in books that it is similar to how humans and Elves do, though. Anyways, we should probably get ready to go.” She leaned to get her clothes up off the floor again.

“Right, we should. Oh, I need to go get my bag from Mother’s room.”

Lucelle reached up and plucked the sphere from the air. As quickly as all of the magical items had appeared, they disappeared into the sphere again. “Go ahead, I’ll catch up.” With that, Emily went to leave, making sure to open the door as narrow as possible. Lucelle, alone, recapped what had happened over the last hour or so. Why would she accept me for that... diluted version... of my truest self? Does she really think it wouldn’t be bad for me to be like that all the time? Have times really changed?