<~*~ Prologue ~*~>

One action can change a life. It can bring about a change so great it rips the heart and twists the soul. It can show the true person behind the façade, the person you secretly knew existed, but always hoped you locked away and threw away the key.

Jealousy is such an evil bitch.

Tears cloud her eyes and her heart pounds loud in her ears as she looks down at the syringe the Maker-mage held out for her. The greenish pink liquid held within the glass vial looked pearlescent, sort of whimsical in color, almost harmless. Yeisha’s stomach churned watching the serum shimmer in the tube. She wanted to vomit. Her hands trembled as she reached for the syringe as if trying to deny that damn object. But the quivering of her conscience wasn’t a sufficient enough force to silence the indignation that raged within. She clenched her jaw to steel herself and with an unsteady hand, took the offered syringe. 

““Before you inject the subject, you need to will your mana into the vial to activate the serum,”” the robed Maker-mage instructed in Common. ““A spark is needed to ignite the change and create life anew.””

Yeisha thumbed the glass, rolling it around in hand. Infusing it with her magic made it seem too personal. But then again, if it wasn’t personal she wouldn’t be standing here holding this. Her stomach lurched. 

“‘Why mine?”’ Yeisha uttered in Arretain. “‘Isn’t that the point of you Maker-mages?”’

‘“Yu-You speak—?’” He cleared his throat. ‘“Well, obviously it needs to be you because you are the one who brought this soul here, thus your mana should be responsible for bestowing upon her a new enlightenment.’” 

‘“A new enlightenment,’” she said, barely holding back her sneer. The thought of ‘enlightening’ him that not everyone from Arretay was a pale-skin briefly entered her mind,

“‘It’s a great honor,”’ he added. “‘You are granting this poor soul the gift of new flesh. By the blending of Dra and Sel’s children, the two become one. She’ll be transformed anew as a true child of both gods of creation in a grand rebirth.’”

She swallowed and nodded. Yes, a grand rebirth, but not just for the poor soul chained to the cave wall.

Yeisha stepped forwards, her hands still trembling as she held the syringe. The island woman didn’t even whimper. She just kneeled there, sitting as instructed, indifferent and submissive as if the chains bothered her not at all. Did she not care about her fate? She was young, probably around Yeisha’s own age of eighteen. Just another immature young woman. 

Or was it more accurate to say mature? Yes, mature enough to stand for herself and take back what she wanted.

Yes, with this act, she too will be reborn.

Yeisha nodded to herself, she could do this. Her heart leapt in throat as if desperately trying to reason with her mind one last time. Her hands shook even harder. It felt as though the little glass syringe was made of lead—cold, heavy, and dead like a broken heart. She tightened her grip on it and swallowed the lump in her throat.  

She nodded to the Maker-mages on either side of the woman. 

They tightened the restraints. The chains went taut, pulling the young woman’s arms up over her head and thus, rendering her immobile. The islander didn’t even try to pull herself free, she just sat there with her head bowed between her upraised arms. Strains of long black hair fell across her face, blocking her vision and making her appear even more despondent. She blew out her breath and started rubbing her head as much as she could against an arm, trying to either scratch an itch or adjust her hair away from her face. Both of which seemed odd given her current predicament. But in doing so, that pregnant belly of hers jutted outwards drawing Yeisha’s attention. It was as if the woman was proudly displaying the physical evidence of her betrayal—Elric had chosen this wench over her. 

Yeisha, in her hurt and bitterness, brought the woman here to this place of vindictive retribution all because of her inability to show grace in the face of rejection. But it was not some petty desire that brought her here, no, she was going to show Elric that she was not someone to be taken lightly. She could be shrewd and calculating too. 

She was much more worthy to stand by his side than this wench… More precisely, the Yeisha standing here and now was far superior than the pathetic wench she once was herself. She could shove down her humanity and be just as ruthless in obtaining her goals as him.

Her hands carefully covered the syringe and she ignited her mana, willing it to activate the mutation components within. The serum’s pearlescent sheen glowed bright before settling to a shade of vibrant pink. It was an oddly playful color considering its nature. Yeisha swallowed. She never did like that cheerful, loud color.

Both Maker-mages nodded. Yeisha seized the woman’s forearm, her own hands shaking, and plunged the needle into her inner elbow. Her stomach rolled as the needle pierced the island woman’s skin. Even though she inwardly recoiled at the act, her thumb still pushed down on the plunger, releasing the mutating serum into the pregnant woman. 

Yeisha shuddered in revulsion and the needle dropped from her limp fingers. 

Was it always this easy to become cruel? 

The young woman stared up at her with eyes so dark they looked black; eyes that always seem to stare down into the depths of her soul, judging her. Yeisha indeed felt judged, unworthy of even love. The man she loved scorned her, and that feeling of rejection only increased the larger this petite islander’s stomach had become. 

After all she’d done, she still wasn’t enough… Yeisha stared down at the empty syringe just lying there in the dirt and rocks of the cave floor. Her heart sank.

“‘Oh Wia, what have done?”’

‘“The goddess of wisdom is probably praising your fortitude, my dear,”’ a Maker-mage said, answering her murmured lament.

Yeisha bit her check to keep from lashing out. Her wallowing in her own self-pity didn’t require the pious response of some Maker-mage fanatic. 

The woman groaned, rattling the chains as she began to squirm under the effects of the serum. She tried bringing her arm closer to her mouth to suck the poison from the pinprick, but the chains would not let her. It was the first real act of self preservation the woman had shown since Yeisha brought her here. 

Not once had the pregnant woman even tried to fight off Yeisha when she pulled her from Elric’s cabin and led her to the transport platform onboard the ship, though she did cause them to stumble a few times as she kept staring off to watch the ocean waves crash against the shore. While suddenly being teleported to the holding cave did startle her, it wasn’t enough to break her out of her passive trance. There wasn’t even one iota of concern for herself or her unborn as the Maker-mages led her to one of the small recesses inside the cave and chained her to the wall. She just obediently obeyed, as if being escorted on some mundane school trip instead being clapped in irons and forced to partake in Elric’s morbid little social science experiment. But now she…

She shook her head in rage and snarled something Yeisha couldn’t comprehend, but the sentiment behind the words was clear. 

““I’m sorry, this truly isn’t personal…well, it is personal, but nothing against you, really,”” Yeisha prattled on in Common, knowing full well the woman didn’t understand any language she spoke. But her nerves were shot and so was her conscience, causing her to ramble, ““I just…”” 

Yeisha trailed off and just stood there mesmerized, watching those dark irises of hers swirl to a deep indigo as if a tidal wave swept in and washed the brown away. Goosebumps ran up her own flesh as the serum took hold of the island girl and faded her reddish-brown complexion to a bleached out white. Grey began to fill that absence of pigmentation, darkening the woman’s skin to a stormy… No, not grey, but black, black as the hole that engulfed Yeisha’s heart. The islander’s ears elongated to form a pointed tip, not as pointy as that of an elf, but still far more than any humans naturally would. She groaned out a low wail, and at the same time, a cow-like tail broke free from the confines of the woman’s skirt to swish back and forth pooling the black tresses crowning its tip like a silky puddle. 

Yeisha swallowed the sickening feeling that rose in her throat as she watched the pregnant woman thrashed about. Pregnant! The woman was carrying Elric’s child, and that child was suffering the same fate. Yes, she wanted to be rid of the woman, but the unborn child…