CHAPTER 32: 100 YEARS P4
~32.4~
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“What I want is to take you back with me.” She shook her head and smiled. “But I know you need to stay here.” She stepped closer and kissed Alethea on her forehead. “Remember, my dear daughter, you matter more to me than anything else.” She turned to Kye next. “And you know my conditions. I know how much you want to take care of Elysium, and unlike your idiot father, I’m not going to make you choose. You figure out how to make your family happy, and you have my support. Most important of all, though,” she gestured at Alethea.
“I know she’s your treasure. She’s mine, too, you know.”
“Yes, but the main reason for my visit was to give both of you this warning.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and as she opened them, devil wings sprouted from her back and her eyes turned red. “Your souls are saturated. Xera is bound by causality and cannot tell you this, but I am not. Neither of you can take any more darkness. The death of Kye Akari and the death of Alethea Atlantis were your last each.”
“What are you saying?”
She snapped her finger and Sanae appeared next to them. She then touched Sanae’s forehead and implanted the memory of the last few minutes directly into her mind.
“I knew this was coming,” Sanae said. She sighed. “I meant to deal with this myself before, but I got attached and grew weak.”
“You did,” Mavel said. “And now I am placing a restriction on the souls of Elysia Alexandria and Maya Alexandria.” Her body soon glowed in rainbow energy, and then she wrapped the three of them in it. “Elysia’s current body is a fusion of Elysia Athas and Kye Akari. Alfia’s current body is only Sanae Akari. Maya’s current body is a fusion of Maya Athas and Alethea Atlantis. I am making a few adjustments. Now, all three of you will have DNA from your original living world bodies.”
“First, Elysia, you will now have mixed DNA of Elysia Alexandria, Elysia Athas, and Kye Akari. Second, Alfia, you will now have mixed DNA of Elysia Alexandria, Alfia Athas, and Sanae Akari.” She glanced at Maya and sighed. “Third, Maya, you will now have mixed DNA of Maya Alexandria, Maya Athas, and the fully female Alethea Atlantis that was granted to you by Xera, whose biological parents are Atalante Atlantis and Atlan Atlantis. The assigned male at birth Alethea is still available to you via Morph, but I am going to meddle here a bit.”
Alethea backed away hesitantly. “What do you mean?”
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“Maya sweetie, I understand that you have grown to accept the assigned male at birth part of your Alethea identity. But you don’t need to hold on to it. You don’t need to morph into that body to have what it has that your female body does not. For now, I will leave them as they are, but I want you to think about it. I suppressed your memories of certain aspects of your living world childhood because they caused you dysphoria.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know that the demonkind in the living world are hermaphrodites. We’re born with both, and though I am half demon, I was also born with both. But gender identities vary little among demons. For example, my father identifies exclusively as male. He is binary male and suppressed his female half completely, as demons can do.”
“I remember that, yes.”
“You also remember that you don’t have two parents. I had you on my own. Which is uncommon, but it happens. Most are binary, but I am in the small percentage of the demon population that is different. I hate labels like transgender woman, cisgender woman, nonbinary, and so on. Some would label me transgender, some would label me non binary, but I’m just me. I am simply a woman with both.”
“Yes... I remember.”
“I suppressed this part. Your original living world body is just like mine... half-demon, half-cat. You were born with both, and the male half caused you dysphoria. You don’t remember that part, and you won’t unless you want to. You can choose to remember it or choose to leave it suppressed. You can also choose to have only the female half, or you can choose to have both. You have partially conquered that part of your dysphoria because of your partner’s love.”
“That’s crazy...”
“But it’s true. You have used your morph ability willingly to have the male side for reasons that I don’t need to state. The keyword is ‘willingly’. I want you to think about this and then pray to me when you have decided what to do. I will help you with this problem. Whatever you want the end result to be is what you will get. You can choose to keep the two parts completely separate, you can choose to rid yourself of the mortal body that was born male, you can choose to have both with your demon magic to... have any configuration you want at will. Whatever you want to do, I am giving you the choice.”
Alethea looked down. As she considered what her mother had just told her, some things about her started to make sense. “Whatever the case ends up being, there is one thing that will remain.”
“Of course.”
“I am a woman.”
“You are indeed.” Mavel kissed her forehead again. “I love you, sweetie. Pray to me when you make your choice. I support you in everything you want.” She glanced back at Kye and Sanae. “And one more thing. This goes for all three of you. Because your souls are saturated, I am reminding you of something that you should already know. You can pray to me. Both halves of Elysia’s soul and Maya’s soul have my blessing. You are my champions of balance. You may both use the prayers for the Hand of Justice and the Hand of Judgment. But also know that my blessing comes at a price.”
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Revision: 2024-10-11