The game show set shifted away, Jeavell’s broad face kept smiling even as it faded from existence.

It was all gone, leaving Devon alone with her twin heart beats.

”Suppose any direction will do.” She said.

It didn’t take long before they saw something on the horizon.

It was a crystal castle, like something out of a storybook, or what buildings must have looked like when the Grand was in their prime. Massive spires corkscrewed up out of sight, readable architecture clashed with raw slabs of ametrine, round windows peering out of harsh graphite walls, surrounded by a garden of malachite. Wide frames of angelite were walls that curved into and merged with the castle, smaller houses of obsidian sitting like bouquets inside. A cluster of blue kyanite hovering above served as the sky.

“That’s clearly a trap.”

“You know a surprising amount about crystals.”

Being able to identify each type was not something Devon ever assumed herself capable of. It was Adam, his knowledge seeping into her brain like water on bread.

“You’re ignoring my statement. Why are we walking towards it?”

He was being extra snippy today. Well Devon couldn’t blame him.

“It’s been an awfully strange two hours, hasn’t it?” She said, wiping blood from her mouth.

The sound of her footsteps rebounded off walls she couldn’t see. The sky was blank and aside from some scuff marks, so was the floor. At least the castle was something, she could really go for something tangible.

“I don’t like the signatures I’m getting from there.”

“Oh, does it reek of Jeavell?” She assumed the wannabe lothario had given up on conventional means of murder, and was now aiming for her to die of boredom.

“It reeks of… it’s hard to say, I still don’t fully understand Needles, their smells are richer than Remarks, but muddier too.”

“Were there a lot of them back in your day?” Adam seemed familiar with them.

“Wyrm Lords used them.”

She smiled. Devon didn’t expect that name to be evoked. “My dad told me Wyrm Lords never existed, that it was um, propaganda to demonize anyone who opposed the Grand Council.” She broke into a light jog.

“I am telling you they existed, and I am telling you they were something to fear.” His tone tight in her brain. He was more concerned than her. Not a new dynamic, not at all, but, well,

there was a small speck running in circles in front of the castle. Who could that be?

”I killed myself three times back there.” A good thing to get off your chest, no matter the situation.

As if it had heard her, the strange little splotch near the castle stopped, and ran for her at breakneck speed.

”Watch it.”

“I see them, I see them.” She got into her dueling pose as a mere formality. It was clearly just a person, probably a placebo. A scared looking boy, he kept turning back to the castle, as if expecting someone to pop out and grab him.

She didn’t need Adam to clock this guy wasn’t a threat.

“The smell’s getting thicker.”

With impossible stillness, an aberration stumbled out from behind the crystal castle.

It was a lumbering, unathletic sort. 4 heads connected by fuzzy necks to a body low to the ground, 3 legs on each side. It was made out of crystals.

”A Hydra.”

“Oh wow that’s-“

”Can you fight??” The kid had run right to her. In his hand a foul smelling Remark, roughly axe shaped.

Adam groaned, like he had suddenly been shoved. She didn’t know why.

The Hydra, as Adam called it, was moving towards them in an altogether unintimidating manner. The heads swaying in the air, always on the verge of getting tangled.

“Can you fight??” He grabbed her shoulders, his hands shockingly cold.

”Yeah, yeah I can actually.” Adam had gone quiet. She got out of her pose and turned towards the Hydra. Whatever was happening here was hers to deal with.

”Good, good. I’ll run interference, do the hard part basically. All you need to do is jump up there and cut off the heads at the neck. Make sure to get all four.”

There was something about the boy that put her at ease. It was rare to see someone with her exact brown skin tone. Outside of a few of the fishermen and dockworkers, Gutworth’s prevailing colors were white, blue, and green. Though she had seen people with purple and orange complexions on occasion. Once she had seen someone whose skin was a checkerboard pattern of black and white, but she doubted they had been born like that.

She stretched her arms, Adam facing forward like an extension of her hand, “How’d you end up here?”

”Talk later,” the Hydra had picked up speed, and up close it suddenly didn’t seem as laughable.

The boy made good on his side of the plan, yelling and hooting enough to distract a majority of the heads. He jumped over their scattered snaps and half hearted bites. It was impressive.

Certainly not the hard part.

She bolted to the Hydra. She could still use Adam, both as a Remark and as a power source, but he had remained silent. What to make of that? What to make of this;

She slid under the left back leg of the beast.

One of the heads followed, its mouth jagged crystals that snapped wide. She jumped over it and slashed straight through the neck on the descent. Head no.1 dealt with. 3 more to go.

The boy was doing something that made the Hydra back up. Bad news for her, she scuttled out from below and was greeted by head no.2. The head bared teeth sharper than the last. She faked left and tried to go right.

The head checked her and she was close to falling. It rocketed towards her and she kept her balance by ramming Adam through the top lip.

She hoisted herself up. The Hydra bled rubies.

“You’re doing great!” The boy yelled, facing the other two heads.

She stuck out her tongue. Head no.2 shook off the blood loss with another attempt at swallowing her whole. She took Adam, jammed him into the cheek, and with an urge, sent him flying out of her hand and down the neck.

She didn’t stop there. She shoved Adam through the now gaping open wound down to the Hydra’s stomach, and just went wild. With a wave of her hand she made him go ham on the things internal organs.

A two octave scream by the remaining heads as their body failed them. Adam burst out of the other side like a surprise in a cake.

Now that was the hard part.

The kid approached, looking appropriately shocked by how easily she handled it. “Wow… you said you knew how to fight, I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

”Why would you?” She said, her tone haughty. If Adam was verbal he’d check her ego, thank Grand he wasn’t.

He gave her a once over, his eyes lingering on her breasts. The attention wasn’t unwelcome. “Oh yeah, I guess… I haven’t seen a lot of other people.” He turned away from her, his face in profile strangely flat, the way his mouth opened in a wedge didn’t help, “hey guys, you can come out now.”

From a large pink crystal rock scampered out hundreds of dancing crystals. They were little crystal people, no two alike. They frolicked and jumped around, circling Devon and the kid. It felt too adorable for an empty void.

”Devon, you did it!” Said one of them, its voice strangely deep.

She was about to ask how it knew her name when the kid answered, “Well thankfully I had help, what was your name?” The kid said, there were a bundle of the crystal people in his arms, playing and laughing.

“Um, Devon.”

“That’s odd,” he said, his tone not letting on that he found it so, “that's my name too.”

Things shifted into focus. The half remembered face suddenly so clear.

So this is what she would look like today, if she had never changed.

…

“I remember being in a place very different from this. Nothing but faces contorted into pits and lights that burned.”

They were in a small alcove of the castle, situated in front of a glass wall that revealed a bustling market place full of crystal folk. Other Devon was telling her what he remembered. It wasn’t much.

”Honestly, I thought that was normal for people.” He played with his Remark, the eye on the axe now undeniable. “I don’t know if it’s normal for people to encounter other thems.”

The eye of her father seemed to wink at her.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Not in my experience,” Devon said, even though the last few hours had been filled with nothing but.

“Hey, how did you-“ He gestured vaguely towards her body, “I don’t think there’s a polite way to ask this.”

”When and how I became a girl you mean.”

He had a stupid smile on his face, and nodded lazily. “Yeah, uh, that. How?”

Devon put a hand to her chest. “Well, this may sound ridiculous, but I fell into a river, and I came out with a body that… suited me better, you could say.” She didn’t mention Capacity, or even that this body had an owner before her. She didn’t mention that that was why Adam sought her out. She especially didn’t mention that it was only recently that her body had started to feel like her own.

“That’s not ridiculous. My only friends have been talking rocks. I’m in no place to judge.”

“So you ended up here when?”

”When I was a kid, years ago.” It felt like there was more to it, but Other Devon didn’t divulge.

Beneath the fogged windows crystal folk paraded one of the heads of the Hydra through the street. They had it in a crystal wheelbarrow unfit for the task, pushed by a crystal folk even more ill suited.

“I’ve been helping them, it’s all I’ve ever known really. They’re my family, but they’re fragile. They break easily, so I had to learn to fight.” He flexed decent biceps, through he was slightly scrawnier than her. In a perverse sort of way, it made her feel superior.

“Same, well, not exactly.” She held up Adam, “So this guy found me. My Remark was similar to yours, just weaker. He gave me his Remark.” Not a lie, just avoiding a far more complicated truth.

“Oh, can I see your original Remark?”

She jolted up, rail straight. The thought terrified her. It was like he had asked her to strip.

With a smile, she played it off as well as she could by leaning back and placing sweaty palms out of sight. “Naw, it's not much to see. Adam’s the only Remark I need.”

The thought of summoning her original Remark was interesting, just not in front of herself. She pictured her Remark and his, staring each other down and giving the meanest stink eyes. It was actually pretty funny. Everything else about the idea terrified her, but that image was funny.

Other Devon leaned forward, the small wooden chair creaked underneath him. “Is it okay if I see him for a second? Hold him, I mean.”

“Um, sure.” She handed Adam off to Other Devon. “Be careful around the edges, he’s very sharp.” She brought up her hands as proof, she was covered in scars. Some recent, some scabbed over, some clearly infected.

The Other Devon whistled like she just did a handstand. He placed Adam’s sharp edge on his smooth brown skin, balancing the silent Remark on his palm.

“You’ve both been through a lot.” He pressed down hard, and Adam broke through the skin. Healthy pink blood bled out and dripped down, staining the floor.

Reflections, from her limited experience, did not bleed.

With his other hand he engulfed Adam, and with a flick of his wrist he had him in a crude dueling pose. The sort of stance Devon would have taken as a kid. Back when she knew nothing but thought she knew everything.

It took a considerable amount of willpower to not draw attention to the blood. “Hey, let me show you something.” She got up and walked behind, skillfully positioning his body till he was striking the dueling stance that Adam had drilled into her. “It may feel weird, but we’ve killed some unmeasurably powerful people with that stance.”

”I wish I could be like you. Actually doing things that matter.”

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short, you’ve been protecting these guys.” She glanced out the window. Outside, the wheelbarrow had fallen over and several of the crystal folk were pinned under the Hydra head, struggling to get free.

Huh. Something had clearly gone wrong since her last look a moment ago. “Hey, speaking of, you might wanna help them out.”

Other Devon didn’t even bother checking the scene outside, his expression made it clear that being in crisis was the default for the crystal folk. He sighed, and dropped Adam on his chair as he got out of the stance. “Never a dull moment. I’ll be back in a bit.” He gave a mock salute practically flung himself down the stairs and out of sight.

As soon as he was gone, Adam came to life gasping for breath.

”Thank Grand, I thought he would never leave.”

“Welcome back,” she said warmly. She watched out the window to the courtyard, waiting for her others to show. “I didn’t hear him in my head at all, you didn’t have to mask yourself.”

”That's the trouble, I wasn’t. His signature was so like yours that it canceled my own perception. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t feel, I was trapped in a bag of deprivation that only opened when he was nice enough to leave.”

He floated up next to her and tapped on the window pane with his tip. “Devon, why did he leave?”

“The crystal folk, um, kind of got crushed?” She motioned to the Hydra head.

Other Devon ran into view in a panic. Getting into a squatting position, he slowly tipped the head upward, creating enough negative space for the pinned crystal folk to slip out unharmed. Exhausted, he released his hold and the head fell hard, shattering into hundreds of pieces.

“I see, I see.” He pivoted to her. “Why are we humoring this charade?”

“It’s… he… we don’t know how to leave.” The crystal folk had formed a ring around him and were doing some sort of dance. The smallest crystal folk jumped up and landed in Other Devons arms, who cradled it like a baby. “And he’s, you know, interested in the outside world. He’s never seen it.”

Adam sputtered, if he had saliva she would have been sprayed with spittle. “He’s puppeteered by a Constant, he only started existing when we saw him and he’ll stop existing as soon as we leave.”

“Oh come on,” she said, “so how is this any different from a placebo?”

”The placebos were here first.” He said plainly. ”And they weren’t controlled by something… well, not initially.”

Sick of getting into moral arguments with him (she always seemed to lose), she tried a different approach. “Okay, I get what you mean when it comes to the other reflections, they were bad jokes come to life, but this ones different. Yeah, clearly he’s not real, but he thinks he is. That’s gotta count for something.”

She looked down at him. The way he’d shake his hair and brush it away from his eyes, even when there was nowhere to brush. There were a thousand other little details, but that was the one. It wasn’t a behavior she had ever seen in herself, and maybe that was why it felt so important.

”He… has had a whole life here, or, atleast, he thinks he does.” She turned away from the window. Somehow, discussing the ethics of killing a kid was harder when you could see them.

”I never said we had to kill him.”

“If he’s controlled by Jeavell it’s inevitable.” she held her hands out to the ceiling and clenched down like she was pulling on two invisible handles. Her pecs pumped, her triceps bulged. If only she had some weight to pull right now. She needed to see if this place had a gym once Jeavell was dead. “He bled by the way. Bright pink.”

This threw him. He skidded by the window (leaving a nasty gash on the pane) “I need to see- oh, you mean right here.”

He sampled the blood oh the floor (dipping his tip into it, letting it soak into his cracks) and his rhythm skipped a beat.

“Weird, right?”

“That is concerning.”

“He's clearly not a reflection,” she stressed the word clearly, stretching it out till it was at risk of snapping. “Not in the same way as the others.”

“And he has your body. The one from before you fell into the Shifting Waters?”

“Well, yeah, if a bit older.”

He hovered in the air, not saying anything. The pink blood leaked out. It dripped down to the floor at the rate of his rhythm. Plop. Plop.

“We need to leave.”

All at once footsteps soldiered up the stairs. Adam’s rhythm retreated as the steps got closer.

“I understand exactly what is going on.”

But whatever it was Devon did not hear. He was already gone.

Other Devon burst in, looking like he had experienced three nights of insomnia in the span of three minutes.

“Devon 2!” He said, his fingers tapping restlessly on the walls.

“Just call me Devon, I’ll do the same for you.”

He shook his head and turned away slightly. There was a strange passivity to his gaze, nothing here holding his interest. What the Grand had happened outside?

“I met someone else, they just showed up, they say they're a friend of ours.” He breathed heavily, his hands rattled. “Two new people in one day, after years of seeing no one. Wow… wow!”

”Wait, who are they?” Devon called after him. He was already halfway down the stairs.

His voice echoed back, “Oh, you’ll know her I think, she looks just like you. She says her name is-“

…

Capacity sat cross legged on a mound of graphite which rose up from the floor like a scab.

They were outside the castle gates. Other Devon was fawning, tapping his hand to his leg as he lead the way. “She says she’s the one you got your body from. Pretty neat, huh?”

To someone like Other Devon, sure. You could call it neat. He didn’t have to live with the implications. He would never be reminded.

Obviously this one was a Jeavell reflection. It had his handiwork, the over considered movement, the uncanniness that made the similarities all the more taxing. None of the fear she got when thinking of Capacity was prompted by this reflection. Just a slightly taller, nicer version of herself with a floral dress and a big sunhat, for some reason. Didn’t really seem like a Capacity thing to be dressed for the beach, but this was all Jeavell’s doing, his info on Capacity was probably as limited as hers. Really, all she knew about Capacity is she never wanted to meet her.

Good thing she was dead. Or, at least, one would assume.

As Devon walked up Capacity unfurled a blanket and placed it in front of her as if they were about to have a picnic.

“Welcome, welcome. Care for refreshments?”

Capacity raised a pitcher. Within a moment Adam had shattered it. Yellow liquid stained the hill and trickled down in runny streams.

“Devon? What are you-“

She didn’t answer Other Devon. A single slash was all it took. Capacity, this reflection calling itself Capacity, shattered.

”NO!” Other Devon ran as quick as he could, but when he arrived all that was left of her was dust.

The kid fell on his hands and knees and groaned like he was gonna faint.

“She told me that she had a secret to tell me, and that she wanted you to hear it too.” He looked up, tears were welling in his eyes but he was trying his best to stop it, “do you know what it…” he hung his head down, the last word a shudder.

This was bad. There was a level of tact she could have used that she had completely disregarded. This was the sort of thing Adam would chide her about. Complicated feeling to have him absent now. Of all the times…

“I’m sorry. Listen, she was bad news, and not even real.” With Adam she motioned to the very inorganic remains, “I don’t think her secret was real. People lie or talk through their ass all the time.”

”Thats an awful world.”

She sighed, sweeped the glass away with her feet. “You’re welcome to stay here instead.”

”But I don’t want to. Why should I let you have all the fun?” He swayed back and forth, like a hanging body left to dry.

“Okay, then lets go.” She stamped once on the mound and did her best impression of someone with her shit together. “Lets leave together, I know where to go.”

”I don’t think you do. Capacity did. She said your body was once hers. She was gonna lead us out… but then you killed her.” There was no anger in his voice. He was speaking as if this was a clear assessment of the situation. Was it?

”Yeah cause she-“ She stopped herself from saying that wasn’t the real Capacity. It would only lead to more questions if she actually told him the truth. “I have history with her.”

“No you don’t” He said. “You’ve never seen me before.”

Her heart dropped like a stone.

His face was still covered by his hair, but there was a clear change in his everything. His limbs were now poised, ready to strike. His voice possessing an authority that clearly didn’t fit. Something was very wrong.

The white sky darkened until it was the same shade as the mound. Other Devon raised his head slowly, drawing out the moment until she saw the glint in his eyes. They were bright purple.

“Question,” He said, his arms unfurling as his head tilted to the left. “Do you think it’s only fair, that if someone took my body, that I should then take theirs?”