Chapter 10

Mystery looked poleaxed. She stared at Rhapsody with wide eyes as her mouth moved but no sound came out.

“I thought you had to transition from a star before you could become a magical being,” Harmony said, furrowing her brows. “Is there another way for us to become world trees?”

“Yes,” Rhapsody nodded, eying them thoughtfully. “I was really angry after my sisters were killed. I know revenge is petty, but I was also concerned for other worlds and their world trees, so I tracked down the spirit walker who was responsible. He put up a good fight but was no match for me in the end. I extracted the magic he had stolen and brought it back to earth. It is useless without vessels to channel it, however. I was planning to use you as the new vessels.”

“He was no match for you?” Harmony squinted at Rhapsody suspiciously. “Hadn’t he just drained a ton of magic from the other world trees here on earth? Wouldn’t that have made him a lot more powerful?”

“He was powerful,” Rhapsody admitted with a shrug. “Just not powerful enough.”

“Just how powerful are you?” Harmony asked curiously.

“She’s a god tier entity,” Taxti told them with a wink at the suddenly scowling Rhapsody. “The fact that she managed to save this world after every other world tree was lost is an insane display of power. This world was extremely fortunate that Rhapsody was here.”

“Is there really a tiered rating system?” Harmony’s mother asked Taxti doubtfully.

“Of course,” Taxti shrugged, staring back at Harmony’s mother through heavily lidded eyes. “We need a method to measure threats by, since protecting this world is one of our responsibilities.”

“What are the tiers?” her mother asked.

“Scrub, human, lion, dragon, demon, chaos lord, archangel, and god,” Taxti replied with another shrug that was slightly distracting.

“I always knew Rhapsody was the strongest,” Aurora informed them matter-of-factly.

Rhapsody smiled indulgently, absently pulling Aurora in for a quick hug.

“Now what?” Harmony asked anxiously. “When do we begin?”

Rhapsody and Taxti both laughed at her eagerness. Harmony’s mother was just as eager, her hands clasped tightly as she watched them keenly.

“It’s not an instant process,” Rhapsody informed them apologetically. “It will take years for your souls to transition and merge with the new roles. We’ll start here with an initiation. It rewrites the blueprints on your soul. Once the new blueprint is in place, it is just a matter of time for your minds to expand and learn how to use the new powers. There is an enormous amount of knowledge that will need to be instilled, but the bandwidth in your consciousness will increase significantly as well. During this time as a seed, you should just continue your normal lives until you reach your first growth spurt. Once that occurs, I will need to be with you at all times to prevent any mistakes. You will have a great deal of power that could hurt others around you unintentionally. I will teach you how to use this power safely and prevent any mistakes from hurting others.”

“Do we get to become fairies too?” Serenity asked hopefully.

“That is a choice that will need to wait a few more years before you and Aurora can make it,” Rhapsody told them gently. “You will also need Harmony’s permission. However, we can unlock your ability to use magic, which will help to prepare you for this role if you decide you want to when the time comes.”

Aurora and Serentiy had looked crestfallen, but when they heard they were going to be able to use magic, their eyes lit up again.

“Um…” Mystery stuttered, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “I think I might need more time to decide.”

“Of course, Mystery,” Rhapsody agreed immediately. “This is a lot to take in, and I wouldn’t want to rush you into a decision of this magnitude without time to consider it thoroughly.”

“I’m sorry; I understand that you’re trying to save the world,” Mystery said apologetically. “I’m just not sure I have what it takes. I need to do some soul-searching first.”

“I completely understand, Mystery,” Rhapsody smiled warmly. “We’ll return you to the other side of the circle. Should you decide you wish to go forward with the transition, pay Harmony a visit.”

“It was nice to meet you, Mystery,” Harmony grinned at the beautiful woman. “I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

“Thank you,” Mystery said with a grateful smile. She turned to Rhapsody, suddenly looking uncertain. Rhapsody snorted a laugh and pulled her into a hug.

“I won’t bite,” Rhapsody told her teasingly.

“I can’t thank you enough for restoring my leg,” Mystery said, her voice thick with emotion.

“You are very welcome,” Rhapsody told her gently. “Goodbye for now, Mystery.”

As Rhapsody finished saying her name, Mystery shimmered like a heatwave and vanished.

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“Where did she go?” Aurora asked in shock.

“She’ll awake outside of the wall near the road in the morning,” Rhapsody told her reassuringly. “I’ve arranged for Eileen to pick her up.”

“I wonder what her hangup was,” Harmony wondered aloud.

“She has some unfinished lessons to learn in life before she’s ready to move on,” Rhapsody answered with a sigh. “I think she’ll be ready before too long though. She’s not as quick as you four, but she’s pretty smart.”

“Okay, enough beating around the bush, let’s make some fairies,” Taxti said eagerly. “I’m soooo tired of waiting to find some new friends who live longer than a century.”

Rhapsody rolled her eyes, which looked particularly dramatic with her larger than life eyes. “Fine. Is everyone ready?”

Excited nods were her only response. With a smile, she raised her hand and the beam of light in the center of the chasm suddenly became blindingly incandescent. “Let’s do this.”

XXXXX

Harmony tried to survey her surroundings, but all she could see was brilliant white light. She couldn’t even see her hands through the radiance.

She felt a strange sensation along the base of her spine that slowly moved up to her neck. It felt like someone was poking her lightly with a needle thousands of times a second, except that it didn’t hurt. The sensation spread out to all of the bones in her body until she felt like she was vibrating constantly. She felt her mind start to disassociate with her body, the sensations becoming no more than a buzz. There was a sensation of movement and then a sudden connection to something white hot and buzzing like high voltage. The heat didn’t affect her, but the buzzing made her feel like she was losing her mind. A moment later the buzzing was diminished to a whisper as some kind of limiter was placed between her and the burning energy.

She knew that the physical sensations she was feeling were the effects of a kind of soul surgery that was complex beyond her imagining. Her mind was fabricating sensory feedback for something that was non-physical. As the thought occurred to her, she suddenly wondered how she had made the connection. Is this part of the expansion of my consciousness? Making intuitive connections of much greater complexity?

Abruptly, her dissociative state ended, and she was back in her body. She gasped at the wealth of new sensations bombarding her mind. The blinding white light was no longer blinding. She had acquired a second sense of sight that viewed the world like a spectrograph. The wavelengths of light, sound, microwaves, and even higher frequency waves were suddenly visible to her. It was a distinctly different visual experience in her mind than normal sight, as if she was now using a multi-threading processor in a computer. She blinked as that thought occurred to her. Since when do I know anything about computers?

Her tactile senses were enhanced so much that when she touched her shirt she could identify each of the fibers and sense all the way down to the chemical bonds that bound their molecular structure together.

She suddenly became aware of the way she smelled. It was like her senses were coming online one at a time. She marveled at the rich flavor of information her mind was able to extract from something as basic as smell. She could tell what kind of soap she used, even what ingredients the soap was made from.

“Just about done,” she heard Rhapsody murmur. The words were the same as ever, but suddenly she could hear every decibel, as well as the precise pitch and timbre of Rhapsody’s voice. No wonder she can play every instrument! This is so cheating!

The brilliant light of the chasm suddenly winked out, leaving the mellow pulsing light of the walls. With her enhanced senses, Harmony could now see that the walls were made up of strands of fibrous cells and neurons. The entire thing was part of Rhapsody’s brain. She’s a giant freaking brain!

“I’m not a giant freaking brain,” Rhapsody told her tartly. “That’s just gross.”

Harmony laughed as she suddenly realized the visual it must have generated. “Okay, how about a planet sized thinking machine?”

“Now I’m a machine?” Rhapsody asked in an injured tone, her large eyes wide with hurt.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Harmony demanded, shielding her eyes. “It makes me feel like I’ve kicked a puppy.”

“How would you know what kicking a puppy feels like?” Rhapsody asked her suspiciously.

“Come on, Rhapsody, you’re killing me here,” Harmony laughed helplessly.

“So now I’m a murderer?” Rhapsody demanded in mock outrage.

“I think you better just stop talking, Harmony,” her mother said in an amused tone. “You’re just digging yourself in deeper.”

Harmony tried to glare at her mother, but gasped when she saw her. “Who are you, and what have you done with my mom?” Harmony demanded in amazement.

“What are you talking about?” her mother asked with a frown.

“Is that really Grandma?” Aurora asked doubtfully.

“I don’t suppose you have a mirror around here somewhere?” Harmony asked Rhapsody.

There were suddenly two standing mirrors in front of them. Her mother gasped as she saw the youthful face looking back at her. She looked like she could be Harmony’s sister. She was a lot shorter, but there were so many similarities that they could almost have been twins.

Harmony’s eyes widened when she saw her own image in the mirror. She had always felt comfortable with her appearance before, but now she was on another level. Her jawline had softened, her eyes were slightly larger, and her nose had shrunk. Her ears were slightly smaller to, which surprised her.

“Shouldn’t I have fairy ears now?” Harmony asked as she admired herself.

“That will come in time,” Rhapsody informed her with an appreciative look. “But you are still a seed right now.”

“Do we have magic now?” Serenity asked hesitantly.

“Hold your hand out in front of you,” Rhapsody told her, demonstrating with her own hand. “You too, Aurora.”

“Okay,” Serenity complied, watching Rhapsody hopefully.

“Now think of a bright orb burning brightly in your hand,” Rhapsody instructed them. “Once the image is in your mind, you need to will it into existence. That means you need to make yourself believe it is there.”

Aurora and Serenity both stared at their hand, their brows creased in concentration. Serenity was the first one to have a bright ball of light appear in her hand. She gasped in amazement, her eyes wide and filled with delight.

As if triggered by Serenity’s success, Aurora suddenly had a matching ball of light in her hand. She giggled ecstatically as she moved it around.

“Nice work, both of you,” Rhapsody congratulated them with an encouraging smile. “You’re going to need to show some discretion when using magic. No showing off at school or in front of friends. You’ll need to keep your abilities secret until you are older.”

“So do we have those abilities too?” Harmony asked curiously.

“Yes and no,” Rhapsody replied cryptically. “You are seeds right now, and any power you use will deplete your growth factor. If you have something really important or critical that requires magic, you could certainly do it, but otherwise I would suggest abstaining until you have sprouted.”

Harmony felt her lips twitch at the term “sprouted”. Rhapsody’s large eyes stared into hers, daring her to say something about the terminology.

“Welcome to the club,” Taxti told them with a radiant smile. She walked up and hugged each of them warmly.