Young Writers Society

"Hey!" said Tristan as his staff was ripped out of his grip. He took a couple steps forward. "Give it back!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blur hurtle down the stairs. That blur stopped between him and the humans, paw stretched back to block Tristan.

"Are you hurting my brother?" Aegeas growled, pointing his sword at the human lady's chest.

William held the staff in their hands, studying the exchange going on before them. They were trying to wrap their mind around what they had just seen. They had been used to strange feats of "magic" before - that was what all alchemists did, and they had certainly seen their fair share of it.

But that hadn't looked like alchemy. What Robin had done looked far more like what he could do. Both had the same agility and control over the darkness at their disposal, and Robin had the same unfazed look he had always had on his face when he was being threatened. Yet Robin couldn't have been him; it just didn't make sense.

"I'm not hurting him," Robin reassured the angry "otter". William thought said otter looked like a chimera, but not one of the more human ones - he was covered in fur all over, and was fairly shorter than most people. "I just didn't want to get whacked by his staff, so I gave it to my friend over there."

She gestured back at William.

They gave her a dead-eyed look.

"Don't drag me into this," they said.

"What's going on?" someone said from the top of the staircase - it was hard to make out who from the people littering it, but the voice sounded feminine.

Oh no. Was Aegeas picking a fight with someone? Turning away from the humans, Kellach sprinted down the stairs.

Sure enough, at the bottom, Aegeas was pointing one of his scimitars at someone. The other otters crowded around Aegeas, weapons drawn, while Kellach hovered at the back of the crowd. After a couple second's hesitation, Kellach pulled out a knife. Aegeas didn't trust or like a lot of people, but this wasn't the kind of situation where they could trust anyone. The humans upstairs had been friendly enough, but he couldn't say the same about the ones down here.

"Well," Aegeas said. "Give him back his staff, or it's going to be the least of your problems."

Robin crossed her arms for a moment, mulling over the order.

"Hmmm," she said. She looked between the two otters, then came to a consensus. "How about no?"

Of course, the truth to that statement relied on what William did. If he wanted to just hand the staff back, there wasn't much she could do. But he didn't make a move to throw back towards the otter; instead, he just looked the group assembled on the stairs over with a look to his eye that didn't seem right.

That didn't seem human.

...Huh.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on down there?" the woman growled from the top of the stairs.

"Zogin, I'm sure they'll tell us in a second-" a masculine voice started to cut in, but he was interrupted a moment later by the first speaker.

"I doubt it - they avoided my question earlier. And I hate when people do that."

He let out a sigh. "I know you do."

While this exchange was going on, Robin turned her attention back to William. Now she really couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about him. He hadn't questioned the darkness when he had seen it, and the look on his face just seemed so...unnatural. Like he was used to fighting, and that there was something nonhuman about him.

So, on the off chance he was just like her - which would be bad - she decided to look at his soul.

A second later, her eyes were widening as a scream threatened to break free at her lips. She stumbled back into wall behind her, eyes never straying from the impossibly large collection of human souls in his thigh. There had to be at least a thousand, possibly even more - and they were all shifting about, all struggling to take control over each other as one in particular stood out among the group.

And that soul wasn't remotely human.

Now she let herself scream.

Aegeas wasn't sure why the woman was screaming at the man, but he wasn't about to waste the opportunity in front of him. The woman had backed off, the man still held the staff, and Aegeas was close enough to both of them that they couldn't get away. He threw his sword down and lunged at the man, reaching for the staff.

William didn't even try to keep the staff - they let the chimera wrench it from their grasp, their attention focused solely on Robin. She was looking at them like they were monster, and the place that she was looking was the most telling of all. Their gaze followed hers; she was staring at their thigh. But the tattoo wasn't visible, so what could she have possibly seen?

Then again, did it really matter? She had made an accurate assessment of their character - they were a monster, and they were meant to be feared. That was how things always had been. Their appearance was a lie; they were even less human than their brothers and sister. Even Gluttony - who they all knew was a failed portal of some kind - didn't secretly look like they did.

"You saw," they said. A statement, not a question.

"Th-There's so many of them," she whispered. "I-I've never seen...never seen so many of them. And they seem like they're sad, like they don't want to be trapped and-and they just want to be free."

Their gaze dropped down to their thigh again. "...You saw the souls?" they asked. That wasn't right - they thought that she had seen their true appearance. "How could you see something like that?"

"I-I just can," she said, lips quivering as she continued to stare at him.

What kind of standoff was this supposed to be? The woman had stepped back, the man had immediately given up the staff, and now they were having some kind of conversation with each other. Aegeas could've sworn they'd known each other, but the horror that seeped through the woman's voice told him otherwise.

Then he paused, staff still held out to Tristan. Aegeas focused on the conversation.

"What's this about souls?" he said, glaring at the man. Tightening his grip on the staff, Aegeas ignored Tristan trying to get it back. Tristan would just have to wait.

"I can see souls," Robin said, her voice weak. She had seen all sorts of souls before - souls of different colors, shapes and sizes. Some even had slightly different textures, even if they were from the same kind of person. But she had never once seen someone like William, and that absolutely terrified. "B-But there's so many there. There shouldn't be, but there i-is..."

"Where are the souls?" a man's voice asked, cutting across the silence that briefly fell on the hallway.

"In his thigh," she managed to get out. She didn't even know who the voice belonged to, but it was nice that someone was seeing the gravity of the situation.

"I do not understand-"

"Did he take them?" a voice - this one almost scared - asked.

"He's right here," William growled, his tone irritated. "I didn't take the souls - I didn't even want them. But that doesn't matter to you, does it?"

"Then what are they doing there?" Aegeas said. He pointed the staff at the man's leg. It wasn't like he had any reason to not believe the man - from what he had heard, souls were complicated things, and the people who dealt with them made plenty of accidents and mistakes - but the man's comments felt a little suspicious to him. "And what's stopping you from getting them out of there?"

They looked at the other present, furious with themselves for letting something like this get that far. Or maybe it wasn't anger - they weren't Reyes, after all. It was something else. It was loathing as they stared at the others, and a jealously they just couldn't quench. They wanted to be like the others. Even the chimeras littering the stairs were more normal than they were.

"They've always been there," they said. They took a step back. They wanted to change their form and run away, but they didn't have anywhere to go. "I couldn't take them out if I wanted to - they're in my..." Their voice faltered. They weren't supposed to tell anyone, but they couldn't avoid it

With a heavy sigh, they let their form change into one that they hadn't used in many years. Little red sparks danced around their body as it shifted into something a little smaller, pants turning to a much shorter material and shirt turning into a cropped sleeveless shirt. Their hair changed, too, but they regretted that part right afterwards - it wasn't half as nice as they remembered it being.

But the change served its purpose well - their Ouroboros tattoo was on easy display. They eyed the group present, only to realize that no sharp weapons were near them. They would have to improvise. The nails on one hand turned sharp - almost like claws - and they dug it into their skin. The pain didn't bother them. It hadn't for a long time. But Robin looked downright disturbed at the sudden show of gore, and they wished they didn't have to do something so dramatic to prove a point.

When the skin was pulled away, the source of the souls finally became apparent: a red gem nestled deep in their flesh.

"This is why the souls are there," they said. "I don't know how familiar you are with the rules of alchemy, but this is the philosopher's stone - it allows someone to bypass all the rules. But everything comes at a price, and this is the largest of all."

"Human souls," Robin whispered.

They nodded.

"But why would you ever want-"

"I didn't," they interrupted. Their stomach was twisting and turning; she saw them as a monster. They were sure of it. She wouldn't be wrong if she did. "Right when I was born, my father gave me this stone. I didn't even have a chance to learn what I was accepting. But, who knows? Maybe I would have said yes. I'm not the least bit human, and wouldn't that fit the monster you think I am?"

Aegeas could hear a retching noise behind him as the man tore open his own leg. Poor Kellach.

Staring at the gaping wound - especially at the red gem inside of it - Aegeas tried to keep his voice steady. "Why do those have to be the only two choices?" the otter said. "I know I'm not human, but I'm not a monster. And I don't think you are either. It sounds like you just have a horrible dad."

Their stomach twisted and churned even more. He didn't understand! Part of it may have been that they weren't human, but the true bit about being a monster came from what they had become once the philosopher's stone had taken its effect.

But they couldn't share that.

...Not if they wanted to get the least bit of sympathy...

"...Is William your real name?" Robin suddenly asked, taking a hesitant step in their direction. They gave her a look - a tired, deadpan one that matched all of the other looks she had received since they first met. "...Yeah, I was guessing it wasn't. And, er, are your pronouns really he/him?"

The deadpan look faded away, replaced by one of confusion. It was a kind question to ask, but they couldn't understand why she was asking about that - and, for that matter, their name - in the first place.

"My name is Envy," they said. "And my pronouns would be..." They hesitated, trying to remember how she had worded it. "...they/them."

"Cool," Robin said. "Just thought I'd ask - I know some other shapeshifters, and they have a tendency to draw as little attention to themselves as possible with the forms they take. You kind of remind me of them."

Aegeas lowered his staff. It was an odd direction for the conversation to turn, but Envy (a very unfortunate name) seemed friendly enough now. Not that he'd been particularly dangerous in the first place.

"Shapeshifters?" Aegeas said, frowning. The word brought back some unpleasant memories. "What do you mean by that?"

Robin gave him a blank look.

"People who can change their forms?" she hesitantly said, not quite sure how someone wouldn't know something like that. Then again, these guys weren't exactly run-of-the-mill people; for all she knew, they could be like her kind when it came to knowledge of human culture and phrases.

"You know other 'shapeshifters'?" Envy suddenly asked, an almost eager tone to his voice.

She nodded. She knew them very well, in fact. As she tried to figure out how to continue this conversation without giving too much away, she absentmindedly conjured a small strand of darkness and had it dart around her fingertips - she really should have brought her fidget cube with her...

"I got the general idea, thanks," Aegeas said, glaring at the woman. "I just wanted to know what the sparks were all about. That's not something that happens when people change forms."