“Nothing about this is normal.” I touch her hand—she’s exactly my temperature now. “You’re changing, but not dangerously. Just... differently.”
“We were more solid after we kissed,” Rianne says, examining her hands in the light. “But it’s fading. Look—I’m more see-through than I was an hour ago.”
I check my own hands. She’s right. The temporary substance from our connection is wearing off. She’s becoming gauzy again, insubstantial.
“Because it wasn’t the ceremony,” I realize. “Just... connection. Real connection. But not permanent.”
“So we need the actual ceremony to make it stick.”
“We need the ceremony,” I agree, watching as she fades further, as if the magic is reclaiming what it temporarily gave back.
Keith slides past, his form so solid now he’s almost opaque. “Keith’s mass has increased by thirty percent! Keith feels very substantial!”
“And I’m becoming less substantial,” Rianne observes, holding her hand up to the light. Her bones are clearly visible through her skin now, like looking at a shadow-thin X-ray.
“This is wrong,” she says suddenly. “We’re all becoming something we’re not.”
“Or we’re becoming what we’re meant to be,” Keith suggests. “Keith has a presentation about evolutionary adaptation?—”
“Not now, Keith,” we say in unison.
Rianne looks at me. “I can feel it, you know. The change. It’s not just physical. My thoughts feel... different. Clearer but also more scattered. Like I’m spreading out.”
“That’s concerning.”
“Is it? Or is it just adaptation?” She examines her hands again, watching the light pass through them.
I pull her closer, needing to feel that she’s still solid, still here. She is—barely. “We need to complete the ceremony tonight.”
“Before this gets worse,” she agrees quietly.
The lights flicker. Keith has started his countdown presentation—I can hear him reaching slide ninety: “The Importance of Commitment in Transformation Scenarios.”
“He really does have a presentation for everything,” Rianne mutters.
“It’s how he processes fear.”
“And you?”
“Three hundred years of practice not showing it.”
She looks at me, then away. “I can see through my torso now.”
She’s right. Her entire body has taken on that quality—still solid, still her, but translucent enough that I can see the bookshelf behind her. Light passes through her like she’s made of mist given temporary form.
“Does it hurt?”
“No. It feels... like I’m becoming lighter. Less bound by physics.” She jumps experimentally and floats for a half-second longer than gravity should allow. “Okay, that’s new.”
From the basement, the stone booms: “THE TRANSFORMATION IS ACCELERATING! YOU HAVE MAYBE AN HOUR BEFORE IT’S IRREVERSIBLE!”
“What happens if it becomes irreversible?” Rianne calls down.
“THE STONE DOESN’T KNOW! BUT KEITH SEEMS HAPPY, SO MAYBE CORPORATE SHADOW EXISTENCE ISN’T TERRIBLE!”
“I don’t want to be a corporate shadow!” Rianne protests.
“Then complete the ceremony!” the stone replies. “WITH FEELING THIS TIME!”
