Exile
#3 of Twilight of the Alari
And here's part three! Here's when things start getting weird (as if they weren't already!), but there's nothing extreme.
Have fun!
Staring at herself in her private quarter's mirror, Neiame sighed. She had to do something. Had others also been left behind? Had they also been transformed as she had?
She certainly felt disconnected from the rest of the Alari, yet at the same time, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was not alone. The Vela'Alari's objective was to sever the connection between the Alari's souls and upper minds, the part of their minds which could commune with one another, from their bodies and lower minds, their individual minds. They weren't dead, she was sure of that much. They had merely ascended to another place of existence. "Merely".
She had missed her own ascension.
The saddened face looking back at her was disconcerting. Was it the expression of despair that lingered on her features, or was it simply because of the youth and energy that she had regained? Bringing her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, she gasped fearfully as something grabbed the side of her breast. The two on the same side, more specifically. Her second and third hand, following the first as usual, had moved up at the same time. This made her chuckle at her reaction; had she really been frightened by her own fingers? Her own fingers, which seemed to enjoy squeezing and pressing some more, as if on their own?...
She had to tug on herself a little to stop groping her own chest. It felt nice, yes, but it was as if she couldn't even control them, as if they had a mind of their own! Moving the upper ones would make the lower four follow every time she tried, save for one minor but inconvenient problem; were they to ever touch her chest, they would grope away. At least wasn't the worse that could happen.
The high priestess - did that title even mean anything anymore? - slowly got up after a short while of experimenting with herself. This took quite some effort, considering the added arms and breasts added quite some weight to her upper body. She did have her second tail, which helped counterbalance this, however. The thought had never occurred to her at that moment that it was because of their tails that alari women could stand to have such naturally large chests, unlike humans, whose center of balance was harder to adjust with such a size.
She almost fell over a few times because of her hooves. She had no claws anymore, meaning she had nothing equivalent to toes. Her balance depended entirely on how she held her body. Luckily for her, the new tail was relatively easy to control, unlike her arms. Granted, she could only move it in the same way as her original (she knew which was which), but at least she felt she had full control over it. Her arms, for their part, felt the same way as when she slept on one; she could move them, but it felt more like heavily dragging them along.
Taking very slow and careful steps, she made her way out of the temple, each hoof step resonating loudly throughout the empty hall. Previously, this would have taken her but around a minute from where she was, even despite her old age. While she did feel much more energetic and strong, she was surely not used to this modified body.
Reaching the entrance, she leaned against the archway at what she saw. She stared out the horizon in terror, it was something she had never expected.
The entire city was empty. Lifeless. A hollow husk of what had been a glorious civilization.
Where were their bodies? There would surely have been citizens outside the temple, the most fervent of the Alari! Why did the streets appear entirely deserted?
Sitting down on the steps and slowly making her way down, Neiame closed her eyes and thought. This wasn't possible. The bodies had to be somewhere.
Of course! How had she forgotten? She slapped her forehead in embarrassment to herself, which caused her to also smack her chin and an upper breast, which promptly started to be squeezed. Grumbling, she pulled herself straight again and looked around, heading down the streets. The homes and the large centers of activity, anywhere people could gather!
First home entered, empty. Second home, empty as well. Such was the case for the entire street. The entire place was a ghost town, a relic of the past. At least everything was in its place in each of the houses, no half-cooked meal, no half-scrawled runes, everything was neatly ordered, just as when someone was leaving for a long time. Indeed, this had happened, albeit it was a very long time, one that would most likely outlast the world itself.
By then, she had started getting used to her new body. It wasn't new as much as different. Everything was hers; everything was more or less the same as before, while being something else entirely. She was even starting to be able to move her tails around independently of each other, though for balance reasons, this was not always a good idea.
She entered the communal hall, a large building used for public reunions. One might compare this place to a city hall used by humans, yet the Alari had no need for leaders or bickering. Instead, this was more for tuning the upper minds of each individual, specifically to avoid conflict, the building built for the purpose of facilitating the process. Unlike the temple, which was once the spiritual center of the entire Alari people, this was only meant for the city.
It was therefore quite ironic that Neiame would think of looking there, after an event meant to separate the upper mind from the physical realm. She was not surprised to find it empty, though this shattered her hopes further. Where were all the bodies? Had nobody else really survived?
The questions racing through her mind, Neiama passed out from shock and desperation.
"This world can't sustain us any longer. We've vanquished all our enemies, and our resources are running dry."
"There has to be some other way, Arbiter! Think of the ramifications this could have! There has to be another source! What if we receive more invaders?"
"How long would that take? Can we risk starvation while we wait and hope for another arrival? We've drained the nearby worlds!"
"Is this worth a civil war? What good would come from that? We'd just keep dwindling our numbers until one of us survives. An invasion could take centuries."
"But that's never been attempted before! How are you so sure this is better? All the smaller scale experiments have ended terribly!"
"I've looked into everything. I've been part of those terrible experiments before you were born, and every single one ended up successfully. Do you really think I'd try doing something that might endanger-"
"That's enough, both of you! We're going to trust her with this, we have no choice! Neiame, do what you have to do. Our future is in your hands now. Lead it well."
"I really hope I did... Will I ever know?"
Neiame laughed sadly as she looked at her hands, all six of them. She closed her fingers and opened them again. It was as if she was just starting to get feeling in her new hands.
"Are they really mine?"
"Who else's could they be?..."
"I suppose so, but..."
She froze. Who was she talking to? The room was empty. The entire city was empty. Not only could she see it, she could feel it. The mental connection to the rest of her people had been cut clean. Yet she had heard the voice. It was unrecognizable, just like one in a dream, but... She was awake. The squeezing at her chest while she rubbed her eyes could confirm this.
She slowly got back up. The ritual had left the lower minds on this world. Just like the bodies, had they vanished? Had they gone somewhere else?
"Is it really that hard to figure out?"
"I don't know."
"Where are you going now?"
"I don't know."
"Go take a look at my home, remember where it was?"
"I don't... Yes I do."
She walked on, as more chattering seemed to pick up in the back of her mind. Had it been there all along and she just hadn't noticed, or had it really just started? She reached the place.
"Don't you look a little odd with all that stuff?"
"I..."
"At least it should come in handy!"
She tried to ignore the awkward laugh. She knew this place.
"Why do you only have that many? Shouldn't there be more weird stuff, too?"
She thought of this for a moment, looking down at her hands. Why did she only have this? Why hadn't she grown more legs too? The Vela'Alari had included all her people, had Caeil and Ellicia been the only two to-
She suddenly fell over as her weight suddenly shifted. There was a loud grunt as she closed her eyes, having hit her head on the ground quite hard. What was going on?! What was this sudden pain?!
"Oh, this is bad..."
"Is it? I think it fits the rest."
"What do you think, Neia?"
"QUIET!!"
She let out a scream, silencing all the voices. The pain was unbearable enough already; she couldn't stand to hear some mundane casual talking in the background. A table suddenly fell over her, which forced her to hold out her arms protectively.
As bad as this was, it was nothing to what was happening to her body. Just as she had been wondering a few seconds ago, it seemed her body had forgotten certain elements of her companions' bodies. She writhed around in pain, not caring much about the table's corner digging into her stomach. This was nothing next to the flesh and bones reforming themselves, her spine slowly extending outward, from which started to grow out a second pair of legs. The flesh just appeared to form from thin air, gradually moving downwards, first a second "stomach", followed by the hips. She let out a blood-curdling scream as bones cracked and reformed, eventually growing the thighs, knees, and so forth down to a new pair of hooves.
When the growth had finally stopped, she was curled around one of the fallen table's legs, unable to move either of her own four legs, a result of the incredible pain and numbness that had settled in after a few seconds only. She had her eyes shut tight, panting heavily, but this was not over. This amount of legs only accounted for two people, there was still one left. The pain intensified as the process repeated itself once more.
"Finally awake. That seemed quite painful."
"She deserves it, after what she did."
"She's stuck down here, go easy!"
"How does she know if we made it or not?!"
Neiame opened her eyes once more, staring at a wall. Was it finally over? The aching pain at her stomach reminded her of the situation; however there was more than simply a table over her body. Her sudden growth spurt had not only moved some furniture, it had quite literally kicked a hole through the wall, with her hindmost pair of legs sticking outside the relatively small home. It was hard enough to walk with hooves, now she had to try with six of them?
"I give up..."
"What?! You lazy little... Get back up!"
"Calm down, she'll be fine!"
With quite some effort, she pushed the table off herself, seeing nothing wrong with the ease at which she almost sent it crashing into an opposite wall. Feeling unable to move any of her legs in the slightest, she stayed on her side on the ground, trying to twist around just enough to be able to stare up at the stars, through the window in the ceiling.
"I did it, see?"
"I suppose so. But you still made a mistake."
"How can I be sure?"
"I don't know. That's something I'll have to figure out someday, right?
Yeah, but I don't think I ever will.
It's entirely my fault, no matter what happened."
She sighed softly, and turned her head to the side. She did look younger. She didn't like having three different aspects of her personalities split like that, though. She looked the other side.
"I wonder if I'll start bickering with myself, now...
I don't see why not!
Now, that wouldn't be very pleasant, would it?"
The throbbing pain between her shoulders was nothing compared to this. All three heads closed their eyes at the same time, and let out a single, combined sigh.
"I am alone."