Beneath the Waves

The Lives we Lead

Chris went first. Telling Ria everything. The dreams, the book, Amma - how she pulled Chris away the first time she saw Ria transform, and how the second time she didn't... she couldn't. She told her about the library (Ria wished she could have seen it) and about the training and about what it felt like to transform. Turns out, Chris didn't have much control once she was in ghost form. It was like watching from behind glass, unable to do anything. Any time she mentioned Amma's name, Chris started crying again. This was another thing they had to deal with. Who killed Amma, and why? The very last thing Chris told her about (tentatively too) was the rite of dissolution. How her and Amma spent ages searching for it in the library, and when they finally found the book, the page had been ripped out.

Ria was conflicted. She wanted to tell Chris the whole truth too, but at the same time she really didn't want to become fully human again. She knew this was selfish. Chris wanted what was best for them, and she did too, but she also wanted to be this amazing creature. Her true self.

She sighed. Really already regretting this, she pulled her book closer to where they were sitting and opened it, taking out the two folded pages.

She showed Chris the one with the drawing of the Chayal first. She ran her fingers over the writing. Chayal+enemy. Both of them swallowed hard, suddenly a bit uncomfortable. Enemy. They were mortal enemies.

She then opened the other paper, the one ripped out of the book that she realized Chris was talking about. Chris stared at it. Then at Ria.

"You have it... but how... how did you get it?"

"I found it folded in this book, I guess one of my ancestors must have broken into that library and ripped out the page"

"Why would they do something like that?"

"I don't know, maybe they wanted to become fully human"

Chris saw the disappointment on Ria's face.

"You don't HAVE to do it, you know" she said

"No... I really do. Look at how it's affected you. How could I live and enjoy being who I am, when I know what I've done to you"

"We have no guarantee that it will completely change me back though"

"Yes, but without my transformations, you won't need to transform anymore either"

"True. But are you sure Ria? I don't want you to regret it"

"I'm sure"

They went back and forth about it for a few more minutes, but in the end they decided that Ria would perform the rite of dissolution. They would go camping at their special place, and under the full moon Ria would become fully human again.

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Before this was possible (and with the full moon only 10 days away) they had a lot to prepare. They needed certain minerals that would be really difficult to get, but luckily Amazon existed and they could probably find at least some of them on there.

Just as they thought, they found alexandrite and amazonite, stones that both originated in Brazil (among other places), on Amazon. They tried to get them in the purest form possible, and added a few alexandrite candles to the cart, just in case. It would take a while for these to arrive, and in the meantime they would need to try and find the final stone. Painite. One of the rarest minerals on Earth. Of course the word pain had to be part of the process, and Ria had a feeling the whole thing was going to be less than pleasant.

There was a weird old store in town that sold a lot of witchy things, she had a feeling that the owner might have an idea how and where they could get their hands on some painite.