Robert sat in the church, pondering things as she cleaned up. That man, and maybe some of the other protesters, would be coming to hear her sermon. She doubted they really intended to listen, but that didn't excuse her from doing her job, and in any case others of her congregation were likely to be there. She knew the protesters wouldn't be swayed by her words, but...well, she didn't have to rely solely on her own words.
Of course, people like this tended even to listen to Scripture only as it suited their beliefs; she knew that well enough, she had been the same way. But still...maybe if she could just make a point, maybe it would stick in their minds anyway. She thought of something and rose, stepping over to the lectern and flipping through the Bible there.
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
The devil-woman smiled. Yes, this would do nicely.
Jon sat with Brittany and Karyn in an isolated corner of the lunchroom. She stared across the table at the strange Celtic girl, still stunned by the discoveries of yesterday; that Brittany was really displaced from another time, and not simply altered by the sun into a living anachronism, and that she knew of the stone, that this whole thing went back a lot farther than her grandfather...
Karyn was a little surprised herself, but didn't seem too thrown off by it. Karyn was always good at taking things in stride; Jon had spent a whole day in a barely-contained freakout when he'd discovered the stone's power, something that he was grateful his parents took to be emotional stress at his grandfather's death, but Karyn had simply been minorly awed for a little bit, and was only really troubled by her accidental wish. Which was still in effect, to her chagrin, but she'd said that at least it was easier to deal with her enhanced breasts in an aquatic environment. Still, Jon felt for her; once everything was taken care of with the sun, she'd have to see if they couldn't puzzle out a way to get her best friend back to normal.
Karyn looked at Brittany curiously. "So...you're really sort of incorporeal?" she asked. "That must be tough..."
Brittany sighed. "A little, yes," she said. "It does not trouble me very much in most things; as you have seen, I can still interact with things if I will. But I miss food and drink, and I only feel things dully, besides my own garments. And it irks me greatly that I cannot leave this building..."
"You can't eat?" Jon asked.
She shrugged. "I do not hunger; I don't know what would happen if I tried to eat. I miss it all the same; it was long since I tasted whiskey even before I awoke in this time...not since I left Britain..."
The two stared at her. "Whiskey?" Jon asked. She nodded, brightening. "Yes...you know of it? Is it still made? It hasn't been lost?"
Karyn barely stifled a laugh. "Uh, yeah, they still make it," she said. "But, uh, you're not supposed to have it until you're an adult, around here..."
Brittany frowned. "I'm already seventeen!" she said. "I...oh, but this is one of those things about this time, is it? Like how you are still in school?"
Jon nodded. "Yeah, I guess that is one difference," she said. "Eighteen is an adult here...though they don't let you buy liquor until you're twenty-one."
She frowned, muttering something in her native tongue. It didn't sound pleasant. Jon felt sorry for her; she really did hope they could find a way to restore her full body to her...
Kei awoke from her dream-life, this time feeling less discomfort and more pity. This other self, his own body torn from him...she knew that Keith despised the memories of being her, of being a woman, and most especially of making love to a man...to Farin. Yet now even in that life he was a woman...a young girl, no less. And now she was as humiliated by this as she was by memories of being Kei. The fairy knew all this, but...she didn't really understand. What was wrong with being a woman? She enjoyed it, even when the Keith part of her was conscious; Keith had taken as much pleasure in being with Farin as she had, and shown nearly as much initiative.
Was it the baby? But that brought her joy, too; it had been a week now since the last time she had dreamt of being Keith, and she had felt the baby kick for the first time the day afterward. She felt it again now, and she smiled. "Yes, little one," she whispered, placing a hand on her belly, "I'm thinking of you." Even though fairy women were no more immune to the hassles of pregnancy than humans, she couldn't have been happier to be with child. Yet Keith in her waking hours was terrified by the prospect...
She wished she could stop being troubled by these dreams; she didn't hate Keith, but if her other self objected to sharing her life and her memories of those feelings troubled her, why should they be forced to bother each other? Yet on the other hand, Keith wasn't simply a roommate, she was another self - a wayward self, one who had been awful and still was, but still, not just some stranger. But then, in one way they already did seem to be drifting apart - the dreams which had come in a matter a minutes or hours at first now came weeks apart. Were they...were they separating, perhaps? Would they go on to live their own lives uninterrupted by the other?
Keith awoke to find herself staring up at the inside of one of the tents. By the time consciousness had fully returned, she had already remembered the events of the previous twenty-four hours, so it was only distressing and not a massive shock when she awoke to find that her change appeared to be complete. No trace now remained of her old body, except for some similarity in the face; she was a girl of fourteen, with small breasts, soft skin, and black hair that had finished its growth somewhere in the middle of her back.
She also found that she was wearing a dress; Lomasi must have seen to that. She didn't like that and wanted to find her old clothes, but they were hardly going to fit her anymore anyway, and whatever hide the dress was made out of, the inside was soft, far easier on her tender nipples than the rough shirt had been.
Once again she remembered her existence as Kei, as...as a pregnant fairy-woman in another world...she was too exhausted even to get angry about it right now, she just wished this would stop. At least she wasn't having sex this time, Farin had been asleep. But still, to have actually felt the child kick inside her...
Keith was suddenly overcome by longing. She knew it was irrational, she knew that the whole idea was crazy and would be terrifying, but suddenly she longed for a child of her own...she wanted to experience what Kei was getting to experience, to be a mother...damn it, this was all hormonal craziness, but it was no less real in her mind for that. It wasn't even a sexual thing, she just wanted a baby...she placed her hands on her stomach, everything feeling so empty there...
She laid there for a while until the feeling passed, sniffling a bit. This body...not only did it feel strange, it brought strange feelings into her mind...what if she was stuck? What if she had to deal with these feelings every day? What would become of her? She couldn't stand that thought...she got up and went outside.
She didn't have much trouble finding her way back to the medicine man's tent. He was standing just outside, looking at the sunrise. He nodded a brief acknowledgement to her. She frowned. "Old man," she said. "Swear by any gods or spirits you got."
He nodded. "I swear."
"Tell me th' truth, then." She took a deep breath. "Were you lyin' when I said I'd...I'd...never be the s-same?" She tried to keep ahold of herself, but it was difficult.
He shook his head. "No. Told the truth."
The answer was like a blow to her gut, and she sank to the ground. She was...was...she was stuck like this...she was going to be this for the rest of her life...a young girl, and then a woman...she didn't want this! She didn't want it...but she was stuck with it. And Lomasi was right...she didn't want to kill herself, either. She wasn't the type to just surrender to something...but that's exactly what suicide was, giving up and admitting defeat.
But if not that, then what? What could she do with her life? Could she make it as a bandit now? She didn't want to go live in a big city and work in some damn cloth mill, she knew that. If she had any land or money, maybe she could build a place of her own, but hers was almost gone...or she could stay here, but what kind of life would that be? She really had no idea; she'd heard all kinds of stories about how the natives treated their women, but she didn't know which were true, or of which tribes...
What was she going to do?
