Once again Dalia went to the opposite side of the store from Carly and Victoria. Dalia needed to speak to her former sister. No that was right her Friend yes that sounded better in her head. Her help was coming from a friend and not a sister. She had to be careful when speaking to the others she couldn’t let them hear her new way of speaking at least not yet.
She still remembered when they had come up with this plan. Her friend had said Carly had given them an opening and intended to exploit it. Dalia only needed to wait at that point.
She was able to activate the phone. The others were distracted and she had said she needed to prepare for each challenge, so no one questioned her wanting to be alone.
"She won a challenge. How can this be?" Dalia said. *"She knew the word used for us..."
"Because," the soft voice came from the phone. "you have only a foot into humanity. And she only has a foot into the world of the unchanging. There is so much I will explain to you...and so much you will just know. Your existence up until now has been limited...but that will not be the case. And she will...gain the limits of the Sisterhood. She has already started. While your thoughts are opening, hers are closing."
"How do I prove this?"
"I am not an expert...I only know what I learned from my transition. But...try this..." The voice said.
Dalia listened before hanging up the phone. She walked purposefully toward Carly, who was talking with Victoria about the next challenge. "I would speak with you privately."
"What about?" Carly asked.
"Our competition. A serious discussion."
"I will leave you two to this," Victoria said. "Perhaps you will come to an understanding without further challenges." She gave them space.
Carly didn't think that was likely. But if Dalia wanted to talk, maybe she'd had a change of heart.
"Congratulations on winning one challenge," Dalia said. "I had thought you would not win any...after how you have done up until now."
"I am not one of the unchanging, sister, I am a soft body," Carly said.
"Were a soft body," Dalia corrected. "I do not understand why you stubbornly ignore this. You relinquished that right."
"Not deliberately..." Carly said.
"Does that make a difference? What are you fighting for, exactly? Do soft bodies have nothing better to do than pretend to be unchanging?" Dalia challenged.
"No...I just..."
Dalia reached behind her back. "I have brought you a gift...as I took your other wig," she said, revealing a brown wig. "I wrongly accused you of wanting to be one of us...perhaps that was not correct..."
"I don't need that...it isn't mine." Carly said.
Dalia placed it in her hands. "Tell me...sister...the word you spoke to Celeste...do you still remember it? Can you still say it? She said that the unchanging cannot repeat it. You are one of the Sisterhood...and that rule now applies to you..."
Carly paused...
