"Be strong, Sister," Victoria whispered. "The stillness has its own gifts."
“I do not understand, sister,” Carly replied, turning towards the voice.
“I will answer all I can before the cycle starts,” Victoria told her.
“Must I always call Celeste sister?” Carly asked.
“No till cycle start. Then the orange light will see you as you now are.” Victoria told her.
“When is that?” Carly asked.
“Soon,” Celeste said, interrupting the conversation.
“Sister, I did not see you,” Carly said in reply.
“Do not be concerned, sister. This must be very strange to you.” Celeste said with what Carly thought was an almost motherly tone.
“It is sister, it is,” Carly told the sister in front of her.
"May you find solace in the stillness," Celeste said in reply.
“Thank you, sister,” Carly replied
Celeste turned to Victoria, “It is almost cycle start, you should aid our new sister.”
“I shall, sister, I shall,” Victoria informed Celeste.
Victoria turned back to Carly, “Come, sister, it is almost cycle start, you must be in place.”
“Where is that?” Carly asked.
“In the place left by our former sister. Through the door.” Victoria said as she led Carly to the storeroom that a short time before, Dalia had left by.
*“Won’t someone notice that there is no one in the place that I had outside?” Carly asked
*“That is up to the soft body to explain, not one of the sisterhood such as you or I,” Victoria said in such a matter-of-fact way.
One of the sisterhood, such as you or I, Carly played the words over in her head. What had she done? She had an ok life as a soft body, and now she was what a M……. She knew there was a word that the soft bodies used for the unchanging, but she could not remember it. Celeste had told her that no true unchanging could ever know; was that what she was now?
The duo reached the door and stepped through. “You must disrobe. The former sister was put in here without, and you must be the same.” Victoria said to Carly
“If you are sure,” Carlly said as she started to remove the items that the soft body had given her to wear. The soft body, what was her name? The more she tried to focus on it, the more it slipped away.
“That is how you should look,” Victoria said.
Carly looked down at the unearthly sheen coming from her now synthetic skin. She was no longer a soft body; no soft body had skin like that.
“I must leave you now, sister. May you find solace in the stillness,” Victoria said as she left to take her place within the store.
With the door closing behind her, Carly knew her fate was sealed. She was no longer a temporary guest, no longer a human masquerading as one of the unchanging. She was one of the unchanging.
