Chapter 10: Arc I – Chapter IX – Subjective Reality

 

 

Covered in ichor, his whole body aching, Aurora lay in the shallow crater that the impact of his falling had created. He stared at the blue sky as wispy clouds skidded across the sky. The air was silent. There was no birdsong, no chirping of insects, only the sound of the wind breathing on the land. Closing his eyes, he was exhausted.

 

A fuzzy paw shook his head and upon opening his eyes, Aurora looked straight into the face of the Purple self-professed god.

 

“You should be fine,” Purple observed. “Lodestaran are tough. A fall like that wouldn’t harm you much. Come along with me. I’ve contacted the ship. The others will have reclaimed Glacia by now. She’ll be receiving treatment to speed her recovery. As for you, Lodestar Aurora, I will introduce you. Can you stand?”

 

“I’m not sure. I’ll try.” Aurora groaned and forced himself into a seated position, clenching a hand as his discomfort made him grit his teeth.

 

“Stand,” Purple repeated.

 

Rising, Aurora stood and looked around, seeing that most of the grass in the vicinity died at the touch of the creature’s blood. The blades were pale and withered. Green and yellow ichor shrouded everything. The near wall was splattered by the stuff and everything stunk.

 

“We’ll clean all this up. It’ll be almost as though nothing happened.” Purple commented, settling on his shoulder again. “But those kinds of operations are temporary measures. It won’t be long before it’s impossible to hide the signs of our battles. All of your world will know that there’s a war underway. We will recruit all people with the right properties as Lodestaran like yourself, and not even your fission-based weaponry can protect you. But enough of our wasting time.”

 

There was a beeping noise and in front of Aurora, a bright white oval appeared, its surface luminous with pure light. It was as though a paint program loaded up to edit reality and drew over it.

 

“Step directly into the portal. You won’t come to harm,” Purple said.

 

Hesitating for only a moment, Aurora strode into the light, closing his eyes. His body felt somewhat strange. The light seared faintly, and an odor smoked off his body as he stepped out on a green hilltop with alien-looking trees of many colors planted. There was a sensation of a soft sweet breeze, smelling of green things. The nasty smell of the monster’s blood was entirely gone now. The hilltop was empty and the teal grass waved as a sun shone above.

 

As Aurora looked around, the portal closed behind and his vision changed again to that strange overlay again, showing him that everything here was made of light as it should be. But the light felt different. This place had a strange quality. Bending down, he grasped a handful of grass. He tore the blades off, examining them. As he held the grass, they drifted away in the breeze and turned to motes of light and vanished. His eyesight returned to normal as Purple landed on the grass and seated himself.

 

“What do you think of our ship?” Purple asked with a strange grin.

 

“Ship?” Aurora blinked and cast around. This wasn’t a ship. It was a strange place where everything was constructed of light, held together by a strange force, unlike reality.

 

“Yes. This is the inside of our ship. It lies beneath Stellaris. We are in a secure location where no anti-light creatures may trespass.”

 

“This doesn’t…”

 

“Would you rather see a sterile ship’s interior with technology? We have such spaces in the ship, but given our mastery of light, being that we are one with it, we can create.”

 

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“This… all this is just a place you created? It’s not real?” Aurora asked, confused.

 

“It is. It’s as real as yourself. Much of everything in our universe is made of light. Light controlled and used in the correct way creates physical structures.” When Purple moved a paw, the space changed from an idyllic hilltop to a lava filled chamber. By reflex Aurora’s wings beat as he hovered, feeling the intense temperatures cooking him. Just like that, the setting changed again and became a replica of his home’s kitchen. His mother was standing in the kitchen, cooking.

 

“Mom!” Aurora exclaimed and ran towards her.

 

“It’s not really her. This is merely a demonstration, Lodestar Aurora. Do you understand?”

 

Ignoring Purple’s words, Aurora reached his mother with her long red hair reaching her mid-back. Putting his hands on his mother’s shoulders, he belatedly remembered that he had transformed, but wasn’t able to see himself to confirm his suspicion that he was now a different person.

 

“It’s a good thing that it’s not really her standing there, isn’t it?” Purple said, amused.

 

The mockup of his mother didn’t acknowledge Aurora’s presence. Moments later, the illusion faded, and he stood in a stately room with glass windows overlooking Stellaris’ capital. This was the view from one of its skyscrapers. There were glass windows in place of walls on one side, giving an amazing view. He walked to the window and hesitantly poked the window, finding that it was solid.

 

“Can you show me what I look like?” Aurora looked over his shoulder at Purple pacing behind.

 

“Easily arranged.” Purple nodded and the window in front of him changed, reflecting all light, becoming a perfect mirror. He finally beheld what he had become. He now had long blue-to-silver as he knew. The bangs draped between his eyes and some of them framed his now cute face and had lovely pink ribbons in his hair. His eyes were now a reddish lavender shade, his skin alabaster. He blushed at seeing his own too-cute face.

 

On his chest was a large pink bow, nestling above a modestly-sized chest, which was covered by the top of the pure white bodysuit he wore. Little fluffy wing-like decorations stuck off the bodice and where his breasts were cradled by tight, soft fabric. There was a flexible fabric beneath and between, like a woven gold with a socketed gem, much like the one capping his staff. The bodice worked its way down to his hips, terminating with hearts on the front. A larger pink bow hugged above his posterior and a fluffy skirt with pink petals swaddled his creamy thighs. His legs were bound in thigh high white stockings, his feet in tight, but comfortable boots. Encased in elbow-length gloves that protected his upper hands, his fingers poked out freely with pink ribbons tied at the wrist.

 

Turning, he admired his wings. His breath caught at the impact of his Lodestaran form, but then it sunk in that he’d become a girl and his face deeply flushed.

 

“Truly lovely,” Purple commented. “It’s hard to believe that you were once a boy. I was almost certain that you would die in a resulting explosion, unable to accept the light that your soul boasted. It was a gamble, you see.” Purple laughed. “No one ever before has been remade by the light itself. I wonder about what that portends.”

 

Aurora winced. “Well… this is just my transformed form, right? I can go back to normal, right?”

 

“Of course,” Purple said with a tightening of his bestial lips. “Of course.”

 

At that moment, the mirror changed back into a window and Aurora turned back towards the room to see that there were now bean bag-like chairs in the center. They formed a circle. Each beanbag was a different color and a creature of the same color was perched in them, all appearing different. They all possessed similar-looking faces, resembling traits of many animals on Earth that Aurora could recognize and several that he couldn’t recognize. These almost bestial faces were all turned towards Aurora expectantly with serious expressions.

 

“Welcome Lodestar Aurora.” They said in unity, in perfect sync, smiling together at the exact same moment. “We are the gods of light, known as Felicitas.”