>>5929645>>5929625>>5929521>>5929508>>5929504>>5929489>>5929486>>5929477Not for the first time, Zith-Zi and her race have you asking that question. Back when you were apprenticing under Archmage Henzler—and ‘next door neighbours’ with ZIth-Zi, whose hybrid-drake ‘Hershy’ served as the focus of your first great experiments with advanced Chimericism—you were often more perplexed with ZI’S anatomy than with Hershy’s… And not in the way she would tease you about. A you developed your signature spells, <Elemental Infusion> and <Clone>, you came to understand just how truly BIZARRE goblinoids are as a class of life. Much like the duplicate organism which <Clone> created, they seemed to lack any sort of spark of life, or of conscious will.
And yet they live. And yet they are conscious. And yet, as Zith-Zi herself so amply evinces, they are ESPECIALLY willful. This hidden little demon… Is THIS their animating force, then?Is one of THESE inside every goblin, tucked away somewhere within them?
“What ARE you?”
“I am nothing,” the orb repeats. “I don’t want to be… Nothing… I want to be you! Or her! Or her!”
The orb becomes frantic, beginning to fracture and break apart as it bounces around within the confines of your slowing dance. Costella and Testa both scream as it hurtles towards them, but you shout for them to continue the dance, and they both halting raise their voices in song. The circle holds, the demon retreats, whimpering and whining to the centre of the circle.
“Zi… What should we do with it?” you ask the (former?) goblin.
“Me?!” Zith-Zi shouts. “What the fuck are youa skin’ ME for, Tips? Ain’t YOU the magic-man??”
“This thing… Whatever this demon is, it came from you,” you explain. “It might even be a part of you.”
Zith-Zi’s eyes—still faintly yellow, despite her pinkish skin—widen. She looks at the oblong ovoid hovering in the air before her, giving off smoke and ash, shuddering and wailing.
“That is NOT me,” she asserts.
“But the soul that’s in you now…” you begin.
That soul is new, fresh. What if this demonic entity is, in some unknown way, vital to the Zith-Zi you know?
“Zi, goblins aren’t… They don’t naturally HAVE a…”
You’ve changed her body, remodeled her brain, and infused her with a new spirit… And only now do you realize just how little of the Zith-ZI from earlier this same day is there. An existential dread wells up in you as you realize what you’ve done—that in your eagerness to help a friend, to finally explore this avenue of living alchemy, you may have destroyed your friend rather than preserving her.
