The gnome medics stumbled back, and even the preternatural calm of Ashnuith the lizard-man broke; he froze on the threshold, the scales of his neck bristling.The body on the moss bed arched. The spine snapped away from the vegetal mattress as the dual voice continued to vibrate through the air, rattling the small vials of essences resting on the stone tables. When the scream faded into a rasp, the eyes remained wide, fixed on the bioluminescent ceiling.The left eye (brown) teared from the psychological strain. Etan was trying to regain control of his facial muscles, but his half was paralyzed by the terror of being seen this way.The right eye (blue) spun frantically, drinking in every color of Asha with a violent joy that cshed with the horror of the other side.Moko approached cautiously, emitting a low whistle of concern. The small creature extended a paw and touched the right cheek—Tsuki’s side. At that contact, the right side of the face rexed into a lopsided, purely infantile smile, while the left remained contorted in a grimace of sheer anguish.The body on the bed sat up with a fluid, unnatural motion, coordinated by a will that no longer belonged to just one or the other. Ashnuith stood motionless, observing this figure that looked like an open wound in reality.When the lips parted, the dual voice was no longer a scream, but a perfect chorus. Etan’s words, chosen with care, emerged alongside Tsuki’s simple sentences, overpping in a single flow that made the air hum. It was a fused thought: his analytical logic and her emotional hunger blended into a new entity.“It is... us,” the voice said, the male and female tones echoing each other with a millisecond's dey. “There is light here. Etan is afraid of being seen, but I want to touch the moss. It’s cold in the dark behind his eyes. We don't want to close the door anymore.”It was a monstrous and beautiful equilibrium. The brown eye and the blue eye fixed on Ashnuith simultaneously. The struggle for control was gone; in that moment, Etan’s resentment and Tsuki’s envy had neutralized into a strange, forced peace. They were a new person made of the two old ones—a divided soul trying to figure out how to breathe with two lungs that no longer beat in unison.Moko let out a confused chirp and tried to nuzzle her snout into the palm of the right hand. The hand closed gently over the creature’s head, while the left moved to the chest, feeling the heart that beat for them both.“You see a monster,” the dual voice continued, “but we are only tasting your world for the first time together. Do not use magic to pull us apart. It hurts when the rock splinters.”Ashnuith took a step forward, lowering his neck scales in a gesture of caution. “Your blood does not sing a single song,” the lizard-man said, his gravelly voice echoing in the room. “You are like two rivers that have fallen into the same valley. If you stop, you become a swamp. If you run, you become a storm.”The moment of peace sted a heartbeat; then, the harmony shattered violently. The instant the entity's right hand brushed the edge of the handcrafted litter, the very matter of Asha reacted to the uncontrolled transmutation.Under the touch of that palm, the pnt fibers and living wood began to writhe and sizzle. In a fsh, the sap and warmth vanished, repced by a cold, shiny tangle of copper wires that coiled around themselves with a metallic screech.Moko leaped back with a terrified whistle. The body of Etan/Tsuki lost its bance and colpsed. When their hands hit the ground, the cavern floor behaved like wax under a fme:Where the right hand touched, the raw rock instantly became polished stone, smooth and cold as gss.Where the left hand touched, the granite melted into soft, slimy cy that swallowed the boy’s fingers.“Gloves! Please, gods, gloves!”The cry tore through the air with that agonizing double tone. It was a desperate plea, a prayer that rang out like the wail of a child and the terror of a learned man. They felt the world crumbling beneath their fingertips; every inch of bare skin was a weapon they couldn't control.Moko, in a final gesture of protection, threw open her third eye. But the distortion radiating from the divided body was too violent: the small creature let out a dull moan, her eyes rolled back, and she colpsed, a trickle of dark blood leaking from her nose.The two medical assistants were paralyzed, unable to move a muscle. Ashnuith, however, kept his head. With a swift motion, he pulled off the heavy leather gloves he wore at his belt—thick, treated hide—and threw them at the feet of the entity still warping the cave floor.“Cover yourselves!” the lizard-man roared. “Put them on, now!”The figure huddled on the edge of the bed, pulling the leather gloves on with jerky, almost clumsy movements. Ashnuith’s thick hide seemed to dampen the buzzing they felt in their fingers, as if they had finally plugged a bottle that was about to explode.When they raised their head, the gaze—split between brown and blue—fell upon Ashnuith and Moko’s motionless body.“It’s a little better now,” the dual voice said, a chorus where Etan’s low tone and Tsuki’s higher one walked together. “The gloves help block out all this noise. Without them, it’s like our skin is an ear that hears the screams of the stone. Etan says matter is just a collection of pieces standing close together, but I feel those pieces wanting to run away if I touch them. It’s like when you hold a little bird and you’re afraid to squeeze too hard because you know you might break it without meaning to.”The body rocked slightly back and forth, a rhythmic motion to calm the storm within.“We hurt Moko. We screamed inside her head without using our mouth. Etan knows her third eye tried to read us and was blinded—like when you look at the sun too long and then see only bck spots. But I just wanted her to see me... I wanted her to know that now I’m out of the dark too. But we are heavy, Ashnuith. We are like a stone too big thrown into a small pond: we make waves that soak everyone and ruin the shore.”They reached out a gloved hand toward Moko, barely brushing her fur with extreme caution, almost with terror.“We didn't mean to turn wood into metal. It happened because Etan was thinking of the Mall and I was afraid of falling. Things change shape because we don't quite know who we are today. We are like a badly sewn garment, two pieces that don't get along but have to stay together. We feel dirty, as if we had mud on us that won't come off, even with the water of Asha.”Ashnuith remained silent, watching this boy who spoke as if he had lived a thousand years, yet not even five.The lizard-man took a step forward, squinting his yellow eyes. He studied the body on the bed as if inspecting a new species of reptile never seen before. The change wasn't just in the eyes: the face had grown more square, the jawline firmer compared to his previous fragility, yet without becoming entirely masculine. It was a harmonious, strange middle ground. Even the hair, now shorter, seemed to shift color depending on how the fungal light hit it: one moment it looked like silver, the next it held warm reflections of copper.The frame was no longer slight and nky; the shoulders had broadened, and the arms appeared toned, charged with a strength that hadn't been there before.“Who are you?” Ashnuith asked in his gravelly voice. “Before, there was the girl. Now I see different flesh and I hear too many souls. Are you a demon, or are you a man?”The figure raised their gloved hands, looking at them as if they weren't their own. Then, they turned their divided gaze toward him.“Before, there was the girl, yes. But she was only a fragment in the dark,” the dual voice replied, calm and haunting. “And before, there was Etan, but he was a shell afraid of breaking. Now, we don’t quite know what to call ourselves. Etan is here, but he is no longer just Etan. Tsuki is here, but she is no longer just Tsuki. We are like when you mix milk and coffee: you can no longer separate them, even if you know they were two different things before. We are us. Simply... us.”They touched their face with leather-cd fingers, feeling the new shape of their cheekbones.“Etan knows the muscles are rger because we must now carry the weight of both. Tsuki is happy because her hair no longer covers her eyes when she wants to look at the colors. We are a single being with two different memories. It’s like having two songs pying at once: if you listen closely, they make a new music, even if it’s a bit out of tune sometimes. We are not a demon. We are just two people who held each other tight because outside it was too cold and there was too much fear.”Ashnuith remained silent, processing an expnation so simple yet so alien.“So there is no one left to call by name?” the lizard asked again.“You can call us whatever you like,” the 'Us' replied, offering a smile that was sweet on one side and mencholy on the other. “But inside, when we speak to each other, we are just us. We are the boy who knows things and the girl who feels them. We are the shadow that found the light, and the light that accepted the shadow.”Moko stood up trembling, her legs unsteady on the moss. She made no sound. She looked at the "Us" with her third eye still half-closed, but there was no warmth in her gaze, only a vast, cold distance. She wiped the blood from her nose with a paw—a mechanical, detached gesture—then turned and trotted out of the room without looking back, heading toward the sector where the dwarves rested.Moko’s rejection felt like a sh. The "Us" stood motionless, feeling a void where a bond had once been. But then, Tsuki’s curiosity pushed their legs toward the great opening of the cave.They leaned over the natural parapet. The city of Asha glittered below them: a carpet of purple, orange, and blue lights, a hive of life that used no gears. For an instant, Tsuki’s blue eyes dominated the view, absorbing every detail with an almost painful wonder. Their heart beat fast, hungry for all that color.Then, the dual voice turned to Ashnuith.“We want to go down. We want to walk among the lights and smell the spices. May we take a walk?”Ashnuith sized them up, crossing his muscur arms over his chest. His nostrils fred.“You may go where you wish, creature. But not like that. You reek of smoke, of old sweat, and the burnt metal of Kaelos. In Asha, the stench of war is not welcome. First you wash and change, then the city will receive you.”In ? moment, Etan’s embarrassment surged like a heatwave, flushing the cheeks of the new face. The boy’s precision and sense of decorum took over.“Oh... I... we apologize,” the dual voice replied, but with a more hesitant and awkward tone. “We did not mean to offend your senses. You are right, the stench is... is deplorable. We will prepare ourselves at once.”The body turned almost upon itself, stumbling slightly in its haste. Etan was pushing the body toward the thermal water basins with nervous urgency, while Tsuki, inside him, giggled at that strange sensation of shame she had never felt before.The shower was like a rite of purification. Under the jets of hot water gushing directly from the rock walls, the grime of Kaelos, the machine grease, and the dried blood washed away. Looking at their reflection in the water, the "Us" saw a figure that no longer belonged to the past: a young, toned body with the pale skin typical of Tsuki, but the solid structure Etan had never possessed.When they emerged, they found Ashnuith waiting. At the boy’s feet y new clothes made of a soft pnt fiber—moss green and ochre—that seemed to adapt perfectly to their new form. But the real surprise wasn't the clothes.Perched on Ashnuith’s shoulder was a tiny creature with transparent wings that vibrated with a harmonious hum, and skin that looked as if it were made of rose petals.“This is Fyty,” the lizard said in his deep voice. “She will be your guide. She knows every corner of Asha and will keep an eye on you.”The "Us" stood open-mouthed. Etan’s brown eye went wide with intellectual shock, while Tsuki’s blue eye shone with pure light.“A... a Pixie?” the dual voice resonated, full of wonder. “Etan has read of you in the old forbidden volumes of the Imperial library... they said you were extinct for centuries, a legend to put children to sleep. It’s not possible, biology shouldn't allow...”But Tsuki would hear no scientific reasoning. The girl’s joy exploded, pulling the body into an involuntary skip—a light, uncoordinated movement that made their two-toned hair sway. “She’s beautiful! She’s so tiny! Look at the wings, Etan, they look like colored gss!”Fyty took flight, leaving a trail of shimmering dust in the air, and perched right on the shoulder of the new being. “A pleasure to meet you, Two-Who-Are-One!” the pixie excimed, her voice like the chiming of silver bells. “I’m no myth, I’m just very good at hiding! Are you ready? The city doesn’t wait, and there are a thousand scents to taste!”As Fyty led them toward the exit, Etan/Tsuki nearly stumbled from her sheer enthusiasm, moving toward the pulsing heart of Asha with a curiosity that almost made them forget the pain of the past.Ashnuith, however, did not move. He remained behind in the medical room, observing the "damage" left by their awakening: the litter turned to copper, the floor become gss and cy. He ran a cwed hand over the polished surface of the transmuted granite. In his heart, the lizard warrior felt a cold shiver. This being was gentle, capable of embarrassment and wonder, but the power they radiated was a distortion of nature itself.Friend or foe? Ashnuith wondered, as the shadow of concern lengthened across his scales. Are you a gift to Asha, or the first sign that the end is near even down here?Ashnuith didn't take his eyes off the door for several seconds after the "Us" had left. The silence of the medical room, now defaced by the transmutations, weighed like lead. He moved toward the dark stone table in the corner, his heavy steps rattling the gss vials that remained intact.He opened a hidden drawer in the fossilized wood and drew out a bi-colored stone, red and green, pulsing with a faint, rhythmic light—like a mineral heartbeat. It was a resonance stone, linked directly to the senses of the Pixies. He gripped it in his fist, feeling the vibration connecting him to Fyty.“One of them has gone out with the little one,” Ashnuith said, seemingly speaking to the void, his voice like a bde scraping on stone. “Keep a close watch. I want to be informed of their every move. If that... thing... should have another burst of that power, or if its nature should shift again, do not intervene. Just let me know.”For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, the darkness on the cavern ceiling, right above the lizard’s head, seemed to ripple like water in a pond. A slender silhouette detached itself from the rock: a small, long-limbed being whose skin perfectly mimicked the grain and veins of the granite.It was a Shadow-Hunter, a chameleon-being part of Asha’s elite guard. Its eyes, two golden slits rotating independently, fixed on Ashnuith as its skin shifted from stone-gray to a matte olive green.“I shall be their shadow, Lord of Scales,” the being whispered, its voice like the rustle of dry leaves. “They will not even notice my breath.”“Good,” Ashnuith concluded, snapping his armor into pce and tucking the pulsing stone into his pouch. “Now I go to check on the other two and the dwarves. We update in four hours. If Asha is to burn, I will not let it happen.”The chameleon-man did not answer; he simply vanished again, merging with the shadows of the stactites above the exit. Ashnuith left the room with a heavy tread, leaving behind the copper and the gss, heading toward the guest sector.The market of Asha was not a simple square, but a living organism that breathed colors and sounds. The cavern ceiling, incredibly high, was dotted with crystals mimicking a starry sky, while below, the chaos was total and wonderful.Etan and Tsuki moved as if in a fever dream. They passed through corridors where the scent of fresh ginger cshed with tanned leather and exotic fruits oozing luminescent syrups. Around them, the variety of life was almost incomprehensible: stone giants carrying barrels as if they were feathers, four-armed merchants handling three customers at once, and nobles from far-off nds wrapped in silks that looked made of smoke. There were sentient beings Etan couldn't even cssify: creatures made of pure energy contained in brass armor, or humanoids with skin like birch bark selling songs bottled in small gss vials.Fyty darted ahead of them, dodging jugglers spinning spheres of cold fire and musicians pying harps made of dragon bone.“Don’t fall behind, you-two!” the pixie chirped, sitting for a second on the tip of their nose before taking off again. “Asha is rge, but it is orderly! You must know that here we have no temperamental king or emperor who decides everything. That would be too tiring for one person, wouldn’t it?”The "Us" stopped beside a stall selling cobalt blue spices, listening intently. Etan’s part analyzed the political structure, while Tsuki’s watched an acrobat walking on a wire of air.“Our city is guided by the Council of Three Elders,” Fyty expined, doing a loop-the-loop. “They are the wisest, but they don’t stay there forever! They are elected by a group of thirty permanent residents—people who have lived here for generations and know every stone. It’s a delicate bance, like a tower of ptes: if someone pushes too hard, the thirty change them. That’s how we maintain peace among all these different species.”“A two-tier elective system...” the dual voice murmured, the brown eye shining with academic interest. “Etan thinks it’s an incredibly resilient structure for such a heterogeneous pce. But I... I just want to know if those thirty also eat those fried donuts that smell like honey down there!”Tsuki pushed the body into a skip of pure joy, dragging Etan toward a stall run by a creature that looked like a cross between a mole and a bear. The "Us" ughed—a strange, harmonic ugh that drew the gazes of some passers-by, intrigued by that boy with two-toned hair and heavy gloves.Above them, invisible among the shadows of the tents and rock outcroppings, the Shadow-Hunter glided without a single blink, a dark patch merging with the gloom, watching their every twitch.As they skipped along, drawn by the scent of honey, the "Us’s" uncoordinated body smmed hard into the shoulder of an adventurer inspecting some goods. He was an imposing being, a male Harpy with a sharp face and arms covered in iron-gray plumage. The impact sent a newly purchased ceramic jar flying from his hand, shattering on the stone floor with a sharp crack.“Watch where you’re going?!” the bird-man croaked, turning with yellow eyes spitting sparks of rage.Tsuki, with her somewhat brazen innocence, didn't seem to care about the accident. She tilted her head, observing the feathers. “Oh, sorry. But what are you? An adventurer or something else?” the dual voice asked with a curiosity that, in that moment, sounded almost like a challenge.The adventurer, irritated by the tone and the damage, lunged and grabbed the colr of their moss-green tunic. “I don’t care what you think I am, brat! You’re going to reimburse me for every single shard of that jar, now!”From above, the Shadow-Hunter rotated both golden eyes, fixing them on the scene. His body tensed, ready to drop like a hawk if that tightened colr triggered a magical reaction from the "Us."Fyty dove between the two, frantically fpping her wings to create a barrier of glowing dust. “Stop! Everyone stop! It was an accident, no need for talons!” the Pixie trilled pacifically. “We’ll reimburse everything, really, calm down!”The adventurer quieted for a moment, drawn by the pixie’s glow, and held out an open hand toward her, expecting coins. But Fyty looked at him with an air of superiority, crossing her tiny arms. “And now what?”“The money,” the bird-man growled. “You said you were paying.”“And where exactly would I be keeping it?” Fyty shot back, gesturing to her tiny body covered only in petals. “Do I look like a flying bank to you? I said we’d make amends, not that I have gold in my pockets!”The adventurer felt mocked once again and made a move to lunge at Etan/Tsuki, but the commotion drew the attention of a city guard. He was a massive Mushroom-Man, his cap streaked with purple and a tight red sash around his waist indicating his rank.“What is this disturbance?” the guard asked, his dull voice sounding as if it came from deep underground.The bird-man began to expin the situation heatedly, pointing at the shards. The Mushroom-Man didn't say a word; he simply looked at the shattered jar, raised a blunt hand, and murmured a guttural sylble. A pale green glow enveloped the fragments, which began to float, knitting themselves back together perfectly before Tsuki’s astonished eyes.“The jar is whole,” the guard decreed with ft calm. “Now, go your separate ways. Asha has no room for market brawls.”The adventurer muttered something, took his jar, and vanished into the crowd. Fyty sighed, letting herself drop onto the "Us’s" shoulder as they resumed walking.“You have to be careful,” the Pixie whispered, serious this time. “Asha is a peaceful city, it’s true, but hotheads are always around the corner. Species that would hate each other anywhere else live side-by-side here; it only takes one spark to start a fire.”Inside, Etan felt a shiver. That small scuffle had reminded him of how vulnerable they were: it took only one rough contact for their secret—or worse, their uncontrolled power—to break out.The market pulsed with life, but for the "Us," everything came to a halt before the Gallery of Great Mirrors. They were sbs of pure obsidian and polished silver, set into frames of fossilized wood. Fyty flitted excitedly around them, her wings a blur of motion.