Delicate facial features, long golden hair, prominent lips, slim figure, and perfectly smooth skin made it hard to distinguish the gender of a tall person who briskly walked through a narrow corridor covered with marble slabs. Being taken for a woman by the members of other races was a common problem of many male elves. Wearing masculine clothes, trying to speak in a low tone, and no sign of breasts hardly helped - especially when all elven females sported really modest chests.

However, with a little knowledge, one look at the ears and the forehead should be enough to distinguish between the elven genders easily. Males had short, slightly pointy ears, almost human-like, and lacked any other signs of their shared ancestry with fairies. Females had slim, long pointy ears, and in some places of their bodies, right underneath the skin, could be seen the remains of glistening butterfly-like scales, usually small patches in the corners of the forehead.

The tall person was definitely a male elf.

He walked while staring silently at two crystal orbs held in his hands. Inside one of them was the beautiful soul of a proud and noble silver elf, one of the precious few that still remained in this world. While the other contained the soul of a common dirty mongrel, albeit an immensely important one since he came from another world. How did the two of them manage to form a soul bond was a mystery. Nevertheless, it was exactly what he needed.

Breaching Erluna's natural barrier, that was protecting their world from the influx of foreign souls, was a part of the hardest and the most expensive of his many projects. But he finally succeeded. Well, it was a close call. But even if had to personally get rid of that red parasite and risk being detected, smuggling this guy inside should be worth it. The situation was that desperate.

Luckily, his direct intervention wasn't required. The girl perfectly fulfilled her side of the pact and earned herself both the brother she always wanted and the right to a second life.

Out of the many valuable baits he released into the river of souls, only a handful found someone they believed to possess useful knowledge. And the soul of that infamous little girl was the only one who actually managed to form a bond strong enough to drag her chosen target through the barrier. The very first otherworldly soul inside their closed world.

Who knew. Maybe there were some incredible magic formulas in this human's mind? Or he had some special abilities? At this point, even a recipe for a potent aphrodisiac would be greatly appreciated. Whatever it was, the tall elf had long ago learned that it was better to establish a long-lasting friendly relation rather than pursue a quick gain. Especially when he lacked the means to tear open the minds of those two.

The tall elf opened a heavy wooden door and walked into the accursed chamber that used to be like a knife stabbed in his side, causing his treasury to slowly bleed to death. But today, for the first time in many years, he saw its content in an entirely new light. This costly investment was about to bear fruit.

There was only one more thing he had to do before starting to work on transferring the slumbering souls.

After a quick stir of his internal mana reserves, his identity changed.

The ears grew longer and slimmer; the neglected golden hair became silky and combed; the entire forehead and a large part of the neck was sprinkled with hundreds of tiny golden scales; the barely visible masculine facial features were exchanged with alluring feminine ones; the robe's chest area shifted slightly forward, hiding underneath the biggest elven breasts in the history - the size of a pair of oranges; the height was cut by a centimeter or three, caused by the changes in the shape of the hips and overall balancing. A multitude of other small details was shifted accordingly. Finally, even the grey robe was swapped with an elegant one-piece black dress, a long one that covered most of the body.

He was no longer Vertuel, the oldest one of the three still living golden elves. Now in his place, stood Crea, the elven goddess.

It was another thing she learned a long time ago. Nearly everyone's first impression was better when she played the role of the kind and beautiful elven goddess. Though it was a bit sad that among her remaining believers there were none who knew that Crea and Vertuel were one and the same.

She moved forward and very carefully stepped inside the chamber. The entire stony floor was covered with a thick layer of interwoven roots that could suddenly move without any warning, she wasn't going to make the same mistake again, not when she held two essential soul crystals.

One soul was transferred inside the cradle, the other was temporarily stored in a more stable crystal container.

'The cradle' could be both used as the name of this chamber and each of the five leafy cocoons that grew inside. Three of them were big and ripe, half-ready to release their humanoid shaped content - they still had to be provided with the final ingredient. The fourth one was much smaller, still immature. The fifth was almost complete, it had just been injected with a soul, now only needed some time for the final adjustments.

Embedded into the chamber's polished walls were numerous transparent crystals. Nearly all of them were inactive and empty, but the remaining ones shone with a warm bluish light. Three among the latter were clearly special, two emitted a silverish blue hue, while one was shrouded in a radiant blue light saturated with a golden tint.

The humanoid shape inside the fifth cocoon shifted slightly as if trying to look around.

'What's happening? Where am I? And where is she? Why can't I talk to her?' This inner thought was received only by the lone silhouette who waited patiently inside the chamber.

'It's simple. You're inside the psychical body I've made. It automatically tries to protect your mind, hindering the delicate nature of the soul bond you share. Well, you may be able to reconnect with her if you grow closer, but for now, I will be your conversational partner.' Sent the telepathic answer the silhouette, and moved closer to the cocoon, carefully checking if there were no irregularities.

Its recipient instantly recognized the gentle inner voice of the goddess.

'She's safe?'

'Don't worry about the girl. It's easier for me to handle you one at a time. Instead, focus on getting used to your new body, I doubt you have any previous experience at being an elf. Also, remember that the finished product will to a certain extent reflect your inner image. Take your time and imagine yourself handsome.'

With the safety of his sister confirmed, the unnamed soul finally relaxed and decided to take a well-deserved break. This might not have been the best place for that, but the constant fear of losing his sense of self had long exhausted his entire reserves of caution.

Even a bed made out of nails would be fine if lying on it would mean that he was allowed to rest. Being submerged in some unidentified fluid, inside a big leafy cocoon, was fine as well. Actually, it wasn't that bad, warm, comfy, and made him feel safe.

'Heh, all that talk about us being twins made me expect something more natural. You know, being born, getting to meet our new parents, enjoying our childhood, learning magic or training martial arts from the earliest years, and gaining an edge over our peers who would be still amazed by the mysteries of walking... I really wanted to slowly grow up with my sister and make a lot of memories.'

'Trust me you wouldn't want that kind of slow. All elves are real late bloomers. Reaching the mental and psychical equivalent of a ten years old human takes three times longer for a common elf, five times for a silver one, and don't even get me started on how long you need to change the diapers of a golden one.' Answered the goddess telepathically, while turning her head toward one of the shining crystals embedded in the wall. "One of the reasons why I'm doing this shit.. every other major race is happily breeding all year round, but noooo, we elves are too good for that, goddamn romantics. Young ones don't even think of sex before dating for fifty years." The latter was said in the traditional verbal way, having someone listen to her grumble helped to release a little of the irritation accumulated over the long years - even if the recipient couldn't understand anything due to the language barrier.

'... wait.' The cocoon's content twitched, startling the goddess. 'Does it mean she's actually way older than me?'

'In theory. Let me ask you this. Do you remember how old you were at the moment of death?'

'More than twenty..? Less than forty for sure.. damn river. Nevermind, I will just treat her like a younger sister anyway.'

'Good choice. Oh, and before I forget. Technically, you're going to be twins connected by blood. Each of the bodies in the cradles starts exactly the same, gaining a gender and forming finer details only after receiving a soul. The two of you will be just a little more 'created' than born, and with a slight time lag in between. Like I've said, focus on your inner image, and be careful. If you think about breasts too much, like most human males, you may actually start developing your own.'

'Slander and defamation, it doesn't apply to me. Alright, time to think of my perfect self.'

"Heh, I bet your image is going to be the ugliest elf in the history. Deformed muscles, square jaw, eyebrows like clubs, and bald on top of that. There's no way a human sense of esthetic can compete with that of an elf. Oh well, I will just correct it later." Muttered to herself the goddess dressed in black. Her mood improved as everything seemed to work as it should.

'... a pair to play with... hehe... no, no, no, focus.'

Finally, the cradle chamber that took hundreds of years to build became the cause of a smile and not of an angry spasm. The road to reach this point was harsh and full of mistakes. Somewhere along the line, what was just a failed side project to increase the elven population turned into their only remaining hope. Actually..

The goddess took a long look around the chamber and sat down on one of the bigger roots. Every single one of the five hundred crystals embedded into the walls used to house a soul. But now? Nine common, two silver including the girl, one golden. Those were the only ones left. So many precious lives were sacrificed, so many important souls never returned from the river.

... even that hope was already lost. There was no way that only one otherworldly soul could change much. The initial plan assumed that at least half of the elves who signed the pact would return successfully.

It was a bit ironic that the infamous girl who was practically forced into this, proved to be one of the most tenacious ones. Six times her soul had found the way back without succumbing to the river. Each of those trips cost her a part of the memories, and each time she returned a different person, yet three hundred years later, she still persisted and fulfilled her pact.

During her seventh attempt, she finally freed herself from the obligation, probably without even knowing about it anymore. Nevertheless, the promised rewards had to be given to her. A second chance at life and-

'I'm done. Whoa, it feels strange, I think it's being formed now.'

'What?' The goddess instantly shook off her melancholy and ran back to the cocoon. He was right, the body inside the leafy cradle was undergoing rapid changes. It shouldn't be possible to trigger this process without her confirmation, yet he somehow did that. And now it was too late to stop. 'You moron! I gave you the chance to create a godly body, and you're fine with some random shit?!'

'It's not some 'random shit'. I'm pro at character creation, honed by a mountain of games. Once for a change, I've made this really cool elf, recreating his image was simple. Well, I've included some adjustments and the stuff he lacked, but it turned out better than the original.' Somehow a portion of his memories was sharp and vivid like never before. He could rewatch a movie just by closing his eyes. It was rather scary, he still remembered a lot of horrors.

'I've got no idea what you're talking about!' Crea was on the verge of crying. The fact that he was already done could be only explained by putting together a bunch of random parts, without sparing even a second to think about how everything needed to fit together perfectly. The finished product would be nothing short of an abomination. 'How did you even start the process without my approval?!'

'Out of habit. I kind of imagined the 'confirm button' and clicked it.'

"Damn it. I tried to be nice. I will kill you as soon as you're out and move the soul to another body. What a horrible beginning and a huge waste!" The symbol of hope she wanted to use as the flagbearer couldn't be ugly! "Wait, you took control over the cradle with thoughts alone?"

'Ehmm... you seem mad... forgive me, uhmm... my goddess? I'm really sorry if I ruined something, or if I sent you an inappropriate thought. I'm still not entirely sure how to treat a goddess, and it's hard to act humble inside my own head. It would help to teach me the language first, and it would be great to learn your name. I've already picked a new name for myself. I'm-'