An Owl's Rise

However, there was something else that was even more pressing to Evelyn, and that was the fact that Melisandre had been able to tell that her soul did not fit with her body and took the form of a human girl.

"I do not know how this is possible, as you are clearly and owl. But I assume that if you know this, it is part of the truth about yourself that you plan on telling me?" Melisandre said.

Nodding her head, Evelyn confirmed this to be the case, and Melisandre continued telling Evelyn about what had happened after she fell unconscious.

"As soon as I realized how bad the damage to you was, I flew back to the emergency warp gate that had been setup by the higher-ranking expedition unit. I felt a bit bad leaving that member of your squad, I believe Bylur was his name, alone. But you took precedence. To repair the damage you had taken, I needed a specialized facility and a potion that one needs to submerge themselves in. Which is what you found yourself waking up in."

Listening carefully Evelyn took in everything that Melisandre had to say, and things became a bit more clear to her.

"So, you out me into that capsule with this potion and it began repairing my broken soul and cores. Is there anything else or did I just sleep for the next five months?"

"Yes, there are some other things that I need to tell you about. The first is that three other members of your squad managed to survive. Unfortunately, you squad leader was not found. I assume that she was consumed by the empress dryad's light attack. Though it could have been any number of things that ultimately did her in." Melisandre said with a sorrowful look.

For Evelyn this was a bit hard to hear. Certainly, she had butted heads with Adolophine a number of times, but they had still spent months together and she had helped Evelyn out a few times with her alchemy.

Still, she put this aside for now and waited for Melisandre to continue.

"This last part is a bit difficult to tell you, and things might change depending on what it is you have to say. If you still wish to tell me about yourself, now is the time?" Melisandre said with a look anticipation.

She had wondered for a long-time what Evelyn's secrets were, and finally she was going to learn them. Albeit not in the situation she had been hoping for.

"To start how much do you already know. You said I have a human soul, but what else did you learn about me in these five months I have been unconscious?" Evelyn asked

"Along with that fact that you have a human soul I also found that you have a magic core within you which should be impossible, and that you have melded with a heavenly flame. I had thought that might be a possibility for your unusually powerful fire magic, however, it seemed so farfetched that I did not really consider it. That is until the empress dryad confirmed it. Except that was still not the most puzzling thing about you. That item, the one you said the humans implanted into you, I could not get a read on it no matter what I tried. I all I found was that it was tied not only to you body, but your soul and beast core as well. Now I have been wondering this Evelyn, but these researchers you told me about. Did they implant your soul into the body of an owl and you used to be human?"

Asking this question Melisandre wanted to know if what she believed happened was the cause of Evelyn's mismatched soul and body.

Truly she could not think of any way to actually successfully transfer a soul to another body, especially one that was wholly different than original. But Evelyn was already so full of mysteries that she thought this could be possible and was the most likely option.

Of course, it was actually way off the mark, and even as farfetched as the hypothesis Melisandre had come up with was, it was far more believable than the truth.

"No, that is not quite right. Those researchers did not implant my soul into this body. I was born anew this way."

Evelyn then began explaining that she was originally human, but that she came from a world far different from the one she was currently on. One that did not have magic and where the only intelligent species was humans.

"Not to go into details, I ended up being killed on my old world and when I next gained consciousness, I was an owl. I have no clue how or why this happened, only that it did." Evelyn said, explaining what little she knew about how she became an owl.

Melisandre after hearing this just stared at Evelyn with a stupefied expression for nearly two minutes.

Never in her wildest dreams did she expect to learn that Evelyn was not only originally human, but that she had come from a completely different world.

"This is certainly more impossible than I ever thought. But you at least believe you are telling the truth. I can see that. Please continue, I think I have cleared my head enough now."

Going on, Evelyn told Melisandre in more detail about her life after being reincarnated as an owl. How she had lost her new family to the human researchers, and that they had implanted the Aethersphere inside of her.

"I knew it must have been something beyond me, but you really have a divine item embedded in you. One that not only makes you stronger but gave you a power called gravity magic."

Once she had collected her thoughts again, Melisandre asked Evelyn some more questions about the Aethersphere. Though she did not really know all that much about it.

"Now I believe we should leave that where it is for now. It is time I tell you how I got this heavenly flame." Evelyn said with a calm expression on her face.

She then took a few deep breaths and told Melisandre about her brother who had died just a few minutes before her on earth but ended up here centuries ahead of her.

"He found that my fate would only end in death if he did not intervene and found that stealing his family's heavenly flame would give me a shot at a better fate. That is how I came to possess it." Evelyn explained.

After that she told Melisandre about how she used the materials Mason had left behind to learn more about this world and somehow created a magic core for herself in her haste to practice magic.

"At the time, and up until today I could not be certain why I was able to do this, but I now realize it must be because my soul is still originally that of a human. And that is the entire truth about myself and all that I currently know about how I came to live this second life as an owl."