Vilifith’s Journal – Day 1096

It has been three years and one day since I first stepped onto these shores, three years and one day since the tide first greeted me as one of Unity’s own. The waves do not mark anniversaries, but I cannot help myself—I measure time here by their ceaseless rhythm, by how many summers have crested and fallen since my return.

My body has changed with those tides, in ways I cannot explain. The goddess I once was, lithe and sharp as a blade of surf, has softened. My hips are broader, my rear heavier. The mirror of the sea reflects me as voluptuous where once I was lean. It is not a matter of indulgence. My meals are simple: fish, tree nuts, and fruit from the shore. Rarely do I ever visit the Beymachi markets with their bountiful selection of treats. I swim daily, dive until my lungs burn, keep my muscles strong through practice. And yet, no matter my discipline, the curves remain—no, they grow.

I suspect this world’s magic is the culprit. Unity reshapes souls as much as it remakes bodies. I have seen it in others, and now I feel it in myself. Perhaps it is the leylines under the ocean floor radiating their mana, spilling unseen into my home. Or perhaps it is something stranger: a resonance with those lipomancers I once stood beside at Soliana. Zoey, Gemma, Seren… and Glace, though she has not visited my island since. I do not blame her; she is quite busy with her international stardom after all.

A lipomancer's craft is to draw power from the body’s abundance, to turn flesh into mana and vice versa. I fought alongside them when the meteor fell, felt the gigantic shield take shape around us. At that moment, I lent them what strength I could, although in reality they were doing a bulk of the work despite being mere mortals.

I must wonder… Did some echo of their art linger in me? Did the lipomancy seed itself in my form, coaxing me toward this bodily fullness?

Zoey visited once, and she laughed when I shared my suspicions. “Unity shapes in ways that none of us can predict. Literally,” she told me, her eyes too knowing. Gemma tried to assure me it was a blessing—she has always been bold, eager to find beauty where others hesitate. Seren only blushed, unable to meet my gaze, her rings glowing like embers in the dusk. They meant well. Still, I cannot shake the thought that my shape is not entirely mine anymore.

And yet, the sea does not scorn me. The gulls do not care. When I walk the shoreline at dawn, the waves lap at me just the same. Perhaps this is my body’s way of anchoring me here—of saying that after all of the wars, after Arcera’s fall and my long exile, I am meant to rest, to bear this weight as naturally as I once bore the storm.

Still, I wonder: if the Blackwave comes again, will these alien curves hold strength enough to rise once more?

—Vilifith Arcera

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For once, some doodles to start Lugia Day!

Some late patreon reward for  SmashUniverse64

Vilifith and story by  SmashUniverse64


Art by  Derrysome

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