The Fall of Yibixus

“Green?” Phoebe asks.

“Yes,” Mom replies. “I think it’s important. It might give us a brief window for victory if we have to engage it in battle.”

My heart rate increases, and I feel it throbbing in my chest as the tight armor holds my breasts tight. She keeps talking about battle like this is a normal thing for me and Phoebe. I’m not even in my twenties yet—I’m just a kid.

“The orb is the source of all Green’s abilities,” Mom explains, her voice now calm and confident. “Its known abilities are as follows. Shapeshifting. Matter manipulation. Sensory disorientation and worst of all, its unrelenting desire to absorb souls.”

“I have a question about that last one…,” Phoebe pipes up. “When you say it steals souls—what happens to them?”

Mom's prolonged silence to the question indicates to me that she doesn’t want to tell us.

“I’m…...not sure,” she ultimately answers. “I’m not a scientist. All I know is that the Orb itself is powered by the souls it absorbs. I never wanted to ask—being the commander of the royal army, it wasn’t my place to question those above me.”

Feeling like that’s the whole truth, yet again, I open my mouth to speak.

“That’s not the entire truth… is it?” Phoebe rebukes, taking the words right out of my mouth. “Mom, I want to trust you. Please tell us all you know, so we can support you.”

Surprised at how forward Pheebs is being, I’m a little gobsmacked by her newfound confidence.

“Fine…,” Mom replies, clearly riled by Phoebe. “I promise this is all I know about it. The orb outputs crazy amounts of energy, but to produce that energy, it needs a source of souls.”

Mom gives Phoebe a quick glance, then she locks eyes with me through the rear-view mirror. “Do you both remember what I said about how me transforming you has protected you?”