I lost all feeling as the fiery sensation faded. My senses were flooded with white. My vision, my thoughts, my nerves, and even my ears were filled with the consuming white. The painful burning sensation eventually dulled, as if my nerves completely burned away. lost all sense of time.

"Interesting, no one has visited this pool in quite some time," A soft voice filled my mind and surrounded me with a gentle embrace. "I apologize for the pain, but you were full of Darhania's energy. I cannot mix with it, so the energy was purged from you when you dived into my half of the pool."

A soothing feeling eased the pain away, but my vision remained white. For the first time I could remember, I felt no pain. "Who are you? Where am I? Am I dead?" My body felt strange, and I could not feel my wings.

"I am Lihania, and you are presently submerged in a pool of my energy." The gentle voice spoke into my mind instead of my ears. "You are not dead, at least not yet. Your soul is more in limbo, but do not fear, I will return you to where you came."

"I'm not dead," I sighed in relief. I glanced around, but the same white filled my vision in all directions and offered no views of the being that spoke to me. "Is Saki ok?"

The mysterious voice paused. "Yes. Though it has only been a few seconds, she is quite worried about you. She is contemplating diving in herself."

"I need to get back to her!" I declared, trying to swim in the direction I thought was up. I'm not sure how effective my movements were; I couldn't feel if I was moving in the liquid. My limbs felt strange as if they no longer belonged to me.

"Before you go, you need new clothes," Lihania spoke, "the scarf and baby blanket aren't enough. I will give you a magic cape like the ones your kind are already familiar with. However, not only will it give you wings, but also allow you to shapeshift back to your previous form if you desire."

"What do you mean by that? I never wear clothes! Previous form? Baby blanket?" I tried to look at my hands, but I could not see them through the opaque liquid.

"You are no longer a monster; when you jumped into my half of the pool, my white energy purged the dark magic trapping you to a monstrous shape, restoring you to your birth species, a Stellan." It spoke softly, like a mother would.

"I... I was actually born a Stellan?" I barely managed to speak. "He... he was serious. I didn't think it was possible—" I trembled slightly, "—Do you know who I was? What family do I belong to? Am I really Helios's son?"

"Based on the name embroidered onto the blanket used to make your wings, your name was Akio. But I have no knowledge beyond that." Lihania's voice sounded apologetic as I felt something gently fall into my front paw. "But for now, you should return to your friend."

I felt something loosely wrap around me and push me upwards. I gasped for air when my face breached the surface of the thick liquid and panted as I desperately clung to the edge of the pool.

"Hoshi?" Saki squeaked as I managed to scramble onto the dry stones. My limbs felt strange, and my claws didn't grip the stone floors like they should have.

"I'm okay," I promised as I slowly sat up and rubbed the liquid out of my eyes. When I regained my vision, I immediately noticed my limbs. Gone were my soft yellow paws, replaced with Stellan-like hands of the same color. As I moved my arm to further study myself, I became astonished that my muscles no longer ached.

"I'm a Stellan..." my voice came out as a whisper as if my breath could blow away it like an illusion.

"H - how?" Saki managed a strained squeak as she gently grabbed my arm and helped me shakily stand. After a few moments of shaky breathing, she managed with a hiccup, "I... I thought you died," She sniffled as tears welled in her silver eyes. She buried her face into my chest as she hugged me tight. She hiccupped, "Never scare me like that again."

I wrapped my arms around her and tried to balance and refrain from knocking us both over. "I'll try," my genuine promise almost echoed in my ears. Thankfully, the hug helped stabilize me on my new feet. I held the embrace as long as she needed. After a moment of hugging, I came to a realization, "The dark magic in me is... gone... I don't crave it anymore...."

Once she eventually calmed, she dove into a more excitable state as I leaned on her in a sudden loss of balance."If the dark magic is what transformed you in the first place, I guess it makes sense that the white side undoes all of it."

I could see Saki's mind working as she tried to wrap her mind around the unfamiliar magic as she stared at the pool, "they don't seem to mix at all, despite touching. So the white magic pushed out the black magic in you! You're cured! You don't need dark energy anymore!!!" A large grin spread across her face. "I wish I had a flask or something to take samples, powerful, lost ancient energy like this could revolutionize everything!"

I glanced back to the pool. The white side had taken over most of the surface but was slowly pushed back to equilibrium by the black side. "Maybe... this is something we should keep to ourselves," I slowly spoke. "I don't want anyone else getting their hands on the same magic that made the dark mage so powerful it took decades to defeat him."

Saki hesitated, then eventually spoke, "You're right...

I solemnly nodded. After a moment, I released and shakily stood on my own. The feeling of bipedal walling felt natural but strange at the same time like I had been doing something wrong my whole life and just now learned the correct way.

Saki slowly the embrace, but remained next to me with a worried gaze trained on me, as if she feared I would topple over at any moment. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"This form feels different, but in a good way," I assured with a fond smile, "I'm not in pain anymore."

She nodded in relief, then looked up to my face with a scrutinizing countenance. "You look like you're about my age..." she paused, eyes moving rapidly between my features as she seemingly double-checked her estimates. You'vealways acted older....How are we the same age? You practically raised me!"

I hesitated, "Perhaps it was the growth serum given to me when I was small, that likely forced my maturation."

Saki paused, then after a slow accepting rod, slowly spoke, "So, how do we get home now?" she glanced at her cape, which was not charmed to give her wings.

"The voice said my cape was magic." I glanced back to the white and gold fabric with a scrutinizing gaze. Admittedly, didn't know exactly how the star-pattered cape worked. After a moment of consideration, I tried to move my wings like I would have in my previous form. To my astonishment, my wings emerged from beneath the white and gold cloth.

Saki's eyes went wide. "Voice?" she reached out and touched my wings as if checking for herself if they existed. I was tempted to do the same, despite recognizing the feel of them on my back.

"Yeah, there was a voice coming through the white void, they told me I could use this to summon wings, or even change back." | slowly paused, then retracted my wings. How do I do that? My wings are summoned when I want to move them, maybe it's based on my thoughts? I focused on the cloth and tried to turn back to my draconic form.

To my shock, the cloak wrapped around me as the fabric shifted to a familiar golden color. My limbs transformed and I shifted into a quadrupedal stance. "Amazing," I awed. Nothing hurt, even in this form. I had been so used to the constant pain from being low on dark magic I had forgotten what a painless existence felt like. My mind filled with wordless joy and excitement as I looked at Saki with bright, sparkling eyes and a wide grin on my face.

Saki, equally rendered speechless, stared at me for a while. But there was a fondness in her smile, as if she was glad to see me so happy. "What... what do we do now?" Saki hesitantly asked.

I paused and mused over my thoughts. We had completed all our goals, stopped the dark mage, brought magic and the stars back for everyone, and Saki's goal of curing me. After a moment, I grinned as the wind rippled through my fur and under my wings. "Live. That's what we'll do. We'll find our next adventure and do it together like we always have."