The Book of Transformations by Mark Charan Newton Read Free Book Online Page A

open-mindedness and generosity is something I wish to show others.’
    He held out wide the arms that were once not his own. ‘So, Lan, I understand your desire for transformation. That is why I helped you.’
    *
    There was so much more Lan wanted to know, but it was time to leave Ysla.
    Morning sunlight filtered into the hab and she listened as Cayce talked to her from the other side of his desk. He was informing Lan of the details of her transformation, how it would affect her, and she readily drank in his words, trusting him instinctively after he had revealed his own secrets to her. She had no doubt that this man understood her, though it did not make what he said any easier to absorb.
    ‘We’ve been able to give you as much of a functioning female anatomy as we thought we could,’ Cayce said. ‘And of course, we have . . . smoothed away masculine contours from your form, especially on your face, and in other ways – with hair and voice. These were simple enough. So firstly, you should be able to experience intercourse as a full woman, but I cannot say how much pleasure you will receive from it.’
    ‘I never got much anyway,’ she replied, grinning. Besides, for years she had never gone that far because she ran the risk of being discovered.
    Cayce ignored her dry humour, stalling over his next sentence. ‘You’ll also still . . . You will be unable to have children, and . . . there’s no way we can encourage natural menstruation.’
    Lan suspected as much, though always retained that vague hope of having the option, but now that hope had ultimately died, a small light in her heart went out for ever.
    ‘Aside from that,’ he continued, ‘and given that gender is a fluid notion – we are not Neanderthals who deal in binary on Ysla – I think you have many good reasons to be happy,’ Cayce concluded. ‘And are you happy with your physical state?’
    ‘I always felt like a woman anyway, but, you know, it’s so much more meaningful now? This isn’t just about how I look.’ She allowed a contemplative pause, and it was only in this silence that she realized how much more softer her voice had really become. ‘How much of this will remain a secret?’ Lan asked. ‘I wouldn’t want any of this getting out, is all. How many people know of what you’ve done to me?’
    ‘I understand.’ Cayce peered up. ‘A small network of cultists will be aware, but that is it. Besides, with all that ice around to worry about, who else will care?’
    ‘ I’ll care.’
    Cayce folded his arms, hands under his armpits. He gave her a look of deep empathy. ‘Of course.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Lan said. His words were all very pleasant, but wasn’t she still some experiment to them? This was a mutual arrangement, after all. ‘There’s just so much to cope with.’
    ‘I told you there would be. People come looking for physical changes all the time, but they don’t understand just how connected the body and mind can be.’
    ‘I understand,’ she replied.
    ‘You may always have ghosts,’ Cayce warned. ‘Do not think they vanish overnight.’
    Before Lan departed she didn’t quite know what to say. Cayce merely stood there, alongside a doorway at the top of the stairwell leading down to where she’d be transported back to the freezing ice-wastes of Jokull. Others from the island had gathered in their multicoloured clothing – faces with which she was distantly familiar. The sun was intense, as it always was here. She gazed behind into the distance to see Villarbor, and its hundreds of hub communities stretching across the many shades of green that comprised the landscape. What a view . . . She would certainly miss this island, but was honoured to have at least witnessed such exoticism.
    Cayce guided her to the steps. ‘The local tribes like to point out to us that for rebirth, first you must choose the path of death. I would recommend that it is an opportunity to let go of the person you were.’
    ‘I will,’