Ty began to walk towards the door. Okay, she thought, my first class is probably still history. Are we still doing the Civil War unit?
That's when realization struck. Like many Americans, Ty grew up revering Abraham Lincoln. He freed the slaves, after all.
And, Ty thought, I've just undone that. There are slaves again, and it's because of me.
The memory of graphic pictures of whippings formed, unbidden, in Ty's mind. She knew the same must be happening across the world. Maybe even in her own city.
"What have I done?" she said.
"Mistress Ty, what did you do?" asked Kara. She looked concernedly at Ty. "Is everything alright?"
After all I've done, she still cares, Ty thought. That's nice of her, albeit probably mostly because she doesn't know.
"I have to make this right."
"Pardon me, what happened? I'm not sure I understand," Kara replied.
Ty thought for a moment. "If anyone deserves to know, it's you," she finally said. "Now, I'm going to say some things that will sound insane. I won't order you to believe me, or even pretend to do so. But I assure you, it's all true as I understand it."
Kara twitched her ears, in a manner which seemed uncertain. "Okay, I'll hear it."
"Somehow, earlier this morning, I discovered powers which I can only describe as extraordinary and possibly magical. In the time between that discovery and now, I made massive changes to global society. An unwelcome and unexpected side-effect of that was the subjugation of anthros."
Kara nods along, clearly unbelieving. "Okay... Should I send for a doctor?"
"Look, I'll prove it," Ty said, wishing that Kara maintained memory during the next change. She then changed the carpet of the stairwell to green.
Kara stared, wide-eyed, at the new carpet. "Do you believe me now?" asked Ty.
"Okay," she replied in a shocked tone. "I believe you. Why are you telling me this?"
"I don't know," said Ty. "I just needed to get it off my chest before trying to fix it, I guess." She sat down on the stairs, absentmindedly changing them back to blue.
Kara sat down next to her. "Well, thank you for sharing it with me. Are you ready?"
"Sure."
"Alright. I just have one request, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind at all. It's the least I can do."
"Okay. Listen, I don't know how much you remember, but from the time I was bought by your guardians to now, you are the only one who's been nice to me. And you didn't grow up here, so you have no idea how much that means."
Ty blushed. "You realize it didn't even occur to me that anything was wrong until well after I read that there was slavery here, right?"
"Yeah, but at least it occurred to you. Anyway, all that I ask is that, in whatever brave new world you build, I want to still know you."
Ty smiled, in spite of herself. "I hope that I can live up to your trust."
She closed her eyes. When she opened it again, Kara was still there. "Did it work?"