"You killed them" sobbed Shari "You murdered them. They're dead. They never had a chance. God, what are you? My father, oh God."
"What's the problem?" said Tobi, hugging her friend, who shrank from her.
"I mean, the soldiers that were here, the ones you, you turned into, turned into nappies--they're dead. I knew some of them, before, before I was Shari. You killed them. My father's gone too. Is that what you do, just kill anyone who gets in your way? Is that what you all do? Are you going to kill me now? Are you going to turn me into a wall hanging?"
Tobi remembered her conversation with Ander, about her "evil twin." "I'm sorry, Shari. Look, I can change them back. Not into soldiers, though, is that OK? Will you be OK? I swear, I will never turn you into anything unless you want it, OK? I swear by all the gods and all my royal ancestors. You're safe with me."
"You can turn them back?"
"Yes." She gestured and froze the peasant woman who was collecting the falling nappies. "Just not into men of violence. There's enough of those around here already."
Shari sniffled. "Well, OK then. Just so long as they're not m-m-murdered."
Tobi waved her hands, and the nappies removed themselves from the peasant woman's grip. Half of them grew into peasant women who could have been sisters of the peasant woman who had already been changed. Half of them grew into crying infants.
Tobi addressed the new women. "In your new forms, you will give and nurture life rather than take it." The women picked up the babies and began nursing them.
"Th-thank you" said Shari. "And can you do something about my father?"
Tobi sighed. To tell the truth, she kind of liked the new version of Shari's father. A lot more, she suspected, than she would have liked the original version.
+++++++++++++++
"Dig a tunnel?" said Lyra. "I guess that would work, but it would take a tremendously long time and require specialized equipment we don't have, even with an Ogre. All we really want is the rock. Remember, this is basically a distraction so that Tobi can take care of the problem for us."
"Actually" Ander replied "I have a spell for that."
+++++++++++++++++++
Amber turned around and ran back as if she had suddenly remembered something. "Mom" said Amber. "Can you tell the archers not to hit that cute barbarian in the loincloth? I don't care about the hairy men in bearskins, but I'd really rather not see him hurt."
Atelia sighed. With no transformation power, she couldn't change her daughter's sexuality away from men, and somehow it just seemed too personal a thing to entrust to Marge the Amazon and her rock. Maybe once her power regenerated.
++++++++++++++
Jak the Ogre shrank into Jak the halfling. Jak the short, asthmatic halfling. Marge flourished her rock and grinned.