"It was during a sermon, that my sister started changing. It was the beginning of the second wave of UGE, and most of the people here in Poland were scared out of their minds. My mother fainted, and my dad and i kneeled over by her, trying to both cover Sylvia from those hatefull, scared, prying eyes of a whole congregation, and to give her as much comfort as we could. We knew nothing about UGE, even though my cousin had a dwarf baby, and my girlfriend (i was still in high-school back then) had a baby-elf sister. Our priest, father Jeremy, was a traditionalist, though he didn't outright condemn all those non-humans, he didn't seem to treat them as God's children. I raised my head to look at him, and he was still standing there, halfway through one of his wide gestures, that he used to make a point in his speeches. I didn't really remember what he was saying before it happened. I never paid attention, either lost in my thoughts, or trying to sneak as many glances of my girl as i could.
Father Jeremy looked at me... past me, at my sister, writhing in pain. And then he finished his sermon with those few rare words of wisdom i thought i'd never find in the Bible. "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.". I never became this inspired, but when he walked to us, to embrace Sylvia with us, i knew something's changed in his soul. He had tears running down his face, and that unfocused look, that spellcasters have when they're concentrating. Off course, i didn't know that. I just saw our priest coming down to embrace her, along with her family. She stopped crying when he touched her, and people rushed both to the door, muttering curses (most of them moved to other congregations), and to us, to pray, hold my mother's hand, and just participate in what they believed to be a miracle. What happened later that day made my sister's change bleak and insignifficant in comparison. Over twenty people of those who stayed in the church changed on that day, and a few days later father Jeremy was reassigned to Vatican, and later became a member of the Sylvestrian order. Sylvia managed to cope with the change, and became quite popular among our congregation. She managed to make it through the University, though it wasn't easy for an ork girl in this country. We had a lot of trouble with people who hated us for accepting her change, but we always had support from other church-goers, and our new young and idealistic priest. In the end, we were good."
- Marek Nowocki, 67 years old