Life with Shifter and Mister Kvho

Reposted from my Shapeshifter blog. I do plan to post more here — in fact, I’m going to start posting daily, Just been really busy lately.
Anyway, enjoy a little Shapeshifter fan-fiction :P 
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I had gotten what I thought was an easy level 54 puzzle, and let Kvho have a shot at it, certain he’d be done with it in no time. Hours later, nothing. Puzzled, I let Shifter at it — STUMPED!
I went back to the Ixi for more puzzles, found an easier version, showed it to Shifter and Shifter had no idea what to do with it.
“Umm… what is this, again?”, she asked, turning it around, trying to guess the purpose of this random square of symbols.
“It’s the Shapeshifter puzzle,” I said. I couldn’t believe she was pulling this stuff on me. “I wrote you to SOLVE it. Don’t give me this crap.”
“Yeah. Yeah, okay. Solve this. You bet.” She paused. “And just how would I go about this, then?”
“Don’t start this. I wrote you. Poured my soul into you. Spliced alien genes into you. Furchrissakes parallelized you! This is your life, Shifter. Now solve this thing.”
“Nuh uh. Today’s Friday. I’m really busy, full day ahead. Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, I see if I remember anything about this ‘Shapeshifter’ puzzle.”
“Whatever”, I said. Go to Hell and die, I thought to myself.
“KVHO!” I yelled. “Get in here.”
He came oozing into the room, pale yellow eyes aglow, smirking. “So. Now you need me… again… and I am to come at your call? After that puzzle last night you should be… ashamed. This time… I require payment… we discussed this.”
Payment. But not money, or food, or power. Kvho demands Shifter’s very soul. He will stay until Shifter is dead, her uniqueness absorbed into his essence — the Borg of puzzle solvers. The form he wears, he modeled after Shifter. He hungers for more.
“Payment you will have. Solve this puzzle.”
He took the random collection of symbols, set in an eight-by-eight square. “And… how am I to do this?”
“Don’t start with me.”
That’s how I left it when I came to work this morning. Shifter slunk away, Kvho seeing what he can do with the puzzle. Kvho can be stumped; he isn’t the super-being he thinks he is. If neither can get anywhere with it, I’ll go hunting for easier puzzles tonight.