Summus Proelium

Uhh, oops. I had just been let in by the gate guard and was halfway to the front door when I realized one very important mistake I had made. Namely, I was still in my male-presentation form. Fortunately, the guard himself hadn’t looked very closely at me before opening the gate and waving me through, distracted by something on his computer. It helped that I didn’t look that different as a boy. But there was a difference between the guard not noticing anything when I was walking past and Maki not noticing when I was standing right in front of them. I may not have exactly been stacked up there as a girl, but again, I wasn’t a washboard either. And I was just wearing a tee-shirt since it was summer.

More importantly, the front door was opening right that second. I didn’t have time to think about anything other than how bad this would be if anyone noticed anything. I needed to be a girl up there again, I needed--

And then I was a girl. But I was also a boy. I could tell, just from--well, I could just tell. I had girl parts up top and boy parts below. Right, yeah, I could mix and match, just by thinking about it. That was useful.

I didn’t have time to dwell on that, before Maki finished opening the door to welcome me politely. After we exchanged greetings, they walked me through what turned out to be a stuffy, very fancy home full of expensive artwork. It was a nice place, unsurprisingly. But it wasn't exactly homey. To be honest, the whole place seemed more like a fancy museum than a place where people lived. At least in the parts we were walking through. There were art pieces and statues throughout the hallways and rooms that gave me the impression getting a single fingerprint on any of them would force my parents to buy it at an incredibly marked-up price. It was a mix of western and eastern art with no apparent rhyme or reason. I supposed it was simply the art Maki’s parents enjoyed. Or maybe they took turns choosing and had very different styles from one another. It could be that simple.

On the way, Maki asked if I would like some iced tea or lemonade. When I agreed to whichever was easier, they took me out onto the patio behind the house. There was a covered space in the corner, and I could see a table there with several books set up along with a few padded chairs. Ryder was already sitting there, going over one of the books in question. When we came out, he quickly jumped up and extended a hand, greeting me while doing a fairly good job at pretending we had only met a couple times. The two of us did a whole song and dance about recognizing each other.

Once we were sufficiently ‘reintroduced,’ Maki excused themself to go in and get those drinks, promising we would start as soon as they got back. Which left the two of us standing there by the table together. From the look on Ryder’s face, he had a lot he wanted to ask me about. Instead, he pulled out a chair for me before taking one himself after I blushed and sat down. Once we were arranged, he picked up one of the books again and then spoke while pretending to flip through the thing. “They can't hear what we're saying, but they can see us. I don't have enough footage to loop anything yet. Just don't look directly at the camera so they can't see that what you're saying doesn't actually match your lips. I checked for any other listening devices or anything like that while he was letting you in. Are you okay? I mean, after what happened back there. I know you said you were fine with that text and all, but seriously, that--you were--”

Grabbing one of the books, I flipped through it before replying, “I have new powers--I mean I have the same powers but a few new tricks to go with them. I’ll show you later. But for now I need you to do me a favor. You remember that list I found? We’re trying to figure out what that was about, but I need to look around while I’m here. It’s the best chance I’m gonna get.”

Ryder blanched. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

My head shook. “Not at all. But I don’t have much choice. We need to find out what that list is, and that means either finding answers now, or being able to get back in here later. Either way, I need to look around. So when I say that the waterfall’s run through me and I need to use the restroom, I need you to keep Maki distracted. I’ll go to the bathroom and then while I’m in there, I need your mites to deal with the cameras so I can sneak out and look around this place for a minute without being seen.”

After getting all that out, I raised my gaze to peek that way, hopefully subtly enough not to be noticed on the security feed. “I know it’s a lot to ask, and you have no reason to do all that just because I asked you t--”

“Are you kidding?” Keeping his voice low, Ryder flipped a couple pages as though deeply interested in the book as he insisted, “After everything I've seen with you, I'm pretty sure I’d set this house on fire if you said it was important. And you’re right, finding out what that list is about is important. So yeah, I've got your back.”

Maybe this was just a bad idea in general. Maybe it was stupid to even think about walking around while I was here. But it was too good of an opportunity to risk missing. I was already in the house, and had Ryder right here with me. I wouldn't push things too far, but at the very least, I could get a better idea about the layout of the place and where all the important rooms were before we eventually broke in here. And hell, maybe I would get incredibly lucky and happen to find enough answers this way that we wouldn't even need to break in. Yeah, it wasn't exactly likely, but stranger things had happened. The point was, I couldn't risk throwing this chance away. Even if Paige probably would’ve strangled me if she so much as thought I was doing this.

In any case, I wasn't going to push things too early. We needed to settle into a studying routine. Besides, just before Maki came back, Ryder informed me that he was going to send his Mites throughout the house to find out just how many people were here, where they all were, and anything else that could help when I started sneaking around. He needed time for all that.

And, of course, there was the fact that I actually did need to study. Yeah, I kind of skimmed over that part a bit, but it was important. It wouldn't matter how much I found out or how many secrets I uncovered if I ended up failing out of school. My parents would bring themselves out of their Sleeptalk comas completely on their own just to kill me before anything else even came up. Which--sure using that as a way of waking them up might’ve been somewhat tempting, but I was pretty sure we weren’t quite that desperate yet. After all, they were still working on that actual cure from Amanda, so I was just going to go ahead and keep ‘pissing my parents off enough to make them snap out of it through sheer willpower’ in my back pocket for the time being.

So, for a couple hours, we studied. Which worked out pretty well. Between Maki and Ryder, I had a lot of help.

“Ma’am?”

They were both really good at explaining things, especially when they worked together. I had been having trouble with some Geometry stuff and the two of them managed to walk me through it with some better examples.

“Sorry, ma’am?”

I wasn't going to become a mathematician anytime soon, but it was enough to get me through the upcoming test. At least, I hoped it was.

“Ahem, ma’am?”

It wasn't just math either. Through those hours, we went over a little bit of everything Maki and I were going to need to know. They might have been homeschooled, but even Maki had their own finals to get through, and Ryder was helping to make sure we were prepared for all that. I even managed to help a couple times, repeating the things my own teachers had said about a subject in a way that helped Maki better than the way they’d had it explained by their tutors.

A light kick hit my shin then, as Ryder cleared his throat. “Cassidy.”

“Huh, what?” Blinking up, I saw the maid standing there with a tray of fresh drinks. She looked a little embarrassed, and I belatedly realized that she had been trying to get my attention that whole time, with the repeated ‘ma’ams.’ Right, right, I was supposed to be somewhat girl-adjacent of a sort. It was my turn to blush self-consciously while taking the glass with a murmured thanks.

After distributing the drinks, the maid asked, “Will there be anything else, sir?”

“No, thanks,” both Ryder and I replied, while Maki, the person she was actually talking to, remained silent, staring off into the distance. Had I just instinctively responded because I felt guilty about not realizing she was talking to me before? Was Maki not answering because they felt more feminine today? I had no idea, though both Ryder and I went to nudge Maki with our feet and ended up kicking each other in the shins because we were closer to each other than we were to them, making each of us yelp and bump the table.

That was enough to make our host look up quickly, realize they had made the same mistake I did, and assure the maid that everything was fine.

Right, so I was sitting there as a half-boy, half-girl, completely missing the maid repeatedly trying to get my attention with ‘ma’am’ just before Maki managed to miss her trying to get their attention with ‘sir,’ a thing that I actually responded to. We were doing great, just fantastic.

Shortly after that, Maki themself had to step away with their own polite excuse. I wasn’t sure what they were doing, but they came back a few minutes later looking a bit like they had--well, like they had been running, almost. They were panting slightly, and when asked, just said they’d had to run upstairs to do something for their parents. Which raised all sorts of questions, given Ryder sent me a text letting me know that he was pretty sure Maki’s parents weren’t here. But he couldn’t figure out what our study partner had been doing either, besides going into their bedroom where there weren’t any cameras. So they had run up to their room, stayed there for a few minutes, then came back out of breath while claiming they’d been doing something for their parents. That was… I had no idea what that was or what it could mean.

Honestly, beyond the weirdness of what Maki had been doing there, I kind of forgot about sneaking around for a little bit. They stopped doing it after the first hour and a half or so, and I got so lost in the studying part that I didn't think about the rest of that. Which was a little weird, given how certain I had been that I wouldn't even be able to focus on studying. I had thought that I would just spend an hour or so squirming around and barely paying attention, going through the bare minimum just to make it look good before making an excuse to sneak off so I could look around and find something. But as it was, I only remembered that I was supposed to be doing something else after glancing at my phone and seeing how late it was getting. If I didn't make a move soon, I was going to run out of time. How stupid would I feel then, if I had this perfect opportunity to look around and let it slip out of my fingers just because I was distracted?

No, I couldn’t let that happen. Dangerous as it might’ve been, I had to use this chance. So, as Maki and Ryder were engrossed in a discussion about a bit of history talk that didn’t have anything to do with my own classes, I sat up, mentioned the waterfall bit, and asked where the bathroom was. Maki gave directions and politely offered to walk me inside, but I assured them that I could make it myself and that they shouldn't interrupt just to stand around the bathroom waiting for me. Then I hopped up and headed that way, doing my best to look as casual as possible. The last thing I needed was for them to notice how nervous I was. Well, okay, not the absolute worst thing. There was a whole long list of bad things above that, but still, I needed to be cool.

Thankfully, Ryder had informed me that there were only a few people working in the house as far as he could tell. Maki’s parents were gone, and there was only that single maid, a chef, and one guard inside who did a walk-through once an hour but mostly stayed in the security room. There were more guards assigned to the grounds who didn't come in, so unless I really screwed up, they wouldn't be a problem. The maid wandered around doing her cleaning, and would be the biggest obstacle after the cameras were taken care of. But with Ryder’s help, I’d work my way around her. And I would just have to stay out of the kitchen to avoid the chef. I kind of doubted there would be anything too important in there anyway. But just because I thought that, there was probably a notebook explaining the entire situation in exquisite detail sitting right on the dining room table or something.

Soon, I was standing in the bathroom with the door locked, breathing in and out. Okay, I could do this. Yes, it was dangerous and maybe a little dumb. But there was something going on with Maki. They had a list of names, one of which was mine. No matter how risky this was, it was also our best chance to find out more about that, my best chance to get some actual information about why my name was on that list. Or at very least, lay the groundwork for finding out more later when I snuck back in with the others. There was no way I could be in this house and not look around. I wouldn't have forgiven myself. Especially if we found out what was going on later and it turned out to be something bad that we could have stopped with a little warning.

As soon as Ryder sent a text to let me know that the coast was clear, I exhaled and then slipped out. Looking both ways up and down the hall, I turned left and followed the path the boy had given for how to get to Maki’s room. That was where I had to go first. It was where they kept going off to when they disappeared repeatedly, and it was probably where they would keep anything related to that list. Yes, I felt bad about the prospect of snooping through private stuff. Really bad, in fact. But my name. I had to find out why they had my name on the list. There were too many very bad possibilities about all that. I couldn't risk just ignoring it. And no matter how nice Maki seemed, there was no way I could just ask them. Not when I already knew for a fact that they had some sort of connection to the Ministry. Enough of one, at least, for Kent Jackson to show up and convince Maki to get in the car with him when they had been having an argument with their parents in public.

I had to step into a side room at one point when Ryder sent a warning about the maid walking through, but other than that, it was a straight shot up to Maki’s room. Telling myself I was going to focus on figuring out what was going on and would ignore anything else private, I went up to the door and tried it.

Locked, of course. But that wasn’t going to slow me down. Looking around quickly, I took a deep breath, told myself I trusted Ryder to make sure this didn’t end up recorded on camera, then melted into my pink-puddle form. Knowing that seeing this was probably going to surprise the boy, I slid right under the narrow crack beneath the door, then reformed on the other side.

The room looked like it was made for two different people to live in together. There were two beds sitting side by side in the middle of the room. The exact middle, actually, rather than having the headboards be against one of the walls. One of the beds had red sheets and blankets, with a car magazine and a Switch console sitting on the pillow. The other bed, close enough to simply roll onto from the first, had a guitar and some music sheets spread over it. That bed had light green sheets and darker green blankets. It also looked messier than the first

The room itself was clearly divided in two as well. The walls and carpet on the side of the red bed were pristine white, with very little decoration aside from a few certificates on the wall. There was a desk on that side, with a notebook and pencils lined up perfectly next to a literal ruler. It was like whoever had put them there had actually checked to make sure they were centered on the desk.

Meanwhile, the other side of the room was messier. The carpet was dark instead of white, and I couldn't tell what color the walls were, because they were completely covered in posters of various things. Musicians, actors, funny quotes, even landmarks. I couldn't see any rhyme or reason to it. There were a few clothes lying around haphazardly, a pogo stick and baseball bat, and even what looked like an old VHS video camera that had been partially disassembled. The desk on that side of the room had a half-built computer on it along with some tools and extra components.

Was this just how Maki lived, switching back and forth between their more feminine and masculine selves? I was feeling masculine today so far, but it wasn't that big of a shift as far as my personality went. Maki’s changes seemed far more dramatic, without even counting the physical change. A change, I reminded myself, that I wasn't even supposed to know anything about.

The first thing I did, of course, was look at that notebook. Unfortunately, it was blank, though it was clear that some pages had been torn out. I tried that trick of sketching lightly with the edge of a pencil to see the indentations of what was written on the sheet above the current one, and managed to get a scrawled name, ‘Esther Dranners’ and a phone number. It didn't look like a local one, but I would check up on that later to find out for sure.

Carefully tearing off that sheet and folding it into my pocket, I looked through the rest of the desk as quickly and carefully as possible. Soon, I managed to pull out a large binder. It wasn't labeled, but there were colored tabs along the pages with names on them. And yes, one of those tabs had my name. So that single list wasn't a fluke or one-time thing. Seeing my name on the tab, my stomach turned over a few times and I clenched my hands into fists. Then I took a deep breath and carefully opened the binder to that spot.

The first thing I saw was a picture of myself taken about a year earlier when my family had gone on a trip to Florida for a few days. Right next to that were a few news article clippings about a disaster a couple hundred miles away from there around that time.

Frowning in confusion and uncertainty, I flipped through the binder some more. Every entry was like that, and not just for me. It was all about all the people on that list having taken trips to places that had bad things happen somewhere relatively nearby.

No, not just any bad things. As I flipped through the binder and saw some handwritten notes, the picture began to become a little more clear. While simultaneously being completely baffling. This wasn't just about bad things happening. It was about Collision Points. Either obvious, known ones, or minor events that could possibly have been Collision Points that were either covered up or settled before people realized what was going on. That happened sometimes. Abyssals would get into a fight in an area that was remote, or only had a few people in it. People who didn't survive to explain that it hadn’t been just a random explosion or accident.

Either way, enough of the truth about the situation became obvious as I went through that binder. Maki thought that someone in that list was actually an Abyssal, that someone they were investigating could transform into one of those giant, horrifically destructive monsters who killed everyone in their path.

And they thought I was one of those possibilities.