=:= Grace =:=

She always knew one day her curiosity would get her into more trouble than she could handle. And it seemed like that day had finally come. Now she'd been swooped up and taken away to God-knows-where.

Grace was standing at one of the windows, staring out at the landscape that surrounded the log cabin. The building sat atop a hill or small mountain. The terrain was relatively flat and clear immediately around the structure, but the steep slopes of the hill were covered in a thick temperate forest. She could identify pine, maple, and oak trees out there, along with several other species she wasn't familiar with.

Surrounding the hill, the lowlands were shrouded in mist or fog giving the illusion that the cabin sat atop an island, adrift in a sea of cloud. Beyond that in the distance, they were surrounded by tall, rugged, snow-capped mountains. The sky above was thick dull grey overcast. Overall, it gave Grace the impression that they were somewhere in the pacific north-west of America.

Except the perspectives were wrong. An overcast sky like that should be below the tops of the mountains. The mountains looked like they should be huge and far away, but they felt nearer, which meant they were smaller. Almost like they were models.

"It's the mountains, isn't it?" the blonde teen asked, standing next to her. "I just can't get them right."

Grace suppressed a shudder. "You can't... What does that mean?"

Cindy shrugged. "They don't look right. It spoils the view. I haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong, but I want it to look just right."

Looking out the window again, Grace said nervously "The mountains and the clouds aren't to scale. That kind of overcast sky would be much lower, or the mountains much taller. You wouldn't be able to see the peaks." Grace added, "I'm not a geologist or a meteorologist, I'm just going off of casual observation, mind you."

Cindy looked out the window again, frowning. "Oh. Huh. That makes sense!"

Grace glanced at the teen, in time to see her eyes light up with that unearthly purple glow. She turned to look out the window again and this time she couldn't suppress the shudder, or her gasp of alarm.

The mountains were suddenly much larger, and much closer. The cabin and hill were now dwarfed by the ring of rugged cliffs. It was like they were in a large bowl-shaped valley, completely closed in on all sides. Grey clouds above, white and grey mist below, jagged mountains to all sides.

Grace backed away from the window, and the teen.

"Hey Grace? Why don't you sit down. You look a little pale." Zoe said.

The catgirl was behind her, sitting crosslegged on the sofa. She sat at an angle, her tail curled around and resting on her lap.

Grace nodded as she made her way to one of the armchairs. She let herself slump down into the chair, and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. She glanced around the cabin interior again.

The main feature which dominated the space was a big circular fireplace in the middle of the room. In it burned a large bonfire. The next thing which drew her eyes was the statue that stood near the front door, but seemed to be watching the fire.

If the statue was life-sized then it seemed to depict a Celtic girl no larger than Cindy. A teen, probably fifteen or sixteen years old. She wore a knee-length dress and had sandals on her feet. She wore a belt over the dress, and small sword hung at her right hip. Her hair was in a long ponytail that twisted around and rested on her right shoulder. She wore Celtic-style jewelry, a torc around her neck and bracelets on both wrists.

Finally she looked at the catgirl again. "Where are we? Why have you brought me here? What are you people?"

Zoe replied, "This place is Cindy's uh, refuge, or retreat. It exists outside normal reality. I'm pretty sure Cindy brought you here so we could talk undisturbed. As for what we are... She and I were kind of in the middle of discussing that when you interrupted."

The blonde teen finally turned away from the window with a sigh. "Now something else looks off. The mountains look better, but it's still not right."

She walked over to the sofa and sat down next to the catgirl, and the two cuddled up close to each other. Zoe had an arm around Cindy's shoulders, Cindy had her arm around Zoe's waist.

Grace quietly watched the two girls. Suddenly she made a connection that in hindsight she should have made from the start.

"Wait, you're that Cindy, aren't you?!" Her eyes widened again as she stared at the girl.

She was so small and skinny, she looked utterly harmless. If Grace was right though, this child was wanted by almost every nation on Earth. Most people didn't even believe she was real, they assumed 'Cindy' was a fictional persona, a front for some sort of shady organization.

The blonde shrugged "I suppose so. If you're talking about 'Change the World', then yeah, that's me."

Grace just stared at her, feeling slightly awed.

After a few moments of silence, she commented "Some people say you're going to destroy the human race. That you're blurring what it means to be human."

Cindy shrugged again. "Maybe that's the point. People who are so uptight that 'being human' has some kind of special meaning are the same people who'd just as soon ignore the value of other humans because they don't conform to some bullshit value system. Racist, sexist, transmisic, homomisic, whatever. People who think 'being human' is special are just one step away from thinking some humans don't count because they're doing it wrong."

Grace could hear the hidden anger in the girl's voice, and she could see the passion in her eyes.

She gulped and asked, "So what do you want with me? Why am I here?"

Cindy replied, "I need to know if anyone was hurt by what happened at the estate. If there's anyone out there who needs help because of it. I want to try and fix things. I'd also like to know if you people have taken anything out of there, like taken stuff off to study. It could be dangerous."

With a sigh, Grace nodded "Several people were affected by the Anomaly. I don't know where they are now, but I know who might. And yes, we've taken dozens of samples away."

Cindy took a deep breath then let out a long sigh, "Damn. I'll have to try and find them, see if I can help them."

Grace hesitated, then added, "Other things have emerged from there too. I don't know what to call them. Demons? Fae? Unnatural things. The army destroyed most, but I suspect some may have gotten past and escaped."

Zoe and Cindy both looked upset at this news. The two exchanged a glance, and Cindy sighed. "I should have come back and checked. There was just so much going on at the time, and there was never any news or anything. Why did you people keep it so secret?!" She frowned at Grace.

"They probably thought people would panic," Grace replied. "I don't know, I'm not privy to the government's reasoning."

"Grace, are you a medical doctor?" Zoe asked. "How'd you get involved in the military stuff?"

She replied, "I am a medical doctor, though I'm not a practicing physician. I was originally brought in a couple months ago, after the first wave of Change-ees. Originally I was examining them, trying to figure out what happened to them. Then someone had the bright idea that what was happening to the Change-ees might have something to do with the Anomaly."

"Change-ees?" Cindy asked, frowning. "Is that how you're referring to people who've used my spell to improve their lives?"

She felt a blush on her cheeks as she nodded, "Er, yes. It's not meant to be a negative term, though some people do use it that way."

Cindy sighed deeply. "Grace, if I find out that 'Change-ees' are being treated badly by the British government or military, I'm going to have to intervene. If you've been arresting them, detaining them, or worse, experimenting on them..."

She quickly shook her head "No, not to my knowledge." She added, "After the first wave in May, there wasn't enough information to know what was happening. Then after the second wave in June, there was some talk about trying to curtail or control the situation. By the third wave in July, it was clear that wasn't going to work. By then, everyone understood it was, er, magic. Not a drug, or a virus, or some other kind of infectious agent. When they realized it was knowledge and it was already widespread, they knew they couldn't really control it."

Zoe asked, "Do you know how things are expected to play out in the UK going forward? It's only a few days till the next full moon, there's going to be a 'fourth wave' as you call it."

Grace replied, "Again, I'm not privy to the plans or thoughts of Her Majesty's government, but... I've heard talk they're planning on either setting up a new ministry, or maybe they'll create a new branch of an existing one. They need some way of tracking the Change-ees, to issue new identification and so on. And no offence to you Zoe, but with each wave we're seeing more and more hon-human or hybrid Change-ees. That's causing more of a stir now than the gender swaps and the age changes."

Cindy grinned. "Yeah, keeping up with identification is going to be an interesting issue. Wait till they realize people can use the spell over and over. You could have some people changing themselves from one month to the next."

The girl responsible for all this chaos seemed to find it funny, but Grace knew it was going to be a serious problem going forward.

She stated, "There's also the matter of impersonations and identity theft. Thanks to you, it's now possible for criminals to perfectly impersonate anyone else they choose."

Cindy rolled her eyes, "Ok first, it's not possible for them to perfectly impersonate anyone. They might look sort of like someone, but the spell doesn't change their personality or mannerisms, and doesn't grant them knowledge. Heck they couldn't even accurately reproduce someone's body if they haven't already seen it naked and in detail."

She took a breath then continued, "And second, there's always gonna be crooks looking for an angle and trying to take advantage. If anyone seriously suggests that I shouldn't have shared this with the world because some crook wants to spend a month badly imitating another person for whatever reason? Sorry but no. I did this for the millions of trans people who've been persecuted, faced hate and intolerance, been held back by medical gatekeeping, and just generally had to suffer their whole lives because cis society gets their panties in a bunch about someone else wanting to change their body to something they don't hate!"

Grace was quiet for a few moments. It was obvious this was something the teen was passionate about. Zoe was keeping silent at the moment too, but from her expression Grace knew the catgirl agreed with her girlfriend.

Finally she asked, "What of murderers or rapists, who use this to escape justice?"

Cindy sighed deeply. "If I catch anyone using my gift to hurt others, I'll intervene. If you hear of this happening, let me know. I will make a harsh enough example out of them, that will hopefully convince the rest of the world it's not worth the risk. And if it happens again, I will make the example even worse."

On the one hand it was hard to find the small, skinny teen threatening. But on the other, her words still sent a chill down Grace's spine. She wondered what sort of an example Cindy had in mind, but quickly decided she'd rather not know.

"So... What are you going to do with me?" she asked, feeling more than a little nervous.

The blonde shrugged, "I'll send you back to rejoin the group you were with. Just don't tell anyone about your visit here, or about anything we've discussed. Ok?"

"Just like that?" Grace asked, surprised. "No threats, no warnings?"

"Nah," Cindy shrugged. "I already knew you were trustworthy, or I wouldn't have brought you here to begin with." She added, "If you're ready I'll send you back now."

Grace nodded, "Oh. Ok then. Thank you."

Cindy added, "I might be in touch later, if I need your help. Goodbye Grace."

Zoe smiled, "Bye Doctor Bishop."

Before she could reply, the cabin faded away and Grace found herself sitting on the ground. She was on the road next to the gatehouse, surrounded by the men she'd been with earlier. They were all stirring, just starting to wake up.

The helicopters were still approaching in the distance, and Grace turned to look at them. It was as if she'd only been gone a few seconds, rather than the thirty-plus minutes it actually felt like. Even her colleagues wouldn't know she'd been gone, they'd just assume she'd been knocked unconscious with the rest of them.

Grace turned and looked past the fence. The estate was still gone, just acres of empty fallow field remained.

PurpleCatGirl

If you're enjoying our work and you'd like to support us, please consider joining our patreon & get early access to new chapters!
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl