=:= Katie =:=

It was ten minutes to one in the afternoon and Katie decided that was late enough. It would be nearly ten in the morning out in Ontario, if her sister wasn't out of bed by now she deserved to be woken up.

The small catgirl was sat at her desk in her study, she had her laptop ready, the camera adjusted. She hadn't had any luck speaking with Stacey in over two weeks now, and they were long overdue for a chat.

Plus she was worried if she didn't get in touch with Stacey soon, her sister would hear about it somewhere else and Katie really wanted to be the one to tell the foxgirl her news. She tried several times last night but her sister must have been busy, none of Katie's calls got through. She tried both video and conventional calls, all went straight to voicemail.

She clicked her sister's name in the contact list, and waited impatiently as she hoped Stacey would finally answer her.

After a few seconds she was greeted with success as the call connected. The image on her screen shook and moved erratically before it finally centred on the attractive young foxgirl's face. From the way things were moving on the screen, Katie knew her sister was using her phone rather than her own laptop.

The background looked like Stacey's apartment, so at least her sister wasn't out somewhere when the call came through, and what she saw of her sister before the image settled down revealed that Stacey was dressed in track pants and a t-shirt. She was probably planning a lazy day around the house, since she wasn't dressed up.

"Hey sis! Sorry I've been busy lately, I know you called a bunch. What's up?"

Katie smiled "Good! I'm glad you weren't just ignoring me. I have some news I want to share and if you've already heard it from someone else I'm going to be cross with you for not answering my calls earlier!"

Her sister grinned, "Well whatever it is, if I've already heard it then I'll pretend I haven't."

She rolled her eyes, "Stace you were never that good of an actress."

"So what's the news?" Stacey asked. "Now you've got me, don't keep me in suspense!"

Katie grinned as she held up the two plastic cards in front of her laptop's camera.

"My new ID, hot off the presses! They were issued yesterday, drivers license and health card! They actually had me there in person to receive them directly from the premier! Well, me and a half dozen others. There were two other hybrids, two trans girls, a trans guy, and an enbie. Oh and I was told my new passport was issued yesterday too, but it won't actually be delivered until next week some time. Or maybe the first week of February."

When she lowered the cards back down she saw the huge grin on her sister's face.

"Holy crap sis that's amazing! Congratulations!" Stacey sounded enthusiastic, and Katie was pretty sure her sister wasn't faking. "Congratulations about the ID reform bill too! I heard that passed last week. You and Maria and everyone else who worked on that deserve massive kudos!"

"Thanks Stace," Katie was still grinning happily. "It's been an adventure, but to be honest it was also a lot of fun? And of course I've met a lot of amazing people along the way, and made some really good friends."

Her sister asked, "So now that you've beat the provincial and federal governments into submission, what's next?"

She rolled her eyes, "It's not over yet. There's still a number of civil challenges and lawsuits. Getting recognition from the government was a huge first step but we need to make sure that's respected by corporations and at the municipal level. Though most of the polls seem to suggest public opinion is on our side? Most people don't seem to care if their neigbhor or coworker wants to change their own body. It's only a vocal few who make it sound like it's a hot topic."

After a moment she added, "Once I get my passport I might also take some trips abroad. I've had several requests to give talks and lectures, though to be honest the places I'd consider going likely won't need my help and the places that really do, I don't think I'd feel safe travelling there?"

"I hear you," Stacey sighed. "I understand most of the Commonwealth is going the same direction as Canada?"

Katie nodded, "Right. The UK have their own ID reform process that's well underway and might be finished this month. New Zealand passed theirs back in December, and Australia's is expected to pass some time in February. Many of the other Commonwealth nations are following along the same course. Several European countries as well? The Netherlands, and I understand the Scandinavian countries are moving quickly too. I'm probably forgetting some."

"It's pretty amazing," Stacey said with a smile. "I'm honestly surprised, I didn't think it would happen so fast. Of course, I should have known once you took up the fight it would be a done deal."

Katie blushed slightly, then sighed "I'm in the mood to celebrate, but everyone I want to celebrate with is either busy or they're geographically inconvenient! Sarah's doing exams next week so she's studying, and you're halfway across the country."

"It's annoying!" she added with a pout.

Stacey gave her a sympathetic look, then a grin appeared on her face.

"Actually sis, I have some news and a surprise for you too. I need to take care of something first though, can we break for a few minutes?"

Katie nodded, "Sure Stacey. I'll get myself a drink."

"Perfect!" Her sister was still grinning widely, "I'll see you in a few."

The call disconnected, and Katie slipped out of her chair. She padded barefoot out of the study and into her kitchen, where she grabbed a glass then opened the fridge and pulled out a little carton of cream.

She turned away from the fridge and nearly bumped into Stacey who was standing directly behind her with a huge grin on her face.

"Surprise!"

Katie let out a loud yelp and jumped at least a foot into the air, then scrambled a few paces away to the side. Her tail was all puffed up and twitching back and forth, and her ears were folded back.

"Stacey!" she shouted. "What the hell?!"

The foxgirl nearly collapsed in a fit of giggles. She doubled over laughing, "Sorry sis, I didn't mean to startle you!"

"You bloody well did mean to startle me, you liar!" Katie huffed as she set the glass and the cream on the counter next to her then straightened out her nightshirt. She was blushing brightly now as she added, "I'm not even dressed!"

She glanced around, expecting to see the small sorceress had accompanied her sister. There was no-one else in the kitchen though.

"Who sent you?" Katie asked with a frown. "Were you with Cindy when I called? Or Maria?"

Stacey finally stopped laughing, but she was wearing a huge grin on her face as she wiped some laugh-tears from her eyes. "Nope, I haven't seen Cindy since October. And it's Saturday, Maria's probably at home with her kids."

"Jessica then? Or Kara?" Katie asked, still frowning.

Stacey said "Pour yourself a drink then we'll sit somewhere comfortable and talk."

Katie huffed some more but she poured herself a half glass of cream. Her sister meanwhile helped herself to a bottle of water from the fridge. Then the two of them moved into the living-room.

Her sister lounged casually on the sofa while Katie curled up on her favourite chair.

She had a sip of cream then demanded, "Ok who sent you? And why didn't you warn me you were coming?!"

Stacey grinned, "I told you I had a surprise for you didn't I? And some news."

"Yes, so spill it!" Katie demanded. She was already starting to lose her patience with her sister's antics.

"Check this out," Stacey said as she held her right hand out. Her hand was palm up, fingers curved slightly as if she was holding an invisible ball or something.

Katie was about to ask what this was about, when a spark of light appeared above her sister's hand. It quickly grew to a ball of pure white light, about the size of a softball. It was floating a few inches above her sister's hand, just glowing quietly.

Katie nearly dropped her glass of cream as her eyes bulged. "What the hell?! Stace?!"

Stacey grinned widely, "Yeah! Guess who's been learning magic!"

"How?" Katie demanded. "Who's teaching you?!"

"Cindy owed me a favour," Stacey smiled. "I texted her at the end of October and asked her to teach me the teleport spell? Instead she gave me my own little 'book' with about twenty spells in it!"

Katie gasped "So you teleported here yourself?! How long have you been able to do that? And why didn't you visit sooner?!"

Her sister shook her head "I've only just mastered teleportation last week sis, it's one of the toughest spells she shared with me. I've been working at this stuff and learning it since the end of October."

"Damn," Katie stared at the ball of light for a few seconds, then asked "So are you going to teach me?"

Stacey closed her hand and the light spell finally vanished. There was no sound but it sort of popped like a soap bubble, complete with a couple little sparks of light that fell to the floor and vanished. She hesitated, "Well..."

"Come on Stace!" Katie demanded. "You have to teach me!"

Her sister drank some of her water. A serious look settled on her face as she finally said, "Cindy gave me permission to share this with you, and only you. And only under very specific terms. So I need you to listen very carefully, ok sis?"

Katie nodded. She was sitting up now and paying attention, though she did have another sip of her cream.

Stacey continued, "The spells are on a USB drive, along with some general instructions. Like I said there's about twenty of them. Some are fun, some are useful, some are helpful, and some are defensive. Like if you were in physical danger, if someone was threatening you, there are spells that can help."

"Cindy does not want this stuff getting out into the general population. So before I give this to you, you have to swear you will not share or distribute it at all. If anyone else gets their hands on this, Cindy will know. And she will know it came from you and I. She didn't say how she'd know, only that she would. And Katie, she said if that happens, you and I will both deeply regret what comes next. I'm not joking and I can't stress this enough. If you leak this or give it to anyone else, both you and I will be condemned to some kind of hell."

Stacey paused, then added for emphasis "So it's not just your life on the line. If I give this to you and you let it get out, you'll be taking me down with you."

That left a cold, heavy feeling in Katie's stomach. She asked quietly, "Did she say anything about sharing it with Sarah? Can I at least let my daughter in on it?"

"No," Stacey shook her head. "You, and me. That's it."

Before Katie could respond her sister added, "You also can't show off. No teleporting into or out of lecture halls. No light spells in front of students, or anyone else. You know as well as I do the government and the public in general are only tolerating the existence of magic because it's very limited in scope. The transformation spell can only be cast at the full moon. And neither that or the birth control spell affects anyone but the person doing the casting. If word got out that some people had access to more magic, that they could cast whenever they wanted, it might lead to panic and another wave of hate crimes or witch hunts."

The catgirl sighed and finished her cream. She set the empty glass on a small table next her chair. "Ok, I understand all of that. I wouldn't go showing it off regardless. I could imagine using it to get to work and back, as long as I appeared in my locked office where nobody could see. Or to come and visit you, or drop in at QSAW to see Maria now and then."

She considered again, then asked "What other spells are there, what have you learned?"

Stacey replied "The light spell I showed you, teleportation, there's a clairvoyance spell, a healing spell, a truth spell... That's about all I can say. No fireballs, no curses, no spells to let you transform other people. Basically nothing outright offensive or dangerous, though a couple of the spells could be misused."

Katie thought it over again, then finally nodded "Ok Stace. I swear, I won't share the spells with anyone, not even Sarah. I won't show off the magic. I'll keep this information to myself."

The foxgirl slipped her hand into a pocket in her track pants, and pulled out a small USB drive. She looked at it, then tossed it over.

Katie caught it easily and smiled, "Thanks Stace."

Stacey smiled back, "Like I said, there's some general instructions on there. Read that first. Cindy sort of outlined how to get started, and a training program to get you up to speed the quickest way possible. It still takes time and effort of course. It's been nearly three months for me? Things like the light spell are pretty easy to master, but teleportation took me over two and a half months."

"So potentially by the end of April I might be able to teleport," Katie said with a smile.

Her sister smiled back, "Potentially. Maybe sooner? If I know you, you'll be working on that day in day out till you've mastered it."

The two of them were quiet for a bit, as Katie stared down at the USB drive in her hands. It was exciting to think about learning magic, but also a bit frightening in a way.

Like Stacey said, if the general public figured out some people had these skills, there'd probably be panic. She could easily imagine the religious types starting a whole new wave of fear and hatred against people like herself and her sister. She could also imagine the government wanting to have words with her too if it ever got out she could cast spells and teleport and that sort of thing.

Of course the threat of Cindy coming down on her and Stacey was more than enough to ensure she wouldn't let that USB drive out of her sight. While she didn't believe the small sorceress would do anything unprovoked, she already knew the girl was capable of doing some very unpleasant things to people when she was upset with them.

That train of thought reminded her of something else, and she looked up at Stacey.

"Hey Stace, do you remember when you were here back in October? When I suggested if Cindy wanted to do something about the hate crimes, she should go after the people inciting them? Like the pastor who was encouraging violence against people who used Cindy's spell."

Her sister nodded "Yeah of course."

Katie grimaced slightly, "There wasn't any news or anything about it that weekend while you were here, but a few days later something did come up. I don't think I ever mentioned it to you. But uh, I'm pretty sure she did exactly what I suggested. I think she went after Pastor Jackson that weekend. I think she got to him that Sunday morning, in his own church, right before the morning service."

Stacey's eyebrows went up. She had a slight smile on her face as she asked "What happened?"

"I'm speculating a little," Katie warned. "Based on what I know, what Cindy told the two of us, and what was actually reported in the news. But that Sunday, Jackson didn't show up for his Sunday morning service. His notes and things were there in his office, but he was missing. So his assistant, a guy named Frank Curtis took over. The pastor's car was seen in the church parking lot that morning though? But after the service was over, his car was gone. So they figured he was there, brought his notes and everything, but then he left at the last minute without a word."

Stacey asked "Did they ever find him?"

Katie shook her head, "No. He didn't respond to phone calls or emails, so a day or two later Curtis and someone else went to his house to look for him? Instead they found a small young woman, a hybrid, with rat ears and a rat tail. She claimed to be Thomas Jackson. She claimed she was punished by God, that an angel came to the church and transformed her right before she could begin the morning service."

She added, "All that stuff made the news, but after that it kind of fell off the radar again. I have no idea what became of the girl, if she really was Jackson or not. Frank Curtis took over until he disappeared around the end of November. After that, the church closed up. Nobody else wanted to risk taking the job after both Jackson then Curtis vanished."

Stacey nodded slowly and commented "Sounds like Cindy's been busy. We had something very similar happen out my way."

Katie's eyebrows shot up, "Really?"

"Yeah," her sister nodded again, then explained.

"So there was this preacher in Niagara, similar to your Pastor Jackson. Reverend Clark was a real fire and brimstone kind of guy. He actually had people boycotting QSAW for the first month or two when they opened, long before Cindy's spell came out. Anyways, Clark's kid turned out to be trans, she defected and let Maria and the others help her. Clark tried to kidnap her at one point but Jess and Kara saved her."

Stacey smiled, "Actually you know that video that started it all? Heather in that video, she's Reverend Clark's kid. His trans daughter literally kickstarted Cindy's change-the-world revolution."

"Woah," Katie commented. "That must have really rubbed him the wrong way."

The foxgirl nodded, "Oh it did. He started doing extra sermons every month to coincide with the full moons. He was damning trans people and hybrids to hell, talking about how folks like us gave up our souls or whatever, we were all in league with the devil, all that nonsense? Anyways. So the November full moon came around, it was a Friday afternoon, and Clark was up there behind his pulpit spewing hate like usual. Then in front of three dozen people, right when the moon reached its peak, he went quiet. He acted sort of strange. People said they saw him talking or whispering, but couldn't tell what he was saying? Then pow, he transforms right there, into a tiny mouse-girl."

Katie gasped, "Holy shit!"

"I know!" Stacey grinned. "From what I heard, he claimed it was God's punishment. Same thing basically, he claimed an angel came down into the church and punished him for spewing hatred."

Katie was quiet for a few moments, then asked "So what happened with the church? Someone else took over?"

Stacey nodded, "Reverend Clark's assistant, some guy named Daniel took over. But the church closed by the end of December, it went bankrupt or whatever. Attendance had been dropping steadily ever since they found out about Heather, then seeing their 'leader' transform like that right in front of them seemed to drive the rest of them away. I think they were down to maybe a dozen people coming to Sunday service when they closed the doors."

"Huh," Katie said quietly.

Her sister paused for a few moments, then said "It's not just those two preachers, sis. It's been happening all over."

Katie frowned, "What? What do you mean? And how do you know?"

Stacey replied, "For whatever reason it's not making the news. Like you said about Jackson, it might come up on local news but quickly falls off the radar? But I hear things through QSAW. There's some people who keep tabs on things like what churches or municipalities have the most anti-LGBTQ vitriol, so they know where the hate is?"

Katie nodded slowly. It made sense of course, especially for vulnerable people to want to know what places to avoid. Or what places needed help standing up against it.

Her sister continued, "A lot of the Reverend Clarks and the Pastor Jacksons across all of North America have gone missing, or have been publicly transformed. Politicians too, it's not just religious folks. And there's a lot of small rodent-girls turning up talking about angels and God's punishment."

"Holy crap..." Katie's eyes widened slightly. "How many is a lot?"

"Hundreds," Stacey replied quietly.

She added after a moment, "My sources only cover Canada and the USA, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was happening all over the world."

Katie was silent for a few moments. Finally she asked, "You think that's all Cindy's doing?"

Stacey nodded. "I think she's been busy."

Katie thought about all of that for a couple minutes. It was frightening, and she could see why the government would want it covered up. It would probably cause a panic, and there'd certainly be some people calling for revenge or something. Except if everyone was saying the same thing as Jackson, that it was an angel or God's will, they wouldn't necessarily link it back to Cindy.

Eventually she commented with a sigh, "You know it's not really going to change people's opinions. Haters are still going to hate. Even if they can't do it loudly in public, they'll just find ways to keep on hating quietly."

"I know sis," Stacey replied with a shrug. "But it's still an improvement. It means they're not spreading it, they're not inciting violence. Between the haters being denied public platforms and the general public being more or less accepting of trans and hybrid people, hopefully the hate will just die out completely at some point."

"I suppose so," Katie sighed again. "You know, I can't help feeling guilty about all this. I'm the one who told Cindy to do that in the first place."

Stacey gave her a look, then smiled. "I know you did sis. And you should get a medal for that."

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