So the plan was that I would arrive at work at about eight-thirty-ish, which seemed like a sensible time for sensible people to arrive at their sensible job. I actually liked this job, and wanted to keep it.

I had a nice sleep, and bought myself a chicken egg sandwich from a stall for breakfast. The "chicken or lizard" question surprised me, but I'll be aware for next time.

I'd left myself plenty of time to walk to work, so I set off with something of a spring in my step. Even an effusive and emoji-laden text from my mum couldn't dent my mood.

The police checkpoints kind of did, though. Well, Terat Guard checkpoints, actually. They had obviously been set up in a hurry; lines of red chalk and glittering magical fields. A few bone hoops for the traffic to file slowly through, each person being checked by a couple of guards.

It was a long wait, behind an even more impatient cat girl, but eventually I reached the loop of bones cutting through the magical shield. 

The two guards – another minotaur and a beefy dryad – ran some wands around me.

"Any weapons?" asked the dryad, either bored or tree-like. "Including but not limited to magical weapons, natural weapons, including those formed by transformation, cursing implements, or artifacts to direct bad luck?"

"Um, no."

"You've got some old enchantment traces on you," said the minotaur, "mind explaining why?"

"I'm trans, so..."

"She's council," said a familiar voice. Aemiliana, as she loomed from behind. "Don't bother. The murderer we're looking for has brains."

She ran her fingers through my hair and then grabbed it. She bent to whisper in my ear, "See, you can tell Vex I'm cooperating. There was doubt in the snake's voice when she spoke to the press. But, believe me, this is me being nice. Now, on your way."

She gave my head a little push and strode off. I was lucky I was mostly a domme, because if I was a sub I'd be running after her, asking her to pull my hair some more. I imagined her forcing my head towards...

The guards gestured at me to move along.

***

So, I was late for work.

Lujayn was on guard next to the folly door, as usual. I gave her a wave. Oh, I almost forgot...

"I've got a riddle for you," I said, trying to remember the Google results.

Lujayn's eyes lit up.

"Okay, er, what has to be broken before you can use it?" I said.

"Ooh," said Lujayn. "This is a riddle with many possible answers. So the question is which one have the sages chosen?"

"Well, the internet rather than the sages," I said. "And to be honest, I think it was a children's site. Sorry, internet here is slow."

"That narrows it down," said Lujayn. "There are several rude answers, but none that they'd expect children to get. So, the answer must be some kind of packaging. Riddles normally pretend the modern world does not exist, so I assume natural packaging. Accordingly, I believe the answer is: an egg."

"Yes," I said. "You got it! Was it a good riddle?"

Lujayn paused. "It was the best riddle I've heard all day."

"But?"

"A significant proportion of riddles are answered with egg."

"Oh," I said. It may have appealed to me because being an egg was a riddle I tried to answer for my entire teenage years. "Oh well, I'll pick a tougher one next time."

"Thank you, Miss Rosemary," said Lujayn, inclining her head.

I nodded and hurried in. The others were in mid-discussion, but stopped when I entered. 

"Sorry," I said. "Have you seen? Guard roadblock."

"Indeed. Contemptible," said Lyssa. "Did you say you were with the council? They will fast-track and priority lane you. Everyone else takes an age. Lots of people won't cross the checkpoints at all."

"Aem- er, a certain person fast-tracked me, I suppose," I said.

"This clamping down means she is worried," said Lyssa. "I rather suspect the Dynast Martial wanted it turned around quickly."

"Have there been any developments?" I asked.

"Astrid got a full debriefing on the guards' situation," said Lyssa. "You missed the presentation."

"Just the main points?" I asked.

"The murder is using an obscuring charm," said Molly. "Whether natural or brought, they don't know."

I pulled up a chair. "Natural?"

"Some species have them to some degree or other," said Molly. "Vampires, or pixies, and the like. Any species that is confusing. Some spiders, actually, but not me. So you can cross me off your lists. Or, of course, the murderer could have brought one. Hard to find, and expensive, but not impossible."

"That means that guard soothsayers will get results that are overly cryptic," said Cass, "like ours."

"The codices weren't much help?" I said.

She shook her head. "I'm going to speak to an Elder Seer today, to get her opinion on it."

"What else?" said Lyssa. "The murderer took the hands off one and the feet off another. A Mrs Malinalli and a Mx. Labhrann."

"Shit," I said.

"Both were known to the council," said Lyssa. "In a vague way. But I'm sure it has a certain person excited. Which is why we have to make sure we're protected if things get desperate."

"Known to us how?" I asked.

"Labhrann was a letter writer," said Bunny. "A ghoul. They wrote about cancelling Halloween, in the Zone, because it was offensive. Tried to organise a march."

"They have a point," said Molly. "Shit, had a point, I suppose."

"And Mrs Malinalli came in once to complain about her business's classification, for tax purposes," said Bunny.

"Even though that is not the council's remit," said Lyssa.

"What was her business?"

"Running either a cow girl brothel or a dairy farm," said Cass. "Depending on whether you ask the customers or Mrs Malinalli."

"Ah, right," I said. "So I presume we need some kind of plan."

"Indeed," said Lyssa. "At least, thanks to Astrid, we have an excellent source within the guard."

"She did really well," I said.

"Rose's encouragement helped," mumbled Astrid.

"Well, in any event, Rosemary Dulahan, good work," said Lyssa. "See? You are competent even at jobs that don't require sex."

Astrid and I glanced at each other.

"What?" said Lyssa. "Really?"

"Um…" I said.

"Is this some human girl thing that I'm not aware of?" said Lyssa. "Are human women really so oversexed?"

"Not in my experience," I admitted. "Apart from a few on Twitter."

"I guess Rose is just a big fan of local government," said Molly.

"Yes, well, fandom shouldn't go too far," said Lyssa icily.

"About the plan?" I said, keen to move the conversation on.

"Right," said Lyssa. "As we've seen, she is cracking down. It's all a bit like the old days."

"And," said Molly, "I think we've got to stand up for people; their rights should not be trampled on like this. Many people are staying at home because they don't trust the guards; others are getting unfairly treated. It's terrible."

"Agreed," said Lyssa. 

They were looking at me, for some reason.

"Sure, agreed," I said. "I mean, I don't think we should issue a press release that just says ACAB, or, I suppose, AGAB, All Guards Are Bastards, not... anyway, yeah, the council should clearly be on the side of the people."

"Bunny, do you think you can talk to our press contacts," said Lyssa. "See if they'll give me another chance to speak."

"They will if you're going to say what they want to say, but are afraid to," said Bunny; quietly, as always, when she said something clever.

"Yes," agreed Lyssa.

"And… are you okay with that?" said Cassandra. "I mean, you've always been quite proper… and your mother's treason..."

"And I am not proposing the overthrow of the glorious Dynast Prime," said Lyssa, a touch snappishly. "Just some mild criticism of her enforcers. It remains to be seen how much leeway the councils are given. But we shall see what sort of warning we get. That's if everyone is in?"

There were various nods and words of assent from around the room. Me too.

"Right," said Lyssa. "Bunny and I will see about arranging a press conference. Cassandra, you're meeting your seer soon. Astrid, you need to check in with your guard friend. That leaves Rose… mary Dulahan and Molly to work on a finely balanced speech. Alright?"

"Problem," said Molly.

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure I'm in the mood for sex," said Molly with a smile.

"Oh ha ha," I said.

"Yes," said Lyssa. "Rose, if you could put your sex drive on hold while we deal with an actual murder…"

"Yes, yes, other people asked, you know," I said defensively. 

"Yes, stop teasing her," said Bunny. Sweet Bunny. "It was almost a full hour before she slept with me."

Shit. "Um, haven't we all got work to do?" I said. "Besides, I find spiders repellent, so…"

The room fell silent. 

"Oh," I said, "sorry. I like Molly, of course. It's the little spiders that creep me out…"

"That is the worst apology for racism that I have ever heard," said Molly coldly. "And I sometimes listen to human podcasts."

"It wasn't racism," I protested.

"Speciesism, whatever," said Molly. "The exact nature of the bigotry does not concern me. Rose, if you met a member of a different human so-called race, and decided to talk about how unpleasant that race was, would you consider that fine?"

Shit. "But you're not an actual spider!" I said. "I mean, the ones in the bath aren't conscious or anything."

"They are my cousins," said Molly. "And if I'm not a spider, then why would it be relevant to tell me of your disgust for them?"

Crap. She had a point. "I'm sorry. You're right, I apologise."

"Okay," said Molly, slowly. "Apology accepted. Alright, everyone, I suggest we do some work."

***

Molly and I worked on the speech together. She was a bit frosty at first, but I started doing impressions of Lyssa when reading out the draft speech and she warmed up slightly. 

"What's Lyssa's deal?" I asked.

"In what way?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "She's quite highly strung? At least she's stopped calling me human all the time. She was actually good with Ae- that person. So, yeah, what's her deal?"

"Nobility, I guess," said Molly. "Her mother was a knight, serving the previous Dynast Prime. Real nasty piece of work, too. Killed a lot of people, including humans."

"I assumed this was before the Zones were created?"

"Of course," she said. "But there has always been… intercourse between our two realms. Rogue magic and occasional portals. Mostly terats crossing, for prey or excitement. But sometimes humans going the other way, whether by accident or design."

"Okay."

"Euphemia Vexillum was a terror to those travellers, killing humans, of course, but also any terats that visited Earth, or had anything to do with them," said Molly. "As you might expect, she was furious about the then Dynast Secondary talking about opening portals to Earth."

"But her mother was executed?"

"Indeed, by the new Dynast Prime," said Molly. "But her children were spared. I don't know how Lyssa feels about any of this; she's rather guarded. I guess she wants to show that she's on the people's side now?"

"And is she?"

"It seems so," said Molly. "Even humans, which surprised me."

The day wore on. We were having trouble getting exactly the right tone. We wanted it to be supportive of people trying to find the murderer, but quietly critical of the guards’ slipshod crackdown, and of Aemiliana's management. But we wanted nothing that could be highlighted as rebellious. This meant toning down Molly's natural wording and, er, toning up my natural wording.

Terats didn't tend to use PCs and word processors, because the last thing you want is Word growing teeth. There were a couple of enchanted typewriters available, but Molly and I planned the speech by scribbling on bits of paper. We mapped out the speech on a desk, switching them around manually, like some sort of Neolithic office workers.

I was careful not to let my minor fear of spiders show; Molly was right, I had been rude. And honestly, it was stupid. Working close to her was frightening, but only at first. Her arachnid abdomen was disconcerting, but when you were closer to it, the graduated patterns of white, grey and brown were beautiful. The legs were odd; six were pointy and spider-like, the last two were partway human. They moved in the odd, scuttling way spiders have, but I guess the reason that it's scary is that you never know what a spider is going to do. Molly was human enough that you could read her intentions. It made it all less scary.

Her face had odd, hard to see lines around the jaw; I had the impression that the human lips could break apart, unfold into something fascinating. If I hadn't been such an idiot earlier, I wondered if she might show me. Her eyes, six of them, were a dark red, without iris or pupil. I thought that this would make them lifeless, beady, but no, slight changes in shininess, in colour, in the muscles around the eyes, meant they were as readable as human eyes. For example, at the moment they were staring at me. Oops.

"Reminding yourself of how repellent I am?" she said.

"No," I said, "I really am sorry about that. It's not even true, about you, I mean. About little spiders… well, I suppose I have a phobia."

"Honestly," said Molly, sighing, "that's fine. People do. When we have a zombie girl in, well, even the well-appointed ones make me a bit… anyway, I would never say that, and never let it affect how I did my job. Everyone has prejudices, you have to stay mindful and make sure it doesn't affect your behaviour."

"Right."

"I mean, we were teasing you about being human," said Molly. "If you had made some joke about spiders, it would have been fine. You know, like the hanging around in bathtubs you mentioned, or... what's another thing that spiders do?"

"From what I recall," I said, "be sitting on your pillow in the middle of the night, waiting for you to spot it."

Molly chuckled. "I'll remember that." She mimed writing it down. "Don't appear on Rose's pillow."

"Oh, I know," I said, "that thing about swallowing eight spiders a night."

"Spiders Georg is an outlier," quoted Molly. "What? My home is close enough to the edge that I can get the Internet."

"Wow," I said. "Though I suppose it makes sense that you’d like the web."

She threw a balled-up scrap of paper at me.

"Terrible! I'm actually a jumping spider type, so I don't make cobwebs, anyway. Not elaborate prey-catching webs, at least," she said. "But it's still better than calling girls, anybody, repellent."

Especially if they are not, I thought. But I couldn't really say that now.

"Right," I repeated.

"I mean, I thought you were a player, you ought to know that," Molly said, "or is this the human concept of negging?"

"I'm an idiot," I protested, "not a shithead. And I was wrong."

Molly paused. "Okay. Now, are we happy with the community remarks where they are? Might be stronger even further up the speech?"

After much discussion, by the afternoon we finally had something we agreed on. We passed it on to Bunny, who ran it over to Lyssa. She was across the Circus in Blemmyes House, home of TRMZ; Terat Radio Midlands Zone. The people of Terat preferred radio; it could be accessed by either a sufficiently old radio, or by a correctly attuned scrying disc, apparently. 

Bunny explained that TRMZ was feeding into Terat Radio Global, which was great in terms of coverage, but did mean we had to wait for other, more important, news to be covered first. America, of course, was doing something stupid.

But eventually it was time for Lyssa's speech. We clustered around the scrying disc. Well, if two people can cluster; Bunny was with Lyssa, and neither Astrid nor Cassandra had returned. 

The presenters started with a brief introduction to the events, "Suspected serial killer in the Midlands Zone," that sort of thing. Then a brusque, somewhat threatening, and – it seemed to me – oddly hot recorded message from Servitor Martial Aemiliana. And then Lyssa started to speak, talking confidently about the harm to the Zone community and… sirens. Both in the broadcast and outside. 

They weren't human sirens either, but a kind of monstrous wailing; like the unquiet dead were having their car stolen.

"Terat Guard," Molly said. On the radio, Lyssa tried to keep going, but faltered. They cut away to an announcement that the Midlands Zone was under lockdown, as well as unconfirmed rumours that someone else had been killed. They warned us not to go out on the streets; the use of deadly magics had been approved.

We ventured to look out the front door; a burly scorpion girl told us to go back inside. TRMZ was now broadcasting a similar warning. I hoped Astrid and Cassandra were okay; Bunny and Lyssa were presumably holed up at the radio station. We locked the door, and I made us a cup of tea.

"I don't like this," said Molly. The alarms had lessened, one being sounded every five minutes.

"I know," I said. "I guess we just have to stay put." Hopefully reassuringly, I put my hand on an arachnid knee. 

"Well done, Rose, overcoming your disgust to pat me."

"No," I said, losing my temper a bit. "That's unfair. You don't have to forgive me, of course you don't. If you decide to stay angry or upset, that's your right, absolutely. But don't say I'm forgiven when I'm not."

Molly was silent.

"I'm sorry," I continued, "I do, or did, get a bit creeped out by house spiders. No, I shouldn't have mentioned it; I'm not some American who has to voice every feeling. And I am so very sorry it hurt you, but I never found you repulsive. Perhaps I found you, well, strange, but you've got to remember, I'm from Earth, and probably the boringest place on Earth."

Molly looked up at me.

"One time," I said, continuing mostly because stopping seemed like it would leave a dangerous silence. "First year at uni, I took my then-girlfriend into the local. She was from down south, a bit posher than me. She had a silver puffer jacket. And the barman was like 'oh, where have you parked the spaceship?' We have a low bar for weird, and I guess this affects me too. So, sorry again, that when I saw a spider girl, I focused on the strangeness."

Molly blinked her six eyes at me.

"And I know," I said, "that it's shitty to always be the strange one, the weird one, when all you want is for people to see the real you."

Molly leant in towards me. Was she going to kiss me? That would be weird.

Then her face split open. The lower section hinged apart, splitting, revealing a complex set of jaws and rasps. It was scary, for a second, but then… other people's intimate parts always look weird, if you don't know them. But I did know Molly, sort of, and, well, this was her.

"Can I touch?" I asked.

"Why aren't you scared?" she said, her jaw adding an eerie timbre to her speech.

"We've seen each other's punctuation," I said. "Once you've dealt with someone who believes that en-dashes are immoral, you're not scared by unusual mouthparts. I am curious about the texture though. Can I touch?" 

Molly nodded. I reached out. I stroked a mandible; it was solid but also softish. With a finger, I touched a rasp; it was like a cat's tongue, not unpleasant. 

Molly started to close her jaw around my finger. It folded back on itself, until it was a perfectly human mouth, with my finger in it. It felt suddenly awkward, like there's a maximum time you should have your hand in another woman's mouth. I gently withdrew it.

The awkward silence continued.

"Can I kiss you?" I asked. It was the first thing that came to mind.

"Why?" she asked.

"Um, why do you think?"

"Okay," she whispered, nodding.

I leant in and kissed her on the lips, gently. Her lips were soft, feathery, her lip gloss scented with apricot. She pressed in. With my tongue, I felt the inhuman split in her lips.

She pulled back. "If this is an attempt to make me believe you don't find me repulsive, you don't need to..." she said.

"It's an attempt to kiss you," I said. "If you want…"

She paused. "Yes. Some people don't like the chelicerae. But yes."

We closed again, mashing lips together. She opened her mouth slightly, and I ran my tongue in. Compared to a human mouth, Molly's had a lot going on. It was a regular funhouse; human teeth and tongue, but also rasps and mandibles, folded back so they didn't get in the way, but still kind of thrilling. Our tongues clashed. I was honestly scared that she'd find my mouth boring, like an empty warehouse, but she gave no indication of this.

Again, we broke apart. The scrying disc was quietly repeating the same news – or lack-of-news – report. The council room had become even darker as the Sun went down.

"Yeah, so…" I began.

"Fuck me, Rose," she said.

I mean, it was after hours now, so it's not like it's screwing on work time. And if there was a rule about not fucking coworkers, well, I'd already broken it, so might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb.

"Okay," I said.

She pushed me back, lifting me up so that I was perched on the edge of the desk. Spiders were stronger than people, proportionally. Was it forty times? No, that was ants. But stronger at any rate.

"You do know I'm trans, right?" I said. There is an embarrassing and moderately traumatic story of why I always ask this. Yes, I shouldn't have to. If I'd have fancied men, it might have been worse.

Molly nods. "Why do humans make so much of that?" she asked. "When I was born, my mother took me to a seer. I was obviously female in the vision, so she got the enchantments done. And that's it."

I had a sudden image of attempting to persuade the GIC that my gender identity had come to me in a vision. Well, someone else's vision; that might do it, it was believing the actual person in front of them they had a problem with. Mind you, at least if you got on the NHS waiting lists at birth, you might get towards the front by adulthood.

"Sorry," I said. "Cis humans have to make it so much more complex than it is."

She was unbuttoning my blouse, watching me with her red eyes.

"I'm sorry, Rose."

"Turns out it's not fun when people decide to turn an ugh reaction into policy," I said, more bitterly than I intended.

Molly removed my blouse. "I know," she said. She patted her fingertips across me, little taps. She kissed me again, unfastened my bra while she did so. 

"Neither of us are repellent," she said. "Even though you weirdly have one hundred percent of your skeleton on the inside."

"Just human things," I said, although it actually applied to the rest of the council as well, save Bunny. But maybe she thought them weird as well. 

I reached for her blouse. She slapped my hand away, smiling. Molly grabbed the top of my skirt; I wiggled from side to side as she removed it. The same with my panties. 

She pushed me back, admiring me. Well, I assume. She kissed my breast, my belly, the tip of my – rapidly hardening – girldick. 

Molly stepped back slightly, spider's legs tapping on tile. She unbuttoned her paisley blouse, not removing it, but letting it hang loose. Her breasts, from what I could see in the half-light, were beautiful. Reminded me that I hadn't yet watched that YouTube video "Why lizard girls have b**bs"; I presume it was something similar for spiders.

She unfastened her skirt/shorts thing. It was complex, having to fit around a complicated joining of human-ish and spider-ish bodies. The low light slid over her pussy; I wasn't sure if it was a neovagina or a paleovagina, I'm not sure how the enchantments work. Not that it mattered. If this job worked out long term, maybe it would be an option for me.

I reached out as she stepped forward again, running my fingertips over the edge of a breast. She moved again, pushing the breast into my hand, bringing her mouth to my neck, kissing. I cupped her breasts, grazing the nipple with my thumb. Molly was quiet, save for some laboured breathing, but I felt a tremor run through her.

"Um, should I wear-" I began. I didn't know how functional her enchantments were.

She shook her head. "Taken care of."

"Charms?" I ventured.

Nodding, she moved forward again, wobbling the desk, pushing my legs further apart. She lifted her human legs, settling them on the desk, supporting her weight on the remaining spidery, pointed legs. She dropped a hand and guided me inside. Her pussy was warm, tight but wet. She wrapped her legs behind me, pulling me further in. Still she was quiet, apart from the breaths in my ear. I put my feet up on her spider's abdomen, out of the way. It was kind of felt-like, covered in soft, short hairs, like the belly of a kitten.

We started rocking together. Her legs were clamped around me too tightly for there to be much in/out thrusting. Instead, movements were slight, but intense. There was sudden pressure, pressing, then relaxing, cycling faster. My girldick felt precious, enveloped and constrained in the most wonderful way.

There was a pleasant but unreal feeling to it all. Well, I daresay hadn't fucked enough spider girls in council chambers during a murder alert to know if it always felt like this. I was aware that there were things I was ignoring; the radio disc was whispering on. But I was fucking a beautiful girl; reality can wait.

Our movements got faster, somewhat less constrained. Urgent. Her breaths were sharp in my ear; ragged and hot.

I finished first; a coruscating relief, a desperate outpouring. The sensation must have tipped her over the edge; all her muscles tightened, and she made a series of tiny gasps as she orgasmed. Our juices mixed. She shuddered again. We held for a while, breathing into each other's necks, a soft kiss of the shoulders.

Eventually, we parted. Molly wouldn't look me in the eyes. We got dressed. I tidied the desk, using some screwed-up drafts as terrible cloths. She picked up a short section of pale web from the floor and put it in the bin.

"Molly?" I said.

"I lost control of my spinnerets, alright?"

She turned the scrying disc up; a weird hand movement. It was the same old news.

"Molly," I said, again.

She turned around.  

"That's adorable. You're adorable. And the sex was great," I said.

"Not too weird?" she said. I caught her hands.

"That was the least weird sex I've had in days."

"Okay, well next time the mouthparts are getting involved," she said, and was immediately embarrassed again. "I mean, assuming…"

I nodded, slightly distracted. There was some noise from the main doors. I quickly dropped her hands, and we straightened ourselves up.

Lyssa and Bunny rushed in, accompanied by a burly pair of Terat Guards. The guards didn't wait around, but left immediately after depositing their charges.

"Hel-" I began. 

"Is it just you two here?" said Lyssa.

"Yes, and we weren't-"

"No Cassie?" asked Bunny.

"No, nor Astrid. Why?" said Molly. 

"Bunny overheard the guards speaking," said Lyssa.

"The murderer has struck again," said Bunny. "And this time it's the… the wings that have been taken."

"Now," said Lyssa, sensibly, "lots of terats have wings; griffins, cherubim, dragon-"

"They mentioned feathers," said Bunny.

"Oh, well, still plenty of options," said Lyssa. "But it would have been reassuring if she were here."

I remembered the dream; surely it didn't mean anything that Cassandra had lost her wings in that?

Around an hour later, the lockdown was lifted, though the checkpoints remained. Still no sign of Cassandra, or Astrid for that matter. We went to our various homes in silence.