Once again I forgot for a few moments why I was here. I was left staring at that little girl, that little Goddess, as her words sank in. She and her sister would have seen the world consumed by war because they thought nuclear weapons were fun toys and they wanted to play.

And they might have done it too, if not for Cindy. The girl who gave magic to the world so that trans people could quickly and easily get their ideal bodies died because she saved the world from a couple bloodthirsty Goddesses of War, and subsequently wanted to save those same Goddesses from oblivion and teach them to be friendly instead.

It was almost unbelievable, yet I had no doubt whatsoever that the girl was telling me the truth.

I couldn't help thinking that was a much bigger, more important achievement than either of the two spells Cindy was actually known for. She didn't just change the world, she saved it.

Zoe finally snapped me out of the shocked daze I was in when she got to her feet and disappeared into the kitchen for a few moments. When she returned she handed me a bottle of spring water, and offered a can of cola to Aeron. She had another bottle of water for herself, and she sat back down next to the child.

"Do you have any more questions for us, Tam?"

I nodded, though I couldn't actually think of any right at that moment. Instead I thanked her for the water, then opened it up and drank a gulp of it.

Zoe and Aeron did likewise, the girl drank some of her soda while the catgirl had some water.

"What are you going to do with all this?" Zoe asked me after another minute or so. "You've been taping everything we've said, are you going to share the raw recordings? Or will you use that as the basis to write an article or something?"

I blinked at her, "How do you know I'm recording our conversation?"

She smiled, "You haven't taken any notes. There's no way you'd be doing this interview without keeping a record of it, so you must be recording it."

I blushed but nodded, "You're right. I'll listen to the recording later, tomorrow perhaps. I'll transcribe all the key points. Originally this was going to be an article but honestly at this point I think there's enough material to write a book. I'll probably have a synopsis ready for my editor by the time I get back to Canada."

Zoe nodded slowly, then asked "You said you had some more questions. What else did you want to know?"

My mind raced for a few moments, then I asked "Can you tell me more about Cindy's life in the two years before you met her? Who she was before, where she came from?"

"What makes you think she was someone else?" the catgirl asked.

I smiled, "She didn't just appear fully formed from nowhere. I know the grave marker says November seventh twenty-twenty was her birthday, but I've seen a copy of her birth certificate. She was really born on November fifteenth, two thousand and four."

Zoe smiled back at me, "A birth certificate is just a document. They can be forged, faked, or magically altered. Like I said earlier, Cindy came into being on November seventh, twenty-twenty. It wasn't till November fifteenth of that year when she was granted an identity. She was given a full name, identity documents, and some kind generous people took her off the streets and into their home. She lived with them until she and I left to travel the world together at the end of the summer in twenty-three."

She added, "I won't name that family, and honestly I've probably said too much as it is. I'm sure you can figure out who they are, digging up information is your job. But I'm going to warn you right now, if you do that? If you bother those people, or Gods-forbid you publish information about them so the public knows who they are... Well, I don't know what will happen but I'm confident you won't enjoy it."

I was positive I already knew who she was talking about. A few names at the Queer Support Alliance of Welland came up more than once in my investigation. Jessica Carlisle was the main one, and I knew she used to live with her sister and her sister's wife. My money was on them being the ones who took Cindy in, and I was positive I could verify that. I knew where to look for the documentation that ought to confirm it.

And for maybe the first time in my career as an investigative reporter, I was just as certain that was a lead I was not going to pursue.

I'd been threatened before, dozens of times over the years. I'd laughed off death threats from a convicted killer. And Zoe wasn't even very threatening, neither her words or her expression were all that troublesome. What scared me was the look in the little girl's eyes. The little girl who was allegedly a Goddess of War, who claimed that she hadn't killed anyone in almost three years. Aeron was staring at me like she was thinking about the possibility of doing another murder if I ever exposed the people Zoe wanted to protect.

I gulped and nodded to Zoe, "I understand. I'm not going to follow up on that. Um... Without going into any identifying details, is there anything else you can tell me about those first two years of Cindy's life?"

The catgirl shrugged, "Not really? She attended high-school and she studied and experimented with magic."

"Did she have a boyfriend? Or girlfriend?" I asked.

With a sad smile Zoe replied, "I don't think she was ever interested in guys. She and I eventually became very close. Not right away, but after about a year our relationship evolved from friends to girlfriends. And we remained close almost till the end."

I nodded slowly, but that led me to an insensitive question. It probably would have been smarter to avoid it, or at least hold off. Instead I saw a raw subject and I went for it.

"It sounds like she was a very important part of your life. She gave you a magical transition to the body you wanted, she was friends with you, then girlfriends. I gather that the two of you went through a lot together. Losing her must have been a terrible blow. I'm curious though, how did you meet Katrina? That must have been a real whirlwind romance compared to the long slow burn with Cindy, considering you and Katrina got married only six months after Cindy's death."

It was the sort of prodding that usually exposed some raw emotions, or at least would get a rise out of people. Instead Zoe just seemed mildly amused. She had a small smile on her face, and it made me think she was expecting me to do something like that. Perhaps she was surprised it took me so long before I tried it.

"I'm sure my wife has been listening in on most of our conversation Tam," the catgirl told me. "I've honestly been wondering when she'd make an appearance, but I think she's waiting for me to invite her. I'm not going to do that just yet though."

She continued, "Going back to something I mentioned at the very beginning, I've been waiting for a reporter who used Cindy's spell to ask for an interview. Someone I knew would be on our side, who'd be sympathetic to Cindy's cause and ideals."

I frowned, "Yet you agreed to an interview with me, and I haven't used her spell."

"You haven't used it yet," she corrected me. "The next full moon is tomorrow morning, a few minutes before ten. And I'll let you in on a secret Tam. I can see the stored magic deep within your core. You've been using Cindy's prep spell since the last new moon. You're less than eighteen hours away from using the spell she gifted to the world."

I felt my cheeks going red as my eyes grew wide. I stared at the catgirl in shock, and finally half-demanded "How do you know that? I've spoken with countless people, I've even been with someone when they used the spell, and I've never heard of anybody being able to tell when someone was preparing for that spell!"

She actually laughed, "Really? Cindy and I were girlfriends, we were best friends for two and a half years. You think we'd spend all that time together without her teaching me some tricks? Magic is what she lived for, there were times she wouldn't shut up about it."

My eyes remained wide and I continued to stare at her as her words sank in.

There were rumours of other people who could work magic well beyond the two spells Cindy shared with the world. They were just rumours though, there was never anything officially verified or confirmed.

A big reason people accepted Cindy's spells was the fact that they were so limited. You could only use them on yourself, nobody could force or coerce you to use them. They could only be used once a month. If she'd done it differently, if people could use magic against each other, it would have been pandemonium.

Now Zoe was implying that those rumours were true, that perhaps she was one of those people who could use magic well beyond the two 'safe' public spells. It left me wondering why Zoe would reveal that to me.

"Why are you telling me this? You know I'm recording our conversation. You know I'm a reporter. What makes you think I won't turn around and share this with the world?"

The catgirl shrugged, "I don't know. It's nice to talk to someone new, and I feel like maybe you're trustworthy? Maybe I think you won't put a fleeting thing like a bit of gossip ahead of my safety and well-being?"

Before I could respond, she brought the subject back to me again. "You said your editor picked you specifically because you hadn't used Cindy's spell. How do you think it's going to play out when you eventually return to Canada and your boss finds out you did the spell while you were working on this story?"

While the catgirl was talking, Aeron got to her feet. The girl put her soda can on the coffee table, then quietly left the living-room and disappeared around a corner. I figured she was either going to the washroom, or maybe to her bedroom. She probably got bored of the conversation.

My attention stayed with Zoe, and I felt my cheeks colouring again. "I cut it pretty close with the timing, but my plan was to get the job done before I used the spell. If I hadn't been able to finish the last few interviews today... I don't know. I might have put the spell off another month. Maybe not? It would have been a last-minute decision. I was hoping to interview miss Metcalf and miss Laughlin today, and I thought that would be it. Getting a one-on-one interview with you is a huge scoop, and may well turn out to be the highlight of my career."

I shrugged, "So I'm working on the assumption this is the last interview I'll do on this assignment. Possibly the last interview I'll ever do, depending how my editor takes things. But whether this turns into a book or an in-depth article, I'll have at least a couple months of work that I can do on my own, in private. The world won't have to see my name until I'm ready to publish, and I guess we'll find out what happens after that."

"Where were you planning on doing the spell?" the catgirl asked. "Do you have someone travelling with you, like are you going back to a hotel in Melbourne when you're finished here?"

"I'm alone," I replied. "I was going to set up a camera and tape it. I'll be in a hotel room, either in Melbourne or maybe somewhere closer. Geelong perhaps?"

"Why don't you stay here with us?"

I was slightly startled as I turned to the side to see who'd just joined us, and found myself looking at an attractive young brunette. She looked about nineteen, maybe twenty years old. Just a little younger than Zoe, anyways. She was about the same height too, I'd guess both of them were about five-foot-four.

For a moment I was scared that this new arrival was the Warrior Goddess, she bore a close enough resemblance to Aeron I could easily believe this was the child-Goddess's older sister. The young woman standing in the living-room doorway had long, perfectly straight black hair. Her eyes were bright blue, and her skin was fair. She was barefoot, dressed in dark-grey leggings and a long loose black t-shirt.

I couldn't see any hint of danger or threat in her face though. She looked friendly, and perhaps a bit mischievous. I decided she must be Katrina rather than Aeronwy, and a moment later the catgirl confirmed my suspicion.

"Hey hon," Zoe smiled. "I was wondering when you'd join us."

The brunette flashed her wife a smirk and playfully stuck out her tongue, then she sat down in the same spot that Aeron recently vacated. Katrina reached over and picked up the can of cola the child left on the coffee table and helped herself to a gulp of it, then her eyes settled on me again.

"Hi Tam," she smiled. "I'm Kat, and that was a serious invitation. You should stay here tonight. There's nothing unsafe about using that spell alone, but it's always better when there's someone with you. We can all have dinner, get to know each other better, then in the morning we'll get you some breakfast and we'll be with you while you use the spell."

For a second or two I wasn't sure what to say. It almost felt too good to be true. The last day I'd allowed myself to do this work I stumbled into an interview with Zoe Zaitsev, I got the scoop of a lifetime, now I was being invited to spend a night as her guest so she and her wife could oversee my transformation in the morning.

"I... I really shouldn't impose," I finally said. "Plus I wouldn't want to crowd you all. You've already got three or four people here, right?"

I knew there were three at least, and they'd implied Aeron's older sister was around as well. Honestly I was surprised they could comfortably fit that many people in a little bungalow like this. Having an extra houseguest seemed like it'd be overly crowded.

"Nonsense," Kat replied. "We'd love to have you, right Zoe?"

The catgirl smiled, "There's not much use having a guest room if we never have any guests. You're welcome to stay Tam, but please don't let my wife pressure you into it. If you're not comfortable just say so."

I looked back and forth between the two of them as my mind raced through the options.

Even if the place was crowded, it would just be one night. And I couldn't deny the thought of having someone with me tomorrow morning appealed to me. I'd witnessed it myself, I'd been that person for a friend. I knew the spell was safe to do it alone, but that sort of monumental life-changing experience was the sort of thing you felt better sharing. Even if it was with a couple people who were all but strangers, at least they seemed like hospitable strangers.

After a few moments of thought, I decided to accept the offer.

"Thank you," I smiled. "I'm honoured that you'd welcome me into your home like this, and I'd really appreciate having you with me tomorrow."

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