The Outlands

“Hey, guys, sorry, but we gotta dip.” Ellie said, nodding at The Rumors. “Appointed business came up. We’ll probably be out for a couple of hours, if not more. Just, if you see him, let Grandpa know that the three of us are going to be on Mael or in the City for a bit, depending on how things go.”

“Are we allowed to ask what’s going on?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “Or is it confidential?”

“No, it’s fine.” Ellie said. “Remember that friend from school we introduced to you a while back? His parents are getting all suspicious so we’re going to come clean to them and bring them in on…everything. We’re looking to get more people in the know anyway, so it was a convenient opportunity for us.”

“Good luck, then.” Alice said. “Tell us how it goes later.”

“Will do.” Tess said, standing up from her seat and making for the door to the outside of the hoverer. “I’m going to go get things ready, you two should probably change out of your armor while I do.”

“Huh? Oh, right.” Ellie said, looking herself over.

“I am also in need of a way to disguise myself as human.” Maven said. “I do not suppose anyone has a tool that could do that for me? I will give it back once I return.”

“Yeah, you can use mine.” Alice said. “Give me a sec and I’ll grab it for you.”

Tess stepped out of her hoverer and into the lobby room they had returned to while making their lunch. Once there, she took out the collapsed hoverer from her bag and set it up, then stepped inside and opened up the door to her house. As she closed the door behind her, the lighting went dim, and it took her a moment to realize that it was rather late at night back where she lived.

Her phone immediately began to buzz as she received a barrage of messages that had piled up while she was out of range. And…now that she was thinking about it, it was strange that she was able to get some semblance of service on the expedition, at least enough to interface with the guild’s systems. She’d have to ask Gramps about that when she got back, but now wasn’t really the time to ponder on such things. Instead, she called Jacob, waiting impatiently as the phone rang.

“Tess?” He asked, surprise present in his voice. “I thought you were, you know, away.”

“I was. Death let us know that you were having a situation, so we’re here to take care of it.”

“Death did?!” Jacob exclaimed “Why was she…”

“Paying attention to our texts? Well, we mentioned it briefly, but this exact situation is kind of our highest priority as Appointed, so of course she’s going to be monitoring for complications.” Tess explained. “So, we’re here. We’ll be over at your house as soon as we can drive there.”

“We? Ellie’s coming too, then? That’s…probably for the best.”

“Maven as well.” Tess added, walking over to the kitchen and grabbing the keys to Ellie’s car.

“But she’s…”

“Not human? Already taken care of. We’ve got disguise rings that’ll make someone look human. It wouldn’t be the first time nonhumans have come to Mael for visits – in fact, there were…” Tess paused to mentally count, “six nonhumans at graduation. Seven if you include me, but I’m only inhuman by a technicality, really. Anyway, we’ve discussed it a bit, and we’re going to be letting your parents in on the existence of…well, everything else. Pastor Faust and that Hunter we have in town too, while we’re at it.”

Jacob was silent for a long moment. “You’re…sure about this?” He finally said. “I don’t think they’re going to believe you.”

“Worst case scenario we give a divine message, and they fall in line.” Tess replied, shrugging to no one in particular. “It’s not like they can hurt us, and if they look like they’re about to do something rash, the three of us have plenty of ways to restrain them without injuring them.”

The door to their hoverer opened, and Maven stepped through, looking like a perfectly ordinary human. She was definitely from out of the country, sure, but no one would ever suspect the truth. “Ellie said she will be a little while longer.” Maven said. “Her plate may be lighter than normal plate, but it is still plate armor.”

“Got it.” Tess said. “I was just letting Jacob know we’re on our way. Ellie will apparently be a couple more minutes, so we’re going to leave as soon as she gets here. Knowing her, we’ll probably speed on our way over, so we should be there in…let’s say twenty minutes.”

“Should I let my parents know you’re coming?” Jacob asked.

“No.” Tess said. “They might get weird about it. Just…dodge the question if it comes up, and we’ll take care of it when we get there.”

“I’ll just hole up in my room.” Jacob replied. “Send me a text when you’re almost here.”

“We’ll keep you in the loop.” Tess said. “Talk to you in a bit.”

“Talk to you in a bit.” Jacob replied, then hung up the phone.

“Maven, follow me, let me show you the garage.” Tess said, waving Maven over. “Do you know what a car is?”

“I do not believe I am familiar.” Maven replied, walking over to Tess.

“It’s like a hoverer but worse in…just about every way.” Tess explained, leading Maven down the hall. “Without magic, things are a lot less…convenient, so people had to get creative.”

She opened the door to the garage, and then opened the garage door behind Ellie’s car. “We’ll be in that one.” She said, motioning at Ellie’s car. “Hop in whichever seat you want, except for the one behind the wheel.”

Maven nodded, making her way to the backseat of the car and opening one of the doors, while Tess got into the driver’s seat, started the car, and backed it up into the driveway. “Have you used a seatbelt before?” Tess asked.

“Once or twice, but I’ll admit I’m not fully sure what exactly this one entails.”

Tess walked her through the short process of getting her seatbelt on, and by the time they were finished, Ellie was walking up to the car. She quickly opened the door and hopped in, giving the two other girls an apologetic look. “Sorry, I got here as fast as I could.” She said. “Any updates on the situation?”

“Not really.” Tess said, backing out into the street and shutting the garage door. “I just called Jacob and let him know we’ll be on our way. I said we’d probably speed on the way over, so I gave him an estimate of about twenty minutes.”

“Speed?” Maven asked.

“Roads on Mael have a speed limit, and if you go faster than it, you can get fined.” Tess explained. “There aren’t many cops here, though, so we’ll probably be fine, and even if we do get pulled over, we can do some magic or something to get out of the situation fast.”

“Death says they’re keeping an eye on the roads and will let us know if it looks like we’ll cross paths with the police.” Ellie said. “Or anyone else, for that matter. Go wild and ignore as many laws as you want, for the time being we’re in the clear.”

Tess nodded and stepped on the gas, accelerating down the street to an almost reckless degree, soon reaching speeds that she would never otherwise even think about driving at. Fortunately, the road was pretty straight and empty, and they made it over three quarters of the way to Jacob’s house before they had to slow down and respect the rules of the road.

Still, they made it to Jacob’s house in only ten minutes, and Tess didn’t waste any time walking up to the door and ringing the doorbell. Through her tremorsense, she could tell that there were five people inside; Jacob was almost certainly the one in his room, which meant the other four were likely his parents, Pastor Faust, and Marie the Hunter. It wasn’t a huge surprise that they had beaten Tess’s group to the house; the church was just around the corner from Jacob’s house, so even if they walked, it would only take two or three minutes.

One of the people inside, Jacob’s dad, if Tess was reading their silhouettes right, stood up and walked over to the door. After a moment, the door opened, revealing, as Tess had assumed, Jacob’s dad. “Tess?” He asked, a note of surprise in his voice. “How did you get over here so fast? And who is this with you?”

“She’s Maven, we’ll introduce her later.” Tess said. “And we came as fast as we could. May we come in?”

Jacob’s dad paused, looking back towards the family room.

“Please don’t worry about them, they’re here for us too.” Tess said. “We wanted to have them in for the talk we’re going to have.”

“I fail to see why they’d be necessary.” Jacob’s dad said uncertainly. “We…just wanted to make sure Jacob wasn’t getting up to anything strange.”

“It’ll become clear in a moment, but we should really talk inside.” Tess said, giving him a smile. “This conversation isn’t exactly well suited for a doorstep.”

“I suppose you’re right.” He admitted. “Come inside.” He led the three girls around the corner and into the living room where his wife was sitting across from Marie and Pastor Faust.

“Ah, Tess.” Pastor Faust said. “What’s going on?”

“Please sit down.” Tess told Jacob’s dad. “We’re going to be dropping a few bombshells on you, and it’s probably best that you’re sitting.”

Jacob’s dad visibly bristled, but sat anyway. “So, what do you have for us that’s so important you called over these two as well?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard your fair share of rumors about me these past few months.” Tess said. “And while I haven’t heard them myself, I imagine they’re only slightly exaggerated.” She unsheathed her claws, eliciting a gasp from Jacob’s mom.

Tess sheathed her claws, giving the assembled group a smile. “I’m not going to hurt you.” She said. “If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done so already.”

She didn’t miss Jacob’s dad’s eyes flicking over to Marie, who also seemed to catch the movement. “I couldn’t stop her if I wanted to.” She said. “She’s out of my league. Out of any Hunter’s league.”

Tess nodded. “I’m sure you’re wondering what this has to do with Jacob.” She turned to face the stairs, where Jacob was on his way down. She gave him a wink, then turned back to the assembled people. “But first I’m going to have to ask you another question. Aside from Marie, do you all remember Thomas?”

A look of confusion crossed over the faces of the three who had known Tess before everything. “Familiar, yes?” Tess said. “It’s just in the corner of your mind, something you can’t quite put your finger on, right? What if I told you I used to go by Thomas?”

Jacob’s parents frowned, but something seemed to flip in Pastor Faust’s mind, her eyes widening as she looked over Tess. “Thomas?” She whispered. “You…what? How? Why?”

Tess smiled. “Magic.” She said. “And it’s a long story.” Jacob’s parents still seemed to be struggling, so Tess decided to give them another push. “Before about…half a year ago, I was a boy named Thomas.” She said. “Jacob’s best friend. Remember? He lent me his gym clothes that one time, we shared lockers…stuff that wouldn’t work if I was a girl.”

And then that same lightbulb seemed to go off, and a sort of deep confusion dawned on their faces. “Yes. I know that likely wasn’t pleasant, but I wanted to get it out of the way before we proceeded.”

“I…don’t understand.” Marie said. “You were a man six months ago? All the records say otherwise. There are pictures of you as a little girl.”

“Life and Death helped work potent magic to cover my identity change.” Tess said. “We didn’t want our cover to be blown just yet.”

“I understand.” Pastor Faust said. “But…cover for what? You demonstrated magic quite publicly already, what else is there to cover for?”

“You’re not going to question that?” Jacob’s dad asked, taken aback. “Surely that’s some sort of religious affront.”

“I have no reason to think she’s lying.” Pastor Faust said calmly. “The gods have been very clear on their involvement with her and her family. It would be stranger if they weren’t involved with everything.”

“Which is a good segue into what we’re talking about.” Ellie said. “We’re…ambassadors for another world, in essence. Mael isn’t everything the universe has – there are dozens of other dimensions, and Mael is the only one not fully integrated into that community. In the coming years, Tess and I, and perhaps Maven here, will be helping integrate Mael into the wider world.”

Tess nodded. “And that’s where Jacob’s been. He’s been on one of these other planes, learning the culture and doing work over there. And we decided it was time to let you four in on the secret. The old church compound outside of town is our gateway to the other world, and we’d like to take you there tonight, if you have time.”

“I find this hard to believe.” Jacob’s mom said uncertainly. “It seems so…outlandish.”

Tess had to hold back a chuckle. “It’s all true, I assure you. Maven?”

Maven nodded, taking off her ring and prompting another round of gasps from the assembled people. She stood up, and gave them a curtsey. “Maven Sarlienne, crown princess of the Paumen kingdom of Ores, pleasure to meet you.” She said. “As you can see, I am a succubus, and I serve as Tess and Ellie’s companion in their travels. May I have your names?”

There was a stunned silence, and Marie was the first to recover. “I’m Marie, one of the Hunters.” She said, then nodded at Pastor Faust.

“I’m Amy Faust, a clergywoman in service to Life and Death.” She said. She paused, looking at Jacob’s parents, but they seemed too shocked to speak, so Pastor Faust spoke for them. “These are Robert and Lucia Ernest, and this is their son, Jacob.”

“We’ve met.” Jacob said, giving Maven a hesitant wave. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Likewise.” Maven said, flashing him a smile.

At this point, Lucia seemed to come to her senses. “You…want to bring us there tonight?” She asked.

“Right now, even.” Ellie said. “If you have time, of course. If not, then tomorrow.”

“We don’t have a right to refuse, do we?” Robert asked flatly.

“Not entirely.” Tess said. “Again, it’s fine to put it off for a day or two if you need, but if it comes down to it, we’re not above essentially kidnapping you and bringing you there. This is much too important to let you just skip out.”

“The two of us are fully ready to come tonight.” Pastor Faust said. “We came here expecting to be away for a while.”

“How long is this going to take?” Robert asked. “I have work in the morning.”

“No longer than an hour if you wish, but I imagine you’ll want to spend a little time exploring over there.” Tess replied. “We’ll show you how to get there whenever you want.”

Robert heaved a sigh. “Fine. We’ll come with you. Just…don’t try anything funny, alright?”

Marie smiled darkly. “If they tried anything funny, I don’t think any of us would be able to stop them. But…I will say I’m very curious. Shall I go grab a truck for us?”