Chapter 2
How?!
I shook my head. “N-no. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” This would end before it started. I’d delete every story I hadn’t, because I’d apparently been fucking hacked.
The strange (even for affini standards) plant looked aside. “Hmm,” they muttered. “Is that so.”
“It is. It is! Do I really look like a… whatever it was you just said?” I asked, trying desperately not to quiver in place. Affini could smell fear.
“I have heard the Dark Lady dons a cloak woven from the stars themselves. Something you are not, at present, wearing.” The affini’s quartet of eyes seemed to narrow as they cocked their head.
It’s a shroud, not a cloak! A SHROUD!
No, calm down. Don’t let them work you up.
“That sounds scientifically impossible,” I said, continuously disappointing myself.
“I have heard that she is capable of extraordinary things. Am I mistaken?”
Ha! Nice try.
“How would I know?”
“Right.” The affini backed off slightly. “Well, just for your records, I am Selenicereus Dulcidea. Um. She/they pronouns.”
I wasn’t being given the full picture. Didn’t they usually have a bloom, as well? Some kind of age, like tree rings? I thought about asking, but the more they thought I was some dumb nobody human, the better.
Right, better…
Selenicereus — stars, what a mouthful. How could I shorten it? Cereus? Selene? Ugh, the latter was too close to Serenity. Cereus it was. Cereus continued. “I will continue my search for Evernight. You and any other human are to tell me, should you learn anything.” She was going to ask other people about her? That… wasn’t good. If someone remembered me from high school in the pre-plant days…
No. This wasn’t good. But what could I realistically do? I couldn’t reveal myself to this plant. Plants spoke to other plants. They had this whole language, I’d heard it! They’d learn of my delusions and floret them out of me. Or something. Or they’d find it cute…
The Dark Lady Was Not Cute!
“You seem deep in thought, human.” Human. That was strange. They usually stuck to their floral diminutives, like petal, or flower.
She wasn’t like other affini. Pffft. Right. She wasn’t like other girls. She had a… cape.
Shut the fuck up, Serenity.
Back on topic. What would throw the plant off my scent? I had to hurry; she seemed to be making ready to leave! Ah, dammit…
“If Evernight hears of you asking around for her, she’ll only go deeper into hiding,” I said. The affini’s eyes creased into crescents as it grinned without a mouth.
“So you do know something.”
Should’ve just taken my chances with them asking around…
Too late now!
“She’s very reclusive. She’s been… um. She… values her privacy. Um. Very highly.”
The affini leaned in. I reflexively backed away. “Do you know what sent her into hiding in the first place?”
Sigh. Did I ever. Just… other people, man. But what could I actually tell them? Evernight was not some slinking shadow to be sent packing by ordinary folks… and yet, here we were.
“I don’t,” I finally said.
“Hmm. I see.” The affini considered. “But you are in contact.”
“On… occasion.” Stars, this was too damned much. I was falling deeper and deeper into this past-shaped hole. Why did this plant care? Why…
What did they get out of playing these games!?
“Well,” Cereus said, a menacing lilt in their voice. “The Dark Lady may remain in hiding. But inform her of this. I am night incarnate. And should she take no further action, I will usurp her title of Evernight and rule the darkness in her stead.”
How dare you?
Keep cool, Serenity. Keep, uh, serene.
“Very well,” I said in a hush voice. “I will let her know of your challenge.”
Another mouthless grin. “I am eager to see how she will respond. We… will keep in touch, human. If you wish to continue acting as her emissary, I will await here, after dark. Now, please get to a safe distance.” She waited for me to do so. Afterwards, she looked out over the city, and dropped once more into a liquid crouch.
Was she really going to…?
But then she shook her head and stood back up, muttering to herself in her native tongue. Her cape swished as she turned away from me and proceeded to make her exit.
Heh. Coward. Not that I would ever be dumb enough to do something like that, but…
Psssh. These affini could probably fly, if they wanted to.
Regardless, I decided to slink home myself instead of sticking around.
“Welcome back, o Lady of Darkness!”
I said nothing as I slouched inside. The challenge bounced around in my head, never leaving it.
These plants were going to take everything from me!
I collapsed on the couch. Why did it matter, I had to ask myself? Evernight was dead. Who cared if… who cared if some IMPOSTER went around WEARING HER CORPSE?!
But that’s what would happen if I didn’t act. And acting was to go against an affini. Everything material in my life had been bestowed by them. Couldn’t they so easily take it away?
And there was the rub, no? They gave us all this stuff like kindly gods, because they knew they could take it away if we acted up.
“I detect elevated distress levels, milady,” the hab AI said.
Oh, was that right? Did something about me crying on the couch indicate “elevated distress levels”?
“Would you like me to send over your caseworker?” the AI asked.
I shook my head. “No, Hab.” The AI beeped in affirmation. Right, it was always listening in. For “my own good”, of course. Always for my own good. Picking apart my identity and throwing it away for my own fucking good!
I… stars dammit, I needed my Shroud. The blanket was a start, but… no, I needed more. Eyeing the compiler, I grabbed my tablet, synced up to the overnet and, by extension, the magic stuff-maker. I opened the compiler’s own app and tapped into the creation matrix. Fancy fancy names. I typed in “shroud”… wait waitwaitwait… was that what that meant? Fuck. Okay, fine. Only because it responded to literal meanings, apparently… I typed in “cloak”. A length of fabric generated on an empty 3D space. I shrunk some parts, lengthened others. Calibrated the proper scenarios for it to bunch up, or to flow.
Alright. Next, a star pattern. Too starry. Not starry enough. Some gentle gradients of black to purple… a shimmering fragment of the night sky. An ornate, crescent shaped brooch would fasten together either side of it at the neck, and the collar would pop. There, perfect…
I hit a button, and the compiler came to life. Done as quickly as it started, a mass of fabric came to rest on top.
I hopped off the couch and clambered over to the compiler. Stars, it was so… soft. Smooth. And what I’d always imagined instead of the fleece blanket I’d had. The stars were rendered in impossible detail; I couldn’t begin to comprehend the thread count. This was fit for fucking royalty.
Picking it up, the brooch rested coolly in my hand. Opening up the length of fabric, I draped it over my shoulders and shut the clasp, right over my sternum. A mirror. I had to see it in the mirror. Pace quickening, now, I hurried over, and saw…
Her.
The Dark Lady of Evernight looked back at me. Her hair was a mess, her eyes rimmed with red. But there she was, arms and torso hidden under a drapery of stars, the base softly and ambiently flowing around and just above my feet.
“And where have we been all this time?” the Lady asked.
Dead and gone. Buried to save face. But now a plant wanted to steal away the remains.
“What are we gonna do?” I asked my reflection. “What can we do?”
“You best figure that out,” she said back.
“I’m asking you,” I said, voice small.
“You’re asking yourself. The only one that has that answer.” My reflection shook her head and walked out of the frame.
Well, okay, no she didn’t. I hadn’t moved. I stood there a few moments longer. I’d missed my Shroud so much. But I didn’t deserve to wear it. Part of me expected vines to shimmy up from the sides of the mirror and lift the thing off of me, just snatch it away for good.
Maybe it was the sensible option. Just give it up and become some brain dead floret.
Okay, fine, not all florets were brain dead. The ones at the restaurant I’d gone to were at least cognizant enough to do their jobs.
And why were pets doing jobs, anyway? That was kind of strange.
Whatever. I was getting off track. Maybe my affini would find the Shroud cute and have me entertain them with a little dress up. They’d get me all nice and open with their drugs or whatever and have me tell them about the Dark Lady and everything, and just find it to be the cutest, silliest thing.
Oh, what a silly little terran you were, Serenity! Good thing you’re All Better Now. I’d coo and giggle at her, too blissed out to care.
Okay, maybe that was a little hot…
But it wasn’t worth the cost!
So, okay. Fine. The alternative. The Dark Lady of Evernight comes out of hiding because some dumb plant forced her hand.
“That Serenity always seemed like such a sensible girl. What happened to her?”
“Hah! Some affini goaded her and the dumb bitch fell for it!”
“Say, didn’t I know them in high school?”
Hmm. Maybe I should just move to another city. I’d never had the money to do that in the past, but money didn’t exist anymore.
The affini would wonder why I wanted to move, of course. So I would tell them.
“A mean plant stole my OC that I specifically had ‘do not steal’ written on and it made me sad.”
I’m sure they would be nothing but understanding.
This really shouldn’t affect me this much. This was stupid. Maybe I’d never grown up at all.
But then again, I’d certainly done better at adulthood than some people. Not much better, but… look, nobody had knocked down my door to make me a pet yet. That meant I was… doing something right.
If anything, that made this Evernight business all the more upsetting. I had been doing fine! Why did… why did Selenicereus or whoever feel the need to expose a nerve and hammer on it?
It… wasn’t… fair.
I slumped back onto the couch. It wasn’t fair at all. Stars damned plants… they were all like this.
I stayed there on the couch for a long time. I think I eventually calmed down. Despite everything, the Shroud was still comforting.
I thought about sleeping in it, but the brooch would probably make it uncomfortable. So I took it off beforehand.
I woke up the next day to my AI making a fuss about something.
“Quercus Enraptae is here for your wellness check, milady.”
Ah. Right. Him. There was this suuuuuper old movie I put on sometimes to help me fall asleep. It had these tree people with literally-bushy beards. Quercus strongly resembled them.
“Let him in,” I told the hab. I meandered out into the living room as he came inside.
“Serenity! It’s good to see you, flower. Did you just wake up?”
I hopped onto the couch and settled under my starry blanket. “That obvious, huh?”
Quercus rumbled with something that might’ve been laughter. “You’ll be needing your morning drugs, then.”
“Um… yeah, I was just gonna do that,” I said.
The tree therapist invited himself into my kitchen. “Stay right there, flower. I’ll bring them to you.” He did so, along with a glass of pristine water.
Down they went.
“So,” he started. “Would you like to tell me what’s new in your world? If I might say, you look a little down.”
Shit. That wasn’t good.
“Huh? Nah, I’m fine.” Would it work?
“You know better than to keep secrets about your well-being from me, flower.” No, it wouldn’t.
“Okay, fine. But it’s normal, isn’t it? We all just feel sad sometimes.”
“I’m just curious to know if there’s more going on with you, today, Serenity.”
Sheesh, always so pushy. “I just woke up feeling like this. You said yourself that feelings don’t always seem to make sense.”
Quercus rumbled. He really dominated the room. Of course, my hab was spacious, but still human-sized.
“Fine, fine. So what’s going on in your life?”
“I mean, I’ve gone outside the past two days. You’ll be happy to hear that.”
“I am!” Quercus said. “Did you meet up with any friends?”
“….No.”
Somewhere inside the tree’s enormous body, I knew, he was recording my answers on a tablet. I could see the glow beneath shifting bark.
“Made any new ones? Or talk to anyone, at least?“
I slowly nodded. “An affini sat with me during lunch. Philo… Philo-something.”
“Philodendron, maybe?” Quercus asked. I nodded. “I know her. She’s lovely. Did you talk about anything in particular?”
As far as I knew… Quercus was relatively safe when it came to this topic.
“I asked her if the florets at the restaurant were hers, and she said no. That kinda then became the topic of conversation.”
When Quercus nodded, he did so with his entire body. “Are you still happily independent, Serenity?”
“I am, yes.” Better this than the alternative.
“Of course, of course. Now, did you talk to anyone else yesterday?”
Well, Selenicereus, of course.
“Nope.”
“I see, I see.” The affini paused, presumably to write things down. “But today you woke up feeling sad. Do you think you’re lonely, Serenity?”
“Not… particularly.” I didn’t need or want other people. Realistically, it had been others who had robbed me of Evernight long before Cereus ever tried. I… she had gone into hiding because of them. Because people were like what people were like…
I mean, obviously I didn’t always capitulate to others being assholes. I’d kept up my transition, reclaimed that part of me. I’d overcome gatekeeping doctors and snide classmates, and even a parent. I think the classmates though, at least, decided that Serenity was an improvement over the late Dark Lord.
“You haven’t answered my question, Serenity.”
I blinked. “Huh? Oh. Um. What did you ask?”
“Do you find yourself having difficulties connecting with other people?”
“What, like… empathy? I’m pretty sure I have empathy.” Who knew what the affini would do if they thought I didn’t.
“If empathy was something you lacked, we would be able to work and find solutions. But that’s not entirely what I asked, flower. What I’m curious about is whether there are things you went through in the past that make you hesitant to be around others.”
“I just like being alone. I’m an, uh, introvert.”
“Introverts can get lonely too, flower.” Nobody said anything for some time. I tugged the blanket more tightly around me.
Eventually, Quercus did start speaking again. “I won’t call it impossible, but it’s very rare for a human to maintain happiness and health all on their own, Serenity. You seem like you’ve been very carefully and deliberately keeping up appearances, but I think it’s wearing on you. You seem to fear punishment for saying the ‘wrong thing’. You seem to go to great lengths to be as inoffensive as possible, but I don’t think you really want to hurt anyone. Likewise, no one here wants to keep you from being your best self. In fact, we affini desire nothing but the opposite, Serenity.”
Right. Well. Okay. Where to fucking start.
“I wish I could believe that, Quercus. I really do.”
“But you don’t, it seems. Can you tell me why?”
Alright. Fine. So you want me to say the wrong thing, do you?
“People are fucking assholes, whether they’re classmates, or parents, or plants. Be yourself unless you’re not like everyone else! If so, you better shut the hell up and toe the damn line.”
Well that was stupid. Now he was going to have more questions.
“Individuality as expressed by the Terran Accord was a smokescreen at best, it’s true.”
Wait, what?
Quercus continued when I didn’t say anything. “The Accord preached a lie, flower. Their individualism was not something that invited people to be who they were. It was, rather, a demand for radical self sufficiency. Requesting help of any kind was weakness, and the weak were purged by the system or else ruthlessly exploited until there was nothing left to exploit. Individualism was in truth reserved for the elite of society. For all else, survival could only be found in conformity. You, as a human, share the trauma of so many others done wrong by a brutal system.”
I don’t know what I had been expecting, but being soapboxed at wasn’t it.
The affini’s gaze focused in on me with intensity. “Do you know who you want to be, flower? Or would you like help to find out?”
“I don’t want to be something I’m not,” I muttered. I didn’t…
“Then there’s something I’d like you to do for me, Serenity. Are you listening?”
I nodded. “Alright.”
“Think about that person you’ve been hiding. That identity you’ve felt the need to hide from other people. And then, let them out. It doesn’t need to be for very long at first. Just enough to push at your comfort zone. Do that, and see what happens.” Those eyes of his were softly pulsating, colors ever-shifting.
“I… I’ll try, Quercus.” Fuck, was I crying? Was that a thing I was currently doing? Apparently so, because a gentle vine wiped away my tears.
“Thank you, flower.” Quercus proceeded to go through the usual set of questions. How was my appetite? How much was I sleeping? Was I thinking of hurting myself or others? Had I committed self harm since the last visit? Did I think there were people out to hurt me, who weren’t?
Normal. Eight to nine hours. No. Redundant, but no. Definitely no.
That about wrapped it up. The affini drew back up to his full height, which caused his tufty antennae to brush against the ceiling. “Well! I will get out of your eyes, now.”
“Out of my eyes?” I asked.
“However the saying goes!” Quercus rumbled. “Do take care, flower. And thank you for speaking your mind.” Vines ruffled my hair as the planty mass glacially turned towards the door. I waved as he ducked through the exit, and closed it behind him.
Alright, one more wellness check survived. Did Quercus know about Evernight? I suppose if Cereus had, all bets were off. There was a possibility every affini in the city knew about her. About… me.
That prospect was… um. Stars.
Right, I was going to delete my stories, wasn’t I? Whatever damage control I could manage. I grabbed my tablet, and pulled up the archive where they were. Everything had been shuffled around somewhat as the internet gave way to the overnet, but they were… right where I left them, despite the new interface.
Right where everyone could see them.
Now, to delete them…
Any moment now.
As soon as I could… force myself to press the button.
Um.
“Are you sure?” flashed back at me.
I…
No, I wasn’t sure…
I was the opposite of sure. The longer I stared at the prompt, the more I felt physically ill. I’d… put my heart and soul into this… amateur writing. I had already experienced losing stories before when a hard drive failure wiped out just about everything that I hadn’t published. Lost Evernight media.
“Go fuck yourself, Cereus.” I backed out of the prompt and closed the browser. Right… she would be waiting at the bridge tonight, waiting to know if I accepted her challenge or not. What would I do?
Right now, the answer seemed to be to put on the Shroud of Woven Night and roll back and forth on the couch for about thirty minutes.
Well, it still wasn’t nighttime. I… would make something to eat. Yeah, that seemed like a good plan.
I made something to eat.
Finished with that, I still had a couple of hours. Would the compiler let me make smoke bombs? Or was that too weapon-adjacent?
Sigh. At least two affini were demanding the return of Evernight, whether they knew what that meant or not.
Somehow I would have to show them that they were not prepared for what it meant. I had naught but my wits and an infinite stuff-generator. There had to be some way I could make the Dark Lady’s return mean something.
Was I… was I doing this? Really doing this?
I faced the mirror again. There she was. There I was.
I wanted to. I really did.
Stars damned plants…
Okay. Game plan. I needed a game plan. Um…
Step one: compile some stuff. I made a long skirt to go along with the Shroud, as well as a simple pair of black shoes.
Alright. That was a start. But I couldn’t defeat the affini by looking fabulous. At least, not that alone.
Was there a way I could knock out the streetlight? Ideally without fast-tracking myself to floreternity.
C’mon, Serenity. You’ve got the powers of creation at your fingertips!
The powers of darkness were rather vague, weren’t they? The absence of light. In essence, control over nothing. Sure, plenty of shows and games and whatnot had come up with ways to jazz it up a little. Light was pure. Celestial. So in contrast, they made darkness raw, and visceral. But, uh, I didn’t exactly want to kill anyone.
The Dark Lady of Evernight was fundamentally misunderstood. Darkness itself got a bad rap. But it was the day sky that hid away that which lay beyond. The night sky was wide open and revealed the stars. Light exposed by the darkness.
Um… what exactly was I getting at? Stars, the Shroud was soft… so comfy. The material felt so nice on my skin.
Agh, stop getting distracted!
How difficult would it be to turn off every streetlight at once? Ohhh, that would be magnificent. The affini, who’d expressed their mastery over human infrastructure, defeated by Evernight!
I mean, they’d domesticate me pretty much immediately afterwards. I-I mean… they could try! Yeah. Ahah.
Okay, I was stumped. But… this was more fun than I’d had in a long time. Evernight was back, and it felt so right!
And also scary. Was I ready for… everyone else? Quercus had tried to make it some ideological thing, but I knew better. People were just… cruel. He made it sound like it was just the rich, or something, when I knew it was actually just everyone. I guess that made me an asshole, too. Did it? I certainly couldn’t be the only one who wasn’t. I wasn’t that self-absorbed. But… I didn’t want to be an asshole.
Okay, fine. Not everyone was terrible, right? Maybe some of the affini were even alright. Maybe.
But I was getting distracted again. I needed to… maybe just focus on starting with wearing the Shroud outside. Like. An experiment. Or something. Just… to see what would happen.