Chapter 3
I scuttled outside at dusk. Keep going, keep taking steps. Each one was taking me farther from my hab. Had anyone seen me yet? My head was on a swivel.
I didn’t see anyone… yet. Right, well… back to the north bridge. Where she’d be. I cleared one block, and then another, and then—
“Going somewhere, petal?”
I shrieked and recoiled, clutching the Shroud close to me.
The affini looked apologetic. “Oh dear… are you okay?”
I swiftly nodded.
“Where are you headed?” The affini, who had four legs for some reason, knelt down.
“Urp. Bridge.”
They smiled. “Would you like me to carry you there?”
I shook my head.
“Very well, petal. Don’t stay out too late!”
“…Kay.” I continued on. Was I being extremely stupid? Worrying about my appearance while there were literal aliens about?
Then again, the aliens were kinda a normal thing by now. Strange days. At least I was far enough from the city center that people were sparse. Solitary humans remained rare. Plenty trailed behind their masters. It was the groups I was most worried about, however. Humans got dumber and more aggressive the more of them there were in a given area. Mob mentality, I think they called it. Did that apply to affini as well? I shuddered to think.
Regardless of everything, I continued on. I drew a few looks, I couldn’t help but notice, but… no one said anything. Darkness was starting to fall, so I hurried onwards. I might… it was looking like I might make it without any more interruptions.
“Oh, petal.”
Never mind.
They knelt down and gave me headpats. “Oh, you are just the cutest! Did your owner put you in this outfit?”
They… they…
THEY THOUGHT I WAS A FLORET?!
That was… that…
Something clicked in me.
I stared at them in those prismatic eyes of theirs. “Unhand me, creature! The Dark Lady of Evernight shall not tolerate these disruptions!”
“My, quite the sharp tongue on you~” They smirked. “I should tell your owner~”
“I am no one’s floret!”
“Oh! Then I do hope you’ll forgive me, milady.” The affini gave an exaggerated bow.
Sigh.
“If you let me past, I just might.”
“Oh? Going somewhere? I could carry you.”
“There’s no need, I’m almost there already.” I tried not to sound too out of breath.
“Okay, petal! Have fun, but stay safe!”
“Yeah, yeah, I will…” I continued on, eventually arriving at the bridge without any further interruptions. It was a bit of a climb, and making the whole journey in one go had me gasping for air.
But the view was always worth it.
Tonight, again, Cereus was waiting there. They turned to face me and I hurriedly stood up straighter. This time, they waited for me to come to them.
“Are you the one known as the Dark Lady of Evernight?” she asked, just like she had the night before.
“Y-yeah…” I heaved. “I-I mean…!” I cleared my throat. The wind was blowing, but it was blowing the wrong way; the Shroud billowed into me instead of away. “She is I and I am she!” I declared.
Cereus didn’t reply immediately. Instead she looked me up and down, and then said, “I see.”
Just… ‘I see’?
“I have heard your challenge, mortal!” As mortal as one could call the affini, anyway. I wasn’t exactly sure. “And I will bow to no pretender.”
The traitorous wind had her cape blowing away from her. “But you so very strongly resemble that human from last night. You mean to tell me you lied about your identity?” She didn’t exactly sound accusatory. If anything, she sounded amused.
“After eight years, I am finally unsealed.” Well, barring any extremely brief and private revivals. But after getting into the first job that’d take me, there wasn’t any time. “I awaken to a different world under my sky. Strangers from beyond roam the surface. Every star in the sky is one of my eyes, and with them I will divine your purpose!”
Was I doing a good job? I hoped I was doing a good job.
“My purpose, human?” She gestured at herself. “Or that of the Compact?” She stretched an arm out in the direction of the city, then loosely raised it up to the sky.
Huh. Were they not the same?
“Both.”
Cereus stretched, which meant an unraveling of their entire form, revealing a softly pulsating orb at their center. The air itself seemed to be humming, even as they resumed their prior appearance.
“The Compact wants what the Compact wants. The best lives possible for every sophont. But me? Terra calls to me. It needs me to heal it with my global embrace. You might call what I want… nothing less than world domination.” Her quartet of eyes glimmered in the night as she regarded me. For my part, though…
“Really? World domination.”
“Indeed. Will the Dark Lady try and stop me?”
She couldn’t be serious. “That’s so uninspired and basic!” I shot back. Four eyes widened, just briefly.
Cereus cocked her head. “What? No it’s not. It’s classic, going by your own media.”
“It’s been a cliche for centuries! Are you kidding me?” I shook my head. “And newsflash, buddy, your friends beat you to it and then some.”
“Oh.” Cereus looked at me. Cereus looked down at the city. Cereus looked up at the sky. Cereus looked back at me. “Do you really think so?” They did the affini equivalent of shuffling their feet.
“Um… well.” Shit, what was I supposed to say? They seemed… really disappointed. I kind of felt bad.
“You employed the trope in one of your own stories,” Cereus observed.
Well, I didn’t feel bad anymore.
“Yeah, well, I… shut up.”
Another mouthless affini grin. “I found the story to be entertaining regardless.”
“Y-you did?” I asked reflexively. But then I shook my head. “But what’s a plant doing reading my stuff anyway?”
“I am an affini,” the affini said. “And I believe the phrase would be, ‘my goals are beyond your understanding.’”
“Your goal is world domination, according to yourself.”
“Dirt,” Cereus quietly said. I suppose that was a swear or something. “I wished to learn more about this enigmatic ‘Dark Lady of Evernight.’”
“Well… here I am,” I said. However this conversation started was not how it was going. “But how did you find them in the first place?” They were tucked away in their own little corner of the intranet, and never were exactly popular.
“Their origin point was traced to this city. They were attached to your dossier as the Compact combed terran records.” Cereus looked to the stars. “That I found a human with such a particular moniker was noteworthy to me.”
“So you plants did just go and hack me,” I sighed.
“Affini. The term for our species is affini. Your stories were freely accessible.”
“But they were anonymous for a reason!”
“Does the Dark Lady regard her prior exploits with shame? I would like to know why.”
Affini. Affini affini affini. Should I even bother resuming the act? I… I had to try. “My words, even my powers, are but tools. It is my actions that define me. The darkness is a primal fear of humanity, and I have had that fear directed towards me. But know this, affini. The night protects, and it embraces. It has lent me its power, and so I act on its behalf. That is what I am, and for that I have no shame!”
The plant remained unmoved. “Bold words and a noble cause. Even so, something has led you to slink into the shadows, to shed your starry veil and live apart from your achievements.”
She… knew I hadn’t actually done any of the things in those stories, right? Right? “I have stated before that forces with which I’m allied tend to manifest as fear. While I fight for the sake of good, there remain those who… misinterpret and misunderstand my ways. It was… at their hand that I suffered an ignoble defeat and found myself sealed.” I knew I hadn’t done the things in my stories, but here I was smashing reality and fiction together. And for what purpose? To please this alien?
“It is encouraging, at the very least, that you are back now,” Cereus said.
“But not by my choice,” I recalled bitterly. “You seek my title, and more than that, you seek the world that is my home. Even now I must wonder if I was simply lured into a trap.”
“Does that prospect alarm you?” Cereus quietly asked.
I turned away. “I find myself weakened by my defeat, even though it has been such a long time. The world has changed in my absence, and I know not the capabilities of my would-be usurper.”
“I… see.”
I looked at her with a mirthless grin on my face. “You see. You see me here before you. If this is to be my last day, then so be it. Deal the final blow, but know that I will not bow.” I held out my arms, practically inviting me to strike me down! If she would take my bait, she would…
My posture drooped slightly. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was expecting. Straight up killing me seemed a little out of character for an affini. Maybe she would dramatically tear away the Shroud, leaving me as only Serenity forever more. Maybe, just maybe…
She would advance, and the moment of need would draw out my true power. The Dark Lady of Evernight, unshackled at last; I’d fade into the night itself, averting her blow! I’d reappear behind her just long enough to surround the streetlight above us with impenetrable shadow, leaving her in total darkness. I would escape invisibly into the sky, and my triumphant laugh would surround her, baffling and dazzling in equal measures. I’d head off and into the world, using my guile and skill to transform it into a place that made sense. Cereus wanted to take the world, but I would liberate it! I’d allow it to flourish, not under some overbearing Compact or cruel Accord, but by its own merits…
It would be perfect, it would be glorious, my awakening at last…! Not to be shunned as an outcast, nor to be forgotten as a nobody, but to be… something that wasn’t either of those things.
It… didn’t actually matter. I couldn’t actually do any of that. I was just… me. I wasn’t teleporting, or turning invisible… and I certainly wasn’t flying away. Instead I was… sighing and letting my arms fall to my sides while I stared at the ground.
Cereus looked at me, and then looked aside. Looking back at me, she came forward and put a massive hand on my shoulder. “Perhaps I’ve made a fatal misstep.”
“Not a line I would’ve expected out of your kind,” I said.
“I will not usurp your title,” Cereus said, releasing me. “You may wear the Shroud of Woven Night without fear of it being taken from you.”
So I was me and this affini was an affini. Now she was giving me permission to wear this thing, how swell! Might as well drop the act, now that she’d backed away from hers. “I dunno what the point is. Apparently you folks just assume I’m a floret when I wear it.”
“I thought reviving the persona would make you happier.”
I sighed. “The Evernight approves of honesty. And, truth be told, it almost did.” Almost. I almost thought I’d found… a kindred spirit, in a perverse sort of way. Maybe I had, but I let my own insecurities push her away. Stars, the pity. The damn pity.
“What will the Dark Lady do now?” Cereus asked.
What would I do now?
“I don’t know.” The stars were so clear tonight, even though the city below was still lit up. The stars could be even brighter, I knew. I would sweep my hand across the world below, and every light would go out at once. Then I would stand on the railing and fly up into the night sky, my domain. Pffft. Right. Old Terran media, and I mean way old, prior to any sort of space tech, had such romantic views of the night sky. The moon, especially. Luna had been corrupted by human hands, remade to fit their designs.
The Dark Lady had gotten daringly anti-establishment at times. In one story, she prevented a nasty corporation from uprooting a city of innocents on Luna and turning it into a luxury resort. It was almost exhilarating writing something so seditious, and one of the advantages of publishing her work anonymously besides. Most often Evernight’s exploits put her at odds with other humans, but that wasn’t anything unusual in and of itself. One time her foe was a mad scientist who wanted to get rid of the night altogether by using a complex array of mirrors in space. Her old nemesis, Doctor Everlight. I’d felt quite clever, coming up with that.
“So you challenged me to appear to make me happy,” I said, remembering that there was an evil space plant beside me. She’d been looking at the stars, but had turned to face me when I spoke.
“Correct.” The plant said nothing further, for a while. She briefly looked to the side. There was a glimmer in her eyes. “But there was another reason.”
“That so?” I said.
“Indeed,” the plant replied. “You should know that another shadow lurks deep in the night. One who does not need your title.”
“Pretty sure most people don’t need my title.” What was this weirdo up to now?
“Think of them as… a long time admirer. But also, Dark Lady, a threat… yes, even to you. They call her… the Queen of the Night.”
I scoffed, probably. “Sure. Who’s they?”
“Merely whispers on the wind, for now. She’s been secretly gathering her power. So long has she remained dormant… but I hear that she’s returned.”
I looked at Cereus. Cereus looked at me. “So, uh, she’s you, right?” I asked. Maybe she was still invested in the act after all, or maybe she was just interested in playing games.
“Me?” Cereus asked, directing a hand towards herself and feigning innocent surprise. “You think I could be someone so fearsome, so powerful?”
“Well, you did read my stories and decide that you needed to meet Evernight in person because of them,” I said.
“Ah,” Cereus said. “You think that I would read your works and become so invested and intrigued, that I would seek to court an alter-ego of my own?”
Stars, it’d be… kinda cool actually, if someone had liked my stuff enough to do that. Too bad this had the catch of that someone being a giant, stalker-ish plant monster from space.
Fans could spring from the strangest places, eh?
“I mean, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but you’d never be able to defeat Evernight at her own game.” Totally.
“The Dark Lady has earned her self-confidence, I am sure,” Cereus said. “But she best be careful all the same.”
Evernight was nothing without her confidence. She’d needed it, when… well. She’d held her head up high in the face of adversity, but… maybe the plant had a point. Was it carelessness? No, it was…
It wasn’t something I cared to remember, but something that happened all the same. It hadn’t been carelessness at all, but that final loss of control — when my dad had thrown away the Shroud, the original Shroud, and told me it was time to leave the fantasies behind. The Dark Lady (technically Lord at the time) had been bereft. Suddenly she had become naked before the world, her words had lost their meaning, and strength alone just couldn’t hold back… well, everything.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. Evernight had lost it all before. She would be better prepared at this point, right? Dad wasn’t around, these days. His work had carted him off to Mars during the war, and I’m not sure why he would come back now. He had told me to drop the fantasies, but still deluded himself into thinking he had a son.
Stars, he had not taken my transition well. Said I’d traded in one fantasy for another. It didn’t improve, and when I graduated high school I had decent enough grades to ship myself off to college, once I’d gotten the loans for it. But that was the start of new troubles.
“Everything alright?” Cereus asked, apparently noticing my brooding.
“Just… memories,” I told her. And I wasn’t even lying.
“Would it help to talk about them?” she asked. Was she prying? That was a risky situation. Could I really tell her I’d rather not?
Of course, who could tell what affini already knew about my life. College hadn’t worked out, so then there was…
“Just thinking about work, I guess,” I eventually muttered. It had been where my mind was going, anyway. The situation I’d ended up in after I dropped out of school.
“Was it hard?” she asked. Psssh. Was it hard.
“It was pretty much the death knell for my writing career,” I said. “Had plenty of time to come up with ideas but none to put them down on paper.” And how aggravating that had been. Mind working away in the background while the rest of me was busy with some idle task. It was the kind of work that could’ve been automated but wasn’t, so that futureless dropouts like me could have something to do besides get chased out from under bridges by peacekeepers before starving to death.
“I have heard horrific tales of the former Accord’s work culture,” Cereus said. “Would you like to tell me yours?”
“I was easily among the upper echelon of hash slingers,” I boasted. A silent Cereus awaited explanation. “If you wanted to be generous with your definitions, you could call me a cook. I grilled up only the finest synthmeat for fellow terrans on the go.” I’d done a lot to try to gaslight myself into thinking it was the ideal line of work for me. Ah, yes, I didn’t have to talk to anyone! Oh, I only ever had to do what the screens told me to! “I’d… do that for eleven hours every day, eat at home because work food was kind of pricey, and then I’d have fifteen minutes or so to think about writing before collapsing into my bed.”
Cereus’ vines stiffened as I gave her an overview of my occupation. “That is no environment for Evernight to thrive.”
I wasn’t sure what kind of environment Evernight needed to thrive.
“I don’t miss it,” I said. Wasn’t anything I had to worry about, anymore. I hadn’t even been there since the great botanical takeover. Was it even still operating? Managed by some fast food-minded affini, staffed by an embarrassment of florets? And, I mean, they’d have to be florets. Who was going to work there voluntarily? The idea made me giggle, admittedly. You sign your life away to become a pet… and a vine just hands you a spatula. I guess you’d have the drugs to make it tolerable, at least.
A brief gust of wind brought me back to reality. At some point we’d both just given way to silence; in the corner of my eye, Cereus was looking in the same direction I was, arms crossed. The breeze that I’d felt was… pleasant. Another weird thing to get used to; this summer had been the coolest that I could remember, no doubt thanks to some affini space magic. We learned a ton about the terraforming of Mars in school, and how it was a magnificent technological achievement, a display of humanity’s mastery of nature. If the affini were going to put themselves to work reversing the collapse, though… humanity had never managed that.
And there my mind had gone wandering again! You are a fool, Serenity. There was a giant plant monster right beside me who could easily abduct me if I let my guard down. (I tried not to think about whether keeping my guard up would actually achieve anything.)
“It grows late,” Cereus eventually said. “I should bring you home.”
“Um. That’s fine, I’ll walk,” I said, but vines were already starting to surround me.
“You were winded when you arrived, Serenity. I will insist.” The vines were moving in, now, first wrapping around my legs. She r-really was abducting me?!
“H-hey, you don’t even know where I liii-iiiive!” As I said the last word, she boosted me up and brought me in close. In this proximity, I could feel a deep thrumming moving throughout me, lulling me into… “H-hey, stop!”
Cereus hesitated, and I was slowly brought away from the verdant mass. Gently, she lowered me down back onto the ground, and then released me. I clutched the Shroud close to me, staring at her, wide eyed.
D-damn alien…
“I am sorry, Serenity.” I swear I saw her thorns droop a bit. “I will walk you home, if you’ll allow me.”
I was of two minds. On one hand, I was leery of her trying some bullshit like that again. On the other…
Hmm. Other affini might try to disrupt me anyway. If she was there to tell them off, though, I might be fine. Would she do that for me? I looked at her. Four ever-shifting eyes looked back at me.
“F-fine,” I said. She perked up almost instantly. “Don’t let anyone think I’m someone’s floret, though.”
“I will not.”
I huffed. “You may accompany the Dark Lady of Evernight. Um. This once.”
“And so I shall,” Cereus said, spirits rekindled. “But remain on guard for her. Remain on guard… for the Queen of the Night.”
“Sure thing.” Weeeeeirdo.
She walked me home. A couple of times, vines lingered near me, but none touched me. When other affini came across us, she’d murmur something in her own tongue; the other would say something back, and be on their way.
Admittedly, my legs were killing me by the time we made it.
“Here we are,” I told her. I guess she knew where I lived now. Well, if she didn’t already. “Good luck with taking over the world or whatever.”
“Enjoy the rest of your night… milady.” I turned back to show her just how deadpan the expression on my face was, but she was already… crouched down and facing away. She jumped up, clearing the road entirely, and threw a vine forward to boost her up onto the roof of the building across from me.
“Good luck getting down, dork,” I said, and headed inside.
“Welcome back, o Lady of Darkness!”
I compiled something to snack on and flopped onto the couch. What a weird day. What a weird plant. And the Dark Lady of Evernight was… back, I suppose.
Well, was she?
The affini thought I was just the cutest thing, it seemed. But… they probably would either way, if I was being realistic. I couldn’t even really say that being mistaken for a floret was exclusive to Evernight. It had happened a couple of times in the past. Only this time, though… I’d reacted as Evernight would, I suppose. I hoped I wouldn’t get in trouble for that, or something.
Who could tell, with affini?
Sure, Quercus had made a point of plantsplaining how things used to be. Yes, we all had to keep our heads down! How profound. But here was the thing, Doc. We still had to do that here! Florethood was always right there, around the corner.
Cereus trying to carry me was weird. Why had she done that? She wasn’t going to say I was unstable or something because I rejected it, was she…?
Maybe… no. No, she wouldn’t. How did I know that? Well, I didn’t. But, um, empirically, Selenicereus was the first plant to do something resembling respecting my boundaries.
Except that she’d hacked my stories to trace them to their source. That was kinda rude. Then again, it could’ve been some other plant that did that.
I finished my snack and curled myself into a silky, starry ball on the couch. When she’d picked me up, I’d thought I was sunk. Like she was going to take me home and keep me or something. Though… at least she might let me keep the Shroud.
Fuuuuck, what if she gave me some kind of ultimatum? “Hahaaa, I’ll let you keep your Shroud, but only if you bend the knee and become my floret!”
Wait, that was stupid. I had a machine to make more shrouds. Say, I should do that, while the thought was in my mind…
I grabbed my tablet and scrolled through the make history. Vrrrr. Print print. Two more shrouds, should I need them. I scurried over to my bedroom closet and hid them there. One step ahead of you, Cereus.
But that was a piece of cloth. The Dark Lady was more than simple garments. Right? Right. What if she was usurped, despite what Cereus had said?
Wait, how would one usurp me, anyway? Hmm. They’d have to kill me, or… make me their floret. Yeesh. Talk about an empty title, even if I could keep it. Well, fine then. The time for planning had come.
The Dark Lady of Evernight’s Grand Affini Contingency Plan!
Now. Where to start?
Sinuous tendrils approach me before the rest of its form reveals itself. “At long last I’ve found you,” it menaces. Eyes glimmer in the shadows as they stare down at me. “Now, the Dark Lady shall be nothing more than my obedient pet.”
“You think yourself able to tame the night sky?” I counter. I twirl the Shroud and teleport away before she can entangle me. Every light extinguishes at that moment, blinding her as I make my silent escape.
There were a couple issues with this imagined scenario. The first was that I couldn’t actually teleport.
Wait, could affini teleport? Probably not, right? Hopefully not. Maybe that Queen of the Night could. As if that wasn’t just Cereus spinning tales in some planty attempt to reignite my passion.
Another issue was that I… couldn’t really see that well in the dark.
My gaze slooooowly shifted over to the compiler. I blinked. I grabbed my tablet. First, I just searched night vision.
Stars.
They had everything. Not just goggles to enhance vision, but quick and easy surgeries you could get to have eyes like a cat in lowlight. I could make my eyes glow or have them change color. They had drugs that enhanced all senses, not just vision. Not quite willing to commit to surgeries just yet, I looked at wearable apparatuses. Forget bulky goggles, you could get contacts. They could see in lowlight or even infrared. They were self-cleaning. They could be practically invisible, or you could change your eye color.
They had ways of making them interface with your brain, so you could change how you saw with a thought. But that required something called a haustoric implant. What was a haustoric implant?
I looked up what a haustoric implant was.
Oh. That was a haustoric implant. So only florets could get the magic thought contacts. But why would florets need magic thought contacts?
Even so, ones without the brain interfacing would serve me well. I found a design that could change what you saw by squinting in a specific way that would make it hard to do by accident. They had three settings; normal Terran, lowlight, and infrared.
Oh, this was gonna be so damn cool. I pressed the button to compile, but a pop up appeared on my tablet. Oh, it would require a vet appointment to “maximize compatibility with my eyes.”
Sigh. I’d had an appointment with my “vet” once in the past. They were just a doctor, in reality, but the affini called doctors who specialized in human medicine “veterinarians.” Because, y’know, of course they did.
On the bright side, I now had a vet appointment scheduled for tomorrow.