RYAN. TIME FOR FIRST PERIOD.

“Bleh third floor,” Angie said, leaning in and giving Ryan a quick kiss on the cheek before hitting the door to the central stairwell. Evan and Ryan paused, watching her stride down the hallway toward the spiral stairs, until the doors swung shut. At this point there were only a few stragglers in the hallway, mostly people like them hustling to their classes.

Comp Tech was down the hall and around the corner, and Ryan and Evan started heading that way. After five or so steps of silence, Evan spoke, sotto voice. “Hey, uh… maybe this is a weird question… but, um… was Katie…?” Ryan raised an eyebrow at his best friend, keeping his face otherwise blank. Evan, somewhat pinker than normal, continued, “I mean, this, I know this sounds implausible, maybe borderline crazy, given the circumstances, but it seemed like maybe Katie was...” He trailed off, seeming uncertain.

Ryan laughed, loudly, the noise echoing through the hallways, drawing curious glances from the couple other people remaining in the hall. “Paying you particular attention? Poking you in the chest? Making sure she got your response instead of going away like Megan wanted her to? Saying the word ‘fine’ weird?”

They reached the door of their tech lab as Evan let loose a sigh and said, “Okay, that wasn’t me imagining things. I thought she was being weird, but it seemed so unlikely that I wanted to double check and make sure I wasn’t… I dunno, reading too much into things? ‘Cause lack of sleep and head trauma?” He paused. “Why?”

“You were not, and probably because you ‘went hunting’ last night, dummo,” Ryan replied, pulling the door open as he did so. Taking up a quarter of the ground floor[1], the computer workshop was filled with workbenches, with two stools per bench. Unlike the day before, today components of computers covered each workbench. Ridiculously old computers.

[1] More like a fifth, but the last fifth was taken up by the central stairwell, with each of the workshops taking up a quarter of the circular tower floor around the stairwell.

“And it’s a good sign for us and for Megan,” he continued, again sotto voice, as they entered and wove their way through the workshop, which was about a bit less than half full of people; it was a large room, and apparently the class often didn’t fill. A shame. “Katier ‘n’ Beth are both clearly more interested in making up with Megan and trying to be friendly with us than in supporting Lauren in any way. Nisha and Lauren may as well have been standing in pouring rain over there under that cherry tree, they seemed so despondent.” They’d about reached the station they’d chosen the day before by the time he finished. “No one is going to fight to keep us Exiled. We are in the clear.”

“Okay, hold on though, she was doing that because I went hunting? Why though? What was she doing?”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “She was flirting with you, dingbat. Doing her level best given the situation, anyway. She was at least hoping it’d make you more open to an apology, but who knows, it might have been genuine flirting, too.”

Evan’s mouth hung open for a long moment before he said, “Gods, spirits, and Powers, flirting with me? Yesterday morning I was idly wondering if I might not be able to talk to a girl I like for the first time in years. Today I guess I need to figure out whether Katier Fuckin’ Ryuyama is flirting with me for real or just to score points for an apology. What the fuck?” Louder, he said, “Hey, Mercy.”

Wearing a cat ear headband to keep her clearly self-cut sea green-dyed hair out of her eyes, Mercedes “Mercy” Seerson stood nearby, staring at Evan agape. She also wore a light mantle (it was borderline a poncho), a pair of baggy basketball shorts, and bulky-framed glasses that did not suit her face. Mercy seemed to intend to continue her relatively extreme version of baggin’. Under her glasses, she wore a clashing, unflattering combination of makeup colors that still didn’t really do a lot to hide how pretty she was.

Mercy finally closed her mouth and said, “Did you say that Katier Ryuyama was flirting with you? You were clearly just talking to Ryan, sorry I eavesdropped, but what is even happening? Is, are you, whaaat?”

“Teach you not to show up yesterday,” Ryan said.

“Come on, man,” Mercy said. “I was still ‘away with family’ yesterday. Which is to say I wasn’t going to suffer seven talks about ‘what insert class here will be about.’ What the fuck happened? Did someone tell Megan finally?”

“Well, you missed an exciting day,” Ryan replied, not willing to answer the questions yet. “I see you’re still baggin’ it up, hiding that hot bod from a disappointed world even though we’re in high school now.”

Typically, Mercy would tell him to fuck off—sometimes it’d be witty, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes just in those exact words—and then they’d shoot the shit about video games and other nerd stuff. This was how they related.

Today, though, she wrinkled her nose and sighed, then said, “Yeah, about that, Ryan… I kinda think that it’s time to let that game rest. We’re in high school now, we’re all adults, and you’re dating McMillan. And…” She sounded more upbeat again as she said, “I had a lot of time this summer for reading and thinking and talking with some folks I met, and I’ve realized I’m an enpy[1] of some sort!”

[1] Enpy is a term derived from nonpolar, which is to say someone with a nonpolar (neither male nor female) gender. Fredonian culture understands gender to be a spectrum, with male and female as two primary, and predominant, gender poles, encompassing 97 to 99 percent of the population (including both cis and trans individuals) with the remaining one to three percent possessing a secondary or nonpolar gender identity. Some enpy genders are purely psychological and spiritual in nature, while others involve specific biological intersex characteristics.

Ryan felt his guts and other sundry personal sweetbreads all sink down into his feet in their attempt to escape through the floor.

Mercy continued, “‘Swhy I’ve always been so uncomfortable with my puberty body.[1] I’m pretty sure I’m going to get the warrior[2] as soon as I’m fullage, now. Now what happened yesterday?”

[1] Not a common Fredonic term. This is a Mercy original.

[2] Slang for a double mastectomy (or, depending on the person, breast reduction to A-cups), a common procedure among ladies who do not intend to bear children or, if they do, intend the nursing be done some other way. Most common among Light Bearers and other hunters, to keep their breasts from interfering with combat, but it is common as well as among trans men and enpies with feminine sex characteristics.

Evan said, “Oh nice. That sounds like a relief.”

“Yeah!” Mercy said. “I really feel like I’m getting things figured out. Except for what happened yesterday.”

“Oh, Mercy,” Ryan said. “Oh Mercy, I’m so sorry, if I’ve ever made you uncomfortable or feel singled out or—”

“Naw naw nawnaw,” Mercy said with an easy grin, waving Ryan’s words away. “You’re totally fine, man. Everyone does that shit when you’re baggin’, it’s no big. Especially if it's kinda true. People can still tell. I wasn’t the only one doing it or getting it. And you never took it too far like some folks do. I was—I mean, I still am, but it’s getting better—just super confused in middle school. It was kinda nice to have these jokey compliments thrown at me all the time, but people actually looking at me still wigs me out, and I’m more and more sure I’m asexual, too, so I’ve decided it’s just time to have people cut it out.”

“Makes sense to me,” Evan said placidly. “By the way, Mercy, some kid was using that bench yesterday, though it’s not like we’ve done anything yet. Junk wasn’t even on the tables. ”

Mercy waved Evan’s warning off. “Either they’ll join me and I’ll have a bench partner or they’ll go elsewhere,” they said. “BTW, would you guys mind calling me—”

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“Merce!” said the small, fair boy with owlish eyes who had been at that bench the day before, whose approach had provoked Evan’s warning, clearly addressing Mercy. “Didn’t know you were going to be in here!”

Mercy—rather, Merce’s—eyes lit up, and they turned and looked at the boy with a smile. “Drew! I was hoping you would be in this class!”

As the two hugged, Evan said, “Well, that worked out about as well as could have been expected.” Ryan chuckled.

“You’re standing right at the workbench I was at yesterday and everything!” Drew said.

Merce gestured at Ryan and Evan and said at Drew, “Drew, this is Evan Cadell with the sidearm and Ryan D’Maughn without.” Drew eyed Evan’s large gun. He of course had a sidearm too, a nine millimeter semi-auto, the most common handgun among non-gunner boys. If Merce had a sidearm it was hidden somewhere in their baggy clothing. “Evan and Ryan, this is Andrew Mollyster.”

“Yo,” Evan and Ryan said in unison, which made Drew laugh.

“We met at this meetup for firstagers who haven’t felt or developed sexual attraction to anyone yet even though we’re of firstage now,” Merce added.

Drew nodded. “It’s nice to have someone to relate to.”

At this point the bell rang.

Merce made a frustrated face, pointed at Evan and Ryan, and said, “You’re not off the hook for telling me what the fuck happened yesterday.”

“Okay you lot!” their teacher, Mst. Vanvestraut, said, loudly enough to get the room’s attention. Mst. Vanvestraut looked exactly like you would think a Mst. Vanvestraut would look, so much so it was almost uncanny. “We’re going to get started! Like I covered yesterday, we’re starting with a unit on putting together and configuring computers, starting with the oldest machines I can find, and as I go through the steps I will talk some about the history and science of computers and computing. Working with old machines is good for understanding where computers came from, so that you can better understand where they are today and the principles behind newer machines. Once I’ve gone through each step, I’ll take some time to walk around, answer quest—”

At this point, the teacher was cut off as two more boys slammed through the door and skidded to a halt not one meter away from her, eyes locking onto her in horror: Filbert and Marco, flushed and panting. Mst. Vanvestraut looked at them with disappointment and said, “Boys, is there a reason you couldn’t have come to a halt like that outside the room and then walked in calmly?”

The two looked at each other, and then Marco said, “Momentum?”

Quiet enough they probably didn’t hear it, Evan snorted.

“Sorry,” Filbert said, sheepish.

“It’s the second day of school, boys,” she said, and heaved a sigh. “Get to your station.”

“Yes’m,” they mumbled, then walked at double pace through the room to the station to Ryan and Evan’s right, where they’d been the day before.

As they walked, Ms. Vanvestraut picked up again. “After each step, I will move around the room to make sure everyone is keeping up and answer any questions you might have. During this time you may talk among yourselves at a reasonable volume. Now, let’s get started.” And she did just that.

Twenty-five or so minutes later, when they’d reached a point where they were doing stuff (motherboard jumpers) someone might not understand right off, as soon as the first person asked for help, Merce spun toward Evan and Ryan. “So Katier was flirting with you?” she said, her voice low but intense. “What’s happened yesterday? How could you possibly be in a situation Katier would be flirting with you? She’s not even allowed to talk to you!”

“Well,” Ryan said. “That’s all over and done with. Megan started talking to us again yesterday morning.”

Merce’s eyes went saucer-sized. “Really!? You have to tell me everything that happened!”

Filbert cut in before Ryan could respond and said, “Did you guys really eat lunch with the new Light Bearer yesterday?”

Merce spluttered and said, “The what now?”

“Come on, Merce, get with the times,” Ryan said, grinning. “You don’t know about our class’s new Light Bearer?”

“No! I was genuinely out of town until this weekend! Come on, spill the beans!”

“Well,” Ryan said. “Yesterday Megan approached Angie on her way to school and apologized. They met up with me and Evan, and we walked the rest of the way to school together after she apologized to Evan, too.”

“She didn’t apologize to you?” Merce asked. “What about you being exiled?”

“Eh,” Ryan said. “I didn’t need one. And we didn’t tell her about it. Angie didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Sure…” Merce said, but didn’t push.

“So we walked to school. When we got there, Lauren and company saw us, and Lauren, Katie Kay, and Beth Mishra all dropped their coffees and they splashed all over the whole lot of them—it was glorious. After that, we had a brief conversation with a coffee-soaked Lauren before she ran off to change. Then Katier and Nisha joined us, and Angie left because she didn’t want to talk about the Exile. The rest of us discussed it for a while. While we did, Angie met the new Light Bearer, Chris Gramyre—he’s very friendly, but also he was on the receiving end of a couple of magpie auguries—”

“What?” Merce exclaimed.

“Yeah, Angie got a couple too—”

“What!?” Merce, Filbert, and Marco exclaimed.

“How’d you not tell us this yesterday!?” Marco added.

“I didn’t know about the auguries yet yesterday. Come on now, stop interrupting me,” Ryan said. “Anyway, they briefly discussed the auguries, and then class started.”

“What were the auguries!?” Merce asked.

“Oh, not that important. Ultimately they were about Chris meeting Megan, which happened a few periods later. And you interrupted me again.”

“Sorry.” Merce looked abashed.

“So when Chris and Megan met, something happened—we’re not sure what or why, beyond that the auguries were probably about it—that we think forged a mystical bond between Chris, Megan, and the three of us Exiles.” Ryan grinned. Merce, Filbert, and Marco had no verbal response to that, but a great deal of expressional response that indicated that he’d blown their minds.

Ryan continued, “So we ate lunch with Chris and Megan and had a pleasant time. After school—”

“You can’t ramp over a magical bond with Megan and a Light Bearer!” Merce said.

“I mean, their bell charms flashed and went up one class in quality. That’s literally all we know, bud,” Ryan said. “So after school Beth Mishra tried to talk to Evan, one thing led to another and Evan had a hissy fit—”

“Hey now!” Evan said, frowning at Ryan.

“Sorry. Evan threw a tantrum and went home,” Ryan said. “Beth apparently didn’t take it well either. Evan calmed down, though, and he and Chris went hunting—”

“You went hunting?!” Merce cried as Filbert and Marco’s jaws dropped.

Every eye in the room turned toward the five of them.

“For fuck sake,” Evan muttered.

“Sorry,” Merce whispered. “How’d that go?” People were now obviously trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Fine,” Evan said. “I got mildly injured on my hip, and got a concussion, but he had a healing potion so my head is fine. My hip has stitches.”

“You got injured?” Merce said in a low voice. “It’s a good omen to bleed on your first hunt.”

“Supposedly,” Evan said. “I wouldn’t consider it one, because now I can’t go again until it’s healed.”

“Sure, but it is one,” Marco said.

“Whatever,” Evan said.

“Go on,” Merce said to Ryan.

“That’s nearly it,” Ryan replied. “This morning Katier and Beth found us before school and Beth apologized to us with Katier’s encouragement. Then Katier tried to talk to us because she’d heard about them hunting, and that’s when she was flirting with Evan. Megan made her go away, for obvious reasons. Story time over.”

“You have to give me more details,” Merce said after a moment.

“We really don’t,” Evan said.

Merce made a face at him. “You at least need to tell us more about the hunt, Evan!” they said, still keeping their voice low.

“Okay, back to your stations everyone, it looks like we’re ready to move on!” Ms. Vanvestraut announced.

Merce gave them a disappointed expression, and Mst. Vanvestraut continued the lesson.