Servant of the Queen

It was late at night when Ebony Wings finally came home. The lights were almost all off and the staff had gone to bed for the day.

As Ebony closed the front door behind her, she tasted the flavor of her sister standing just out of sight. She sighed in exasperation.

“You do know I can smell you hiding there, right?” Ebony Wings said out loud.

Ivory Wings stepped out from her spot. “You’re home late.”

“It’s my house, I can come home whenever I want. You’re not my caretaker.”

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes. “Fine. Why are you home so late anyway? Was the alcohol that good that you stayed to have some more?”

“Just a little drinking game to see who could last the longest.” Ebony placed a hand on her chest proudly. “Of course, yours truly was the ultimate winner. But… circumstances have changed, sister. I have just made the most amazing discovery.”

“Uh huh. Well, what is it?” Ivory stretched both arms to the side as she waited for an answer.

“It’s nothing simple, I can assure you. In fact, I was rather surprised myself. And you know how I don’t get surprised because I know everything.” Ebony set her things down and stretched her arms.

“Yes, so you’ve said, but have yet to prove. So what did you find out?”

“A secret that dates back thousands of years, I’m sure. It’s a secret that changes things.”

“Go on.”

“I actually can’t really believe I’ve discovered it. It stands to change everything we have right now. It is a discovery worth putting down into those little history books of yours that detail everything we’ve done.”

“And what is that secret?” Ivory removed her glasses and rubbed her forehead.

“You see, I wasn’t sure at first, but then I put my theories to the test to see if I was right. And what do you know, I made a discovery mankind will never find on their own!” Ebony raised both hands to the air and laughed. “I should receive an award for such astute deduction. Even you wouldn’t have been able to figure this out.”

Ivory ran her hand through her white hair and moaned. “Just get on with it! What did you find out?”

“My dear sister,” Ebony swooped in close and spoke in a whisper. “I have discovered… a male changeling.”

Whatever Ivory Wings had been expecting, it was not this. She stood there in silence, processing the words her sister had just said.

Ebony Wings took her sister’s silence for awe. “I know, isn’t it wonderful?” She gushed. “Finally, I have an opening to create the changeling dynasty I’ve always dreamed of.”

“I guess it’s good news and all, but don’t forget, we had one. And then you destroyed it.” She folded her arms.

“Are you blaming me for what happened in Trotsylvania again? Because if I recall, you were there too.”

“No…” Ivory grumbled. “Fine. You found a male changeling. So what?”

“So what?” Ebony repeated. “So what? I’ll tell you what. It means I have a way to get more pureblood changelings in the world. That doesn’t excite you?”

Ivory Wings grunted, tasting the electric flavor of her sister’s mood. “Who is this male anyway? How did you find him?”

“You’re going to get a kick out of this,” Ebony grinned darkly. “The male changeling was masquerading as Fast Bender all this time. Isn’t that just delicious?”

"Fast Bender," Ivory repeated, slower this time. "Are you a hundred percent certain?"

"Of course I am!" Ebony Wings sniffed. "The signs are all there. Immunity to toxins, inability to get drunk, and superb acting talent. Though not as good as me," she added. "I will take him as my mate and a whole new generation of pure blood changelings will be mine!"

Ivory Wings could smell the excitement coming off her sister. There was just one problem.

"Isn't Fast Bender already married, though? What are you going to do about that?"

Ebony Wings let out a bark of laughter. "As if a petty human concept like marriage is going to stop me. Fast Bender is mine, no matter what pathetic human woman he's chosen to shack up with."

Ivory raised her hand. "What if Azalea Coriander is a changeling too?"

Ebony paused. She had not considered that possibility. Her face grew thoughtful.

"Then I guess you'll have to do some scouting, Ivory. I want to know all there is to know about Fast Bender and his family. Think you can manage that?"

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes but in the end, her own biological urges won over and she nodded. “Fine. I’ll spy on them for you. In exchange, I have a favor to ask.”

“We’re not exchanging favors here,” Ebony said. “I’m the queen and you’re my subject. But whatever. What do you want from me?”

Ivory Wings relaxed a bit and began to explain. “There’s this group of girls called the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts who have been doing a bit of snooping around us. They’ve gotten a little too close for comfort and I want to arrange a meeting with them to see how much they actually know. I figured that it should be in a controlled environment where we have every advantage.”

“Like… inside this house?”

“Exactly,” Ivory Wings looked pleased. “Of course, they also couldn’t turn down an invitation from someone as illustrious as you, so that’s a plus.”

“Yes, I am rather illustrious, aren’t I?” Ebony placed a hand on her sternum proudly. “Very well, I’ll do it. I’m interested to see what kind of people dare to try and uncover our secrets anyway. I’ll carve the skin from their bones-”

“Can you not?” Ivory cut her sister off. “We can’t go around killing people willy-nilly anymore!”

“Bah, you’re no fun. I’ll deal with this in the morning. Right now, I’m going to take a bath. I can still smell the alcohol on me.”

And without waiting for another word from her sister, Ebony Wings flounced off up the stairs to her room, leaving Ivory Wings alone on the first floor with an unimpressed look on her face.

The next morning, Silver Rose came down for breakfast to discover her mother humming a cheerful tune to herself while pruning a bonsai tree next to the window. Ebony Wings smelled positively charged with happiness, though Silver Rose did taste a faint undercurrent of something darker, like molasses that was slightly burned.

“Good morning,” Ebony Wings said as soon as Silver Rose’s left foot touched the ground inside the dining room. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, mother,” Silver replied slowly. “You seem to be in a good mood today.”

Silver Rose knew from prior experience that her mother’s happiness often came at the expense of other people, and she privately hoped that nobody’s neck was on the chopping block to make her mother this happy. This was even more positive energy than the last time she had won the academy awards for best actress of the year.

“Why shouldn’t I be in a good mood?” Ebony asked her daughter, putting down the clippers. “The sun is shining, I finished shooting a fantastic movie, and your aunt is off on a scouting mission that could spell success for all of us if everything goes well. Isn’t that a reason to be happy?”

“What was that last one?” Silver asked uncertainly. “Where is Aunt Ivory going?”

“She can tell you once she gets back. Speaking of your aunt, she wanted me to have a talk with these Shadowblots of yours.”

“The Shadowbolts?” Silver clarified. “Why do you want to talk to them for?”

“Your aunt is worried that they might know too much about us,” Ebony Wings sat down at the table and picked up her mug of coffee. “And she may have a point. There’s been an unusually large amount of people snooping around our matters as of late, and I want it to stop. One way or another. Speaking of which, your aunt prepared these invitations for them.”

Ebony pointed to a small stack of purple envelopes that were sealed with golden wax. There were five of them in total.

“You know these Shadybolts rather well. Give these to them for me, would you? We’ll have a little get-together on Saturday and we’ll find out what they know.”

“O-Okay,” Silver Rose nodded. “You won’t hurt them, will you? They’re still kind of my friends…”

“We’ll see,” Ebony Wings said lazily. “Now eat your breakfast and get to school. Silver Platter’s driving you today, so it’ll take longer than whatever reckless rambling your aunt calls driving.”

Ivory Wings sat in her car outside of a large, two storey house. It was painted a cream color and there were two cars parked in the garage. There were two statues of lions on either side of the front door, and a sprinkler shooting water over the front lawn.

Overall, a very normal and nondescript sort of house, Ivory thought. Certainly not a place where you would expect a changeling to be hiding. But that was what made it a perfect hiding place.

Ivory Wings rolled the window down a few inches, just enough to allow for steady airflow. Then she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, allowing her mind to focus and build a mental map of the surroundings using the surrounding scents and odors.

There were two people inside the house. Second floor. Both of them seemed to be exuding a calm aura, and why should they not? There weren’t any threats nearby. No visible or tasteable ones, anyway.

Her elder sister had told Ivory Wings to scout out Fast Bender’s family and see if there were any more changelings on the loose. The preliminary investigations had been easy enough. The media and pop culture had told her more in ten minutes than she could have scouted herself in a day.

Fast Bender was married to one Azalea Coriander and they had a preteen son called Fast Breaker. Looking at their photos on the internet, Ivory took in their appearances. Fast Bender was her main target, so Ivory had looked him up first. He looked human, all right. If it hadn’t been for Ebony Wings’ little test, Ivory wouldn’t have given him much of a second thought.

Clearly his disguise game was just as good as the next changeling’s.

Ivory had moved on to Fast Bender’s son next. Fast Breaker was rarely in the spotlight, with the media choosing to center on both his parents instead. As such, most of the pictures on Fast Breaker also had his mother and father in frame. The boy had amber skin and hair that was like his father’s, trimmed short and wavy. His eyes looked human as well, but that could be done with contacts.

The last subject had been Azalea Coriander herself. Ivory Wings had sighed as she had typed in Azalea’s name into her computer. Her sister was obviously planning something unsavory but it would be best if it didn’t go public. Fast Bender cheating on his wife with the squeaky-clean Ebony Wings would make the front page for sure. Azalea also looked completely human, and Ivory was even able to find her birthday online. Fast Bender’s wife would be thirty-nine this year, though Ivory knew better than most that a birthdate could be easily faked, age as well. There was nothing else for it, she was going to have to go there in person to take a look.

Which was why she was sitting in a black car with tinted windows outside Fast Bender’s house right now.

Having smelled enough for now, Ivory rolled up the window and sat there in the darkness, waiting like any good predator knew how to. After exactly twenty-two minutes by her dashboard clock, Fast Bender got into his car and drove off towards the city, completely ignoring Ivory’s own car. A scant fifteen minutes after, Azalea Coriander followed suit and left the house in the other car.

Once she was out of sight, Ivory Wings slowly got out of her car and walked up to Fast Bender’s house. There were security cameras and an alarm system, but Ivory had brought along the electronics jammer she had taken from Pierce Network and she was able to swiftly pick open the back door and slip inside without any alarms going off. The tall fences around the house would keep any nosy neighbors from seeing her.

The inside of the house was clean and tidy. It also smelled nice to Ivory, who immediately noticed the loving and affectionate flavors that permeated the inside of the building. It was very ordinary, otherwise. No grand works of art or suits of armor or any weapons hanging on the walls. Just photos of Fast Bender and his family smiling at the camera.

“How very removed from my own existence…” Ivory mused before heading upstairs.

It was tidy and clean up here, too. Ivory Wings’ nose caught onto the scent of something chemical and familiar. It was coming from the bathroom.

Easing open the door, Ivory poked her head inside and looked around. Now here was something familiar. Bottles of dyes and solvents, each one labeled neatly with either ‘F. Bender’ or ‘F. Breaker’. There were nowhere near as many bottles and jars as there were back at Ivory’s home, but then again, Ivory decided that Fast Bender probably didn’t have multiple different personas to swap between, hence the fewer number of dye bottles.

There didn’t seem to be any dyes labeled with Azalea Coriander’s name. Careful to touch as little as possible, Ivory Wings began rooting through the bathroom’s contents. There were more bottles of dye in the cupboard, along with soaps and towels and other boring things. Eventually Ivory gave up, having turned the bathroom upside down to look for any dyes with Azalea’s name on them. Putting everything back where she had found it, Ivory proceeded to sneak into the master bedroom.

The loving smell was even stronger in here. Ivory would have compared it to the bond between Mirror Match and Frigid Night, it was so strong. There were a few more photos hanging on the walls here. Most of them depicted a wedding, with Fast Bender in a suit holding a younger looking Azalea in his arms and grinning at the camera. Noting how Fast Bender looked almost identical to his current age, Ivory began to look through their wardrobe and cabinets in search of any more evidence.

What Ivory found unusual was that she was sure that she and her sister were the only two surviving changelings in the world. At least, the only two left from their particular brood. She hadn’t considered the possibility that there had been other clans of changelings in the land, and the appearance of one now might mean there were more out there, hiding among the humans. There wasn’t really any way to be a hundred percent sure.

The search ultimately proved to be rather pointless, as Ivory was unable to find anything of worth or note to her mission. That was, until she opened the bedside cabinet.

Inside there was a thick, worn out notebook and a pen, along with a few other knick knacks. Ivory opened the notebook and a devious grin spread over her face.

Taking out her phone, Ivory Wings proceeded to photograph every page of the journal, for journal it was. Azalea Coriander’s journal, in fact. Its pages were dated and reached all the way back to her childhood, approximately thirty-six years ago when she first learned to write. The handwriting improved as the book went on, and it didn’t document every day, and sometimes months would pass between entries. But this was it: the decisive evidence that Azalea Coriander was a mere human after all. Ivory’s queen would be ever so pleased.

After she had documented every page, Ivory put the journal back where it had been and left the house through the back door. She made sure to lock it afterwards, so nobody would know she had been there.

Feeling victorious, Ivory Wings drove back to her house, already preparing what she was going to say to her sister about her discoveries.

Of course, she knew that telling Chrysalis all this meant that her sister would endeavor to have Fast Bender for herself. Did Ivory Wings feel guilty for the trouble that Chrysalis was sure to bring down upon the actor and his family?

Ivory Wings asked herself this question as the estate came into view. She shrugged.

“Hmm… nah.”