Chapter 196: 154. Mystery Down Below

We ended up taking a break after that revelation. We were all kind of freaked out, but mostly it was just me who needed some time to calm down.

I ended up back in bed, but rather than my plushie cuddle buns I had my girlfriend in my arms instead. Her tails couldn't magically draw the stress out of me, but it still felt pretty nice having all that warm soft floof wrapped around and against me. And it was really relaxing to stroke and pet them too.

It was about an hour later when I finally felt good enough to emerge from our bedroom. Me and Kaylee visited the kitchen and got ourselves some drinks, then we rejoined all our friends in the living-room.

Everyone else had gotten dressed by then, and there were some empty dishes around so I knew they'd all had breakfast. I wasn't hungry though, and Kaylee didn't need to eat at all anymore. She still ate with us out of habit or to be social, but all her energy came from humans petting her tails so she could absorb their stress.

My girlfriend and I ended up sitting on one of the comfy chairs again. I sat down first then she hopped up onto my lap like usual, so she could cuddle and press her tails against me while we talked with the rest of the gang.

"Hey Cass," my sister gave me a nervous smile. "Are you feeling better now? Do you want to keep working on solving that message?"

I shrugged then nodded, "I guess I'm ok for now."

"No idea how I'm going to explain this stuff to my therapist though," I tried to joke. "My life just keeps getting weirder and more complicated, and we haven't even finished working on all the other weird and complicated stuff yet."

Kaylee gave me a gentle squeeze as she said quietly, "We don't have to dive right back into that immediately. Only if you're ready for it, alright?"

"I'll manage," I grimaced. "So um, I guess we've already figured out most of it, haven't we?"

Sasha replied, "We have yet to figure out who sent it. I believe Nina has some thoughts, but she refused to share them until you were ready to rejoin us."

I gave my sister a nervous smile as I thanked her. Then I asked, "So um, what did you figure out?"

"I didn't figure anything out," Nina shook her head. "But I've been thinking about that third line? The 'down below' part doesn't make sense to me. Humans sometimes use phrases like that to refer to hell, but as far as I know there's no such place. That's just a myth that one particular group of religions invented as a threat to help control people's behaviour."

"So what do you think it means then?" I asked quietly. "I don't want to be an agent for the status quo, so it's important to figure out who or what's supposed to nudge me to make it stop."

My girlfriend shook her head, "I can't believe that's true Cass. You've been doing things to break the status quo for over a year now, right? Ever since you started doing stuff with the enchanted plushies."

Sasha responded, "I believe it's likely that the 'nudge' has already happened. Perhaps it even happened as soon as you joined Club Luna? If we accept that as the pivotal moment that set you on the path that led to my ultimate defeat, then that would have been the moment you fulfilled your destiny as far as the status quo was concerned."

Cerys gave me an apologetic look as she suggested, "If I had to guess I'd say maybe it happened back when that business with May Hawthorne put you in hospital? Thinking back, that really seems like the moment your personality sort of changed."

"The enchanted plushies happened before that," Melanie reminded her girlfriend. "We were talking about the plushies when Cass got hurt."

That sense of calm came over me again as Cassandra made another appearance.

My other self sounded a bit embarrassed as she explained, "Cass's personality seemed to change because I became much more active at that point. At that time I was still acting under the influence of Sasha's shard, which meant I was much more prone to spreading chaos than Cass."

Our friends sort of looked at each other, then Willow asked "Maybe that's what this is about then? I mean, the fact that there's two of you? Like maybe this somehow caused there to be two of you? Or maybe one of you was an agent for the status quo while the other's an agent of chaos?"

"Sorry if that's offensive," she added.

That led to some more unspoken communication between Cassandra and I. We sort of mentally compared notes, thoughts, and memories of the past few years. We kind of debated Will's suggestions, and tried to look at the situation from different angles. All that only took a second or two, before the two of us came to a conclusion.

"Cass and I don't believe that's the case," Cassandra replied. "We think it's likely that whatever the status quo intended, it was probably meant for us collectively. Or looking at it the other way around, the fact that we are plural is irrelevant to whatever the status quo intended or required of us."

My other self continued, "As for the 'nudge' being responsible for creating us, I don't believe that's the case but we can't rule it out."

After a moment of hesitation she admitted, "There is a disturbing possibility that neither of us truly existed until the moment we entered that first Club Luna meeting and unlocked our true form."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the room at that point, as none of our friends seemed to know what to say about that idea. I felt really uncomfortable about that, but I'd been the one to point it out to Cassandra during our internal discussion.

I decided to try and get everyone's mind off that possibility. I took over again then stated, "I think maybe Sasha's right, that the 'nudge' might have happened as soon as I walked in on that first club meeting? It was either then, or two months later when the club was tracking Melanie."

That led to some quizzical looks from the others, and I couldn't remember if they knew those details or not so I explained what I was talking about.

"I'm pretty sure that's when I broke the first circle of runes around Sasha's shard," I told them. "I tried to use a healing spell to get rid of the bite mark on my neck? But it came out way overpowered. It actually hurt, like my whole body tingled for a bit."

I continued, "So now I'm wondering if maybe breaking that first set of runes was the nudge? Because after that we started working on the plushie project, spreading chaos and helping trans people."

Sasha looked thoughtful for a few moments, then she nodded. "It's possible. Personally I think perhaps the exact date is irrelevant? Whether it was the moment you were first exposed to the magic of Club Luna, or whether it happened a few months after that, either way I believe the 'nudge' must have occurred prior to the start of your chaotic activities."

We were all quiet for a few moments at that point, like nobody could argue with either my and Cassandra's speculation or Sasha's point that it didn't really matter.

Then Melanie sighed, "It feels like we're going in circles here, getting caught up chasing the wrong details. We still don't know what the 'down below' stuff means, and it feels like we're no closer to figuring out who actually sent the message."

"And we haven't even discussed the last line yet," my girlfriend added. "It's obviously an invitation, whoever sent it wants Cass to go and meet with them. But if we don't know who sent it then how can we answer the invitation? We have to be missing something."

Nina and Sasha were both looking at the text on my cousin's phone again, same as me and my girlfriend were looking at it on her phone.

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"What if it's meant to be taken literally?" my sister asked. "What if 'down below' means just that? The nudge came from somewhere underneath you? Is there a basement in the school, somewhere under the classroom where you used to have the club meetings?"

Kaylee shook her head, "There's no basement at the high school. And the thing with the overpowered healing spell happened in my bedroom at my parents' house. But I can guarantee there was nothing supernatural in that house but me. And I wasn't 'below' or 'under' Cass."

"I can believe that," Cerys responded with a straight face. Then her expression shifted to a grin as she teased, "You've always struck me as a top, while Cass is definitely a bottom."

"The real question is if you switch for Cassandra, because I can't imagine anyone topping a goddess," she added, while her grin became a smirk.

By that point both me and Kaylee were blushing brightly, and my girlfriend even wrapped her tails around in front so we could hide behind them. Willow and Melanie suppressed some giggles and laughs, while Sasha just smiled and Nina blushed.

"Sorry," Cerys apologized after a few seconds. "Kaylee made it too easy, I couldn't resist. Anyways getting serious again, below doesn't necessarily mean underneath right? Like below could mean a basement, but not necessarily your basement."

My sister's eyes widened suddenly as something else occurred to her. She gestured at Sasha's phone screen, "What if it means a cave? The fourth line mentions a door opening. When we were looking for Rick Kovacs we talked about doors opening and closing. Maybe that's not a coincidence?"

That left me with another cold weight in my gut as I grimaced, "You think the message came from whatever's down in that cave?"

Most of the others were cringing or looking as uncomfortable as I felt, except my cousin who had a thoughtful look on her face.

"I'd say it's certainly a possibility," Sasha stated.

After another look at her phone she sort of spelled it all out, "We have good reason to believe there is something very old and powerful lurking in that cave. It's entirely possible that whatever's down there is sensitive enough or observant enough to notice when you prematurely unlocked your demonic body. Or it noticed when your own unstable magic broke the first circle of runes."

"Either way," she continued, "It recognized what you were and what you represented. And for whatever reason, it 'nudged' you and set you free from whatever destiny the status quo had planned for you."

"And now it wants me to meet it?" I gulped.

Kaylee pointed out, "Except Cassandra sealed the cave entrance right? She said she was going to arrange a landslide or something?"

My other self surfaced once again to respond, "I did. But in retrospect I realize that may have been a waste of time. We already know that cave-ins can come and go in that cave, I imagine it would be trivial for whatever resides there to reverse or clean up a landslide."

"So does this mean we're going back to that cave again?" Nina asked quietly.

Cassandra nodded slowly, "I think so, yes."

"But not right away," she added. "Certainly not this weekend. And the rest of you don't have to get involved with this if you don't want to. According to Henry that message was for Cass and I, so if folks are more comfortable sitting this one out that's fine with us."

Kaylee's tails wrapped around us as she snuggled up a little closer and stated, "I'm sticking with my girlfriends. I'll be there by your side, whatever happens."

Hearing that helped me feel better. And hearing her refer to us both as her girlfriends made my other self feel good too. Cassandra let me take over again though, so I could be the one to respond.

Which I did, by holding our girlfriend a little closer. I leaned in and gave her a kiss then quietly told her, "Thanks Kaylee. From both me and Cassandra."

After a few seconds of silence Cerys asked, "So that's it then? We've resolved the haunting in Island Lake again, and in record time. And we've figured out the cryptic message the ghost had for Cass. So that just leaves one other thing we need to discuss."

There were a few puzzled looks around the room, before our club leader clarified "I'm talking about Alison Sinclair. She was at Island Lake last night, she's obviously been spying on us. Maybe she's been following us around?"

"One way or another she knew to be at Island Lake," Melanie pointed out. "So she either followed us all there last night, or she's been listening in and knew in advance where we were going."

Kaylee scowled, "She's been keeping tabs on Cass. She even showed up at her therapist's office!"

My other self came forward once again and sighed, "I hadn't considered the possibility but Melanie raises a good point. I should have done this months ago, but I'm going to ward this house and the backyard against any form of scrying or eavesdropping. That will prevent any magical attempts to keep tabs on us, and it'll ensure we can talk openly in the backyard too."

"What about bugs?" Cerys asked. "Like mundane spy gear? Someone could have snuck in and hidden listening devices in here."

Cassandra considered that for a moment then nodded, "I believe I have a solution for that as well. I'll deal with that while I'm setting up the anti-scrying wards. I'll also add some protective wards to ensure nobody can enter uninvited, so we won't have to worry about new listening devices being placed in the future."

"Can I help?" Kaylee asked.

My other self smiled, "Cass and I would appreciate it if you'd keep us company while we're working."

Our club leader asked us, "That's it then? You're going to ensure nobody can spy on us anymore, but we're not doing anything else to stop Alison and the council?"

Cassandra shook our head, "Not yet Cerys. Alison is not working for them willingly. And while I appreciate it's annoying and perhaps unsettling knowing we're being observed, she's not trying to harm anyone. She hasn't even confronted any of us. So I'm content to let her watch, while I observe her in turn. If the situation changes or the council get more aggressive, then so will we."

That seemed to be all she had to say on that topic, and nobody wanted to try and argue with us about it so the others all just let it go. After that the only remaining topic was what everyone wanted to do with the rest of the afternoon and evening, and it didn't take long before we all decided on another BBQ. We still had plenty of organic burgers and beef sausages and stuff from the Tates, so with the meeting over everyone apart from Kaylee and us headed out to the backyard.

We still had to get dressed first, then me and Kaylee just sort of watched and kept each other and Cassandra company while my other self began setting up protective and anti-scrying wards around the house and yard.

~ End of Episode Nineteen ~