My parents would probably have written a note to excuse my absence if I asked them, and the school would probably have let me take the rest of the week off to deal with the shock of the part of my new situation they knew about. But I feel restless and I still have questions, even after I slept past my six AM alarm. And not just for Chibi Destiny either, so I decide to go to school to keep my mind occupied and be able to go off somewhere with Asha as soon as we're able. Those hours at school feel dreadfully slow, and at every recess and lunch I try to pull Asha aside so we can talk, but we never manage to make it far into a conversation before someone comes around a corner and we have to break it up. For the first time since meeting her in fifth grade, I also wish Jeanette would stop trying to hang out with Asha and I for once.

  "Oh my god, I heard about what happened! Are you okay?" Jeanette asks, pulling me into a hug as soon as she sees me in the halls during lunch break, and I immediately feel guilty for having just thought like I did.

  "Yeah- I- Just a little shaken, honestly. I'm as surprised as anyone I made it out alive."

  "Not just alive, you don't have a scratch on you! That's almost a miracle, Des!"

  "I guess- Good thing the Knights were there, right?" I smile nervously, unsure if approaching this subject right now is a good idea. But it's where the conversation naturally flows.

  "Yes, thank god! Did you get to see one up close? What was she like?"

  "Calm your brakes girl," Asha breaks in, putting a hand on Jeanette's shoulder and squeezing. "Whatever happened, Destiny might not be ready to share yet, y'know?"

  "Right- fuck- of course. Sorry Des, I wasn't thinking. I just got so excited you might have had an encounter of the first degree."

  "It's okay. Right now I just want things to go back to normal." In the moment, I'm unsure just how true that actually is. Do I have doubts about accepting Destiny's deal yesterday?

  "Good. Sensible. So what about that new Knight, huh? I thought there were only supposed to be five, so who's this sixth one?"

  "I don't-"

  "Whoever she is, she's cute, right? And she helped out, so I guess we should just be thankful she was there!" Once again, Asha breaks in to save me before I can say anything compromising.

  Our discussion about the monster attack and the sixth Knight - Destiny. Me - sparks a wildfire of speculation across the lunch hall. People start clamoring and discussing, theorizing about the Knight in blue who seemingly saved the day. Many think she's someone who's been working behind the scenes until now but needed to help with this fight. Some get a little too close to the truth for comfort, guessing that she's new and not even a Knight. A few - very few - think she's an enemy in disguise, trying to lull the Knights into a false sense of comfort before she strikes. I hear somewhere that the monster has already been nicknamed Grimclaw.

  I don't listen too long before I turn my attention away from everyone and start staring out of the window, losing myself in thoughts about the future and what that concept even means in a world where everything is apparently predestined, with a little wriggle room. Jeanette and Asha don't seem to mind me growing silent and contemplative, the former probably brushing it off as me processing the monster attack, which I guess I am in a sense, while Asha masterfully steers the conversation in a direction that has no chance of casting any unnecessary attention on me. The glamour stops anyone from recognizing I was the mysterious Knight, and evidently from realizing the way my hair and body's changed, but as my new squad mate said, that doesn't stop anyone from putting two and two together.

  Once school is almost over, Asha sends me a text to just head home like normal and make up an excuse if anyone asks me to hang out, then giving me the location of a small cafe outside downtown, the Lunchroom. I'm supposed to meet her there an hour after our last class. I don't question it, because after all, Asha managed to keep this part of her life hidden from her two best friends for a little over a year without either of us getting suspicious, and she'd probably have managed to keep it up if not for Destiny having other plans. There's a slight sting of betrayal at that thought, but logically I also know it's probably in everyone's best interest.

  When I head out, I only have to fend off Jeanette, simply telling her I'm not really feeling social, and she doesn't question it at all, just telling me to rest up and call her if there's anything I need to talk about. I hug her tight and assure her I'll do just that before I walk to the bus. I've got a spare half-hour and so decide to walk around in a small park near my destination. The lush greenery and curated flower beds are nice to look at and as I kneel down to sniff at some of them, my mind wanders again, though this time not to any of the stressful things I've been caught up in, but towards all the flower-inspired dress designs I've seen over the years and how some of these plants could serve as a very pretty base. The pink orchids remind me a little of the shades and folds of Onyxia's skirt, and for a moment her stern face, followed by the tentative smirk she sent me fills my imagination, filling my belly with butterflies. That's another unforeseen consequence of entering this world. I now have a chance to get to know the girl I've been crushing on from a distance for the past year. Shaking my head at the absurdity of such a thought, I get back to my feet and dust off my knees. "Maybe you should focus on earning their trust first, Destiny," I mutter to myself and check the time, then head the remaining distance to the Lunchroom.

  The cafe turns out to be a small, cozy one of the sort with a chalkboard outside telling customers to try their new light roasted blend. Inside there's shiny hard wood floors, groups of couches arranged into their own semi-enclosed spaces and a bar with stools. Only one barista, an attractive blonde man in his late twenties, Joshua according to his name tag, is working at the moment. He smiles, waves and welcomes me to the Lunchroom, asking if he can get me anything. I order a small latte and an open-faced salmon sandwich before spotting Asha sitting with her own coffee in the back and I tell the barista I'll be sitting with my friend.

  The corner Asha sits in is a little more closed off from the rest of the cafe due to a curtain draped behind one of the chairs and can't be seen at all from the entrance, which I assume is what makes it perfect for a rendezvous like this. "Not exactly your usual spot, is it? Don't you usually go to those fancier spots uptown?" I ask as I sit down.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "Don't go callin' me out like that, girl! But, yeah. This is just nice and out of the way, a place no one would think to come look for us, right? Wanna sit for a bit or should we just get into it?"

  "No, I've been dying to have this talk all day, let's just get started."

  "Good, me too. This is... Both exciting and a little scary, you know?"

  "Totally."

  "Did you and Destiny talk yesterday? Did you bring her?" I nod and start unzipping my bag, but before I can get the doll out, the barista comes over with my order, smiles brightly at Asha and tells us to call him if we need anything else. She smiles back and thanks him with a certain lilt to her tone.

  "Isn't he a little old for you?" I ask with a side-eye when he's out of earshot.

  "Well, yeah, but he's nice to look at."

  "Another reason you come here?"

  "No comment." She sips her own coffee, trying to hide that smile she always pulls when she blushes.

  "Fair enough." I shrug, though with a mischievous grin and finish pulling Chibi Destiny out of my backpack, putting her on the table with her back propped up against the wall. "But yes, we did. And I have just as many questions now as I did before I went home. I'm not sure how much she'd want me to tell you though." I look at the doll, half expecting her to chime in, but she remains as lifeless as she had for months before yesterday. Wonder if that's something she can just turn on and off.

  "Makes sense. I'm not supposed to tell you everything yet either."

  "Keeping secrets from each other won't exactly make teamwork easier."

  "Look, I agree. And if it was up to me I'd just hand you an encyclopedia of what we know, but the squad works in unison. We have to."

  I sigh and lean back, picking up my latte and sipping at it. It's nice and warm, helps calm my nerves a bit. "I get it. So where do we start?"

  "At the beginning, I guess. What do you know about what we do?" The Knights might have been around for almost seventy years, but most generations of the squad, especially the early ones, have been extremely secretive, and even the ones that gave interviews left a lot of details to the imagination.

  "Most of the obvious stuff. You fight monsters when they show up, help out with disasters when necessary." She nods. "And of course, I've watched and read all the stuff you have, so I know about the Squires. Their names, that they're the same ones that gave the first squad their powers back in the 50's, and that your powers are dependent on which Squire chose you." That's all publicly available information, easy to access for anyone with the interest. The rest of what I know technically isn't confirmed, but feels like common sense. "The Squires are probably from outer space somewhere. Destiny let that one slip, but it also makes sense when the full name, Celestial Knights, is taken into consideration. My personal theory is that there's some larger threat that hasn't been beaten and that's why the Squires keep choosing new Knights."

  "Mostly got it right. Big diff would be the things we do 'behind the scenes' so to speak." At my confused expression she stops drinking her own coffee, setting it down. "You see, the monsters we fight don't just show up out of nowhere, and the ones we actually fight on the news are kind of just the tip of the iceberg. They start out a lot smaller, usually no bigger than small dogs, infiltrating our world to cause the misery and pain they feed on. Which is why you only ever really see them in big cities, because it's a lot easier to spread their influence and grow up quicker. Not to mention capitalism and the modern world in general perpetuating those negative emotions all on their own."

  "And the Knights find and destroy as many monsters as they can before they grow up?"

  "Exactly."

  "Then how does one of them grow as large as the one that attacked yesterday without being taken care of? I'd assume they at most grew to the size of a car before they started making waves."

  "The final step of the monsters' life cycle is... Well, no way to put it nicely, I guess. They possess a human and use their body as sort of a cocoon, and the final growth spurt is rather... Explosive. There's almost no way to detect them when that happens, so we just have to get lucky and find them all before they grow too big. And lately, there've been a lot more than there used to be, so it's been difficult to catch them all."

  "Maybe that's why Destiny said you'd need me..." I muse out loud while I look over at the still-lifeless doll.

  "Yeah, about that. I showed you mine, now show me yours." That makes me sputter, almost spitting out the mouthful of coffee I hadn't fully swallowed. "Not like that, get your mind outta the gutter," Asha chuckles and grins at me. I take a moment to compose myself and wipe the little bit of coffee that did leak out from my chin.

  "Well, there's still a lot I haven't asked her about. You know, a lot to process yesterday so I didn't want to take too much in at once."

  "Makes sense, yeah. But, so... Why? How?"

  "I guess apparently I'm chosen by Destiny, which influenced me to pick the name Destiny and that's why the doll's named Destiny." She just blinks at me, doesn't even have to say the words for me to know what she's thinking. "Yes, for real. I'm not exactly sure how my powers work yet, but Destiny said I have some measure of control over reality and that's probably why my hair and figure changed after the first transformation, a subconscious desire and use of that power."

  "That's, uh, oddly convenient for someone in your situation. What'd your parents say?"

  "I know, right? And they didn't say anything. Part of the whole glamour thing, I guess. Anyway, I figure there's gotta be a reason I'm getting these powers now, right? You said there's been more and more monsters slipping through the cracks, so I can't help but feel like the timing of a sixth magical girl appearing of all times feels significant. You need the help." Asha chews her bottom lip for a moment, looking pensive.

  "I know, Des. I believe you, and I would have almost no matter what explanation you'd given me here. But the rest of the squad don't know you, and when there's an intelligent force at work behind our enemy, well... We're just trying to be careful."

  "Renata? Vida mentioned that name."

  "I'm not supposed to tell you, not yet at least. But I'll show you the basics of how we do our work, help you build trust with the others, advocate for you." She leans forward to take my hand, squeezing it.

  "Yeah. We can do this. Together."

  "Great! Can you make up an excuse to not be home tonight? I've got a patrol to go on, perfect teaching experience." I think for a moment.

  "Yeah, probably. Dad and I usually watch some TV, but I think he'll forgive me skipping today."

  "Good. I'll text you the time and location. Make sure to show up in uniform."

  "Won't people see us 'working' and come swarming if they see all the flashing lights and stuff? I figured this part was supposed to be sort of covert?" At that, Asha stops getting out of her seat and sits back down again, thinking for a moment.

  "Right. You'll probably need a short chat with her." A slight nod in the direction of Chibi Destiny. "About your powers and transformation and stuff, before we go. Ask her if you have, like, a low-power mode. The rest of us do." A brief pause. "Do you think she heard this whole conversation?"

  "Gosh I don't know. But I guess that's another question for her before tonight. I guess I'll see you then?"

  "Yeah. I got some preparations to make, but it'll be fun. Or at least as fun as these things get. See ya Des!" I'm left alone for a moment and then realize I haven't even started in on my salmon sandwich, and so decide to stick around long enough to finish that. A little bit of quiet alone time in here sounds good anyway.

  On her way out, I catch Asha flirting a little with the barista out of the corner of my eye. Didn't figure he was her type, but I guess there was a lot I didn't know about her until yesterday. And so long as she doesn't get in trouble, good for her.