You wake up very hungry the following morning. You scramble about for your cell phone, eventually finding it on the bedside table. You tear the covers off when you realise it's almost midday. At least it's a Sunday and you have no need to worry about missing class. Though you will have to get home before your mom gets too worried about you.
There's one text message on the phone too. It's from Kendra, who apparently has some juicy gossip about what went down at Jamie Bornholm's party the previous evening. Suddenly the petty rivalries that fill Chelsea's life seem unimportant, not when compared to the course you have embarked upon. It seems odd, and you expect more resistance from the part of you that is purely Chelsea Cooper. Then again, maybe the prizes at stake are a lure for her as much as they are a lure for you.
You dress in your discarded clothing from yesterday- ugh - and fight with your hair until you get it into a reasonable semblance of a loose ponytail. Now you definitely want to get home, if only to clean up properly. Then you follow the smell of food into the small kitchenette that forms part of Jon's apartment in the Straussler mansion.
Kali is there, at the cooker tending to a sizzling pan. Frank sits at the small table, out of the Curt Straussler mask he has been wearing recently.
"You stayed overnight," you ask Kali.
"No child, I returned to my hotel and came back this morning," she explains as she dishes out a breakfast for you - a single strip of bacon and slice of toast. "I'm here to take a look at the rooms I'll be redecorating, that's the story anyway, but really I wanted to talk you and Frank." You chew thoughtfully on a nibble of toast as Kali lays out Frank's breakfast - a full plate of bacon, sausages and eggs.
"Why do you keep calling me child?"
"It's how Kali speaks," explains Frank between mouthfuls. "And my brother is getting far too into character."
"I am character," she titters. "It's hard to be out of character now. Chelsea understands Frank. You'll understand too once we change your face. And Chelsea, you are a child, one who has much to learn." You look at her askew. She must see your next question coming, because she heads it off before you get a chance to voice it. "Early successes, great as they are, not withstanding. Once we have control of the Stellae, we can build on those successes."
"And we need to work out where I'm going to be," you intuit.
"Exactly," replies Kali. She claps her hand together and smiles in delight. "And now I'm me we can work out where to place you."
"And I need to be here why," asks Frank.
"Because I value your opinion Frank," Kali says sincerely. Frank looks surprised for a moment, then genuinely happy at the complement. "Psych," laughs Kali, suddenly more like Joe like in her nature. "I had you going there Frank. This really is the perfect disguise."
The table jumps as Frank hits it with his invisible fist. The strip of bacon skitters off your plate and onto the floor. Frank growls unhappily. You sigh and take another nibble from your toast.
"Where Chelsea ends up is going to affect where we put you," explains Kali, smoothly switching back her more graceful speech patterns. "And you might have some ideas that I may have overlooked," she admits. "Firstly though, we will need Malaika to our group at some point. No matter who Chelsea joins the Stellae as, even if you join as a Glundandra, Malaika is Dad's... sorry, Charles' most likely successor. You might even want to be Malaika yourself Chelsea. That is something we can discuss at a later date. Unfortunately she is back in Europe with Hilda Gunnarson, so an immediate swap is not a possiblity."
"Unless you swap me for Hilda as well," suggests Frank.
"You want to double up on Malacandra," teases Kali in a Joe-like way. "Or maybe you just want to get your hands on a pair of these?" She hefts her breasts with both hands.
"Stop that," says Frank, his face turning red again. "Stop being her, and then turning into him."
"As you wish Frank." He glowers at Kali, but says nothing further. "Such a swap would be possible, although you would have to overcome or trap both Hilda and Malaika with only Frank's assistance. I would not be able to come with you. In fact, my presence here is going to result in some pointed questions later, but I believe I will be able to evade suspicion simply because Charles knows I am close to the boys and I have been affected strongly by their loss."
"Hilda wouldn't be a pushover either," adds Frank. "She's a Malacandra like me and has a lot more experience than I have."
"So if you want to be Malaika, the best course of action is to wait until next she is in LA with me," states Kali smoothly. "That said, despite the initial difficulties, becoming Malaika or someone like her represents the safest and most risk free route to taking control of the Stellae."
You pick up on the oddity in her statement: "Someone like her?"
Kali nods. "If we're going to get you into the Stellae as someone else then someone like Malaika is the safest option. When I was still Joseph I told you that most Stellae were found at the age of five or six." You nod, you remember that. "In practice we have some flexibility - Ten or eleven wouldn't be unreasonable, especially in an out of the way town like this. I'm starting to get the feeling that Saratoga Falls is somewhere that somehow just slides off the map and into obscurity. John might be interested in that I suppose."
Eleven or so isn't too bad. You'd have to go through puberty again and - ugh - middle school, but you're sure you'd manage. It's certainly better than starting again as a five year old.
"Also, it would be best if you were a girl."
"What," you exclaim. "Why?"
"What's wrong with being a girl, Chelsea?" Kali stresses the last word wryly.
"There's a big difference between being a seventeen year old girl and a ten year old one," you protest. "For a start: boobies," you add, taking the generous breasts you now have in both hands.
"The only real difference is seven years," sniffs Kali. "You'll grow up again, and you'll grow up just a beautiful as you are now, or even more so if that's what you want. No, a girl is best because the Stellae is all about partnerships. We set ourselves to watch each other. Why do you think Joseph and Frank grew up with each other and had their first assignments together. If another ten year old girl Stellae surfaces right now, the first thing Charles is going to do is slot her next to Malaika so they become friends. Then in ten years time, when Charles passes on, you are very close to the next leader of the Stellae."
"But ten years old," you complain. "It's all pink, and My Little Pony, and more pink..." You blush as you remember that Chelsea's best friend Maria Vasquez's bedroom is still very pink. "Can't I be older?"
Kali tilts her head to the side and looks thoughtful. "Perhaps, but only if you have very specific combinations of ousiarchs. Eldibrians tend to be a little older when discovered compared to most of the others, perhaps as a consequence of their ousiarch's proclivity for secrets. There you could be as old as thirteen or fourteen if you pushed it. I should warn you though that in the very few cases where an Eldibrian was discovered so late in life, they were ah... damaged would be one way of putting it. Imagine being plagued by nightmares for years and only discovering why after it had broken you. We would have to find a suitably troubled young girl for you to become in that case. And you would be watched very carefully by whoever was mentoring you, though I suppose it would be me."
You're not sure you like the idea of the extra suspicion. On a hunch, you ask a question: "How old was Rick when he joined?"
Kali smiles sadly. "Thirteen."
There is a long silence where no one says anything. You remember Rick's demons, and you remember disassembling him into his component parts was a mercy.
"If you really want to be older, Sulva is the ousiarch to choose. Charles believes Sulvae can go their entire life without being discovered by the Stellae. Of course, if you were older, you wouldn't be able to establish that same bond with Malaika," counters Kali. "That's why I would recommend we play the long game and establish you as one of Malaika's peers."
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