"I don't want to go through middle school again," you tell Kali. "It was bad enough the first time. We'll work out a Sulvan identity. What are my options?"
"As I said child, the only combination that you can't use is Sulva and Perelandra. It has been less than a year since Hélène died. Whoever replaces the ousiarchs that she had will not have been born yet, so the arrival of a new Sulva and Perelandra combination will be viewed with great suspicion," explains Kali. " As well as that, a number of combinations will be unavailable because you don't have the spare ousiarchs."
"Unless he takes us apart to get them," points out Frank. "I mean, do you really need that Viritrilbia anymore Joe, now that you are Kali."
"I'm not going to do anything to you guys," you insist.
"That would be Frank's idea of a joke," says Kali with a sad smile. "Which is why he so rarely makes them. But yes, the only way to combine Sulva with either Viritrilbia, Arbol or Lurga would be to remove the ousiarchs from us."
"Which I'm not going to do," you repeat.
"So you are left with five combinations." Kali holds up her hand and starts ticking the alternatives off on her fingers. "The first is the one you have already - Sulva and Kenandandra. I've already told you that the most convincing way to join the Stellae with this combination would be as Will Prescott. I have the feeling you are not keen on this option."
You gesture at yourself. "Why would I want to give this up to go back to being Will?"
"No," says Kali. "I did not think that you would, and since anyone that would fit with that pairing would be, shall we say, Will-like in their nature, I believe that you will not want to use this pair. At least as far as the rest of the Stellae is concerned. I assume you will continue to use Kenandandra in private to unlock the secrets of the Libra."
You nod in reply. "So what are my other options."
"The second combination, and I believe you will want to chose this one, is to use the spare Sulva you have from Rosalie Stewart and combine it with her Glundandra ousiarch, removing the Eldibria you have now," explains Kali, taping her index finger from one hand against the other.
"But I can't be Rosalie," you ask.
"It would be too easy to link her to Cuthbert, and the disappearance of Aparijita, Joe, Frank and Rick," explains Kali. "There would be too many questions, especially about how Rosalie escaped Cuthbert when everyone there thinks she is dead. We do have one advantage in knowing about Rosalie though," continues Kali. "We know what kind of person a Glundandra and Sulva combination should be like: Possessed of a quiet strength and resilience. Thoughtful and considerate. Do we know anyone at Westside or Eastman like that?"
"What about Jenny Taylor," offers Frank. You don't immediately recognise the name, but you guess that's a good sign. "She's the captain of the girls soccer team at Eastman, but she's not like you at all Chelsea." Frank suddenly goes pale as he realises his mistake.
"Go on," you say frostily.
"I uh..."
"What Frank means," interjects Kali. "Is that Jenny has all the Sulvan characteristics that you lack child." You frown, not quite sure if you've been insulted or not. "She leads by quiet, supportive example. We would have to acquire a mind band of her to make sure, but I suspect she could be passed off as a potential Stellae with Glundandra and Sulva as ousiarchs easily enough."
"I'd need to see what she looks like first," you say with a sniff.
"Perhaps not as pretty as you are now child," Kali tells you. "But you will have no complaints with her either. The third option," she continues, ticking it off on her fingers is to combine Sulva and Eldibria. This is harder to judge, since we do not have a template for the combination, but I believe it would make for quite the spy: You would be combining the two ousiarchs with the greatest affinty for deception alongside the ability to ferret out the deepest of secrets."
"A spy," you echo with a smirk. "Or a gossip, I know just the person: Kendra," you say in a sing song voice. Your cohort would be a step down from being Chelsea, you suppose, but she would still be acceptable enough. "Just think what she'd be like with some of our special essentia in her."
"I don't think I want to," Kali groans, more Joe-like for a moment. "There are some students at Eastside of a similar character, should you want to consider them too: Lisa Rickover springs to mind." You've heard her name, at least, since Kendra apparently has some traffic with her. "Again, I would require a mind band of either candidate in order to make sure that they were a good fit."
"Let's put it down as possible then," you tell Kali. "What's the next option?"
"The revolutionary - Sulva and Catilindria," states Kali. "Or perhaps subversive would be a better word. Catilindria is a... difficult... ousiarch and I would advise caution if you are thinking about this combination. Catilindrians tend to very significantly in character too. Miko is very prickly, Ed is especially cantankerous and curmudgeonly and Hal has a very slapdash nature that gets him frequently into trouble. We would be looking for someone contrarian in their nature, yet also someone with a low profile, as befits Sulva. I'll admit, it is a difficult one to identify."
"What about Ioeger," asks Frank. Of course, your anima is in there with him and that means he remembers all your friends at school.
"Carson," muses Kali. "I'm not so sure. He is more something of a joker than a contrarian. Yves, at Eastman has the necessary revolutionary fire, but I'm not sure that she matches to Sulva well enough. No, I am at a loss, unless you have any ideas Chelsea."
One name does edge into your mind. Stupid Chelsea. "No," you say quickly, your voice sounding strangulated.
"No," says Kali, arching an eyebrow. "You don't sound very sure."
You wilt a little and manage to reign in your Chelsea-impulses. "Andrea Varnsworth maybe," you admit. "There's some history between her and me, her and Chelsea I mean."
Frank furrows his brow. "What kind of history."
"The kind I don't want to talk about." You blush furiously. Even saying as much as you have is a difficult admission, and something the original Chelsea would never have done on her own.
You catch the tiniest hint of a smirk on Kali's face, but it vanishes in an instant. "Well, I would have to check her to be sure, just like all the others. At least it is somewhere to start though ."
"What's the last option," asks Frank.
"The one you'll know all about Frank," says Kali wryly. "Malacandra and Sulva. Since we are unlikely to find any aspiring ninjas or assassins in a high school, let us say we would be looking for a huntsman. The kind of person would could track their quarry through the wilds and take it down without being seen."
"Actually I have an idea," says Frank.
"Really," asks Kali.
Frank glowers at Kali. "The real Kali wouldn't be sarcastic."
"I think you have a lot to learn about Scots," Kali shoots back. "But do go on."
"Justin Roth," says Frank. "I met him on the archery practice range at Keyserling when we were investigating the Libra. He's exactly what you're looking for."
"Chelsea," asks Kali, looking for your opinion.
You think about Roth from the perspectives of Chelsea Cooper and Will Prescott. He's an outsider, definitely, but a far more popular one than you ever were as Will Prescott. There's a certain raw physicality to him that would make slumming it appeal to the Chelsea part of you. "He'll do," you tell Kali.
"So those are your options, as I see them," says Kali primly, folding her hands together. "For now at least. They all depend on my checking out a memory band to do a horoscope to see if they are close enough to the ousiarchs you want to use though."
The question is, which one do you want to choose?