Chapter 1

Manon, July 3, 2015 CE

The plane finally slowed to a roll, so I stood up, done from 10 hours of hallucination-inducing, aluminum casket limbo from Atlanta to Loegria, and the jack-of-an-ass next to me fucking cleared their throat at me. My black, heavy-rimmed specs framed my eyes, so I raised an eyebrow high and clear-I'd filled and darkened it enough to use as a directional arrow if need be. 'Sorry, but I need to get to the aisle.'

'Miss-'

'It's Mx.' I may've been a tote-toting, faux thighsock-wearing girl today, but some days I was a boy in skinny jeans with a shaved head colored by chalk. I used they/them as a courtesy convenience.

'Sorry, Mx. There's nowhere to go until the light's off.'

'No, there is.' I pointed and rolled my finger back. 'The aisle. I need to stretch. Excuse me.'

They didn't budge, so I climbed over their knee bridge with the seat in front. I'm a big genderfluid-I have to be because a tiny body couldn't contain my combination of personality and slow metabolism. I lifted my leg as high as possible to avoid this dude but somehow ended half-assed on their knees.

Their face twisted and pushed out like a towel wrung until pointy. 'Would you please get the fuck off me?'

I grabbed the seat in front, sliding from half to whole ass. 'I'm going as fast as I can, but this wouldn't have happened if you'd-'

The plane jerked. I was closer to the aisle than the window with my back foot mid-air and fell across, but I caught myself. I'd been too long to grab the seat arm, so I'd grabbed my white cousin's thighs.

They couldn't help being white. Technically, both our moms were half-white, but then my aunt married this super pale guy from Taiwan who made amazing curry.

'Sorry, Anon. I just got out of a bad relationship,' said Baozhu (3, 1) with a wince/smile. 'And we're, you know, both suffering motion sickness.'

Theirs and their brother's had been severe enough to stink up the vacuum suctioned bathroom. Every time I had to go, I went all the way down to the back of the econ section so it didn't trigger sympathy vomit. Just the thought made me queasy enough to potentially forever-stank Baozhu's denim-short overalls.

'Oh god, don't remind me.'

They'd bought the overalls two years ago in Taiwan when their family visited for Chinese New Year. I remembered because they had 24-hour flight horror stories broken only by the stops in Tokyo and because they'd posted vacation pics in the middle of fucking February.

Baozhu helped me off their soft and firm thighs. I held the seat arm instead and swung one leg down the aisle. Sweet, sweet circulation.

'Sorry about the crotch dive. The fucksock next to me wouldn't let me by.'

Baoyu snickered behind Baozhu, shaking so hard his bottomless specs frotted the first semester Physics book hiding his face. Poor repressed dude had a self-issued ban on swearing, unlike his twin.

They used to be identical, but thankfully Baoyu finished transitioning before this year. The tail end of puberty hit Baozhu like a truck that made you spontaneously gain fifteen pounds and sprout D cups. The relationship might've been involved. All I had to say was that anyone who dumped you for not being another 'gold-star' lesbian was no better than a fuckboy.

'No prob. Try me after a few drinks next time.'

The cabin dinged and people exploded out of their seats all around us, including Fucksock. They bumped me from behind with one leg in mid-stretch.

I shrieked, Baozhu shrieked, and Baoyu let out a single, airhorn cackle. This time I'd fallen across my cousin, my uncle, and my aunt. My uncle offered his arm as a brace, and Baozhu pulled me up by the reinforced hem of my designer-ripped skirt without touching the faux-leather belt, bless them.

My aunt's perfectly cat-winged hazel eyes met my jet black ones in balls of lilac smoke on the way up. She grinned, flashing the distinctly long, sharp teeth that popped up in everyone in the Lear bloodline. 'Welcome to Loegria, Manon.'

As soon as I was upright, I connected to the airport wifi, and my phone nearly vibrated out my hands like a sex toy set to ludicrous cycle. Most of the messages were from my mom, sharing and critiquing everything my friends posted so I wouldn't have to trek through the histories of multiple networks. Thank god she kept the critique in the messages instead posting on their posts-I loved my mom.

I kept my head angled so I could see my cousins' feet over the top of my phone and followed them to something called 'baggage claim.' I guessed a valet service was too much to ask for but that meant they'd straight up overcharged us for leg-cramping, butt-cramming seats and two child's MREs. I'd been led to believe there'd be trail mix. I did not get trail mix.

The baggage claim turned out to be a giant version of the sushi-go-round but for suitcases and honest-to-god cardboard boxes like it existed in some nightmare universe with privatized postal service. But my zebra-striped roller popped up, and I got excited as it approached with the speed of me circa my first driver's license test and I had to take a pic.

'Baoyu, do you mind getting my suitcase?' I needed one hand to share it and the other to text back my mom. My canvas tote started digging into my shoulder, too. I shrugged it off onto our shared, metal-saving cart.

'Yeah, sure.' He dragged his beat up roller patched with duct tape onto the cart as fast as he could and ran to grab mine before it sailed away for another ring around the baggage bar, which could've used some atmospheric music.

I turned to Baozhu. 'Want to take a sterile airport pic with me?'

'I've haven't been practicing my sterile face for nothing.' They slid a hand down their plain skin face, wiping themselves down to robotica.

'Baoyu, come here quick!'

He lugged my suitcase over his and jogged over. Baozhu made flower hands under their emotionless face and Baoyu threw up two fingers with a 'Yeah!' I was right between them, so I went with a half-hearted pout and disinterested smoulder.

'Nice.' I shared it. Baoyu checked it on his phone and started messing with filters for it. Baozhu didn't reach for theirs.

I walked behind them and bent to check their carry-on backpack's mesh pockets. They hadn't brought a suitcase. I spun to face them, one hand covering my gaping mouth so I didn't breathe all over them. 'Don't tell me you forgot your phone.'

They winced/smiled and shrugged. 'You got me. Better turn me over to Loegria's TSA before I leave unclaimed baggage in the bathroom.'

Baozhu's mom pat their shoulder as she passed by from the bathroom, joining their dad at their luggage cart for a selfie. She popped finger guns while he angled the selfie-stick for max, arm-cropping attitude and did the nod.

'Dude, I'm so sorry. But don't worry. Baoyu and I have your pics covered, right?'

He looked up, pushing his specs back up his slightly curved, arrow-ish nose and closing the case. He held it out. 'Yeah, you can use my phone whenever.'

Their thick eyebrows shot up, making their big, hazelish brown eyes open bigger, and they nodded but didn't take it. 'Thanks, Anon-Gege.' They strung their nickname for me together with "big brother" (1, 5) because Baoyu had technically been born first.

I didn't have any siblings, but our moms were close, so we went to rival high schools and had covert sleepovers before any game between our schools for an all-night detail swap. We were in the same grade, too, but completely different social circles-not just me, all three of us.

I hung out with a bunch of hipsters who were collectively considered the school's unofficial LGBTQA representatives-the staff would actively seek our advice, so we set up a court for convenience and that was why they called me Sovereign Manon. Baoyu's best friends competed for valedictorian and won homecoming king and queen and were the varsity captains of basketball and baseball, track and soccer. Baozhu used to hang out with their girlfriend and her friends. It was weird thinking about how we wouldn't see each other next semester with Baoyu out-of-state and Baozhu taking a work year.

One solid hour of immigrations later, I walked past the damn counter, past my cousins calling me and pointing at the bathroom, and straight out the blue-tinted glass door for arrivals. The sun hit me like a cartoon villain's vapo-ray, causing an instant dehydration headache, and I hadn't even made it out of the shady walk.

All the films and shows portrayed Loegria as Great Britain intensified-wetter, foggier, and colder. I hadn't expected heat stroke central. Although, they also suggested it was cursed because the Loegrians let the Arthur die and the land never forgot, never forgave or some Fisher King bullshit. This, the continuation of Georgia heat with humidity straight out of devil's steam room, must've been the curse.

'Are you Manon?' The gravelly and booming voice had a thick accent I'd never associated with the U.K., so it took me a second to recognize the English.

I shaded my eyes with a hand despite my photosensitive lenses as an extra precaution and looked into the blistering light. Two sets of distinctly long, sharp teeth glowed almost radioactively under the sun. I hadn't seen the twenty-year-old Lear cousins since ever because they didn't network, so they'd probably recognized me by the same token.

'Hey, cousins. Do you mind if we take this inside?' If I didn't, either I'd sweat off my makeup or the humidity would.

The tall and broad silhouette tilted their head and uncrossed one arm to shrug. 'You're coming out anyway. Nia and me'll wait.' They must've been Enid.

Nia, the little silhouette was just two rows of teeth in a plank of shadow.

'Fine by me.'

I walked back into the airport, past my cousins calling out, 'Gimme a sec' and grabbing my tote, and straight to the unisex bathroom. Since they didn't mind waiting, I took off my cold temp makeup and reapplied my summer, sweat-proof makeup.

The Lear family had just moved to a house in the countryside, though. I didn't want to spook the locals with pastel goth, so I started over and went for a natural look. I even gave myself the gold and green leaf veins over my eyelids from this tutorial I'd watched, but it took a couple tries. Satisfied, I headed back to the lobby.

Baozhu, their mom, and their dad, occupied all three seats of a metal bench, but only because of the two skinny, personal-space-saving arms. Baoyu sat across from his twin on the bench beside theirs, talking to Nia. They stood opposite and between the benches, hands behind their back and rocking in baggy shorts and sandals. They were shorter than Baozhu, who was already short at 5'3", thinner than Baoyu, who looked like the cross-country runner that he was, and darker than me, and most of my foundation called itself something mahogany-ish.

Enid leaned on the leg they'd planted at the end of Baoyu's bench. Even kind of crouched, they were taller than my 5'10", and much broader. Their solid white t-shirt hung loose around their waist but outlined their muscular shoulders and arms. Their tan skin matched my aunt's.

Baoyu saw me first. Nia spun around on their heels, their round hazel eyes popping under minty eyeshadow and their face forming a pointy-chinned heart in a cloud of bouncy brown curls. Nia grinned, their mouth winding up at both ends, which was the only thing my mom and my aunt had in common with the Chesire cat. They ran at me with open arms.

Nia hugged me, tighter than expected. 'I thought you'd lost yourself, Manon.'

As a rule, I didn't appreciate being touched, especially by persons who didn't understand how clothes or makeup worked, but Nia seemed shockingly sincere and knew their way around makeup, so I patted their shoulder. 'Thankfully, not the case, but I appreciate the concern.'

They backed off and nodded, blinking rapidly. 'Oh, I'm Nia, she/her,' she pointed at Enid, 'and that's my sister Enid.'

Enid left bench like on cue and stalked toward us, her thick eyebrows forming a perfect V over her round, hazelish brown eyes, arrow-ish nose and furry, snarling mouth. Dark, rogue waves from her long ponytail flew out behind her.

'We're twins but not many people see the resemblance.'

Enid boomed in our direction before she got halfway across the lobby, but she spoke so quickly I only caught 'fuck' and 'you.' An arriving family with cameras, tripods, and color-coordinated suitcases, scattered to either side of her so they didn't get run down. Hopefully, they were too used to American English to catch her language.

I waited until she was close enough that I didn't have to raise my voice. Her breath smelled like ham and I had to crane my neck to look up at her at same angle I'd needed for my ex-boyfriend, so she was probably 6'3". 'Sorry, but I have trouble hearing when people talk quickly. Do you mind repeating that?'

'What. The. Fuck. Manon.' She leaned over my shoulder and whispered in my ear. 'Nia was worried sick about you. If you worry her again, I will ship your ass straight back to whatever piss-mannered American state you crawled out of.'

Tears pricked my eyes, and I let out a sob. Thank god I'd switched makeup.

Nia pushed Enid off me and gave me another straightjacket hug. 'Enid! How could you? Manon's our cousin we've never seen. What if they never want to come back now?'

The random family stared at us as they arranged their tripods. Baoyu had taken Nia's place in front of the benches, and his parents conspicuously kept their eyes on him. Baozhu stared at god knew what on the vibrant, corded carpet.

'Ugh, fine. You have my apologies. Let's go.'

I sniffed and nodded because I didn't trust my voice. Enid stalked back to the benches, walking right through the family's flash. Nia backed off again and offered me her hand. Clear nail polish with rainbow polka dots brightened her manicure. I smiled thanks and took it.

Nia and Enid played rock, paper, scissors while Baoyu and his parents loaded the bags into the bag of their decades old but polished van. Somehow it still smelled like new, faux leather. Nia won and climbed into shotgun, but it turned out to be the driver's seat. Enid took left shotgun, which didn't make sense until we got on the road had to drive in the left lane.

My aunt practiced what I guessed was Loegrian with Enid-it was definitely a foreign language but not Mandarin. I stared out the window over Baozhu's pixie cut, taking in the sun-blistered hills and weird pine forests from the safety of tinted windows. You could tell when we passed a farm because we'd drive through an invisible cloud of manure. We had to make a vomit-stop at the forty-minute mark, and thankfully got to their house twenty minutes later.

Baozhu ran out of the car to the edge of the forest that surrounded their land. I ran to the house where there had to be at least one bathroom and water for rinsing-it was more of a mansion than the countryside cottage I'd expected. I tried one of the double doors in case it wasn't locked and got lucky.

The foyer opened into a left hall, right hall, forward hall, and wooden staircases on either side that meet on the second story. It was like a real-life version of that tabletop mystery mansion. I was fucked.

Gravel crunched behind me. Nia panted but smiled through the sweat and pointed to the right. 'Second door.' Sweet, sweet indoor plumbing.

Nia guided Baozhu and I to the kitchen while the others took the bags upstairs on the elevator-the Lear family had installed it for when their wheelchaired grandparents visited, which turned out to be really useful during the move and in general. Nia spoke with Enid's same accent and speed as she explained, but I had no trouble understanding her for some reason.

Baozhu leaned on both hands and elbows on the breakfast bar and nodded encouragingly over the water Nia had poured them into a real cut glass-it was heavy as fuck. I swung my legs sitting on the smooth but textured wooden stool because I'd never get that chance again. I tried this Loegrian, sangria-flavored soda called Sangreal, and it had soft, chewy fruit bubbles inside. I couldn't focus on it, though, because I couldn't get a signal for my pre-paid international data and the router died like every other minute.

'Uh, Nia, what's the deal the router?'

Her hands froze in mid-air explanation of her parents' jobs as actuaries. She inhaled, drawing them together over her chest, and exhaled. She looked to me on her left and Baozhu on her right. 'That's the reason our land was so cheap. The electricity's always on the flux. You didn't hear it from me, but they say this property is cursed.'

I poked the endless load cycle over a white void. 'A constantly dying router is definitely a curse.'

'I knew it.' She pushed off the table, scooting her stool soundlessly over the tile. 'I should tell Enid.'

'Tell me what?' Enid boomed from the 'servant's stair' behind the 'servant's entry,' which was a doorway, not even a real door. Baoyu and his parents followed her. Despite the ac, they were sweating and whiter than normal.

'What happened to you guys?'

Baoyu's almond, hazelish brown eyes opened wide and his mouth stretched into a painful looking smile. 'Apparently the elevator sometimes dies,' He barely parted his teeth to speak, talking mostly from behind them. 'But don't worry, it comes back on after a minute of depleting air and palpable darkness. Just remember the six-person capacity before you use it.'

'Oh my god.' We were one creepy stranger away from the true events that inspired horror movies.

Enid avoided my gaze but glanced at my phone. 'There's only one place on the property with cell reception.'

I pushed back off the bar and jumped off the stool. 'Let's go.'

'It's outside a cave.'

I raised one eyebrow and lowered the other. 'Like a bear cave?' I thought she was trying to apologize for earlier, not get back at me by letting some bear maul me within an inch of my life.

'We haven't gone inside, but I think it's too hot for a bear to hibernate,' said Nia. 'I'll take you there if you'd like.'

'Baoyu, Baozhu,' said my aunt, 'you should go, too.'

'Especially while you have the light,' said my uncle. 'At night it will be too dangerous to use your phones.'

'The sun won't set until ten past twenty-two,' said Enid. Talk about daylight savings.

We packed snacks, drinks, bug spray, allergy meds, folding chairs, a beach umbrella, and, obvs, our phones. Baoyu wanted to bring his backpack to hold his textbook, so we packed everything that would fit in it. The chairs weren't heavy, so we strapped two to the back of his backpack. He almost fell over when he tried to stand but said the weight wasn't a problem. Enid wore the umbrella in its bag, which was heavy, across her back and grabbed the rest of the chairs.

Nia, claiming to be a human compass, led us out the back of the house and into the forest. I asked about the pines with tiers of branches reaching out like arms, and Enid said most of the trees here were 'Scots pines.' But every single time we passed a not-pine tree she'd point and shout 'aspen,' 'juniper,' 'oak,' and startle the shit out of us because it was so quiet.

We'd changed into pants and boots if we'd had them, and thank god I'd packed skinny jeans and ankle boots because ankle to knee-high bushes covered the ground. Baozhu hadn't changed at all, so I looked behind us. They had little red lines all over their white shins and feet but caught my leaf-veined eyes and smiled without opening their mouth to a wince.

Twenty sweaty minutes later, there was an audible buzz from the combined vibrations of our four phones. Nia and Baoyu and I laughed and high-fived. Even Enid had a smile-ish thing going on at one corner of her mouth. I looked at Baozhu, but they'd wandered toward an 'oak.'

'Baozhu, not there!' Nia yelped.

They spun around but teetered backward, eyes and mouth wide, arms windmilling. Baoyu ran to them. Sprinted. Baozhu steadied, but Baoyu didn't stop. He skidded past them and dropped out of sight with a shriek.

Everyone shrieked. Baozhu dropped to their knees. Nia, Enid, and I ran.

'I'm fine,' Baoyu yelled from inside the dirt and rock cave hidden behind a ridge and its bushes. He shrugged off his backpack, climbed off his butt, and dusted off his cargo pants. 'It's kind of nice and cool down here.'

'Gimme a sec and I'll melt down the slope,' said Baozhu. They walked down the slope without any trouble. Nia, Enid, and I followed them. It really was nice and cool and shady. There was even a back and forth breeze.

I checked my phone. 'Holy shit.'

Enid pulled her phone out of her cargos. Nia put both hands on her sister's muscled forearm and hopped up and down to see. 'I didn't know the cave was so phone-friendly.'

No kidding. 'Baoyu, can I see your phone?'

'Yeah, sure.'

He'd planned to study from a book, so he didn't need to worry about conserving his battery. I turned on his flashlight and walked further into the cave. Thankfully, its tunnel was spacey instead of narrow and squeezy, but my cousins followed behind me.

The tunnel narrowed a little as we walked. I thought there'd be another opening because of the breeze, but the tunnel just stopped with a giant, bulgy stone wall in a wider and rounder space. I leaned against it.

My arm was sore from holding up the phone. 'Do you mind holding this for a sec?'

I passed Baoyu's phone back to him, light down.

'There's something on the ground,' said Baozhu.

As I massaged my arm, Baoyu swept the light across the dirt and stone cave floor. Our steps had cleared some of the dirt over carved lines and curve in the stone. He and Nia crouched and brushed the dirt off the carvings with their bare hands.

'Could you help us, Enid?' asked Nia.

'Fine.' She squatted and put one hand on the curve. She dragged her hand in a crouched run, dirt flying out behind her and making poofy clouds. Everyone coughed.

Enid held her phone flashlight from as high as she could reach. She'd uncovered a perfect circle with a total of five angles inside it. Nia and Baoyu dusted off the rest, revealing a five-pointed star.

Nia hopped to her feet in a cloud of dirt. She had dirt all over her, even her hair. 'Oh, it's a pentangle!'

'Pentacle,' said Baoyu, dusting himself off before he pushed off the floor.

'Isn't that what I said?'

'Whatever, it doesn't matter.'

I gave my arm a final shake. 'Let's take a selfie.'

There were five of us, so I stood on the nearest angle. Nia hopped on one across from me. Enid stepped to her twin's side, and Baoyu stood on the one across from Enid her. Baozhu stepped next to Baoyu and beside me and the wall.

'Enid, do you mind?' She had the best reach and already had her phone up.

'Say "cell reception."'

'Cell reception!' we said. The flash momentarily blinded us. Somebody groaned.

We gathered around Enid and she pulled up the photo. There was a gray blur on the wall behind me and Baozhu maybe like a bat. We turned around.

We screamed.

This massive, gray-bearded, dude as dark as Nia in gray rags and gray dreads and tattoos screamed.

We stopped. They stopped. The dude slowly raised their calloused, tattooed hands. They were empty.

They grabbed Baozhu's head.

'Get off you fucking pervert!' I screamed.

Baoyu caught his twin's flailing arm and pulled them away. We all backed away, but the dude didn't come closer. They held up their hands again and spoke slowly. In Mandarin.

We stopped.

'They said their name's Myrddin Emrys,' said Baoyu.

'Yeah. He/him,' said the guy who still could've been a pervert. 'What year is it?'

'It's 2015,' said Enid.

'F. M. L.'

'How long have you been hibernating?' asked Nia.

'Long enough. 你們可以幫我嗎?' We stared at him. Baozhu and Baoyu exchanged a glance. 'Uh, would you mind helping me?'

'Not at all,' said Nia.

'Wait-' Enid and I said.

'太棒了!'

The entire cave disappeared. Or maybe that was just us.