Enbies have magic powers?!
Chapter 2: A coup already?!
"But Lee said--"
"How could it possibly not work?"
It was a new moon. Crickets were chirping, there was light traffic in the distance, and the stars were clear against an empty sky. The grassy field would have been lost under a blanket of complete darkness if not for the two figures walking through it, a faint glow emanating from their party. A gentle breeze was blowing intermittently and flitting through both beans' hair.
"But Lee said--"
Shay stopped in her tracks and spun around to glare at Green. One hand perched on her hip; the other grasped a knife, which she held with its flat side towards the enby, reflecting a blotch of light from their fingertips back onto their shirt. Light: one of the only spells that could be cast continuously for as long as desired without depleting one's mana.
"It's a knife," she said. "Honestly. Watch." She bent over and picked up a crushed soda can that was lying on the ground, and jabbed the knife clean through it with a metallic pop. "Just like that."
Green grimaced. "Come on. The military is figuring something out. There's no reason to risk it."
"You've been figuring something out for a century," Shay said coldly. "How long was it going to take before someone thought of using a sharp stick?"
"Shay..." Green whined.
"Listen, Green. If you don't want me to shove this into Prince Ben's heart, then take it from me. Use your attack magic."
"I keep telling you, that's not a thing!"
"Then what's your plan for dealing with him?"
Green looked helplessly at their companion. As if their paltry voice didn't declaw their arguments enough in Shay's eyes, their form was even less threatening. Their body was short, thin, and frail, their eyes were big and round, their shoulders were straight but narrow, and their hair was permanently a mess -- in a word, they were smol. Their gaze dropped to the ground and they began to sulk. They hated losing arguments.
That had seemed to be the end of the discussion, but Shay wouldn't turn around. Green wished she would. They were feeling awkward and embarrassed, but there was also another feeling brewing inside them that was making them urgently need to be moving again. Their feet wanted to shift or shuffle around or start tapping, their fingers wanted to play with their shirt, their knees wanted to press together... but they couldn't do any of that, couldn't let on what was happening to them, not while Shay was watching, they--
"Do you need to pee?" Shay asked.
Green squeezed their eyes shut and turned away. "No?"
"God, you're a baby."
Shay resumed walking, and Green hurried to keep up.
"We've been out here for hours! Anyone would need to go!"
"Shh. Keep yelling and you'll get us caught."
Green lowered their voice to a whisper. "...can we stop so I can pee, at least?"
Shay sighed. "Fine, baby, make it quick."
Green disappeared into the bushes for two minutes, and then came back, still visibly stressed and tense. The pair continued on.
The grand castle which had been sitting on the horizon for ages was finally starting to get close, peeling off the backdrop and becoming a real three-dimensional object that the travelers would be able to reach. When they got within a hundred meters of it, Shay slung her backpack off her shoulders and opened it up. Out came a set of leather clothing: a tunic, trousers, booties, and a hat. The dress of a castle guard. She donned the armor.
"What is that for??" Green wailed.
"Oh my god, shut up," Shay hissed. "Please lower your voice, Green, please. Please? Pretty please, don't get us caught before we have a chance to do what we're here to do?"
Green was dancing on the spot, their feet stamping down patches of grass, their hands balled into fists and flailing wildly at their sides, their eyes shiny with tears, practically frothing at the mouth. "Is that what you need me for?" they whispered. "You're gonna dress up as a guard and turn me in??"
"Pretty sure I told you to stay home."
"You said I should stay home if I wanted to be a square!!"
"Yeah," Shay said. "Cause it'll be cooler if you're there to see it. Now come on. Now's the last moment to turn back. Are you Green, or are you yellow?"
Green was miserable, but they stayed put.
"All right," Shay said. "Let's go."
So they made their way to the castle. It was an ancient thing, preserved through the ages by endless restorations even as modernity encroached from the city side -- roads, cars, phone lines, electric billboards -- and seeped in through the front gate -- indoor plumbing, air conditioning, wifi. But the back side of the castle faced the empty field where the two travelers had come from, and was unguarded.
"How are we gonna get in??"
"We're gonna go around, dummy." Shay started walking.
"Wait!" Green said in a cracked whisper. "I- I-...!"
Shay turned to see what the problem was, and found Green frozen in pain. Their legs were crossed, their knees were bent, their toes were curled, their teeth were clenched, and their neck was craning forward. One hand was clamped to their thigh while the other clawed at their tum.
Shay rolled her eyes. "Do you seriously need to pee again?"
"I- I couldn't go! Just gimme thirty seconds, I'll--"
"No," Shay said. "If someone catches you peeing out here, we'll be done for before we even get inside."
"But it's, I- I really--!"
"We can't. You'll just have to hold it."
"Don't you need to go too??"
"Not really."
Green was once again defeated. Their bladder was killing them, but there was nothing they could do about it. Shay's persona was too overpowering. She took them by the arm and began leading them around the castle, and they had no choice but to uncross their legs and come along, doing everything they could not to cry.
As the two beans emerged from behind the castle, they got a glimpse of something neither of them had ever seen before: a city inside of Laves. The crisscross streets were shockingly plain and familiar. Shops were lined up shoulder to shoulder in all directions. In the distance there were skyscraper apartment buildings. Cars were driving on the roads. A cyclist was out for a midnight ride. Drunk party-goers were hollering in the distance. There were flowers and trees planted along the sidewalk. The only difference was, visible by the entrance of every public restroom in sight, there were a series of dim red lights indicating the idle status of the machines they were attached to. Card readers.
They didn't have time to stare. Shay marched Green right up to the front gate, and looked the two guards square in the eye.
"Hey buddies," she said. "Caught this bean trying to run off. No idea how they got out. Wanna let us back in?"
"What do you mean 'got out'?" one of them asked. "Why were they in the castle to begin with?"
"They're with me," Shay said. "Extra special treatment for poor behavior in the POW camp."
The guard squinted at her. "I don't recognize your face or your voice. Who are you?"
"Come on, I told you I was working on my fem voice... do you seriously not recognize me?"
"Uh," she said. The other guard was looking at her expectantly. "Oh, uh, Gracie?! Holy cow, sis, you sound amazing."
"Thanks," Shay said. "Kinda need to get back inside now, can we chat about it later?"
"Sure, sure," the guard said, unlocking the gate. "Sorry about that... it's so hard to see out here."
"No prob."
The guard opened the gate for Shay and Green to go through, and they stepped into the castle. Shay brought them around one corner, then a second corner, and finally a third, and then, seeing that they were alone, pulled Green over to the side and leaned against the wall to rest.
"Phew," she said. "Tell me that wasn't some impressive social engineering. Go on, say it."
Green's hands were jammed between their legs, and their mouth was locked in a grimace. They didn't answer.
"No no, Shay, that was awesome! You really saved the day!" Shay cooed. "Aww, thanks Green! I really get the sense that you appreciate how well I'm pulling this off."
Green was silent once again.
"Okay," Shay said. "Come on, let's find the prince. I've got some intel on where his room is."
"...how?" Green whispered.
"What, now you're talking? I have a contact who defected from the court a few years ago. They remembered some of the castle layout. It should be this way."
So they walked through corridors and climbed flights of stairs, until eventually they arrived at a quite large and well-decorated wooden door with two guards standing outside of it. Up until this point they had confidently walked passed many guards who were wandering the halls (or at least, Shay had been confident -- Green had been freaking out too hard to say or do anything). But these two would be a different story, Shay reasoned. Prince Ben wouldn't choose someone as a bedroom guard who would just let them waltz by if they were cocky enough about it. She would need to be clever and decisive.
"Hey buddies," she said quietly. "Mind doing me a favor? Just keep an eye on this enby for me while I go use the bathroom?"
One of the two made to speak, but Shay didn't wait around to hear what he had to say. She lifted her leg high in the air and brought it cracking down on the door handle, sending the door flying open. The guard who had been about to speak changed course and lunged at her, but she grabbed his arm, flung him to the ground, and stomped on his back to make sure he'd stay down for a bit. The other guard threw herself into the door frame to block Shay's path, but frame was too wide for one bean to cover it all -- Shay faked left, then faked right, then finally ducked left and slipped around the guard into the room. The guard went after her, but Shay landed a hard punch on her cheek, and down she went.
The room was fairly large, its main feature being the huge bed in the middle of the floor. It was one of those fancy beds with the ceiling above it and the curtains that go around, but even through the curtains one could see that a form was sitting bolt upright inside, having been awoken by the sound of the door slamming open.
"Out!" Shay yelled, brandishing the knife towards the bed. "Show yourself, coward!"
The curtain parted, and out stepped an unusually tall bean with blonde hair, pale skin, and a European face. Those who didn't recognize it from the propaganda might know it from the banknotes used within the kingdom. And, tunnel-visioned though she was, Shay took note of the crown sitting atop the bedside table. There was no doubt about it: this was Prince Ben.
"C'MERE YOU ROTTEN BASTARD!!" Shay screamed. She cleared the distance between them in under a second, threw herself into a kneeling position, and, before Ben could react, thrust the knife diagonally upwards for what she knew would be a clean kill.
Time stopped.
Literally.
Yes.
Gray descended from the sky, painting the room in monochrome as it trickled down the walls. The whole world lost its color, except for the knife, which took on an accusatory red aura as it hung in the air just shy of piercing skin. Shay watched through frozen eyes as the light turned blue, then green, then white, and then began to grow brighter and brighter, ramping up until it was intolerable to look at, until Shay thought she would go blind. Finally, the bubble popped: the glow exploded into a billion tiny stars, leaving only the empty outline of a knife where an actual knife had been moments before. Color returned to the world in the same manner it had left. Shay's body thawed, and she looked around in astonishment. The blade was completely gone, and her hand hung empty in front of Ben's chest.
"Are you quite finished?" Ben asked.
"Wh..."
Green stumbled into the room, both hands still buried in their crotch.
"I-I-I-... I told you," they whimpered. Pee was trickling down their legs and collecting in a puddle at their feet, which was connected by a trail of dribbles to a second puddle out in the hall. Shay was too stunned to respond. Green finished peeing, and then collapsed.
"GUARDS!" Ben called. In seconds, six more guards dashed into the room, assessed the situation, and seized the intruders, two guards on Green and four on Shay.
"H-h-... how??" Shay asked breathlessly.
Ben knelt down in front of her, close enough that their faces were only inches apart.
"A word of advice, dear," came the ghastly voice. "Don't go for brilliant checkmates if you don't understand the rules of the game. The king can be very slippery if you don't know what you're doing. Do you play chess? Well, I shouldn't even ask. You obviously don't, or you wouldn't be making this kind of mistake."
One of the guards spoke up. "The camp, your majesty?"
Ben nodded. "Yes. That was an act of war, so these two are prisoners of war."
So they peeled Green blubbering up off the floor, forced Shay to her feet, and dragged them both out of the room.