The living room was in gloom, the light from the open door, stark across the carpet. As she stepped in, her eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light. She scanned the bookshelves, chairs and sofa. She half-nodded at the wall gunracks, noting the state of the armoury. Still sensing for magick, she wandered the room until she found it. Three gris-gris bags, two that were old, stale. She could see the tell-tale black coils faded, almost grey dust. The third though, placed on a low shelf, was fresh, strong. The black strands of its mana coiled tight. She crouched in front of it, studied it. It wasn’t the work of the mambo she remembered. It was rough, she could tell it was by an apprentice's hand.

The tips of two tails trembled, then her ears half twitched. The faintest echo of work boot on wood. Magickally dampened, it would have been silence save for her enhanced hearing. She steadied herself, in her mind’s eye she pictured a rune Sig had taught her—“Aurora”—prepped it and felt the cool blue lines in her mind. Then there was the clack of a shotgun being cocked and a male voice behind her. “Right, now, chère, you gonna stand up slowly, hands where they c’n be seen. Now, s'il vous plaît.”

She almost smiled as she recognized that voice. “Joshua Kenneth William Treneaux, put that scattergun down right now. You know better’n t’ point it at yer sister.” She didn’t stand and kept her tails still. Her nose twitched as she parsed scents. She identified Joshua’s beginning with what she remembered from her old human nose—motor oil, sweat, and his favourite deodorant—and adding pheromones and other traces she now sensed. She picked up the other person behind her, a woman, anxious and bordering on fight-or-flight adrenaline. “An’ who’s yer friend? Why would she be here?” In the back of her mind, her subconscious pounced on a part of the woman’s smells, a fragrance—a perfume she feels she should know.

“You may sound like my sis, but everythin’ else is wrong. Height, movement, legs.” His voice dropped into a growl. “Stand! Up! Now!”

“Sweet Lady! Joshua, I ain’t movin’ until the gun is on the floor. An’ you do NOT want me to make you. Tu comprends, Garde-boue?”

“Where you hear dat!” His accent deepened and his anger rose.

Then she heard the soft, quiet voice. “Josh, this isn’t gonna work. They’re not right. Just put them down, no talking.” Ali blinked placing that voice. The voice of a childhood friend. “Clarise? You care to explain that bit o’ bloodthirstiness?”

Clarise snapped. “You stay quiet, whatever you are. I know fer sure you ain’t human, the muck of a wild spirit rolls off of you. I can feel it in my bones.”

Ali frowned and that clicks. “So, you’ve become Mambo Kalli’s ‘prentice? That ‘splains what I’ve found here.”

Josh growled, “You don’ talk to my fiancé, at all.”

Ali sighed, “An’ that even more.” She undid the broach of her cloak. “Sorry ‘bout this bro.” As her cloak dropped, still crouched, she pivoted on her paws to face the pair. A claw cut the rune into the air, cool blue energy glowing. As it triggered, she closed her eyes. The room blazed with a bright blue-white light.

Josh and Clarise barely registered Ali’s fox head before the light blinded them. Ali counted a beat, opened her eyes and stepped next to her wiry brother. She yanked the shotgun from his unresisting hands, cracked the breech and extracted the shells. Looking at them a moment she commented, “Buckshot? Indoors? Bright Lady, I got no idea why Pa lets you near the guns.” She dropped the shells into her “Doctor’s Pocket” and placed the shotgun on the ground behind her.

As their vision cleared, she asked, “Now, c’n we talk or—” She sidestepped slightly, catching Josh’s fist. She held it, fingers wrapped it, her claws gently touching his skin. “Or we continue with you playin’ stupid games.”

Josh, staring at her at eye level, blanched. “What the hell are you?”

Clarise had taken a step back and was fumbling with a belt pouch. “It don’t matter, I’ve got somethin’ that can get rid of it.”

Orange foxfire started to flicker in front of Ali’s eyes. “I ain’t an ‘it’ Clarise, and you won’t be casting nothin’.” Her tone shifted slightly, “Dự trữ của ngươi đã cạn kiệt, nguồn cung của ngươi đã bị cắt giảm. Ngươi không còn mana cho đến khi ta nói.” (Spell: Your reserves are empty, your supply cut. You are without mana ‘til I say. — Vietnamese.)

Clarise gasped as she felt the power she had been drawing vanish. She had dropped the spell components she had pulled out to the floor. “How… how did you do that?”

Josh just stared as the foxfire over the fox-woman's eyes faded. His brows arched in surprise as he looked, really looked into those angry eyes. Memories flashed in his mind. Playfights with his sister, holding her back when she was pissed at someone, the day she decked Cousin Tommy, they were her eyes, Ali’s eyes. “Sis? That… that’s really you?”

Ali rolled her eyes and released his fist. “Yes. Are we goin’ to talk now?”

Massaging his hand, Josh looked confused. “What the hell happened to you? Is… is this real?” He gestures at her body.

“A lot. And yes, this is real.” Her weight shifted as she crossed her arms. Her ears flicked and settled into a low posture. Her tails swayed slightly, one wrapping around her leg. “You the only one home right now?”

Josh nodded. “Yeah. Pops, Billy, an’ Uncle Daw are out checkin’ gator traps. Benny and Jo-Jo are huntin’. Ma, Nelli, Granny Lin, an’ Cousin Beth went to town to check on Great-Granny Michi.”

“Great… that means two o’ the family I need to talk to are in Gheens.”

“You’re buying this Josh? That this… this thing is your sister?”

Ali glared at her. “That’s twice, Clarise Carrly Bochson. You go for a third and I will forget you’re supposed to be my friend.”

Clarise blinked. “That… that sounds just like her.” Her voice hushed.

“That’s because I am me.” She looked back to Josh. “Are Granma Kim and Great-Granma Misha in their bungalows?”

“Yeah.” Josh answered.

Ali nodded, walked back to where her cloak had dropped, and put it back on. “If I remember right, Granma Kim’s is the closer of the two.” She started towards the door.

“Hold on a sec sis. What are…”

“I’m going to talk to ‘em.”

“Looking like that?” Asked Clarise.

Ali’s ears flattened as she spun. She almost snapped at her friend. “Yes. In the body my soul shoulda been born into. I’m a kitsune Clarise, soul on out. F’r some reason that soul, my soul, was born into a human body.” She stopped, reining in her anger. She finished in a calmer voice. “This is me. I’m not going to change that. And I’m not going to hide it from my family.”

Clarise had raised her hands and stepped back, her eyes wide. “I’m… sorry. Ali, I’m sorry.”

Ears cocked in confusion. “Now ya believe me?”

She nodded. “Yeah. That anger, it’s the same as each time you rearranged Billy-Lee's nose. Every time you heard someone gay-baitin' or race-batin'. It’s clear, distinct, pure.”

Ali nodded. “Thank you.”

Clarise blinked as she felt her connections to spirits and ritual energy reassert themselves.

Ali’s voice was soft, “Believe it or not, Clarise, I still trust you. Your phrasing hurt, a lot, but…” She looked at her brother and smiled slightly. “You were protecting the one you love. And you were missin’ information. Same goes f’r you Josh.”

With a sigh, she stood there weighing something in her mind. Finally, she slipped the cloak off again, folded it, then slipped it in the other-dimensional pocket tethered to her belt.

“‘Fore I go to chat with Granma Kim, would you two like to talk, air any questions ya got?” Her ears cocked in an inviting way. 

Josh scratched the back of his head a moment. “Well, if you really want it asked… How long have you been as you are now?”

“A little over a year, give or take.” She sighed. “Well, mostly give”

“A year? And yer just lettin’ us know now? Why not sooner?” He pales slightly. “And what are we gonna tell Ma an' Pops?”

“Josh, this is the first time I got access to a way to get here. An’ honestly, this ain’t something to drop in a letter or phone call.” She tilted her head looking at him. “I mean, what would anyone in the family have thought if I did the ‘Hi. Just a quick note that I’m now six foot tall, buxom, got fox ears, a fox snout, and six fox tails.’”

Josh gaped for a moment before answering. “Bright Lady, if you’d sent somethin’ like that…” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ma woulda fainted, at best. Pops, he woulda thought it was you prankin’ us f’r some reason. The rest of us likely would’ve started worrying about what drugs you’d gotten into up in Seattle.” He paused, looking at her. “But then you know we ain’t the type to take news like this by mail. Hell, even facin’ you here, tails an’ all, I’m still strugglin’ to wrap my head ‘round it. But—”

He paused, bowed his head slightly. “But you know that, that anyone in the family would need to see you, hear you, feel the anger or snark or care in yer tone of voice. Yeah, you’re right. This is ‘When I can visit’ news.”

Ali nodded. “I learned that when I told my wife, Molly. I was scared that she and Micha would scream and run at the sight of me. Both recognized me by tone of voice and my eyes.”

Clarise mused softly, “A little over a year ago… Is that why you never mentioned a ‘kitsune soul’ to me back in school?”

“I never mentioned it back then because I didn’t know. That simple. Just like I didn’t know how really real magick was when listenin' to Mambo Kalli and Houngan Gerson back when we were kids. An’ the learning curve I’ve been on over that year, callin’ it steep is a mother of understatement.”

“What do you mean by that Sis? An’ what do bein’ a kitsune mean f'r you, an’ f’r us?” Josh stumbled over the unfamiliar word.

Ali looked at him, her voice soft. “Japanese term, Bro. There are others that are similar, but I think the best English catch-all is ‘fox-spirit’. Not hun’rent percent accurate, but it works. As f’r that learnin’ curve, well some of the high points are—findin’ out I know at least four additional languages: Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Vietnamese. That last one is what I cast the mana block in, Clarise. Ancestral knowledge, skills and responsibilities.” She sighed, her tone becoming pensive. “That last one, that was recent. I… I was… I was judge an’ arbiter o’er a man who had skinned another kitsune alive and bound her soul. My first duty was to her, releasin’ her, lettin’ her find peace.” Her ears had dropped respectfully. “I almos’ made a bad mistake. A really huge, bad mistake. Almos’ used what fleetin’ bits of Voodoo I know in tryin’ to free her. It became sandpaper in my mind. A friend stepped up with a better option so’s I could drop it, just focus on my innate fuel, foxfire.” She lapsed into silence, revisiting that encounter in her memories.

Josh stared, his thoughts subdued. Sweet Lady, her voice, like the weight of a world’s on her shoulders. Judge, arbiter—words no one woulda used t’ describe her, but they fit, along with protector. He stepped close to Ali, first resting a hand on her shoulder, then pulling her into a hug, unconditional support and acceptance.

Clarise blinked, She… She talks about freeing a soul with such weight. Spirits, that’s something would never contemplate trying. And the richness in her voice when she spoke of her wife… and I was gonna… Her head bows as she tried to hide her tears and feelings of shame.

Ali hugged her brother. “As f’r what it means f’r us… we’re family Josh, that hasn’t changed. Nor has my take on it. Only difference now is I got more tools to work with.” Stepping back, she looked at Clarise and frowned. “Snaps?” It was an old nickname rooted in Clarise’s habit of snapping her fingers as a child. Ali’s tone was concern and outreach. She could read the defeat and shame in her friend’s posture, smell it in the air. “Talk to me, please.”

Clarise’s voice was dry, brittle, when she answered. “I… Ali I can’t… I don’t…”

Ali kindly shushed her, “Ssh, It’s ok. I told you, I understand. I still see you as my friend. An’ if’n you can put up with Josh long term, as family.” She laid her hands gently on her oldest friend’s shoulders. “No unforgivable actions taken. No bridges burned. Lessons learned.” Her head cocked slightly to the side. “We good?”

“I hope…” She looked up at Ali. “An’ thank you, for being a better friend that I feel I deserve right now.”

Ali nodded slightly. “I think I understand. Give it time, an’ give yerself grace.”

She stepped back and turned towards the door. “I should get to Granma Kim’s.”

“I’ll come with ya Sis.” He walked to the door. “Ya gonna join us, Clarise?”

The young woman nodded as she walked up to Josh. Wrapping an arm around him, they walked out the front door, followed by Ali.