“So,” she said quietly, “it wasn’t a dream.”
Zac looked up and smiled faintly.
“No.”
There was quiet for a moment as Zac beckoned her to sit down at the table with him.
“These powers, were you ever planning on telling me?”
“That had to be your first question.”
Mary Anne managed a laugh.
“I really wanted to tell you,” Zac admitted. “But I can’t say if I ever would have. Our powers are… are a double-edged sword, I guess. They’re great fun, and really useful, but… but normal humans don’t have them, and well… you see the problem? I don’t know how you would have reacted. And what if you freaked out and the media found out? That could put a serious damper on our relationship.”
“Well, yeah, but I might have handled it really well.”
“You might have. And I think, considering, you have taken it pretty well. But I couldn’t take that risk. Keeping these powers secret is really important, and besides, it’s not just my secret to tell.”
“The other mutants? Umm, Triggered?”
“Yeah, both of the above,” Zac hesitated for a moment. “Well, hey, you know this much, I may as well tell you everything.”
“Yeah, you may as well,” Mary Anne replied with a smile.
“Well, okay, so all my sibs are Triggered too, and some of our friends. Umm, actually you would have met some of them. We have a few mutant friends too. The way some of their powers have mutated – but then you would have seen mutants here. Everyone, except you and me are mutants here.”
She nodded, digesting this.
“So, who do I know that’s a mutant?”
“I’d rather give them the option of deciding whether they want you to know. It’s nothing personal, but we have this attitude to even other Triggered and mutants we meet. They usually don’t mind, but, y’know.”
“I understand,” Mary Anne said, then, her next words sounding bitter. “I guess they wouldn’t want to be friends with a lowly human.”
“Mary Anne,” Zac began.
“I know, I know, that was unfair,” she sighed. “It’s going to take me awhile, I think, to really comprehend this.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling. When we first found out about our powers, I mean, whoa! Some days I forgot I even had powers just because I wasn’t used to having them. And we’re always learning more about them, and expanding what we can do.”
Mary Anne nodded softly.
“Ahh, you’re awake,” Lallie said, walking in. “That’s good. I have some clothes for you, if you’d like to change before dinner. We were planning a festival this week, you see, starting tonight with a feast. That’s why the city has been so crowded.”
“That was crowded?” Zac and Mary Anne asked together.
Lallie laughed merrily and gave each other them a parcel of clothing.
“These should fit you. If they don’t, let me know, but I’ve always been good at working out sizes.”
Zac and Mary Anne went into separate rooms to change. Lallie had given Zac a pair of orange pants, a yellow shirt and a black belt. They were made of a material Zac had never seen before, and the belt was different again. It was certainly not leather like his other ones back home. And they were all obviously designed not to be cumbersome in water.
Mary Anne’s billowing mauve dress was shorter on one side than the other, it was formfitting, but not skin tight and had long sleeves. Lallie did up Mary Anne’s hair, and adorned it with a beautiful seashell, and her neck with a pebble necklace, with pebbles unlike either Zac or Mary Anne had seen before.
“Now you look like proper sea folk,” Lallie said approvingly. “Come, follow me.”
“I feel weird not wearing shoes,” Mary Anne murmured to Zac.