Two

Edeline was informed by crow, and had no idea what it was talking about. The crow, perched on top of an ancient rotting tree stump, cocked its head and gave her a beady stare.
"You're new here, aren't you?", it inquired.
The crow was even closer to the truth that it imagined. She was not only new, she was brand new, having been dumped into the forest less than half an hour previously. She'd spent that entire time on the verge of tears, and would have been weeping for sure if she had been able to believe that this was even happening to her. It seemed like only moments before that she was getting out of bed, preparing to begin another normal day.
She'd had ordinary plans. It was a Tuesday, a work day. She had meetings to attend, papers to present, decisions to make. She remembered thinking about pastries, for some reason, although she had none in the kitchen. Marvin would like an almond treat, she had told herself, making a mental note to pick some up at the bakery on her way home that evening. She'd looked down at his still-sleeping form, a half smile working its way across his face as he dreamed about who knows what. Edeline had gone through her customary routines, carefully applying the face cream, arranging stray hairs in her eyebrows, scrubbing her face and hands, preparing for her morning exercises. She had only just spread out the yoga mat and turned on the instructor's video when the knock came at the front door.
She had considered not responding. After all, she was only wearing her pink terrycloth tights and top and hardly looked presentable, in her opinion. Nevertheless, it was her own home, so whoever it was deserved whatever sight they beheld, so she did open the door. If she'd only known who was there, she would have fled out the window instead.
"Yes?" she asked politely of the two rather large, stupified men who stood there gaping at her body.
"Ma'am?" one of them managed to stutter while the other one blinked and turned his head away in an effort to avert his eyes.
"Can I help you?" Edeline prompted him.
"Edeline Wills?" he fairly mumbled. This great bulk of a man was beginning to sweat in quantity. His eyes became bleary as he grabbed a handkerchief from his back pocket and began to mop his face.
"What's all this about?" Edeline asked as the second man, blubbery and stinky as well, raised his hand to shield his face.
"A.I.D," the first officer told her. "You'll have to come with us."
"What?" Edeline was incredulous. "What are you talking about? A.I.D? That's ridiculous." She backed away from the door, and considered slamming it in their faces. She would have to think fast, but she couldn't. Another mistake. The officer seemed to read her mind and suddenly, without any indication that it was possible for him to move that quickly, he'd retrieved some handcuffs from somewhere and slammed them onto her wrists, and pulled her out into the apartment building hallway.
"Let me go!" Edeline shouted, but struggle as she might, the huge policeman easily dragged her down the hall and into the elevator, while his partner closed the apartment door and followed closely.
"If you don't be quiet I'll have to enforce you," the officer told her, once they were heading down toward the underground parking lot. Edeline knew what that meant. They would gag her, blindfold her, put her in a straightjacket, carry her if they had to, like a sack of potatoes. She had heard about this kind of thing. Who hadn't? What she wanted to know now was, why had they mistaken her for one of those creatures? The A.I.D. was not known to make mistakes, but clearly they had done so this time.
"No questions," the officer warned her, hustling her into the back of the patrol car. Both of the men seemed to breathe more freely once they did not have to look at her any longer. The second one drove while the first one tapped a memo into his device, transmitting their status and coordinates to headquarters.
"No questions?" Edeline repeated in her mind. She had a million questions. Well, only one that mattered. Was this really even happening? Maybe she was still in bed, asleep, having a nightmare. The car careened out into the street and sped off, as if it were an emergency. Officer Barge, the driver, was worried. Something like what he was thinking could cost him his entire career. Why had they sent him on this assignment? It was utterly against policy and he very well knew why. Generally, male officers were not allowed to bring in female immortals. Anything could happen and often did. They didn't call them 'mermaids' for nothing.
"Is it true?" he blurted out to his partner, Sergeant Rand, "that nothing can ever happen to them?"
"Silence!" Rand ordered. He did not want to get into it, especially not in the presence of the thing. Mermaids could not be harmed. It was true. No matter what you did to them, they could not be harmed and that was the very problem. You wanted to test that theory. You wanted to do things, just to see, and if you did, if you let down your guard and gave in ... Sergeant Rand had seen it happen before. Good men, helpless against themselves, utterly ruined because of these mutants. It was entirely their fault.
"Pretend it's not even there," he advised his colleague, and Barge did his best to do so. He thought about everything else instead. He thought about meatballs, and pigeons, and the way the clouds seemed to fall when it rained. He thought about moons and parades and pixie dust and the smell of varnish and dried fish. He thought about everything except the thing in his back seat now, and no one was more relieved, no one was happier than he when they finally arrived at HQ and were able to unload their cargo at the docking bay.
Edeline was taken to a small, windowless office in the basement of the large official A.I.D. building by two heavily armed female escorts, who again advised her not to speak or make any sudden motions. She was deposited alone in there, told to sit on one of the two cold metal folding chairs, the only furniture at all in there. The room itself was also cold. In only her terrycloth exercise outfit and slippers, Edeline was already uncomfortable. She was not alone for long. In a few minutes, a small, elderly man came into the room, closing and locking the door carefully behind him.
Captain Snig was long past retirement age, yet he was not allowed to retire. His unique skills and experience were still required, especially in cases like this. He'd been through the procedure many times, and was not disturbed any longer. Still, he wore large dark sunglasses to protect his mind. The glasses seemed to cover most of his face, leaving only a narrow nose and unusually tiny mouth exposed below, and a balding, spotted cranium above. He wore a uniform that might have fit him long ago, before his body had shrunk so. Now he has all hunched over, a mass of wrinkled blue cloth and that face of a bespectacled ancient turtle. He hobbled over to the other metal chair, facing Edeline, who cleared her throat and prepared her defense.
"It's no use," Snig told her. "You might as well save your breath."
"There's been" she began but he held up his hand to interrupt her.
"No mistake," he completed her sentence, but not in the way that she would have.
"How," she started again, and again he stopped her before she could finish.
"Retinal scan," he informed her. "The officer performed it the moment you opened your door. The image was relayed back here," he continued wearily, "and the officer was confirmed before you even said a word. We already knew."
"It's true," he told her, "whether you believe it or not."
"It can't be," she replied. "I would know, wouldn't I?"
"Sooner or later," he assented, nodding. "Perhaps it hasn't occurred to you yet, but I doubt it."
"It can't be," she shifted in her seat. Don't I have the wrinkles to prove it, she asked herself, convinced it was a fact.
"How old is your husband?" the Captain inquired, thinking 'of course the husband would never have reported her. He must have known for some time, but to continue to have such a beautiful woman, forever remaining as stunning as she was. No doubt someone else turned her in. A colleague, most likely, or a neighbor. A woman, in all probability, jealous for sure.'
"Fifty nine," she reported immediately.
"And how old was he when you married him?"
"Thirty," she replied. "We'll be celebrating our thirtieth anniversary this summer."
"And yet," Snig said, "your retinal scan shows your age to be thirty two, and exactly thirty two by the way. How would you explain that?"
"It's a mistake," Edeline said.
"Yet when you look in the mirror?"
"I work hard to stay in shape," she insisted. "I workout every day. I do yoga. I color my hair to keep out the grey."
"There is no grey," he informed her. "Never was, never will be. Miss Wills? Do you truly not know what you are?"
"I'm an ordinary person," she said. "I go to work every day. In fact, what time is it? I have a meeting at nine. It's very important."
"It will have to make do without you," said Snig with a sigh.
"But".
"It's no use, Miss Wills," he went on. "You do know the rules, I am sure. Everyone does. There's simply no place for those such as you in our world. Too much trouble, you know. It can't be allowed."
"Not the forest!" she exclaimed. She waited a moment for Snig to relent but when she saw that he didn't, she began finally to panic.
"No, please no," she begged him, but he only sat quietly. He knew what would come. The yelling, the crying, perhaps even a physical attack. He was old and decrepit. She could crumple him like paper if she chose. Anyone could, but his veneer of utter weakness was sufficient to deter most violence. In any event, officers were posted outside and would intervene at once if it were needed. Snig didn't worry. He would wait out the storm, but Edeline found she was incapable of making a scene, as much as she wanted to. She had always been wait too polite and proper. There were ways of behaving oneself, and appearances must be upheld. She would not make a fool of herself (there was her mother again, lecturing once more in the back of her mind. Edeline! do NOT make a fool of yourself!)
So it was she was easily led, loaded into a van and driven out to the boundary. They would not let her take anything with her, not even a jacket. They refused to let her even change her outfit. She was compelled to go into exile exactly as they'd found her when she'd opened the door. They drove for hours to get there, then drove past the gate and up to the edge of the forest, which seemed to stretch on forever. She got out of the car on her own. The female escorts did not have to force her. They pointed the way down a narrow dirt path and told her "get walking and don't turn around". She did. At some point she must have passed through containment. She couldn't tell where that occurred, but when she finally did turn around, the world she had known had entirely vanished. All she could see was the forest.
She turned completely around to be sure, then she stood very still, and listened. She heard nothing at first but the pounding inside her own mind. Then there seemed to be a sound of leaves rustling in wind. Then suddenly a voice, very clear, very close.
"The Hidden One calls you to order," it said. She had no idea what it was talking about.
"You're new here, aren't you?" said the voice, and looking around, Edeline saw no one, only a very large, very black bird, hopping about on a tree stump in front of her.
"Excuse me?" Edeline said, expecting some man to appear, for it was a man's voice that she heard.
"Yes, it's me," said the crow, flapping its wings to attract her attention. "I know it's not exactly what you're expecting."
"Crows don't talk," Edeline said, fixing her gaze on the bird. "At least not where I come from. If you're some of ventriloquist," she called out loudly, "you can come out now. Game's over and I'm really not in the mood."
"I can only reach you this way at the moment," the bird told her. "Consider it an alternate means of communication."
"Right," Edeline snapped. "I'm out of here." She turned and began to walk away from the crow, but it took off and flew just above her.
"You might as well listen," the crow said.
"Leave me alone," Edeline shouted as she waved her arms above her head, hoping to fend the thing off, but it persisted in following her as she stumbled about in the woods. She didn't know where she was going, of course. The bird reminded her about that.
"What do you care?" she yelled at the bird.
"Listen!" she continued. "I'm having a really lousy day, okay? Come back tomorrow if you want. Just leave me alone." At that, Edeline finally broke down into tears, and stopped to lean against a tree trunk and weep. The bird settled down on a branch just above her, and waited. After her tears began to melt into sniffles, the crow spoke again, more gently this time.
"The Hidden One calls you to order," it repeated.
"I don't know about any hidden anything," Edeline mumbled.
"Then I'll tell you," the crow offered. "Come, sit down, and let's talk."
"Oh all right," Edeline relented. She looked around for somewhere to sit but finding nothing, she plopped down onto the ground. The crow flew down and ruffled its feathers, taking a position beside her.
"That's better," it said. "We have much to discuss."