Amber turned around and held her mom tight. They'd been sitting in the kitchen for more than an hour now, and the last remnants of her cereal had turned to mush in the bottom of the bowl, but Amber felt like she'd really done the right thing for once. Telling her mom the truth was harder, and maybe even scarier, than facing down a monster. But it was a huge weight off her shoulders, and she hoped she'd been right to say something.

"Do you know how to find this Amma girl?" Mom eventually asked, "She's the one that you haven't met in your dreams, right?"

"I've seen her twice now. Or, there's a man who's got her soul. It's like she's trapped in somebody else's body, she can only talk when he lets her. I know she was angry with Mel, she slapped him in the face, and we didn't know why. We thought it was just because she's like the bad guy."

"The guy who dragged you out of school?" Mom's voice was suddenly harsh again, "That was your friend?"

"He didn't... I kind of... it's like I could feel Ammadrine's ancestral spirit. I had to talk to her, but I didn't know why. Like an itch you have to scratch, I walked out without thinking. He didn't know who I was, you can't blame him really." Amber felt Mom's arms around her stiffen, and she knew that this time there was nobody to blame but herself. She'd lied to Mom, when she didn't know what else to say.

"I guess if you'd told me the truth, I wouldn't have believed you anyway." The words came out one by one, like they were being dragged out of some ancient tar pit. Mom wasn't good at holding back anger, but she was trying hard. "Okay, but you said you saw him again?"

"Yesterday. He was at the school, with a janitor's uniform. He was... I think he was trying to run away from the monster, and Amma wanted to fight it? Or she summoned it, but that doesn't even make sense. He ended up fighting it, anyway. Like, he used Amma's powers to fight it."

"How does that work? Is it like you've got to grab these super-powers from your past self before you can use them?"

"Not for us. Like me and Orsertro, we're the same person. Like when you think you did something dumb when you were younger, or you wish you could remember something you used to know. You might think that the past-you is like a different person, that knows more, or less, or something. But you know really that it's just you changing, not really somebody else. But this guy, he isn't Ammadrine. But her spirit's in his body. Like they're fighting over it. I think he said that he can use her powers, but if he does, then she gets to take over the body, and she wants to do things that's too horrible for him to talk about."

"I see... I don't understand, but I think you don't either. So your friend Amma got kicked out of the club, and now she has different rules. Seems weird, but if these powers come from some ancient hoodoo or something..."

"It's a lot to learn, I think. I still don't get it all, and I'm sorry I'm telling you so much at once, you don't need to worry about it."

"It's okay. I just haven't heard a story like this since... I used to know a guy who read books with stories like this. A guy I met in college, can't even remember his name now. You're not the only one wishing you could remember better sometimes. But... okay, let's think what we can do."

Amber looked up, eyes wide. It had been a lot of weeks since Mom had managed to surprise her now, ever since she had so many secrets of her own. But that was an answer she'd never been expecting.

"Well, you want to help somebody. Maybe I don't have magic powers, but I might still have ideas. And you kind of reminded me of the person I was when I was younger. I used to be more like you, before I got so cynical. So, let's find this guy. He had a janitor uniform, right? So I'll call Maria in the school office, and see if she can get me a list of the janitors. Being on the PTA committee might be useful for once. Right?"

"Isn't that against the rules? Like, you're not supposed to..."

"Yeah, but who's going to check up? School's closed, the second mysterious planets-aligned gas explosion this year, and they're running around like headless chickens trying to find some explanation they can tell the papers without looking like they've all got tinfoil hats."

Amber giggled at the thought of the headmaster and some of the teachers with tinfoil hats on. She couldn't imagine that would be very practical, but it could stop the whole world seeming so serious after the second monster attack.

Mom phoned somebody, and then somebody else. She carefully didn't call Mel, though. He was the last person who needed to know what they were doing now, because they had no idea just how much of a grudge he and Ammadrine might have against each other. Amber hadn't heard about her in any memories after she slapped Nico, so there was no way to know what terms they'd parted on. That could even have been the last time they spoke, after she wasn't supposed to be on the Council any more. That slap could have been the last time she spoke to any of them, before her human body died fighting demons in a distant land. Did demons have some power to stop you reincarnating so easily? That was a question they'd never even thought about.

It was strange coming back to Mom for help, but Amber knew she'd done the right thing. The others wouldn't be able to do all this detective work, and they didn't have the power of the phone tree at their disposal. Amber didn't really know what that meant, but Mom seemed to be pretty sure of herself. She was sure, too, that she was doing the right thing.

"Alright," Mom eventually said, coming back from the phone after what seemed like hours. "There's like six guys who do different shifts on maintenance, with different skills. But some of them got replaced after the last monster, claiming they got hurt or something. I think it's most likely to be one of the new guys. You don't remember seeing him before, right? So it's going to be one of the ones that started this week. I called in a few favours, told different stories, and I think I got enough. Now I'm waiting to hear if anyone around town has seen removal vans lately. I put the word out, so they're going to call me back."

"Thank you," Amber couldn't think of anything else to say. "Are you going to get in trouble for this?"

"There's one lesson I don't know if I ever taught you," Mom was even laughing a little now. It was like being able to help in some way had made all the difference in the world to her mood. "Most of the time, you follow the rules. But if you have to break them, be really, really sure there isn't a better choice, and then don't look back. If people don't like it, that's their problem."