[A Few Miles Outside of Austin, Texas]
Maria had never considered herself to be much of a tourist.
Even after spending a month in Texas for training, she had managed to avoid most of the attractions that the people around her insisted were "must-see" events. Normally, the raven-haired woman preferred quiet routines, practical schedules, and spending her free time alone to catch up on the latest manga releases online. Yet somehow, on the final Saturday before her flight back home to Charlotte, the young woman found herself squeezed into the back seat of a crowded SUV with the four extremely enthusiastic Conley cousins surrounding her.
"Last day in San Antonio!" Dora announced dramatically from the passenger seat. "Which means you're legally required to have fun!"
Maria stared out the window as she replied. "I don't think that's a law."
"It should be." Diego said from beside her. "In fact, I'm pretty sure it's in the Texas constitution!"
"It's not." Sam replied from the driver's seat.
Diego shrugged. "Then we should get someone to fix that as soon as possible!"
Alexandra laughed from the middle row. "See? This is why nobody lets Diego write legislation."
Maria shook her head, though a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
In truth, it was difficult not to enjoy their company. But Maria would never admit something like that out loud.
Over the past month, the Conleys had somehow worn down her natural resistance to social interaction almost as much as her friends back home had. Not completely, of course. Maria still preferred comfortable silence most of the time. But she had grown accustomed to their endless conversations, their easy laughter, and their habit of treating her like she'd always been part of the group.
For most of the past month, her days had been filled with nothing but intense training sessions, early mornings, and long hours spent learning things she wasn't sure she'd ever use again outside of a fight. Fun had been a secondary concern with everything that had been going on. Yet somehow, during those four weeks, she had found herself becoming unexpectedly comfortable around the Conley family.
So much so that she genuinely wouldn't mind coming down here again in the future to hang out with them.
'That would be pretty nice, wouldn't it?' Maria thought to herself as she watched the city skyline pass by her window.
-(o)-
[Later That Morning, San Antonio, Texas]
The day passed surprisingly quickly as soon as the group finally arrived in San Antonio. In fact, the afternoon had passed by in such a blur of sunshine and constant movement that Maria was left wondering where the time had actually gone.
Not long after they got there, the group of young sorcerers immediately got to work wandering through the historic plazas and shaded streets of the city. They stopped to watch street performers near the city center. Diego somehow convinced a local vendor to let him try on an oversized cowboy hat that looked ridiculous on him, while Dora nearly collapsed from laughter while taking pictures. And Alex had already taken at least a dozen photos of them in various places, striking poses that Maria normally wouldn't be caught dead doing out of fear of embarrassment.
They visited museums, browsed small shops, and sampled every local food Diego insisted was "absolutely life-changing."
Several of those foods were, in fact, just tacos and other fried delicacies that could be found on practically every street corner in the city.
"You said that about the last place." Sam said to his cousin with a slight smirk on his face.
"Because those tacos changed my life." Diego quickly shot back.
"And these ones?"
"These changed it again!"
Maria quietly ate another taco. For once, she found herself agreeing with Diego. If nothing else, the young man had impeccable taste when it came to street food.
-(o)-
By late afternoon, the warm Texas sun had softened into a pleasant golden glow that hung over the landscape. And the city seemed to slow down with it. Conversations became easier. And the pace became more relaxed compared to what it was before.
As evening approached, the group eventually made its way toward the River Walk. One of the premier attractions of the city that everyone who was anyone had on their bucket list.
The River Walk was even busier than usual, according to what the Conley cousins told the young woman. Boats drifted lazily through the water while tourists crowded the nearby pathways. Music drifted in from the nearby restaurants, mixing with laughter and drunken conversation. Lights reflected across the water while tourists and locals drifted along the edges. The sound of elation floated in from nearby restaurants. And the scent of grilled food hung in the air like a warm blanket.
"This place never gets old." Alex said after snapping yet another photo of their surroundings.
Maria looked around before replying. "I bet it doesn't."
-(o)-
The group eventually settled into a small steakhouse overlooking the river in order to have their evening meal. The restaurant wasn't as flashy or crowded as some of the other places the group had already walked by. Instead, it felt comfortable and welcoming, with warm lights and a terrace that extended out over the water.
The food arrived quickly after they all sat down and placed their orders. A series of platters filled with steaks, potatoes, vegetables, and baskets of bread that seemed unreasonably robust for only four people. At the very least, the people of Texas knew how to eat. And judging by some of the stuff on the menu, it was clear to see why this place was known for its cuisine.
For several minutes, conversation gave way to eating. Then Diego pointed his fork at Maria before asking the woman a question.
"So…."
Maria looked up. "So?"
"What's Charlotte like?" The young woman asked. "We never really hear about the place aside from whatever the Thunder God is doing out there."
"Less hot, for one." The raven-haired woman said. "But to be honest, it's pretty chill. We do have a ton of banks everywhere, though."
The entire table burst into laughter.
"Fair answer." Sam said.
Maria returned to her meal as the group shifted to another topic.
-(o)-
The conversation drifted elsewhere after that, bouncing between stories, jokes, and memories from the past month. Even Maria found herself contributing occasionally.
As the evening continued, however, a particular thought kept returning to the young woman. A single question. One she'd been carrying for weeks and internally debated as to whether or not she should even ask it.
At first, she'd dismissed the whole idea as completely ridiculous. Then, after spending so much time around the person in question, she'd noticed more things that only forced her curiosity to grow even further. Little details. Small irregularities that didn't make any sense. Enough that she could no longer ignore them.
Eventually, when the others became distracted debating whether Diego could survive a week without making jokes, Maria quietly stood up from her chair.
Sam noticed immediately. "Going somewhere?"
"Outside. I need to get some air." Maria replied before continuing. "Actually…can you come with me for a second? I wanted to talk to you about something."
Sam studied her expression for a moment, curious as to what could've been on her mind. Then he nodded.
"Sure, fine with me." The brunette man said with a nonchalant shrug before rising out of his seat.
The moment the two made their exit, the others immediately began gossiping about what this could've meant.
"What's up with them?" Diego looked to his two cousins in between bites of his steak.
"Probably nothing serious." Alex quickly waved off while scrolling through her phone.
Dora, ever the imaginative individual, couldn't help but let her mind wander to the most bizarre scenario possible. "You think she's going to ask him out or something?"
"Definitely not." Alex told her. "That doesn't seem like her style. Maria's way too quiet for that."
-(o)-
The terrace was quieter than the restaurant interior. Fortunately, it was pretty closed off from the rest of the immediate area.
The river flowed peacefully below the two young sorcerers as they took in the sights around them. Boats drifted past carrying laughing passengers beneath strings of fancy overhead lights. And the now cool evening air made the place feel infinitely more bearable now that the sun was going down.
For a moment, neither of them spoke to each other. And as Maria leaned her body against the railing, she suddenly found herself getting cold feet. But after a few seconds, the young woman quickly shook off those nerves. She had already come this far, so there was no reason for her to turn back now.
Sam waited patiently for his new friend to begin talking.
Finally, Maria looked toward him.
"I have a question that I need to ask you." The raven-haired woman then said with as much conviction as she could muster. "There's something I've been wondering about you for a while now. And, please, stop me if it's none of my business."
"Oh? Now this sounds interesting…"
Maria ignored the slight joke before continuing with what she came out here for.
For several seconds, she considered backing out. The question sounded ridiculous. Completely insane to anyone with a functioning brain. But she'd spent an entire month noticing little things that desperately needed an answer. The similarities. The details. The way Sam occasionally looked less like his mother's son and more like a younger version of her in ways that didn't make any sense.
It shouldn't have been possible.
And yet…
"So…what's on your mind?"
"It's strange."
Sam smiled slightly. "Those are usually the best questions."
Maria hesitated again. Even now, the whole thing sounded absurd. But she had come this far, and she was going to see it through to the end.
"Are you a clone?"
The question hung in the air in a way that immediately made Maria feel uncomfortable.
A boat passed beneath them. Someone laughed in the distance. But Sam's expression didn't change at all, even as he opened his mouth to answer.
"Yes."
Maria blinked. That…wasn't the reaction she had been expecting.
There was no confusion. No denial. No hesitation. No attempt to dodge the question. Just a simple answer to a question that by all rights wasn't simple in the slightest.
"...What?"
Sam chuckled softly. "You asked if I'm a clone."
"I know what I asked."
"And I gave you your answer."
Maria stared at him. "You are?"
"Yup!" The calm certainty in Sam's voice somehow made it even more unbelievable.
Maria looked away for a second, collecting her thoughts. "You're serious?"
"Totally serious."
The river suddenly seemed much more interesting than it had thirty seconds earlier.
After a long pause, Maria spoke again. "You're seriously a clone of your mother?"
Sam folded his arms and smiled. "Is it really that hard to believe? She is the founder and owner of a company that clones pets and other animals, after all. It's not exactly out of the realm of possibility that she and her colleagues would do the same things for humans so long as they pay the right price and keep their mouths shut."
For perhaps the first time in her life, Maria genuinely struggled to find the words to reflect what she was thinking.
A month of observations suddenly rearranged themselves inside her head.
The similarities in Sam and his mother's mana signatures that only her companions could detect. The subtle mannerisms that were typically only unique to an individual person. The facial structure that was perfectly replicated down to even the shape of their teeth. The oddly familiar expressions they both wore on their faces. The occasional moments when the resemblance had seemed almost impossible to ignore. And the fact that they were both compatible with the exact same kind of cryptids, something that was practically unheard of for 'beast magic' users like them.
"I thought I was imagining it."
"Nope."
"Wow…this is…you really are a clone."
"I really am." Sam almost laughed. "I was actually wondering if you'd ever figure it out. Since you've already met my mother, I assumed that you would've noticed eventually. But to be honest, you held out longer asking me than my cousin, Oliver, did."
Maria let out a slow breath. The answer should have satisfied her curiosity. Instead, it generated several hundred new questions inside her head. Even for a sorcerer like her, someone who was in the know about things that no normal human had the privilege of knowing, this was the kind of information that practically blew her mind.
"Are there any more out there, besides you?"
Sam considered the question for a moment before answering. "As far as I know?"
Maria nodded.
"Five."
She frowned. "Five?"
"Well, at least five that my mother told me about." The brunette man continued. "One is the child of a famous politician that I can't tell you about without putting my life at risk. Two are the children of a couple of Chinese billionaires who invested a lot of money into my mother's company. Another is a popular young sorcerer from the CAF. And the most recent one is the child of a famous soccer player whom you've definitely heard about."
Maria stared at him again. This was truly the kind of information that she never expected to hear in her wildest dreams. After all, who would've even thought that something like this was even possible?
For several seconds, the young woman simply processed that information and tried to make sense of it in her head. Clones were real…like…actually real. And there were apparently a lot of them. Six people. Six genetically identical copies of a living person existed somewhere out there in the world. Completely unknown to those around them.
The concept felt surreal. Like something straight out of a sci-fi comic.
"This is insane. I can't believe this is actually real."
"Believe me, I understand your shock."
"And you're all identical?"
"If by that, you mean that we're all perfect genetic copies of our parents. Then yes." Sam replied rather casually. "Well, except for me. I'm kind of a special case since I'm male and my mother is female. Something went wrong in the gestation process for me that caused me to develop a Y chromosome before I was put into the surrogate's body. Don't ask me why that happened, though. Even my mother has no clue."
The statement was delivered with the same tone someone might use to discuss the weather.
To be honest, Maria really shouldn't have been all that surprised by this. After all, she had already met Samantha Conley once before. Granted, she hadn't been around the woman for long enough to actually get to know her. But from what little interaction she did have with the famous scientist, she definitely seemed crazy enough to do something like this.
Maria wasn't sure whether to laugh or be concerned. "Aren't you worried about people finding out?"
Sam shrugged. "Not really."
"Why not?"
"Who would even think to ask?" Sam replied. "Besides, it's technically not illegal to clone humans. And it's not like a lot of people out there have the money or connections to even know about it."
Maria couldn't argue with that.
It had taken her an entire month to work up the courage. And now she had gotten the answer to her long-burning question with the same casualness of two people talking about the latest movie that came out.
For a few moments, the two simply stood together overlooking the river.
Eventually, Maria shook her head. "That is, without a doubt, the strangest conversation I've ever had."
Sam laughed. "I've had stranger."
"I don't even want to know what could possibly be stranger than this."
"Probably for the best."
To her own surprise, Maria found herself smiling. Not because the revelation made sense. It absolutely did not. But because the mystery that had quietly occupied her thoughts for weeks was finally solved.
The curiosity was gone. The answer, bizarre as it was, was enough. Still, though, the idea that human cloning was actually real was something that Maria still found hard to wrap her head around. It was the kind of thing that had dramatic implications for what could possibly come of it in the future.
After another minute, Sam nodded toward the restaurant. "We should probably head back inside."
"Probably."
"The others are probably thinking that we came out here to flirt or something."
"Diego would."
"Definitely."
-(o)-
As expected, the moment Maria and Sam reentered the restaurant, Diego immediately pointed at the other two 'beast magic' users in an accusatory fashion.
"There you are!" The young man almost shouted. "We were wondering when the two of you were going to come back."
"We were only gone for ten minutes…" Sam said with a dry expression.
"Exactly!"
"That's not a long time."
"It is when dessert is involved."
Dora rolled her eyes as she scrolled through her phone. "You started eating yours before they came back anyway."
"That's not the point." Her brother folded his arms in defiance.
"It literally is."
The two quickly returned to their seats right as the twins started arguing with each other. Maria sat down and listened, content to let the chaos happen around her. And the raven-haired teen couldn't help but be reminded of how Elizabeth and Evan always argued over the littlest things at the drop of a hat. Evidently, this was a common occurrence among twins.
The rest of the evening passed pleasantly after that.
Desserts arrived. Stories were shared. Dora regaled the group with at least three stories of some of her successful cryptid hunts from the past month. Diego shamelessly tried to flirt with their waitress, only to crash and burn the moment she showed him the ring on her finger. Alex continued taking enough pictures on her phone to fill an entire photo album. And Sam occasionally attempted to restore order among the group, usually unsuccessfully.
Meanwhile, outside, night continued to settle over the River Walk.
The water reflected countless lights. The city buzzed with life around them. But as Maria listened to the conversations around her, she found herself reflecting on the past month.
She had arrived here in Texas expecting little more than training. Instead, she'd found friendships she never planned on developing. Along with a few fun adventures and unexpected memories that she was no doubt going to have to tell everyone about the moment she got back.
Oh, yeah…she also couldn't forget about getting direct confirmation that human cloning actually existed.
Not bad for four weeks, all things considered….
Soon, the raven-haired woman would be boarding a plane back to Charlotte. Back to the familiar streets and routines of ordinary life. Yet as she sat beneath the warm evening sky, surrounded by laughter and conversation, Maria realized she didn't feel entirely ready to leave.
Maybe she'd come back someday.
Maybe she'd spend more time exploring.
Maybe she'd let herself have a little more fun.
The thought lingered pleasantly in her mind.
Across the table, Diego was telling an increasingly ridiculous story while Dora supplied dramatic sound effects.
Alex was laughing.
Sam was unsuccessfully trying to fact-check the entire thing.
And for a little while longer, Maria was happy simply to sit among them and listen.
The lights shimmered across the river.
The night air remained warm.
And beneath the Texas sky, the group continued talking and joking long after dinner had ended, carrying the evening forward one laugh at a time while Maria quietly looked ahead to home, already wondering how things were going to be when she returned.