Despite her body, Zizzie knew she was a femm.(1) As far back as she could remember she had always accepted that she was a femm, despite the opinions of others based on her appearance. That she’d been born in a body that indicated being a himm,(2) made no difference to her. During her childhood her body had gradually changed to one indicating she was a him by the time she was ten. Zizzie considered that to be a step in the right direction, but still she knew she was a Kemainne femm, for her thoughts and behaviour were totally those of a femm. Puberty occurred at about the age of twelve for the Kemainne folk. Puberty was a huge relief for Zizzie, for it gave her the body of a fem, but even that small change meant she would now be capable of bearing rather than siring the next generation. All others who opined else were to her clearly of limited intellectual faculties since they were basing their opinions on the physique and facial appearance she’d had as a young child rather than on the reproductive system she now had that the hospital had confirmed. That she was the eldest child of her parents which would normally have made her at least a him though more probably a himm was a matter of no relevance to her. Her medical advisors were of the opinion that as she went through fecundity, a second stage puberty that all the Kemainne folk experienced at about sixteen years of age, her nubile(3) body and face would become those of a femm. Zizzie was of the opinion they were just telling her what they thought she wished to hear and they didn’t really know what would happen.

Despite her scepticism concerning the views of the doctors she was of the same opinion, for Mags, the old woman who lived in the wood cutters cottage in the forest to the west of the palace that she had shared with her long deceased husband and dozens of children all now long gone to find their own lives said so too. Old Mags, Crazy Mags, Mags of ten thousand descendants, Scary Mags, the epithets were endless, but the ordinary folk went to see Mags for help when they were hurt or ill. She was an expert midwife, herbalist, bone setter and comforter of the troubled and dying. More often than not she could help and she was always willing to do so, gratis to the poorest and never for more than the equivalent of a meal to those who could afford it. Mags had delivered most of the babies born within a hundred miles over the last century or so. She’d also laid out most of the dead ready for burial for as far away and as long ago. Old she was for sure, a conservative estimate put her at a century and a half, crazy perhaps but Zizzie believed not, skilled and kind certainly and generous too. It was true Mags was a femm who’d had thirty-odd children and all her descendants were as fecund as herself, but mayhap ten thousand was an exaggeration, then again mayhap not. What frightened folk was her eyes, for they were clouded like those of many a person who was blind. It was believed she saw somehow without benefit of her eyes. It was also believed she could ‘see’ the future, for all she had ever predicted had indeed come to pass, and she had always made a lot of predictions, most but by no means all concerning the weather, and folk had learnt to ignore her warnings at their peril.

When Zizzie was four and had looked like a himm she had met Mags at the Harvest Festival where royalty and folk alike enjoyed themselves together. Mags was the epitome of a crone, small and bent over using two sticks with a face like tanned leather but crinkled like a prune or a walnut, She had a full head of pure white hair that reached her waist and a voice that sounded like a cat scratching on a door to come in. Some folk were frightened by her but she was respected by billions most of who had never been within parsecs of the royal planet which she’d never left. Mags was the only person ever to have recognised Zizzie for what she truly was. “It’s Princess Zizzie the royal femm. The daughter who will be Queen and mother of the Queen after her too,” Mags had cackled. “Come, Child, let Ronan cast his eyes over you and tell me what he sees, for there is much I would say to you.” Zizzie had enjoyed Mags’ company, and not in the least frightened of her had visited Mags regularly thereafter, always bearing small gifts and food too. Mags had always welcomed her, and Zizzie was fascinated by the strange arcane looking things that Mags surrounded herself with in her cottage. Mags kept hens and a pig and had a pet raven named Ronan that could talk and usually perched on one of her shoulders. Folk said it whispered secrets in her ears. Zizzie was thirteen before she summoned the courage to ask how Mags knew she would become a femm on her fecundity. Mags had replied cryptically, “The same way I know yon pig will be salt pork before the year’s end, Child. It is in the nature of things that things that must be must be. Now be a good femm, Zizzie, and run home, for if you leave now it will barely be gloaming when you enter the palace. If you leave it any longer you’ll get shouted at, for twill be dark. It’s fine for himms and even for hims to be out after dark, but not so for fems and even less so for femms. Off you go, or mayhap you will not be allowed to visit me again.”

As has been referred to there are four zexes(4) in the Kemainne zex continuum and himms are the most masculine, the lesser males are hims. Only one in twenty males are himms. The lesser females are fems and the most feminine are femms. Like the males only one in twenty females are femms. The Kemainne population is approximately fifty-two percent female. However, zex fluidity on puberty and fecundity though rare is a well known and documented phenomenon. It is however not understood and is completely unpredictable.

Though most of the populace were not aware of it, their royalty had over the millennia most often married members of the general public rather than members of the aristocracy. This was what royal children had, deliberately, been educated to expect, for the Kemainne royal family had believed for millennia that only as members of the general public would they be able to function optimally as leaders of their folk. When out in public they were perceived by the folk to be approachable persons who would cheerfully buy one a drink in a local hostelry and more to the point persons who would give one genuine gratitude should one buy them a drink. That perception gave them a status few leaders anywhere else in the galaxy could enjoy from the folk they controlled. In fact the Kemainne royal family did not control their folk, nor did they wish to. Most had a low public profile, and only the immediate royal family of their long tailed clan were recognised by their folk when out in public. They managed their empire with the full approval of their folk and whenever a new matter emerged which required consideration they waited till the opinion of the folk became clear before they made a decision which they in turn always made clear was open to change subject to public opinion. They were approachable and popular, for though not all the Kemainne were wealthy none were poverty stricken.

Zizzie’s parent loved her and as far as they were concerned if Zizzie said she was a femm they were happy to accept that, for whatever her zex she was their eldest child and heir to the throne. King Embar, Zizzie’s father, was philosophical and was known to have said, “In not many years the matter will be entirely resolved, so I suggest patience, for there is no need for anyone to become angry or even upset over the matter.” In the interests of a quiet life with her eldest daughter, Queen Alicia, Zizzie’s mother, had insisted that her eldest child was referred to as Princess Zizzie by all the palace staff, all of who were happy to comply with the Queen’s order, which had actually been phrased as a request, because Zizzie had always been a sweet child with impeccable manners and moreover she’d always been grateful for all help and service they’d provided her with. Even Zizzie’s younger siblings posed no problems to her. Those immediately below her in age had no problems with her self determined zex, though the toddlers struggled with the idea. However, since Zizzie dressed as a femm and that was the deciding factor for the toddlers they just accepted her as she wanted to be accepted. All of which meant Zizzie had no problems in the palace.

However, Zizzie’s enigmatic zex was a matter of concern to the aristocracy and the house of representatives, some of who purely to create dissent insisted on referring to her as Prince Zizzie. Whilst polite and respectful as a rule, Zizzie had had her share of royal presence and hauteur from birth and as a child she simply did not respond to a mode of address she considered to be incorrect and bad mannered. As an adolescent she refused to meet with any who had miszexed her in the past till they apologised and promised to zex her correctly in the future. That meant she was not available for official duties to over a third of the bureaucracy and there was nothing her parents could do about it, for Zizzie was both obdurate and intractable. The one time her mother had insisted she perform an opening ceremony for someone Zizzie wasn’t prepared to deal with she’d disappeared for a week and when she reappeared as suddenly as she’d disappeared she refused to say where she had been. That the entire military and police of the royal planet had been searching for Zizzie without finding a single clue as to her whereabouts at any time during the entire time she was missing was initially blamed on Mags, but there was not a shred of evidence to implicate the old woman, and she’d a cast iron alibi many miles away from when and where Zizzie had disappeared, so she’d been left alone. Zizzie had changed her clothes and disguised herself as a younger him and hidden in the crèche that was available to palace servants with children. Since the crèche operated twenty-four hours a day with four different shifts of staff none had even noticed she was there all week. She was fed, washed, bathed, given a change of clothes and put down for a nap when staff considered it was necessary. All in all Zizzie had considered it to be a rather pleasant holiday. Mags’ reputation was known far and wide in the empire, and that she’d said Zizzie would be Queen and give birth to the next Queen meant that the populace always referred to Zizzie as Princess Zizzie.

Mags had yet again been correct, for on undergoing her fecundity Zizzie had indeed become a femm. Her body and her face now matched her mind, and though she had always known what she was she was happy she now looked the part too. As was normal, her parents declared a public holiday, threw a huge open air ball to celebrate the event and paid for similar events all over the empire to which all were invited to attend. Zizzie started looking for a husband, for upon fecundity, as was usual, her reproductive urges had made themselves of significance to her. She knew it was her duty to produce an heir, but it was a duty she was looking forward to fulfilling. There was no rush, but she considered it sensible to start looking early rather than late. Mags had told her, “You will not have to look far, my dear, but you will have to wait for a few years and then look hard in unexpected places. Your shifting across the entire zex spectrum was not without purpose, but you must learn from it. You can’t afford to ever forget your early life, and never settle for anything less than a depth of love like that your parents share. Never.” Like many of Mags’ utterances it was cryptic and for a long time Zizzie didn’t appreciate nor understand what Mags had meant.

Five years later it all became clear when Zizzie and Mienon fell in love. Mienon was a kitchen scullion of the same age as Zizzie in the palace who met her when she sneaked into the kitchens to persuade Jamier, one of her favourite cooks, to prepare some honey cakes for her. Honey cakes were a delicacy she was especially fond of and Jamier’s were of particular excellence. Mienon had opened a door for Zizzie and as they looked at each others’ faces they both knew that was it, they had just met the one. It was a lot easier for Zizzie than for Mienon, but within the hour she had persuaded him that walking in the palace gardens holding hands was a good idea. Zizzie’s parents were delighted, for both had been worried that their daughter would have difficulty finding an appropriate young man, for she had few friends and was reputedly difficult with those of her own age. Naturally they would have accepted a him, but equally naturally they would have preferred a himm, but himms were sought by all fems as well as femms, and given that the population had only forty-eight males to every fifty-two females himms could afford to be choosy. That their daughter was a princess would not help her in attracting a husband and that had been their worry.

It was a while before Mienon realised he no longer worked in the kitchens and his new occupation would be accompanying Zizzie on her official duties till he was ready to handle a workload of such duties of his own. It was a puzzle to him that he had less money than before, in fact he had none, for strictly he no longer was in employment. However, it soon became clear he didn’t need money, for he only had to ask and all his needs and desires too were met, but the only thing he really wanted was Zizzie’s company. By the time the royal tailors, barbers, shoemakers and various other personal attendants had finished with him his ex-colleagues in the kitchens no longer recognised him. Then of course there were the stable staff, water bailiffs, gun masters, sailing captains and a whole host of others who were there to ensure his sporting and other skills were up to public scrutiny. He rapidly became lost in a maze of the making of them all that he couldn’t see any way out of. When he finally had a little time to spend with Zizzie he explained and said, “I just want to run away. I love you, but I hadn’t bargained for having my every waking minute taken away from me. I haven’t seen you for days. If I’d run away a week ago I’d have seen no less of you than I have in the last week. It’s ridiculous and it’s got to stop.”

Zizzie smiled and said, “It’s because you are too nice, My Love. All you have to do is tell them to stop and go away and they will. I’m very sorry, but I should have explained you have to control your time. You need an assistant to manage things. Someone who you can tell what time you wish for you, or for us, or indeed for any other purpose. Then all the others will have to fit into the remaining time. I’ll ask father to find you someone who will fight your corner for you. I have to open a new hothouse in the botanical gardens this afternoon. If you come with me we have some time together and I can shew off my wonderful fiancé to some of those gruesome old women on the committee. Afterwards I’ll ask Simone to drive us up to that little restaurante on the mountain where we can take tea and walk part of the way back down again before she takes us back to the palace. How does that sound?”

“Wonderful, but will Simone not bring trouble on her head helping us to evade what we should perhaps be doing?”

“I went to school with Simone, she is one of my few real friends. She doesn’t care about trouble because she works for me, not the palace, and she always fights my corner for me. I thought she’d leave me when she married Hartley, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Have you any friends like that that you could employ?”

“No. You know I’m an orphan who dragged myself up. The best thing that happened to me before I met you was managing to find employment in the palace kitchens.”

“In that case I have an idea. Hartley! Simone’s husband. She says he’s bored and unhappy working in the counting house of whatever that concern is that he works for. Hartley would be ideal. He’s a himm and could deal with anything that comes up. Simone is a femm and I believe that is what makes her so suitable for me. If the pair of them worked for us we wouldn’t even have to coördinate our days because they’d do it all for us. The bonus from their point of view is they’d be able to spend time together at work. What do you think?”

“I don’t know what to think, but it has to be better than things at the moment, so let’s try it.”

“I’ll ask Simone about it when she takes us to the Botanical Gardens.” The couple enjoyed their day and before Simone drove them back to the palace they waited outside the winery for Hartley to leave work.

“No problem at all, Your Highness. I’d be delighted to work for you. It’s my idea of a dream job. I’ll hand my notice in tomorrow and I’m all yours in a week.”

“Two things, Hartley. If I pay you a month’s starting bonus and you write off what you’ll lose from your current employer is there any chance you can start tomorrow because I really need someone to keep the palace employees at bay. Second your wife calls Zizzie Zizzie. Is there any chance you’ll call me Mienon?

“Certainly, Your— Mienon. That may take a bit of getting used to. As for starting tomorrow, I can do that. I’ll go into work early to explain, and because it’s you I’m starting work for I’ll probably get paid for the week anyway. If I do what do you wish to do about that?”

“You keep it. I’ll not get out of bed till you arrive tomorrow, so as to avoid the folk you are going to deal with. Any idea what time that will be?”

“Probably about nine, Your— Mienon.”

“Excellent. I’m looking forward to it.”

The following day, Simone drove Zizzie, Mienon and Hartley to Mags’ cottage. Zizzie and Mienon went in and she introduced him to the old woman she thought of as her mentor. That was when all became clear. “I’ve been waiting to meet you for longer than you have lived, Mienon,” Mags said quietly. “I know all about you. I’ve followed your life in yonder pond when the water has been still. You started life as a femm, and lost your entire family at five. After that you survived running errands for crusts. I’ve cried for you every time you took a beating, but I could do nothing, for though I could see you I had no idea where you were other than it was not on the royal planet. I wasn’t even sure you were within the empire. You become a fem by the age of nine, doing odd jobs to eat a little better, but still suffering regular beatings. You become a him as a result of puberty at twelve, but still were not big enough to avoid the brutality, but you ate a little better than before because you could do tougher work. You’d have been fourteen when I saw you stowaway on the livestock freighter that brought you to the royal planet, but it didn’t set down at a freighter terminal but on the open grasslands somewhere, so I still could not locate you.

“You worked the livestock, and at sixteen as a result of fecundity you became a himm, and were finally big enough and strong enough to return blow for blow from the bullies and thugs, but it cost you your job. For the next five years you drifted from one place to another from one meal to the next, more often hungry than not. You were troubled and seeking, but not knowing what it was you were seeking. Eventually three months ago you were hired on as a day labourer carrying boxes of food stuffs. One of the places you delivered to was the palace kitchens where a bully from the pantries assumed you were a kitchen porter. You let him believe that, and were unpaid for a month living on kitchen leftovers. Then a junior cook asked you your name and realised you were not on the work roll. He assumed you were too frightened to speak up and had your name included on the scullions roll. You were finally being paid. I’d not seen you in the water for some time, but when I did I saw you were well and in the right place for what had to happen to happen. Now you are here and you life is good and going to become much better. Like Zizzie you have shifted across the entire zex spectrum but in the opposite direction to her. Your life has been physically hard, hers has been psychologically hard. You always knew you were a himm. And she always knew she was a femm. Now at last the two of you are together as I always knew would happen.”

The two youngsters stared at Mags. Mienon knew what she had said was the absolute truth of his life and Zizzie could see that in his eyes. For the first time Zizzie was afraid of Mags. Just who and more importantly what was the old woman? Mags cackled with laughter and said, “You’ve never heard of me doing anything like what I’ve just done have you Zizzie?”

“No. Never.”

“Well I’ll tell you the truth of it. It’s up to you whether you repeat it or not. A long time ago, I was fair, beautiful even, more to the point I was a femm of femms and no man was immune from my charms. I suppose I was the ultimate seductress. I never used it till one day I met a himm and his scent had as powerful an effect on my desires as mine did on his. We spent two days together in bed before our desires waned. We were not in love, it was just chemistry. To this day I’m not even sure we liked each other. Within the month I knew I was pregnant. Within six months I had discovered my lover had been Prince Donal heir apparent to the throne.” The youngsters were now wide eyed and drew in their breaths. “I wasn’t interested in finding him. I was pregnant, but what of it? I could make my own way, for even then I was good at healing, and a healer is welcome everywhere. My son grew up, joined the military, left on a troopship for a far flung planet and I never heard of him again. Twenty-odd years later I met a him I loved, a wood cutter for the palace, this was his home that he built before we met. We married and lived here and reared thirty four children. One by one the children left to find their own paths and my husband died. I’ve lived here ever since and one day I’ll die here. But back to the present, You, Mienon, are my great, great, great, great grandson, and as a result of your family dying you are the only direct descendant of Prince Donal, for he died heirless and a son of his younger brother became king, and that is why I could follow you in the pond. It’s the call of my blood. I always knew one day the blood lines would be reunited. I just didn’t know how complex the matter would become with both of you shifting across the zex spectrum. Zizzie, make tea will you please?”

The couple and Mags talked for a couple of hours and decided they would tell Zizzie’s parents about Mienon’s family background. When they left the cottage Mienon said to Simone and Hartley, “We’ve just had a shock. No one other than direct family is to have an appointment for forty-eight hours with either of us. I suspect a lot of that time we’ll be in meetings with the King and Queen. You will be told what is going on but not for a few days. I mean no one under any circumstances. Is that clear?”

Simone and Hartley both replied, “Yes, Your Highness.”

It all came out rather well in the end and rather than Mienon becoming king consort the couple became joint monarchs. That and their shared reciprocal experiences were to form the basis of a happy, stable and long marriage. How do I know all this? I’m Princess Xorona, Queen Zizzie and King Mienon’s eldest child and heir and I’ve always been grateful that I was born a femm and neither puberty nor fecundity changed that. Shifting across the zex spectrum may well have been one of the factors that welded my parents together, but they both paid a high price for it, a price I’m glad I never had to pay. Still, I’ve been kissing a himm by the name of Meggar recently. Meggar is twenty-two, two years older than I, and he’s meeting Mum and Dad later today. Oh, I forgot to add he was born a himm, so no issues there either.

1 Femm, pronounced femen. [fem + en] [IPA fɛmɛn] Like fem, femm is used to refer to a girl.
2 Himm, pronounced himen. [him + en] [IPA himɛn] Like him, himm is used to refer to a boy.
3. Despite many other more modern, and less respectable, usages nubile originally referred to a young woman mature enough for marriage. A subsequent definition now acceptable to literary authorities is a sexually attractive young woman. It is used here in the former, original sense.
4 Zex(es), more akin to gender(s) in modern usage rather than sex(es). Used thus even though gender is strictly a word that refers to declining nouns i.e. a grammatical term.