Maxine felt much better after three days of rest. Her time in the medical pod gave her plenty of time to revise her escape plan. She was angry that the village in the shadow world had been found by the Shadow Lords, but was relieved to find a strange anomaly with the shadow world's star system. The shadow world's star system had been isolated by a strange field that nuetralizes almost all technology. Thus rendering them unable to use the necessary equipment to track her spiritual sense traces. That special equipment was how they found out about the shadow world in the first place according to Guan. He also mentioned it had other functions, but neglected to mention what they were.
However, it made her re-evaluate how she would operate at her new escape location. She couldn't leave any trace that her main body or clones were on the shadow world. It would just draw too much attention to the village and could possibly get it destroyed, But she didn't want to leave it undefended at all.
Although the villagers had come a long way, they were by no means ready for a real fight. Most of them were essentially untested outside of hunting and scaring off small groups of bandits with displays of power. Still, she brought their average strength up from bronze rank seven to iron stage rank 1. They could overpower almost any force that decided to give them trouble at this point, but that was assuming that they could bring themselves to kill another living person. She knew first hand how hard it was to kill a member of your own race for the first time.
So she planned to leave the majority of her shadow wolves and ravens to protect the village with a modified shadow clone in charge. A shadow clone was the only type of construct she had that could retain complex commands of any kind. She simply had to leave very specific commands to react to a variety of different situations.
As for her plan for when she arrived on the hero world, she would have to bring her clones and any constructs with her. Afterall, the Shadow Lords were only after her due to the fact that she was most likely the Shadow Queen and besides her self, her clones were the only ones that had the same capabilities as she did. God damn it. I hate it when things get too complicated. Still I cant take a risk that I can be tracked in any way when I bug out. At least, my approach to the hero world will remain the same. It won't be easy to pull off though and I definitely can't show off my shadow essence. That's the same as announcing where I'm at. I will use only the light essence that is part of my shadow essence and present myself as a healer. I can't just show up in a city out of nowhere without some means of identification. I have no doubt that their government has some kind of means to keep track of the population, so I need find out that information before making an appearance. I might have to procure an ID illegally. If nothing else, I could just hide out in an uninhabited area for awhile until I figure something out.
Maxine was brought out of her thoughts when Emiy walked in with a smile on her face. "Your wounds are mostly healed and you can leave the hospital any time you want. But you should avoid anything more strenous than walking for now," Emily said happily, "It still amazes me how quickly you heal. If we could figure that out and stimulate a similar effect in normal people, we wouldn't have to keep patients so long after big surgeries. Hell, it might change the face of medicine altogether."
"If the Technological Union couldn't figure it out after studying Guan all this time, Earth's scientists won't be able to just from studying a few samples of my blood," Maxine said sadly, but quickly perked up, "Did you bring me any clothes to wear? Most of the casual clothing I had was shredded. I had packed clothing for combat, not for a casual visit."
"Yes, I did," Emily said as she pulled patted a dimensional pouch at her waist and several sets of clothing appeared folded on a counter, "Pick whatever you like. We can go hang out and eat out once it gets later. But what will we do if someone recognizes you?"
Maxine picked a pair of jeans and tshirt before she answered with a smile, "That's easy. They won't know it's me. Just watch." With a thought, she sent a pulse of essence into her hair to change its color to the exact shade of brown it was before she forced her cultivation to iron stage.
"How do I look?" Maxine asked while brushing her hair over her shoulder.
"Good," Emily said, "And that's one neat trick. Can you change your hair to any color?"
"Yes, I can. I can make it rainbow colored if I wanted, but I perfer this one," Maxine answered.
"Well it is your original hair color afterall," Emily commented, "But that won't be enough to trick some of those guys camped outside."
"Good point," Maxine answered and put a thin screen of essence over her face to shift her cheek bones and jaw slightly to give herself a completely different look. It wasn't that hard to maintain, but if someone touched her face, the illusion would shatter. "How's this?" Maxine asked.
"Perfect," Emily answered.
"Good. So, where we headed for our date?" Maxine asked once she finished changing clothes, and teased Emily as an afterthought, "Or do you want to watch me change clothes all day?"
Emily smiled beautifully as she rolled her eyes in amusement before she answered, "I was thinking we could go for a walk through a park or something like that. You need some fresh air after being cooped up in here for so long. And I thought it wouldn't hurt if you got to see how your school is doing."
"Sounds like a plan," Maxine agreed, "So, did those two ever decide on a new name for my school?" I still feel bad about leaving them with that place and I didn't even bother giving that place a proper name. I thought Maxine's Cultivation School was pretty good, but kind of pointless to keep the name when I was so universally hated. They probably changed it.
"Yes, the Fire and Ice Academy," Emily answered. Fire and Ice academy? I know who the fire in that name is refering to, but what about ice? Wait. Ice is water and wind put together. That would have to be Amanda. Now that I think about it, I wonder how those two have progressed in their relationship. I heard a few rumors about Amanda being pregnant a while back, but beyond that, nothing.
"Sounds nice," Maxine said, "By the way, did Amanda have her baby yet?"
"Yeah nearly six months ago. A baby girl that they named Sarah," Emily said.
"That's wonderful! Which one does the little girl resemble most? Amanda or Chris?" Maxine asked.
"Neither. She has Amanda's red hair and Chris' eyes," Emily said. Maxine tried to envision a baby with a head of red hair and the same kind of hazel eyes that Chris Maze had.
"She sounds adorable," Maxine said and looked at the time, "So when do we head out?"
"Any time that you want," Emily answered.
"Let's go now then," Maxine said cheerfully as she headed for the door and added, "You can join us too Neesa."
"I appreciate the offer, Maxine, but it would be best that I remain unseen. I would hate to ruin your efforts at being incognito," Neesa said without breaking her stealth technique.
"Suit yourself," Maxine said as she left the hospital room and made her way out of the Medical Center.
Once they were outside, there were plenty of protesters and news reporters camping outside. Many of them immediately looked towards Maxine and Emily, but they quickly lost interest. Good, there are no cultivators in this crowd. That makes it easier.
The two of them quickly left without much difficulty and made their way to the Fire and Ice Academy. It wasn't in the same building it had before and now resided in a three story building. She guessed there were at least a few hundred people inside of it at any given time just to handle the paper work side of things. She couldn't imagine how many cultivators they had under their employ.
Emily raised her hand in greeting as she approached the guard at the entrance, "Hey, Phil. Is Amanda in?"
"Yeah, she's in her office with her bundle of joy," Phil said, "I'll let her know you are coming up. By the way, whose your friend?"
"An old friend. We wanted to surprise Amanda with a visit," Emily said while showing a mischievous smile.
"Gotcha," Phil said as he opened the doors for them. Maxine checked his cultivation out of curiosity and found that he was at the peak of iron stage. It was quite impressive to have someone that strong acting just as the guard to the front door at least here on Earth.
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"Nice to meet you, Phil," Maxine said as they walked passed him.
She followed Emily through the building and spotted a dojo where a lot of young students were training under a teacher. It reminded her about her own students and she began to wonder what happened to them all. I better check on them later.
After a short elevator ride and short walk down a hallway, they finally reached Amanda's office room. Not that she needed a guide once they reached the third floor. She could hear Amanda's baby girl wailing as soon as they got off the elevator. Damn, that baby has a pair of lungs on her.
They looked at each other just outside of Amanda's office before Emily opened the door. "Sounds like you could use a hand with Sarah," Emily said as she walked inside, "We could hear her clear from outside."
"Thanks, I could use a hand with her," Amanda said as she looked up from the baby in her arms, "Whose that with you?"
Maxine followed behind Emily inside and closed the door before she released disguise. "I'm hurt that you don't recognize me, Amanda," Maxine said teasingly, "And now I can see why you didn't come to visit me at the hospital. That little girl of yours is a handful, and you still managed to run this place at the same time. I would be surprised if you had any spare time at all"
"Maxine!" Amanda shouted in shock, "What are you doing here?!"
"I just came to visit you and your daughter. She's a cutie," Maxine said as she got a better look at Amanda's baby girl. So, she does have Amanda's hair and Chris' eyes. But why do I feel like I'm in the den of some ancient beast? I hope it's just the protective mom vibes coming off of Amanda. If nothing else, my presence seems to be calming the little girl down. She is already starting to drift off to sleep.
"I wish you hadn't," Amanda said as she face palmed with her free hand, "We were just able to get our school on even grounds with the guilds that have popped up over the past two years. We can't take the hit to our public image by being associating with you for a second time."
"Why do you think I came in disguise?" Maxine asked, "I didn't want to hurt your school's reputation. Although honestly, that wasn't the only reason I was in disguise. I just really didn't want to be harrassed by protesters and reporters every second I was out and about."
"How certain are you that you fooled everyone?" Amanda asked.
"I kept my awareness on my surrounding the whole time. No one recognized me as far as I could tell," Maxine answered, "And I have yet to meet anyone that can see through it when I'm determined to conceal my identity. Scrambling my essence wavelength is a lot hard than you would think."
"Good," Amanda said and she finally noticed her baby wasn't crying anymore, "Oh thank god. She's finally asleep. You have no idea how hard it is to take care of a baby."
"I might have an idea," Maxine answered, "There were a few new mothers amongst the servants at the Kavros Clan and they were tired a good deal of the time."
"Your clan made them work right after having their babies?!" Amanda asked in shock.
"No, they don't. They have a special courtyard set aside for new mothers and they don't have to work for five years after giving birth. I went to visit that courtyard a few times to give them a hand," Maxine said while feeling a little uncomfortable. I also wanted a little experience with handling infants and toddlers. I need to know that sort of thing if I want to be a mother too. Although, I'm not sure how I feel about breast feeding.
"You never told me you did that," Emily commented.
"I was going to. Afterall, when we have our baby, at least one of us has to have an idea of how to take care of one," Maxine answered.
"You two are going to have a baby?" Amanda asked in surprise, "Whose the lucky guy that going to help with that or are you going to the alternative route?"
"You didn't tell Amanda about Guan's potion?" Maxine asked in mild disbelief, "I thought you would have shared that with Amanda."
"I havn't gotten around to it yet. I'm still coming to grips that it was possible at all," Emily answered and a moment later, Amanda asked, "What potion?"
"It's a potion that can temporarily invert the gender of whoever drinks it," Maxine answered without thinking.
"Really now?" Amanda said with a devilish grin, "Does it work on men too?"
"I... Guan never said anything about that detail. It might," Maxine answered uncertainly, "Why do you ask?"
"I was thinking about getting two of those for me and Chris. I want to feel what it's like to be the man in the relationship," Amanda said with a devilish smile.
Both Emily and Maxine struggled not to laugh at Amanda's comment, but it was a loosing battle. After a couple seconds of snickering, they laughed. It was worse that Maxine could imagine the dumbfounded and horrified look on Chris' face when Amanda suddenly grew a dick before his eyes as his own shrank and vanished. That mental image only made her laugh all the harder.
A gentle knock on the door shattered that mental image as someone outside asked, "Is everything alright?"
"Yes, everything's alright, James," Amanda said and gave a quick glare at Emily and Maxine, "Both of you stop laughing. You will wake Sarah."
"Sorry," Emily said softly and Maxine added her own apology a beat later, "My bad, but it's really hard when you deal a joke like that out."
"Whose joking," Amanda said with a straight face. Hmm, I wonder what Chris has done to piss Amanda off. Now that I think about it. Where is Chris anyways?
"By the way, where is Chris at?" Maxine asked. She hadn't sensed Chris Maze at all since she entered the building. She couldn't imagine why he wouldn't be here to help Amanda take care of their daughter.
"He spends most of his time training our new recruits. It just so happens that he took them out for their first real hunt this morning. He should be back some time around dinner. That's assuming there arn't any issues during their hunt," Amanda complained, "We don't have a lot of senior essence cultivators to take rookies out to hunt. Most of our original students have just entered iron stage and the few that we do have are almost constantly out on missions. Not to mention that Chris is literately the strongest person in the academy. Although I probably don't need to tell you that."
Maxine sent out her spiritual sense to look for Chris Maze in the nearby forests and found him. His cultivation was just a step away from silver stage and it felt like his foundation was extremely firm. It was as if it were only a matter of a few days before he reached silver stage.
"Wow," Maxine said in surprise, "You weren't kidding. It feels like he's about to advance to silver stage."
"Really?!" Amanda asked excitedly, "If he can advance, that would mean we would have the strongest native born warrior on the planet. It would be a huge boost to our reputation."
"That it would be," Maxine agreed and began to feel hungry, "On a side note, do you want to go out to eat with me and Emily?"
"No, I still have a lot of work to do. I can always get James to get me something from the cafeteria," Amanda answered, "But if you are willing, I could use a bit of help taking care of Sarah. She may be sleeping now, but as you noticed, she can be a handful when she's awake."
"I don't see a problem with that. Do you, Maxine?" Emily asked with a sparkle in her eyes, "You did say we need experience taking care of a baby."
"That I did," Maxine agreed, "So what do you need us to do?"
"As long as you are careful, you can hold her," Amanda said, "Which one of you want to hold her first?"
"I guess I do," Maxine said as she came forward and extended her arms out. Amanda held her baby carefully and stood up. Maxine carefully took little baby Sarah from Amanda and slowly brought the sleeping baby to her chest. She paid extra attention to craddling the infant's head. She got enough grief from the servants about that to know that infants lacked the muscular strength to support their own heads. She got a closer look at baby Sarah's face as a small smile spread across her face.
Maxine sensed someone staring out her and looked up to see which one of them was staring at her. Oddly enough both of them were staring at her with smiles on their faces. "What?" Maxine asked, "Is there something in my teeth or something?"
"No, not at all. It's just that you were the perfect image of a mother there for a second," Emily said happily.
"You must really want one of your own to have an expression like that," Amanda added in, "So when should I expect to see you holding one of your own?"
"I don't know. It all depends on Emily," Maxine answered.
Emily said, "I would prefer we have them after we turn eighteen. I don't want to be labeled as a underaged mother and I don't want Maxine to be either. But there are times when I'm really tempted to do it."
"You wouldn't be one by the Kavros Clan's standards," Maxine said as she pinched the bridge of her nose as she remembered how young some of the servant girls with babies were, "Quite a few have them in their mid-teens. But then again, cultivators have far sturdier bodies and can handle the strain of child birth far more easily."
"Jesus, your clan is fucked up, Maxine," Amanda said.
"It's more common than you would think," Maxine said defensively, but knew she would loose this arguement.
"Still," Amanda said, "I would hate to be part of it. They havn't forced you to marry anyone, have they?"
"Daddy would kill the unlucky groom, and probably his family, if they tried. But I do have numberous suitors. Almost all of them are just after access to daddy's alchemical skills," Maxine answered, "The rest are just horny."
"Daddy? You mean that sonovabitch that abandoned you? Why are you calling him daddy now?" Amanda growled, but not very loudly. She clearly didn't want to wake up her baby.
"Everything he's done, regardless of how messed up it was, was done out of a desire to protect me and he has made attempts to make things right in the past two years. Afterall, he let the Kavros clan send warriors to help fend off the essence beast hords," Maxine replied and tears started to form in her eyes, "And he's resurrected my real mother. I got to hear her voice for the first time just a few days ago."
"He what?! How the hell do you even do that?" Amanda demanded, "Scratch that. Is he retarded? Once people realize he can do that, won't that just make you into an even bigger target?"
"Not really. He was only able to resurrect my real mother because he happened to have her intact skeleton, her original core, some of her DNA, and her soul on hand. Even with all of that, he needed to use a bunch of ridiculously rare resources to pull it off," Maxine answered after wiping her tears away with a small shadow tendril. She didn't want to disturb the baby still in her arms by using one of her hands.
Amanda looked confused, but eventually answered, "I still don't like him and if I see him, I will kick him in the balls.".
"I don't blame you. I felt the same way for a good while," Maxine said understandingly and noticed baby Sarah squirming ever so slightly in her arms, "I think we should be quiet now. Your baby is starting to stir from all the noise."
Amanda and Emily nodded in agreement before Amanda went back to her paperwork. Maxine watched Amanda speed through the paperwork. She barely glanced at each application or worksheet on her computer before her hands blurred across the keyboard. From what she could tell, it would still take her a few hours to finish up even at the fast pace she was going and until then, Emily and herself would be busy taking care of baby Sarah. I don't know why, but I feel content just looking at little Sarah's sleeping face. She is just so adorable. Now I know for certain that I want one of my own. The only problem is convincing Emily to have one with me sooner, but it might be a good idea to talk with Hellen about it first.