Maxine woke up alone in a large bed big enough to comfortably fit six people on. She had wanted to cuddle with Emily all night long, but Howard had insisted that they sleep in separate beds. She let him have his way since she didn't want to upset Emily's only living relative. It wasn't worth it. 

After a few stretches, she got out of bed and brushed her hair while looking into a mirror. It's strange that I'm still in my Shadow Queen form. I thought for certain I would revert while sleeping. I guess I won't change back without some conscious effort. At least, this way it will prevent some unnecessary drama if they were to find me in my base state, but this problem also makes me a little nervous. Can I even change back anymore? I better check to see if I can. After checking with her spiritual sense that none of the servants were near, she shifted back to her base form and released a sigh of relief before resuming brushing her hair.

Once all of the knots in her hair were out, she shifted back to her Shadow Queen form and got changed. There was only a dress very similar to the one she wore yesterday in her closet. The dress she wore yesterday and the ones in her closet were the only clothes she had on this planet and made a mental note to find more clothing later. Maybe I can have Silky make me a few.

Just as she finished putting it on, Silky threw open her door and hug Maxine. "Morning, mama," Silky said happily, "I feel much better today." Of course you do. You went to sleep last night in your full arachne form. I had to give the staff specific instructions not to bother you until you woke up and I warned them about your abnormally huge appetite.

"Good," Maxine said happily and noticed the middle aged head maid, Olga, standing just outside her room, "Good morning, Olga. What do we have for breakfast?"

"Iron Wolf bacon, Thunderbird eggs, whole grain bread with butter and a leafy salad," Olga said neutrally.

"That sounds delightful," Maxine replied, "Doesn't it, Silky?"

"Yeah!" Silky said excitedly.

"Please, let the cook know we will be down in a moment," Maxine said to Olga.

"Yes, mistress," Olga said before leaving.

Maxine slipped on a pair of leather shoes and went down to the dinning room with Silky in tow. There was a large table capable of seating two dozen people in it. Howard and Emily were already in the middle of eating breakfast.

"Morning," Maxine said to them before sitting down beside Emily. Silky sat down on the chair on the otherside of Maxine.

"Morning," both Emily and Howard said together before they resumed their meal.

After a couple minutes, two plates were brought to the table. However Maxine was confused when a plate full of salad was put infront of her. Whereas Silky had a plate heaping with meat and eggs. Now that I think about it. They gave me a vegetable soup last night as well. These people must think I'm a vegetarian since I look like an elf. Time to correct that.

"Excuse me," Maxine said to the server, "Could I have some Iron Wolf bacon and Thunderbird eggs to go with this, please?" Her question clearly surprised him. 

"Of course," the server said after regaining his composure.

Maxine nibbled on the salad while she waited, but thankfully she didn't have to wait long for her food to arrive. The bacon was crispy enough that she she was able to break it into small pieces and add it to her salad. As she started to eat her salad with the bacon pieces in it, she saw several servants look at her with utter disbelief. She found it amusing, but didn't say anything. Emily rolled her eyes.

"As soon as you are done eating, we should head ot this Hero's Association. The sooner we get it over with the less of a hassle it will be," Emily said.

"I won't be long," Maxine said as she slowly ate her breakfast in a polite manner as if she were still at the Kavros Clan and when she was done, she looked to Silky, "Me and Emily are going out for awhile. Stay in the house with Howard. Alright, Silky?"

"Okay, mama," Silky said obediently, "When are you getting back?"

"I'm not sure, but we should be home around dinner time at the very latest," Maxine answered. 

"Okay," Silky said in disappointment.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but there is no helping it if there are a lot of wounded," Maxine explained to Silky, "How about when we get back you and me can share a bubble bath? Does that sound good to you?"

Silky's demeanor quickly brightened as she replied, "Yes!"

"Good," Maxine said happily and after eating the last morsel of food on her plate, she turned her head to Emily, "I think we should head out now."

"Yeah, we should," Emily said as she got up from the table.

"There is a carriage waiting outside for you, mistress," Olga said as she entered the dining room, "It will take you to the Hero's Ranking Facility."

"Thank you, Olga," Maxine said gratefully.

"Think nothing of it, mistress," Olga said with a slight bow.

Maxine and Emily went outside and quickly got into carriage drawn by an ox-like creature before anyone could notice them. Maxine didn't want a repeat of yesterday. She really hated things being thrown at her.

The ride to the Hero's Association didn't take long. She figured it took them roughly ten minutes and it would have taken Maxine less than one if she ran it. The only problem was that she had no idea where it was.

Once they got out of the carriage, Maxine drew the gaze of several dozen Heroes. All but two of them were copper or bronze stage stage. One of those two was gold stage. Maxine became wary of him due to how he looked at her. The other one was Hero Katarn, whom greeted them, "Good morning, ladies. I was asked to show you to the rank testing room."

"Good morning, Katarn," Maxine replied politely, "Please, lead the way."

"Of course, follow me," Hero Katarn said and lead them through a long hallway into large room with what looked like punching machines and a scanning device manned by a pair of technicians, "Don't mind those strike machines. They are outdated. We measure the measure the power of our heroes with that scanning device in the back."

"Oh, alright," Maxine said as she and Emily walked past the punching machines to the scanning device. 

"Just stand on the orange circle," one of the technicians said. Maxine quickly complied and a low-pitched hum entered her ears.

After a few seconds, the technician said, "What the hell?! She has all three energies and they're all at Class A-1. But that's impossible!"

"Not if you have a bloodline of a beast that has all three," Maxine corrected the poor man.

"What?! But you're an elf," he said as if that was an explaination in of itself.

"So? Can't an elf love someone outside of their race? I know my father isn't that much to look at when in human form, but he still treats my mother right," Maxine replied and she quickly saddened, "Unfortunately, my grandfather didn't see things in a positive light and disowned my mother for loving my father." The technician looked like he regreted that he said anything. 

There were a few moments of awkward silence before Hero Katarn spoke, "Anyways, lets get miss Emily tested as well and we can move on to a just a little bit of paperwork." Emily walked into the scanner and after a few moments, it showed that she was a Class B-9 healer.

"If you ladies will follow me, we can do the finishing procedure to your registration," Hero Katarn said and lead them to another room with a lot of clerks inside of it. They simply asked standard information, but Maxine and Emily both refused to answer where they were born. The clerks seemed to understand without needing an explaination. Well that went far more easily than anticipated. I was certain that they would insist on knowing where we were born or at the very least, where we came from. They must really need us.

Once all of the paperwork was done and they both recieved their IDs and a badge. Maxine swiftly pinned hers on the right side of her chest. She didn't want anyone to mistake her identity. Hero Katarn said, "Well, since there hasn't been any big battles around here for awhile, the two of you can do whatever you want for the time being. We will let you know if your services are needed."

"Thank you again," Maxine said with a slight bow and asked something out of curiosity, "By the way, what will happen to those refugees outside of the city? Will they be let in?"

"That's not my call to make. Our city is nearly at it's maximum capacity, but there have been efforts to expand both our living and agricultural spaces. Until that is done, I don't see any hope for them to be allowed into the city," Hero Katarn answered, "The most we can do is give them whatever we have left, which isn't much."

"But many of those people are injured and require medical services. Certainly you can help with that," Maxine reasoned.

"Afraid not. Most of those resources are spent to keep our current population healty," Hero Katarn answered and Maxine felt frustrated.

"Fine, I will take care of their medical needs," Maxine said angrily and spun around before storming into the lobby of the Hero's Association.

The gold stage hero was still there and he got between her and the exit. This forced her to look at him more carefully. He was taller than her and very muscular with light brown hair. He had a few visible scars, but that didn't destroy his rugged good looks. 

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"Hello, I'm hero Alec Ard, the strongest warrior in this city," the gold stage hero said cheerfully as he closed the distance between them, "Seeing as you are a healer, I thought we would make a good team. What do you say?" 

Maxine looked into his eyes and nearly recoiled. He wasn't looking at her beauty or even as an enemy. Instead he viewed her as a posession that he had to have. Reflexively, she extended out her spiritual sense in every direction for fifty feet and found he was holding an open explosive collar behind his back. She was outraged.

She stayed silent and as he got within arm's length, his arm whiped around with blurring speed. She swiftly caught his wrist and instinctively, opened her mouth to expell a small cloud of acid onto explosive collar. 

As Maxine relaxed her grip on Hero Alec Ard's wrist, he threw the collar to the ground. It hit the ground with a solid metalic clank. She saw that it was already partially melted and was slowly eating a hole in the floor. Everyone, including Hero Alec, looked at Maxine with fear in their eyes. 

"I forgot to mention what my father is. He's a hydra and they are renowned for their acid breath attacks. Of which, I seemed to have inheirited," Maxine commented icily, "And next time anyone tries to enslave me, my loved ones, or anyone else infront of me, I will aim for something far more delicate. Am I understood?" Hero Alec nodded stiffly. 

"Good. I'm headed to the refugee camps and as you can see, I don't require any bodyguards," Maxine said with cold fury and walked around Hero Alec. She quickly got into the carriage outside and ordered the driver to take them to the city gate with the refugee camp outside of it. Emily jumped into the carriage a moment later.

"I didn't know you could spit acid," Emily said after a few minutes of silence.

"I didn't know I could do that in this form either until I did it," Maxine answered honestly after making sure no one was listening with her spiritual sense.

"What do you mean this form?" Emily asked.

[My battleform can spit acid, but I don't use that particular ability unless I have to. It's sort of a last resort. The only reason I used an acid spray today is due to my instincts kicking in to attack something I percieved as a threat,] Maxine answered via spiritual sense and added vocally, "You should know which one. You've seen it afterall."

"Yeah, you have shown me that," Emily agreed, "Oh, it looks like we arrived."

"Good," Maxine said and she hopped out of the carriage as soon as it stopped.

"Do you think those enslaved beastkin were forcibly enslaved like you almost were?" Emily asked suddenly in english and Maxine froze. 

"I don't know. They better not have been," Maxine answered in english, "If they were, there will be hell to pay."

Maxine's anger quickly vanished when she saw the refugees outside of the city. Most of them were dirty and there will still many injured amongst them. She quickly scanned over the refugees. Most of the fatally injured had been healed yesterday, but there were still a few dozen that needed immediate medical aide.

Maxine turned to Emily and relayed all of the information through spiritual sense before they moved to heal the two closest fatally injured refugees. That alone caused the families and loved ones of the other fatally injured to carry them to Maxine and Emily. 

Maxine had healed more than a dozen patients before she noticed something. Emily was only healing roughly seventy percent of her patients injuries while Maxine was healing closer to ninety. That's not right. How am I healing people more thoroughly than Emily? She has more experience than I do. The only thing I have going for me is my huge energy reserves due to having three cores. Hmm, maybe it has something to do with using more than one type of energy to heal with. Still, she can heal more people than I can even with my higher capacity. Maxine shrugged and continued to heal the injured refugees.

Just as they both finished healing the most heavily injured of the refugees, Hero Katarn arrived with an older woman in tow. She had streaks of grey hair, but didn't have a single wrinkle on her face. I know more than a few women on Earth that would like to know the secret to a wrinkle free face. Besides that she was only slightly above average in appearance.

The older woman approached Maxine and said, "I'm Isabelle Taves, the director of the Hero's Association in Kallindor, and I'm sorry about Hero Alec's behavior. That wasn't the first time he has done something of that nature, but we can't exactly do anything to him due to his vast strength."

"Why do I not believe you?" Maxine asked skeptically.

"S class heroes are extremely rare and thus have more privledges. There are no more than fifteen in the Hero's association and Alec is ranked the tenth strongest one," Isabelle Traves explained, "We simply can't stop him if he decides to break any rules. The other S class heroes are simply too far away or don't care enough to do anything about it if he does."

"I see," Maxine said understandingly, "But how many A class healers are there?"

"As far as I know two, including yourself, and you heal far more completely than the other one. You are also far more cordial than that pompous fool," Isabelle Traves answered, "It's why I'm here to apologize on the behalf of the Heroes Association. We can't risk loosing you to the elves."

"Fine, but just keep in mind, there better not be any innocents enslaved in this city," Maxine warned.

"We don't tolerate human slavery here," Isabelle Traves retorted.

"I wasn't talking about humans. I was talking about the beastkin, or rather what you call demihumans," Maxine said while struggling to keep her anger out of her voice.

"They are not humans, so they do not have the same rights as one," Isabelle Traves replied and she seemed to realize something as she added, "It's the laws of humanity. The Heroes Association has no power over sed laws. We can only abide by them."

"Then tell whoever is responsible for those laws that I do not like them, but I'm not entirely against them either. Forcing powerful criminals to fight against threats to humanity through the use of explosive collars is acceptable," Maxine said, "But I cannot tolerate enslavement for petty reasons such as a difference of race."

"I understand that, but it may not go very far. Our lawmakers can be rather stubborn," Isabelle Traves said.

"It's better than nothing," Maxine replied and noticed Isabelle Traves looking at her dimensional ring on the middle finger of her left hand.

"I didn't realize you were married," Isabelle Traves said. What? I'm not wearing it on my second smallest finger! Oh, shit. I didn't consider the different culture here. 

"I'm not married. Please, forgive me. I wasn't aware of the cultural significance of wearing a ring on that finger," Maxine answered truthfully before removing the ring and placing it on her forefinger.

"It's alright. I only noticed that ring myself because it seems to be made of a strange metal," Isabelle Traves said, "Do you know what it's made of?"

"I'm afraid not," Maxine answered, "I found it amongst some ruins deep in the forest."

"It's a shame," Isabelle Traves as she turned around and started to leave, "Enjoy the rest of your day and try not to tire yourself out. We may need you to provide some emergency healing later and if you have time and are willing, we have some researchers that want to have a word with you." I bet they do. I'm probably the only being in the solar system with three cores. They probably want to know how it effects me.

"I'll think about it," Maxine said to Isabelle Traves as she went back to healing the refugees, but a something strange caused her to stop in her tracks before she could. There was a strange feeling coming from the forest two miles away. It didn't feel threatening to her, but it didn't feel good either. 

Maxine looked straight at the spot that this feeling of unease was coming from and she saw too bright golden orbs. It took her a moment to realize they were the eyes of a very large serpent. Each of those eyes had to be at least the size of dinner plates for her to see them so clearly from here. She couldn't imagine how big it was and for some reason, she knew that it was watching her. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.

After a few moments, the serpent came out of the forest to reveal itself. Maxine's blood ran cold when she saw what it was. Each of it's scales had a long spike jutting out of them and to exceptionally long horns sitcking out of the head. Otherwise it looked like a serpent, but she knew better. It was a Snake Dragon and it had to be at least silver stage, possibly bordering on gold stage, considering it's size.

It only took the refugees and soldiers on the wall a couple moments to start panicking at it's appearance. In seconds, several heroes charged out of the city and took up defensive positions between it and the refugees, but the Snake Dragon's eyes never left Maxine. Strangely after only staring at her for a few moments, it treturned to the forest. Okay, that was wierd. It almost felt like that beast was eyeing me as if I was a rare resource.

Maxine's eyes moved to her right, not to the heroes, but to a small child holding a thick branch as his weapon. Most of the grown men had fled where this boy held firm and she found the reason for his courage not three feet behind him. There were two much younger girls behind him trembling in fear. An approving smile appeared on Maxine's lips. There is a good big brother if I've ever seen one, but courage won't be enough to protect his family as long as he lacks the skill and strength to back it up. I don't want him to experience what I did in my past life. Watching a family member being brutally killed leaves a scar on your soul that never completely heals. 

Maxine walked up to the boy with a determined look in her eye and asked, "How would you like to learn the way of the blade?" 

The boy only stiffened for a moment before lashing out at her with his branch. Maxine caught it in her palm and noted that it was from a rather sturdy tree. With a movment of her energies, she pulverized part of the branch to turn it into a wooden blade. 

"Your attack was feirce enough, but it was too wild. Try again, but this time take a proper stance and aim properly," Maxine advised as if she was already teaching him and released her grip on the wood blade.

The boy staggered back two steps before glancing at his two sisters nervously. Maxine smiled and said, "Your sisters have no need to fear me and they need their brother to be a feirce warrior to protect them. I'm offering you the chance to be that warrior. Attack me if you accept and I will teach you as much as I can."

At this point, Maxine finally noticed the refugees and several heroes were looking at them. The most powerful of those heroes stepped foward and said, "I don't know how you caught her eye, kid, but do as she says. Do it now before she changes her mind."

With only moment of hesitation, the boy attacks her again with a poorly aimed and clumsy over head swing. Something that Maxine could side step even if she were an ordinary woman with some training, but she saw an iron will, a feirce determination and an overwhelming desire to protect in his eyes. Good, he will need all three.

Maxine allowed the boy's strike to land on her left shoulder. Surprisingly, she actually felt an impact far greater than the boy should have been able to do and it had an edge to it. Instantly, she checked his wooden blade. It had a strange energy around it that was unlike anything she had ever seen before and that had cut her dress. But it wasn't strong enough to cut her flesh. Interesting. I don't know what that energy is, but it very well may be unique to this little boy. That will make teaching him harder, but not impossible. 

Maxine gently pushed the wooden blade off of her shoulder and knelt down to the boy's eye level as she said, "That was a very good attack for one so young. What is your name, my student?"

"Lanitherin," they boy said firmly.

Maxine smiled and said very gently, "For your first task, gather your sisters and get in the carriage over by the gates. Once we return to my home, I will begin teaching you how to use a blade properly and how to control your unique power."

"Yes, um, teacher," Lanitherin said before he gathered up his sisters and did what she told him. 

Maxine looked around for the Lanitherin's parents, but saw no adults that even remotely resembled him. She was about to ask him where his parents where when she saw two silver rings on a leather string around Lanitherin's neck. Poor boy. He's already lost his parents and is trying to protect the only family he has left.  

"I didn't know elven healers knew how to use blades," the hero from earlier said.

"Most don't, but I learned enough to defend myself," Maxine answered and the hero nodded before returning to the city. But she heard him comment in just above a whisper, "That's the same thing that all the other elven blademasters said before they stopped coming around." 

Maxine looked around one more time at all of the refugees. It would take her several days to heal all of the injured, even with Emily's help, but that only solve one of these people's problems. There were so many more such as their food and shelter and she had no idea how to solve either. One step at a time. This is all I can do for them for the time being, but something is bothering me. Why was that Snake Dragon so close to the city? Shouldn't it avoid a large gathering of humans? I hope this doesn't mean what I think it does.  

But before she could think about it too much, a group of heroes burst out of the forest carrying several wounded. Maxine released a sigh and raced forward to heal them. Emily was only a few steps behind her. Emily always has been a dedicated healer and now so will I.