Maxine look out of the hospital window to appreciate the scenery and felt grumpy that she had put up with the doctors and nurses trying to get a blood sample and scanning her body with their equipment for that last two days. But her time in this place wasn't completely unproductive.
She learned that they had a ward in this hospital for sick children and while visiting those children, she found out about their religion. They prayed to faefolk that had ascended to the heavens. For some reason, they included elves amongst the faefolk and cosidered them to be the warriors amongst them.
Some of the faefolk were rather gifted at healing and the children prayed to them in hopes that one would descend to heal their ailments. It was a strange religion, but she wasn't one to judge. Earth has it's own bizzare religions.
Additionally, she had learned why those young women wore the false pointed ears and danced around the soldiers the other day. They were enacting an elven victory dance around their valorous soldiers to honor them. The dance had been technically correct, but there were a dozen small nuances to it that were way off. The only reason she knew this is because she had seen what it was supposed to look like from the forest elves. Although she had to wonder how these people even knew of it to perform it.
"Miss Maxine, are you going to sing for us today?" a little wheelchair bound boy named Sora asked hopefully from the hallway. They had already heard her sing most, if not all, the songs that were available in their play room. I guess it couldn't hurt to sing one from the Forest Elves. But which one would be appropriate? Most of the ones I know are ballads and festival songs. OH! I know. I could sing one of their healing songs. I still don't know how their songs actually heal people, but it should have some effect as long as I perform it.
"Of course, I will," Maxine said happily. Aside from Decaan and Cassandra, Maxine only spoke to the children at this hospital. Everyone else had thoroughly pissed her off and weren't worth the energy it took to say 'fuck off' to them.
She walked a short distance to the play room meant for the children in this hospital. No matter how many times she saw them, she felt heartbroken at seeing so many children unable to walk due to their ailments, but she noticed that the nurses present were giving her looks of gratitude.
"What song are you singing today, Miss Maxine?" Sora asked curiously.
"It's called the Healing Hymm," Maxine answered, "Now settle down while I try to remember how it goes." She closed her eyes for just a moment before she opened them again and started singing in forest elven as she chanelled a small threat of her energies into her voice box.
She barely understood what the words meant herself, but she knew their effect. Each note of the song was meant for a different form of healing. One note could stimulate cellular regeneration and another could just as easily destroy cancer cells. But that didn't matter to the listeners. All they heard was the beautiful song and it was just as well since her attempt at it did nothing at all. She had tried it a handful of times in the past with the same result. She simply didn't possess the gift for it.
Several parents arrived in the middle of the song and quickly took a seat beside their children. Just before Maxine finished the song, Decaan and a young draconic warrior that she didn't recognize arrived. As soon as her song finished, the children applauded her performance. Maxine smiled at them as she walked past them torwards Decaan.
"That was beautiful," Decaan said admiringly, "But I don't recognize the language you were singing in. It wasn't that one you spoke before, but for some reason, that language sounds oddly familiar."
"It was a song a dear friend of mine taught me," Maxine answered.
"Oh, I see," Decaan said, "Where is this friend now?"
"Sorry, but I can't talk about that," Maxine answered, "She made me promise not to reveal where her people are."
"That's alright," Decaan said and his tone became concerned, "How are you feeling?"
"My recovery is coming along nicely," Maxine replied calmly, "I should be back to full strength in a few more days possibly more, but no more than a week." Or rather, my unreasonable appetite will finish easing back after that period of time. I won't risk transforming to my battle form before then.
"That's good to hear, but not what I wanted to know," Decaan said sadly, "I wanted to know how you are emotionally. You don't talk about that battle much."
"And I prefer not to relive what I did while I was a hydra," Maxine answered truthfully with a shiver. She had used the english word for hydra.
"So that's what that creature is called," Decaan said, "I'm sorry, but could you tell me more about that beast? Like what it's abilities are aside from rapid regeneration."
"Well telling a few additional details can't hurt," Maxine commented to herself before she continued, "As you probably guessed, hydra's have venom for both their bite and claw attacks, but that's not the only place where they have poison. It's also in their blood and the variety in the blood is a contact poison."
"By the heavens, please tell me you are joking," Decaan said disbelievingly.
"No such luck," Maxine said apologetically, "But you don't need to worry right now. My blood isn't toxic until I transform into my battle form."
"Oh, good," Decaan said in relief, but his expression changed quickly, "That reminds me. Why did you act so .. dumb when we met and why did you maintain that battle form of yours for the entire time?"
"Both good questions, but I don't want to answer them," Maxine answered.
"Very well," Decaan said.
"Women and their secrets," the draconic warrior complained under his breath, "At least, she's beautiful enough that she can get away with that kind of answer." She checked his cultivation to see if he had a reason for his behavior and found he was just barely gold stage.
"Decaan, who is this man and why is he here?" Maxine asked.
"This is Clark Grisweld," Decaan said, "He's here to replace Cassandra temporarily. She was transfered to where the fighting is the worst." As long as a group of gold stage four-horned kanzils don't attack her together, she should be fine.
"Is that why I havn't seen Cassandra?" Maxine asked.
"Yes, I'm afraid so," Decaan said sadly, "The invaders are avoiding this city for the time being. I think you had something to do with that." Clark Grisweld seemed to take a hint that they wanted to be left alone and started to walk a short distance away.
"I can see why, but I'm not going to transform into that thing again," Maxine said firmly, "I can barely stomach eating meat as it is."
"I understand entirely," Decaan said, "But why do you eat meat at all if it upsets you?" Well, I guess now's a good time to drop a bomb on Decaan to see how he reacts.
"I need to in order to maintain my health," Maxine replied, "It's part of being a 'hybrid' of human, elf and hydra."
"Oh, alright," Decaan said reflexively and alarm showed on his face in the next moment, "Wait, did you just say elf?!"
"Yes, why do you think my battle form had those pointy ears and is that particular shade of silver?" Maxine asked, "That color is terrible for camoflage."
Decaan was stunned to silence for a few moments before he asked rapidly, "Where are the elves? Which of your parents did your elven blood come from?"
"It was my mother and I can't answer your other question," Maxine answered and quickly added to clear up confusion, "I made a rather powerful oath to not reveal where they are." I'm not technically lying. Aenwynn insisted that I use that damn oathstone as soon as I found out where their city was at.
"Can you be our go between?" Decaan asked quickly, "Would that break your oath?"
"I'm very sorry. I can't do that," Maxine answered apologetically, "I can't take the risk you would follow me there."
"We won't!" Decaan nearly shouted.
"No, but you could put tracking beacons on my clothes," Maxine countered, "I've found one on each peice of my clothing and those were just the ones I found. There are probably others." Now I sort of wish I was bullshiting, but I'm not. There are at least three on each of my pants, shoes and shirt. But I don't want them to realize I found them all.
"That's ridiculous. Why would we have a reason to do that?" Decaan asked.
"I don't know. But does your uncle have a reason to keep track of me?" Maxine asked and she saw Decaan slump his shoulders in defeat.
"I didn't know his paranoia went to that extent," Decaan said to himself.
"What about those offworlders that said they are on their way to help?" Maxine asked, "Can't you send a message to them to hurry up?"
"We don't have enough vocabulary built up to do that," Decaan answered reflexively.
"Can I hear the message?" Maxine asked, "I might know their language. My mother taught me several different ones."
"It wouldn't hurt," Decaan said almost lifelessly as he reached into his pants pocket.
As soon as he got it out of his pocket, he played the message. She understood it easily since it was spoken in Alliance common, "We are from the Seton Academy and are coming to aid you in the defense of your world against your invaders to train our gold and silver stage students. We only ask that you provide food and a place to rest for them. This message will repeat as we slowly approach your world. Arrival time: ten days, three hours, thirteen minutes and fifty two seconds from the end of this message." The message repeated in three different common languages before it ended.
"Did you understand them?" Decaan asked with only a trace of hope.
"When was this message recorded?" Maxine asked.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Yesterday around noon," Decaan answered as life began to return to his eyes.
"Your reinforcements should arrive in roughly nine days give or take a few hours. They didn't specify on how strong each of their members were, but they mentioned that there are warriors amongst them that should be at Clark's strength or higher," Maxine said, "Do you want me to ask them to speed up?" Life returned to Decaan's eyes.
"Yes, by the heavens, yes," Decaan said.
"Alright, just tell me what you want to say and when to start talking," Maxine said.
"Good, just say what I say into this ...," Decaan stopped mid-sentence and changed his mind, "No, I need to get you to workstation to translate on the spot to save time when we recieve their reply."
"Lead the way," Maxine said.
"I can't take you there right away. I need to get authorization for this and hopefully my uncle won't be his usual self about it," Decaan said apologetically, "I'll be back in an hour or two." Decaan quickly turned around to leave.
"Bye," Maxine said to Decaan's back and glanced to the children. She noticed no one was watching them that closely. Finally, I can heal some of them without being seen. It's such a pain when they interrupt me in the middle of healing someone. Still, I can't believe with their technological level they can't heal a damaged spinal nerve, or remove cancer. They should have figured out how to correct those things by now. Thankfully, the kids here have nothing I can't fix. Birth defects and genetic disorders are beyond my abilities, but none of these kids seem to be suffering from those.
Maxine walked over to one child at a time and healed them in such a way that it looked like their bodies resolved their problems on their own. They already knew she could heal others and that she healed that little boy on the spot. Maybe they realized I like children and will heal them without thinking about the consequences. She kept going until she noticed something else. There are a lot of children with different problems in here. You would think that they would have specialize care for these kids. Unless, they are testing the limits of my healing capabilities. Damn, it's too late to stop now. I've almost healed all the kids here. Might as well as well show them my shadow queen form while I'm at it. I've already told Decaan that I'm at least part elf and it will lower the chances significantly that General Dumbass will try to have me killed behind Decaan's back.
She had saved Sora for last and walked towards him. She noticed he was reading a picture book and most of the pictures were of faires flying over an injured boy. She was fascinated by this book and she waited for him to turn the page.
Once he did, she saw a story play out with the pictures. One of the fairies flew off and returned with an elf. The elf healed the boy using magic and taught him how to defend himself. The boy returned to his village and saved them from a group of bandits with the skills he learned.
"What an interesting story," Maxine commented.
"I thought so too," Sora said cheerfully, "I hope an elf comes and does the same for me!"
"Well, healing you wouldn't be any issue for any elven healer. But teaching you the sword on top of that? It would take years to develop that level of mastery as depicted in your book," Maxine said calmly, "But, I'm sure I can heal your injured spine without much trouble."
Sora simply chuckled as if Maxine told a joke. "I'm serious. I can heal your spinal injury," Maxine said firmly.
"No, only elves can," Sora said sadly, "Dr. Tanack said so."
"But I am an elf," Maxine said boldy and when she saw the look of disbelief on Sora's face, she added, "What? Can't an elven maiden, like myself, be good at illusion magic?"
"Did you hit your head?" Sora asked innocently.
"No, I didn't, but perhaps this will convince you," Maxine said with a smirk as she stood up. She quickly spinned around and at the same time, summoned up a silvery mist to obscur her body while she transformed into her shadow queen form. Once her transformation completed, she allowed the mist to vanish and brushed her hair behind her ears to show her pointed ears.
Sora's expression slackened in disbelief. She even caught the attention of the other children and several nurses. She didn't care about that as she knelt infront of Sora and had her hands glow with a golden light as she tenderly touched his stomach. She extended her energies through his body to his severed spinal nerve and grabbed both ends before slowly reattaching them. It was challenging to attach individual nerves to their proper place, but thankfully each of his nerve strands had a particular feel. It was simply a matching game to her. Within five minutes, she had completely reattached his nerves and retracted her energies. As a final touch, she pinched one of his toes just hard enough for him to feel pain.
"Ow!" Sora said reflexively and his eyes widened instantly in surprise. He cautiously pinched his legs in different spot and all the while, his surprise was quickly being replaced with joy. By the time he finished, he was practically in tears due to the intensity of his emotions. He swiftly lunged forward and hugged Maxine tightly.
She wasn't surprised by his response and hugged him back with a big smile plastered on her face. Nothing is more innocent and pure than the gratitude of a child. It's nothing like an adult's reaction at all. They could be grateful one second and a backstabbing asshole in the next.
Once she parted from Sora's embrace, she noticed the other children looking at her hopefully. "Nurse, I suggest you tell the doctor to take a look at those children," Maxine told the closest nurse, "None of them belong here." It's not like they wouldn't do that anyways. This just speeds it along.
"Uhh, okay," the nurse closest to the hallway said before leaving swiftly. Clark Grisweld returned and he stared right at her as soon as he came in. Hope burned in his eyes as he approached her and bowed before her.
"Please, make it so I can have children," Clark Grisweld begged. Oh, my. I didn't expect him to ask me this quickly. Might as well take a look. Carefully, Maxine extended out her spiritual sense as she grabbed his shoulder and closed her eyes. She checked his testicles, but her heart dropped. His sperm count was dismal and she couldn't fix this issue either.
"I'm sorry. I can't. The damage is too great," Maxine apologized and was struck with a sudden impulse to ask, "Was dragon that you gained your draconic powers from red by any chance?"
"Yes, why?" Clark Grisweld asked in return, but the hope in his eyes had all but vanished. IDIOTS! Complete fucking idiots! Don't they know the hazards of giving bloodlines endowments to their opposite genders?! Infusing a man with a female dragon's bloodline will work, but it will assuredly destroy their reproductinve ability! I didn't think they would do something that fucking retarded. Still it doesn't destroy the reproductive ability all the way.
"That's the reason I can't heal you. The genders of the source beast and the one being infused with it's bloodline must be the same," Maxine explained, "Otherwise, the bloodline will heavily damage the reproductive ability of whomever receives it. Thankfully, the damage wasn't so great as to completely eliminate the possibility for you to have children. It just requires a special procedure and the use of a surrogate mother."
"I've never heard of anything even remotely like that before," Clark Grisweld said.
"That's odd. It should be well within your technological limits," Maxine commented, "I don't know the exact method, but I could describe the whole process to a doctor or medical researcher."
"Please, do that," Clark Grisweld practically begged Maxine.
"Alright, I will," Maxine said and she glanced up to see Decaan with a very shocked expression on his face, "I need to go now. I will talk to one of the doctors later."
"Thank you," Clark Grisweld said with a bow of his head as Maxine walked up to Decaan, but he still seemed to be too surprised for words. Or he's in shock from seeing an elf. I'm not sure which is it right now.
"What's that look for? I told you I had elven blood," Maxine said defensively, "I believe you need to take me somewhere?"
"Yes, of course," Decaan said as he regained his senses, "Follow me. I have a transport waiting on the roof."
Maxine followed him to the roof and got into a small bullet shaped aircraft with tiny wings. It concerned her that it didn't have any windows, but she still boarded it all the same. After the ship took off with her in it, Maxine asked, "How did your uncle handle finding out that I've got elven blood?"
"I didn't tell him. I only mentioned that you understood the language in the transmission," Decaan answered, "It doesn't matter now though. After your little display at the hosptial, he should find out in the next hour or so."
"This shape improves my healing efficiency and I can only take it on when I'm at at least half strength," Maxine lied.
"Who were you healing?" Decaan asked.
"You know full well that I can't stand to see sick or injured children and I spent a half a day's worth of my recovery healing them," Maxine said with a hint of anger, "Why else would you have children with so many different problems near me, if not to guage my healing abilities?"
"I didn't notice anything like that with those children. Although to be fair, I was mostly keeping my eye on you," Decaan said defensively and he appeared to be telling the truth. Maxine touched his mind ever so slightly with her spiritual sense to be doubly sure of his truthfulness and it only confirmed his words. If it wasn't him, it has to be General Detar's doing. I guess I should change my insult from dumbass to asshole, or better yet dumb asshole. Yeah, that sounds much better.
"What kind of reply do you want to send those people?" Maxine asked to change the subject.
"Something along the lines of: We recieved your transmission and we need you to arrive at the quickest time possible," Decaan said, "Think you can manage that?"
"Easily," Maxine replied confidently, "You're just lucky my mother taught me their language. It's much harder to learn than yours."
"Oh? And where is your mother?" Decaan asked, "Can I meet her?"
"She died protecting me when I was still very young," Maxine answered sadly. And then, dad came along and resurrected her using some bullshit level alchemy. I still havn't figured out how he pulled that off, even after he explained it to me.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Decaan apologized.
"Don't worry about it. She died more than twenty years ago," Maxine said.
"Hmm, that's odd. It shouldn't have taken us this long to get to the relay station," Decaan said to change the subject, "I wonder what the problem is." Maxine instantly expanded her spiritual sense. They were flying in a long underground tunnel with at least one hundred feet of rock above them and they were less than five minutes away from a very heavily fortified bunker. What's worse, she couldn't sense the interior of it.
"Is this relay station underground?" Maxine asked.
"Of course not. Don't be ridiculous," Decaan replied, "We would never be able to get a signal if it was underground." Shit.
"I thought your uncle would wait a few more days before he made a move," Maxine said to herself as she retrieved a pendant from her dimensional ring and she put a spiritual mark on it before handing it to Decaan, "Can you give this to Cassandra for me?"
"Yes, but why not give it to her yourself?" Decaan asked.
"Because your uncle has lied to you and is sending me to some underground facility. I'm guessing it's to study me without my consent," Maxine answered calmly, "And in doing so, has made an enemy of me."
"He wouldn't!" Decaan affirmed.
"He has. Just look out of the cockpit of this ship. We are deep underground," Maxine answered. Decaan knocked on the pilot's door and said a few words before returning.
"You're right," Decaan said sadly, "What now? You can't exactly escape, not from this place."
"I can escape at any time I choose," Maxine said confidently, "But I wanted to give you something before I do."
"And what could be so important that you would risk your freedom to give me?" Decaan asked.
"This," Maxine said as she swiftly tapped his forehead and gently sent a cultivation manual as well as the rough idea of how to perform artifical insemination. At the same time, she fried all of the tracking devices hidden in her clothes.
Decaan recoiled as his mind was overwhelmed with the information she sent him, but even as he held his head with his hands, his eyes widened in disbelief. "How did you do that? And why did you decide only now to give it this knowledge to me?" Decaan asked rapidly.
"I can't answer that right now. Just take your time and develop your own cultivation technique using the one I gave you as reference," Maxine replied, "Now I need to leave. Please let them know never to approach me again. It will be the very last thing they will ever do. You and Cassandra are exceptions though. Goodbye." After saying that, Maxine waved her hand as she created a portal in the side of the ship and gave Decaan one last look before walking through it.
After reaching her destination, Maxine closed the portal behind her. She looked around carefully the room she was in very slowly. She was on the basement level of the hospital and to her relief, there was still a thick layer of dust over everything to show just how infrequently this room was visited. It only confirmed what she had seen with her spiritual sense over the past two days. Perfect. I can easily hide here for a few days to ease my hunger down. After that, I'm going back to my life and death training. But first, I need to ensure that I won't be detected by accident. I'm honestly surprised that their hospitals are not regularly scanned. I can't believe they have such an oversight. Although to be fair, they havn't encountered any enemies that could shapeshift and/or the few that sneaked past their defenses didn't bother to attack their hospitals. So of course, their detection grid would be lax in that regard.
With a thought, she created a construct and imbued it with enough of her energies to cloak her position for the next five days. She checked on how well it worked before reverting back to her normal state and quickly got into position to meditate. I really want to kill that piece of shit general, but I won't do it. Decaan would become my enemy if I did and I need all the friends I can get on this planet. But that doesn't mean I won't do anything in retaliation. She discreetly sent a few of her ravens out to sneak into General Detar's shadow and ordered them to prod him with their sharp beaks whenever he tried to lay down to sleep. And they would continue to harrass him for however long she was on this world.