Maxine was finally back in her room and spread her spiritual sense against the walls, ceiling and floor to make sure Turan wasn't trying to listen in. Additionally, she circulated a mist-like form of her energies throughout the room to see if anyone was in the room using a stealth technique. Still, that wasn't a real guarantee that someone much more powerful than Maxine was listening in, but it would have to do. God damn it. Turan has gotten me feeling all paraniod.

Maxine attempted to relax and reached out to her clone. It only took her a few moments to connect to it and her clone was in the process of being bathed. [Young lady, I thought your father told you not to use your clones,] Hellen reprimanded Maxine via spiritual sense.

[Sorry, mom,] Maxine apologized, [But I need to talk to daddy.]

[Fine, I will relay you, but don't talk for too long,] Hellen reminded Maxine.

[Don't worry. I only wanted to ask him a couple questions,] Maxine assured Hellen.

[Alright,] Hellen said just before Maxine felt a strange jarring sensation that almost made her sever her spritual sense connection on reflex. It felt as if someone was literately grabbing a hold of her spiritual sense and forcibly handing it off to someone else.

[What is it, Maxine?] Guan asked, [Did you see the world tree yet?]

[Yes, I saw the world tree. Words can't describe how beautiful it was,] Maxine replied, [And I wanted to ask you something. Elder Evensong mentioned that you said I would be leaving this planet soon. Care to share why?]

[I enrolled you in the Stardust Academy. They should be there within the week to pick you up at my request,] Guan said bluntly, [I'm sending you there because they have an extensive martial arts library and there is a blade grandmaster there named Horatio Quay. He owes me a favor and has agreed to guide you on the path of the blade.]

[What about Lan? Doesn't he need guidance as well?] Maxine asked.

[You did an excellent job getting him started, but he is one of the few that will not need guidance to become a grandmaster,] Guan explained, [He's a natural genius that rarely appears and will make great acheivements in the path of the blade on his own. In fact, even without you teaching him, he would've developed his own technique after a few short years.]

[I knew he was a genius, but not to that extent,] Maxine admitted, [Silky sure can pick them.]

[That she can,] Guan said proudly before his tone became grim, [Also, I believe the shadow lords know where you are. So brace yourself. They are likely to approach you soon, if they havn't already.]

[Turan is here,] Maxine said directly, [And I believe he's under the impression that I have amnesia.]

[That's fine. He's far less likely to try anything foolish,] Guan said with confidence, [He knows better than most what will happen to him if he does.]

[That's true,] Maxine said and for some reason, she could sense Hellen's glare without being in direct contact with her, [I have a feeeling mom is giving us both the evil eye right now, so I better end it here.]

[How did you even ... Never mind. We will talk another time, Maxine. Take care of yourself,] Guan said in a loving tone before their spiritual sense connection was severed. 

Maxine rolled her eyes and retracted all of her privacy measures. Within moments, Turan knocked before letting himself in. I'm fairly certain that I locked that earlier. It's a little unnerving how he can so non-chalantly pick a lock and let himself in. At least, it's better than him simply shadow stepping in.  

"My master is sending me to the Stardust Academy," Maxine announced, "Their ship should be here to pick me up within the week. You can decide if you want to follow me there or not."

"I would follow you there, even if it wasn't required of me," Turan stated. 

"Okay, but I believe you will need to be enrolled there in order to stay," Maxine pointed out.

"A problem that's solved with a simple transmission," Turan replied, "Would you like me to find any literature regarding the academy?" 

"It would be appreciated," Maxine replied, "I'll just stock up on purple snake fruit while you do that."

"Why would you need something as mundane as that?" Turan asked.

"If you have to know, purple snake fruit has an interesting regenerative effect whenever I eat one. I want to see if it has a similar effect on anyone else that possesses a snake-type bloodline. If it does, I will be able to make a specialized potion out of them," Maxine explained, "I am an alchemist afterall and I need to make a name for myself if I'm ever to make any wealth. I can't always rely on my master's name to get ahead."

"Interesting. Very well, I will be right back," Turan said as he shadow stepped away. 

Maxine used this moment to walk over to a small phone. She picked it up and almost immediately heard a young woman say, "This is room service. How may I help you?"

"Yes, I would like a small bowl of purple snake fruit delivered to my room," Maxine said.

"Certainly, ma'am," the woman said and quickly added, "It will be up in a few minutes and please don't mind our staff. Some of them are fans of yours."

"I see. So long as they don't do anything too odd I won't mind," Maxine replied.

"I'll try to remind them," the young woman said and added before hanging up, "Have a good day." 

Within minutes, someone knocked on the door before bringing in a cart with a bowl with a dozen snake fruit in it. The staff member that brought it was a young man with an excited smile on his face. "Your snake fruit, ma'am," he said.

"Thank you," Maxine replied with a small smile, "You have no idea how much I enjoy these."

"You're welcome, ma'am," he said happily before asking, "Do you need anything else?"

"No, that's all. Thank you," Maxine said as she picked up a snake fruit and took a small bite out of it, "Delicious." 

"Just call the front desk if you need anything else," the young man said cheerfully and left after giving her one last look. She saw a glimpse of a group of young women rush at the poor man and heard them ask him questions in rapid succession. Poor guy is getting mugged by a bunch of beautiful girls. Or would that make him lucky? I think I will let him decide that. Regardless, it should be quickly known that I like to eat purple snake fruit. The locals will probably be gifting me large quantities of them very soon. I hope they don't over do it. I only have so much space in my dimensional ring.

A few minutes later, Turan returned and thankfully he used the door to enter the room. "I brought you the literature," Turan announced as he handed Maxine a knowledge crystal. She studied it for a moment before probing it with her spiritual sense. 

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

She was quite surprised at how much information Turan was able to gather after such a short period of time. Along with the rules and regulations of the academy, this knowledge crystal contained a complete list of the teachers and their specialties. It also included a list of the top fifty social groups amongst the students listed and a comprehensive analysis of their capabilities. 

She was quite surprised at how detailed the information on the Stardust Academy was. Almost like they were planning on either recruiting these people for their personal forces or ... they were gathering information on future elites to be wary of. The shadow lords are almost terrifyingly skilled at information gathering.

"I'm impressed," Maxine said out loud, "Do you also have a comprehensive analysis of me as well?"

"Yes, but there are blank spots in yours," Turan answered in what Maxine thought was an honest tone, "I believe you have more trump cards aside from being able to transform into a hydra. It's too wild and unstable for someone with your personality to be happy with." He's not wrong. I only came up with a new trump card recently. But boosting my strength with four additional cores is just a desperation move. I can at best unleash one overpowered attack. After that, if my opponent is still alive, I'll be too tired to fight back or even run.

"A fair assessment," Maxine replied. 

"I can still show you what we have if you want to see it," Turan offered.

"No, thank you," Maxine said even though she wanted to know what they had on her, "You probably have some non-sense on there that I can't even do."

"I doubt that," Turan said, "We already have it recorded that you can create constructs, but we don't know what your limitations on that are. For all I know, you could have thousands of constructs."

"Don't be absurd. No one can control that many," Maxine countered.

"Are you sure?" Turan asked, "It's been recorded that the number of constructs someone can use is not at a fixed amount. They can create more as they get more powerful. They are only limited by certain resources." Seriously?

"I didn't know that," Maxine said honestly.

"Oh? That's quite common knowledge amongst the shadow elves," Turan said.

"Well, I wasn't privy to a lot of things because I'm a half-elf," Maxine complained, "I can't really blame them. I was raised amongst humans, and they probably didn't want to teach me too much from fear that I would leak it to the humans."

"I see," Turan said sadly.

"I heard that some children wanted to thank me for my performance last night," Maxine said to change the subject as a smile slowly appeared on her lips, "They will be in the hotel's lobby in another hour and I wanted to see them."

"You must adore children to risk being swarmed by your numberous fans," Turan commented.

"I do and I don't even understand why," Maxine admitted, "Perhaps, this feeling stems from a strong desire for children."

"There are quite a few men quite willing to help you with that, myself included," Turan pointed out. Maxine almost reflexively recoiled at his statement.

"As you pointed out earlier, I can't stand the touch of men and therein lies the problem," Maxine retorted, "But I can always adopt. The maker knows there are enough orphans in this universe that need someone to raise them." .

"Well, that is your choice. But it's not the same as raising your own child," Turan commented.

"Perhaps, but how would you know?" Maxine asked in return.

"I don't, but I feel that I would enjoy raising my own child rather than someone else's," Turan replied.

"Typical," Maxine said as she sat down on the bed and took a meditative pose, "I'm going to cultivate until it's time for me to see those children, so if you're going to stay, please don't make any sound."

"Of course, I won't," Turan said as he took a meditative pose on the floor infront of the bed. Why doesn't that make me feel any better?

She cultivated in silence until someone knocked on the door. "Excuse me, ma'am. The kids will be arriving in a few minutes," the young man from before said from the other side of the door, "I thought I would let you know."

"Thank you for the reminder. I will be down shortly," Maxine replied and she got off the bed. Turan had already gotten to his feet.

Maxine rolled her eyes at him and opened up the door. Thankfully, her fans had taken a break of some kind and she quickly made her way to the elevator. While she could've shadow stepped to the ground floor, she felt that it would make the locals far more comfortable if she arrived in a more normal way.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, she was delighted to see over thirty children in the lobby. Most of which saw her almost immediately and were smiling excitedly. However, she also noticed that nine of them were suffering from various types of illnesses and spotted their worried parents off to the side. I know I'm being set up to heal these kids and I should be angry about it. But I'm not. I'm probably the last hope for some of these kids and I can't blame the parents or the people that were in charge of this. So, I don't mind it if they want to take advantage of my love of children. In fact, I'm a little happy that they did. I was planning on visiting various hospitals to heal the children that I could while waiting on the people from the Stardust Academy. 

"Hello, little ones," Maxine said gently and glanced up at their parents for a moment before walking over to a wheelchair bound child, "I think I know why you are all here, but can I heal your sick friens first before we play?" More than half of the healthy children nodded their heads in agreement. 

"I'll try not to take too long," Maxine said as she knelt before the wheelchair bound child and checked on his condition with her spiritual sense, "Oh? That's a nasty spinal injury you have there, but I can heal it. Just try to remain still. This could take some time." He had 3 damaged vertebrae and his spinal cord had been shredded. The only saving grace was the boy's age, so she could heal him completely one sitting. Had he been older, she would've had to heal him in slowly over the course of a month. A child's physiology, on the other hand, was far more adaptable to change. 

After nearly an hour, she managed to heal the small boy. It hadn't been nearly as difficult as she had feared, but still it tired her out mentally. It hadn't helped that everyone else was watching her every move. It was annoying, but she tolerated it. It wasn't every day that these people got to see visible white energies streaming from Maxine's hands into a little boy's body.  

"There, all done," Maxine said with a smile as she retracted her hands, but the little boy seemed confused. Oh, he doesn't feel it yet. Perhaps a gentle touch will wake up his sensory nerves. In response to this, Maxine gently squeezed the little boy's knee and saw his eyes widen with both surprise and delight.

"Thank you!" the little boy said as he hugged Maxine. Maxine smiled as she hugged the little boy back, but the hug was short lived. The little boy turned his wheelchair around and approached his parents smiling parents.

"You still need to build up your strength and relearn how to walk again," Maxine reminded him, "But I don't imagine it will take more than a few months." Still, she saw grateful looks from the little boy's parents.

Next, she checked the rest of the sick children with her spiritual sense. Most of them had been exposed to airbourne contaminants and it injured their lungs. It seems there was some buildings were knocked down near where they lived. It was a condition that was relatively easy to heal and she was able to heal them all in less than half an hour. But there were two children that she didn't dare to heal. One was diabetic little boy and the other was a little girl with brittle bones.

She looked towards the people whom were clearly their parents and apologized, "I don't dare help your children. Their ailments require specialized knowledge in order to heal that I don't have. Nor do I have the skill to make a potion that would cure them either. I'm so sorry." She could see the exact genes that were responsible for their individual illnesses, but she wasn't sure what would happen if she were to remove or change the corresponding genes. For all she knew, she could give them an even worse condition by trying to help. However she was sorely tempted to try, but her fear of causing more harm stopped her.

"I can," Turan said confidently as he strode past her and knelt before the two children before he began to cure them, "You must forgive Maxine. She specializes in combat healing, not genetic disorders, but her knowledge does allow her to heal most ordinary ailments." 

Maxine swiftly checked on the children with her spiritual sense to make sure that Turan was actually curing them and to her surprise, he was. Damn, I didn't expect that he would learn how to heal others. Perhaps, I was a bit harsh on him earlier. And that's exactly what I should think had I no memories. Still, he offered to heal them without asking for anything in return. So, I will just play along for now.

"Thank you, Turan," Maxine said softly.

"Yes, thank you," one of the children's mother said.

"It was nothing. I just couldn't bear to see Maxine so upset," Turan said with obvious honestly as he retracted his hands from the children, "There. The two of you are cured, but I suggest waiting a few months before playing with the other children, young lady. Your bones need time to harden."

"Thank you, mister elf," the little girl, whom had brittle bones, said just before giving Turan a swift kiss on the cheek. Turan was stunned as the little girl turned around and walked with a pair of crutches back to her parents. Maxine chuckled lightly as did several other people in the room.

Once Turan recovered a few seconds later, he simply smiled and walked back to Maxine's side. Maxine ignored him and talked to the children and found out that children across their world would be coming to her to be cured. I guess that makes sense from their point of view. I'm an elf, a type of fairy that they worship. Why would they expect me to move around to heal their children when they could bring them to me? Still, there will be some children I can't heal and Turan will use them to get into my good graces. And I will have to act nicer to him because of his thoughtful actions. Ugh, this is going to be a rough week.