"Hello," Patrick said over the phone, "Who is this?"

"It's Maxine," Maxine said, "Can we meet in person? I have something I need to ask you." Maxine didn't want to ask him who he has trained over the phone. It was possible that someone was listening in on her conversations electronically and didn't want give out the names of those people to anyone that might be listening.

"Yeah," Patrick answered, "It has to be in the next half hour or I won't be able to do it. Meagan wants to go out to eat lunch and go shopping with me." Maxine wasn't surprised that he was taking Meagan out on a date. Him and Meagan had gotten married in the previous timeline.

"How about we meet up at that old house that you and Maxwell used to sneak into as kids in about fifteen minutes?" Maxine said. She could get there in that ammount of time, but she had to run at top speed.

"Sure, see you there. Bye," Patrick answered.

"Bye, Patrick," Maxine said as she ended the call. 

Maxine formed her essence armor and took the battery out of her phone and tossed it into her shadow. It was a safety measure to ensure that no one could remotely turn on her phone and listen in on her and Patrick. Maxine told Silky to hide out in her nest while she was gone and ran as fast as she could towards their meeting place. However it took her just under ten minutes to get there since she took the direct route rather than using the roads. It was an abandoned mansion on the edge of town.

While Maxine waited, she made certain her clothes weren't damaged too much from her run there. She didn't want Patrick to see anything he shouldn't. She impulsively adjusted her bra to make her bust look more substantial and let out a sigh immediately after. Maxine wanted to get these feelings for Patrick out of her system, but she didn't know how without things getting wierd. However she wasn't worried that he would be attracted to her since Patrick already had Meagan. 

When he arrived, Maxine greeted him, "Hey Patrick." 

"Hey Maxine," Patrick greeted back, "Now what did you want to ask me that you couldn't over the phone?"

"I was wondering who you had taught how to cultivate, besides Maxwell, and their level of strength," Maxine said. 

"Meagan, and Jack," Patrick answered, "Those two are about one rank below me in strength and Maxwell is almost even with me in strength." Jack had been one of their companions in the previous timeline. He was ugly as a mule, but an excellent fighter. However Meagan hadn't been a cultivator in the previous timeline and Maxine wondered how good she was at combat. 

"Good," Maxine said, "Has Meagan decided on a weapon yet?" Maxine knew that her former self, Maxwell, would choose dual blades and Jack was quite fearsome with his spear. It would be strange, but not impossible for them to pick something different.

"A bow actually, but I havn't been able to find any materials to make her a decent one," Patrick answered. A bow? I forgot Meagan was into archery.

"I will take care of that. There are alot of essence beasts where I go to hunt and I should be able to make her a bronze ranked bow quite easily," Maxine told him. She would have to hunt several bronze stage essence beasts for their bones and sinew to make one. 

"Thanks," Patrick said, "By the way, I was wondering something. How did you pull those swords out of your shadow?" Maxine was confused by his question for a moment before she realized that he had seen her on the news. 

"My shadow works like one of those rare bags of holding. However I have to encase them in my essence and maintain a steady stream of it to ensure that they stay in my shadow," Maxine answered, "It's too bad that this ability is unique to me though."

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"Well that's too bad," Patrick said, "I wonder where does that stuff goes when you put it in your shadow?" Maxine thought Patrick brought up a good point.

"I don't know. I never bothered to check," Maxine said, "But I have a safe way to find out." Maxine summoned one of her Shadow Wolves out of her shadow.

"What the hell is that?!" Patrick said while a look of terror appeared on his face as he took a step back. Maxine was confused by his reaction until she remembered that essence beasts that killed her before were the same color as her Shadow Wolf. He must have seen them before they attacked me when I was still Maxwell.  

"It's my Shadow Wolf. I made a few of these guys to protect my mother and to help me gather essence cores," Maxine answered, "Now be quiet. I am trying to adjust it so I can see through it's eyes." Maxine used her spiritual sense to connect to the Shadow Wolf so that she could see through it's eyes and sat down on the ground. Maxine closed her eyes and sent her Shadow Wolf back into her shadow. What she saw was surprising.

It was the interior of a cave and not a big one at that. Her Shadow Wolves took up most of the space inside of it. Maxine moved her Shadow Wolf towards the exit and had it look outside. The whole landscape was in shades of grey, but not because of a lack of vegetation. If anything, the area around the cave was thriving with life as she viewed a large forest.

Maxine tried probing the area with her spiritual sense, but when she did, she didn't care as much as to what was in the forest. That was because of the type of essence in the air. It was all shadow essence and it was several times thicker than the essence currently around her actual body. She couldn't even imagine how much faster she could cultivate should she go there.

However Maxine didn't retract her essence and extended it as far as she could. She found a small medieval village and the all of the people within it had dark grey skin. There were twisted versions of domesticated animals within that village. However whether it was man or beast they all had glowing golden eyes just like her Shadow Wolves. It would have been creepy if she hadn't found this place within her shadow.

Maxine ordered her Shadow Wolf to go back to the rest of the wolves and rest as she retracted her will from the Shadow Wolf. Maxine didn't open her eyes yet and scanned her surroundings with her spiritual senes. Patrick had found a spot to sit down at. She was alittle disappointed that he wasn't trying to check her out, but at the same time happy that he wasn't interested. If anything, he appeared cautious.

"So, what's it look like in there?" Patrick asked before Maxine could open her eyes.

"The place inside of my shadow looks alot like Earth. Although, everything is in shades of grey and there are no signs of modern technology. There are strange creatures in there as well," Maxine answered.

"Wierd," Patrick said as he looked his cell phone, "Well I need to head out or Meagan will give me an earful. She wants to enjoy the luxuries while they still exist."

"Alright, have fun," Maxine said.

"I will," Patrick answered, "Bye." 

"Bye," Maxine said softly as he left. She felt alittle sad after he left her sight. She had wanted to hang out with him and Meagan like they used to in the other timeline, but knew that it wouldn't be the same.  

Maxine felt a desire to see her former family while she was in town. She didn't check on them before when she was in the area because Amanda was with her. However now she had no such constraint as she stood up and made her way towards the house that she grew up in her past life. She knew they weren't blood related anymore, but the desire to see them still remained. 

When she was half a mile away from her old house, Maxine stopped and sent her spiritual sense into the distance to check on her family. She found that both of the cars where in the driveway. Her parents must have come home early for lunch and Maxine scanned the interior of the house. Her sister Alice, both of her parents and Maxwell were eating at the table. Her parents had been rather strict that they do that. Maxine couldn't help it as as a fond smile spread across her lips when warm and happy memories of her family came to the surface of her mind.  

Maxwell appeared to sense her when he extended his own spiritual sense. Maxine retracted her spiritual sense to prevent him from discovering who she was. It was difficult enough to keep herself from going to that house without him insisting that she reveal herself. It would be difficult to explain why she was watching them. It wasn't like she could go up to her family and say that she was the reincarnation of their son from the future. They would think she was insane if she did that. Anyways, it was safer for them if she kept her distance as she didn't want to reveal Maxwell to General Jones. In fact she was taking a big enough risk by even coming this close and didn't dare linger any longer. Even though she was reluctant to leave, Maxine turned around and ran back towards Silky's nest. She would check on them using other means in the future. However for now, Maxine needed to get Silky some lunch and go hunting for materials to make Meagan a bow. Since tomorrow she is going to try helping Emily make a few of her own techniques.