Maxine was in an amazingly good mood this morning. Last night she had managed to absorb three of the iron stage essence cores before reaching her limit and had broken through to iron stage rank 2. Twenty of her Shadow Wolves broke into iron stage as well at the same time she increased her strength and ten of her copper stage Shadow Wolves had entered the bronze stage. Even all of her ravens had ranked up to bronze stage. All of which happened last night. She hadn't truly expected that her creations could actually increase their stage of cultivation until it happened. It had been a wonderful surprise. The wonderful day time that she spent with Emily yesterday is another reason for her good mood as well.

Maxine decided to check on the video that she posted a few days ago featuring Silky's physical abilities. She had been trying to help Amanda with her petition when she made it. However once she checked the comments on on that video, she got angry. More than a third of the people that watched it were either internet trolls or wanted to imprison all essence cultivators. Another third of the people had responded that things should stay the way they are. The remaining third actually thought it was a good idea to have a specialized police force. Maxine didn't know whether the video helped or not. Maxine checked a news website next, but it didn't mention anything about the need for a specialized police force for essence cultivators. It seemed like the public just didn't care. However Maxine knew that they would care as soon as a few essence cultivators decide to use their incredible abilities for criminal activity in a very public place. Maxine let out a sigh before she called Amanda on her cellphone. 

"Hey, Maxine," Amanda said over the phone, "How was your date with Emily?"

"What?" Maxine said while feeling surprised since she hadn't said a thing about it to Amanda, "How did you know we went on a date?"

"Maxine, you can't honestly believe that your social life won't become public knowledge now that you're a celebrity," Amanda said.

"I knew that me dating Emily would be found out eventually, but I never thought it would be this fast," Maxine admitted.

"Well it did," Amanda said, "Now what was the reason why you called me?"

"I was wondering how your petition was coming," Maxine said, "Did the video I post do any good?"

"Oh, that," Amanda sounded frustrated, "Your video both helped and hurt my petition. It helped raise people's awareness of the strengths that essence cultivators could possess and made them see the reason for having a specialized police force. The problem is that almost an equal number of people want to make essence cultivators wear a device to mark them, so that they could avoid them."

"That sounds alot like what Hitler made the Jews do," Maxine said, "And everyone knows how that turned out."

"I know," Amanda said, "I am trying to keep that from happening for now."

"Good luck," Maxine said, "Anything I can do to help?"

"No, there isn't. Not unless you can make those idiots see reason," Amanda said jokingly.

"Making a politician see reason when it doesn't benefit them? I think I will have an easier time turning water to wine," Maxine said and heard Amanda chuckle on the other end of the line.

"Indeed," Amanda said and she sighs before continuing, "I will try to call you if there is a change."

"Thanks, Amanda," Maxine said, "Take care of yourself."

"Will do," Amanda said and she ended the call.

Maxine went back to her room and froze when she saw a gift box on her bed with a note on top of it. It creeped her out since she hadn't detected anyone, not even Silky, enter her room. Maxine quickly scanned the note with her spiritual sense rather than approach it. 'Maxine, inside this box is a very special armor called Shadow's Embrace. It can bond with its user when you first inject your essence into it and from that moment on it will become part of you. When active, it will provide you over four times the defensive capabilities that your essence armor would provide alone and it will work in harmony with your essence armor to provide you with a total of five times your normal damage resistive abilities without limiting your movement. Outside of battle, it will reside within your body and will not effect your day to day life. To activate it, just use your essence armor and Shadow's Embrace will equip itself. Once you no longer need it retract your essence armor, and it will be absorbed back into your own body. Do not worry about repairing it. It has a self-repair function when it is not in use. If you have any questions about it that I haven't answered, just ask your mother. She knows just about as much about these kinds of armors as I do. I know this can't make up for leaving you with that man or for anything else I have done. I know that you will never treat me as your father. Just know that I only wish for you to be safe and to know that I love you, even if you do not love me. Your father, Guan,' is what was written on the note. After she had finished reading the last line, the note spontaneously combusted where it sat and Maxine wasn't surprised the note would combust like that. It fit with the overly cautious personality he had displayed so far.

Maxine was thoroughly impressed if the armor in the gift box did everything that he mentioned. Her own Steel Silk Vest only provided her an extra layer of defense and it only covered her chest. However from his description it would cover most, if not all, of her body. 

Maxine quickly opened the gift box and saw that the armor is mostly black and grey. She pulled out the top piece of the armor to get a better look at it. It was a hooded leather chest armor with long sleeves and had multiple declorative straps on the lower back and stomach. The hooded portion came with a small face mask that covered everything except the area around her eyes. Seriously? Is he trying to make me a feminine version of himself? She quickly lifted the pants out of the gift box and held it up infront of herself. The pants were quite simple and only had a single strap around the waist to act like a belt. She put the pants on her bed and looked back towards the gift box. She saw a pair of boots and fingerless gloves made of the same material as the rest of the armor and had a set of beautiful grey bracers made of some strange metal. They had exquisitely carved wolves and ravens on them and almost looked like they were made of marble. 

Maxine wondered how it would all look on her and quickly got changed into it. She didn't want to put on the face mask, but it seemed to be part of the hood. As she got into the clothes, she found that everything fit her quite snuggly and it seemed to have some elasticity to it which would accomadate any of her future growth. Maxine looked at herself with her spiritual sense once she had gotten the Shadow's Embrace armor on. She did a few stretches to see if it inhibited her movements and was happy to find that it didn't inhibit her movements at all. She was quite satisfied with this armor as it was. She had a hard time imagining how much better it would be with her essence armor added to it. Maxine activated her essence armor and her jaw dropped when she saw that the Shadow's Embrace armor transformed. Scales that came with her essence armor appeared all over her armor with an exception of her bracers and her white mask formed as usual, but it formed over the face mask of the Midnight Ward armor instead of under it. A faint, almost invisible, shadowy aura emanated off of the armor. She had a feeling that if she were to walk around at night that she just might become invisible. However her attention was drawn to the scales covering her Shadow's Embrace armor. The scales on it were far more defined than her essence armor by itself. They almost looked like they belonged to a snake or dragon. 

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I see your father's fashion sense hasn't changed," Hellen said jokingly using her spiritual sense, "Those bracers are not just decorative by the way. They can store your creations inside of them even when they in their inactive state."

"That will be useful. How long have you been awake?" Maxine asked since Hellen normally says something as soon as she awakens.

"I woke up in time to see the note your father left burst into flames," Hellen said and paused for a moment before continuing, "Guan really went to a lot of work to customize that armor for you. He even made it so that it would combine with your essence armor. That is no small feat especially since that is a skill unique to Earth." 

"I know," Maxine said and started to complain, "But did he have to make it look so much like his own equipment?"

"Don't worry about that. It can adjust its shape according to your will. It may even be possible that those scales could disappear too," Hellen said.

"How?" Maxine asked curiously since she hated how the scales of her essence armor made her look.

"Concentrate on your armor and think of it as smooth and ridgeless," Hellen replied and Maxine focused her mind. She envisioned the armor she was wearing as smooth as it was before she activated her essence armor. However when she opened her eyes, the scales remained. Nothing. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Let's try something else. She quickly envisioned herself wearing an elegant green dress from the medieval period and the armor shifted into that. However the scales were still there yet they accentuated the beauty of the dress. Each scale was lined with gold. Seems I am stuck with them. At least they're pretty like this. "Were those scales intentional?" Hellen asked, "Because they're beautiful."

"No," Maxine answered.

"That's... odd," Hellen answered, "Perhaps there is something neither of us are seeing."

"Maybe," Maxine says while not completely believing Hellen didn't know what was going on. 

Maxine retracted her essence armor and watched as it literately melt and absorb into her skin. It felt and looked disturbing, but it didn't seem to hurt her. It took less than a second to completely absorb into her flesh. She knew that it would form the scaled-covered Shadow's Embrace armor if she activated her essence armor. However Maxine wanted to test first. She coated herself with her essence armor and the scale-covered Shadow's Embrace armor formed on her body almost instantly. It seems to revert back to that shape by default when I am not specifically controlling it. I am just happy that it forms over my clothes. If it didn't, I would basically be ripping off my clothes every time I form my essence armor from now on. It would be embaressing. Maxine retracted her essence armor and the process took the same amount of time to dissolve into her skin as before. She stood there in her bra and underwear for a moment before she started getting dressed. 

Afterwards Maxine wandered around the house wondering where Silky was. She hadn't seen her at all since breakfast and found her in the living room reading a book on tailoring that Maxine had borrowed from the library. Maxine smiled and was about to walk away when she saw countless silken threads come out of Silky's spinnerettes. Each thread acted like a prism and gave off a different color depending on how the light touched it. It looked like tiny rainbows were weaving themselves together. It was a mesmerizing sight.

However Maxine couldn't figure out how Silky was weaving the clothes until she scanned the silken threads with her spiritual sense. Silky was manipulating each silken thread with her essence. It allowed Silky to make just about whatever she wanted without seams. It was as heavy as normal clothing and quite nearly bullet proof. 

At that moment, Maxine came to a sudden realization. Oh, shit. If anyone knew that she could make clothes like that, the military, or any government agency for that matter, they would try to take Silky away from me. And now that I think about it, my idea to sell Silky's silk would have been extremely risky as well. What the fuck was I thinking?

Maxine quickly checked to see if anyone could see Silky weaving the cloth from the windows. Fortunately Silky's spinnerettes were in a blind spot, which caused Maxine to feel relieved. She quickly knelt down and touched Silky's shoulder to get her attention. Silky looked at Maxine curiously.

"Silky, I need you to avoid making silk infront of anyone other than me or grandma Claudia," Maxine said, "Do you understand?"

"Yes, mama. Grandma Hellen already told me not to," Silky said, "She said people are greedy. They would look at my silk like it's woven gold and try to take me away." Hellen, you are a life-saver. 

"Then why are you in such an open area of the house making a bolt of silk?" Maxine asked while pointing at the windows one by one.

"Nobody can see my spinnerettes from any of the windows and my spider friends are watching for anyone as well," Silky said, "And I am making something for Emily, not a bolt of silk." Maxine wondered what Silky could possibly be making and looked behind Silky to see that the silken cloth was actually formed into a circular band.

"What are you making?" Maxine asked, "And what do you mean 'spider friends?'"

"I am making her a shirt. Just like the one she wore when we went to practice dodging before she changed," Silky answered and pointed at a spot behind Maxine, "There is one of my spider friends now." Maxine turned around and saw a small spider on the wall near the roof. Silky make various snapping and clicking sounds that were clearly an insectiod language to prove that she could. To Maxine's surprise, the spider answered back. "Mama, she likes you," Silky said and suddenly she started to look upset as the spider made a few more noises, "Mama, that spider just said someone asked her alot of questions."

"What kind of questions?" Maxine asked while feeling alarm rising.

"Like how you were treating me and if i was happy," Silky answered.

"Who were they and what did they look like?" Maxine asked while knowing full well that the spider wasn't likely to remember something of that level of detail.

Silky made some more of those noises before she answered, "She said they smell like a spider and a human at the same time. Just like I do." If they smell like that, it would mean that they are arachne. But are they from Earth? I doubt it. Looks like I was wrong. I need to talk to Hellen and I need to know if they will try to take Silky away.  

"Thank you for telling me, Silky," Maxine said as she gently hugged Silky, "I will leave you alone so you can get back to your book." Maxine walked to the couch and sat down. 

Maxine sat there thinking for a few moments before contacting Hellen through her spiritual sense, "Mom, can I ask you something?" Maxine had put off calling Hellen mom for long enough. Hellen had already sacrificed her body for the original Maxine and had awoken to find out the daughter that she sacrificed her body for had a fused soul. It could only make things harder on Hellen that Maxine was refusing to call her mom. 

Maxine could sense immense joy eminating from the golden bracelet as Hellen answered, "Of course, Maxine. Is this about the two arachne that have been spying on you and Silky for the past few days?" 

"What?" Maxine replied in surprise, "How did you know?" She really wanted to know since it would be good for future reference.

"I kept count of the number of spiders in your house ever since I saw Silky. Their numbers have doubled since you came home from the hospital and arachne are known to be able to command spiders," Hellen responded, "As for them taking Silky away, they would have done it before you were released at the hospital, if they were going to do it."

"That's good news," Maxine said happily with her spiritual sense.

"Not quite," Hellen said, "I started listening to their conversation a few moments ago. It seems that they are undecided on what to do with Silky."

"And?" Maxine asked.

"One is in favor of taking her while the other isn't," Hellen replied, "They are using the details of the past few days as arguement material, including your date with Emily."

"What?! Don't they know the meaning of privacy?" Maxine asked.

"Nothing is out of bounds when it comes to the safety of another arachne in their minds. The Arachne Sisterhood is rather protective of their own kind," Hellen replied, "Oh? It seems like they will ask their elders to decide for them."  

"Is that good or bad?" Maxine asked.

"I don't know," Hellen answered, "Depends on the attitude of their elders."

"Well, shit," Maxine said, "Thanks for trying to help, Hel... mom." Maxine knew it was going to take some time to get used to calling Hellen mom.

"It's alright," Hellen said, "Now go spend some time with Silky while you can. I will join in a moment, but first I will monitor them for a while to see if they get an immediate response. If not, it will be a few days before they get an answer." Maxine stood up and went to spend time with Silky since she could only wait until the arachne came to her.