Chapter Text
“Everyone get ready! Our Lord is expected to come back today!” a woman with black and red hair and wearing a mesh black blindfold over her eyes said to the other people in the room who were taking their sweet time getting ready for the day.
“Yes, Ma’am!” They all said this remark, speeding up their preparations before leaving the servant's quarters to go to their assigned rooms. One of the servants- a recruit- approached the woman who seemed to be in charge,
“Miss Xiomara? Where should I go?” The servant asked her. Xiomara sighed and told her to go to the kitchens to prepare food for their lord and his 4 guests. Xiomara busied herself with cleaning up the main entrance and helping some of the other servants prepare the guest bedrooms in the Shapeshifter Manor building. Their lord was one of the many shapeshifters to have called this place home but he had called it home for the longest time, Xiomara was the head servant and librarian. She was in charge of the other servants making sure they were up and ready each morning, but her job as the librarian was more important, she documented everything to do with their lord's group known as “The Stellaron Hunters” every single mission in greater detail than her lord's scripts. She took great pride in this.
About an hour after she had to tell everyone to get back to work she heard the sounds of a ship landing outside. Xiomara quickly gathered everyone to the front entrance and opened the front door taking a deep breath as she stepped out. Bowing her head with a pleasant smile on her face
“Welcome home Lord Elio, and welcome to Shapeshifter Manor esteemed guests,” Xiomara said when the five people she was looking for came closer. Elio jumped off the shoulder of a pink-haired woman and transformed from his cat form into his human form. Xiomara quickly bowed, Elio smiled at her,
“Thank you, Xiomara,” he said to her. Xiomara was quick to lead them inside. She walked with her hands folded together in front of her,
“My Lord, would you prefer dinner before any business?” Xiomara asked him as she walked alongside him. Elio thought for a moment,
“Are any of you hungry? I know Sam isn’t but what about you three?” Elio asked the four people behind him. It was then that Xiomara noticed the one that seemed to be a sentient robot. The shortest person in the group nodded,
“I’m hungry and Blade hasn’t eaten since yesterday so Kafka’s probably gonna force him to eat,” she said absent-mindedly as she held a gaming console in her hands.
“Silver Wolf…” the man next to her groaned in annoyance, the woman with pink hair gave him a strained smile
“Bladie you need to eat, even if you are immortal,” the woman said as she poked his forehead gently. Elio sighed and snapped his fingers getting their attention,
“Is that a yes, Kafka?” he asked her. Kafka nodded much to Blade’s disappointment, Xiomara smiled at them,
“Follow me this way then, you three go help the cooks bring out the food,” Xiomara said to three servants who were chatting in the hallway nearby. They all tensed up and nodded saying yes ma’am as they hurried off to the kitchen.
“They’ve been slacking off more often recently,” Xiomara commented to Elio, before continuing to lead the way to the dining room. She pushed open the large double doors and two other servants immediately came over to hold them open,
“A long time ago, this place was often used to host ballroom parties,” Xiomara explained when she noticed the man called Blade’s confused expression. He looked at her with a suspicious look in his eyes, Xiomara smiled and walked over to pull out a chair for Elio, the man thanked her and sat down gesturing for his guests to do the same. They did so and soon food was brought out from the smaller entrance nearby,
“We made the usual today, I hope that’s alright my Lord, we noticed this morning we were out of ingredients for anything fancy,” Xiomara said as the waiters set plates down in front of Elio and his guests. Elio brushed her off telling her it was fine before everyone started eating, the one called Blade almost had his food forced down his throat by Kafka at one point during the meal. Xiomara laughed a bit at this and noticed Elio smiling at them, which was something he didn’t often do before he had created the Stellaron Hunters. Xiomara smiled at him, and before long the food was all gone. And the waiters came back out to clear the plates.
“Xiomara, how are the townspeople outside the forest behaving?” Elio asked her suddenly, Xiomara looked at him in surprise before thinking for a moment.
“There were two riots last month, only one attempt to burn the manor,” Xiomara explained counting on her fingers, the robot called Sam looked at Elio and asked
“Is that normal around here?” Elio nodded before standing up.
“This manor is rumored to be the reason for the downfall of the city just outside the forest, so sometimes the villagers try to get in and burn it,” Elio explained as Xiomara offered him a book of all the most recent events that she kept on her at all times. He opened it and read it quickly before snapping it shut, he looked annoyed but covered it up quickly.
“Lord Elio, Guests, if you wish I can show you to the library,” Xiomara said, noticing the woman called Kafka’s curious expression as she spoke. Elio nodded
“I’d like to see what updates you’ve made to the library,” Elio said to her as she gestured for them to follow her again. They left the dining room and began to walk down a different hallway, which led to another set of doors that were ornately decorated with books and carvings of birds, cats, and several other animals.
“Welcome to the Library of the Shapeshifters,” Xiomara said as she pushed open the doors to reveal the large cavernous room on the other side. A large circular room stretching up several stories each wall lined with trophies, books, and many other items. But in the center of the room was a large circular table with a hologram of the solar system this planet was located in. Xiomara walked up to the table sat down on the edge of the table and crossed her legs.
“What do you think? I was trying to go for old-fashioned yet futuristic at the same time.” Xiomara asked Elio as he sat down in a chair nearby,
“It’s impressive, I assume you kept all the things I sent you over the ages?” Elio asked her. Xiomara nodded with a smile tapping a button next to her, the hologram changed to display forty-seven stellarons.
“The auction item, the meta code, the steel core, it’s all here,” Xiomara said pointing to each of the particular items she named. The stellaron hunters were looking around the library with curious yet surprisingly calm expressions,
“Did Lord Elio tell you about the library before you came?” Xiomara asked Kafka confused about why they were all so calm. Kafka laughed a bit, tapping her chin with a gloved finger,
“Elio gave us some little things to go on, but left the sheer size of the room out of it,” Kafka explained gesturing around them.
“I was confused when you sent that message ahead of time to pull everything we had about Vidyadhara’s before you got here,” Xiomara said gesturing to the neatly organized group of books on the circular table nearby. The one called Blade quickly came over and said
“Anything about the Blight of Draconic Surge?” Xiomara blinked in surprise jumping off the table and going over to the stack of books. She hummed as she searched through the titles and footnotes, Blade watched her the whole time while Kafka talked to Elio about how Blade had taken Elio’s phone in order to send that message. Xiomara tapped the table as she read through one of the scrolls,
“This one mentions the way it’s caused in… yikes… great detail…” Xiomara said with a mock gag, Blade arched his brow at this.
“That’s really gross… wait the bone marrow?! Hold on a second.” Xiomara said as she read the scroll putting it down and opening up to the keyboard to the large computer in the center of the desk. She typed up the blight of Draconic Surge and found only two cases of it ever being used in known Vidyadhara history, the most recent case being a desperate high elder trying to save his beloved. Xiomara looked up at Blade before looking back up at the screen,
“What's that video?” Blade asked, pointing to where there was a video link on the screen. Xiomara glanced at Elio and gestured for her to play it as Blade likely would have found out sooner or later. She clicked the play button and the video was revealed to be just an audio recording. But as soon as it started screams could be heard in the background.
“That’s Dan Feng…”Blade said quietly, before listening to the audio recording in stunned silence.
“Oi, the guy's bone marrow is supposed to give us healthy immortality, right? So why are you taking so long!?” One voice -male- said in annoyance. There was a sigh
“Removing the horns and tail, as well as draining bone marrow from his body, is a tedious and lengthy process, exercise patience.” A second voice this one female said with a much calmer voice than the first.
“How can you be so calm?! One of the prisoners escaped! She could have alerted the cloud knights!” The first voice said with a near shout. There was another sigh before the second voice snapped at the first
“Shut it. If I can hear you clearly over the dragon's screams then we have a problem.” She said in annoyance, before falling silent as the screams grew louder.
“Seems they are removing the tail finally,” the first voice commented before also falling silent,
“What were they doing earlier? The bone marrow is purest in his horns and tail,” the second voice muttered before a third voice joined the conversation
“We need to get as much marrow as we can before he dies, so even if they haven’t gotten the horns or tail just yet, the more the merrier.” The other two voices seemed to snap to attention as the third voice spoke.
“We understand, Master, and we apologize for being impatient,” the second voice said quietly to the third. The third seemed to not care as they didn’t say anything to the second voice instead probably watching this horrible ritual they were doing.
Blade turned on his heel and left the room quickly followed by Kafka, who was calling after him to stay. Xiomara glanced at Elio as she stopped the audio recording.
“So… he’s the one from the case 400 years ago?” She asked him out of concern, Elio nodded and stood up. Xiomara was quick to go back to her head servant mode and say
“The guest rooms are all prepared, I can take you to them,” she said quietly before leading the way out of the library. Elio, Silver Wolf, and Sam followed her out and they saw Kafka standing next to Blade outside, Blade was leaning against the wall with a hand to his head. Muttering things to Kafka who was clearly trying to keep his anger under control. Elio walked up to him and met his eyes before whispering something to him, but Xiomara couldn’t hear him when he spoke. Silver Wolf looked like she couldn’t care much and Sam couldn’t show any expression as he was a robot. Xiomara watched as Blade stood up straighter and nodded to Elio, the man smiled and also stood up straight.
“Xiomara here will take you to your guest rooms. I have some business to attend to.” Elio gestured to Xiomara as he spoke. Kafka smiled at her and Xiomara returned the smile before telling them to follow her. She walked with her hands folded in front of her and a smile plastered on her face.
“Mrs. Silver Wolf, this is the room Lord Elio asked to be prepared for you,” Xiomara said gesturing to the door next to her,
“Mrs. Kafka yours is next door, Then Mr. Blade, then Mr. Sam at the end of the hall. If you have any questions you can find me in the library.” Xiomara said to them Sam and Silver Wolf had left almost instantly, Blade left after them muttering a thank you to her, Kafka lingered for a few moments smiling at her strangely before also leaving for her room. Xiomara sighed and went back to the library, leaning against the door as she closed it. She removed her blindfold and blinked a few times, her strange golden eyes glowing slightly. Xiomara moved to sit down in front of all the Vidyadhara scrolls, she rubbed the bridge of her nose as she read through another book about the ritual they had overheard in the audio recording.
“They removed the bone marrow in order to achieve a healthy immortality… but then they still forced him into molting into who is now known as Dan Heng…” Xiomara muttered to herself, thinking about Blade's involvement in this case before her brain drew a blank. She was so focused that she didn’t hear the door opening
“Mrs. Xiomara, Ma’am! The townspeople made it past the barrier!” A desperate servant said urgently to her. Xiomara was on her feet in an instant shutting down the computer and tying her blindfold back over her eyes before leaving the library with the frantic servant at her heels explaining how the villagers had made it past the wall
“Have you informed Lord Elio?!” Xiomara asked the servant who nodded,
“When I went to tell him the guards at his door said that he wasn’t to be disturbed under any circumstances.” The servant explained as they arrived at the front door,
“Go see if any of our guests are awake,” Xiomara said to her before stepping out of the house and finding the front gate on fire. She quickly used her elemental powers to douse the raging flames. Xiomara summoned her weapon, a long spear that had a deadly sharp point on either end, with a golden rose carved just below the blade on the top, and vines intertwining down the length of the weapon.
“So you’ve made it all the way here…” Xiomara muttered before she jumped on top of the half-ruined gate,
“It’s the monster who works for that horrible Shapeshifter!” a villager below her said. Xiomara almost instantly wanted to shout at them to not call her that, but she shook her head instead,
“Foolish… a hopeless attempt at ruining everything…” Xiomara said raising her free hand over her head and a giant fire spear formed over her head which she then launched into the crowd. Killing quite a few of them.
“Unless you want more death, then leave. Now.” Xiomara called out to them, brandishing her spear in the direction of the village.
“FIRE!” a sudden shout declared from the forest, Seconds later hundreds of arrows were shot in her direction, several of them fire arrows. Xiomara screamed as one impaled her left leg and another her right shoulder, she stumbled backward her blindfold falling off before she summoned ice around her and spreading all throughout the crowd.
“Xiomara!” a sudden voice called out to her, She looked down her face contorted in pain as she struggled to stay standing, she spotted Kafka and Blade, as well as Sam. Her chest was heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. She looked back up as another round of arrows was fired several of them breaking through her ice barrier, and one of the fire arrows stabbing her right arm. She screamed again and finally fell backward, she found herself caught by Blade and given to Kafka. The woman held her close while telling her to brace herself so Sam could cauterize the wound. Xiomara barely felt the pain of the burns, her vision was fading in and out. Every now and then Kafka would look away from her and fire her guns in the direction of the crowd.
“Stay with us, Xiomara…” Sam’s robotic voice rang in her ears. Xiomara struggled to nod as she grimaced the pain from her leg flaring up, she felt a cold fabric wrapped around her leg after the arrow had swiftly been removed. Xiomara had an ability that allowed her to heal much faster than the average person, so she sat up as the last arrow was removed from her shoulder. Kafka worried over her for a second, saying that she shouldn’t sit up just yet. She could see Blade fighting at the front gate, his sword glowing in a golden hue as he slashed at 5 people at a time. Several of the villagers had retreated already, but the majority of them had been killed in the fighting.
“Blade! Move to the side!” Xiomara called to him, the swordsman glanced at her and complied jumping to the side just in time as another fire spear was launched into the crowd. Xiomara stumbled again, catching herself on her hands, and staring down at the cobblestone ground before looking back up at the rioting villagers.
“Mrs. Xiomara!” a servant called to her, Xiomara looked over at him and saw Lord Elio standing next to him his eyes enraged as he took in the scene around him.
“My Lord…” Xiomara muttered staring at him as he looked over at her and saw the state she was in, his eyes started glowing as his fury mounted.
“Blade! Come back over here, I can handle this.” Elio called to him going over to take Blade’s spot in the fighting, which ended almost as soon as Elio snapped his fingers, an invisible force pushing back all the villagers and then becoming a temporary shield around the manor. Elio turned on his heel and quickly went over to Xiomara, who had managed to gather the strength to stand up again. Kafka helped her stay upright.
“Xiomara… sorry I took so long…” Elio said to her, Xiomara smiled weakly
“This is nothing new… In your absence… they have gotten past the barrier almost every time…” Xiomara whispered blood dripping from her wounds and landing with a splash on the ground. Elio caught her as she fell forward, the man holding her had saved her life on numerous occasions, and now… he had done it again… adding to her debt to him that she felt she owed him…