Tsubaki walked through the halls of the citadel, silently performing an inspection. Now that Dana had been back from her trip to Deckan for a few days, she was also back to her regular routine for chores. However, Tsubaki had noticed a slight drop in her performance. Mistakes that she felt Dana wouldn’t usually make, or details that she should have noticed.

In truth, this worried Tsubaki, as she had been warned of the possibility that Dana’s personality might undergo a change. Although that theory was for if she fully integrated as Tsubaki’s familiar, she could not shake the thought that something might have happened to Dana. It took all that the kitsune had not to simply monitor her friend as she was working, in order to ensure that everything was okay.

Yet, she still spotted those same errors. Doors left ajar, secret passages not swept, and trash bins unemptied. With a shake of her head, Tsubaki decided that she had to bring this up with Dana. She had to get to the bottom of the problem, if only to ensure herself whether the girl living with her was truly the Dana that she knew.

After entering her own room, Tsubaki closed her eyes and sent out a message with her mana, directing it towards Dana. Would you meet me in my room, please? We need to talk for a moment.

Almost as soon as she had finished that message, she felt a weight pressing down beside her. Opening her eyes, she saw Dana sitting there, looking at her curiously. “What’s up, Tsuba?” She asked with a small smile.

“I… need to ask you something. And I would like you to be perfectly honest with me.” Tsubaki spoke in a serious tone, causing Dana’s eyes to widen briefly. “Has there been anything troubling you after you came back? Your work has… not been to the same standard as I am used to seeing from you.”

“What do you mean?” Dana asked curiously, though Tsubaki could see some level of recognition in Dana’s eyes. As if she were truly interested in what was different.

“The third secret passage, leading to the transport terminal, was left unattended. Six doors were not properly closed after you were done cleaning in them, one even left wide open. And the trash in your workshop wasn’t disposed of.” Tsubaki listed off the errors in Dana’s work that she had noticed, watching the serious nod of the little elf at every item.

“Sorry!” Dana clapped her hands together, bowing her head. “She’s still training, but I thought she’d be good enough to handle the minor chores.”

It was Tsubaki’s turn to be confused when she heard that statement. “She?” She asked, glancing around.

“Right… It was a little idea I had the other day after I got back.” Dana admitted with a sheepish smile. “My energy can create people, right? So I wanted to create a team of maids. Not for the citadel, don’t get me wrong! I know the two of us are plenty here. This is more… more of a training area for them.”

Tsubaki furrowed her brow, still not entirely sold on what she was hearing. “And what are they being trained for?”

“Well, the world that I copied was Deckan, right?” The elf asked with a faint shrug, shaking her head. “So… I thought that maybe I could create a team of servants to help Udona take care of things. What could be better than maids and bodyguards that can appear anywhere out of a shadow, quickly take care of their business, and then disappear without causing any problems?!”

“Of course… I can’t just have them go straight there. They need to be trained to a standard we would be happy with first.” At that, Dana let out a groan. “The maid was easy. I just had to give her the basic knowledge of her tasks, and send her to work. But, because I’m training the other three at the same time, I didn’t have the chance to oversee her and point out her mistakes.”

“Other… okay, you know what… can you introduce me to all of them? That would make this conversation go by far more quickly, I think.” Tsubaki brought a hand up to massage her temples, not quite sure what to make of this.

“Sure!” She nodded, and her shadow expanded into four parts, stretching out to the far wall. From the wall, four figures emerged, one after the other.

The first figure was clearly the maid. She was a kitsune woman with remarkable facial features and a uniform in a similar style to Tsubaki. However, her hair was short and black, and her gaze a bit more naive.

The second figure was no doubt a mage, an elven man who had just reached the cusp of adulthood. He wore a black robe, carrying a gnarled black staff in his hand. What surprised Tsubaki was just how weak the mana he gave off was, signalling that he was not yet a powerful mage.

The third figure was a heavily armored warrior, a human by the looks of things. He wore black steel armor and carried a shield as tall as his body. From the top of the shield, Tsubaki could see the hilt of what was no doubt an equally massive sword. However, his footsteps were not as heavy as Tsubaki would expect from a high level warrior.

Finally, the third figure was a halfling wearing a black cloak. He seemed to be the spymaster of Dana’s group, as he came equipped with a pair of daggers on his waist, and a rifle on his back. His eyes habitually scanned the surroundings, as if constantly prepared for danger.

“These are the four of them! Meet Janaerra, Hollevin, Sanct, and Despir.” Dana spoke up, introducing the four of them in the order that they appeared. “Once I get them trained, I’m going to have them train others in similar skills as themselves.”

“They do not seem particularly impressive.” Tsubaki pointed out, noting that she could have easily defeated any of them even when she had only just joined the Keeper’s service.

“Well, yeah…” Dana muttered under her breath. “I’m not done training them yet. They were practically born yesterday. See… with this energy, I can create someone. But, I can’t create them at a high level.”

“Instead, I create a template by choosing what classes or traits I want to focus on. That template randomly generates a personality, and a sort of pseudo-soul is born. For Janaerra, that’s all that it took. After that step, I just needed to teach her what she needed to know as a maid, and let her work.”

“But, for the other three… I have to design training situations for them based on my own knowledge and experiences. I needed to provide a spell library for Hollevin to study in, combat practice for Sanct, and espionage missions for Despir. That last one… really hard to casually come up with good espionage missions. I had help to search the internet for good training material there.”

“Aside from these four, I want to eventually make a summoner, an elementalist, and a priest.” Dana smiled as she spoke. It was clear she had great plans to create a shadow army for Udona. Or perhaps it would be more apt to say that she simply wanted to make a shadow army in the first place.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Tsubaki questioned, feeling that keeping something this big was… okay, so it wasn’t entirely unlike Dana. But she would have at least dropped some hints.

“Well, I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal?” Dana admitted with a shake of her head. “If you found Janaerra, you would have sensed my energy from her, and known that she was connected to me. And I thought that she would be able to handle the chores without any problems.”

“Heheh… did I mess up?” Janaerra asked, tilting her head slightly as Dana sighed.

“She isn’t the brightest of them, is she?” When Tsubaki heard that, she shook her head.

“Leave the rest of that one’s training to me.” She spoke in a firm tone, clearly having no intention of letting Janaerra slack through any part of her training. Dana immediately approved of this change, as it meant that she would be able to focus more on the development of the other three.

“Do you have any need of us, then?” Sanct asked, his heavy shield tapping the ground as he observed the two women seated on the bed.

“No, it’s fine, Sanct. You three can go back to your training.” Dana dismissed him with a wave, and he nodded, turning and walking into his own shadow again before being joined by both Hollevin and Despir. Janaerra tried to follow as well, before a wall of light appeared between herself and the shadow, completely cutting off her path of escape.

As Janaerra turned around, gulping to herself, she saw Tsubaki slowly walking over. However, before she was able to cross the room, an alarm blared out from her computer.

Tsubaki’s form flickered, immediately appearing seated at the computer with a headset on. “Speak to me, what’s the problem?”

In response to her question, a solemn, feminine voice spoke into her ear. “This is Moon. A calamity has been detected within the realm of the March. Specifically, in the Metong territory. As this is a threat of the highest order, the information was flagged to be sent to you.”

Tsubaki blinked in surprise when she heard the location of the threat. “The Metong territory? They have powerful technology and magical capabilities beyond most of the other worlds. What sort of calamity could they be facing?”

“I am afraid I cannot answer that in full. However, I can provide the known details according to the information submitted by the Metong. This is a personal request of the High Mother, seeking any aid that can be given from outside sources.” Moon spoke briefly, before going on to explain.

“Eight days ago, a star was noted to be destroyed, taking with it the planets that had been orbiting it. According to known data, this star was far from the end of its lifespan, leading a Metong team to investigate to discover the facts. However, the system in question did not possess sentient life. The report of its destruction came from a ‘nearby’ system that is a part of the Network.”

“These star systems are located roughly ten light years away from each other, meaning that the true disappearance of the star happened a decade ago. That said, the research team was not a high priority.”

“Six days ago, a second star was reported to be destroyed, again from a nearby system. Four days ago, two hundred stars were reported destroyed in a localized area of space. Three hours ago, contact was lost with a Network-inhabited world.”

“A research team was immediately dispatched to the coordinates, but all that was left was a stream of foreign energy and rubble. It was then that the High Mother began drafting an immediate request for aid. She has requested intervention from the highest power available, whether that be a deity or the Keeper himself.”

Tsubaki thought about that for a moment, before shaking her head. “I’ll go. Let me assess the danger before I get the Keeper involved.” While she knew that the Keeper definitely had tricks up his sleeve that she did not have available to her, she also knew how important it was that he remained safe.

If the Keeper dies, everything dies. This was a truth that she had learned long ago. While she knew that he was incredibly powerful, she could not take the risk of throwing him against an opponent that could wipe out stars on such a massive scale. However, there was someone else that she could turn to… but the thought of asking him for help caused her tails to shudder.