"I can't believe you're not coming home with us," Xena said, pouting.

Lexie was sitting beside her on the trolley along with Dewie, Jace, and a few other students they didn't know, heading to the station to be picked up by their parents. "Hovelton is going to be so weird without you."

"I know." Lexie sighed. "I'll try to visit as much as I can." Or at least, as much as she could convince her father was safe. He was pretty adamant that she be under twenty-four-seven protection at Stella's home, but maybe for a few afternoons, she would be at Xena's place. She had to convince him to take her first, though. She didn't have any teleportation orbs left to use, and even if she did, sneaking off without letting him know would be unwise, considering there was a future-seeing maniac after her.

The thought made her shiver. She'd been thinking about it a lot for the past few days, and almost considered staying on campus for the break as a result. But that would mean barely seeing her dad and friends the entire time, and Lexie would go stir-crazy.

"It won't be the same." Xena sighed. "But you're still coming with us for the AFC match the day after tomorrow, right?"

"Yup," Lexie said. "I'll be showing up with my bodyguards."

"I wish I could come with," Jace said. "But my folks are going to the old country and I have to go with them."

"What's old country?" Lexie asked.

"Terra Luna, District 4. That's where they're originally from."

"Oh, no way. " Lexie had never met anyone from District 4. As far as she could tell, Terra Luna from District 4 had a culture and history similar to Egypt, and it was a great mix of the ancient influences and modern. Lexie had always wanted to visit. "That's so cool."

"Sometimes. Mostly all we do once we're there is visit family, and it's boring," he shrugged. "I'll try to bring some souvenirs, though."

"Try not to dig up any talismans or perform any rituals that awaken centuries-old Eldritch spirits," Jett commented, and Jace snorted.

"Nah, buddy, I'll leave the Eldritch-curse awakening thing to you."

Once they were off the trolley and through all the station checks, they were searched and directed to baggage claim, where their loved ones were waiting.

Lexie immediately spotted Emma and Dewie's parents sitting in the same general vicinity, but a notable distance apart from each other.

"Mom!" Xena took off like a bullet towards Emma, who already had a watery smile for her and her arms wide open.

"Oh my baby!" Emma held her tight, pressing kisses on her hair. "My Xeny-Weeny. I missed you so."

"I missed you, too," Xena spoke into Emma's chest, and Lexie suspected she wasn't showing her face, probably because she was crying.

Lexie drew back for a bit and glanced at her group. Jace was heading out through the entrance already, because he was meeting his folks at a restaurant across the street from the station. Jett gave them a little wave as he walked determinedly towards an older, bespectacled man who could only be his father.

Dewie held back but then walked sullenly toward his parents, where they were standing with Veronica. Lexie followed.

"Dewitt!" Governor Azure announced. "Bring it in here, boy. I feel like you've grown several inches since I last saw you."

"I haven't really." Dewie walked awkwardly forward, and while his father hugged him tight, Dewie only gave him little pats on the back.

"Your hair is too long," Vera Azure said, brushing his overgrown bowl cut out of his face. "We need to get that taken care of immediately. Plus, I think that's the beginning of a zit on your chin. I'd hoped you wouldn't be a pimply teenager, but it seems we're unlucky. No worries. We'll see the skin medic and a beautician as soon as possible."

Dewie nodded.

Lexie felt bad for him, especially because the scene felt familiar. Sad to know some things hadn't changed.

Veronica was kind of hard to ignore as she stood there avoiding Lexie's gaze. Maybe she thought Lexie would confront her for blabbing to Rufina, or maybe she was concerned that Lexie would command her demon minion to attack.

On the contrary, Lexie didn't hold any hard feelings toward Veronica, actually. She didn't know why. Maybe because, for the whole semester, every single time she'd seen Veronica, the other girl was often alone.

Veronica was a B-Rank mage, a spell-using hero, and while that wasn't bad in theory, it did set her behind the class, as there were only a handful of B-Rankers in their grade, and even those people had something else, like a physical ranking or a skill, to set them apart.

Veronica had neither. From their gym class together, Lexie found that Veronica was only average at spells, which was weird because Veronica had been a great spell user back in the day. Or maybe she'd only seemed good to Lexie's untrained eyes. Either way, she wasn't good enough to really draw admiration, and that, combined with her not-so-great personality and the fact that her parents had basically weaseled her into the school, made it harder for her to have any friends.

Maybe that was why Veronica was so gloomy lately.

Or maybe it was because her parents were effectively ignoring her now to put all their focus on Dewie.

"Don't worry, Dewitt," her mother was still saying. "Your mentor told us of your struggles in school, and we've gotten the best tutors across the District to help you. You'll be focused on that all break."

Dewie's face fell. "Okay, but I need Saturday off because I have to go to the AFC with Lexie and Xena."

"Of course," Vera sang. "Speaking of which," Her eyes travelled and skipped over Lexie to go to Xena, who was still having a tearful reunion with her mother. "Xena! Hello!"

Xena wiped her face and eyed Dewie's mother with suspicion. "Uh…hi?"

"I'm so glad you decided to stay on Earth for the break, dear. I'm sure you and Dewie will have a lot of fun spending time together."

"Sure." Xena gave Lexie and Dewie a puzzled look.

"Oh, and I hope you and Veronica can become close friends too," Vera added, "We can show you some of our favorite spots on Planet Fae. Will you be going there for the summer? We'll be."

Ah. Suddenly, it made sense. Vera now knew that Xena was a Lightlark and so was being extra sweet to her and wasn't treating her with the usual barely restrained annoyance.

"I'm not sure I'm going to be there." Xena didn't seem to know how to deal with Vera's new attitude.

"Oh, of course. Just let us know if you will."

"Okay."

From the corner of her eye, Lexie thought she felt Governor Azure staring at her with his arm around Dewie's shoulder. When she glanced back at him, he beamed.

"Will you be coming home with us?" The governor said. "We have a private Skybird taking us to Hovelton, and Emma and Xena will be flying with us."

"Actually," said a new voice on the scene, "She'll be coming with me."

Lexie turned around and saw a pleasant-looking woman standing there, with a clipboard and in a suit, her curly hair arranged in a neat bun at the top of her head.

"Hello," she said. "My name is Naomi. I'm Stella's assistant. She wanted to pick you up today, but something came up at the last minute, and she sent me here instead." Naomi handed Lexie an identification card, and it had the Firebringer crest on it.

"Oh, yeah, Stella told me already." Lexie had received a harried text from her earlier to that effect. "No biggie." She turned back to her friends and waved. "See you guys later."

Emma came forward and hugged Lexie with the arm that wasn't wrapped around Xena. Lexie inhaled her familiar scent, antiseptic combined with sweetness. "I hope you come visit us this weekend at least."

"I'll try." She backed up and smiled. She didn't miss Vera and the Governor, confusedly staring at Naomi as Lexie walked away.

"Text me," Xena called.

"Me too," Dewie said.

"Will do." She waved at them before she acknowledged the woman.

"Shall we?" Naomi said.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Leixe nodded and followed her lead toward another door that seemed like a back entrance.

As they walked, four people in casual clothes melted out of nothingness and joined them.

"Oh my God." Lexie jumped and glanced around to find herself surrounded by two men and two women, and one of whom smiled and winked at her.

"These are your new bodyguards," Naomi explained. "They've been trained to blend into the background for the most part, so you won't see them unless you're in trouble. That way, you at least have the illusion of privacy. They'll be accompanying us home today."

"Oh, great. Um…I'm Lexie," she said.

"Hey Lexie," The winking redhead said. "I'm Aoife."

"Nathan," a short, stocky man said.

"Mide," a tan, curly-haired woman said.

"And I'm Ralph," said the tall, lean one with a friendly expression.

"Nice to meet you," Lexie tried not to feel awkward surrounded by all those adults while she was walking toward their vehicle, which was a large road rocket that almost resembled a spaceship with how much space was inside.

"Nice." Lexie felt her stomach flip-flop in excitement. "I've always wanted to ride in one of these."

"Oh yeah?" Naomi said as she held open the door for Lexie to hop into the back seat. "Well, today is your lucky day. This is the newest model, with a higher hover and more jet power."

"Cool."

"Buckle up," Aoife said, and Lexie obliged.

She experienced the speed of the Road Rocket not even a few seconds later, as the car floated above the stream of vehicles, and shot forward quickly yet smoothly through the air.

Lexie held onto her seat.

It was almost like a rollercoaster but steadier.

She tried not to grin too madly as they went, and Naomi was nice enough not to comment on Lexie's excitement, but she seemed amused. She also handed Lexie a chip to upload to her system, which would allow the guards to access her live system location, and it would also allow her to see where the guards were, even when they were invisible.

It was an exciting five-minute car ride to a sprawling estate that looked kind of like a private resort surrounding a gold and red mansion. It was protected by a forcefield that they passed through easily, and was on top of a sundrenched hillside, with terraced vineyard and palm trees lining the way.

"Whoa," Lexie said.

"Nice, isn't it?" She said, and Lexie nodded. She'd never seen anything this nice.

The Road Rocket descended onto the ground, and Lexie stepped out. She was still taking it in. The building was made of a combination of stone, metal, and concrete. Non-combustible material. There was a lot of reflective glass around the home to allow the sun in, as well as lots of water features.

The fountain of an angel sat in front of a stained glass window, and it fed into a series of angelic statues which ended with a lion holding up the family Crest.

"I'll take you to your room so you'll unpack," Naomi said, and once again the bodyguards turned into nothingness with a suddenness that startled Lexie.

She tried not to let it bother her as she was led into the grand home.

Scarlet rugs and burgundy silk curtains covered the windows. The living room had a lounge area with a fire pit and a ping pong table. A wine bar also sat behind that, and beyond that, Lexie thought she saw a pool outside.

Everything was eerily quiet as Naomi explained, "No one is home right now. Mane, Stella's husband, is at his restaurant for the night, and the two little ones are in school. Theo says he's finishing up a mission, and he should be here in an hour or so. But don't worry, there's definitely ample security around, so you should be safe. I'll also be here, though I'm just a mundane with some kick-ass Muay Thai skills."

"I'm sure they're great," Lexie commented, laughing politely at the joke. "And thanks."

"No problem."

Lexie was led into a room that was decorated in soft pink and floral details. It was four times the size of her room back home with far more technological features. Just the bed alone had a billion buttons at the side that Lexie didn't know what they did. She also had a glass screen TV, a projected terrace, and a roof that opened up so she could see the sky through glass.

Naomi showed her how to work most of the features, but Lexie knew she would probably need a refresher later. Naomi also showed Lexie all the security features of the room, including a personal force field that could be activated around her bed, silver rings in the floor, and access to a bunker that was indestructible and impervious to magic. Oh, and also the personal alert button to Stella and the Hero Association.

It seemed Stella had spared no expense in getting her security, and Lexie was grateful.

Once Lexie's bags were carried up by a team of staff and placed down, Naomi finally said, "I should get back downstairs. Is there anything you need?"

"No, thank you," Lexie said politely. "Thanks for bringing me."

Naomi smiled. "Of course. Aiofe and Nathan will stand outside your door while the other two do rounds. Welcome to the Firebringer household."

Lexie nodded and sat on her bed as Naomi left. She let out a breath and tried to decide between napping and unpacking.

She figured she would nap now so she would have more energy later. Besides, she wanted to see Naem in her dream.

She'd taken all her dream ritual tools from her room at school, and now she arranged them around her new bedroom.

She gave her father an update on where she was, took a special item from her bag, then closed her eyes.

"Yhemk Y Mui Alcratzy"

She said the ritual words, and a gust of ghostly wind later, she was in her dream.

Naem was there too, seated on a dark throne.

"Naem!" She was happy to see him. "I missed you."

"Hmm," Naem said, and Lexie didn't know if it was because he was still pissed at her or if he was deep in thought.

"Look what I got you." She held out the small sack in her hand.

"It's a bag of cookies," she explained when he didn't make a move to take them.

That made him perk up. "Are they your father's?"

"No, but they're almost as good." The custodial staff handed them out to each student this morning as a goodbye gift. Lexie had tried one before deciding to save the rest for Naem to offer him as an apology.

He hesitated, then reluctantly took it, gingerly fishing out a cookie and biting into it experimentally.

"Not as good," he agreed. "But doable."

"It's just to say that I'm sorry for causing a lot of trouble for you."

"I suppose this is adequate for an apology."

"Are you done working it out?" Lexie asked. "The issues, that is?"

"More or less," he said. "Although I'm not sure where we go from here."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm concerned that what happened was not a fluke and that you might be starting a new soul line," he said.

"What does that mean exactly?"

"It means…" He sighed and rubbed his face, in a move that was oddly human and unlike his usual stiff self. "You once asked me how Eldritch power levels work, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"The Eldritch are graded on three things. Awareness, authority, and purity. Awareness is how conscious an Eldritch is of themselves and their surroundings. Younger Eldritch are typically the least aware and are mostly made of pure chaos. They can't really channel or control their power because they don't understand it, so the power consumes them instead. They also tend to think in simple paths and don't grasp complex thought very well."

"Is that why they're mostly used for dungeons?" She remembered her father mentioning that after the Hechtl attack.

"Yes," Naem said. "They lack control of their power, and so it's easier for others to control it for them. Dungeons combine chaos with Fae magic to create things both terrible and divine."

"I see," Lexie said. "What about the so-called intelligent dungeons, the ones with the secret levels?"

Naem nodded. "That is a separate thing. Eldritch with low awareness are turned into dungeons, but after that, when a dungeon is recycled enough times, it can develop some consciousness. The more consciousness they develop, the more intelligent they are and the more likely they are to have these 'secret levels'."

"Okay, but why do they do that?"

"I cannot discuss at length. Just know that the Fae and the Eldritch share one thing in common. The love for stories. The Fae love the moralistic tales, and the Eldritch love the terrifying ones. Both come together to create the magic that is a dungeon. The Fae have control over the dungeon for the most part, but the core mana sustaining the dungeon is Eldritch in nature, so technically, an Eldritch would have more control over the dungeon if they had more awareness. But their control is limited if they don't have that awareness. It is why young Eldritch are used and also why they're denatured first, to further reduce their awareness."

"And they cannot somehow reverse that and gain awareness?" That might explain the unstable dungeons.

"No. They cannot undo the denaturing, and even if they could, they would simply be turned back to chaos, not a sentient dungeon."

"Okay," Lexie swallowed it down, but she was ready for the next thing. "So what's the second thing Eldritch are graded on?"

"Authority," he said. "This is how close an Eldritch is to the original source of power. We call that source Chaos Mother. Apart from the chaos that one generates, this is where Eldritch magic comes from. Typically, authority goes hand in hand wth how much power a creature has, but not always." He paused. "I guess it would be more in line with the ease with which they draw pure chaos from the Mother and use it for their needs. The Eldritch Lords are at the top of the Authority Pyramid. As my soul spawn, you do gain a higher authority because of me, since you can draw power directly from me. However, you, of course, do not know how to control that yet, and if you were to draw too much power out of me, it would probably destroy you. Therefore, as my direct soul spawn, I can somewhat control how much you take and cut off when it's too much."

"Wow," Lexie said. "Can you do that for everyone in the soul line?"

"More or less with differing efficacy. The farther down they are in the soul line, the harder they are to control in such a way, but the weaker they are as well. It's one of the ways Lords use authority to dominate other Eldritch on your soul line and establish a clear hierarchy."

"Can I also do that?" It would be one way to stop Eldritch attacks if she were ever in trouble.

"Probably not. Not unless you were the Lord of your own soul line."

"Okay." Lexie was still waiting for him to explain why that was a bad thing.

"The third thing used to rank an Eldritch is purity. This is not as true anymore, but it was once believed that the purer the Eldritch, the more chaos they could use. But then we started to see Eldritch hybrids that could create or draw just as much chaos as pure Eldritch, so it's an old-fashioned view, but it's still often used by some Lords to rank Eldritch. So take a creature like the V'Sala. It has high awareness, as it is an older Eldritch, and fairly pure, but low authority. The Trecthl had less purity and less awareness, but had higher authority."

"What determines authority? Apart from being your soul spawn? What does something have to do to get more authority?"

"That is not the part you should be concerned about."

"Then what should I be concerned about?"

"My brother, Neqal. He is the first non-pure Eldritch to be the Lord of his line. And we felt he would be the only one. But that was before I saw what you did the last time.

"As the Lord of your line, every power you have should be a variation of my power. Though your core should be different from mine, and I expected the human part of you to introduce emotions that I don't have, the actual powers displayed should make some semblance of sense to me. But you did something that didn't make sense, something that neither I nor any Eldritch in my line, or any line, has been able to do. Therefore, it seems you might be starting a new one." He stared at her. "If you start a new line, Lexie, you will be an Eldritch Lord, and you will draw from chaos. Your spawns will draw from you. I will no longer be able to protect you, and you will become an Eldritch forever."

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