In the massive complex that was the Imperial Palace of Steros, nestled in the capital city of Cinderbough, lay a room that rested in the middle and most guarded area of the structure.

  It was a massive hall, lined with statues of honored Empresses and Emperors of the past, who gave their all to not only defend, but help the empire prosper into a new age for the Elfari people.

  The hall was decorated with obsidian marble, lined with vines that grew from the walls of the tree structure. A defense in the very construction of the Hall itself, these vines would seek out those who had murderous intentions towards the elder blood that lived within these walls.

  In the center of such a hall was a throne fit for an Empress, with golden maple as the base for the grand seat of the Empire. Those same vines wrapped around it protectively, and the wood could be called forth to assault any who would attempt assassination.

  It would go without saying that to try and murder the Empress would be a folly that none would live long enough to regret.

  Still, Bayleaf couldn’t help but sigh as she stood at attention near the throne room while her fellow Harriers discussed the ‘threat’ to security that Mera posed by simply existing.

  Said prisoner was being held within the Council chambers in the room adjacent to this one, under close watch by the High General and her ancient weapon.

  Bayleaf hated that it came to this, that her people simply wouldn’t just let the eldritch horror in the shape of a girl go.

  During her brief time, she knew that Chimera meant no true harm to the Empire, which was why she was so willing to help her gain access to the maps in the first place. The Mana oath pact that she made was a true sign of trust, which after Mera got the maps was released almost immediately.

  That would mean that Chimera truly considered their pact complete.

  It hurt her heart to have to bring her in when the General became aware of the situation, as she was honor and manabound to obey her orders.

  She couldn’t even warn Mera in case she somehow got away,

  That cloud she made, it was impressive, and most likely would have worked had the General not arrived when she did.

  Though being of royal blood, Bayleaf wasn’t really suprised she could simply blow the gas away.

  Which brought her back to the room she was standing at attention in.

  Her subordinate Melga was talking up their ‘achievement’ in postponing the ‘monster’ from escaping long enough for the Imperial guard to arrive.

  “It was no trouble at all, your Majesty. After we confirmed its strength, it would have only been a matter of time before we defeated it on our own.”

  Melga could be a right ass when it came to boasting about her achievements, doubly so when it was about the group’s effort.

  She must assume that getting more accolade equates to her efforts, so better that everyone does great so that she looks magnanimous.

  Bayleaf sighed once more as her junior kept boasting, which caught the eye of Bargo as he moved his wheelchair next to her spot in the group.

  He pushed his body during that fight, despite having already been damaged from the latest sorty with the Hoods.

  Fool couldn’t let himself heal properly.

  “What are you sighing for, Bay?”

  Bay sideeyed him, “oh, I don’t know, maybe its the fool of a comrade that keeps fighting despite the fact he still has injuries that require time to heal. You should have stayed in the medical bay, Bar, what the hell is wrong with you?”

  Why couldn’t you just have stayed in bed and let her get away?!

  “Duty calls and we must be ready to answer, besides, aren’t you a medic?”

  Bay hit her head on the pillar she was leaning against, the back of her head feeling sore from the blow.

  “Yet, you outright ignore this medic at every turn.”

  Bargo simply smiled, “only because I know you have my back Bay.”

  “I swear, I am putting restraints on your bed next time.” Bayleaf said with a huff.

  Fool, and his stupid smile.

  Bayleaf looked away, back at the audience that spoke of their fight with the ‘dreaded monster’.

  “It was a strange monster, no doubt part of those detestable Hoods and their metal beasts. Though it is strange for them to create an infiltrator like this. Most reports just have them destroying our bases and ships, not even bothering to check out intelligence reports from what our scouts picked up.”

  That was the adjutant for the star archives, some nobody that Baylead didn’t bother remembering as his role was simply to figure out what Mera had taken.

  She would be bound to answer, but she wasn’t going to offer the knowledge willingly.

  After the rest of her squad and the few soldiers who ran into Chimera gave their reports, the room awaited as the Empress leaned on her chair, a strange emotion on her face.

  The Empress of the Elfair Empire, Traika Elderbloom, was something to behold for those of the Elfari. It was as if she was made to be attractive to their whole race, whether female or male it mattered not.

  White hair flowed from her head to wrap around her waist like a shawl, tied with various jewels and insignia that denoted her station. While she was shorter than most Elfari, it did not mean she was weak by any means.

  Bayleaf recalled the time a rogue resource beast had broken free from its recycler, and the Empress simply flexed, crushing the beast with her magical might.

  Her figure was bountiful, with hips that would serve in her role birthing a new heir, and an ample bust as well. The consorts would likely be more than satisfied with her.

  Bayleaf shook her head, now wasn’t the time to be having strange flights of fancy.

  It was hard not to get lost in those red eyes though, and Bayleaf stared at the floor below her throne to help her maintain composure.

  “This is boring.”

  Bayleaf rose her eyes to hear the Empress’ words, the angelic sounding tilt to her words capturing the entire room.

  “You give me information on the creature, but has anyone spoken to it? Has anyone tried to understand why it raided our star maps? Does my Empire simply punch first and ask questions never?”

  On… oh no.

  The Empress was pissed!

  Why? What did they miss?

  The vines of the room writhed, stretching and grasping at random things in the room as the Empress rose from her Throne and began to float towards the entrance to the throne room, a trail of the vines flowing in her wake.

  Bayleaf rushed to be in step with the Empress, trying her best to guage the reason for her Empress’ rage.

  “My Empress..-”

  “Silence Bayleaf, unless you have something to add?”

  Her mana-oath flared, and Bayleaf wished she could kick herself for her blunder.

  “I-I do, your Majesty… The creature is benign. It sought our star maps to escape back to its world of origin. I assisted it after determining it was no threat to the empire.”

  The Empress stopped, twisting to stare into Bayleaf’s eyes as a flicker of amusement shown on her regal features.

  “Truly? A benign being from the stars?”

  “Y-Yes my Empress. It simply wanted to go home.”

  Bayleaf thought she might be saved from her Empress’ wrath, only for the rage to return full bore as the vines writhed around them, echoing the Empress’ ire.

  “And my loyal soldiers, my Imperial army, harmed this being? No discussion? No attempts at diplomacy?”

  Bayleaf had to answer truthfully, her oath would not allow anything less.

  “Y-Yes my Empress… it was determined by the High General that this creature was a threat to your life and security.”

  “My life? My security?”

  The vines shot out all at once, grabbing the adjutants, councilors and even her fellow Imperial Harriers in its grip, squeezing them tight for a moment.

  “In my home?! Are you all mad? We already have an enemy that seeks no quarter with us, and when a potential ally literally comes from the stars, your first thought is to fight it? Tell me everything you know about this being Harrier Bayleaf, leave nothing out!”

  Bayleaf was thankful she didn’t get squeezed like the others, but right now she was worried about her life a lot more than those of her comrades.

  She could only hope that what she knew of the star-farer might placate her Empress’ rage.

  …

  Chimera was sitting in a room that reminded her of the courts back on Asta, a circular chamber with chairs around a small podium in the middle. Six chairs surrounded the room, with a seventh chair that stood out from the rest.

  All the seats were currently occupied, and the golden wood of the walls seemed to shimmer with the light coming through the nearby windows, all stained with regal looking Elfari in the pictures.

  Chimera had no choice but to stare at them, as her body was still locked in place while the six Elfari around her deliberated her fate.

  “Perhaps a public execution? Morale has been lower than usual and having captured a spy from the Verdant Hood would certainly help boost ours.” An elderly looking Elfari spoke, his cadence a wobbly one.

  Another younger looking Elfari shook her head, “no, this is a chance to study one of those metal beasts. This one seems to be an advanced infiltration unit at that. We must understand its secrets if we are to protect our own from those serpentine freaks.”

  A round of nods went around the chamber, and Chimera could only sigh as she closed her own eyes.

  Of course its another fucking laboratory. I swear I’m trashing the next one I see.

  If she could get out of this place.

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  Chimera eyed her jailor off to the side, the supposed High General that even now was using that strange sword staff of hers to lock Chimera’s movements and control them.

  The High General never kept her eyes off of Chimera since the moment she was in the room, as though she was trying to figure out Chimera simply by staring at her.

  Good luck with that, knife ears.

  It was another part to her beauty Chimera guessed, since all of her proportions were of what she would consider beautiful. Hourglass figure, ample size to her chest, muscles in all the right places. The ears shot out of her head like blades, just under a foot out. Chimera wanted to see if they might be sensitive-

  She mentally smacked herself.

  Idiot! She’s got some kind of glamour on, don’t fall for it.

  Chimera turned her eyes back to the center of the room.

  The magic that surrounded her was like a curtain, but no matter the amount of force she tried to exude, the magic counterbalanced and kept her still. She figured it must be some branch of the gravity magic that she had used, something with space mixed into it.

  Sadly this room also had some kind of magic dampening built into the platform she was on, so no chance of her using magic to break out here.

  Chimera took a breath, even though she didn’t really need to, it still helped to center her mind and keep the laughing witch that was her ‘creator’ out of her thoughts.

  Experiment-

  Nope shut the hell up!

  But-

  I cast thee out demon bitch! Intrude on my thoughts no longer!

  Chimera knew her mind was starting to go as soon as she heard what she thought was a ‘harrumph’ from the voice in her thoughts.

  I need to get out of this magic!

  This caused another set of attempts to escape, only for the magic to tighten down harder on her, squeezing her smaller and smaller.

  Till she was child sized once more.

  Chimera wanted to gnash her teeth, but even her jaw was locked in place as she stared daggers at the councilors around her.

  However, as the magic settled and her restraints tightened, something happened that didn’t before.

  Understanding.

  Chimera smiled as the magical knowledge of just what was keeping her contained slowly started to drip feed into her mind, bit by tiny bit.

  She made a face like she was still trying to resist, but inside she was already planning.

  Once I understand it, I can take it apart. This magic… it’s a physical thing, that's why it’s working inside this anti-magic disk I'm on. If I can break it down, no magic barrier.

  Chimera eyed the rest of the people here, counting each and every member around her.

  Twelve people, thirteen including the white haired hotty over there… nope don’t get lost in her eyes! Control yourself! I need to knock them all out or at least paralyze them.

  Chimera had a thought just as she figured out the tangible bubble around her.

  Its holding everything in… but what if I introduce a pressurized environment?

  Chimera pulled into herself, becoming smaller and smaller until she was nothing more than a tennis ball sized object on the platform.

  Inside her ball she started to work, growing a huge amount of gases that slowly filled outward.

  The magic adjusted to her new size, but it wasn’t fast enough to cover her before the gases spread out around her.

  More and more of her sleeping gas filled the membrane that surrounded her, and although she couldn’t see the looks on the faces of the Elfari around her, she could hear them.

  “W-What is happening? General!”

  “Quiet Councilor Arborus, I need to concentrate!”

  “I-It's going to escape, j-just what is that purple smoke?!”

  “Adjutant, go and fetch her majesty at once!”

  “R-Right my General!”

  Chimera reveled in the panic in their voices, looking forward to the kaboom that was soon to follow, and her release from this damn room.

  “I-It’s spreading too quickly! Everyone evacuate at once!”

  The membrane magic that kept Chimera in place was stretching to the point of a balloon, leaving almost no space for the magic left.

  Finally, Chimera made an infinitesimally small needle, and stabbed in in multiple locations around the membrane, the needle filling the whole and letting out all of the gasses she had been producing.

  Rather than a kaboom, the gas displace, sending out a wave of purple sleep smoke that took over the entire room.

  Using the hole she made, Chimera forced her way out of the bond now that the person calling forth the magic could no longer see her. It would be pretty awful for anyone who had been exposed to that gas, as the sleeping gas was also accompanied by a tear gas to force people’s eyes and mouths shut, allowing the gas to fill their nostrils harmlessly.

  Now free, Chimera ran to the nearest wall, ready to punch through with her digger form to escape. Finally, at last, she was going to get off this damn planet!

  She reached it, and crawled up the walls with the digger form, ready to burst out the window and reach freedom.

  “Mother Tree’s Embrace.”

  Chimera punched at the window, only it wasn’t a window anymore.

  Vines now surrounded the opening, leaving not even a gap for her to squeeze in. Her digger claws bounced off of the vines harmlessly, and she knew at that moment something stronger arrived.

  Something that reinforced fleshy looking vines to block her strikes. Enhanced gravity spikes that wouldn’t be out of place launched from a magnetic accelerator cannon, that's what she made these digger claws out of.

  And freaking vines are blocking them.

  Chimera fell back to the ground, smashing the disk that held the anti magic circle she was trapped under earlier.

  The gas now filtered out of the room, being absorbed by the vines and likely shot out to prevent it from backflowing.

  Chimera turned to see the Imperial Harriers, all wrapped in vines with their forms in a kneeling position around a smaller Elfari in the center.

  She held the same features as the High General, white hair with ruby red eyes not unlike Chimera’s own. Her form was smaller, but it still held that strange glamour that the general possessed.

  Chimera readied herself for a fight, enhancing her body and absorbing as much magic as she could from the surroundings to give her an edge.

  “So you are the visitor to our world?”

  “Was just leaving actually, the hospitality here is bullshit.”

  The young Elfari actually laughed at that, “I could guess as much, my world has not been very accommodating has it?”

  “Your world? You're the freaking Empress?”

  The girl bowed her head slightly, “Traika Elderbloom, seventh Empress of the Elfari Empire, Ruler of Steros and its six moons. Greenmother, Elderblood Elfari, and Master of this Domain. Name yourself, alien.”

  Chimera spat on the ground, “Already gave it to you.”

  The Empress flashed a look of annoyance as she stepped forward.

  “I understand that my people have wronged you, and that you have every right to be upset. But I do not apologize for their actions. We are at war, and our people’s safety comes first.”

  Chimera shook her head and laughed, “sounds like you guys are just bad at apologies. Tell you what, you come up and kiss my feet and I’ll call it square.”

  The bound Harriers and guards, along with the bound councilors all scoffed and raged at the remark, calling Chimera out as a beast that deserved only destruction.

  Only Bayleaf kept her eyes closed and solemn, which only pissed Chimera off all the more.

  Come on, the least you could do is look at me after you got me fucked.

  “Mera.”

  Chimera turned to the Empress, “Mera’s what my friend’s call me, and you didn’t earn that right your majesty.”

  “Nevertheless, I will call you Mera. Mera… my people need help. I cannot take back what they have done, but I can offer you something you desperately need.”

  Chimera couldn’t help herself, “You’ve helped me enough your royal bitchness. Just get out of my way and you’ll never have to see me again.”

  “You wish to leave our world?”

  “Yes! I hate it here, I hate you people and honestly I hope whatever those Verdant Hood assholes eat you all alive after all this crap you put me through! All I wanted was to go home, and your Captain Ironwood decided I would make a ‘lovely’ tribute to you. I wanted to get the maps so that I knew where to travel, and your Harrier there turned around and told on me as soon as I got the maps! None of you are trustworthy to me! What the hell could you really offer me that wouldn’t be suspicious as hell by now?!

  Chimera shook her head in anger, her eyes drilling holes into the Empress’ own.

  “No, I’m done with deals. Either get out of my way, or I’m going to get bloody.”

  The Empress remained stoic throughout all of Chimera’s ranting, and she had to give it to the shrimpy Elfari, she did not beat an eye despite all that vitriol.

  “Never. The. Less. I cannot allow you to leave until you have heard my offer. Please, be reasonable at least one more time. I promise as Empress, no harm will come to you, no chains, no prisons of magic. Just talk.”

  Chimera was about to launch off and fight when Bayleaf stood in front of the Empress.

  “Chimera, please.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “We need your help! Damnit I know this looks fucked up, but please listen. You would never have made it out with those maps.”

  Chimera seethed, “so you knew! You knew that this was going to happen and you said nothing to me! What kind of-”

  “-The kind that had to keep you here! The kind that realized that you were our best bet against the Verdant Hood! Chimera, what you did to me, for me, it changed my entire life for the better! I know you can do so much more to help us here. Please listen to the Empress!”

  Chimera warred within herself, her rage at betrayal marking what she had already been thinking since she got to this world.

  These people needed help.

  Wasn’t she a hero? Didn’t she help people? What made this any different than before?

  Chimera didn’t want to hear that logic though, she wanted to go home, she wanted her family back!

  Why did she have to sacrifice more for people who did nothing but capture and betray her?!

  She missed Sarah, She missed Meghan and Aden, Pym and Lark. Hell she missed those damn death children Aura and Crysa too. She wanted to go back, to have her friends again!

  Why am I even here?! Damnit, DAMNIT!

  Chimera screamed, smashing her fists against the ground over and over, each gravity enforced fist causing dents, but not breaking into the lower levels below.

  The Empress approached her, slowly, deliberately, as though even the shaking could not dislodge her rightful place in this Palace.

  “I offer you, Chimera of Asta, Imperialis Amicus, with all the rights involved, as well as a branch ship of your own, if you would help us defeat the Verdant Hood, save our moons and serve our military for the rest of this war.”

  The room seemed to hush, the cursing Harriers, councilors, and even the staff of the Empress all holding their breaths.

  “Imperials Amicus?”

  “She would have the same title as an Archduke?”

  “Not subject to the laws? A true friend of the Empire? No taxes or obligations to the crown?”

  “A free agent of the Empress…”

  The room’s quiet nature snapped Chimera out of her rage, her kneeling position turning to stare at the Empress.

  “What the hell does that even mean?”

  The Empress turned to Bayleaf, who moved forward to speak.

  “Imperialis Amicus is a position held to a select few people that states that those people are exempt from the laws of the Empire, are not required to pay taxes nor answer anyone save the Empress herself, and are given rights equal to an Archduke in our nation, meaning your word would hold a great deal of clout in the decisions of this war. Essentially Mera, you would be free to fight this war how to see fit, with the Empire’s blessing.”

  Chimera turned to confirm with the Empress, who nodded regally in response.

  “No bullshit, you just give me a ship and let me do my thing to stop those Verdant Hood from harming innocents then?”

  “That is correct, Amicus Mera.”

  “...I never said I would accept yet.”

  The Empress only smiled, “I know.”

  Chimera sighed.

  This is what I’m here for then isn’t it? Maybe it’s some stupid fate, or maybe its some coincidence, but these people need a hero right now. If… if Sarah was here, she would want to help them, want me to help them.

  In the end, Chimera’s moral compass pointed towards this place and its people. Sure, they were assholes, and sure, they all deserved to be kicked in the ass for how they treated her.

  But they don’t deserve death for simply trying to live. If these Verdant Hood truly are killing indiscriminately, it would make them no better than the death children.

  Chimera stood up as she brushed off the debris of her earlier tantrum. After she found herself clean once more, she shifted to her humanoid blob form, holding out a hand to the Empress.

  “Well, if you truly need me, and you mean what you say, I will accept.”

  …

  Empress Traika felt the chains of fate around her within her own manasphere, the aura that her magical might took form in.

  It was a gift that all Empress’ before her were given by their elder bloodline, the ability to see the tapestry of fate from those near themselves.

  Her anger for her citizens before was reflected by the fate around her showing the doom of her empire, the end of her species and the destruction of their homeworld.

  But as soon as she entered the council chambers, as soon as she saw the one called Mera at the other end, preparing to fight to the death for her freedom…

  The Fates opened before her, chains of duty and responsibly, of heroism and humility, and a hope that blazed so strongly, that Mera appeared as another sun before her prophetic vision, a circle of gold emblazoned on her chest.

  Very well, I will do what I must then.

  She would give this Mera anything she desired, whatever she might need.

  For her future, and that of her people rested in this ‘hero from beyond the stars’.

  …

  Do you guys prefer longer Chapters, or Shorter Ones?