Diary of the Shadow Queen

The Chanti Empire had gotten the cure too late and failed to contain the Black Rage. Shortly after, refugees from their country began fleeing in every direction and unwittingly carried the virus with them. Thankfully, the nearby countries had gotten the cure provided by Maxine in time and were actively quarantining all refugees to minimize the spread of the infection. However, there was a bigger issue. Those infected by the Black Rage were not attacking one another. Instead, they were moving enmasse towards the nearest settlements.

Maxine wasn't too worried about the virus. With the way things were going, the local nations would have the situation handled as long as they didn't screw up too badly and if they did, Maxine would just unleash her shadow wolves to wipe out the infected animals and people. It wouldn't be particularly difficult.

The biggest issue was that she was now swamped with making medicine for the Black Rage. Apparently, they gave her the recipe to make it since she had openly admitted that she was an alchemist when they first immigrated to this city. I should've just said that I was a tanner and I wouldn't be in this mess. It's so frustrating that they expect me to make ten bottles of this stuff a day, but it is what it is. At least, they didn't insist that Thera make it as well, since she actually attends to patients daily. At least, they've been letting me take longer bathes. It's been doing wonders for my cultivation speed. I didn't notice it when I took only hour long bathes in that toxic sludge, but there are traces of contaminated mana in that stuff. My body just seems to drink it up and purify it for my own use along with the toxins.

Just as Maxine finished making the last of the Black Rage cure for the day, someone knocked on the door to Maxine's alchemy laboratory. She sighed since she already knew who it was and picked up the bottles filled with the cure. "Hello, Melvin," Maxine said in a tired tone as she opened up the door, "You could've just asked my mother to let me know that you were waiting for today's batch."

"I know, but I wanted to see you," Melvin Temmil said, "Even if it was for only a few moments."

"You come here to flirt while the rest of the continent is dealing with a pandemic," Maxine said bluntly, "I don't think the people that need this stuff will appreciate your antics."

"Are you giving me permission to flirt after this incident is over?" Melvin Temmil said with a playful smile as he leaned in closer.

Maxine shoved him back and said directly, "Sorry, but no. Nice try, though." Without another word, she gave the box full of medicine bottles to Melvin Temmil before shutting the door to keep him from bothering her any further. He's getting more aggressive in his approach. Who gave him that idea? Hopefully, he'll realize this approach isn't working and backs off before he makes an idiot of himself. I've already told him that I basically have acid for blood and proved it too.

Maxine banished the thought from her head as she got back to making more of the medicine. She wished she could make it faster by using her energies in a particular way and do other things with the rest of her day. Unfortunately, she was being spied on via spiritual sense by two different people at random times of the day, so she scrapped that idea. It would just mean they would expect her to make it at that speed all day. And here I thought no one knew how to use spiritual sense on this planet, but there are at least two in this city. My guess is that the arch mage and a couple other high ranking wizards know it, but keep the knowledge to themselves.

To entertain herself, she listened into conversations in the market place. There were a few interesting rumors going around about the spreading plague. Sadly, most of them were wrong, but a conversation between two soldiers caught her interest almost immediately.

"Are you sure?" a soldier with brown hair asked.

"Yeah, a large number of the infected are heading this way. It's only a matter of time before the nobles decide to stop letting in refugees," the other soldier said.

"Any idea when the infected will get here?" the first soldier asked.

"No, but it can't be more than a week if I've heard about it," the second soldier replied.

"Shit," the first soldier cursed, "That's why the captain told us not to travel. He knew about this."

"It also explains those formations that he's been having us train in," the second soldier agreed, "I'm going to stock up my root cellar as soon as my shift is over and ration what I have. I think you should too. There's not telling how long it'll take our people to clear out those poor souls."

"I intend to," the first soldier said calmly.

Maxine retracted her spiritual sense and sighed. She had on some level expected the infected to form hordes of some kind, but nothing that could threaten a walled city from the outside. Should I wipe out those poor souls? All it would take is to send my shadow wolves out and they would tear those things apart rather quickly. But that wouldn't solve the problem. Scavengers of all kinds would spread the plague just as easily as those people. I'd have to literately send my dragon to burn them all to ash and that would cause all sorts of problems since dragons of that size don't exist on this planet. I could also have my wolves put them into large piles and burn them myself. Still, it would present questions that someone will want the answers to. Fuck it. I'll just let these people handle it on their own for now. At least, they already know to burn the dead to prevent the spread of the virus. And if, and only if, they royally fuck things up will I offer to solve it.

She banished any remaining thoughts and continued to make more medicine. However, Kai, her male clone, was being approached by Melvin Temmil. "Kai, I'm sorry to bother you, but I don't recommend that you avoid going hunting for the next few months," Melvin Temmil said camly.

"Why?" Kai asked simply. It's so annoying to maintain different personalities for each of my clones. At least, I made it easier on myself to act as a man of few words when controlling Kai.

"Just trust me. It'll be dangerous for anyone to leave and I don't want Maxine to loose a brother," Melvin Temmil said calmly.

"Is it the infected?" Kai asked and added once Melvin Temmil looked somewhat surprised, "Guards were talking earlier."

"Yes, a large group of them are on approach," Melvin Temmil said, "If we're lucky, they won't get here for a month. If not, a week." Damn. He's even trying to warn my 'brother' about the shit that's going down when he's probably supposed to keep quiet about it. Now, I feel a little bad for rejecting him so much, but I'm not going to change my mind. This would be so much easier if he was like most men and was just a horny asshole trying to get into my pants.

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"Understood," Kai said, "Will you need another archer on the walls, then?"

"Yes, we will," Melvin Temmil replied, "But not until after they arrive."

"Understood. I'll wait at home until then," Kai said calmly before heading home.

"Take care," Melvin Temmil said to Kai's back.

Maxine withdrew her focus and spread her spiritual sense towards the Chanti Empire to get a better estimate on the arrival on the infected horde. She found three large refugee groups. One of which was only a few hours ahead of the infected. We have nine days if they don't change directions. Hmm, that's odd. They seem like they're all heading straight for this city and none of them seem to be wandering out of it. What's more is that none of them are attacking each other. I've watched some infected individuals tear each other apart more than once and they only show indifference like this to close relatives.

Maxine focused on the infected people more closely and found faint traces of mana in their brains. I can only guess that's why they're so chill towards each other. But who is controlling them? She spread her spiritual sense further behind the group and nearly recoiled at what she found: Drow. No other variety of elf had dark violet, bordering on black, skin. Why did it have to be drow?! And why the fuck are they controlling those infected for? This is way too tame for their usual sadistic fuckery.

Maxine resisted her impulse to kill them. The mere fact that she found no evidence that drow were on this planet before now was a clear indication that they were either not local or had a very small population. Either way she needed more to go on, but that didn't prevent her from disrupting whatever they had in mind. But first, she marked a few pieces of their clothing with her spiritual sense to make it easier to track them back to their home.

With a simple motion of her energies, she created a translucent image of her full-hybrid form floating in the air a short distance infront of the infected horde before banishing the magic that was effecting their brains. Instantly, the infected started ripping and tearing into each other in a violent frenzy. Before allowing that image to fade, she made it glare at the drow with a look of displeasure. The few refugees that were in saw this began running with everything they had. Yeah, that's the sort of random shit that their mad goddess would pull anyways, so I might as well use it in my favor. As a bonus, it should make the drow nervous as all hell if they're locals. Getting the mad goddess' attention is rarely a good thing, especially if she looks displeased. Hopefully, that'll buy those folks a couple hours to escape. What else can I do to improve their odds?

With a thought, she summoned up her shadow wolves along with her wolf beastkin shadow clone to act as an escort for the refugees. She added a few instructions to eliminate the infected that got within sight of the refugees. Since the story about the wolf-riding wolf girl are already circulating, I might as well use it to improve her image, even further, as a protector and I havn't left a single trace of my involvement. It's too bad that they're unlikely to hop on the backs of my shadow wolves. That would practically guarantee their survival, but I know from experience that they won't. The rest is on them. Now, let's see where these drow have come from.

She spread out her spiritual sense further looking for any cave systems large enough to house a drow population or for a space ship capable of transporting them. After looking for ten minutes in the surrounding area, she abandoned that idea. Of course, I didn't find anything. They're either using special arrays to hide any traces of themselves or buried their cities so deep that my spiritual sense can't reach them. I'll just track the spiritual sense marks on the drow that are already on the surface. They'll have to head back to their base at some point and when they do, I can figure out if they're actually locals or not by checking their histories. If they're not, I'm wiping them the fuck out. Otherwise, it's the problem of the local government to deal with.

She set down a finished bottle of the medicine and got up to stretch. While she didn't need a break, she wanted one and went looking for Emily. Her instincts had been practically screaming at her to keep a constant watch on Emily. It didn't matter that she consciously knew that Emily was safe with Hellen in the other room.

She found Emily in the kitchen helping Hellen clean and cut vegetables for the evening meal. "Hey, how are you guys doing?" Maxine asked.

"We're fine," Emily said while gently patting her swollen belly, "What about you? Shouldn't you be working on making more of that medicine?"

"I'm taking a break and I thought I'd drop in to check on you," Maxine replied honestly.

"I appreciate the thought," Emily said with a small smile, but she focused on Maxine's face for a moment, "Something is bothering you. What is it?"

"Drow. That's what," Maxine said bluntly and both Hellen and Emily stiffened for a moment, "They're directing the infected somehow and I'm undecided about getting rid of them. It surprising since the locals don't know about them, which would hint that there are not many of them around. And if they're locals, I'll leave it to the locals to deal with them." And there are a few Alliance laws that heavily support that idea. I could get into some serious trouble if I help any more than I already have on the off chance that they find out. Making a cure for a local illness with local ingredients and escorting a group of helpless refugees to safety is already pushing it to the very edge of what's acceptable. It's better to keep my interference to a minimum from now on. Although, there are a few exceptions to this rule, but they would actually have to be a threat to me for that to apply. The other exception is if they directly ask me for help, even then I can only eliminate those that have directly threatened the local population.

"Drow are almost universally monsters," Hellen said directly, "It shouldn't matter how many of them are here. Get rid of them."

"And what about any children or infants that I find?" Maxine asked, "Because you know that I won't able able to hurt them."

"Couldn't we raise them to be good people?" Emily asked.

"It's possible, but extremely difficult," Hellen answered, "Their race has been so steeped in violence and cruelty for such a long time that it's become a part of their very existence. Only a small number of their species is good natured and those that are usually don't make it to adulthood. We could try to drop them off with those individuals."

"That's assuming there is a decent sized group of them living together away from their crueler kin," Maxine pointed, "But it doesn't hurt to try looking for them. It'll take me a few weeks to look for any suitably large cave systems anyways. I might get lucky and find such a peaceful group."

"It shouldn't matter for the time being," Hellen said, "However, you could simply wipe out the drow that are on the surface. It would discourage the rest from surfacing, particularly if their numbers are as meager as you're letting on."

"That could work," Maxine admitted, "Thanks for the idea."

"Don't mention it, Maxine," Hellen said.

"Just be sure to spare the good ones," Emily reminded her.

"I will," Maxine said before she gave Emily a quick hug, "Now, I've taken a long enough break from making that medicine. I'll take another break in a few hours."

"Alright," both Emily and Hellen said at nearly the same time.

Maxine sent out a few dozen of her shadow wolves to the area that she spotted the drow in. She planned on using them as transmitters for her spiritual sense to avoid being detected by the local wizards. She really didn't want them finding out that she could use it. For all I know, they be severely pissed off that I can use their 'secret technique' and I doubt that they'll accept that I just figure it out on my own. In fact, it takes a rare mindset to even think of it in the first place. Humans are just too dependent on their eyesight.

Once her shadow wolves were in place, she spread out her spiritual sense through them and to no surprise, she couldn't find the drow on the surface. It made sense. They literately saw a deity manifest and glare at them. Only an idiot wouldn't run for their life and pray that the deity looses interest. It's a good thing that I put a spiritual sense mark on them then. She swiftly ordered her shadow wolves to zero in on those spiritual sense marks. Sadly, the only thing they found were pieces of clothing buried under two feet of dirt, along with everything else they were wearing. Well, I wasn't expecting that. I wonder why they did that. Unless... they've set up a protocol to do this if they're ever spotted. Fuck. I'm going to have to look for them the old fashioned way. God, this'll be tedious. Still, it'll be better than mixing that medicine all day.