Xander vol.1 Transmutation (5 page)

The bridge of Maverick’s
nose scrunched up as he turned towards Xander in both annoyance and
confusion.

“
What?” Maverick
asked.

Letting go of Maverick,
Lyla spun around just as Dizabethere entered the correct hallway.
She took off to the nearest exit, shouting, “Artemis will take me!”
Maverick’s attention snapped to the running Lyla as he stood up and
took a couple steps after her, his hand extended in her
direction.

“
Lyla?!”

“
Is it a normal thing for
humans to run off in the middle of a conversation?” Xander asked,
folding his arms as they watched her run off. Maverick kept walking
in her direction.

“
I should make sure
everything’s okay,” he said, more to himself than to Xander. But
Xander’s hand came slapping down onto Maverick’s shoulder to assure
him.

“
Don’t worry about it. She
said Artemis was taking her. She’ll be safe with her.”

Maverick hesitated,
considering the fact. He wondered if Xander had known. That Artemis
was dead. A ghost protecting a little girl. Could she?

“
Now then,” Xander cleared
his throat, tugging on Maverick’s shirt. “Presidents.”

Chapter 5

“Why the hell would you
want to go to Earth?” Sven asked with crossed arms, leaning against
the trunk of a tree.

Xander climbed a bit
higher before finally picking a branch near the resting Loni to sit
on. Loni’s tail thwacked in his direction as a mundane greeting as
he situated himself.

“
Other than the fact that
it’s not Athena?”

Sven scoffed. “And they
call
me
the
trader. What’s wrong with Athena?”

“
Absolutely nothing,”
Xander defended.

“
Well, now that’s just
optimistic. Or blind.”

“
Nothing’s
wrong
with Athena. I
just want to explore another world. I want to see their
culture.”

“
And why are you so
interested all of a sudden? What’s got you hooked on the
human
culture?”

“
None other than the
humans, of course. I spoke to one of them yesterday. Two, almost.
She kind of ignored me, though.”

“
Oh, right. The visit. How
did that go?”

“
Eh.” Xander laid down
against the length of the thick branch, looking up at the rest of
the tree. “Vida sent Saphora off to train when we started talking
about Ares. And Maverick ran after her after there was some crisis
with the human girl, who went looking for her. Big
mess.”

“
And
this
,” Sven laughed. “Makes you want
to learn their culture.”

“
It doesn’t make me
not
want to.” Sven
laughed. “Besides. It was relatively important. The forest beside
the castle was covered in flames and smoke. Ares’ work, no
doubt.”

Sven shook his head,
rolling his eyes before looking up at the sky. His eyes quickly
zipping to the left to follow the swift movements of his guardian,
who was coming to land on his head. Sven smiled, reaching his
finger up for her to perch on.

“
Good luck getting
permission for
that
voyage.”

Xander sighed a groan,
resting the back of his hand on his forehead.

“
I
know
,” he grumbled. “She’s going to
kill me.”

“
Better come up with a
better reason to go than exploring. Especially with war so close on
the horizon.”

Xander paused on the
thought, struggling to come up with a reason that would prove to be
good enough in his mother’s eyes. He frowned, not coming up with
one on the spot. His frown deepening when his thought process was
disrupted by the high frequency squeaking of Anavae. Sven raised a
brow to his feathered friend, listening to her
considerately.

“
Hm, good point,” Sven
hummed. “Xander, did Hydra bring back Saphora’s escape pod?” Anavae
squealed again. “And/or Arol’s?”

“
No,” Xander said,
matter-of-factly, his frown vanishing. “The human told me that they
had left some of Hydra’s things in his living space,
too.”

“
Well, maybe you can say
you’re going to get the stuff. I’d think it would be a good idea to
have it back.”

“
I doubt she’d care about
one or two pods,” Xander scoffed.

“
Well, it’s better than
saying
exploring
.”

Xander fell silent in
consideration. Mischievous consideration.

“Hear me out, Mother,”
Xander said, stepped up behind Aredelle as she sat before her
vanity, brushing her long, muddied pink locks.

She raised a brow at her
son in the reflection of the large, elegant mirror as her brushing
slowed to a stop. He had come to her chambers specifically while
his father was away so that he would not be lulled into her
decision on his request. Aredelle’s full lips tightened into a
somewhat hard line as she turned her head in his direction,
skepticism written all over her features.

“
You sneak in here without
so much as a greeting?” Aredelle scolded. “And without your
father.” Her chin remaining high as she turned to face the mirror
again, her eyes lowering to her lap. “I don’t like it
already.”

Xander rushed over to her,
wrapping his arms lovingly – strategically around his mother’s
shoulders, leaning down and kissing her cheek. She couldn’t help
but grin at the affection as he took her brush from her and sat it
atop the vanity’s surface. She glanced over at him as he laid
another peck along her jaw, making her giggle.

“
Enough, Xander,” she
laughed, swatting him away. “I’ve just brushed my hair.”

“
And you look as ravishing
as ever,” Xander complimented. Aredelle laughed, shaking her head
as she turned her body completely to face him.

“
Calling your mother
ravishing,” she scoffed with a giggle. “People will talk, you
know.”

“
I assure you I’m not here
with such intentions,” Xander said with somewhat of a cringe.
Aredelle smiled, shaking her head once more, as a mother would to
their playing and fumbling child.

“
What is it, Xander? It’s
late.”

Xander held up his hands
in compliance, backing up towards the bench that sat in front of
his parents’ bed, plopping down on it when he’d reached
it.

“
You’ve got to hear me out
on this, mother.”

“
Don’t make me repeat
myself,” she sighed, resting her forearms on her knee, which was
propped over her other. Xander nodded, again raising his
hands.

“
Earth,” he said bluntly,
while remaining perfectly still.

He watched for her
reaction before continuing. Aredelle arched and finely trimmed
brow, watching her son in question. Her head shook slowly, almost
distractedly.

“
Earth,” she repeated, as
if to ask what about it.

Xander took in a breath,
his shoulders dropping as he moved his hands to his knees, his eyes
squinting somewhat, almost wincing.

“
I want to go
there.”

Aredelle’s face dropped as
the fog was suddenly whipped from her perception. Her brows
immediately furrowed, her lips parting in the beginnings of a long
protest.

“
Hear me out,” Xander
begged, his hands rising once again.

“
Absolutely not,” Aredelle
scoffed, turning away from him. Xander stood and walked up behind
her again, looking at her from the reflection in the
mirror.

“
I wouldn’t be by myself.
Loni would be with me, and –“

“
You told Loni about
this?” Aredelle questioned, her eyes snapping up to his in the
mirror. “And she didn’t tell me?”

“
Not …” Xander shrugged
his shoulders, rocking his head from side to side. “…
Exactly
.”

“
Xander,” Aredelle
grumbled.

“
Just listen to why I
–“

“
I know
why
you want to go to
Earth,” Aredelle argued, turning to face him once again, and
setting down her brush that she had picked back up. “Have you
forgotten who I am? I
raised
you, Xander.” Aredelle stood up, making Xander
take a step back. “You want to go exploring. Adventuring.
Conquering
, even. I
won’t have it.”

“
Mother, I –“

“
Kiran is in the face
of
war
, and you
want to go exploring.” She scoffed, shaking her head in motherly
disappointment. “They are our allies, Xander. Our family. We
will
fight beside them.
Whether you are to be married or not.”

“
I
know
that we are fighting with them.
I’m not trying to avoid fighting. When the final days of
preparation are upon them, we will return.”

“
Xander –“

“
Just …” he sighed,
frowning some before immediately shifting it to an optimistic and
honest smile. “During our visit. I spoke to one of the humans. You
saw him – Maverick. He said that in the rush to leave Earth, Hydra
had left things in his now unattended living area. She left them
there – on Earth, Mother.” Aredelle continued to frown, not seeing
why that was of any importance.

“
What if they’re found?
What about the escape pods Saphora and Arol were sent in? They were
not returned. What about Tebias’ weaponry? His
ship
?
Vasuki’s
ship. What about Vasuki?
With Tebias dead, there’s no way that she would have been able to
leave Earth, and I doubt Ares would care enough about her to send
for her.”

Still, Aredelle
frowned.

“
What if the humans find
them? Like they found Saphora? What if they were to somehow find
Athena?”

Aredelle’s face paled,
finally breaking her expression – or rather, enhancing
it.

“
What if they were to
somehow track our planet … our atmosphere by using our technology
left behind? Those ships have return coordinates.”

“
They aren’t that
intelligent,” Aredelle asked, more than commented.

“
They were able to
contain
Arol
for
the amount of time that they did. Imagine what they’d do
with
our
technology.”

“
This isn’t a joking
matter, Xander,” she warned.

“
Would I be bringing it up
to
you
if it
were?”

Aredelle turned from him
to face the mirror, her hand clutching her necklace’s sapphire
stone that rested on her collarbone. Her mind was changing. Xander
could see it. In what direction, he wasn’t sure.

“
Where is your father?”
she asked him, glancing at the chamber’s doors.

“
What are you going to
do?”

“
We’ve got to tell Vida,”
Aredelle insisted, facing Xander again. “Have Saphora go
back.”

“
Go
back
?” Xander scoffed. “You
really
think Vida is
going to let Saphora go back to Earth after only
finally
getting her
back?”

“
Hydra, then,” Aredelle
countered, the growing panic evident in her voice.

“
And then what? How is
Hydra going to bring back all of their ships? If she lands on that
planet with a ship bigger than our smallest, she’ll raise alarm.
And she can only fly one back at a time,” Xander
reasoned.

“
We’ll send others with
her.”

“
If you send a fleet, do
you not think it will cause the same thing?” Aredelle frowned at
the problem that had presented itself. “Let me go. I can hold the
ships to ours with my magnetic pull. And if I can’t, I can rip them
apart. Store them in the cargo of the ship, and reassemble them
upon our return.”

Aredelle grumbled, turning
away from him with a shake of her head. Her hands squeezed at her
biceps as she crossed her arms.

“
Loni can trace the scent
of where they’ve been and find our tech.”

Aredelle’s eyes darted
about the room as her mind raced. She stepped to one side, then to
another, all the while holding her arms close to her. Xander was
patient, letting her brain work out the needed kinks. He watched
with a held breath, hoping that his reason proved to be good
enough, and that she would allow him to go. Because while his
reason was a very valid one – Xander indeed wanted to explore.
Finally, Aredelle turned to face him again, her frown even more
prominent.

“
Go get your
father.”

Chapter 6

“This is where she
lived
,” Loni groaned
with an obvious layer of disgust as she carefully trekked through
Fran’s house, closely behind Xander who was exploring without a
care in the world. She tiptoed around the wood floor while Xander
stepped freely.