(Lisa's POV)
I set up an automatic watering system for my plants and got everything I needed to work from home before returning to Valin's family mansion. When I got back, Innoccence was brushing Aluma's hair with the intensity of a tired mother. Aluma was wincing—so I guess this kind of thing hurts even her kind.
"Stay still! Your hair is too pretty for you to let it get so tangled!"
"I'm sorry!" Aluma replied, her voice almost in tears. I locked the door, set my bags down, and headed over to assist Innoccence and save Aluma.
"Hey, for tangles you should start at the ends, not the roots!" I chastised. Aluma thanked me with her expression. "And we should get some water and moisturizer first. I'll check if there's any in the house… Don't start combing till I get back!" Innoccence pouted, folded her arms, and rolled her eyes. Looked like compliance to me.
Once I was in the bathroom searching through cabinets and countertops, I felt a sudden shift in the energy around me. It felt like going down in an elevator. I didn't know what to make of it until Aluma yelled:
"Lisa, come down here!"
I grabbed a spray bottle of water and ran down the stairs—only to see someone completely unexpected… Valin. It was him, but shirtless, with long, flowing hair that stopped just above his ankles. His eyes and hair looked even more saturated in color. Is this how he looks naturally? Is it okay for him to be this underdressed? …Well, it's fine, and I'm probably the only one who cares, but when I glanced at the other women, they were totally gawking at him! The heck?!
"An enemy has infiltrated the area. I ask that you all stay inside. The security system is active, but it will only protect those within the premises."
It was his voice. The words seemed to snap the others out of their trance. It sounded like him, but…
"Who… what are you?" I murmured. His actions were nothing like Valin's. Would he really just stand there stone-faced after not seeing me for days? No.
"You may call me Number 105. I am part of a security system created by Valin Walker. Years ago, he cut his hair and implanted the strands deep into the earth beneath this home, creating me and many others."
His hair?
"I do hope that answers all of your questions." I nodded, stunned.
"What's outside?" Aluma asked.
"An enemy. An Afarion emitting hostile energy." As soon as she heard that, her silver eyes began to glow, and dual silver daggers appeared in her hands.
"I'll take care of it," she mumbled.
"Fine. But if you go outside, I will no longer assist or protect you," he reminded her. Aluma ran out regardless. On instinct, I moved to follow her, but Number 105 stopped me by grabbing my hand.
"You have no powers. Leaving the house would be foolish."
"But Aluma—" I began, but he cut me off.
"You would become a liability out there—for her. And you are the current primary resident. Your safety is the highest priority."
My heart fluttered. Valin activated this system for me?
"Until the threat is removed, you are not allowed outside."
"What about me?" Innoccence chimed in, probably tired of being left out of the conversation.
"You are free to leave, but once outside, the system will no longer protect you." After hearing that, she returned to pouting.
Valin created this system out of strands of hair… does that mean there are as many clones as there were hairs on his head?
"Does the system still being active imply the original… Valin is safe?" I asked.
The clone stared into my eyes and replied,
"No. Our power source comes from the Earth itself. If our master were to die, the system would not be affected."
This… system really doesn't know how to comfort people. I'll just think of it like a machine from now on.
(Aluma's POV)
I stepped into the backyard to minimize the chance of being seen. As soon as I was ten feet from the mansion, I felt a man grab me from behind. One hand went around my neck, and the other pinned my arms to my sides.
"Mmm… You're not the queen," he whispered before licking my neck.
I jolted and sent thousands of needle-sized shards of Earth into his skin, detonating them on impact. He screamed and let me go, so I spun around to get a good look at him.
He had stringy dark green hair, pale skin, and dark circles under his eyes—but a firm, well-built body.
"I am sorry for startling you, miss," he said sluggishly as his arm slowly repaired itself. "I am looking for my queen, Tana. She was tracked to this location. I can tell you're an Infaniyan, so you're most likely disgusted to know you've been harboring an Afarion. Worry not. I don't want to fight. I'm just here to return her to where she belongs."
"Shut the f$%# up, you f#$king creep. You licked me! And now you're saying you don't want to fight?! Too late for that #$%*&." I pointed my daggers at him.
"Oh… so you already knew what she was… I see…" He slipped into the ground. Must've been trained specifically for sneaking.
I extended my wings and flew no higher than the mansion rooftop so I could monitor the ground. That's when a long, tentacle-like root shot out and dragged me out of the air. I slashed at it with my daggers, but the root was thick—it was hard to slice through it completely. A split second later, I slammed hard into the Earth.
My ears were ringing, and my head spinning, when the man crawled out of the ground and looked down at me with a sheepish grin.
"Are you ready to tell me where my queen is now?"
I swiped at him, but he dodged just out of range. I stood, fighting off the dizziness. When the world stopped spinning, I threw my dagger at him. He sidestepped—but wasn't expecting the dagger to split into thousands of needles that dug into his face and eyes. He shrieked in agony.
I moved in to slit his throat before he had time to recover.
"Wait! He wants to make her queen—officially! I'm just a messenger! I have good news! Please—!"
"Please… shut up," I replied, lopping his head off in the same instant.
"Good news, my ass."
I wiped the blood off my face and sighed. That's when Jey's brother's system clone appeared.
"Threat is eliminated. Are you in need of healing?" it asked.
I looked at it.
"No, I can handle it myself." It's been so long since I had to fight that my hands were shaking, and I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.
When I came onto the back porch, I noticed several deep scratches in the wood.
"What happened here?" I asked.
"Yesterday, another Afarion attempted to enter the house. The primary resident is to be protected, so I eliminated the threat and had the body incinerated to spare her any mental trauma."
...That's scary!
I can't be more insensitive than a robotic security system, so I rinsed the blood off using the garden hose. Then I buried the body of the strange man sent to capture Tana by opening the Earth beneath him, letting him fall in, and sealing it shut.
When I finally came inside, I saw that Lisa's hand was being held by the same clone from earlier… that was odd. She wasn't looking at him, but he was staring at her. Seemingly expressionless—but in his eyes, I could see a note of deep affection.
"I was so worried! You foolish, idiotic dummy!" Innoccence yelled, running up to hug me. Looked like she'd been crying. It's so odd how attached she's gotten to me in just a few days—when she was enamored with my man not long ago. I know it's genuine, though. She even asked to help me with my hair this morning… unless that was just a plot to cause me pain. Which is also plausible.
Lisa rushed over and hugged me next.
"I'm glad you're okay. I was watching through the window. You were so awesome—and your wings are beautiful," she said.
I smiled and tapped her cheek. "We should eat something good to celebrate how well that went."
Her face lit up. She started rummaging through the cabinets and said,
"Looks like I've got the ingredients for a chocolate cake! That sound good to everyone?"
Innoccence, still sniffling, shouted enthusiastically, "Oh yeah! Bake me a cake, cutie!"
I giggled.