“Captain, your presence has been requested by the local magistrate of Anvillage.” One of her people spoke to Chimera as she and Meras finished up their searching.

  “Tell them I’ll meet with them in fifteen minutes. I need to prepare first.”

  “Captain.” the female crew member saluted before turning to leave the mess hall.

  Chimera pushed herself off the comfy couch, grabbing Meras’ hand with her as she started to follow the crew member.

  Shifting in stride, Chimera took on various forms, letting Meras comment on each as she tried to present the best version of herself.

  “Too tall.”

  “Too big.”

  “Unrealistic.”

  “Small is cuter.”

  Sheesh, she’s a picky one.

  Chimera continued to get lambasted as she walked, trying her best to take the criticism even as it began to be a little annoying.

  “Chest too big.”

  “Head too small.”

  “Claws on face are weird.”

  “No spider face.”

  “Chin too… manly.”

  Damn, she liked the chin. It had a regal look of some long lived king that she remembered seeing in a game on Meghan’s console back home.

  “Well, what then? You’ve basically shot down all the ideas I had,” Chimera spoke as she shifted back to her original Elfari form.

  Meras, who also resembled her Elfari form only green with vines and roots gave her a thumbs up, “perfect.”

  Chimera chuckled with Meras for a bit at that, “such bias, so only your look will suffice?”

  “Our look. Brainstormed a lot for this.”

  Chimera giggled a bit, “seems like the vocal cords are working well now.”

  “Yes, trading DNA was helpful.”

  Chimera eyebrows rose as she realized that while they were holding hands, Meras was indeed taking some of her essence with her hand vines, a small trickle being sucked away as they walked.

  Chimera didn’t even notice seeing as she had most of her body in the strange inventory in her chest. It was a drop in the bucket compared to the lake she had saved up.

  “So, stealing my stuff without so much as a thank you very much, eh?”

  Meras, with all the sass of an entitled child, pouted her lips to the side as she said,

  “It’s not like you're missing it much.”

  Chimera tried to pull her hand away, only for Meras to latch onto it tighter.

  “Damn leech, let go.” she spoke with faux anger.

  “Need more, for science.” Meras stuck a teal colored tongue out at her.

  “Help! The ship’s alive and it's trying to eat me!” She shouted to no one in particular, only for some of the crew to panic.

  “Oh Great Mother Tree, it’s Cyprus all over again!”

  “Go to Amber alert, Amber Alert!”

  Chimera stood there with Meras as her battle-tested crew, who survived a three versus one against superior ships, began panicking and running around like chickens with their heads cut off at the small joke she made.

  It took a full fifteen minutes just to calm them down.

  …

  Chimera felt the air decompress as the rush of warm air flooded the interior of the airlock. It was a warmth that she would describe as ‘pool’ weather, that perfect match of warmth that felt good on your skin but would not make you sweat like a faucet. Her memory with Sarah flooded at that, where once she took Aden to a pool to try and get him some exercise despite his condition.

  That warmth flooded her as she, her ship’s avatar, and the High General, all departed from the vessel Meras and into the city of Anvillage.

  If there was one way to describe the place, it would be ‘vertically’ disinclined. Chimera and her group stood over the starport of the city, and it was clearly the only building that was multiple stories.

  Everywhere she could see, the city’s buildings were one, maybe two stories tall, and nothing more. Square blocky structures built with efficiency in mind with little to now divergence in their designs flooded the city.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The only things that truly stood out were the forges themselves.

  Five structures, with massive plumes of smoke and fire shot upwards around the points of the city, and all the structures around them spread out as their point of origin.

  It was clear to Chimera, Anvillage was made to build things and nothing more.

  “Remember, you are an Imperialis Amicus, a direct agent to Her Majesty the Empress. Show the decorum that is required for such things whilst dealing with her leaders.”

  Chimera side-eyed Lys as she spoke, “I was also given reign to do what I pleased to help people.”

  “You were, but militarily this is a diplomatic matter. Let me do the talking when we arrive.”

  Chimera shrugged, “whatever you say Lys.”

  “It’s High General Lysandra to you.”

  “Sure thing Lys.” Chimera said nonchalantly as she followed behind the slightly fuming royal.

  Meras walked beside Chimera, the branch ship’s avatar taking in the strange sites with astonishment.

  It was nice seeing her so excited, as Chimera could tell the ship was curious about all matter of things now that she could see them, experience them.

  “How can they stand such heat?” She would comment, only for Lys to answer, “the Forges on Torsca are much hotter than any in the Empire, and as such you have to get used to the heat to work.”

  Chimera paid attention at times, while other times she simply took in the sights.

  Observation wasn’t really a super power one might say, but after she had… ingested so many powers back on Asta, she realized that many things could be found simply by watching.

  So she watched the people, their eyebrows and their mannerisms, and all of it told her a story.

  There were forgers, metallurgists and blacksmiths aplenty in the city, some smiling and laughing uproariously whenever they finished something. Often though, Chimera noticed mostly younger children walking around, lost looks on their faces as they called for their parents.

  “Are there a lot of orphans on Torsca?” Chimera directed her question to Lys, just as their group was passing one of the main forges of the city.

  Lys shook her head, “there should not be, Torsca is far from the front, and most soldiers stay with family here to protect and work on new gear for the war. Anvilage hasn’t been involved at all besides weapon’s development.”

  Chimera looked around again.

  Is it just coincidental then?

  She had the feeling that these kids were looking for parents that may not return.

  “Come, it's this forge here.”

  Lys brought them up to a silver fixtures forge. Braces and connection joints of all sizes and grades lined the walls of the forge, and while Chimera couldn’t tell where they might go, she could see that they all looked rather impressive.

  “Why is it all silver?” Chimera found herself asking aloud, even though it was more of a rhetorfical question.

  Rather than Lys, who was opening her mouth to answer, a large booming voice reverberated off of the forge walls to answer her instead.

  “Because ya daft fool, Silver conducts magic the best. These wee joints and connections act as con’duits, connectin’ and channelin’ tha mana in the ship’s fixtures.”

  Chimera turned to face the direction of the voices, noticing a giant making her way over towards her group. The giant held a pole in her hand that was connected to a massive anvil, enchanting marks and a dull blue fire radiating heat off of the smithing tool.

  Chimera recognized the giantess as the person who spoke to her about the debris and its effect on the city and nearby villages.

  The village chieftain of Anvilage, Kass.

  But…

  She’s massive!

  Chimera took in the sight of a fifteen foot Elfari with blackened skin and red eyes, deep red hair and a build like… well, a giant.

  The call she had with Kass on the ship did not do justice to her features.

  The giantess stared down at Chimera’s three foot six inch self, confusion warring with another emotion as she all but glared at her diminutive self.

  “You’re tha bloody Cap’n?”

  “You can’t be that tall!” Chimera shot out right back.

  “Look who’se talken pipsqueak, I was promised halp from tha Empress, and all I’v to shoe fer it is a wee child?!”

  Chimera could already tell, no ground could be made with the giantess. For all short people everywhere, this giant needed to be brought down a peg!

  “Whose a ‘wee’ child? I’ll have you know I’ve fought in over seven different conflicts, each with monsters that would smash you flat! I’m just using this form because it's energy efficient!”

  The chieftess smirked, “oh aye, yer just ‘hiding’ yer power eh? Sound like me daughter when she was but ten, talking about how she were a ‘hero’ out to save tha Empire. I woulda thought the Empress had more sense than making a damn ‘figurehead’. Seems I’ve put my stock in poor silver.”

  Chimera ground her teeth, feeling a spike of rage push her to throttle the aggravating Elfari.

  “Peace, both of you.” Lys spoke, standing between the two with her weapon activated. Chimera knew the device wouldn’t hold her as long as last time, but that would leave an opening for the giant to hit her with that anvil hammer.

  Staring up at Kass, Chimera felt her anger start to be replaced with another emotion.

  The anvil hammer that the giant held was starting to burn white hot, giving off a flame that Chimera wouldn’t see out of place on a ship thruster. The heat was starting to effect her as well, giving her a case of sweats as she stared at the flames.

  “F-Fine, I’ll be the better alien and concede for now.”

  It totally wasn’t because she was afraid the giantess was grinning like a mad woman, nope, she wasn’t scared one bit. Kass' face shifted to a frown of disappointment as Lys moved in front of her vision of Chimera.

  “Sure aye, I’m done listening to the child anyway,”

  Chimera let it go as she turned away, standing next to Meras as she patted her on the shoulder.

  Even despite the referee named Lys, Chimera felt that she came out on top in this, since the bickering had stopped.

  Better to let Lys deal with the hot head.

  The pats on the head she was receiving from Meras might seem degrading to an outsider, but Chimera felt like it was a pat on the shoulder for a well fought confrontation.

  “Good job backing off.”

  Chimera felt embarrassed at that, “I-I didn’t back off. It’s a strategic retreat! I’ll show that monster woman, just you wait!”

  The pitying look that Meras gave her almost made Chimera want to cry out in frustration.

  …