Zeph Malston: The Aether Mage

It was Saturday afternoon and Semara found herself somewhere in the mansion she had never been. It was the bas.e.m.e.nt laboratory, and Zeph and Bianca brought her down to tell her something. The atmosphere seemed tense and Zeph had a rare look on his face. Instead of his usual carefree demeanor, he looked somewhat worried or reluctant. There was also a sense of determination in his eyes.

Zeph looked across the table at one of his closest friends. Bianca told him it would be best to give Semara an abridged version of his story. When he told it before, Eli and Bianca weren't able to respond well because of the information overload. At the time, they could only muster enough of a reaction to assure Zeph that they loved him. After they had time to process, they started asking questions. He answered them happily, but they were worried because he looked like he was about to break down when he told them his secret. Still, things worked out okay. Now Bianca was sitting next to him to make sure that his big reveal to the wolf girl would go smoother. She told the young lord that it would be more comfortable for both him and Semara if he took it slower this time around.

Semara waited and waited in awkward silence as she watched Zeph and Bianca sit opposite of her. "Are you two going to tell me why you brought me down here?" she asked, finally becoming impatient.

"Sorry, I was just thinking how to tell you what I'm going to tell you." Zeph rubbed the back of his head.

"What happened, is it bad?" There was a hint of worry in her voice.

"No, nothing bad happened," Bianca reassured her. "Zeph just wants to tell you a secret."

"What kind of secret?" Semara relaxed in her chair and looked at the young lord.

"It's actually my biggest secret. It's something I can only tell to people who I trust with my life." Zeph watched Semara's eyes widen. "I know we've only known each other for a few months, but I think that you're one of those people."

"I don't know what to say. Uhm, thank you. I'm happy you trust me Zeph. I'd trust you with my life too." Semara said with a hint of shyness. Her tail betrayed her and was slowly wagging. She knew that Zeph had a secret that he kept between the original members of the Malston household. There were conversations that would be abruptly cut off when she entered the room. Knowing looks and inside references were shared between him and Bianca when the three of them were hanging out. It was understandable to leave her out of the loop considering she only joined them recently. But now, now she was being brought into their inner circle.

Zeph and Bianca smirked at the wolf woman's failure to hide her joy. The young lord started to speak again. "Okay, so are you ready to hear what I have to say. Remember, this is something that you can't speak of outside of the Malston household. Lili, and Ivy and their family don't know. No one else can know. My grandfather's and my life are at stake."

Semara took a moment and made an audible gulp. She took time to think, and decided that she would keep his secret. "I'm ready. I promise not to tell anyone."

Zeph took a deep breath. "Well, all right then. This is going to sound weird, but wait for me to finish before you ask any questions." He told her about the Aetherite, and how Bernard accidentally summoned him. Then he told her about the experiments and creating his identity. "Then after he adopted me, he signed me up for school."

After he gave her some time to absorb what he said, Semara realized it was her turn to talk. She really only had one response after hearing all of that. "Nice try! Here I thought you were finally going to tell me what was going on and you two just try to prank me instead." After grumbling and crossing her arms, Semara started talking again. "That was really mean you guys. I really thought-"

"No. no. no. It's not like that Semmy. It's true. He's not lying." Bianca interrupted her friend when she saw Semara's eyes start to water. The poor wolf-girl obviously felt betrayed.

Semara stopped when she heard the seriousness in Bianca's voice. "If that's not a lie, then you can prove it right? Because I'm going to be really pissed if you two are pulling another prank on me." Her ears were flattened down and her tail was drooping.

"Of course," Zeph held out his right hand. "Now don't freak out, okay?" He brought up his other hand, and before Semara could react, turned it into a blade to cut off the first.

Semara saw Zeph cut off his arm and screamed. "Zeph what are you doing!" She jumped out of the chair, causing it to fall backward, and stretched across the table to hold his arm.

Zeph turned his left hand back and waved off Semara. "Look, I'm fine." He held the stump of his hand as it started to let out a silver mist. In seconds a new hand form and he wiggled its fingers. "See, no problem."

Semara stared blankly at what just happened. Her eyes darted back and forth from his new hand to the dismembered one lying on the table. "What… what happened?" She didn't understand it, because her magic sense told her that he didn't use an illusion.

"I told you earlier. The Aether in my body allows me to regenerate… And that's not all, look." He pointed at the hand on the table and it started to turn silver and melt into a puddle. The puddle started to turn into a swirling mist and let out a gentle glow. The girls watched in amazement, unable to look away. The mist started to condense and, with a quick flash, turned into a miniature replica of Zeph.

"Well, that's new," Bianca said with a deadpan expression. She was as lost for words as Semara was. The wolf-girl stared at the mini-Zeph in wonder.

The bite-sized clone started waving at Semara and started to talk in a high pitched squeaky voice, "See, Semara. You wanted proof."

Semara's ears and tail were pointing at the ceiling and her eyes were as big as saucers. She looked to Zeph, and then to the miniature. Her head kept turning back and forth.

"So what do you think?" he asked.

Semara went to open her mouth, but nothing came out. She stood still staring blankly at Zeph for over a minute. Bianca walked up to her and waved her hand in front of the woman's face. The fox-girl snapped her fingers and got no response. She shook the girl, and still nothing.

"I think you broke her." Bianca had to stifle a laugh.

A squeaky voice replied. "I guess it was a little much."

Bianca looked at the tiny Zeph. "Yeah, it was." The little man on the table started to laugh. "Okay, stop that. It's freaky," she demanded.

The miniature doppelganger disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Sorry about that," Zeph said. He looked at Semara. I think we should take her to her room. It might take a while for her to reboot.

_____________

After Zeph and Bianca placed Semara in bed, they decided to sit nearby and wait for her to wake up. They stayed quiet for around an hour before Zeph couldn't take the silence anymore. "That could have gone better," he said to no one in particular.

"In her defense, you never dismembered yourself when you told us, and you sure as hell never created a creepy mini-you. What happened to our plan of taking it slow and steady?" Bianca gave him that scolding look that only big sisters and mothers seem to have.

"She wanted proof. What else was I supposed to do?"

"You could have done that hair trick or something."

"She would have just attributed that to my changeling cover story."

Bianca scrunched her lips to the side and made contemplated for a second. "Yeah, I guess there wasn't much you could do to back up your claim that wouldn't make her freak out. We should have waited for your grandpa to get home so he could back us up."

"Probably, I mean-" Zeph was interrupted when he saw Semara start to stir in her bed.

Semara g.r.o.a.n.e.d as she brought her hand to her head. She slowly sat up and saw her two friends sitting at the edge of her bed. Her eyes blinked a couple of times in recognition. "Oh, hey guys."

"Hi, Semmy." Bianca put her hand on the wolf-girls leg. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I guess. I had the weirdest dream though. Zeph was some kind of interdimensional alien zombie and he made a clone that talked after cutting off his hand."

"Umm, sweety?" Bianca said gently.

"Yeah?"

"That wasn't a dream."

Zeph watched Semara's brain crash for the second time today. "Aaand she's gone."

____________________________

Half an hour later and a long awkward walk to the kitchen, Zeph was sitting at the kitchen table with the two shifter girls. The first thing Semara said after managing to stay cognizant was that she needed a drink. So, here they were. Bianca and Zeph watched and waited for Semara to start talking.

After taking several long sips from the electric blue bottle of booze, Semara finally started to speak. "So, you're an alien?"

Zeph smiled. "Pretty much, but I prefer to think of myself as dimensionally displaced."

Semara took another swig. "And you were maybe dead and came back to life without all your memories."

"In a nutshell." Zeph was getting a little anxious because of Semara's emotionless tone when she spoke. There was no anger or anything when she spoke. "Uhmm, does that make you afraid of me. Or, do you hate me for lying to you?"

The electric blue bottle slammed on the table, causing Zeph and Semara to flinch. Semara stared at their worried faces. After three minutes of watching them squirm, a snort made its way out of her nose. It was followed by the sound of Semara laughing her head off.

Bianca and Zeph were gobsmacked. Their jaws dropped at the realization that Semara just pulled one over on them. "Semara!" they both shouted.

"Oh, you should have seen your faces." The wolf-woman lapped her knee. "Priceless."

"So you're not mad?" Zeph asked.

"Not anymore," Semara said as she started calming down. "It took me a while to process. I was only pretending to be asleep the second time. During that time, I thought about what you said and came up with a decision."

"What decision?" Zeph couldn't help but feel a small surge of worry."

"I don't care," Semara said flatly.

"What?" Bianca asked.

"I said, I don't care. What you are or where you came from doesn't matter to me. I'm sure that if you were some evil creature or anything, Bianca would have taken care of you before." Semara smiled. "Nope, you're just the same goofy kid to me. Nothing between us has changed. Except that maybe being your bodyguard is going to be the easiest job in the world since you can regenerate."

"About that…" Zeph's voice trailed off. "I'm not really a kid. This is just the body that was formed when I transmigrated over here."

Semara raised an eyebrow. "How old are you then?"

"I think around my mid-twenties. It's a little fuzzy." Zeph rubbed the side of his head.

"Well then, I should probably stop Ivy from trying to seduce you."

Bianca chuckled, "That would be good."

"Yeah, I'd appreciate it. She's let up lately, but don't encourage her to start up again. She already gets enough of that from our friends." Zeph sighed. "So, any questions?"

"Yeah, what now?" Semara asked.

"Well, I still plan on keeping up my identity as Bernard's grandson. I've started thinking of all of you like family, and I don't want to go anywhere. So that's kinda how I'm going to live for now. It doesn't look like any of my memories are going to come back, and I decided that I might as well use this new world and body to make a fresh start.

"Still though, pretending to be a kid all this time. That must have been difficult." Semara started rubbing her finger in circles on the table. Her drink was empty but she didn't feel like getting up for another at the moment.

"Not really. I've recently discovered that I'm pretty imm.a.t.u.r.e." Zeph was interrupted by Bianca.

"No, really?" the fox-kin snorted.

Zeph continued. "I've also found it fun in some ways. It kind of feels like I'm Lili and Ivy's big brother., and the other kids aren't bad. We have fun as long as I just go with the flow and not worry about the age difference. Besides, who doesn't feel like going back to the carefree days of childhood every once and a while."

"Yeah, but don't you get tired of it?" Semara's tail was starting to wiggle back and forth. She was happy that she and her friends were getting closer and learning more about the young lord.

"Bianca actually came up with a plan for that. My shapeshifting ability recently got an upgrade, so I'm going to try and create an a.d.u.l.t form. That way I can do all the stuff I can't do as a kid. The funny thing is, there's not a huge difference in what I find fun that an a.d.u.l.t can do that a kid can't." Zeph saw that Semara was eyeing her empty bottle, so he used telekinesis to get her another one form the fridge.

"Can you get me one too?" Bianca asked. "I'm also going to help him figure out how he's going to look. We decided he would pose as my little brother. It's like he's going to be the most interactive dress up doll ever." She giggled.

Semara's ears twitched and her tail perked up. "That sounds fun. It'll be like those create a character things in a video game. I want in."

"Sure, I'm sure the two of us can make the coolest brother ever." Bianca smile shined like a million watt light bulb.

Zeph could see the two women scheming and plotting on what to do. A third bottle of booze floated out of the fridge. "This is going to be a long night."

Semara snatched his bottle out of the air as it floated by her. "Uh-uh uuuh. None for you, you're too young."

"I thought we went over this," Zeph w.h.i.n.ed.

"What would happen if Lili or Ivy showed up out of nowhere?" Semara smirked as she watched Zeph visibly deflate.

"Fine." He grumbled.

Semara twisted the top off her drink. "So tell me about earth. What was it like?"

Bianca and Semara listened while Zeph told them about his homeland. The wolf-kin was amazed to hear about the technology that didn't use magic. Semara and Bianca continued to drink while listening to his story. Zeph told them what he could remember about his friends and family. Semara and Bianca ended up giving him a hug when he started to tear up about the things he left behind. He shifted topics and spoke about other aspects of his homeland. They continued talking as the evening wore on. Drinks and snacks were brought out as time passed by.

"So, America uses a democracy. That's certainly different. No wonder you have no clue about how a noble should act." Semara nodded to herself.

"Well, there were nobles in other countries, but I never really paid attention to any of that stuff."

Semara leaned her head on her palm as her arm rested on the table. "The world doesn't seem too different to ours really, aside from the magic and monsters. It does sound a little safer, but I can't imagine life without magic."

"Trust me. Now that I have it, I can't imagine it either." Zeph smiled.

"Yeah, that's the reason he's such a magic nerd," Bianca chuckled.

"I bet." Semara looked at him. "Thanks for telling me all this." Semara walked over and gave him a hug. "It means a lot to me."

Zeph hugged her back. "It means a lot to me too." He waited for Semara to let go. Then he heard her breathing slow and deepen. She fell asleep. He looked at the clock and realized that it was past midnight.

"No fair, I want a hug too." Bianca joined in.

"No, wait. She fell asleep. I think the booze got to her." Zeph tried to get Bianca to back off.

Instead, the fox girl leaned in and rubbed her face against Semara's ears. "He hee. Fluffy."

"Crap, not you too." Zeph looked at the empty bottles on the table. "How strong was that stuff?" He sighed before lifting up Semara and taking her to bed, while Bianca leaned on him and snuggled with her two friends as they walked.

Unknown to them, Bernard was around the corner. He got home a long time ago but decided to let the group have their alone time. The old man would definitely tease his grandson on what a ladies man he was becoming. After all, he was taking two girls to bed. His wheezing chuckles quietly sounded out in the house as he tried to stifle his laughter. Rin was in his arms purring and watching the trio make their way to the second floor.

Eli walked up next to Bernard out from a shadow. "I'm glad he told her. It's good to know that the little dude is making trustworthy friends."

"Didn't you hear? He's working on a grown-up form. You might not be able to call him little dude for long my old friend." Bernard smirked.

"I'm centuries old. He'll always be a little dude." Eli smiled. "Besides, we can go to a bar and play some darts or billiards later. It'll give me an excuse to get away from the missus if I tell her I have a friend I haven't seen in a long time."

"That bad, huh?" Bernard looked to his head of security.

"Not really, I'm just not used to it. You know me, I've always been kind of a loner, and Rel… she's a little clingy. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it when we're together. But sometimes, I just need a break."

"She has been taking up all your free time lately." Bernard patted his shoulder. "I'm happy for."

"Thanks." Eli grew a content smile. "We're still going to mess with him about getting two girls drunk though, right?

"Oh yes, definitely." Bernard started laughing. Eli joined in, and Rin just tilted her head in confusion.