The full moon lasted three nights and Bianca wasn't the only shifter that planned a hunting trip. Shifters from the police force and others that were confident of their strength volunteered for "cleaning duty," and the overall number of wandering monsters dwindled. After a day on patrol where Zeph wasn't able to find anything to fight, Bernard told him it was time to go back to school.

Zeph was sitting down in the grass and watching other students run an obstacle course. His friends were next to him and were chatting about various things. They asked a lot of questions about his patrols during lunch. Drew even brought up a picture from the newspaper showing Zeph in blasting a small imp with a wave of blue energy. He teased the young lord about the photo because it looked like it was ripped off a poster for a cheesy action movie. The group then proceeded to make up names for an action movie starring the young man.

Currently, Zeph was thinking about the information that his grandfather told him about the possible ritual using ley-lines. Mass human sacrifice was the first purpose for it that he could think of. Bernard told him that they wouldn't need to gather negative energy for a sacrifice, because sacrifices would provide energy instead of requiring it. Zeph suggested that Relina try to find a way to cleanse the negative energy out of the ley-line under the city. That way, it would hinder the enemy's progress at the very least.

It took Bernard, Eli, and Relina over an hour before they concluded that it was possible. Bernard was staying up late with all the plates he was spinning. He was heading and organizing the investigation on the demon worshippers. That was what they decided they were calling the enemy for simplicity's sake. The old mage was also working on fine tuning the spiritual energy detector and studying the magic that the worshippers used to cause the convergence. Zeph had to force his grandpa to admit that it was too much and delegate some responsibility.

Bernard was hesitant to let go of heading the investigation because the terrorist attack was successful when he left it to the police. Eli convinced the old man that he would take the reins and make sure that he would tell Bernard anything of any importance. Relina said she could fine tune the energy detector with the help of a few researchers at Aether Labs. Zeph realized that the attack had gotten to his grandpa more than he thought when he saw the hesitance Bernard had in letting go of some of the responsibility. The old lord felt guilty for not keeping his people safe and was trying to compensate by doing as much as possible to prevent another attack. It took a small intervention to make Bernard take a break.

Zeph was smiling when he thought about how his grandfather slept for an entire day. Alex brought Keva home for the same purpose, so the old dwarf was keeping an eye on the two. Bianca and Semara ended up on guard duty because Eli was now working on the investigation. The police had their hands full preventing crime and dealing with the aftermath of the attack, so the elf had to use a more hands-on approach than he was expecting. It was no wonder Bernard was so tired. Another interesting thing that Zeph wasn't aware of until recently was that valir were being called to Asperitus in case another attack happened. Valir were often deployed at the edges of a territory near the borders of anything hostile. Asperitus was bordered by a vast untamed wilderness to the south and an ocean to the east. A few valir were redirected to the capital from both borders to assist with anything that might come up. Currently, the only valir in the capital were Bernard, Eli, and a few members of the nearby magic clans. Out of the three clans of Asperitus, Zeph was only familiar with Clan Avery and Clan Drunn. Ashley didn't make a good impression for her clan, but Rebecca Locke was a good person. Rebecca befriended Lili and Ivy quickly and she shared Lili's love for a good challenge.

Jim's voice interrupted Zeph's thinking time. "So, what do you think?"

Zeph looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him. "Err, sorry I was lost in thought. What was the question?"

"See, told you that weird look on his face meant that he was out of it," Lili said smugly.

Jim pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dang it Malston." He sighed. "My mom was worried that I don't have any friends, so I told her I had a bunch. Then she demanded I invite them to dinner or lunch this weekend." The next few words were said laced with annoyance, "Would you like to come over to my house and have lunch on Saturday or Sunday?"

Zeph shrugged, "Sure no problem. Sunday would be better because I have spirit magic lessons on Saturday, followed by some weapons training with Bianca and Semara, then grandpa and I go nerd out in the lab in the afternoons. On Sundays, I usually just meditate and work on my magic endurance all day."

Everyone had a blank expression except for Lili and Ivy. "Do you do that every weekend?" Stacey asked.

"Yeah, why?" Zeph wondered.

"Why though, you're already the strongest guy in school. Why don't you take a break on weekends?" Rebecca joined in on the questioning.

"Sure. I'm not doing stuff the whole time. There's usually a few hours peppered throughout the day when I relax. Lili and Ivy come over all the time and we play games and stuff." The group of friends let out a collective sigh of relief. "What?" Zeph asked.

"We were just worried you were some kind of training maniac that didn't know how to stop. You do know that everyone here wants to become a valir so we're pretty competitive. If you worked non-stop and on weekends, some of us would be compelled to do the same so we could catch up or overtake you. None of us want to give up weekends man," Drew explained.

"So about this Sunday," Brent started talking. "Are we only going for lunch?"

"What do you mean?" Jim asked.

"Well, are we going to do anything else? It's going to be the first time we've all gotten together out of school. Usually, Zeph's too busy and the girls splinter off to do girl stuff."

"Now that you mention it, we should all do something." Rebecca started tapping her finger on her knee as she sat in the grass. "I know, how about hover-boarding?"

Zeph's eyes widened. He completely forgot about hover-boards. The first day he visited the city, he saw one and promised himself he would get one too. "That sounds great!"

The group was surprised at his enthusiasm. "Really? Hover-boarding?" Drew looked at Rebecca and Zeph.

"What's wrong with hover-boarding," the two said in unison.

"Well, it's a little tame, isn't it? You're just floating around on a board. We can do that without the board if we try."

"Drew, you obviously underestimate the fun potential of floating and gliding on a board. Plus, they have a magic generating circuit, so we can hover for a lot longer than we would if we did it without a board." Zeph explained.

"Have you not heard of hover tricks? You can do all kinds of things. What did you think that half pipe in the public park was for?" Rebecca brought out her tablet and brought up a video on hover-boarding on the weave. "See, check this out." Everyone grouped up together.

Zeph saw his friends gather around the tablet and remembered what his grandpa said about the new Holo-pendants. He brought up the same video and projected it into the air. Hey, guys!" The group of friends turned and saw the floating video in the air. Their mouths dropped. "I already know the answer to this, but would you like me to bring a Holo-pendant for each of you this weekend. Grandpa needs a test group and I figured you all would want in."

________________

"Well, that got their attention," Semara said while watching a projected image of Zeph and his friends sitting in the training field. Bianca was sitting opposite of her in the back of the limo while they monitored Zeph and the girls using a scrying spell attached to the flowers that the children wore on their uniform.

"It sure did. I'm glad that Eli gave them those flowers. It makes guard duty a lot easier." Bianca and Semara were playing cards.

Semara drew a card, "It seems Ivy is getting better with Ethris. The little thing's been out for over an hour now without her having to take a break."

Bianca looked at the screen to see a sleeping kitten on top of a glowing ball next to Ivy. "They're so cute."

"You know what else is cute?" Semara asked.

"What?"

"This," Semara slammed down five cards. "Blam! I win!" She did a small celebratory dance/wiggle in the enclosed space.

Bianca's ears went sideways and her mouth scrunched up into an annoyed pout. "Fine, what do you want me to do?" she grumbled.

"Hold on," Semara took a deep breath while staring at her best friend. "I want to savor this moment." They made a bet on the card game. The loser would have to follow the command of the winner. Bianca hadn't lost until now, and she made Semara do a lot of silly things.

"Fine, enjoy your victory for now." Bianca crossed her arms and started to wonder what the wolf girl would do. After waiting for a full minute and staring and Semara's smug smile, Bianca finally heard her command. "What do you mean I have to wear a skirt?"

"Exactly what I said. One week, only skirts." Semara smirked.

"That doesn't sound like a big deal," Bianca said, trying to feign indifference.

"It's not a big deal if you didn't mind wearing a skirt. But I know for a fact that you hate it. Just imagine sparring with Zeph and trying to keep from giving him a free show cuz you're wearing a skirt." Semara started giggling. "I mean, all you'd need is a light breeze, and uh oh, BiBi's showing some skin." A small breeze brushed passed the two shifters as Semara gestured with her hands.

"You're evil." Bianca narrowed her eyes at her friend.

"You shouldn't have snatched my top off in the pool." Semara smiled back.