“The winner of the auction must promise to allow Devi to go home through the portal as soon as they figure out how the cabinet works.”

Chapter 36

Alison left in the Tesla that evening. She reported that the roads were eerily empty. A few miles outside of town the road was destroyed. Since her android body was able to run up to about fifty kph, she decided to go on foot from there, but she examined the site to try and work out what type of weapon had been used.

Zindla liked having a little girl around, even if she was older than she looked, and used to be a boy. Seeing her cousins and other children who lived in the neighborhood, she’d sometimes regretted being an only child, and now she felt like she almost knew what it was like to have a little sister. Devi was so enthusiastic and curious about everything; having her around was like seeing everything for the first time.

Chapter 35

I was relaxing in the spa with Karen, Susan and Alice while Alison and Hannah were playing in the swimming pool that was set a metre or so down from the spa. Alison and Hannah were laughing playing some kind of game that involved the waterfall so they were quite close. Alison froze mid-laugh and then quickly came into the spa to join us. I saw Hannah leaving the area towards her bedroom.

Chapter 34

We had been sitting in the kitchen eating dinner and feeding the PEs so when Alison led us down to the basement we weren't surprised. In a corner of the room was what looked like a cupboard, at least from the outside. Inside it looked like a very small room, but when the floor dropped away we realised it was an elevator.

Chapter 33

The next day was more of the same. We spent the day creating a library of patterns. Tara/ Susan queried Alison about creating a seed pattern library. Could seeds produced by the fabricator germinate and grow normally? Alison believed they could so we purchased as many seeds as possible. We were all hoping for the best, preparing for the worst and more and more expecting the worst to be our new reality.

Chapter 32

I woke up in a pile of naked limbs with a smile on my face. I had expected Tara/ Susan and Kay/ Karen to move to the other bedroom now that we had more than two. That hadn't happened and when I examined my feelings I realised being together in one bed made me happy. I wasn't going to discuss it, but we sort of had to when we started designing our underground bunker.

In the stories, kids who go through portals to other worlds need to learn something from it. Maybe there’s something I’m supposed to learn from being a little girl. And there’s definitely got to be something I’m supposed to do here, but I don’t know what yet.”

Chapter 29

We had left almost everything behind with our old identities so we had nothing to connect us to our past lives which meant, all we had to pack was our recent purchases. We had all had a nice time shopping, but there were so many other things we wanted to do that it had only been a sporadic exercise and we really didn't have that much to take with us.

Chapter 28

There was not much we could do for a couple of days, at least, in terms of advancing our progress. Alison was working behind the scenes to purchase a plot of land, a house, and have supplies dropped to them. If we waited until they were officially ours we would have to wait weeks, but Alison had negotiated our ability to start using them immediately.

Chapter 27

I woke up the next morning squished between Helen/ Alice behind me and Tara/ Susan in front. I think it was Helen's leg that was draped over me. I was sort of trapped, but I didn't feel anxious, I felt safe. I wanted to just bask in their presence and I did try to, breathing deeply and allowing the emotions to wash over me.

“Odd, though. You don’t look like you have a transformation spell on you. Or any kind of spell, really. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a transformation, but I think I’d recognize it. Must be some kind I’m not familiar with.”

Chapter 26 Dee Dee's POV

I was so excited that I thought I would never go to sleep that night. Fortunately, Alison has the ability to forcibly make me sleep. Not exactly a technique she could use on anyone else. With her nanobots in someone, she had the ability to change their bodies, alter their DNA, fight off infection, regrow limbs, balance chemical disorders, cause them to lose consciousness and create illusions for all the senses. Reliably cause someone to fall asleep would be an experiment with significant risks.

Chapter 24

**Before you go to sleep, there is one more thing we need to work out,** Alison said to me.

**OK.**

**Your body is genetically designed to want to reproduce and so it becomes stimulated when certain pheromones are released telling you of the availability of a nearby mate. You have also been maximized for your immune system so it doesn't really matter who releases those pheromones, you are going to react. Recently you have been stimulated multiple times without responding, or more importantly, getting a release,** Alison started.

Shadowsblade a Whateley Tale: Written by Shadowsblade

Created for war and forged in pain, dealing with demons within and without.