Althea shrugged. "I just found a few things on the island. I didn't think they were that special."

The Empress sighed. "I do not know whether to scold you or praise you. That fire you conjured was at the cusp of becoming a special power. A Journeyman getting a special power... I do not think I have heard of such a thing before. Not in the Northern Continent."

"A special power?" Althea prompted.

A black fog appeared around the Empress. Althea recognized it. That was the Empress' main weapon.

"This is a special power. A special use of mana that becomes integral to our fighting style. A special power can only be wielded by a half-step Grandmaster. If anyone with a lower cultivation realizes it, they will not be able to wield its full power, just like you couldn't. Not that your power is a special power quite yet. "

Althea still did not understand. What she had was not some special power. Just a friendship with fire.

"What happens now?" she asked.

"Oh nothing. And quite a lot at the same time. The Empires consider you a major threat now. Sel has basically pronounced you the next Grandmaster of this continent, something I am sure they will bring up in the meeting. For now, though, focus on your breakthrough to the Master stage. I can sense you are close. How much time do you need?"

"I can breakthrough anytime I want." she said. "I just want to realize something before I break through.”

"Don't delay too long. The earlier you breakthrough, the more leverage you have going into the Human Cup. As it is, you are already fixed as the team leader, but a bunch of other stuff remains to be seen."

"I already have the Fruit of Alto. That should do it."

"Oh, for goodness' sake." the Empress shook her head. " At times I forget that you have ridiculous luck."

A wave of mana interrupted whatever she was going to say. The Empress grimaced at the message. That was probably some kind of indica

"The Merlen kingdom fell." she said, interrupting the Empress from leaving.

"I know."

"A retainer of mine is bringing most of its population with her."

"That I didn't know." the Empress groaned. "Remind me to assign better spies to monitor you. For some reason, they just can't seem to keep up with you. The next thing I know, you'll be breaking into the Adept stage without us getting a whiff of it."

Althea smiled sadly as the Empress sat down on the sofa.

“Aren’t you leaving?” she asked. That was her impression.

“Oh?” the Empress looked up. “Not at all. I want you to tell me what happened in the Hidden Land.”

Althea narrowed her eyes.

“Aren’t you going to leave? I thought that was the Sel Empire calling.” she asked.

The Empress grinned. “Yes, it was. What about it? I am an Empress. I don’t follow the Sel Empire's orders, they can wait.”

“Althea, can you hurry up. There is something that needs your attention.” Pulsie said into her mind, his voice sounding stressed.

“Can it wait?” she asked.

“Not for long.”

The Empress was looking at her expectantly with a raised eyebrow. Althea gave her a nervous smile and then started telling her about her experience.

“Fire? As a friend?” The Empress’ eyebrows rose into her hair when she reached that part of her story.

“Yes.” Althea shrugged. “I simply figured out something that made fire react…emotionally.”

The Empress stared at her. “Althea, I have read every single cultivation related record in the Law records. Not a single one of them talks about someone befriending an element. I would say something more than just a revelation is needed.”

Althea continued her story, finding the Empress narrowing her eyes as she reached the part where she described the attacker.

“An Adept stage Mind artifact? Why in the world would this person use such an artifact if their intention was to make people think that we had planned the attack? And why even bother framing us? Even the Zun Empire would have difficulty believing that we would use our own people to destroy the spacial island in a publicly held trial.”

“To add to the confusion, perhaps? The Solerian Empire does have the most artifacts of any Empire. There are bound to be a few accusations flying around, even with my dealing with the attacker.” Althea said.

“Yes.” the Empress nodded. “There will be accusations, but I doubt they will go so far as to declare war. I would say that the attacker’s true aim was to damage the spacial island. But why? Why draw so much attention to themselves?”

“The attacker had difficulty maintaining a lucid thought process for extended periods of time. Perhaps her masters were similar?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“No, if that was the case then they would have been discovered already. An out of control faction would be easy to identify and destroy. A faction that hides its presence and plots in the dark is much harder to track down. I would say that we are dealing with the latter.” The Empress mused.

“What do you recommend we do then?” Althea asked. “I am more worried about how my mana reacted to the strange mana’s presence. That means our enemy is quite old, or has that old a legacy.”

The Empress waved her concerns away. “That is likely a coincidence. The enemy would have to have a legacy dating back to the First Empire for that to be true.”

“The First Empire?” Althea questioned. Now there was something that she hadn’t heard before. The First Empire sounded like something that should have been covered in her history lessons.

The Empress sighed. “There are very few records that date back to the First Empire. The First Empire is said to be the parent Empire of the Solerian Empire and where all twenty-seven noble families that moved here originated from. The Druid, Law and Rebel manuals were all made in the First Empire. That’s why they are known as humanity's greatest legacy.”

Althea couldn’t have missed the pride in her aunt’s tone even if she were deaf.

“If the First Empire was that great, then how did it fall?” she asked.

“I have no idea. The few records that we have say that it was dissolved by its Emperor, Vader the great.” the Empress said.

“Vader?” Althea asked, unable to help herself. Vader, as in Darth Vader? That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Well, it could. Vader was a name. Was it? Or was it something the writers just came up with?

“Yes. The First Emperor of humanity was…legendary. If our records are correct, he singularly advanced humanity from cave dwelling creatures to an entire civilization in a short hundred years.” The Empress said, making a cup of tea appear in front of her.

Althea eyed her. “Don’t you have a meeting to get to?”

“Yes, I do.” the Empress drank from her cup. “I am delaying it. The First Empire is important, and it’s a travesty you have not been informed yet. A number of our legacies date back to that time, making it crucial that you know of their importance. The very language we, and every other race on this planet, speak was invented by Emperor Vader. So was our very system of cultivation.”

That sounded interesting. So interesting that she decided that the meeting could go to heck. There was an increasing chance, at least in her head, that his Vader person was from Earth.

Human society going from Stone Age to Empire level? English being the new ‘invented’ language? A system of cultivation-ok, she wasn’t sure about that one. But it sounded like someone from Earth had been here before, and done a number on this planet.

“What else did he do? What do you mean he made the cultivation system? Isn’t the Elves' cultivation hereditary and the Fae’s system inborn-”

“Oh, calm down, Althea. There is no need for you to know everything about Vader the first time you hear of him. I don’t know how the Elves and Fae are related to him, either. I can confirm that once upon a time, their royal families credited Vader with founding their systems.”

How? Did he have some manner of genetic magic? Or had she misunderstood how the magic system worked? The mere fact that it was man-made was a phenomenal difference. The only way she could see it work was if Vader somehow figured out what led to boosts of power, compiled it, and then formulated a system that would lead to people growing stronger.

Now that she thought about it, each stage of cultivation required to fulfill a particular criteria. Master of self, Adept of Magic etc. Even Grandmaster had one. Grandmaster of Worlds. That was a plural. Althea had thought it was a typo when she read it, but now she thought about it again. Would the books in the Diery vault have typos?

Vader had been telling them something with his naming system. Was the entire system just a checklist of things one needed to reach some stage? No, the conclusion was a stretch. The evidence was barely even there, let alone leading to something.

“The First Emperor invented Alchemy, Magic smithing, herb cultivation, beast taming, ships, there were even said to be large aircrafts big enough to carry armies during the First Emperor’s time. The thing got to the point that he was known as Vader the First during his later years.”

The Empress took a swig of her tea, as if she were drinking beer. Althea eyed her, wondering what had gotten her in such a state.

“Althea.” Pulsie interrupted.

“What is it Pulsie? Did that thing turn into an emergency?” she asked.

“Not quite. I just wanted to tell you that I have been trying to help those burnt pages of the Diery manual heal a bit. With the increased mana and all, the formations are working again. In fact, a number of the palace’s functions-”

“Pulsie, get to the point, please. I am sort of in the middle of something here.”

“Well, a few days ago, one of the burnt parts healed up. And guess what it-”

“Pulsie!”

An image appeared within Althea’s mind before she could express her indignation further. The image of a slightly yellowed page. The words ‘Diery manual’ in the front just like she remembered. And under it, where one of the burnt portions had been, the words:

by: The Great Mother and Vader Diery

Althea froze, her mind taking a minute to catch up. Vader. Vader Diery. What were the chances that this was the same Vader that she had been talking about this entire time?

“What happened to Vader’s family? Like, after his death?” she asked the Empress, carefully schooling her expression. If the Empress noticed anything odd, she didn’t show it.

“As far as we know, Vader didn’t have any children. The First Empire ended long before his death, however. There are many, many rumors about what happened to him in his later years. A few even claim that your family is descended from him.”

Althea had no idea how to react to that. Should she confirm the rumors? Was it important?

“That was probably because the Diery manual was a little extra. The reason the Grandmaster manuals are greater is that Vader helped craft them. In fact, he spent much of his later years after he ended the First Empire was spent roaming the world. The ancestors of the Grandmaster clans were all helped by Vader. There used to be far more than just twenty-seven, actually. Even we’re not sure how many there are exactly.”

Althea looked at her aunt for a second, debating her decision.

“Is this room secure?” she asked.

The Empress looked at her. “Of course! The Diery palace was made using the techniques from the First Empire. Even the entire Grandmaster council couldn’t spy inside without destroying the palace entirely. Why do you ask?”

“Oh great.” Althea said, suddenly unsure. The Empress seemed like a completely different person when talking about the First Empire. That made her even more unsure. But in the end, this was the person that had supported her every step away. If she couldn’t trust the Empress, she couldn’t trust anyone in the world.

“Well, Pulsie just checked the Diery manual. And as it turn out, it was written by a Vader Diery-”

Althea didn’t get to finish the sentence. The Empress had sprayed tea over her face.