“Empress Elara, are you telling me that this…enemy is from the time of the First Empire?” Sofret asked.

“Not at all. I am just saying that I used an artifact from the First Empire to counter the strange mana. And that Druid mana is a natural counter to this new enemy’s weapon.” Elara was still smiling. Nerusia was starting to frown. Sofret was already frowning.

“Cease your trickery, Elara. This is not the time or place for this-” Sofret began.

Then Elara did something even Nerusia wouldn’t dare to.

Elara interrupted Sofret. “Please, Grand Emperor. Do not insult me. I am not an idiot. What we know about this new foe is precious little, presuming something is pure idiocy. I might be being semantic, but I am being semantic for a reason.”

“I do not know why you bother, Empress. Sofret is no General, this will assuredly go above his head.” the General said.

Sofret gave the General an irritated look. But before it could devolve into another argument, the Zun Emperor interrupted.

“I think it would be wise for this council to assess how much of a threat this new threat poses. If they have the ability to give anyone Adept stage abilities that require artifacts and inheritances from the First Empire to counter, we will be in trouble.” the Zun Emperor said.

Nerusia sighed. “I must agree to this. The destructive ability of an Adept with this ability is simply too high.”

“Perhaps this council should adjourn to investigate this threat. I am sure that if we put our resources together, we can find out where this mysterious enemy is hiding.” Grand Emperor Mestra said.

Even Sofret turned to look at his colleague. There was no shock on his face, but Nerusia was sure he was feeling it. The Norin Empire had not made such a bold statement before. At least for as long as she had been a part of this council.

“The Ge Empire agrees.”

With that, the decision was sealed. Nerusia knew that the new powers had just agreed because it suited them. The Norin Empire saying anything without the Sel Empire’s prompting was rare. A statement? That defied the Sel Empire? This kind of action was worth the new powers pausing.

The only question was why the Norin Empire had even intervened.

"Will there be a ceasefire then?" the General scoffed.

Sofret turned to her, staring at her as he shifted his eyes to the Zun Emperor, then to Empress Elara, then to Grand Emperor Mestra and then muttered in a slow and careful voice that was barely audible.

"Perhaps."

sc

Nerusia stood in the air, waiting for the Zun Emperor to arrive. After what had happened today, he was sure to come here. The two sides had agreed to stop the war, at least for now. The new enemy, the Human Cup, there was too much that they needed to discuss.

"So, you waited." the Zun Emperor said. As expected, he was here.

"Of course." Empress Elara said, emerging from behind her. Nerusia barely sensed the spacial vibrations. If the woman could hide her teleportations even from her, then she was far more powerful than she let on. That irritated her even more than the woman being here.

“This new enemy needs investigation.” the Zun Emperor said.

“I thought we agreed about that in the conference.” Empress Elara said, blinking far too much.

Nerusia sighed.

“I am sure we can investigate this threat separately. I am more interested in what you want, Emperor of Zun.” she asked.

The Zun Emperor held her gaze, his inquiring eyes piercing into hers. “I wish for an alliance. Can that be arranged?”

"Are you going to invade the Diery county again?" Nerusia asked. That was the crux of the issue. An alliance was very good. Heck, she would take a ceasefire that stuck around. But the Zun Empire still had their food problem. A problem that wasn't going to be solved easily.

The Zun Emperor looked at Empress Elara. The Empress stared back. Nerusia sighed. Kicking the Empress out would be extremely rude, and tell the Elara Empire that she valued the Zun Empire more than them. Distancing an ally for an enemy was a terrible idea, politically. But she was very, very tempted.

"Please, there is no need to hide whatever you're about to say. The Empress shall hear it from me anyway." she said, trying to smooth things over.

The Zun Emperor scoffed. "I was hoping that the Diery county could trade enough food with us. And perhaps consider an offer of marriage for the Countess. I shall not ask for an answer now. There shall be time to discuss this later, when you are not accompanied by this pest."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Nerusia paused as the Emperor disappeared from her vision. An offer of marriage. The Emperor hadn't said who he would be offering to marry Althea to, but it was clear enough. The Zun Empire had figured out the Diery trait. And he wanted it. If the Crown Prince married Althea and made her Empress, the trait would likely extend over to the Zun Empire.

But such an act would no doubt reveal the trait's existence. The Empires had chalked up the Diery county's magic to some old spell. The county had been producing excessive amounts of food for longer than any of them had been around. The Zun Empire's deserts were another thing entirely.

On the other hand, the Zun Emperor might just want Althea’s talent. Even with life-extending herbs, the Emperor only had a century or two left. The Empire was barely held together by his power, if he died, it would collapse. With Althea’s talent, she could easily replace the Zun Emperor’s position.

This could be a grave threat. On one hand. If the Solerian and Zun Empires united, then they may be powerful enough to stave off any threat. Perhaps even replace the Sel Empire at the peak of the continent. There were many attractions to the two Empires uniting.

But Nerusia, really, really, didn’t want to let another Empire have Althea.

"I would offer the same if I had a son." Empress Elara said, fanning herself. Nerusia had nearly forgotten she was here. A fact that amazed her given how irritating this woman was.

"Perhaps I can adopt her." Empress Elara continued. "Do you think Althea would agree to take over the Elara Empire?"

Nerusia's smile turned stiff. "The Diery county has been the ancestral homeland of the Druids for a long time."

"Yes." the Empress nodded. "The Druids did stay there, even when they were the most powerful Grandmaster clan around. I did wonder about that. Do you know why they remained there?"

“No.” Nerusia’s smile was thin. “What do you want, Empress Elara?”

“Oh, I don’t want anything. Why would you even think that?” the Empress clutched her heart. “Is it so hard to believe that I am simply doing what I can to help out humanity?”

With a wounded expression on her face, she glared daggers at Nerusia, as if asking what she had done to deserve this injustice. And then disappeared.

The Empress disappeared rather abruptly, leaving Nerusia standing in space. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure that woman out.

What the heck did she want?

sc

Althea calmed her mind, putting the ongoing conflict between elements out of her mind as she consolidated her gains. Or tried to.

The fruits and herbs had shown her a lot of things across her five elements. More than enough to break through to Master stage. There was just one thing she wanted to do before she reached it. Find a symmetry between them. The relationship between the five elements. The crowning achievement that would complete the Journeyman stage for her.

A diamond shape appeared in her vision. Emotion in between, and the four elements of nature in the corners.

Althea thought of fire, and its connection with wind. That had been her missing link before. Fire and wind cooperated together to evolve. The two of them had similar natures, fun-loving as they were. But they were also in opposition, fire sought the wind as fuel, and the wind wanted freedom. The two could not be called opposites, and they could not be called the same either. Just like every other element, they were both related and in opposition.

Then there was Fire and Earth. The two were pretty opposing, at least that was what she felt looking at her surroundings. Fire needed to burn what Earth struggled to build just to survive. Was there, however, somewhere they cooperated? Althea scoured her mind, and found an answer.

There was magma underneath the Earth. Mira had the jewel element that had both fire and earth. The two of them did cooperate. But she still wasn't sure exactly how they did it. What did magma accomplish? Did jewels really matter in the elemental system?

Fire and water, then. Two clearly opposing forces. The two were practically famous for it. Althea had to have read a dozen books with that theme. Water sought to flow, and its flow would disrupt any fire. Fire sought to burn, but it would come in between the water's flow. But did they cooperate?

This question was even harder to answer. Fire and water cooperating...that seemed impossible. Althea thought hard about it, but she couldn't find anything. Well, there was steam. And it was good at power transmission...and flowing faster. Perhaps water liked that.

Air evolved fire. And fire evolved water.

Now to do the same correlations with the other elements.

Water and air both wanted to flow. The two of them flowed together often. But water and air could also absorb each other. Air was probably miffed about water absorbing it.

Water and earth was obvious: life. The two of them were nurturing forces. And yet Earth would only allow a part of water to flow, too much and it would be destructive. Water did not have such restraints, Earth did.

Fire and water was done already. What was left?

Althea inserted images into her mental diamond, trying to depict the relations while making sure she hadn’t missed any.

Air and Earth. That was the only one remaining for air... and Earth. Air and earth she had figured out long ago. What was it again? Yes, the two irritated each other when they passed. The gorge had told her that. Air tended to move parts of the Earth away from its stillness. Earth tended to block air. As for cooperation...air was needed for nurturing. That was the only thing she could think of.

Emotion was obvious enough, it fueled the entire thing.

Althea looked at her little mind map. The sum of her understanding. The only thing she noticed was that...it was haphazard. So glaringly incomplete that she wanted to hit her head for even thinking she had enough.

There were only two evolutions. There was a great lack of symmetry. And her understanding just seemed so shallow throughout. Althea wasn't ready. The diamond wasn't ready, she needed far more accumulation than she had now.

The diamond was incomplete.

A sigh tore through her as she considered the sheer amount of time it would take her to collect it all. How many years would it take? And was it worth it? A part of her, the part that guided her in matters of mana told her that it was important.

"Even a Grandmaster would be hard-pressed to find out all there is to know about elemental mana." A voice said into her mind. Althea immediately dropped out of her trance, not that there was much to drop out of. But she felt a familiarity with this...entity. A familiarity in her mana. The entire palace seemed to vibrate as she felt the entity continue.

"I am the Great Mother. And I think it is time that you broke through."

Althea's mind went blank. Just the diamond remained, and mana hovered in her mind. Thinking became hard as she simply clung to her understandings.

The diamond began spinning in front of her as she felt some wall break down. Mana, powerful mana surged from within her as the diamond shot into her.

A calm feeling permeated through her mind. Mana churned within her with newfound power, remaking her body even as she found herself unable to think.

And then, just like a switch had turned on, she could again.

The first thing she noticed was not how crisp the air was. Or how many different colors were there in the sky.

What she noticed was that she had broken through to the Master stage.

And she had no idea how.