Mana churned around her. Althea looked at the forest before her and found herself wondering where she had landed. There was a difference in mana itself, a…aggressiveness that did not belong.

Where the First Empire did not extend. The First Empire extended on every continent, except…the Southern Continent. So she was still in the right part of the world. The only question was, where in the continent she was.

The Southern Continent extended from where Rome was on Earth, down to Cape Cod. A continent the size of Africa, with the Mediterranean and a good part of Italy added in. And then enlarged to accommodate the larger size of this planet.

The Human Cup was in the northern portions of the continent. Althea looked up at the sun, trying to gauge where it was. If this was in the south of the continent…it would be one long walk. Thankfully, she had months. The Human Cup would be three months after the Solstice and her birthday. That gave her, what, five months? That should be enough, even if she had to run across the continent.

The burning tree had been kind. Althea remembered the fire, and she had an idea what had happened. Vader had cast some sort of spell that had kept the tree burning for so long.

How powerful was he exactly to keep such an entity burning for long? Feng's power suddenly seemed like small things.

The talk of her path worried her more. The tree could be lying, but her warnings were too scary to just ignore. A queen on the board. The tree had to be referring to her, why else would it mention the saying?

Was the Great Mother a player? The player that was moving her around like a chess piece? Upgrading her from a pawn to a queen? How low was the old Althea's affinity for the druid path that even a transmigration couldn't solve it?

The tree also seemed to know that she was from another world. With her knowing of Vader, that made sense. The question remained, though, how many people knew of this? What was going on?

There was a war going on in the shadows. And she was a part of it.

Althea found it terrifying that this Great Mother seemed to be manipulating her actions, using her for its goals. That just felt wrong to her. The mere thought of it made her want to rebel.

But she couldn't. The chains that bound her were invisible things she could not see. Like the meridians, hidden from her so-called extraordinary senses. Althea extended her senses outward, sensing out as she tried to look out. To sense what did not seem to be there.

The beat of her heart thundered against her ears as she forced her brain as far as she could. The sense of mana only seemed to grow more faint. Althea sagged down onto the round as mana came to her, surrounding her like a caring friend. And yet not revealing what she wanted.

Laying there in the soil, she felt like a frustrated child, angry at the world. How childish of her. A frustrated groan forced itself out of her as she stood up, walking out. This forest had an end at the edge of her senses. Perhaps even civilization. There seemed to be some form of a camp there, even if there was only one person she could detect.

Walking through the forest, she felt amazed at the silence. There were no powerful beasts around, just a pair of Journeyman tigers. And yet the forest was quiet. The leaves crunched under her as she rested her hand against the tree, trying to hear its voice.

The voice was there, quiet and restive, but there. The trees hadn't really talked to her before. The old Althea had thought that was the way they were, and she had agreed. After all, it made sense for trees to be quiet.

Now, she was looking at it with new eyes. The words from a book she had read so long ago came back to her.

A pretty girl with no real talent.

That was the only line describing Althea in the book. The protagonist was described as a person of great talent despite being a commoner that went up against a talentless noble lady. Knowing things as she did now, she felt sorry for the old Althea.

What fault was it of hers that she was born with low talent?

Even her own mother had abandoned her for something she was born with. Just like Mira, who had the bad luck of being born with an unfavorable element, she was deemed useless. A failure. That was what the late Countess called the old Althea her entire life. A disappointment from the moment she was born.

Sighing the thought away, she started walking towards the one person in this forest. Monitoring the situation with her mana sense, she couldn't help but be confused.

A Novice was hunting a Journeyman. Not successfully, of course. But it was still something to see. Even the tiger seemed surprised, watching the girl try to hunt it as quietly as she could. The beast had detected her long ago. And was watching its 'hunter' with something dangerously close to curiosity.

Althea continued approaching it, forcing mana to be still around her. Even if she was a mana bull in a china shop, she was a Master rank one. That should allow her some-the tiger ran.

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What little stealth she had was not enough as it ran, swiping towards the girl as it ran. The idiotic beast wanted to get its prey while running from her. How dare it. Fire emerged along with air, shooting the tiger onto a tree as fire burnt it to ashes.

Althea sped up towards the girl, reaching her in a few minutes as the girl ran away.

"Wait!" she yelled.

The girl ran faster.

Althea caught up anyway. "I don't mean you any harm." she said, arriving before the girl.

"Ok." the girl said, pointing a rickety knife at her. The blade couldn't even pierce Althea's skin. The girl held it anyway.

"I had a…teleportation incident and just wanted to ask where I was. " she said, suddenly realizing she hadn't prepared a decent excuse. This was sufficient anyway.

"I see." the knife did not lower even a little. If anything, the girl seemed more alert.

Althea sighed. "Where are we?"

"The Arth forest." the girl replied. The name flew over her head.

Althea coughed. "I fear I am not aware of where that is. "

"The Jalmagn pro - look out!"

Althea looked behind to see a tiger on fire. Oh, she hadn't detected that one approaching. A mistake, she should have kept an eye on what the other tiger was doing. Well, there was no loss. Fire had acted for her. Thank you, fire. What a good friend.

"There is no need for you to worry about things like that." Althea assured her. "How about I help you leave the forest? Then you can tell me where we are. In the Southern Continent, yes?" The girl was human, that meant it was probably a human continent. The names sounded like things not from the Northern Continent.

The girl looked at the tiger's corpse sadly as she sheathed the knife. "I don't suppose I have a choice."

Althea tilted her head. What kind of life had this girl led? "Of course you do. I am not going to drag you out of this forest. Why would I?"

"So I can act as a guide? If you are really new, you will need a local to show you around."

Althea nodded. "Yes, but why would I force you? I can pay someone to do that at a nearby city."

The girl eyed her. "Of course."

Althea ignored the girl's statement. Worrying about that was a waste of time.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Aasha." the girl replied. Althea raised an eyebrow.

"That means hope, right?" she asked. Ms Le- Lewis? Stopping for a second before resuming their walk towards the forest's border, she realized she had forgotten the name of the woman she had fostered under.

The only thing she had left were vague impressions. Was there a reason she was losing her memories this fast? Even if it had been a year, she had lived with the woman for years. Forgetting her name just from that was a bit much.

The girl had stopped while she kept walking.

"What happened?" she asked, looking around as she wondered if there was some other predator she had missed. The only animals she had detected were the two tigers, but well, her senses had proven themselves faulty.

"Not many people know the old language." the girl stated.

Althea shrugged. " I don't. A person I knew just liked Bollywood mo-books. Bollywood books."

"What's Bollywood?"

Of course. There was no Bollywood or movies here. Althea facepalmed mentally, reminding herself to be more careful. There had been far too many near-misses in just the last few minutes. The more she talked about stuff from another world, the less reasonable she sounded.

"Oh, just a genre of books. A lot of singing and dancing." she said.

"In books?" the girl's tone told her how ridiculous she thought it sounded.

"Yes. The books were very expensive." Althea nodded.

"Oh." the girl said, starting to walk again. Wait, she bought that? How? The excuse was ridiculous.

"I heard nobles in the north liked their toys, but this is something. Can I get one?" the girl asked.

Althea narrowed her eyes. "Are all Novice stages here as…informal as you?"

The girl had first treated her as a threat and then switched to treating her as a friend. The difference was rather jarring.

"Not at all." the girl said. "The people back at the village would be terrified of you. I just don't care."

Don't care? Don't care about power?

"Is that why you are in this forest, despite how weak you are?" she asked.

"Oh, no. I just wanted to see if I could catch a tiger." Aasha answered. The answer did not clarify things.

"The tiger? The same Journeyman stage tiger I killed? How exactly would you do that?" she asked.

Aasha shrugged. "Don't know. Stab it until it dies?"

Althea looked at her. How…foolish.

"That knife wouldn't work on the tiger." she said. "Or on me. The blade is too dull."

Aasha actually looked offended. Was she actually irritated at this? "I sharpen it daily! The bloody thing can't even pierce your skin? I am gonna get a refund."

"No." Althea replied. "An unenchanted blade is unlikely to pose a threat to anyone more powerful than an Apprentice, This expedition was foolish."

Aasha shrugged again. "Didn't have a choice."

"Why? Is someone threatening you?"

"Yes, those guys." Aasha pointed to where the forest crested upward into a hill. Althea looked there, focusing her senses there to see a boy shooting an arrow at her. That bloody-the arrow burned as she focused her attention on the attackers.

A bunch of bandits or something. Well, they would have to burn a bit for that. Mana turned yellow, Althea called on her power, tilting her staff towards it for little more than cosmetic effect.

"So, did you know they were there?" she asked. The girl had to have known, her senses were not enhanced enough to see them coming. The hill was still a few hundred meters away, and the bandits were hidden in shrubbery.

"Yes." Aasha replied. "I know I forced you to act, but they didn't pose-"

"Just consider it the price of showing me around." she said, speeding towards the hill. "I will make sure that these people don't trouble-"

Althea stopped in the air, looking at the scene before her for a few minutes. There was no one to talk to. The shrubbery was gone. So were the bandits. The only thing that was left was a piece of burnt ground.

Extending her senses, she looked for the bandits, finding no sign of them. The only other humans were kilometers away, in a village at the edge of her senses. There was still a chance that they had escaped somehow, used an artifact or something. But in her heart, she knew what had happened.

"I guess the fire's the real deal." Aasha said behind her, not seeming even a little bothered.

Althea couldn't claim the same. For she knew. The bandits were dead. The lot of them had attacked her, but…this was the first time she had killed a human.

A careless, unintended mistake. An attack that she had expected to be blocked.

And now she had no idea what she should do.

AN: I know you guys might have a bunch of questions for what happened, some of them might be answered in the next chapter. Well, that's two chapters. I wanted more, but well. There are too many people planning my day without asking me about it. And apparently my thalessemia has decided to act up after 18 years of keeping quiet. That's why I keep feeling so tired. smh.