Nathan stared at the papers before him as he felt a headache coming on.

"Tell me again why they decided this wasn't worth a call?" he asked.

"The port authority was probably too scared to contact Duchess Leria about this. And thought it wasn't too important. The Diery family does have permission to use the Leria ports as we see fit, after all. The Duchess, of course, knew of this anyway.” Pulsie said out loud as Nathan leaned against his trunk.

The plant had grown by leaps and bounds once he connected to his brethren mentally, actually aging up into something resembling a tree now. The Countess was sure to be surprised by how much things had changed when she returned.

Nathan was surprised. The plant's trunk was actually pretty rough now. Perhaps he should start calling him a tree. Hmm, no, not yet.

"So, do I have to deal with the Duchess too? I doubt she is happy about us unloading a hundred thousand refugees on her shore."

"I am sure she will contact you once the refugees are in your land. With a pair of Adepts, she sent to escort the refugees. I would recommend you ready some payment, perhaps a bit more than would strictly be required for such an escort. The Duchess will use our alliance as leverage to ask for more money."

Nathan sighed. That was to be expected. Diery was rich, Leria was not. And they had dumped a few hundred thousand refugees on them without warning. A warning that would have gone out anyway if the captains hadn't sidestepped the Eastern Isles entirely.

The decision was a good one, given that they would have to travel from the Eastern Isles to Leria anyway, but it was still one that he should have been informed about.

That was why the Eastern Isles were there on the itinerary at all, so he could be consulted on what to do next thanks to the orb there. At least, they had a new method of communication now that did not rely on the extraordinarily rare objects.

That would help things along. Nathan could begin communication once they entered any village that had a Silverbirch tree, which was all the villages in the Diery county.

"Remind me to send Silverbirch saplings to any of the villages they could enter through. Even if, for some strange reason, the village doesn’t have a Silverbrich tree, the sapling should allow you to contact them."

"I think they'll just come through the city. The captains are snubbing you, they will want to make a show of their entry. A victorious army is much harder to censure." Pulsie said.

Nathan pursed his lips. "I don't think they're snubbing me, they are just being a bit…disrespectful, that's all. Besides, the captains aren't coming, they're on their way back to the Eastern Isles. Heck, they probably arrived by now."

"Yes, but their leader, the Viscountess, is coming. Don't forget, she outranks you. There are already people saying that you should give her the position."

Now that was worrying. "Why? Doesn't she have to set up her new fief anyway? Am I that bad a ruler?"

Pulsie scoffed. "No, but you're not exactly sensational. The things you did aren't exactly public. The general populace doesn't even know who the new dean of the college is. The Viscountess, on the other hand, has made a name for herself.

Rescuing hundreds of thousands of people from the big bad Confederacy with nothing but her wits and a few Masters is a thing of legends. The tales of her verbal spars with the Solmer General might be mostly false, but they make for prime gossip. Can you blame them for liking her more than your boring ass?"

Nathan rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes, I can. What part of a daring, mostly reckless escape and verbal sparring with a half-step Grandmaster speaks to her administrative ability? The Viscountess wasn't the one that built cities for the refugees or prepared their food and clothing. I did. And it was a lot of work, let me tell you."

"I do not think you understand how the common person thinks. Not to mention, she's human. That's a very good thing about her, you know. The humans love it when their leaders don't have wings or eyes that glow."

"The Countess' eyes glow too! And I am a common person! Not a noble like her" he protested. How was he less common than a literal noble? Heck, wasn't it just a few days ago that Pulsie was telling him how problematic it was that he wasn't a noble?

"Yes, but she is a noble that rose to her position from being the daughter of a simple farmer. Like most of the county is. On the other hand, you're a half-Fae from a Fae caravan that went around doing horrible things! The common person spends their life farming and doing things of little importance. Not in a caravan with more Adepts than a county!"

Nathan groaned, his protests dying on his lips. Even though he wanted to protest some more about his injustice of things, he got the point. The people of the county found it hard to relate to him. The Viscountess, on the other hand, as one of them, one of them that reached a high position through her own effort. That kind of thing was sure to earn her support.

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Even he could see that.

"Are there any other problems I should know about? Perhaps a rebellion in the slums?" he asked, sarcastically. There were no slums, he rebuilt those just last week.

"Not really a rebellion, but Ms. Harkins has been gaining popularity among the servants."

Nathan paused. The name tickled at his memory, but he wasn't able to think of who it was, exactly. "Why is that a concern? I don't remember her. "

"The woman the Countess' fiancé left her for." the plant commented.

"Oh." Nathan's face darkened. Now he wanted to see what kind of person she was.

"Didn't she want to join the college?" he asked.

"Yes." Pulsie's bored voice answered him.

Nathan ignored the plant's whining. "Tell her I want to meet up. Just a check-up on how she's doing-actually don't tell her that. Just call her. I want to see how people react to that."

"Ok, sure. Can I go back to experimenting now?"

Nathan just rolled his eyes. What was the plant even doing? Mana burst out of him before he could react, breaching into the plant's mind before he could stop it.

Pulsie was trying to figure out a way to contact the Countess through his bond and his newly increased mental presence. And he was actually quite close to figuring it out.

That had been happening even more since he reached the peak of Master. The Adept stage was so close that he could feel it. The more powerful he got, the less control he had on his own thoughts. Just about anytime he thought about wanting something that his power could help with, his power went ahead and did it.

Like right now. Nathan couldn't even say he did not want to know it. This was very much something he wanted to know. What irritated him was how he got his hands on the information.

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‘This chaotic mana is a very curious thing.’ Althea thought as she tried levitating it up. Calling it like pure mana did not work. Of course, that would break the rules of magic as she knew it. Then again, the chaotic mana broke the rules of magic just by being around.

If she tried calling for it through the earth, water, fire or air manas, it would not react either. There was, however, a reaction when she tried emotion mana. A reaction she had not expected, but gotten anyway.

The mana vibrated, actually reaching upwards, before parts of it started fighting against each other. Like, literally fighting each other. Althea watched several of the bigger blobs eat the smaller ones, growing larger. For a second, she thought that would continue until it turned into normal mana. But no such luck. The mana was less mixed, but it was still chaotic.

To make things worse, her mana couldn't affect it anymore. The blobs were resistant to her mana, fighting against its influence. And of course, her mana was too weak to actually overcome it. But she could use a lot of mana.

Althea delved into her core, calling on Emotion mana. The mana was strange. Perhaps even stranger than chaotic mana. Heck, she couldn't believe she hadn't tested it out more. Ruling the county had really made her put herself on a back foot.

The pinkish purple mana appeared in her vision, looking eerily close to space mana. This was the only time she had seen two mana seem so similar. A pinkish purple haze that was only visible to her mind. There was no physical presence to it, not like air, fire, or earth.

Althea let herself be surrounded by it, sending a heap of it towards the chaotic mana. The two manas did not mix. There was a force there stopping them. A force contained between themselves? Stretching her mana sense to its limit, she tried to sense what was happening.

There was something happening. A thing there that she could not sense, something beyond her ability. Althea wasn't willing to just give up. Not like that. Dumping her entire core mana into it, she flooded the surroundings with emotion mana, feeling the chaotic mana around her react.

The mana reared, rising upwards like a wave in the ocean. A large one that sought to drown her and the emotion mana. Althea fought back, calling on the mana to hold it back. The two mana competed against each other, holding in the air for a second.

In that single second, she sensed it. Two massive forces, clashing, no, competing in the air. A battle of wills, of existence. Althea lost control of her mana, the force taking over. The force felt ethereal, like it wasn't there, a mere illusion of something much, much greater than her.

Of something greater than anything she had ever seen. The force behind the chaotic mana was much, much greater, at least in presence. The fight seemed to be between two giants, one alive, another dead.

The second passed. The ethereal force lost. The giant force, headed towards her, fading as the chaotic mana headed towards her. Then she felt it. The chaotic mana was made up of many different forces, all ethereal, and all headed towards her.

A flash of panic went through her as she tried to reinforce her dress, to keep the attacking things away. And failed. The mana stopped at the dress, but the forces went right through.

The energy went through her body as she felt them try to twist her body, and succeed. At least a little, Just one of them alone could do very little. But together, the thousands, no hundreds of thousands of forces reached into her.

Althea felt her body convulse, trying desperately to fight it off. The meridians in her pulsed once, scrambling the forces, and then quieted down. There was a force in herself. Yes, she was sure of it. A force that was trying to fight them off, But it was too weak. Even in its home ground, it could not protect her.

Even as she tried to fight back, she lost control of her own mana. No, not lost control, she was losing her mana, her cultivation. The forces were taking over, doing what they had done to the chair. A meridian in her broke, mana accumulating in that position instead of flowing properly.

Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. Why was she in danger so often? Had it even been a full day since she had last fought for her life? The forces swept into her, breaking her meridians as she thought of a way to fight back.

The forces were foreign to her. Even though she could sense them now, she didn't know what they were. From what she could tell, there were little pieces of will that were forcing her mana into…different forms.

The fucking things were paths. That was why she was losing, hers was too small. And she didn't know how to make it stronger. Althea growled in anger as the forces swept through her meridians, heading towards her core. The fuckers were casting magic on her! And she couldn't do anything! Oh no, no, no.

This wasn't happening.

This wasn't going to happen.

There was no way.

Not while she was still alive. Althea willed the forces to stop, trying desperately to fight it. The forces fought back, their pulses feeling mocking as they pushed against her mind. Letting out a scream into the air, she just thought about forcing the things out of her body. Or begin free of their influence. Of not having to deal with those things, of having anything inside her anymore. To, for once, be free.

'Just get out, you little motherfucking bastards!'