Of course, making her own path was harder than she had thought. For one, she could not even connect to mana yet. But she would. The walls were a hundred steps away, a hundred heartbeats before…something happened. To be honest, she wasn't sure what would happen when the walls reached her. But it was unlikely to be anything good.

Althea reached out to the mana, imagining it in her mind. Not the whitish-blue of the druid path, but the illusory mana in her mind. The one that she had assigned no color to, but had a place in her mind anyway. The one that answered her calls in abundance, that helped her even when she didn't ask for its aid.

The Fire that just wished to burn.

The Earth that struggled.

The Air that cared.

The Water that didn't.

And the Emotion that connected them.

Althea called on them, her elements, her friends. To support her, to aid her. To help her resist.

And they answered.

Mana came to her, in droves, as it usually did. The thoughts, the feelings, the will she held calling to them. Even the Water respected her right to exist, and it lent her its strength. Before, she had a connection with only two elements.

Now she had five…maybe four. Althea had no idea what Emotion was doing. But that was fine. What mattered was the fight before her. Just lances and boulders of will would not suffice, she needed real firepower to fight the walls.

And she had it. This was a world of thought, of imagination. And there was no reason that she could not just imagine throwing a fireball at the walls. But she couldn't do it anyway. The world wouldn't respond to her, her mana unable to assist in this space.

The mana in her core was still dull, glowing a little, but not anywhere close to what it had been before the druid path had collapsed on her. But it was reacting. That meant she was getting somewhere.

Now to get somewhere faster, because the walls were approaching. A hundred heartbeats were far from enough for her to get a path this way, and they were close to ending anyway.

Althea took a deep breath, cleared her mind and looked out. At the walls coming towards her. At the darkness that surrounded her, brimming with possibility. And at the threads of mana waiting for her to realize her path, to reclaim them once more.

Taking a step forward, she stepped out. Out of the core, beyond the walls that kept her safe. Into where she was not supposed to be. Where giant walls and forces of nature roamed. Althea felt her mental sense of self revolt, warning her that she wasn't supposed to be here. This was not a place for people. This was where giants walked, and walls crushed boulders. If she walked here, she would be crushed.

But she walked anyway. For this was where she would forge her path. Althea rose into her sky, her will carrying her high.

The walls approached, stretching towards the sky in her vision. The closer they got, the larger they seemed to grow. Althea just called on her mana. In this place without it, where the elements did not come, she willed them.

To answer her call, to transform the space around her. To become a typhoon of fire. A whirlwind of Earth. A sea of wind. A blaze of fire. A collection of what should not be. The things that would destroy the walls.

Althea was sure of it. The walls would not win, not against things that should not exist.

The space around her pulsed, as if responding to her will and refusing her. Althea was a noble lady, she did not take no for an answer. The space would change, and it would change now. The walls would stop. There would be no victory for the Great Mother.

A single spark of fire spluttered, and then died out. Althea reached out to it, focusing her will on that space, forcing it to change. The fire appeared again. Spluttering and dying out every few seconds, it existed there.

The mana behind her began to glow and whirl. Althea held on, focusing her attention, only one thought on her mind.

The fire, this fire, would grow. Into a whirlwind capable of taking on worlds, destroying anything that dared stand in its way. In her way.

The fire flashed, growing brighter as it grew. Althea held onto it, forcing it into its new state. Mana glowed red behind her as the fire stabilized. Then she changed it.

Into water. A risky, idiotic idea. But she needed it to happen to let the path form. The water whirled, seeping back into the space. Althea wouldn't let it, whirling it around herself as the walls came closer to her, just a dozen steps from her.

Then she transformed it again, into earth. A rock stood before her, joining her struggle. The space began to grow wavy, as if it was starting to flow. Althea ignored it, transforming the earth into air.

The wind nestled her air, far more stable than any of the other elements had been. A smile appeared on her face as a sense of relief flooded her. Mana swirled in her core, turning fully white as she called on the four elements, letting them swirl around her.

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Fire, Water, Earth and Air. Now just one remained. Althea stared at the walls with distaste and anger. Glaring it out of existence with the force of emotion.

Even though she did not know what Emotion was exactly, it was still related to emotion. And she had that in spades right now. Like a switch had been flipped, it appeared. A silent, invisible force aiding her. The core glowed brighter behind her as she stood there, in whatever was air in this place.

There was no ground, no sky, just walls and her. Four elements swirled around her, a fifth targeting ahead. The walls froze, as if glaring at her. Althea glared back. Ten heartbeats passed, and then a hundred as they glared at each other, three steps apart.

Then the walls disappeared, fading away, leaving her in the darkness. Althea closed her eyes, letting herself drift upward, upward into her mind. The muscles in her body relaxed, her exhausted brain giving in as she fell asleep.

Perhaps the Great Mother would be kind enough to not mess with her brain while she was asleep.

sc

Nathan

Pulsie was silent. For the first time since the Countess had left, the plant did not answer him. That would have been fine, if not for the fact that he really, really needed him right now. Perhaps he had been depending on the plant far too much lately.

Preparing for a meeting with a returning Viscountess was something he had done, but he might have been relying on Pulsie to help him along. There was the option of just reading their minds to make things easier, but he refused to do that.

That was just…icky. Not something he wanted to be done on himself. Or anyone else for that matter.

"I welcome you, Viscountess, into the land of Diery." he said. "The county is richer for your presence."

The Viscountess bowed, a shallow bow that was barely within etiquette. But he suspected that might have more to do with the Viscountess' lack of education than her intention to insult him.

A lady curtsied. Bowing was for men and commoners that didn’t know better. And she certainly should not be bowing to him. Even if he was regent, he was still her lesser in station. At least that told him that the Viscountess herself probably wasn't against him.

The only question was, who was the one moving things around in the shadows? There were far too many rumors for there not to be anyone, but whoever they were, they were being careful. Nathan hadn't caught a hint of who it was.

"Please, if you would follow me, we have prepared accommodation for you within the city lord's palace." he continued. "There are also accommodations for your people outside the city. Please be assured that they are quite safe, there merely isn't space for so many within the city itself."

"I…would prefer to remain with my people, if you would permit it."

Of course. Nathan had expected that. But he also couldn't allow it.

"I fear I must insist. There are a variety of obligations that you must fulfill now that you have returned, and they simply cannot be done from an encampment."

That was less ‘noble’ than he would have liked using, but he somehow doubted the Viscountess would get what he meant if he tried to talk more noble than this. There was also the tiny fact that he couldn't make it less obvious.

How did you say, 'I can't have you call the Empress and have private conversations with her from a tent' without actually saying it? That was the kind of problems he was facing these days.

"I- is that really necessary?" the Viscountess looked pitiful. Like a caring ruler that was afraid to leave her people. With the crowd watching, the next sentences out of his mouth were sure to be incriminating. What had someone fed her that made her give reactions like this?

A person that did not know what was going on would think that he was trying to separate the Viscountess from her people, so he could try something.

Why he would actually do so was beyond him, but he could just feel the gossipers minds working overtime to make up reasons for it.

Nathan gestured for the Princess to keep an eye out for an attack. Even if he succeeded in preventing it, some people would still think that he was doing it to make himself look good, but he didn't care.

The Countess was the one that had to rule this place, not him.

"Please, follow me." he asked the Viscountess, leading the way into the city. The sub-administrators he had hired, along with the local staff spread out, trying to coordinate the encampment.

With the amount of people migrating, there was bound to be some chaos, but he had tried to make it work. The tents were numbered, families would be housed together. The camps were separated in groups, he thought would lead to fewer crashes.

If possible, people that were already familiar with each other. There was precious little information they had, which was why he was having them fill in forms.

The forms, along with the assignment method he had given to the administrators, should lead to minimal issues. The assigned positions were ones they would have throughout their journey to the newly made cities, so it had to be done well.

There were bound to be some changes, but they had to be minimized. If every single person started to shift tents on a whim, it would lead to disaster.

The palace loomed ahead of him, with the city lord looking at them with the fakest smile on his face. Nathan wondered if he looked like that too. The Countess might have a good fake smile, but he didn't. Perhaps that was why the Viscountess' bodyguard was staring at him.

"Is there something I can help you with?" he asked.

The bodyguard just continued staring before jumping when Nathan poked her.

"Can I help you?" he asked again.

"I- Are you a Master?" she asked.

Nathan sighed as he received a telepathic probe. Pulsie was active again. "Yes, I am. Is there a problem?"

"Wel- how? How are you even alive? How can you-"

"I found the Countess."

Nathan paused, raising a finger to silence the bodyguard.

"What do you mean you found the Countess?"

"Just that. I found the Countess. I found a Silverbirch in the human sea, and used it to extend my range, and well… I found her. There was a spark of mana, a change, or something, and I could use it to connect with her. The connection is weak, so I need your help-"

Nathan did not need more prompting, sending over his mana to help things along. The Empress was going to be very interested to hear what was going on. A direct connection between the two continents wasn't unprecedented, but it was rare.

The last person had been eaten in his home. The only reason they knew he was eaten was because he had been having a trans-continental party to celebrate the joining of two continents when a mouth of space mana ate him and the orb he had brought.

The only similarity they had found was with the way the Southern Continent's Emperor died nine years, nine months, nine days, nine hours and nine minutes into his reign. If they lived that long in the first place.

That was rare, but it happened. Then a mouth of space mana came and ate the Emperor. Or an Empress, if the Southern Continent crowned one. That hadn’t happened yet.