"How are you doing this?" Nathan asked, surprising her.

“I thought you were doing something" she replied.

There was a pause before he answered, and when he did, she felt a wariness in his words. No, not in his words, in his mind. Was she feeling his emotions now?

"Did you cast a mind magic spell, your grace?" he asked.

Althea's eyes narrowed. "No. Was one cast on me?" This screamed of the Great Mother's involvement. The tree was probably up to its antics again. How long had it been? Ten minutes? Couldn't it give her a break?

"Yes. I suspect this conversation is compromised? I recommend your grace destroy the connection for your own safet-"

"I wouldn't recommend that." A third voice interrupted. The Great Mother. Of course. Did her fight with the walls even serve a purpose? Did it even hurt her in any meaningful manner?

"Not particularly. But it was a valiant attempt." the Great Mother said. "I have prepared this connection for your benefit. Talking with your companions should reduce the stress you face, and perhaps help you along with your path."

Althea gnashed her teeth in irritation. Of course, her entire struggle was a farce.

"Was anything I did real? Or were you manipulating it?" she asked, speaking before she could think it through.

"Why do you think your actions were not real, just because I was manipulating them? There are no threats in this world that would require you to fight using your path. So I made one for you. If anything, the threat was greater than it should have been.

And look how well you performed. A fine path and a finer mental defense. Could you have built those without my intervention? A little more work on your path and you will be ready." the Great Mother's calm voice responded. Althea got the distinct feeling that she wasn't bothered by her accusations. If anything, she found them funny.

Althea was silent. This was not an argument she was winning, or really, even wanted to participate in. If she had been in a better condition, then she might have been interested in arguing anyway. But not now. Falling unconscious had done little for her exhaustion, Nathan's attempts at contacting her had left her with a headache, and she was really, really fed up.

"Whatever. What do you want now?" she asked.

There was a pause on the other side, Nathan staying quiet as the Great Mother did whatever she did while she was not troubling her.

"I am here to inform you that this communication channel is quite safe." the Great Mother said. "I have taken the pains to make it secure even from my own intervention."

"The only thing your assurances do is make me worry even more." she replied, too tired to put any effort into her words. "Now, would you please get out of my head?"

There was no weight to her words. Another time she might have tried to force her out, using her power to show her will. What was the point, though? The Great Mother might as well have confirmed that she was too powerful that Althea couldn't do anything to her. There was no pointing in trying.

There were some things she just had to accept.

"So, what's going on?" she asked Nathan, presuming that the Great Mother had left. Not like she could verify that.

"Oh…the Viscountess just returned from her mission. The refugees are just on their way to the cities."

"Oh." Althea replied, trying to remember what the mission was exactly. The last time she had thought of the county was...oh goodness, so bloody long ago.

"This is early, yes? The refugees were supposed to take longer to arrive." she asked.

There was a pause on the other side. Althea could feel Nathan thinking of a response.

"I suppose it is." he commented in the end. "The captains directly skipped the Eastern Isles and went to the Leria duchy. Oh, and there were no pirates, so they rushed here-"

"Risking their lives and the lives of their refugees, disobeying you and disrespecting me and basically causing a lot of problems in the process." she finished, her mind catching up. A decade of training did not go away that easily.

"Well, I think they were just trying to make a statement-"

"Fire them." she stated. "Or at least demote them. If a bunch of captains want to make a statement, they can do it in writing. Not in action."

"This- that might be problemat-"

"The Zerolian navy taking the chance to sink our ships would be problematic. Or did the captains negotiate with Duke Zerolian too?"

A sigh rippled through the connection between them. "I shall do as you wish, your grace. Should I be expecting a call from Duke Zerolain about this?"

"I have no idea. The county is a hostile force to the duchy, and we are supposed to inform him while we pass through his waters. I have been doing that till now. The Zerolian duchy won't actually restrict our access to their waters since we would do the same, but it would be more harmful to us if we lost access to foreign trade. So try to be careful about that." Althea said. For some reason, this just didn't seem that important.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The her of a month ago would have tried to micromanage it, make sure that Nathan knew what he was doing, perhaps ask him to just let her speak through him. Now...she had more important things to do. Nathan could handle it. Duke Zerolian wasn't about to do something drastic over this, at most he would ask for more money. The county could afford it.

"I need your help with something." she asked, looking at the notification covering her vision.

"Of course, your grace. How can I help?" he asked.

Althea nodded, opening her mouth before realizing that she did not have to actually speak things out loud. The connection was mental.

"The System is asking for suggestions on how to deal with lack of power." she said.

"The... System is asking for suggestions? Are we talking about the same System, your grace? The one that gives classes?"

"Yes. That one, it apparently doesn't have power to give them out anymore. Well, it won't have it in three months anyway." she continued.

"I...see." Nathan said, his confusion spilling through their connection. "Well, actually, I don't. Could you please clarify, your grace? What exactly do you mean the System is asking you for suggestions? And that it's not going to be able to give classes anymore?"

Althea sighed, laying down on the ground as she relayed what had happened. Nathan was quiet as she spoke, but his emotions got through the connection. A lot of worry, anger, and then some worry to top it off again.

"I see." he said in the end. "Can you ask the System if there is any way for it to get more power?"

Althea shrugged, prompting the System mentally. At this point, she wasn't even surprised that it was reading her mind. The rest of the world seemed to be doing it too.

The System apologizes for the inability to switch to vocal control. The control functions were one of the first to lose functionality. The System shall be able to replenish power at the end of the first mana cycle.

Now, what was this mana cycle? Althea was sure this was not the cycle she knew. The System having controls to switch from mental to vocal was nice at least.

The mana cycle is the name of the phenomenon where mana rushes into the planet. The cause of the phenomenon is unknown, but it is postulated that the System would not have enough mana to activate without it.

So, what happened? If a mana cycle was needed to activate it, that meant the System was not completely activated at all. Did someone eat the rest of the mana or something? How likely was it that it happened long ago, and she was the one that had to deal with the result. Was the one who did it even alive anymore?

Perhaps they could get the mana from them.

The System records postulate that the mana cycle was started early due to the occurrence of a space-time rift that increased native mana density by several million times. The lack of population at that time to sustain and handle the increase in mana was problematic.

The logic behind these suppositions was discarded 14,973 years ago to reserve power. There are currently insufficient power reserves to complete the computation again. The Great Mother absorbed the majority of the mana cycle.

A space-time rift. Althea had no idea why the System had given her that block of text, but it was nice. At least someone felt like giving her more information than she asked for. The information would be helpful anyway.

So, if she was thinking this right, fifteen thousand years ago a space-time rift appeared on the planet and increased the amount of mana. That was problematic. How was it problematic, exactly? The System probably didn't have records of- well apparently it took it as a request because she now had another blue box in front of her vision.

The System has recorded event for further processing. The processing was deemed too costly and delayed until reserves were plentiful, but the host has the capability to view the event. The System recommends that the host only accept audiovisual stimuli with a simulated mana environment.

A simulation of the original mana stimuli would cause permanent brain damage and possibly loss of life. Displaying the event will consume three days of mana reserves.

Well, that was another bit of extra information. Did she want to say yes? A part of her wanted to, but another thought that three days was too much for something that wouldn't be helpful at all.

The System has concluded that the host may be able to process a part of the event, and that could possibly provide clues to why the System is unable to access the main power source.

The System wasn't able to access the main power source? Althea sighed, now that was something that would have been nice to know before.

The System apologizes. There was an error in subsystem processing causing an error in information retrieval from the database. Does the host wish to view the event?

The System was hinting pretty hard for her to see it. Why? Althea's eyes narrowed, wondering if it was trying to manipulate her. That would be a dick move while asking her for help, but still, it wasn't as if people hadn't tried before.

Or maybe she was just being paranoid. The System had its own data. Perhaps it just thought the event added necessary context.

"Ok, do it. I am ready." she said.

Transferring memory...

Althea closed her eyes as she felt the memory appear in her mind. This was very clearly not any form of magic she knew. There were no threads, no path of attack. The entire thing was utterly different. And yet, it was somehow less difficult to detect. The appearance of the memory was clearly different to anyone that could sense it.

And any cultivator could sense into their mind. Heck, it was necessary for them to know it. Althea prodded the memory, sensing into it to experience it. A manual manner of calling that wouldn't really work. A person usually called on their memory the second they thought of them. Not with this artificial memory, she had to prod it with pure mana.

The mana served as a conduit for her to see what the fuss was about. The memory started in a forest. A bunch of trees, bushes around them. The ground. There wasn't anything she could point to as abnormal other than the fact that one of the trees was quite a bit bigger than the rest. But the scene only stayed for a few seconds.

A purplish-black crack appeared in the air, widening quickly as it pierced towards the sky. Mana pooled in through it, and for the first time in the memory, she sensed mana. The mana came in, and wouldn't stop.

The trees benefited for a few seconds, and then she felt their very existence start erased by the mana. But it didn't stop. The mana continued coming in, as if someone had opened a portal into the bottom of an ocean of mana. Another rush of mana came from above as the sky came down in a rush of every color she could imagine seeing. Althea scarcely had time to think about why the sky was raining mana before the two mana met.

And then it was just destruction. The effect of mana multiplied, destroying anything in its path as it flashed downward. To her senses, it looked like a pillar of mana, but in reality it was a river. A river that rushed right down into the depths of the planet.