Althea arrived at the site of the first beast horde in reports, finding it thankfully just as reported. The hordes had multiplied by the time she had left the city. The other two were on the Sentinal side of the county, delaying the riders. This one was in the Deadre region.

"Is the plan complete, Steward Ven?" she asked.

"Yes, Countess, if everything goes according to plan, we should be able to deal with the horde like this." the Steward said. "Are you sure you don't need my help?"

"Do we need it? Yes. But we will have to do without it, Steward. The county must learn to stand alone." Althea replied. And it would help with her goal of getting an army strong enough for the Steward to lead by the end of the year.

The mission was seeming nearly impossible now. That army would need people at the Journeyman and Master levels. The current county was lacking people at the Apprentice levels. But she would try her best to come as close to her goal as possible. Journeyman probably.

Althea had prepared a little goal list while they were travelling. Perhaps it was the consequences of the breakdown. Or just her getting wise, but she needed a written down step-by-step plan. A plan that would probably be destroyed in a week, but it would help keep her sane and focused.

The year-end plan.

The army surrounded the beaver dam, ready to go to war. The beavers would not be an easy foe. Two Apprentice stage beasts, and seventeen at Novice stage. A tiny horde. But it was a horde because of the beasts it belonged to.

"One!" Althea announced. The water element mages followed her order, making the river crash against the dam. As predicted, the beavers began to reinforce it.

"Two!" The earth mages began their part, channeling mana to make the dam just a little weaker. Not break it, no, that would be a bad idea at this stage.

The beavers ran around securing their home, unaware that it was artificial. After all, they were just animals, powerful animals that were blocking a major river, but still animals.

Althea felt kind of bad as she watched them. But crops needed water and Apprentice stage beavers were very good at building dams. Not to mention what would happen once they reproduced some more and got stronger. Even herbivores would hunt at that stage. After all, one could absorb some of a creature’s mana after eating it.

Now, where was she? Yes, the plan. The beavers would still take like half an hour to run out of steam.

The first things on the list were things that needed to happen in a shorter time period

1- get the army more powerful

2-get professors for the academy.

3-get Isa a manual, the girl was a beast with that sword. Althea had seen her.

4- try to get more powerful

5-try to get Pulsie more powerful

6- get Nathan and Vanessa to agree. The two should have an answer for her soon.

7- try to find out more about the Emotion element.

That was about it. Not a short list, but it was easier than it looked. Some of those things were basically impossible! The others were already on their way to being completed.

Althea shook her head as the beavers began to sag. The dam was getting cracks that weren't healing. The cracks widened. The beavers ran ragged, trying to keep their home together. And then she yelled.

"Three!" the dam burst into fire, a fire that the river quickly extinguished, but one that destroyed the dam and further weakened the beavers. Althea landed in their midst, staff in hand.

Propel

The two Apprentice beavers clashed away along with a number of Novice ones. Isa landed next to her. The girl had broken through to the Apprentice stage sometime yesterday.

The beavers that she had propelled groaned, some of them already dead from clashing against trees. Althea did not give them more chances. Fire danced through the trees and entered into the beavers’ body through every hole it could find. The beavers had barely a second to react before they melted into…a bunch of liquid?

Althea smirked and turned to Isa who had killed three beavers and was dancing around a dozen more. And then she conjured a shield, the disk spinning in the air as it enlarged.

"Isa, jump!" Isa reacted quickly enough, the beavers didn't. That was why they were cut in two by her shield.

"I could have handled them." Isa protested.

"Yes, but this is not a competition. The faster we finish this, the faster we can get to Sentinal. Come on." Althea replied as she walked out.

And then there was the final part of her plan. The long one.

0- turn Diery into a global superpower just because she could.

The good kind of goal.

sc

The walls of Sentinal were huge, not as huge as those of the Northern Fortress that stood behind it, but still huge. A hundred feet into the sky, with a thickness in meters, they were made to intimidate.

Althea had skipped the other beast hordes, letting the army deal with them. The visit to Sentinal took importance. The city lord of Sentinal, who she had barely noticed during the coronation, came personally to welcome her.

Another thing unlike Marile was that there was a crowd waiting for her. A large crowd that was already organized into ten lines before a row of podiums.

Althea wanted to give the city lord a reward for being so good at his job. After Marile, she was grateful for it. But that was for later.

"Hello." she said to the crowd, jumping onto the stage. "I know you don't want to listen to me, and frankly, I don't want to make another boring speech. A speech should be reserved for when something important has to be conveyed. And there is little other than the obvious to convey here. Don't you think so?"

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The crowd murmured at her, a few heads nodding before stopping at the lack of support.

"I will start the process if you say yes." she declared. The answer was, of course, a resounding yes. Althea smiled before gesturing for the Steward to unveil the manuals. Ten manuals were neatly placed onto their positions. The city lord had already prepared the contract the people had to sign. To protect their home if it came under threat.

The line was long, but it moved fast enough. Althea just observed for a few minutes before excusing herself. If this was going to work, it would work by itself, her job was done. Now to deal with the city lord.

"There is someone that wishes to meet you, your grace." an unknown man said before she could leave.

"I am sorry, I have other things to do. Please contact the court with your complaint." she replied.

"So the Countess does not have time for her people?" the man shouted. Althea was sure he was trying to make a scene on purpose. A very lousy acting, but his scream attracted attention.

"Yes, there are beast hordes on our lands. I had to deal with one on the way here. Do you want me to deal with problems that could be solved by people assigned to deal with them or kill with the deadly beast hordes?" Althea said as coolly as she could. A tingle of mana swept through her, trying to get into her mind, but Althea put a stop to that.

The man was propelled back as she extended her hand, the capturing spell activating as he clashed into a wall.

"How…" the man drawled, his illusion falling away as red hair replaced brown, and his eyes began to have specks in them. A Fae. A mind Fae.

"A mind Fae." she announced. "Don't bother talking, I know why you are here."

Nathan and Vanessa merged into the crowd, trying to escape, but she had already seen the expressions on their faces. The two of them recognized him.

"The Fae Empire will not be pleased by your interference!" the mind Fae yelled.

"The Fae Empire isn't involved." Althea stated before people could panic. "If the Fae Empire wanted him dead, he would be dead long before he met me. Now, why do you want him? No wait, I don't care."

"Steward Ven, please take this Fae away. I will decide his punishment for assaulting me later." she said. Farming wouldn't cut it this time.

The crowd murmured, whispering among themselves. Althea knew she had to address that before it became some kind of narrative. The relations between humans and non-humans were already tense enough without random Fae trying to kill people.

"What you saw here was simply one of my colleagues deciding to assassinate one of our county's geniuses. The Fae make a good scapegoat." she stated.

The crowd descended into even more talking.

"But who were they targeting, your grace?" one woman asked.

"Oh, I don't know." Althea said. "I was just fooling him. The idiot was arrogant and thought that no one here would have mental defenses. The attack was directed at the college students. I just guessed the gender."

"A mental attack?" a yell emerged, immediately causing a rush of voices speaking over each other. Oh fuck, of course people were afraid of mental attacks,

"Please calm down!" Althea yelled. "A mental attack is just like a mana attack. What you need to do is train yourself to sense mana better, mental mana moves more subtly than most. And there aren't a lot of assassins with it going around. The Fae are the cheapest and the worst of the lot."

That was pretty false. Althea had no idea how many assassins there were. But she couldn't let there be an anti-Fae narrative so soon after the half-Elves arrived. The crowd, though, seemed to believe her. The advantages of being a Countess.

"Now if you would please continue, the county needs more fighters to protect people from beast hordes." Althea diverted their attention. The event ended just like that. But she had a feeling there were more interesting things waiting for her. After all, she did know who the assassin was here for. Nathan. And there was sure to be an interesting story there.

Althea walked in the direction Nathan and Vanessa ran off to. The two of them were boarding their horses when she arrived, Vanessa having more trouble than she expected. The dresses might as well be a murder device, they just loved coming in the way of things.

"So, what have you decided?" she asked. Althea's heart was beating against her chest. The two of them leaving would cripple the county, but it would certainly be a major loss.

Nathan and Vanessa looked at each other.

"The offer is…still there?" Vanessa asked. The girl had been much more forthright since her outburst yesterday.

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?" she replied. "The Empress has promised you protection. Even if the enemy has half a dozen Adept level mages, she can still kill them."

Althea doubted they had that many, that was the power of a small country, or a duchy in the Empire.

Vanessa looked shocked. Nathan just nodded.

"But will she do that for us?" he asked.

Althea shook her head. "The Empress of the Solerian Empire does not go back on her word."

The two of them looked at each other again, a silent communication passing between them. Althea was pretty sure Nathan hadn't mastered telepathy. And that meant…this was the legendary 'we know each other enough' communication.

"I think it would be better if we had this conversation in private." Althea motioned them into her carriage, Anthony raising an eyebrow at it.

"So, what do you want to know?" Nathan asked.

Vanessa interrupted him. "Do you know how they found us?"

"I expect it was how public our movements were. The mind fae was targeting the college students as a whole. A pretty weak spell. Now, who was that idiot?" she asked.

Vanessa giggled. "The idiot was Nathan's uncle, and my guardian."

"The two of us were born here, it is why we ran here after we escaped." Nathan began.

"The Fae have a caravan that goes to places…and steals human children that have talent. I was stolen from somewhere in the Bern march when I was a baby. Nathan was conceived there too. That is all we know about our birth." Vanessa looked at Nathan, her hands meeting his.

"The reason we came here was to find our birth families. Nathan's father and my parents. But that…has not been possible. After searching for a month, we settled down in Diery. Three months later, we ran into you."

Althea listened without interruption, but there was one thing that would not leave her mind.

"Are you telling me, Vanessa, that you were born here, in the Solerian Empire? In the Bern march?" she asked. If she was…there would be blood.

"Yes…" Vanessa answered hesitantly.

"The Solerian Empire, and every nation in the Human alliance, treats Space mages like property." The words were hard to hear, but Vanessa needed to hear it. “The fae caravan did not just kidnap a human by kidnapping you. No, they declared war. The act is a slight against the Empire, and the Bern march that failed to protect you.”

"Would you be willing to recount these words to the Empress?" she asked. Vanessa nodded, her eyes wide.

"Wait if the Empire treats space mages like property-" Nathan began.

"Don't worry about that. I will handle it. I am a guardian of the Empire. That still means something." Althea said.

Vanessa nodded, and Althea told the Steward, who was already waiting outside, to call the Empress.

What she got was the Marchioness. Vanessa seemed put-off by the new person, but Althea knew that the Marchioness was the First Assassin, and hence worked for the Empress. Not to mention she had skin in this game too.

"The Empress is busy right now. What do you need?" The Marchioness was curt, as usual.

"Vanessa here was born in the Bern march." Althea replied.

"And?" The Marchioness sounded impatient.

"And she has the Space element." Althea stated.

"If you want to poach her, you can go through the official channels. But I assure you, the cost will be high." the Marchioness' eyes narrowed as she frowned, looking at Vanessa as if trying to recognize her.

"On the contrary, Vanessa cannot be claimed by you." Althea told the Marchioness. "After all, she was kidnapped soon after birth by a Fae caravan."

The orb's image rippled as the Marchioness' power emerged from her. Althea couldn't feel it, but the way the orb was having trouble functioning, the Marchioness was far more powerful than she had thought.

"What do you mean she was kidnapped?" the Marchioness' voice made it very clear what she wanted to do. The Marchioness was gone, she was talking to the First Assassin of the Solerian Empire now. And she was very angry.