Neva stood with her back straight and shoulders back in an open floor room. Her head was tilted slightly upwards in a direction where a host of about twenty mature looking elves sat on raised platforms. The oldest-looking one was a male whose graying temples and faint wrinkles suggested he was around fifty years old by human standards. His advanced age did not detract from his handsomeness, however. In fact, to some, his slightly aged appearance only enhanced his allure. Clad in green and silver robes, his golden locks draped to his shoulders, giving him a sage-like bearing.

The youngest of the group was a woman who looked to be in her late twenties to early thirties. Her face was immaculate, and unlike the majority of those present who had blonde hair, hers was black with golden streaks.

Neva was calm as her gaze swept over each individual, taking in their various expressions. Some expressions were solemn while others were merely curious. Still, others appeared placid and disinterested. Yet behind every expression, Neva could feel intense mana fluctuations. These people did not try to hide their power and even without actively trying, Neva could feel a pressure pressing upon her shoulders.

These were the elders of the Woodland elves. The guardians of the Great Forest. And each and every one of them… was an Archmage!

Neva wasn’t intimidated in the slightest, though. Her frame exuded confidence as she easily shrugged off their pressure, leaking a bit of her own aura. This caused an eyebrow or two to rise. Just as they were studying Neva, she was also studying them.

Neva’s gaze finally settled on one particular elven mage whose aura eclipsed all others present. She sat in the highest seat of honor, her position higher than everyone else’s. Her appearance was one of a woman in her late thirties. Her presence was grounding and radiated warmth. Her aura gave off a feeling of support and growth like a deeply rooted tree whose shade eclipsed heaven and earth. She wore robes of green and brown with subtle floral embroidery which gave her a motherly feeling.

Neva knew this to be the most esteemed personage of the Woodland elves. The Great Mother.

“Nevaeh of house Barak stands before the elder council of Silvestria!” Felaern, who was standing beside Neva, announced. “She suffers an affliction of the soul so forgive her for her impertinence.”

Neva bowed, half in apology and half in introduction as she transmitted her voice on a frequency upon which everyone could easily detect if they were paying attention. “Respectful greetings to the Great Mother of Dryadalis Woodland.”

A long moment of silence passed in which no one spoke.

Neva had directly addressed the Great Mother! This… was impudence of the highest regard!

Before anyone could speak, an ephemeral voice sounded through the room. “No need to speak so formally, Nevaeh of house Barak.” It was the Great Mother that spoke. “You have saved one of our most important, if not our most important, ally in their time of mortal need. My Dryadalis Woodland owes you a great debt.”

The surrounding elven elders couldn’t help but frown at the tone their great mother was taking with the outsider. It was too casual. As if she were addressing an equal!

Neva was also caught by surprise by the amiable stance the Great Mother had taken. Neva had simulated multiple scenarios for the Great Mother’s response to her action of directly addressing her without acknowledging the elders. In her mind, the Great Mother would either ignore her slight, or outwardly express her displeasure. Her friendly tone was out of her expectations.

Neva was curious inside but still observed the formal etiquette. In her understanding, people who smiled at you for no reason were either extremely profound schemers or extremely incompetent schemers. From their first exchange, the Great Mother seemed to fall into the former category.

“It is of no consequence, Great Mother. I only saw a boy who needed saving and since it was in my capability to do so, I complied. Anyone would have done the same thing.” Neva replied, her tone lighter, not carrying the earlier formal solemnity, but still maintained its respectfulness.

“Yet the merit has been rendered nonetheless.” It was the woman with black hair streaked with gold that spoke. “You have saved my godson and for that I, Tisha of house Evergreen, am eternally grateful.” Her eyes shone with appreciation as she gave Neva a bow of gratitude before sitting back down. Unlike the other elders who were frowning, she had personal stakes in the matter. For Neva’s service, she had earned Tisha’s magnanimity.

Some of the elders frowned in displeasure at Tisha’s abrupt interruption but said nothing. When facing outsiders, it was always good practice to project a united front.

The Great Mother on the other hand, didn’t seem to put the elder’s interruption to heart. She continued to look at Neva with a light smile on her face. Finally, she spoke once more. “As honorarium for this great service, you may ask anything of my Dryadalis Woodland. So long as it is within our power to give, it shall be yours.”

The surrounding elder’s showed visible discomfort at that statement as sounds of whispers and murmurs filled the room.

Neva also inwardly frowned at the statement. She could not, for the life of her, figure out the woman’s angle. Neva had interacted with most of the elder races before. In her experience, the elves were near the top when it came to looking down on other races. While they weren’t as xenophobic as the Fey or as arrogant as the Dragons, they came pretty close.

With the long lives of elves, it is impossible that they have been cut off from the other continents long enough for a cultural shift to take place. And with the way they seclude themselves from the Plains, the possibility of outside influence is even more unlikely. Could it be that this Great Mother is an eccentric? Neva frowned inwardly as she played around with different possibilities. Outwardly though, her face remained expressionless.

While Neva was still trying to deduce the Great Mother’s intentions, the woman in question raised her hand to silence the murmurings and discourse taking place.

Once tranquillity was restored, one man stood up from his seat after he was finished mustering the courage to voice his thoughts. Bowing in the Great Mother’s direction, he began, “Great Mother, forgive my impertinence, but aren’t you being a bit too hasty in bestowing this reward?”

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Silence followed the elder’s question but the nods from his fellow elders showed their agreement. Noticing the gaze of the Great Mother that begged his reasoning, the man continued. “Her origins are unclear. Our sources have reported that there is no such house by the name of Barak in the Forbidden King’s Plains. Even if that were to be ignored and her family is from beyond the Plains, there is still the matter of her being in breach of the Covenant of the Fall. As an Archmage of Ashara, there is no way she can claim ignorance of this.”

“Impudence!” A different elder admonished ruthlessly. “You dare claim to know more than the Great Mother!?”

The elder who had just spoken did not even look at the one who rebuked him. He had already said his peace. And judging from the renewed murmurs and whispers that his ‘impudence’ had sparked, it was clear that most of the elders in the room were on his side.

Neva watched on in serene silence. Other than the Great Mother’s eccentricity, everything else was within her expectations. Of course she knew of the Covenant of the Fall. With her husband’s strength, if he wanted to find out something, would the secret dare hide?

“Enough!” Finally, one elder had had enough and decided to put an end to the whispers. It was the sage-like elder with the golden locks that spoke. The one who appeared to be in his early fifties.

With that, silence dawned once more.

Neva noticed that this elder’s seat was positioned to the right of the Great Mother. His platform was also slightly higher than the other elder’s present but still lower than that of the Great Mother.

The grand elder, maybe? Neva thought to herself when she noticed the man’s special status. Though she had interacted with elves before, she wasn’t too familiar with their hierarchies, other than the fact that most of the elven clans followed a matriarchal system.

Before the silence stretched too long, the sage-like elder turned to address the Great Mother. His bow wasn’t as deep and deferential as the earlier elders, another indicator of his special status. “Though elder Tarron was a bit rude, his words hold merit, Great Mother.” Then he turned his gaze onto the outsider, Neva.

Neva felt a ‘heavy’ intent bear down on her as the elder’s gaze sought to pierce through her. At least she believed it was supposed to be heavy. She could have shattered the man’s intent if she so willed but decided against it. That would only needlessly complicate things. Therefore, Neva decided to just bear the full brunt of the elder’s Archmage intent with her body instead.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a difficult feat to accomplish.

The sage-looking elder couldn’t help but be inwardly shocked. He knew his own strength. He was a peak Archmage! Of the elders present, save for the Great Mother herself, he was the strongest. Yet this outsider mage effortlessly endured his intent?

Her strength is equal to mine, he thought. Even if it is lower, it isn’t by much.

Though he was inwardly shocked, he maintained his composure as an elder, not showing his surprise on his face. Instead, he asked, “What are your intentions?”

Neva looked at the elder that spoke before her gaze drifted to the Great Mother. She still wore a light smile on her face and didn’t hide the curious glint in her eyes. She also wanted to know what were intentions were. With a sigh, her gaze returned to the sage-like elder that spoke earlier.

“As you say, my family does not come from the Forbidden King’s Plains,” Neva began. “We come from Ashara. My husband is a self-made man who comes from nothing. He is the first of his name. Even if you were to look for house Barak in the outer continent, you would only come up empty handed. He only took up the name of Barak after our son was born so that the boy would not be nameless.”

“What of your family’s name?” Another elder inquired.

Neva pretended to not have heard the question.

Though curious as well, the other elders also did not dwell on the question causing the elder that asked to slink back into silence, a faint blush on his face, understanding the weight of his question. That was none of their business and Nevaeh was under no obligation to answer. In fact, just her clarification about the lack of information on their house could be considered giving the council face.

Focusing on more direct concerns, the man Neva presumed to be the grand elder asked, “What of your residence in our territory? This is in breach of the covenant.”

Neva nodded calmly. “It is as you say, elder. We chose to reside in your territory in order to get the attention of your people?”

The elders frowned at that response. The sage-like grand elder was no exception. Neva’s response had myriad ways in which it could be misconstrued.

Furrowing his brow, the elder asked, “Why?”

Before Neva could respond, the Great Mother’s ephemeral voice sounded for only the third time during this meeting. “You’re dying…” she said, an inscrutable gleam in her eyes.

Neva grimaced but didn’t refute.

This revelation induced slight surprise in the elders but nothing too drastic. Only the grand elder narrowed his eyes, a disturbing possibility scratching at the back of his throat.

The next revelation however, was a bombshell to all the elders present.

“You… have ascended.” The Great Mother said once more. “Or should I say, had ascended.”

The elders sucked in a cold breath. This time, none of them spoke. They were too stunned to do so. An ascendant was not someone you would come into contact with everyday. While it was true that in the era of Great Emperors, ascending was common, that was more than fifty thousand years ago. Even for the long-lived elves, that was more than ten generations of a mortal elf.

None of the elves present had seen that era. And in this current era of Emperors’ fall, ascendancy was a feat reserved for only geniuses among geniuses. Other than the Great Mother who was an ascendant, and the Grand Elder who was at the cusp of ascension, none of the other elders present were even close to that realm.

Neva’s posture dropped slightly, her frame emanating a faint melancholic aura. “As expected, of the Great Mother. Your insight is indeed profound.” Neva praised.

The Great Mother’s smile turned into a faint smirk. “That is why you dared to oppose Ronoa. You wanted our help.”

Neva nodded.

The Great Mother hummed in understanding. Her finger tapped her bottom lip as she contemplated all the information. From the outside, she looked like a child who was solving a troublesome homework problem.

“I see. I see…” she murmured from time to time.

As for the grand elder, the sage-like elder, he desperately wanted to ask who could possibly injure an ascendant to the extent that their cultivation would regress an entire realm. However, upon further contemplation he decided against it.

The Forbidden King’s Plains cut off the Great Forest from the rest of Ashara. Even if the humans of the Plains were firmly suppressed by Ronoa to the point of not being able to raise their heads, that was not the case for the rest of the continent. The foes beyond were bound to be far more formidable. Otherwise, their ancestors would not have signed that covenant.

The grand elder was pulled out of his thoughts when Neva spoke once more.

“I also wish for my son to study the magic of the elves.” Neva said. “The lineage of the Plains is a bit… lacking.”

The elders present couldn’t help but smirk in half pride and half disdain when they heard Neva’s request. Of course the Plains’ lineage would be lacking! When compared to elven magic, all lineages are bound to be lacking! Elven magic is the only true magic! Even in the wider Ashara, some elders dared to believe that their lineage could outclass those so-called superpowers.

The Great Mother finished her contemplation at this point. Her voice carrying majesty and finality, she spoke, “Nevaeh of house Barak, as honorarium for your aid, Dryadalis Woodland will aid you in curing your affliction.”

There was a slight pause before the Great Mother’s face broke into a beaming smile with a mischievous glint in her eyes as she continued. “As for your second request. Since we will be teaching your son, you will also serve as guest lecturer at our academy.”