It was a rare day for Nath. It had been at least a decade since he had last deemed it necessary to wield his staff, at least in combat, but today was a day that Nath feared he may need it.

Nath had felt the presence of a rather strong mage, one who was probably in the stages of Consolidation, but Nath wasn't too sure. He did know that if he was forced to fight them in his current state, however, it would at the least be a close fight.

Nath shook his head, a bit shocked that he had such a thought at this point. He was a powerhouse in this world once upon a time, only able to be rivaled by the emperor of the, at the time, recently born empire of Karshlan, now he was debating if it was worth it to fight a mere Consolidation stage mage.

Nath finally came to a pause when he spotted a few forms in the far distance, a dozen forms in total. Nath simply stood there waiting for them to approach. For a moment he debated about whether he should waste some mana to use chronomancy on his body to make him appear in his youth once more. He quickly shoved that thought back though. It was hard for him to properly generate mana in such a desolate place, likely why the Ambevelance council had decided to test their weapons here.

It was difficult for a standard mage to fight the necromantic oligarchy that ruled over the country on normal terms, but because mana was generated in greater amounts in more lush areas, their council, that those poor excuse for magi called the Magistrate, desecrated their border with the only country next to them, taking advantage of the fact that Menstra was currently falling to pieces from the inside out.

As the group approached, he recognized the woman at the forefront of the small posse of magi. Her short curly blonde hair and grey eyes made it easy enough for Nath to identify her, though she had changed up her fashion a bit since they last had the unpleasant experience of meeting.

"Ah. 'The Madam' I wasn't aware that Ambevelance had this many magi, you also seem a bit weaker than I remember." Nath gave a cold grim smile to welcome the woman.

"Well, they don't. These are my magi, I gave them a way to escape death at the hands of the Magistrate, and they took it. Anyways, what do I owe the displeasure to that I'd meet the Guardian of Gent here?" She paused and set her hands onto her hips, completely ignoring the blatant provocation that Nath issued.

"I haven't gone by that in over 5 decades, I've been living in the area for a while actually. You are currently trekking through my domain. I'd like to know why?" Nath answered stiffly.

"Well, well... You actually did retire. Got tired of baby sitting for all those dumbasses over in Gent at long last? I'm not surprised. Anyhow, I didn't know you decided to live out in the wastes. Any reason why? Ah, and to answer your question, I'm going to Karshlan, I have a bit of business there, you see."

"Alright." Nath made a mental note of that, it was unusual for the Madam to move on her own like this, or rather unprompted. "And for you to know, look around for a second, do you think someone like me would ignore what Ambevelance has done to this region? They absolutely destroyed it, I plan to do a bit of restoration, although currently that isn't going too great due to the lack of mana and needing to help some that I've found in time. I suppose we have that in common, picking up strays I mean." Naths eyes flickered to the magi behind her.

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"Haha, now that is actually funny. You seem a good deal more enjoyable since you've left Gent. Maybe the job was getting to you? Or perhaps you've just gotten used to retired living? Can't lie, I'm a bit jealous. Ah, you said that you've been living around here. any chance I could camp in your settlement? I promise to behave." She said with a wink.

"I'm not a fan of the idea. No one else in my settlement is a mage... Well, actually that isn't quite true, I recently took in a disciple." A middle aged man, seeming to be in the construct stage looked up at him at that moment. "But I still am not a big fan of you meeting these people. And with your tendency to prank others..." Nath trailed off at the end.

"Ah... I understand. A shame I guess. Ah. that's right, Gerald." She called for someone.

"Yes, Madam?" The same middle aged man approached her side as soon as she asked for him.

"Did you get those mana crystals packed up?" The blonde woman looked back at him.

"Yes, I did, Madam." Gerald responded, then reached into what seemed to be a spatial pocket and retrieved a few.

"Good, good. Would you please give some to Mr. Nathanial Grysfel? He seems to be in need of mana, quite desperately. And I do so enjoy watching those old fools in the Magistrate gap, like a fish, when they see their plans fail." Gerald approached Nath with 3, rather decently sized mana crystals.

As Gerald handed them to Nath, he asked a question "Is it Johan? if it is, is he safe?"

Nath understood very quickly who the man in front of him was, and with a nod answered.

"Yes, and he is as safe as possible in this place. He is very talented." Gerald had tears threatening to leak out of his eyes upon those words. He had thought that his emotions had all but died, but even now in this place, the news of Johans safety relieved him so greatly, but the mages next words even more so. "Anne is also well, she is quite talented in different ways than Johan, she is a skilled swordswoman and trapper."

"Hey, Gerald, hurry it up, we need to keep moving." the Madam said as she started walking by.

"Thank you quite a bit, Eloise. This will go a long way towards my goals. Also, I had forgotten how kind you could be. Do me a favor and tell that old stick Clem that he still owes me a favor, let him know where I've been." Nath said, not having moved since being handed the crystals.

"Yeah, yeah. I don't know what you mean by kind though." Eloise kept walking, Gerald following behind, with much more pep in his step, though Nath could see the bitterness on the man as he wasn't able to meet his kids. All the others followed along as well. Nath did not move again until they were all out of sight.

Only then did he release a held up breath. It'd been a bit since he felt so tense. Eloise was a generally good person, but she also had a serious rebellious streak as well. That was why Nath couldn't let his guard down until the very end, there was a chance, though slim, that she would decide to just attack anyways.

He then looked at the handful of crystals in his palm, this would be enough for him to actually have some trees around town at long last. as well as help him with making the land fertile enough to use for farming and planting more trees and such. In other words, Eloise, the Madam, had supplied him with the materials to cause the downfall of Ambevelance. What scared him was what it would likely cost him.