Currently, Madris was probably the furthest east she had been since coming to what was now the Empire, and she couldn't resist the temptation to linger a little and assess what had changed.

Not that she would go back to the Eternal Dark. Even if she wanted to, that would rather leave her two young students alone for far too long, and she really did not want to. Icnes would slap her if she went back without telling her first, anyway.

As expected, both of the young psychics she visited in the sleepy little city of Greyhave were now in the third Tier, having passed level 40 a short while ago. Neither of them was particularly impressive to her eyes, although at least they weren't idiots, and they hadn't tried anything, just answered her questions. She had shown her appreciation by giving both of them some tips on the development of their abilities. Peter had still been struggling with projecting his focus any real distance, and Suse needed the pointers on how to sense potential dangers or outliers, judging by how she hadn't even sensed her until Madris was almost on top of them. And she hadn't been trying to hide.

Suse was also more than a little afraid of her, although she made a valiant effort at hiding it. Madris had ignored it, of course — there was no point poking people like that for no reason — but it did remind her she was no longer in Cera, where every idiot courtier thought that just because she was a 'supporter' of their new empress, that meant she was harmless.

In a way, she was quite glad at the opportunity to reach out and speak to other psychics again. It had been too easy to fall into a narrow path of thinking, speaking just with Regina and her students. Peter and Suse were no challenge, but Lianne had been a delightful encounter, even if they hadn't truly matched wits.

The two younger psychics assured her that they had no intention of joining her enemies, and if they did join anyone it would be the Empire, so her mission was finished here for now. They were the sort Helen might have recruited as stooges. There might still be a few weaker psychics around, but now she had at least addressed any real potential threat.

"Are you in the market for a new apprentice?" Suse asked, tentatively, at the end of their conversation.

Madris smiled slightly. "Unfortunately, I have my hands full. If I should ever have more time and the desire to keep teaching, I will keep you in mind."

Did she have one apprentice already, or several? Or several students? Technically, everyone they were teaching were Regina's students, but that wasn't truly the situation in practice — at least they weren't Regina's students alone, of course. Regardless, adding more, even if they did already know the basics, did not strike her as a wise idea at the moment.

"Then, may we see more dark elves around in the coming years?" Peter asked. "I heard from a few people who seem confident in that idea, they're even reconsidering the wares they offer for trade."

Madris paused for a second. "Possible, though doubtful," she finally said. "I couldn't tell you what the future holds, foresight is not one of my abilities."

She also wasn't intimately connected to the politics in the Eternal Dark, at least not enough to evaluate the situation in detail.

"How uncharacteristically modest," Suse muttered, then stiffened slightly and avoided her gaze, not that she could hide her emotional state that easily.

Madris just looked at her for a moment, before she smiled. "As I said, I will keep you in mind. I'm sure you would get along well with my other students."

Peter nodded, bumping Suse's shoulder slightly. "Is there any other way we can help you, Lady Madris? Do you have transport available?"

"Arrangements have been made," she responded. "I will see you in the future."

She could tell that both of them were tracking her as she left, of course. Or they tried to — she could have still hidden from them, but she saw no particular reason to hide her movements. She did lightly push on their own mental defenses to let them know she had caught them, though. It wouldn't do to let bad habits fester.

As she walked, she considered her recent encounters. It felt like her organization of psychics was falling apart, a feeling Madris disliked quite strongly. It had only ever been a loose association of psychics with some common mindsets or goals, of course. There was not even a proper name, at least not one everyone agreed to. It had always been understood that political conflicts would happen and not affect their membership or the association.

Still, now there were two groups forming, a line straight through their members. At least those in this area. They would be fighting each other soon enough, if they weren't already. Helen had already poached one of Regina's students, something that Madris was confident would be quite frowned upon even under normal circumstances — it hadn't ever happened like this, as far as she knew. Helen might argue that Regina was not technically part of their group since she hadn't met any of the others yet, but that would likely not hold up. But even if the others disliked it, it wouldn't change anything unless they were willing to act to censure her, and Madris doubted it.

For now, she shook herself free of those thoughts and glanced around. To the north, outside the city, a drone mount was waiting for her. She felt for its mind and connected with it briefly. It let her enter without hesitation. Regina had told these drones that they were to obey her orders, and even if she wasn't part of their psychic link, she could crudely control them in a similar way as sapient Hive members did with her own psychic power.

For now, however, Madris detoured to the city square and took a seat at the fountain in the center, grabbing a quill, ink and paper from her bag. She penned a quick letter, then set off again.

It did not take long to find who she was looking for. Dark elves were not entirely unknown in these parts; they traded with the surface by necessity and merchants made it to the neighboring realms regularly. One of them was currently conducting business in the city's eastern quarter. He was talking with a local, but quickly interrupted himself and hurried to speak to her.

He greeted her with a bow while she noted his System designation. "My lady. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Tekme as Iriesen, how may I serve you?"

"Eminent Mistress Madris Ulaven," she introduced herself briefly. "I will not bother you long. I need someone to take a letter to the Eternal Dark. You seem suitable."

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"Of course, Eminent Mistress," he hastily agreed. She could sense from the sudden spike in focus and the way he was determinedly ordering his mind, visible in the general feeling he gave off to her senses, that he had just recognized her name and who she was. "It would be my pleasure, and we will make all haste."

"Good. Do you take Imperial coin?"

He shook his head. "Oh no, I couldn't accept payment for such a minor service. It's on the house, so to speak. My Mistress would certainly want me to facilitate your letter."

Madris hummed thoughtfully. "Alright. You're from Iriesen? I trust business with House Oliren is still going well?"

"Yes, there are several agreements, as I understand. We buy almost all our dye from them." He paused briefly. "I believe we are also aligned in political matters, going by the gossip."

"Good. Then, if you don't mind, I would perhaps add a letter to your Matriarch as well. If you have somewhere I could briefly compose it?"

He showed her to an empty scribe's desk in the backroom. They had probably only rented the storefront, or maybe it was shared, but she hardly cared about such details.

It only took Madris a few minutes to pen the letter, and she watched as the merchant sealed the envelope and put both of them with a packet of other correspondence that seemed rather empty. She thanked him and made conversation for a few more minutes. If asked, she would deny that it was because she wanted news from home, although she suspected she might have been lying. The Gathering of the Councils should still be ongoing, although he had left before it started. She caught up on a few other general happenings, most of which she had already heard about from Icnes, before she bid her goodbyes and left.

After that, she didn't intend to spend any more time in the city. She had been here before and this town had little to recommend it. Instead, Madris finally called on the flying drone mount that had been waiting for her, thankful she no longer had to worry about ensuring it didn't attract a crowd of gawkers while she focused on other business.

Unfortunately, it was not to be that easy. She made good time out of the city, leaning on her physical Stats given by her high level a little. Around the city, the countryside was of course heavily cultivated, and there were quite a few people around. She still occasionally searched for any anomalies and had also hidden the drone as well as she could in her haste, in a dip in the terrain with some trees and bushes.

Right now, someone else was standing at the edge of it, watching the drone. She could sense their calm patience, no hint of ill intentions, but it still raised her hackles. Someone else, a more familiar mind, was moving toward them.

After a moment of deliberation, Madris veiled herself from anyone's perception as she approached until she was close. "What are you doing here?" she asked, coming to a step closer to the drone, and quickly summoned it a few steps further.

Annoyingly, the visitor only briefly started and didn't move. "Lady Madris," he gave a quick bow, smiling. "I apologize for the disturbance. We wanted to seek you out and realized your drone was probably the best spot to wait for your return. How remarkable it is," he added in a murmur.

Madris frowned and quickly patted the drone's shoulder, which it tolerated. This man was lucky that it wasn't really a combat variant and that he had kept his distance. She quickly brought up his System notification again and examined him more closely. A Bard Class in the third Tier, no last name, a familiar style of equipment. "You are a fellow Delver, I assume?"

"Indeed!" The man, apparently called Oscar, nodded quickly. "I am most recently based in the chapterhouse in Prekan. I met several of your former party members there."

As if on cue, she sensed the other, more familiar mind approaching with increasing speed, and calmly turned to wait for him to arrive.

"Mars," she greeted as the knight finally slid to a stop in front of them, absently soothing the mind of the drone. "I hadn't expected to see you again here."

"Madris," he nodded courteously. "Forgive the ambush, please. I wasn't confident of finding you in the city."

"That's no matter," she said a bit more warmly. There had been some friction between her and Mars, certainly. If he hadn't been a very talented knight and the frontline fighter her party needed, when they'd gone north, she might have considered attempting to throw him out of it on at least one occasion. But in the last few weeks before they officially disbanded, they'd gotten along better. She suspected it was the effect of standing on the same side against others. Not every Delver had believed Regina or supported the idea of supporting her.

"We were sent to bring you with us," he continued. "With your agreement, of course. Your knowledge and expertise are desired. You've heard of the recent excavation in eastern Cernlia, I hope?"

"Of course," she said slowly. "Why me, though? And who specifically sent you?"

"The local commanders sent us," he shrugged, "but as I understand, they only did so on the advice of Lady Galatea. She wants you there. If she hadn't been occupied, she might have gone to fetch you herself."

Madris was a bit surprised, despite herself. Uncertain, she glanced north. June and Edmund were waiting for her, and others were depending on her, as well. But Galatea was probably aware of their mission and wouldn't try to summon her without a good reason. "Give me a moment," she said.

It only took a minute to check in with her students and confirm they were safe and well. Then she contacted Regina. Due to the effort of talking at this distance, they kept the conversation short, but she did confirm she was sending backup for the two of them and that they should be able to handle themselves for a few days. Finally, Madris sought out the mind of Galatea. Even at this distance, it was relatively easy since no one else had a mind quite like a mana-form.

You sent people to look for me? she asked.

Madris! Good, I really should have tried harder with psychic communication, it's convenient to be able to talk to someone without a drone there to play messenger.

I know, she replied a bit sardonically.

But yes, I did send them. Trust me, you'll want to see this.

Is that all you're going to say? I do have something to do here. My students need my supervision, Regina would kill me if anything happened to June.

Hardly. No, it's better if we explain things when you're here and others can participate in the conversation, too.

Madris sighed and nodded at the other two Delvers. "Alright, I'll come with you. I assume you have arranged transport — those drones flying in from the northwest?" she added, after sensing their minds approaching. The pair of Delvers had either been keeping their distance very well to hide, or they had come from elsewhere, probably by ship, originally.

"Yes, the local Hive drones were kind enough to arrange it," Mars confirmed.

Can you at least give me a hint of what I'm dealing with? she asked Galatea as she mounted her own drone.

Alright, how about this — the ruins they found a while ago have been dated with more confidence. They date from the time of the post-Cataclysm war against the Hivekind.

Madris blinked. The War of the New Order, as she'd sometimes heard it called — even thought many groups seemed to have their own names — happened quite a long time ago and from what she knew, few things from that time had been found. At least the civilization before the Cataclysm had been omnipresent and built with advanced techniques, so their structures could survive quite a bit of hardship, even if they predated the Cataclysm, but this quality seemed to have been mostly lost as people were forced to use more primitive means. And most ruins were from more recent times.

She waited with growing impatience as the other drones landed — a flock with several more flying drones, but no sapient ones — and Mars and Oscar mounted up. Then Madris nudged her own mount into the air and turned west.

If there was more to it than just ruins from a rare time period, she wondered what else Galatea had to show her. Perhaps there were some dark elf artifacts she wanted her opinion on, or even something hinting at psychic power?

Regardless, she was curious, and something about this also made her almost nostalgic. It was good to see that the Delvers hadn't given up everything they were and did and could still undertake a project like this.

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