"To be honest, my primary motive for coming here today was to put you to the test," said the Matriarch.
"A test? I imagine the push from earlier was part of the examination then," Ethan said.
The Matriarch nodded, though her expression held a hint of rare humility. "I was wrong. I underestimated you. I ca here thinking I might offer to guide you, but seeing you now, I realize I am not qualified to be your teacher," said the Matriarch.
Ethan raised an eyebrow, genuinely intrigued. "Why would soone of your stature want to recruit ? What is your real motive behind all of this?" Ethan said.
"I am always looking for talent, but true genius is difficult to find. Trying to bring you into my fold was certainly sothing that crossed my mind. Having an Alchemist within my faction would be a monuntal advantage," said the Matriarch.
Ethan didn’t flinch at the word Alchemist, but his eyes sharpened. "An Alchemist? That’s a bold claim to make about a man you barely know," Ethan said.
The Matriarch laughed softly, circling him like a predator admiring a prize. "You can deny it or stay silent, but it is obvious those potions were prepared by you. I have known powerful and famous alchemists in my ti; I have tasted potions freshly brewed and those preserved for years. The ’flavor’ of the energy is not the sa. I am certain you possess high-level potions, and they are fresh," said the Matriarch.
Ethan neither confird nor denied her statent. He kept his face neutral, a blank mask that revealed nothing to her probing gaze.
"I know you don’t trust anyone. You don’t need to answer with sincerity anyway. It seems I have underestimated you much more than I thought," said the Matriarch.
Ethan took a step forward, eting her eyes with the steady glow of his athyst pupils. "I am honored by your interest, Matriarch. But I have no desire to live in anyone’s shadow. I value my independence too much to join any faction," Ethan said.
The Matriarch opened her mouth to speak, but Ethan continued before she could.
"However, I would be happy for us to be allies. I know you are far more powerful than I am at this mont, but I promise you this: I will help you in whatever way I can when the ti cos," Ethan said.
The Matriarch went silent, studying him. The air between them crackled with the weight of a pact being ford—not between a master and a servant, but between two sovereigns.
The Matriarch looked out at the horizon, her eyes clouded with a nostalgia that seed to span centuries.
"Very well, an alliance it is. But allow to tell you a story before you make any final decisions. I know I said I am not qualified to be your teacher in this place, but I still harbor the hope of recruiting you into my faction," said the Matriarch.
Ethan leaned against the balcony, listening intently. She began to speak, her tone shifting into that of a storyteller. She spoke of another person, a girl from a distant ti, but the subtle shift in her posture gave away the truth.
"Once, there was a girl—a beloved, pampered child of a powerful family. This family was not just wealthy; they ruled vast stretches of land for generations. Their influence was absolute. But in her generation, she was the only legitimate daughter. This went against every ancient teaching of her clan. She knew it, and she couldn’t help but feel the cold undercurrent of contempt from the elders," said the Matriarch.
"And yet," she continued, "her father and mother loved her with an almost desperate affection. They shielded her from the whispers."
Ethan watched her closely, noting the way her jaw tightened.
"Ti passed, and the day finally arrived when her grandfather, the Patriarch, made a decree. She was to be married to the heir of another powerful family to secure the bloodline," she said. She paused and let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh. "I know, I know. It sounds like a cliché from a bad novel, doesn’t it?" said the Matriarch.
"A bit," Ethan admitted with a small smile.
"The girl, being loved and perhaps a bit too spoiled, didn’t consider the magnitude of her actions or the weight of the politics involved. She only saw her freedom being stolen. So, she did the only thing her rebellious heart could conceive. She escaped. She fled her ho, leaving behind a kingdom for a world she didn’t understand," said the Matriarch.
The wind picked up, whipping her hair across her face, but she didn’t move to brush it away. Ethan could feel the bitterness beneath her words—the beginning of a tragedy he knew was coming.
"The girl thought the world was a simple place, but she was wrong. She was deceived, manipulated, and attacked. She barely escaped each ti, working whatever jobs she could find just for a bit of food and a roof over her head. She, who had once eaten from golden plates, found herself scrubbing the floors of blood-stained taverns and hiding in the shadows of alleys just to survive another night. Eventually, she caught the attention of people she couldn’t face. She could handle common thugs—her father had taught her to defend herself—but these n were terrifying," said the Matriarch.
"She ran. She fled desperately with all her strength until she reached a place called the Desolate Lands. It was a place she had only read about in history books while her parents taught her about the world. She never expected to end up there, at the very edge of the world," she said.
Ethan listened, his Athyst Eyes picking up the slight tremor in her spiritual signature.
"She thought she could hide there, that her pursuers wouldn’t dare follow her inside. She was right—they stopped at the border. But she only realized the truth when it was too late. Setting foot in that place was more than a death sentence; it was a point of no return. For a long ti, she tried to find her way back, but she only wandered deeper and deeper into the Desolate Lands," said the Matriarch.
The air around her seed to chill as she spoke of the void.
"One day, by pure accident, she stepped on a hidden matrix. In an instant, she was transported to a completely different place. Nothing was recognizable. The sky was a different shade, the stars were in the wrong positions, and she found people there... but they were as fragile as little dolls. She tried to speak to them, but they didn’t speak the common tongue. They spoke a different, primitive language," she said.
The Matriarch smiled thinly, a ghost of her younger self appearing in her expression.
"She hid her identity and her strength. She pretended to be a normal woman, learning their culture and their language. Everything was so... primitive. She looked for maps, but they were poorly drawn, covering only tiny areas of land that seed insignificant. She tried to explore, but she soon realized the place itself restricted her power. Using her energy was a massive risk; it took her days, sotis weeks to recover what would normally take only a couple of hours outside that place. She felt like a giant forced to live in a dollhouse made of glass," said the Matriarch.
Ethan’s heart skipped a beat. He looked around his mansion, then back at the woman who had lived for centuries. "Wait... this ’primitive’ place she found through the matrix... you’re talking about this world, aren’t you? Earth?" Ethan said.
"Only, what you call a world, I call an island..." said the Matriarch.
Ethan froze. The word hung in the air, heavy and nonsensical. He even stamred a little, his composed mask finally cracking. "An... an island? What are you talking about?" Ethan said.
The Matriarch’s expression remained calm, almost pitying. "Over the centuries, I ford groups of people. I used my power to secure resources and funded massive expeditions. I sent my disciples to travel every corner of this place, making maps—countless maps—until I discovered the truth. This place is rely a cluster of islands. But for so reason, I could never leave them," said the Matriarch.
Ethan shook his head, his logical mind fighting back. "Wait, wait, wait. How is that possible? There is undeniable evidence—satellite imagery, physics—that this world is round. How can you say you traveled across it and didn’t find an end?" Ethan said.
The Matriarch let out a soft, knowing laugh. She extended her hand, and the air above her palm began to shimr. Blue-colored energy coalesced into a perfect, glowing sphere, spinning slowly—a replica of Earth as Ethan knew it.
"For you, the world looks like this," said the Matriarch.
Then, with a flick of her fingers, the energy shifted. The sphere didn’t just flatten; it expanded and distorted. The globe beca a tiny, insignificant speck within a much larger, flat crystalline plane, surrounded by an endless, swirling mist that defied the laws of gravity and space.
"But for ... it looks like this," said the Matriarch.
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