Violet was gently nudged awake early the next morning. The sun had not even reached the horizon when they started on their trek. There were no searchers that could be heard anywhere behind them. She was not sure if that was a good thing or not. A skilled tracker wouldn't make any noise while he followed their trail.

Her mother handed out strips of dried meat and her father was picking up and handing out mushrooms and edible plants as they walked to supplement their meal. They had not stopped for dinner last night and fell asleep before anyone could think of grabbing a snack before bed. She was thankful they were able to raid the pantry before they left the compound. With the travel rations they brought with them and the foraging they would do along the way, she estimated they had enough food to last them quite a while if they were careful with it.

They each carried a canteen for water in their packs. To save on weight, they were relying on Violet’s ability to manipulate the water out of the humidity in the area until they reached a water source. They were heading directly towards a lake that was supposed to be located not too far from the barrier.

Once they reached the lake, they would follow along the shore until they reached the river and follow it east. Her mother had studied a map of the area they had found inside the ruins. They were going off of very old information, but the rivers were unlikely to have changed very much.

Based on what her parents learned during their school days, there were two countries to the east of the ancient ruins they were at. Information about other countries was strictly controlled and other countries were made to look inferior or evil by those in charge of the Chromatic Dominion. Both options sounded like horrible places to run to but Violet thought that may be propaganda more than truth.

The first country was located northeast of their location was called Astresh. They worshiped several deities. There was a god for everything from the sun and moon to birth and death. They were referred to as unusually short and misshapen people due to believing in false gods. Violet wondered how much of that information was true. It was likely true they were a Theocracy ruled by divine guidance. What interested her was the possibility of there being dwarves, gnomes, or halflings in this world.

Kasmaya was the other country located southeast of their location. They were supposedly so backward that they allowed a woman to rule the country as a Queen. This queen’s judgment was so flawed that she allowed all of the impure races into her queendom. Her parents were taught that just contact with impure races could cause you to become misshapen yourself. In Violet’s mind, this queendom seemed to be more advanced than either of the countries she knew about so far.

The river that they would be following east would eventually split. One fork would go north and the other would go south. They would need to decide on where to go once they reached that fork. She hoped the river would be slow enough for them to be able to build a raft and travel by water once they reached it. She would have ample opportunity to practice her Water Manipulation aspect on this trip.

They walked at a brisk pace through the evergreen trees the entire day. Her father needed to carry her bag for her for Violet to keep up near the end of the day. The only time they stopped was to relieve themselves and to have short rests here and there when Violet was falling behind.

When they did not hear or see any signs of pursuit throughout the day, it was decided they would stop for the night when the sun was just below the horizon. They did not want to stumble around in the dark if they didn’t have to. Remaining vigilant, they did not light a fire for their last meal of the day.

“We should reach the barrier tomorrow morning. Once we cross the barrier, you and I will need to sleep in shifts. I don't believe there are any magical beasts near the barrier but as we go further east, the chance of entering a mana-rich area increases. The roads we came in on were all built away from mana-rich areas to avoid the chances of magical beasts molesting the travelers on it.” Her father explained.

Violet would not be expected at the age of seven to sleep in a shift with the adults. She was both happy about this and upset to not be treated as an adult. It was irrational of her, she was a child and she had not unlocked her extra stat points yet. The adults had likely slowed down their speed by the need to keep a pace she could keep.

Their next day did not start well. It started to rain in the early hours of the morning. While their bags were oiled to keep water off of them, her clothing was not. By the time the sun began to rise, the rain had gone from a drizzle to a full-blown downpour. The only positive thing her mother could say about the rain was that it would hinder any tracking efforts that were made to find them.

Violet was wearing a leather armor vest on top of her dress. The armor fit her very loosely which allowed the water to soak her dress. She was able to pull the water out of her dress, but with the rain continuing to fall, it was a losing battle. They started on their way as soon as there was enough light to see by. The blanket they were using was soaked with water so it was left outside of her mother’s bag and carried to avoid getting their food wet. When it stopped raining, she would pull the water out of it so it could be packed again.

The sun chased away the rain clouds as it climbed into the sky. She was thankful that the weather in this area stayed between 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit. It was easier to be wet when you weren’t cold on top of it. When the majority of the rain had stopped coming down, they took a quick break so Violet could remove the water from the blanket and their clothing. The leather did not hold very much water but it would get damaged if it was left wet too long.

They could see the shimmer of the barrier in the distance after two hours of walking. Seeing the barrier made her think of Sky and Jade. They were with her for her entire life and she would miss them. Well maybe she wouldn't miss Jade after her betrayal but she would miss Sky. He was like a brother to her. She hoped he was left alone after she was found missing with her parents.

Fifteen minutes after they spotted the barrier, they were approaching it. Her father stopped them before exiting so he could scout the area from the inside where they would emerge. He wanted to make sure there weren’t any surprises he could see before they left.

While they were waiting on her father to come back, Violet reached her hand out to see what the barrier would feel like. This caused a warning menu to pop up.

WARNING!

You are the only administrator currently assigned to this area. Select which option you wish to enact.

Leave current privileges as they are. Assign a new administrator. Give occupants a week of warning to evacuate the area. The area has been infiltrated - Use alarms and force shields to eject people non-lethally. The area has been infiltrated - Use extreme measures to eliminate all people. Blacklist specific people for elimination.

She went over the choices in her mind. She couldn’t assign a new administrator even if she wanted to because she was the only one she knew of with magic in the area. Leaving the privileges as they were was completely out of the picture. She would have already rejected everyone’s privileges if she could have gotten to the central column unnoticed. When she had looked the night before they left, there were quite a few people awake in that room working on a large project.

That left her the two most likely options as well as a bloodthirsty option. While it would be easy to blacklist the people who caused her to be in this situation, they weren’t worth having on her conscience. They did not physically harm her or anyone she cared about and while it could have potentially turned into a very bad situation for her and her parents, they escaped that fate.

Of the two choices she had left, she felt giving people a week to evacuate was far too long. They would have time to remove everything that wasn’t nailed down and she didn’t feel like the nobles deserved to have that leisure. She ultimately chose to evacuate everyone with non-lethal force. That option was the one most likely to cause consequences for Ardon and Judy and she hoped they would be held accountable.

She waited until her father returned from his scouting to select her choice. “The barrier just gave me an option to evacuate the buildings and revoke privileges of everyone left. I am about to select that option but I wanted to let you know what I was doing and see if you had any reason not to do this.”

“I wish you could have done that when we were running away that first night. We would have been lost in the confusion.” her mother said in response.

After a nod from her father to go ahead, she clicked the option. They all jumped when the alarm sounded because it could be heard clearly from the edge of the barrier where they were. She would not be surprised if the people they left behind all started walking away from the ruins after being ejected just to get away from the noise.

Caravans were spaced so the ruins got fresh supplies every week. If people were unable to salvage food when they were ejected, they would only be without for two days if the caravan arrived on schedule. She wished she could be a fly on the wall to see what was happening back at the ruins.