“I will never forget that day when I saw her heal up injuries that were so far beyond my ken within minutes, nor her kindness in teaching me *how* to do what she just did. In the end, I am most proud that now that my life is ending, I have managed to put into practice what she had so kindly offered to others, and pass on the skills to others as well. I have no regrets, other than not having met her sooner.” - Final words of Asclepius Eustace, Grandmaster Healer employed by the Algenverr Duchy, on his deathbed circa 229 VA.

“Please. It’s the least we could do to repay your aid in these dire times,” said the recovered Duchess Melania Nunez of Algenverr. While Aideen had healed all of the Duchess’ extensive injuries to perfection, she could do little to help with the effects of weeks of unconsciousness and the muscle atrophy from the lack of movement that entailed, so the Duchess still had a bit of a hard time moving around and was wheeled to the hastily prepared dinner banquet on a wheelchair by her brother.

They had set up the banquet to celebrate the recovery of the Duke, the Duchess, and that one cousin of Clarissa’s who was groomed to be her economic and political aide in the future. All three still had a long recovery ahead of them to deal with the remaining aftereffects of their forced inactivity, which did no favors to their muscles, but they were otherwise in perfect health once more.

Other than the banquet, the Duchess had also rapidly drafted a formal document that practically granted Aideen free access to any area under the Duchy’s jurisdiction, no questions asked, as Clarissa had explained to her mother what she had in mind. While Jonkver to their south had a larger border with the Forest of Despair, the north-western side of the area also bordered Algenverr, and it met the swamplands to its north, so Aideen could also pass that way in her prospecting for untamed lands.

The Duchess had also warned Aideen that while Posuin was not too likely to contest a claim unless things changed - the nobles too fractious to agree on anything like usual - she would have to worry about the other nations that bordered those uninhabited regions. Both regions bordered the mighty Clangeddin empire to the east, and in the forest’s case it also bordered two other smaller nations to the south-east.

Aideen was familiar with the Clangeddin Empire even before she set foot on Alcidea proper. The massive empire was the de facto hegemon of Central Alcidea, and the only reason they failed to grow even larger was because their neighbors had been cautioned by their expansionist tendencies and entered a mutual defense pact in the case of Clangeddin aggression, which had mostly stymied the empire’s growth since the past couple of centuries.

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While the current aging Emperor of Clangeddin promoted peace and trade all his life, to many of their longer-lived neighbors the last aggression by the empire a few human generations ago was still within their living memory, and they never truly let down their guard regardless of the current Emperor’s kind intentions, all too aware how humans might well change leadership multiple times in their longer lives.

She was less familiar with the smaller nations. One of them, the recently emerging Kingdom of Ezram, was a small nation that rose from the unification of around a dozen smaller city-states, not unlike Posuin but done in a different manner, as the titular Ezram state had conquered the others through force of arms instead.

Further to Ezram’s south, directly north of Knallzog, was the nation formerly known as the Avilaz Regency. Aideen was vaguely aware of the nation because it was where her late uncle Caelleach, who she had never met in her life, supposedly went after his exile with other hard-liners centuries ago shortly after the founding of Vitalica. The Regency - also a nation which primarily worshiped Vitalis - had then accepted those refugees, who had crossed the oceans and trekked through parts of two continents in search of a new home on account of their similar faiths.

What Aideen had not expected - or heard about - was how less than ten years ago a religious revolution had happened in the regency, where the economical conditions were deteriorating after a prolonged drought, partly due to an increasingly corrupted government and clergy leeching on the nation’s coffers.

The people had rallied around a young preacher who decried the corruption and debauchery the then-leadership of the Regency had fallen into, and sparked a popular revolution where they tore down the establishment. Supposedly said preacher was a distant descendant of her late uncle Caelleach, which considering how the nation renamed itself into the Holy Kingdom of Theodinaz, was a plausible thing.

It was because the people of the former Regency had absorbed the refugees from Vitalica and intermarried with them that Aideen had not gotten too many odd looks despite her pale skin, as at times, people from the Regency - now the Holy Kingdom - were just as pale as she was. In fact, in general the people of the current Holy Kingdom were mostly a shade or two paler than more in western Alcidea, with many still having the pale skin more commonly seen in Ur-Teros.

The Holy Kingdom had somewhat isolated themselves for the moment, as they dealt with tidying up the rough edges that the revolution had inadvertently caused. Despite their distant relations, Aideen only wished them the best, and hoped they would find luck in their future endeavours.

As for herself, her future plans remained mostly unchanged, namely to search around and prospect for uninhabited lands in Alcidea, as well as survey the nations around it. She knew that her whimsical idea of founding a place for her kind to live and thrive in would not be a quick undertaking, and would be one that likely would take centuries to finish instead.

She was fine with it. After all, she had all the time in the world.