Author's Note: Due to the fact time travel is a thing, because she's in a time loop, Aubrey will very regularly be picking up threads and then discarding them after she has done enough to figure out what she needs to know immediately.

Then she's going to poke other threads. She wants to solve ALL of the problems. She needs to find them first, and if she runs out of time, then she can solve them later, but she can't solve what she doesn't know…

o~*****~o

When the month resets and I'm going back to the beginning I find myself in a bit of a.. curious position. The main issue that I run into is that I already know what's going to happen. I know when things are going to happen, why it's happening and quite frankly this knowledge makes it hard for me to care about them as much as the original timeline. I already have a working counter figured out, and don't need to rush or plan anymore.

Unless I change things. Try to find a better plan with my changes.

So, ultimately, what I decide to do is go out of my way to change things from last time, to get the problem from a different angle, so to speak. Push things and see what happens.

This time I'm going to use the information I got last time and see what I can figure out based on that information. I already know, for example, where all of the assassins are. I can use this information, but if I try to use it too soon they will alter their plans. That could be good, or it could be bad. I don't want to see anyone I like die…

I can use that change in their plans, however, to get them all in one place if I play my cards right. Ideally, this will allow me to deal with them all at the same time. I have no plans to leave the country quite yet, after all, so, I will just have to see where optimizing my time takes me.

In the end, I make a plan to change the assassins plans by scaring them out of their hiding holes. The plan - and following attacks to initiate the changes - only takes the first 12 hours.

While I didn't manage to capture any of them, that wasn't the goal. I may not be happy with the fact I have no information, but I hope the change will shake something new out of them in this reset. The chase around the cities I scare them from is a bit more fun than the standard thing I was dealing with last time, walking into ambushes and flipping them. I ignore the bank, but I figure if all of the other assassins have been chased off, they'll move those ones, too. Which will be useful to see if it changes the approach the goblins use to approach me.

I hope they don't try to kill me again. Maybe I can do something diplomatic here. I'm sadly not optimistic, they'll probably try to kill me in new, interesting ways.

After I lose the assassins in some Shadow Jumping chain, I return to my original plans. While I may not know where their back up base is, I can spend time making sure they know what my plans are, so they know where to hit me. Saying things to hint I'll be in school for the month isn't hard. This should cut their plans to target people outside of the school so as to draw me to them. What's the point of targeting things which have no benefit to the goal? Harming innocents does nothing long term if you're here to kill one target.

Hopefully, this makes it abundantly clear that I plan to spend the rest of the month at least inside of the most heavily warded location I can find, which is actually just the school. Not suspicious if you've just found a bunch of assassins waiting for you in the homes of your loved ones for you to show up, and turned them back. Especially if you have reason to believe they may come back, in larger numbers. They'll just be waiting to ambush me when I leave the school now, but that's better than putting innocents in danger, for me and them. Less chance for interference.

Now, what I need to do after this is just stay in the school and help train Harry in how to use his new powers. When I'm not doing that, I'll hang out with my friends. It's been too long since I've had time to seriously have fun with Sarah, Adrian and the rest. After that, I'll study some material, and.. well there's not a lot to do, I guess.

I can work on making custom spells. My lack of the required sleep of everyone else gives me eight hours of total free time I can monopolize however I want.

My options are plentiful, of course. Things I normally don't have time to do. I can research the Room of Requirement to see how that works. I suppose as a last-ditch resort I could attempt to pick a fight with various members of the staff at the school. Although I don't think this is an intelligent use of my time, as it would make an enemy of people that I don't think I can afford to make enemies, even inside the recurring month.

My end goal, I decided after some internal deliberation, for my time here this month is to get a basic diagram of how the room works and see if I can figure out the exact blueprint. If I have that, I can then take that, attempt to modify it, and figure out how to make my own or improve the extant structure, per the quest I've had for years which has the goal of improving the room in some tangible way.

Once I have that done, I can then focus on making improvements to the Room faster, more efficient and with stronger effects.

The end goal is for when I get out of this repeating month I can do all of my improvements in under forty-eight hours. I don't know if I'll have that much time in the end, but it would be ideal if I could shave my required time down significantly, at least.

Another issue I have with repeating months - I'll need to keep notes so I can know exactly how to deal with what and when to do those things so I don't get a result I am very satisfied with and then not have the exact methodology down. I'll need to keep notes because while I can remember things, memories can be biased in the aftermath, and having notes on how I feel going into something and then how I feel after it's over will be important. If I act even a hair different - it could change the outcome. I need to keep it down to the letter of perfection in my final rendition.

Inevitably, I will find two things I need to do at the same time. If I want to meet someone for training but need to, at the same time, attack the assassins so they don't kill my friends and family, then that's just not possible as I am now. This is part of why I refuse to leave the country.

I will run into people out there who I'll need to talk to sooner or later, so I'll need to be in two places at once to actually complete my goals. Planning for the eventuality of having months where I find something in a certain place at a certain time which must do, and the same elsewhere, will be a bigger problem later than will be right now.

Hence why I need Simulacrum - or at least a semi-working version of it. It's an effective time multiplier, if I can get it working correctly. I won't get the personal gains I would from physically doing it myself, but I will have done the meetings I need to do while my body can focus on getting trained however is most effective.

In the event that I do not have the time required to make or improve the Room of Requirement, I'll need to figure out what I need to do and what my order exactly should be for the operations I do need to undertake. Because if I have Simulacrums and still don't have enough time, then I'm in a deeper hole than I realize. Optimization of the schedule will allow me to perfect the timeline of the month, and help as many people as possible.

Which is the end goal - make sure as many people as possible survive while making as many allies as possible and making as few enemies as possible. Turning some extant enemies into allies would be good, too… though I'm not sure I can realistically do that.

If I can't figure out exactly what needs to be done in what order, then I've found that I'll probably survive, but I'll have consequences I don't like - such as having to kill all of the Goblins, alienating a massive number of people who know I did that and basically setting myself up as a rival for the terror of Voldemort. Just for different reasons.

They might be evil, nasty things, but I don't like genocide, even before the mass alienation I will experience.

Instead of the Goblins, I think I should focus on the fact that I currently have a whole host of Assassins after me. At least one whole group of them are from China, and probably there is a number from Egypt I have yet to even encounter. They may be better at stealth, just watching me to gather information, or who knows what. I wouldn't doubt other covert factions are gearing up for their own run at me, presently.

I need to figure out who belongs to these factions, and where they're coming from and why they don't like me. If I can turn them to my allies somehow, then I need to do that.

The best way to do that is to make myself seem careless and then see who knows what about me, and follow up on how they know. Follow the leads and you'll find the bad spies.

The good ones will require a bit more work - but I think there's spells for that. Though getting the exact semantics down will be hard. High level divinations might be based on intent, but they can also be very broad, and your results can be incomprehensible due to lack of specificity in your intent.

So refinement will be needed.

After all, I cannot afford to just let them do whatever they want, these groups are hunting me. They don't mean well to me or my family - and I don't like people who may hurt my family.

Normally I would resort to answering assassins by just destroying all of them and destroying everything that they care about. However, with this time loop I have, I can take the time to go slowly and figure out exactly why they're targeting me, who they are and what they stand to gain.

If I can take them apart and figure out exactly which portion of them wants to target me, if any of them do not want to target me, or other similar things, then I can potentially get an ally instead of a pile of corpses out of this, even if it's not a full group of allies. A single highly skilled - or high-potential training partner for my shadow magic would be much appreciated.

If there is no reconciliation possible after I fully investigate the Chinese Assassins - and there may not be, but I doubt that. No large clan or guild ever agrees 100% on everything. Then I can at least do a dry run of trying to kill everything in sight. After all, killing everything is the easiest way to win a combat. It's also the least beneficial for me in the long run, with XP coming less from combat and more from fame and infamy - along with actions which increase either.

Turning a shadow organization to my side after they tried to kill me will spike my infamy in the underworld.

I have to wonder if I'd been using my brain and trying to work with sentients and make deals with them instead of just wiping them off this plane, if I'd be stronger by now? Perhaps… Something to consider, also, it makes me feel significantly worse about my actions - considering I may have been better off - and they surely would have been better off with me not killing them. The world could be a wholly better place with much less lives being cost.

I'd never really considered it, but now that the idea is sinking in…

Should I continuously kill everything even if they are vastly weaker than I am, then I am lowering the net power of the world. That is not my goal. I'm trying to save this world, in the end, and if I kill all the people who think that they can kill me, then I'm just as wrong as they are.

I am likely, in these situations, killing people who are very well positioned in their own Nations and doing that, it lowers the overall power of that nation, which lowers the chance they can help other people around them improve - in their nation or surrounding nations. Which ripples across the world. Everyone is weaker than they would otherwise be.

Then, if I fail in saving the world, well.

The world is doomed I think. Because I'll have killed all of my opposition.

Thinking about it, that's the quintessential dark lord maneuver - you just take over the world with power. Any who oppose you die. You rule the world by default.

So I need to figure out a different tactic, and that tactic should be - in essence - figuring out who I can turn to my side from the enemies I have, and which ones I can do a partial culling of to make them healthier communities, and more willing communities to join my faction.

After all - getting rid of people who could end up getting the whole faction killed is superior to just having them all die. I would rather save more people in this perspective, but we'll see how many I can figure out how to work with by the end of the loops I have been granted.

The knowledge that I'm actually at the point where the common man won't stand a chance against me and the people that will stand a chance against me are probably in the upper five percent perhaps?

I think that I'm in the top 5%, but I don't know for a fact that that is my actual numerical standing in the world's Power Rankings. I do know for a fact that I am above almost every single person that I've met in my country, my home country of course.

I know that there are people that are more powerful than me there's at least two who live around here and my nation isn't very large or very populous. So if I'm using this as a statistical average, then I have to assume that I'm somewhere in the top 5% to the top 1%.

If I'm in the top 1%, I'm really scared for this world. I've only been training seriously for what? 6 years? 7 years now? Before that I was just doing baseline body training so that I could withstand the real training that I would undergo after my body reaches the level of maturity required.

Sure, I have an advantage there, of course, having trained various people in my last life. While this does include children, because in that world not even children were safe, I don't think it should be such a boon that I'm in the top 1%. Families who are serious about being the best in any kind of field would probably have similar routines, and then you have to consider that they'll have extremely efficient training programs for their field of expertise. That's a springboard for the rest of their education.

Even if the family in question doesn't start that training until you finish primary education - a mistake, but an easy one to make - then people in their thirties to forties who are specialized to be the best in any given field will vastly outstrip the common man or woman like I do. The only way this wouldn't work is if there is - or has been - so much infighting between local clans and factions that they lose a percentage of the knowledge they gain every year. Sometimes losing most or all of the accumulated knowledge, except for the survivors' memories.

But I can't assume that's the case - because I have an ancient family and we have ancient traditions, which if followed strictly would result in anyone around the age of thirty to fourty being about the skill level of Gaelin.

Who is Thirty Five.

I think in an all out fight I'd win against Gaelin, but the point is that we're in the roughly same bracket. There has to be more people who are like Gaelin - and seriously trained their skills until they were some of the best in whatever they were pursuing.

Training is, as with everything, relative. For example, I know how to train people in what would be seen as a very out of date manner in this world. Indeed, in all of my time here, I've realized that there is much less need to hunt, swim , climb.. well a lot less than what was needed in my last life.

This has resulted in an overall decline in people's physical fitness, health and general standards for what is actually strong or healthy. Where I consider myself to be about average, maybe a bit above average for where I should be for my age, considering I'm training to be a warrior-mage, in reality I am very well be quite a bit behind what I would be in my last life.

The opportunities and skills and growth I have been able to accumulate are just not the same, and I can't really compare them.

While I am just attempting to compensate, I'm not really sure the problem is that I can't quantify myself against somebody else who has similar values to myself. Similar training.

That would require me running into somebody who's been alive since the Middle Ages and quite frankly that is unlikely to happen at random chance. It could happen if I intentionally sought out some un-aging person or another. Nicholas Flamel's more combative counterparts, if you would.

I suppose if I run into some of the regalia holders who are older than 1,000 to 2,000 years, of which I am certain there's at least two, I will be able to judge myself adequately. Or be judged, rather.

Of course doing this will take time and effort. I'm sure that they aren't just sitting out in the open waiting to be found. That would be foolish in the extreme. All that aside, I suppose I should focus on the Room of Requirement now that I'm actually here…

What else was I supposed to be doing today aside from the Room?

Ah yes, contacting Harry, that's all right. A letter after I've finished my initial research regarding the room.

Ultimately my research in the room is horrifically easy. I focus for all of ten seconds on seeing how the room works and then it provides me with exactly that. While I didn't recognize it when I asked for the blueprint initially, the room itself is the blueprint. If you ask for a blueprint it just shows you the underlying room structure which is inlaid on all of the walls - which seem to be pillars, almost. This room has exactly 128 'pillars' which are all in the walls except for the three actual pillars which I can now see - made out of raw magic - in the middle of the space. This means that there are 125 pillars on the outside walls and there are three in the middle which hold up the center of the room which in its natural state is a rather large dome.

After I have analyzed all of this, I come to the conclusion that the room is rather tricky in its implementation. Each of the 125 outer pillars all basically just keep the room stable. The three inner pillars are the real works of magic, and they are very complicated.

Those three pillars - when you combine all three of them - have more condensed, complex and totally unrecognizable spell work than any other thing that I've ever seen. In fact they have forms of ancient runes that I have never even heard of, or seen. While I do understand what they mean, due to the divine blessings I have, and I can follow how they interact based off of my magical Theory, in the end I can only roughly guess what they're doing.

While I do, in the end, understand the effects of the room, I figure I could probably do something similar…

It would take me a couple of years to actually design the room, then compress them down to this size. My initial thought of 'how I would do it' would take another… eight pillars? Which isn't really acceptable in the current format.

So I think about how I would compress another pillar and then make it just so there's time dilation effects in this room, because that's the only upgrade that I really need to do.

So I begin calculating. What will the requirements of this time dilation be? How much extra time are we aiming for?

Well I know for a fact that my regalia - which is of course a Divine Artifact - cannot be replicated by anything.

What I need is I need to get something that can speed up time to a magnitude of about 10 to 1. More would be better, but I can't really think I'll be able to do that reliably and quickly.

It won't be needed anyhow. This is mostly just that I can get enough practice in on the day-to-day after all. I've reached the point where I can't get easy growth anymore, and if I'm going to intrude into time dilation then I should probably include other pillars.

Four is not a very significantly magical number. While it is, of course, a pair of pairs it is not a significantly magical number because that's just not how it works.

Right now we have three individual pillars of magic. Not a pair of pillars and a support pillar. So I need more than one pillar to keep the balance here.

So, what other pillars might I add? Ideally, I'll add another four pillars. I can think of three that I could add right off the bat, one to increase time dilation, one to improve security and one which improves the gravity in the room.

Of course after I've improved the gravity and all of the other things which I have mentioned, the last thing that I could seek to improve would be the accessibility of the room.

Right now it is only of course accessible with all your inside of the castle and it can, according to the dimensionalism functions of the first of the three pillars go anywhere into the castle and open itself to whoever needs the room most.

That is, unless you're using its set access point, which has priority over everything else. This door is in the 7th Floor Corridor, of course.

The thing that I would like to add is a remote access point, which I could carry with me. This would be the start of a pillar. Maybe I can make a main pillar which supports the other pillars, enhances their effects and ties the room to a secondary door which I can take with me?

That would be convenient. And not incredibly hard to set up. A single, primary support pillar would fit with the rest of the design as well.

If I tried to make it just a dimensional gate, then of course this function could be its own pillar! The issue is, it'd be one sided so it could be turned off too easily. If I make it tied on both ends - the doorway I'd use and the pillar in the room - it takes up less space, power and effort.

Then you have to consider that the pillar It would be another dimensionalism pillar. So we'd have a pair of Dimensional pillars, and no other pairs. System breaks if that happens.

My ultimate goal, obviously, is to generally improve the room to make it more usable. I would also like to expand its use cases. However it can already create not-quite infinite amounts of space but theoretically limitless.

Of course the limit is the magic, which the Ley lines underneath the school can provide.

This is not lost on me of course, but it would be lost on the vast majority of people who might use the room or try to store things which cannot be stored.

Perhaps I could add a room which is specifically designed to hide other aspects? No, that would be included in the security pillar, of course.

I don't know what exactly I'm supposed to add to this room to make a whole seventh pillar. The support and expansion of other functions is a good idea, but it's not enough to be a whole pillar unless I want to go with strictly less effective designs.

Of course, as I lament my inability to complete the last pillar, the idea strikes me suddenly and I'm impressed that I hadn't had it before. The last pillar should be something like what Godric did in his room. It should be a pillar which keeps me - The most powerful Mage who is currently able to make such things - In 'an alive state' Which could teach future Generations how not to be so weak as the current generation is.

This idea strikes me as something that would be greatly beneficial to the school and of course future generations of Mages that are raised here.

Of course how I would make the pillar exactly is something of a concern, as I don't know if I can really make such a thing at my current level of understanding. I could probably do it across two or three pillars, but I'll need to refine the design down to a single pillar for the full effect I want.

In the end, it's likely to end up being as complicated as the third pillar, which is the one that I'm struggling with the most to understand.

The main issue, I think, is that I don't have the total magical comprehension - or perhaps just access to the spells I would need in this system -to make everything that I would desire.

This, of course, tells me that the founders of the school were much more well-versed in magical knowledge and spell creation than I currently am. While this isn't much of a surprise, it is a bit disheartening. I do see, of course, that I am not as strong as I would like to be. Even if I am, in theory, the equal of the founders in some other aspects.

The final checkpoint I should be reaching for is to become equal in all fields to what the founders were. I have an inherent advantage, have a level of responsibility greater than what they had - unfortunately - and so greater need to reach the heights permissible with my power.

After all, I need to be somebody who can stop the apocalypse and lead others to stop the apocalypse. I simply can't do that as I currently am. Not to my level of satisfaction. I'll need to be, in all probability, the greatest Mage to have ever come out of this country. Arguably, I'll need to be the greatest to have ever walked this world. I need to do that while finding a way which won't suffocate the future of the world.

So, I need to save the world as it stands. After all, everybody who knows about the recurring prophecy realizes that the current state of affairs is not a sustainable thing. If I cannot find the answer to the apocalypse as it stands, then I'm not really doing my job here.

So comes the realization, and complete understanding that I'm going to have to try to do something drastic and end this threat to the world forever. Or at least this flavor of the apocalypse. After all, last time this was an issue, there were still other very powerful races in the world.

I do really think I can equal the scale of those legendary species by myself, and if I cannot then I need to find a way to bring them back to this plane so that we can make a united stand against the foe who is trying to end the world.

These are only my first concerns. How will I attain the might needed to fulfill my ambitions? How can I save all the people that I need to save without having to kill a slew of others whom very well could prove pivotal to the world post-prophecy? How can I do what needs to be done if I cannot even make this simple room a reality? Well, no use moping on that front.

I just need to figure out how to do it. I just need to figure out how to save this world. even if it ends up killing me, I was brought here to save this world, I will save this world. If my death saves the world, then let it be so. I do not need to have a future after the world is saved, if it is saved. I just need to enjoy myself while I'm able, and live life to its fullest.

I do not know if I will regret my decision to save the world at any cost. Nor do I know if this is the correct path to take. but.. I do understand at our current level of power, and our current level of magical strength and understanding, we do not have the power which we would require to actually save the world.

If, and this is of course an if, all of the heroes who are supposed to save the world - all Humans of course - if we fail we may not be able to bring the world to a level where they can survive our failing.

After I've considered that, I'm not feeling very much up to tutoring anyone or working on anything in particular. I do have things that I told myself I would do, however. This includes writing Harry's letter. I also have to try to replicate what I did in the last reset which means going into the bank again and triggering that trap. It should be different this time, but that difference will only mean the fight is shorter, easier, and more reliably done.

I wonder how much things will change, now that I've scared the Assassins into their corner. They're all hiding from me, after all. I know that they will not be a part in the assassination attempt, which is of course comforting.

It'll be easier. but at the same time I can't help but feel bad. I am after all basically consigning a whole group of people to death by my actions here, and I already don't want to kill more than needed. A recent change, perhaps, considering the ramifications of my last reset, but an important one.

Perhaps, I can find a way to keep some of them alive? A majority, even. Some of these people who have so grievously wronged myself and others. Keeping them alive feels sort of wrong, but I also understand that they may be required down the line.

How could I swing that, of all things? Maybe I'll try to talk to Flitwick and see if anyone has any desire to get on top of the Goblin world, and make it a rebellion instead of a wholesale slaughter?

The Goblins - loathe them as I may - did manage to conquer all of the Dwarvish land under England, and they did manage to rule that land effectively, and keep everybody else out of that land. This allowed them to survive as long as they have, thrive might be a better word in comparison to where other races have been forced into.

They haven't been banished, they haven't been sealed, they haven't been cursed, they haven't been ruined so thoroughly as the other races. Unlike those others who are fully integrated into Human Society the only others who can even come close to their feats are of course the Dwarves, but the dwarves want to kill them. They have every right to want that, but I feel like killing one of the two races who managed to hold out this long is a grievous sin… In spite of my dislike for them.

I doubt if it is at all possible to reconcile the two peoples to each other, after all, they are ancient blood enemies.

If a rebellion were to take place, though, then the Rebels fled with their riches to another land where they had previously acquired asylum with other Goblins, and the right to rule over a section of land… Well. That's one idea. Likely nigh unto impossible to complete, but I have some time, and many attempts to work out exactly how I can do that.

So, should I start soon? It may well be too late for this reset. I can still get a feel for the currents, this time around. Maybe try to knock them out, instead of killing them?

Brutal and awful as they may be… I do not relish the idea of killing them.

A thought for another day I suppose.

Well I suppose it's time that I wrote that letter. How to begin? Simply, I suppose. We'll see how it goes from there.

'Dear Harry;

I hope this letter finds you well. I admit to myself at the beginning of this that I am feeling rather horrible about what I'm doing. I've had time to consider it, and having seen a bit of the repercussions, I realize I'm not on the path I want to be on. But the question is: How can I stop myself from this path?

Right now, aside from that, I feel rather bad that I dragged you into my mess. I would like to meet you in the usual place, preferably tomorrow afternoon, since I have business to attend to today and early morning. You likely know this already. That shouldn't take me too long, sadly. Especially considering the fact that you, like me, know that I've done this before. I understand the easiest, simplest and most direct route to complete my task - distasteful as I may find it. I'm hoping I can find a more palatable solution, but have low hopes as of now.

It will, perhaps, lighten you to know that I do not enjoy this task so much as you might think. At the moment - and indeed, after for some time - I am usually very cold on the whole thing. You can't feel bad when there's going to be more enemies coming for you because of what you've done. But now that's not the case and I can consider it fully, I feel horrible. It's not something I need to do, per se, but it is the best way to shake the world and see where my enemies are. Removing a major player from the game often makes people leap in desperation.

Of course I do want to save as many people as I can, since my goal is to leave the world in a better way than I found it. But what is saving the world if so many need to die in order to achieve that?

Saving some people, however, will not be easy, I've come to realize. Not with how I'm set up right now, anyhow.

The goblins, as my prime example, do not want to be saved by an outsider. Further, they do not want to be saved by someone who has stolen from them, is an outsider and is verifiably someone who doesn't like Goblins.

They especially will not want to be saved when the dwarves are trying to invade them. That, in the end, will be seen as an honorable way to die. Better, in the eyes of the lay-goblin, than the ignoble, slow death of their people under the heels of wizardkind. I understand that in a sense, but it leaves me little to no way of helping them.

I will try to convince those that I can that fleeing the country and finding a safe haven, perhaps deeper underground, perhaps in a different land perhaps… anywhere but here will be better. I'm hoping for your help with this. Perhaps we will find a way for them to thrive without having to pillage and plunder and steal from all of us. I just don't know how to do it, though I hope it is possible

If you couldn't tell, I am not enthusiastic about this deed I'm consigning myself to.

Don't think I don't understand that it is entirely required for my plans. To maximize the use of my time, I need to actually follow through with my assault at this time. After all, there is no other way I know about which would allow me to shock the world so profoundly. It should be obvious, after all - the more I shake things up, the more that I change things… It will move situations into new, unique and possibly optimal positions for myself. This will gain me the upper hand on anybody who might be trying to kill me, you or anybody else that I care about.

It is evident that we have enemies. People want the Divine Regalia, for one. We have personal enemies and are known acquaintances, and we can't change that. So our enemies are shared to a certain extent. Which is why I'm sorry. I didn't want that for you. Or any of my friends. I'm just a shortsighted idiot sometimes, which is becoming more obvious as time goes on.

Which is why the faster I can solve my currently extant enemies and the issues around them, the better. Even if, and I do mean if, the methods are rather distasteful. If I can figure out how to deal with them, preferably in a less distasteful manner than what I am currently assigning myself, then maybe I can figure out how to reconcile with the ones who do not require my head on a stick - and I can turn those enemies into allies. I need to resort to death only if the enemies will accept nothing outside of my death. I hope you can understand my position on this. I don't want to die anymore than you or anyone else. I know it's inevitable, yet it's still such a normal part of life to not want to die.

Thank the gods I have that time to test now, because it is becoming increasingly obvious that not every person of every race is inherently evil. I do, of course, understand that the Goblins that I interact with on a day to day basis are the vast minority. Most of them are treated like crap by humans. 80% of Goblins have probably never seen a human. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a good number of Goblins who would like to escape their current culture or society or change things for the better. I'm not sure if they will be willing to listen to me, though. So I need to test if I can trick them into thinking I'm someone else. And then interact with the ones who aren't so heavily biased against humans as the ones who get insulted by them regularly. If they believe they're doing all the change, it won't hurt their pride and I can keep casualties to a minimum.

If you have any questions or concerns or would like to contact me sooner, please just leave a letter with my owl in a blue envelope.

Now I - you'll have to excuse this rambling letter. I - I'm using a quill which just writes what I say, because I can't bring myself to write this. I am not in my best state, emotionally. I'm just remembering all of the horrible things that have happened to me and my people and how I responded to those threats and how much worse I've made things for us all. I'm hoping that I can keep a repeat of this from happening here. I don't want to see another genocide. I do not want to see the people be forced from their homes. I do not want to see another great loss of life, another Great War begin, all because I wanted to test something.

Harry, that's why I'm doing this now. No repercussions for the next month. So I need to do all of my horrible ideas, all of my dangerous ideas, all of my bad ideas… If I don't do them now…

Maybe I should never do them? I don't know. And I hate not knowing.

Now aside from that sordid business, I would like to get you up to speed with where I am - in combat magic at least - as I have a theory that your regalia will suit themselves really well to combat magic. Especially the stuff that is deadly in nature, naturally. I cannot confirm this without extensive testing and I will require your presence to do that. This is entirely for your benefit - if you don't want to work with me on this, I understand. If you never want to see me again, I understand.

I do not want anybody who I know and love to die in this war. I want to know if it is possible to save a number of the people that I love who currently might be on the wrong side of the war.

Lastly, perhaps you'll find this most important?

I want to protect anybody who might need to be protected. I want to keep everybody who can be alive after this whole thing… alive. That'll seem unbelievable based on my actions, I'm sure.

Well, I don't think the heroes alone have the power to stop the apocalypse. There's always some supporting cast behind any given hero in any good story, you know? So, if I need to help save the world and I'm one of the heroes… who will be in the supporting cast if I kill them all? What happens if I make them hate me because I've killed some of their friends or family or done some other deed which seemed required at the time, but in the end was ultimately just my hubris?

I don't want to fall for that trap. I feel the weight of responsibility very suddenly upon my shoulders. I'm not sure where this is coming from. It should have been there all along, but now it's just suddenly hitting me, like I didn't comprehend what 'help save the world' meant. And I'm frankly rattled, and about to have a fit. Perhaps I'll need to talk to Dumbledore. I was never made to be a hero. I am an assassin, I am a hunter, I'm a predator, I am not.. I am not a savior.

Maybe my purpose here is something more dangerous, and I can't really put that into words here.

Yes, I'll talk to Dumbledore about this. I'm sorry for rambling. I do hope this will help you see that I am not some maniac monster who just kills and conquers everything in front of her. No, no… I am very much a Mortal.

Oh gods. I can't afford to let most people see this. I'm a mess, I need help, but never want to ask for it until the world is falling apart. Because I'm supposed to be the strong one, you know? It sucks. Being the strong one. You'll see - if you haven't already, I guess. More power means less friends, less support.

Please, consider what I've written.'

Breathing heavily, I quickly pulled a new sheet of parchment out, set it up and then wrote a quick note which read:

'Harry, (if not Harry put down, or get hexed.)

This parchment enclosed in this letter is heavily enchanted so that only you can read it. If you try to get it to anybody else it will likely explode. Do not allow anybody except for yourself to touch this. Open it in secret. Even if someone sees it over your shoulder, it will go up in flames. Please do not give this to anybody else. This is not a joke. This is not a test. Do not try to mess with the enchantments you for understanding.

Aubrey.'

In the end, Harry agreed, conditionally however. The end agreement was that I would help him grow and learn what he could from me, but I would consult with Dumbledore before I did anything which might be considered rash. The scathing way that was written was striking - almost like everything I've done in his knowledge has been rash. It was a very backhanded blow, obviously written in pique.

I didn't rise to his anger, however. I understand where he's coming from - I would be angry too, if I look at it from his point of view. Ultimately, I agreed because I had already planned to speak with Dumbledore on this matter. Truly, I don't really want to feel this way anymore. It is easy to realize in retrospect that doing things my own way has caused me greater distress than I would have undergone if I had just listened to Dumbledore from the beginning. The old man has been irritatingly correct.

So it is that I have a meeting set with Dumbledore for the very next day. First I must see to my duties as I am required to see my obligations in the bank.

This time around, things do not turn into a murder-filled mess, to my immense shock.

While the Goblins were glare at me, to which I'm hardly holding up my stony indifference as I remember the last time through when I had exploded one of them, or eviscerated another. Their attempts at intimidation fall flat in the face of my memories, and the fact they don't know how doomed they are if they actually attempt to follow through results in my return looks of 'indifference' perhaps coming across as sadly condoling them.

This, of course, earns me a host of strange looks from quite a number of the goblins. Still hostile, but also confused.

The entire time I'm in the bank, they kept themselves to making general threatening gestures at worst. Some of those I spoke to went on with a few not so thinly veiled threats upon my life and estate. My indifference had slipped fully off by the end, and the look of pity I gave the last few goblins visibly unsettled them.

They are not used to someone pitying them. Doubly when the Goblins are threatening the lives, money and personal effects of the person pitying them.

What I get out of this whole visit, aside from almost all of the money from my vaults and the magical artifacts which remain, is that It does not appear as though they are currently ready to actually attempt anything beyond verbal threats and posturing at this point in time. I wonder if the reason for this is because they do not have the backing of a powerful sect of Assassins this time, due to my chasing them off?

Or if this is instead a change which came about due to some other action that I took - And ultimately while I am interested in figuring out more on why this happened the way that it did, I am not wholly convinced that this will last.

I have to wonder if Dumbledore is behind this, but I suppose I can figure that out tomorrow.

With that though, and my Escapade in the bank officially ending, I leave the bank and head back to school.

I should train before it's time for me to face the music and see what Dumbledore has in store for me.

"Come in." Dumbledore's voice boomed from the other side of the oak door upon which I had just knocked. I opened the door and saw the old man sitting hands steepled behind his desk looking older and more tired than I had ever seen him before.

"Headmaster." I greeted my seat before smoothing out my skirts to make sure that I had a presentable appearance. "I hope that this isn't to take too much of your time, after all I know that your time is very precious these days."

"Oh, it is no issue for me to attend this meeting." He returns with a smile on his face. "Truly I had begun to worry if you hadn't fallen off the path but I see that that concern, while perhaps valid, was not entirely necessary." As he says this he runs a hand through his beard and his eyes begin to twinkle very slightly. I can tell that he's pleased to have said this although he is not entirely convinced himself yet.

"Well for my part I can say that I am more than happy to be here." I begin trying to look not in any way guilty. "After all, it is not every day that I realize I've made a grievous mistake, or that I need help. At least not that I realize it and will actually ask for help, or try to make up for that mistake." I continue, lightly resting my head on my right hand, as I tilt my head in thought, trying to find the best way to phrase this.

"I do not personally feel that this mistake, however, is something that I can handle on my own." As I say this, I am making sure that my hair is in perfect condition as sort of a nervous habit that I've had ever since I took it out of the braid. and hadn't felt right since I'd removed the braid. Just like I hadn't felt right ever since I'd begun acting this way. Not long after I had taken my hair out of the braid. Since things became much more serious.

"I can tell that you are nervous. There's no need for that. I am very happy that you - unlike many people unfortunately - come to realize something." He assures me, and I blink. Many people have an issue where they kill people and feel bad? Seriously? I doubt that. "I can tell you don't quite believe what I'm saying, but perhaps some elaboration." He pauses briefly, to see my half nod, before continuing.

"There are many jobs in this world which require killing. I would say about 20% of the jobs in the magical world require taking another's life at some point. And most of those people will not ask for help when they need it - in that critical time when they actually feel bad about what they've done. If you go past that first time without asking for help, get better and then later feel bad because something similar comes up, you will become vastly less likely to get help. You train yourself to think you can overcome it yourself. This is the start of the path to dark wizardry." He informs me, his voice becoming grave, sad, and a bit apprehensive.

"I wonder how in your last life things would have transpired and how you would have grown and developed? Perhaps the legendary aloofness of the Elves is not indeed because they do not think like humans but because their biology and natural psychological pathways are so divergent from our own that we cannot truly understand as humans how they feel or why they feel that way. Their bodies and minds are literally too different from ours for the same logic to be applied, as they are to humans." He then coughs slightly, before shaking his head, and getting back on track, clearly embarrassed to have been side tracked.

Though I think it was intentional, so he could explain and fill in the gaps for my own benefit - which is very nice of him, truth be told. I have considered how the bodies differ, but I had not considered how the minds differed overmuch as of yet. This seems obvious, of course, but it's not something I usually think about - my own psychology - as opposed to those of whom I'm trying to work with or against. Seeing my thoughtful expression, and the fact I'm following along, Dumbledore continues after a moment.

"So you will find that as a human you are being forced to think and consider and ultimately weigh the implications of what you do on a different scale than you would have as an elf. After all, being raised in a society that will naturally live for potentially a millennia, this would have a sincerely warping effect upon the emotions and viewpoints of various peoples." He pauses to take a sip of water, before continuing.

"The lack of connections outside of the most intimate would make sense for an elf. Evolutionary, biological sense. The primary issue, I think, is you are now inhabiting a body which does not have those same natural defenses, built up over countless generations of ancestors or by the design of the gods. Nor do you have the present required mental training to ignore the instincts and feelings of your body because most of them are alien to you. The minute things, or the overwhelming intensity of other things will be different." He pauses, pulling some papers out of his desk and putting them in front of me to skim while he continues his lecture.

"These are papers on mind magic experiments on different races, how they perceive the world and how they feel about those perceptions. This isn't something which I knew existed!" I exclaimed suddenly, finishing the first page not a handful of seconds after he put it down - having been reading it since he pulled it from the desk, and as he moved it. I may not know who Domagoi is, but he clearly knows what he's doing with sample sizes in the hundreds for each species he tested.

"Yes, and you will find, if you read the whole report, every race has the same basic emotional makeup- Joy, Sorrow, Elation, excitement, depression and many other emotions that are common to all sentient life, but every race has some unique emotional cues or mixtures of emotions. Terror is processed differently for Goblins and Humans, and Dwarves have no terror response. They can be afraid, but never terrified. No matter what you show them - they just aren't psychologically capable of being put into that state. There are no Elves in the report, but you can imagine they'd probably be a major outlier, like the Dwarves in some way." He concludes, as I flip to the third page.

"The most human emotion, we found, was the inherent drive to become the greatest you can possibly be, which all humans possess. We seek the most prestige in the shortest point of time. To quote the article - 'I have not seen this desire in the other races, though I do see a shadow of it. How they would communicate it would make it seem like they have the same goal. To be the best smith, for example, but the Dwarf and the Goblin would be happy with being the best they know of. The Human will seek to push the record of the best so far that no one can surpass him. This is what I mean by Human Drive…"

As he finishes the quote I look up, and then look down at the article, six pages in and barely scratching the surface. The complexities in this pile of loose pages, it's beyond my ability to read and keep up with him, so I put them aside, on his desk, and then re-adjust myself so that everything is back in pristine order. Hair, dress, tie. Perfect. "I need to read that more later." I comment, giving the pile of paper a hungry look. He nods genially, amused at my reaction.

"Of course." He says, eyes now twinkling a bit more merrily, before they dim again. "In the end, it takes a truly disciplined mind and set of skills to actually restrain ourselves when we are at a certain point. To not over-reach our bounds." He sighs and pulls out a paper, then begins drawing a set of circles, one nested in the other, on it. He continues to speak after finishing the first perfect, innermost circle.

"This is part of why Harry's training is only barely keeping up with your own. While your training is quite good, I must admit, you sought out individual masters for skills you were interested in. This is a common approach. Not ideal, but common." He tsks slightly as he finishes the second circle.

"What would have been ideal, then?" I ask, frustratedly watching him draw his third circle. It is not until he finishes that he answers.

"I told you, didn't I? A long time ago it may seem, but I told you to pick a single specialty and just go as far as you can in that. If you had truly one teacher, and you truly mastered their skills faster than they could teach, then they would have found you someone better. This would have continued until you had someone who could teach you at your pace, and probably in more skills than you have currently." He concludes, as the fourth circle is finished.

"I get that, I guess." I grump, then huff. "Wouldn't I have stagnated though? Could I have gotten as far as I have if I followed that path?"

"Yes, at first it would be slower, but then, with your drive and a teacher able to keep up, you would have soared past your current level. I imagine you could stand a much better chance against a number of the more powerful people whom I know if you followed that path. But you did not. Instead you chose the hard road - unknowingly and certain it would reap greater rewards." He finishes the fifth circle.

"You did not know, of course. It is simply impossible for somebody who is not one of us to teach another who is actually one of the exceptional few. This often causes frustration and mental issues down the line, at least for those being taught by those who can't teach the pupil fast enough. It either crushes the pupil's desire to learn, or makes them learn on their own, which is incredibly dangerous." He finishes the sixth circle.

"Why is it dangerous?" I ask, curiously He smiles.

"Because, the student will sometimes find they're able to learn faster alone, as you did. Or they'll learn their teacher doesn't know or understand some inherent trick they grasp as easily breathing. They feel as though they have been stifled and held back. This ultimately only harms them." He finishes the Seventh circle and then begins filling them in with words.

"Harms them because they're tempted to become reclusive hermits who never ask for help, so when they fall into the deep end of magic, they can't hope to stay afloat." I guess. He nods.

"So we have a basic understanding that magic is dangerous, and that doing it alone can cause you issues. Well, it has already caused you issues. Your current depression is a moderate expression of the issue you're facing." He finishes the paper then folds it so I can't read it, and continues before I can ask a question. "What you are doing is ultimately a form of very basic soul Magic. Think of it like the first soul magic that humans created. What they did not realize they were doing was that the first act of killing broke a protection their soul had inherently." He tells me, taking another parchment with a diagram on it and showing it to me, it looks like a sphere of threads, all different colors, woven together. "Let's say this is a soul. In killing, the killer is untethering their souls. When you untether your soul it means that various protections upon your soul come off. You take the ball out of the box, so to speak." He taps the picture of the ball.

"What does killing mean to a soul? Outside of being something morally bad, I never thought it had a major repercussion other than being used in Horcrux theory, but that requires a ritual to use the killing to break your soul." I grumble, and he shakes his head, no.

"Of course that is a good question. It's not something obvious unless you've been in the ICW and seen what happens when the spirit of a mass-murderer or Horcrux user is attempted to be summoned. Your soul is inherently weakened when you kill another sapient creature. Something you can recognize as intelligent and hold a conversation with." He pauses to let that sink in. So, every goblin and the people from the last year, lets say. Each one counts to whatever toll this is. Dragons too, I guess. Somewhere around four-thousand? Probably. Then he continues and I watch as the picture of the ball starts to get little nicks inflicted on it by a simple illusion Dumbledore casts on it.

"The end result of this weakening is the interior workings of your soul are exposed and with every sentient life you thereafter take is enough to put a small cut on your soul. This is something like a paper cut would be on your physical body. It is not very detrimental or harmful in the long run although obviously if you accumulate a very large number of these it would indeed be very debilitating." Again he pauses and I realize what he's saying.

I have, basically, given myself four thousand paper cuts - at a low estimate - and am proverbially bleeding out. No wonder I feel like trash! "It would be very painful for you to live a normal life with an average day-to-day life. This is where Dark Wizards and Witches actually come from. You can probably figure out why." He concludes, and I nod.

"Dark Wizards and Witches, by this logic, are ultimately people who use magic for combat and then discover that it hurts and it feels bad. They don't like that, but they do like fighting. This results ultimately in using magic to fix the issue. The easiest way to stop feeling something is to magic it away. Removing emotions, or suppressing them can be easy with the right magic. Of course, living in this state would damage your empathy. You'd lack the ability to truly feel the consequences of your actions in this state. At the highest level, well, we can see what happens to Voldemort." Dumbeldore nods happily as I conclude the point he's been leading me to.

Why isn't this some common knowledge or part of the basic curriculum? "I see you have questions, and I have guesses as to what they are, so I will tell you a story and hope it answers them. When I was young, I came to the conclusion that dark magic was not worth it. I came to this conclusion, as I alluded earlier, I came across the recordings of people who can summon spirits to talk with." I nod in understanding. It would be an incredibly complex thing, but confirmation that it could be done was good.

"Most interestingly that a number of Souls of the most foul dog Wizards who have gone down this route cannot be summoned." He pauses. "For example, you cannot find Herpo the Foul's spirit in the afterlife, you cannot find Gregorian the Vile's soul in the afterlife, and there are more. The worst of the worst can result in the death of whoever tried to summon the spirit. The best is they get knocked into a short coma. This is why I really do not recommend people to go down a killing, bloody, route. Explaining this before someone has knowledge of soul magic, how they work and why, will result in disbelief." He sighs sadly. "I've tried to explain this to others before and they never believed me." As he finishes, the ball of previously colorful thread is in tatters. He looks at the image and winces, and I realize that is no simple illusion.

"What.." I can feel myself giving him a genuinely confused look. I have some ideas but -

"Your soul." He says, then sighs. "You should be in such an immense amount of anguish - mentally - that I'm concerned you are not, apparently." He queries a bit sharply.

"Rituals. I think. Salazar designed them and he was no stranger to killing." I remind him quietly, considering the rituals. Yes, there had been a sort of soul defense in there. Dumbledore nods slowly.

"The trigger? I thought…" He sighs. "Well, a good thing you came when you did. Much more and you would have likely gone mad from the strain - ritual or no. Souls are not meant to be ripped up like this." He shakes the paper angrily. I nod mutely, more ashamed than ever at what I had done. He just stares at me. Waiting for me to ask a question.

"Well, I may be ashamed to ask - but I think I should - can you help?" I ask meekly, feeling about 2 years old, and getting caught drawing with crayon on the wall. Humiliated. I'd been so daft.

"Oh yes, I have an aide for your healing. It will not fix.." He shakes the paper again in exasperation this time "But it will help." In a smooth motion, the Headmaster put a vial full of clear liquid on the table. To me it almost looked like water. Intensely magical water. After a moment, it clicked. I leaned back in shock, as the revelation hit me.

"Just so I can feel less pain?" I ask disbelief seeping into my tone. He nods, then gives me the saddest look, eyes sparkling with that angry fire, dulled a bit by the sorrow.

"No one deserves to live a life filled with pain the likes of which you would endure. Take the cure, and spend two months in safety. No killing, just train yourself and slowly expand your power.

I nodded, and then accepted the vial of phoenix tears. He unfolded the paper with the circles on it right after.

"This is what I was talking about earlier, when it comes to not reaching past our limits." He taps the innermost circle and I see "Animal" written there.

"This is a hierarchy of how strong the gods actually designed us to be. Animals are food for the sentient - though some of the sentient masses decide to eat only vegetables, which is acceptable. Next you have…" and he taps non-magical sentients. I nod.

"The workers, right?"

"If we're going off of the strict caste system, then yes. These are the manual laborers. Then?" He taps the third circle.

"Minorly magical people. So people or species who have some magic but not as much as people who are fully magical. Squibs would fit here, right?" I question, having an idea of where this is going and not really liking it.

"Yes, and goblins." He agrees. I nod.

"Fourth is magical people." I comment, thinking about it. "Normal mages, then?" He nods again.

"Fifth is powerfully magical people - this is where you and I sit. We are what amounts to the people who should be in charge of major areas, but beneath the rulers, who are.." I pause as I run the calculations through my head. Then blink.

"Inherently superior races." I grumble, understanding. Devils, Angels, Primordials. They were meant to rule, we were meant to follow orders and then..?

The seventh circle - Gods.

They, of course, control the show. Makes sense.

"This isn't how it turned out." I comment blandly. He nods in agreement.

"Free will. Those bottom five did not like toiling under the sixth, so we threw them out. Then there were the battles for racial supremacy over the world. The Humans won. Then the non-magical peoples decided they didn't like having to deal with us, and tried to exterminate us, so we went into hiding. Now the non magical people…" He taps the second ring three times "Rule the world. In my youth I came across this information when Gellert and I cobbled together the rituals to allow us to pass the normal human limits. We thought we should try to return everything to how it was…" He shakes his head, in apparent disgust with himself while I listen attentively once again. "When you try to be more than a person, though, to control other people because it's your job. History shows the outcome of this choice, however. You will likely die." He tells me, and I nod along, confused. Leading through power isn't the answer, but if that's true, then what is the answer? How can I make sure the world doesn't just fall apart?

I have a lot to think about. Seeing he's inspired me to think - Dumbledore asks me to come back if I have questions, and dismisses me.

The reset is, thereafter, spent with a tense Harry. He's blatantly confused about how to treat me, and is openly weary of my objectives, but accepting of his training. Regardless of this - I try to keep it clear to him I'm only here to help and to show him nothing but support and help while I'm with him, training. Towards the end of the month this seems to pay off, as he's much less weary of me. It's interesting what I found out while working with mine and Harry's Divine regalia - the thing is, mine is insanely good at anything which might fit into the purview for time. As an example, this is basically all kinds of dimensionalism, which is really good for my plans to make a private Room of Requirement, but with time dilation capabilities.

Considering the fact that I have the Regalia designed to manipulate time, I'm pretty sure that I can make a Room of Requirement with time dilation effects, given time. Meanwhile, Harry having the War and Death Regalia, which is superior with all magic that could in any way harm something means he'll advance at an improved rate. He's mildly lucky here, as combat magic in particular is something that every culture has developed to an insane degree. It's common in every culture's Magic, and should be easy to teach him.

So, in short, the regalia are opposites - Harry's Regalia is all about being directly useful in combat while mine is more useful for anything that's out of combat. A support, insofar as I can tell anyhow.

Every single thing that I learned about time and dimensions seems to point in the direction that it is not designed to help me fight people directly. The primary issue with all of this, of course, is that Harry is quickly catching up to me in terms of practical ability in a fight.

With combat magic training for the month, what we've found is that common magic alone is good for winning fights, but non-combat abilities are absolutely required to win at the highest level of play. Sleight of hand, martial arts, dancing, knowledge of the terrain, ability to create and alter terrain… all of this and more plays a part.

All that to say, while in a straight up fight I could lose to Harry, I have way too many skills which are not directly related to combat, whereas he's been working on only combat skills with his mentor. This is something that I find inherently interesting, clearly even with all of my work as a prodigy, Dumbledore was correct. His skill being honed by another Prodigy that is superior to myself in skill was more valuable, even with a delay. Even with making nearly a flawless routine with the assistance of others who are not prodigies. Anyone who pours everything into it could potentially follow, if at a decreased rate of learning. They could still follow the rough path I'd followed… I have no idea what Harry's training was, but it was clearly superior to my own. Only my experience lets me appear to be the better of us in direct combat.

This is all to say, while my routine may be close to flawless, to the standards of any prodigy who has a lifetime of experience and knowledge in their limits training another with those same limits, the prodigy being taught will have a better outcome than the one who is being taught by people who are inherently more limited.

As the month is coming to a close, though, I must admit I'm seeing growth better than what I've seen since I was in my last World Championship. This, unlike that, however isn't just combat skills - this growth is in all skills. I find myself impressed, because the fact of the matter is, I don't see that kind of growth ever anymore. Honestly, it's almost intoxicating.

The sole downside is that there isn't anything else happening while I'm training. I don't know exactly what effects my actions have had over this month, aside from no deaths of anyone I care about.

Time is passing by and I am growing, yes, but I'm not getting closer to tangibly achieving any of my goals. I'm not finding anybody else who has any of the regalia, I'm not figuring out where the other regalia are, I'm not getting connections to help further my political goals… all these things worry me and, while theoretically with the time dilation effect that I'm under I do have infinite time to train, I can't help but worry when I know that it's not infinite - this won't last forever. Still, it is interesting because other things that I check up on while I'm taking a break from training gives me Quests.

Quest

The Eye of Shadow part 1

Objective:

Don't Die

Bonus Objective:

Destroy the people trying to kill you

Reward:

Part 2, Favor of the East

Hatred with Hua-Sha province + title "Feared by the Agents"

Bonus Rewards:

Advantages for part two + title "Liberator Of The Bloodline"

Which only serves to reinforce my belief that Quests only generate when you hit a certain trigger. Knowing something is an issue won't make one. Deciding to deal with the issue won't make one. What I think makes a quest is if you'll get renown from it, if your legend will be spread due to the completion of the quest. Understanding that is important, but proving it with examples is more so to me. I like the feeling of being proven right.

Obviously, trying a quest chock full of secrets is rather dangerous. Perhaps more importantly, why are these people trying to kill me and how can I complete this Quest at minimal cost to myself? One way is to figure out exactly where the people hunting me are and then preempt their attacks on me, and probably try to get rid of them in an unreasonably short, difficult and deadly manner…

But I have months to figure all that out of course, and it'll only be one month to these people because I can rewind time to a certain extent, although the effect of such is strictly limited and I don't really control when it happens, it still will be a benefit to me and not to them as I will remember and they will not.

Of course, when I was ambushed at the end of the month, as I suspected I would be, I didn't expect anything less than 30 assassins. When I was met with exactly what I expected I couldn't help but grin. Maybe this time they'll actually be able to fight back, I'd thought.

I was disappointed, because it's after I have finished knocking out the last of the four assassins that were seemingly leading this raid, that I grimaced with extreme sadness.

These four leaders were good but they weren't as good as I have become after all the years that I've been training my skills and due to the secrecy with which I have trained myself, they've appeared to stop me altogether too late.

The lot of them added together had the advantage, they weren't a cohesive unit, though. Therefore they hesitated, trying to not get into each other's way, and this hesitation did not allow them to fight me properly.

This… it's the feeling of sadness that one might have upon realizing that they don't have many equals left. The feeling that all archmagi which I have known in my last life, along with the ranger generals, high paladins, hierophant's and grand heroes, had all known. We all got fucked over as time went on, no one would be willing to be our friends or genuinely oppose us, at least not publicly. We'd only ever get a call for help or be given any time of day outside of platitudes when the world was ending.

Never would anybody support us either if they thought that they could get away with being against us, they would always do it because they feared we were too powerful. We might become the next thing that tries to end the world - who knows with crazy, powerful people who can make literal wishes come true?

The only way out is to make your own family, I've found. People who are just as strong as you are - after all if you don't have people who are your equals to surround yourself with, then you will be alone forever, that's why I made sure to get all of these friends before I became powerful. I will help to raise them up to my level if I can, and if I cannot then I will try to make sure that they are as powerful as they can possibly be.

In truth, it almost makes me feel like I'm a governess of a territory again... now wait that's a good idea!

Quest gained:

Avalon Mark 2.

Objective: Make a largely magical Community where you are in charge.

Bonus objectives: Have a district for; Dwarves, Centaurs, Merfolk, House Elves, Dragonkin, Kitsune, Elementals, Angels, Devils, Primordials, Veela, Leprechauns, Gods, Aspects,?

Rewards, 1,000 EXP per family of non-humans in the city.

Bonus rewards; + 3/10 reputation with species in question, +50 to a magical skill related to the species, demesne improvements per population of Elemental or higher and every 100 pops of Dwarf, House Elf, Kitsune, Merfolk or Dragonkin.

Failure; -1 relationship with all Gods and Aspects.

I love this quest! This magical City should be relatively central, which means Eastern Europe most likely, perhaps Bulgaria will do. I'll have to do some research into this.

Maybe the Finnish mountains? While not much is going to be going on over there, and it is a bit too far north for my needs, it would be beautiful! If I can get approval to build a house there as well… I think Muirin and Myron, with their house connections and Scandinavia, could help…

Well with my knowledge of where the lost School is, I should be able to win them over with a little sting-pulling.

I should make a list of issues I could run into. Let's start with accommodations for the races!

I lose myself in my plotting for a good hour before subject number one begins waking up. Let's see if we can find out what's going on with all of these assassins at least from somebody who isn't just another grunt. Or the grunts, I guess. I didn't kill anyone, after all, and I only have five hours before the reset…