Things moved quickly after Altair had gotten barely enough Mana to use her Teleportation Magic again. Because of the need for combat clothes that were comfortable, Renald went out of his way to have some new armor and bags made for Altair to return with. He also made sure that they were made to look like they were from the ancient era, claiming that his child wanted to try on authentic medieval armors. He even had new daggers forged for her as well.

All of this new equipment was prepared and deposited at the site he had chosen for Altair to go to in order for her to "better recover from her injuries" that he had set up for this purpose. He even set his most trusted Black Agents that the Marnithok family had to be on standby at the location.

Since only Altair would be the one staying there and, due to the fact that she would vanish without a trace for a while, he needed people who were never registered into the Empire's military database to guard her. These Black Agents are the elite guards of the Marnithok family and would only ever be brought out for classified missions.

Every noble family had their own Black Agents. Only the head of the family could tell them what to do and knew what they were up to at any point. Donel used to be one of these Black Agents before Renald's father moved him to a more suitable position in the family.

Regardless, Renald prepared everything and made sure to let Sarah know about it after returning Altair from the fake treatment.

Altair looked like she normally did when she returned to her room. She had covered her eyes with her Shadow Magic, as she often did when she was infiltrating a Human town. It cost barely any Mana to maintain, but it did make her eyes black instead of the brown she had before. However, neither Stacey nor Sarah noticed and they were the two who sepnt the most time with her.

Or, perhaps, they just didn't say anything about it.

When Altair was returned to her room, Renald announced to them that he would have to take her to a specialist facility for further treatment in a week and that the treatment should last a month if it was successful. He also didn't forget to mention that Altair might not survive the treatment, in case she never returned.

He was taking a huge gamble in letting her go. But, even if he stopped her, assuming the curse she spoke of was real he would still end up losing the tool in the end. There wasn't even enough time to breed her either, given how close that end was. He had no choice but to have a little trust in her at this point, even though he really didn't want to as he barely knew her.

Altair herself became listless when she returned to her room. She no longer wanted to watch anything as her thoughts were consumed about her imminent return home. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about what she should do first when she got back. She also wondered how the war was going. It was like she was conserving her energy for when she returned.

She just spaced out for hours on end. Whenever Stacey or Sarah spoke to her she only gave non-committal responses. It was obvious that she wasn't paying any attention no matter the subject.

This worried Stacey, who brought up several ideas with Sarah on how to deal with the issue. They then quickly plotted several activities they believed would snap her out of her melancholy. Stacey had assumed it was because of Altair's possible death soon that she was acting like that, so she wanted to cheer her up.

During the week, they took Altair out to see several different movies and to visit various shops at The Hub. They spared no effort in their attempts to pull Altair's attention back to them but it all ended in failure.

Altair was just in no mood to be entertained. She only wanted to exercise before she went back in order to make sure she was in the best shape she could be.

She had already planned out what she would do when she returned.

The first thing she would do was to return to the Coalition Headquarters. In fact, she planned to use her Teleportation Magic to get there right away. She would then inform the Council of Four of everything she had been through and give them a thorough report as to what she could bring back from the Empire to help them with the war. Then, she would acquire the antidote she needed to curse the Mana Sealing Poison. After that, she would head out to a far town and do some information gathering on that degenerate Human she ran into.

From there, she couldn't say what would happen.

The first night after she regained her Eyes was a very pleasant one for Altair. Because, when she recovered her normal eyes, she found that she could see in the dark again. Even though the room was dim at night before, now she could see everything as if it was during the day. This only made her feel more complete.

Towards the end of the week, Altair wound up passing out randomly when Sarah was taking care of her while Noel was fetching her lunch. She only woke up after Noel had returned and found that she had slept for about an hour.

After the week was up, Renald came to get her.

Stacey and Sarah saw her off at the entrance to the mansion with watery eyes. Donel gave her a warm smile as he gave her words of encouragement for what was to come. Noel only bowed respectfully but Altair could see guilt in her eyes for some reason.

Before she went aboard the cruiser, Sarah handed a satchel made of leather to Altair. It was, oddly for her, an unadorned leather satchel. She told Altair that she should look at the contents when she arrives at the treatment facility.

It wasn't the time to find out why she looked that way though.

Altair was pushed into the cruiser and Renald entered after her. The moment the door was closed, Altair got off the chair and started stretching. It was the first time she could do so in quite a while due to the cover story that Renald had given her.

Renald opened a large suitcase that was on the table in the cruiser while she was doing so and said, "I had these prepared for you. Since you obviously can't go back in a dress, I had them modeled after what we found you in."

Altair looked over as she smelled the scent of new leather and saw a dirty brown leather cuirass sitting at the top of the contents. Renald had made sure that the armor was made to look well worn and battered when it was actually new.

Altair stopped her stretching and quickly approached the contents. She placed her hand upon the leather and felt the familiar texture under her fingers. She then pulled out the cuirass that was on top and examined it.

It really looked like a suit of well worn leather armor. It had no adornments, just like the one she had worn when she came to the Empire. But she could tell. It wasn't made cheaply like what she used to wear. It was made expertly and from a type of leather she was not familiar with. She had no idea how good it was compared to what she had before.

Renald continued while she examined the armor, "You didn't bring any currency with you so I couldn't make any counterfeit money. But, since you can Teleport around, if you want food or supplies feel free to return to where I'm taking you. The guards there are all trained to know that everything they see is a secret that they carry to their graves. But, do not show your Magic before them still, just in case."

Altair put the cuirass aside while saying, "My kind doesn't trade with money." She then picked up the next item in the case and pulled it out. It was a plain, white silk shirt that resembled the shirt that Altair had worn before, except it was spotless. Immediately underneath the shirt were the daggers that were prepared before. Altair quickly set the shirt aside before picking one of them up and examining it.

'These are..'

Unlike the daggers she used before, these ones were perfectly balanced. They were also made of a strange blue metal that she had never seen before. The edges of the daggers were serrated, which confused Altair. She had no idea what purpose that was supposed to serve and it showed on her face.

She didn't ask about it thought and simply returned the dagger to its sheath before turning back to Renald and saying, "I will probably just hunt what I can while I'm there."

Renald gave her an odd look before saying, "I should have figured you'd be able to do something like.

Altair closed up the case after returning the few items she looked at. She didn't expect to receive anything before she left and she wasn't sure why they were prepared in the first place. She expected to have to hunt some creatures when she arrived to have their leather turned into armor and clothing for herself.

But, now she had received a gift in preparation for her return. And it looked similar to everything she had before, probably to avoid any questions people might have. Even though she had no intention of hiding where she had been all this time, she still felt thankful for them. They were, most likely, better than what she could acquire back on her world.

'I can't believe I have to thank a Human,' she thought to herself as a silence descended upon the cruiser. She wanted to give her thanks for the gift she received but couldn't immediately do it. Something was stopping her from doing so and she didn't know entirely what it was.

After a long while, when Altair had already returned to her seat, she finally quietly muttered, "..Thank you."