Around the same time as the World Event in Solkira, back in Milith’s home universe on the planet Valiere, a young-looking girl was walking alone in the thick and hilly forest the dominated the region called Varixyies. Most of the people in her home village thought her to be a highly accomplished High Mage at the tender age of sixteen soon to be seventeen. Nowadays she went by the name of Arlie Contrey, but that was merely the latest in a long line of incarnations. She was rather short for her believed age and race, at 135 cm tall, her figure was predominately childlike with one major exception her rather large chest. Long Dark brown almost black hair fell to her waist. Her eyes were a piercing black in color, and showed the depths of countless millennia of experience.

For she was not the young human girl she seemed to be. She was actually a 5,371,233-year-old Solean lord and the last of a group of Solean lords known as the First Lords. As such her height wasn’t as odd as it seemed since Soleans weren’t exactly known for being tall. Nor had she always been a girl, she had originally been a man. Although she quickly found that there was no way she could enjoy her retirement without people bothering her. So she had changed her gender eight hundred thousand years ago, and masked her magical signature.

Anyway, none of that was important today. Today she had left the Village of Voros to collect some medicinal plants and raw gel from the Solune Bulbs. It was just part of her normal routine, something she was throwing herself more wholeheartedly into than normal. Mostly since she was trying to ignore the war raging in her galaxy. The Solean Empire a nation that she had founded herself over five million years ago when she was still young was currently at war with another power called the Liritian Star Union. She knew that she could easily stop the war if she interfered, but by doing so she would deprive both powers of an experience they need to grow. The Empire’s current Supreme Protector was his daughter and during her time on the throne, she had not fought a major war and needed the experience to grow. As for the Liritians until recently they had no neighbors that could truly match them, and needed the challenges the Empire would give them to drive them forward.

She was still thinking of the burdens of being an elder when she reached the Solune grove. Passing through a magical barrier, she entered the grove. The barrier had been placed there by one of her previous incarnations to protect the grove, and to ensure no one was stupid enough to enter the grove without proper protections. Solunes were known carriers of nasty if typically non-lethal parasitic virus called Bovi. As a Solean she was naturally immune to the virus, but the virus wasn’t the only reason for the barrier. The gel that occasionally erupts from the bulb of a mature Solune plant is tainted with a nasty toxin that is easily absorbed through the skin and is only partially counteracted by the regenerative compounds in the gel. A toxin that few species can resist, and hers was not one of them. The toxin like the Solune plant was the product of genetic engineering. Approaching the nearest plant she coated herself in a mana barrier. Carefully she massaged the plant coaxing the gel out of the bulb, before scooping it into a jar.

She had brought a half dozen jars with her since that was the amount she needed to replenish her stocks. She had used up her supply of gel, yesterday thanks to an accident a hunting party had. She was had just filled the last jar when she sensed something odd. Making sure the seal was tight she stuffed it into her bag, and headed towards the oddity. Passing over old gnarled roots and weaving her way around the trees and up and down the hills with practiced ease, it didn’t take long to get near the oddity. The first she noticed of the oddity was a man grumbling rather loudly, “Cursed trees and rocks! Ouch, how the hell can anyone live in this cursed forest! It's nothing but overgrown trees and rocks. What foul god decided that they wanted a forest on a giant collection of steep hills without a spec of flat land.”

“Put a sock in it, Tom! We’re not far from the road, a little further and it should be a smooth walk all the way to Arcs,” said another man.

“I don’t care, I hate this entire region! Why can’t we just go back!!?” said Tom.

“We barely escaped that dragon with our lives and treasure, and you want to go back!!? Are you nuts!!?” said the second man. Just as Arlie got close enough to take a look. It was a group of four men, all of them clearly mages. One of which appeared to be decently powerful, and he was pulling behind him a floating cage. In the cage was a creature she recognized instantly as an Arusi Arachne. She was clearly quite young, most likely a hatchling stolen from her mother. She was about 35 cm tall, with the upper body of a young girl. Her lower body was that of a spider and had six legs. Her lower body was covered with a shiny carapace, but it was likely quite soft. She had green hair that fell just a centimeter past her shoulders a cute face with large green eyes. Her skin was a healthy creamy tan, and she was entirely naked. Not surprising since the Arusi had an instinctive dislike of clothing. Which was strongest when they were young.

Arlie could just read their minds and instantly know what these four men were up to. But where is the fun in that? So instead, she called from her spot in the trees.

“Cursing the gods and their decisions is utterly foolish. Only a fool curses the gods, because if they are listening and take offense, well let’s just say you will never know happiness again,” said Arlie.

“What is a little girl like you, be doing in the middle of the forest?” said one of the men, not really noticing her chest under her thick brown and blue mages robes.

“Just because I’m a little short doesn’t mean I’m a child, you idiot! As for what I’m doing here I’m the village mage and I’m collecting medicinal ingredients. The real question is what you are doing here?” replied Arlie.

“A village!? Here!!? In this godforsaken forest? Who the hell would want to live here other than maybe Elves?” said Tom.

“Oh, a mage? At your age very impressive little girl. Would you care to show us the quickest way to the road? My irritable friend here is a little sore because his feet hurt, and I’m sure he would be happier on the road,” said the older man with the cage, his voice laced with a subtle form of mind magic. As for the cage, he had quickly cast a basic illusion spell on it the moment Arlie spoke up. “Oh, a Mind Mage how quaint! Poor, poor foolish child that trick might work on the young, but I have been studying the magical arts since long before you were born. You will need to try a lot harder than that to affect me,” thought Arlie.

“I already told your other friend that I’m not a little girl! I’ll consider leading you to the road, but first I would like to know what you are doing so far from the road,” replied Arlie. The older man with the cage’s expression quickly morphed from the friendly mask through several different emotions before settling on anger. The man shouted a word in the old tongue that roughly translated to mean Greater Bind Mind. A slave spell, that binds the target to the will of the caster. Arlie simply raised a finger and reached out with her power and caught the bolt mid-air.

“Mind enslaving magic, and a pretty decent one at that. You know child you should really judge your opponents more carefully. You’re lucky I don’t like to kill when I don’t have to,” said Arlie as she disassembled the bolt. Then she crafted four bolts of magic, which she flung into the men. Instantly the men vanished, the cage falling to the ground.

“Enjoy your one way trip to the Infernal Plane, I hear it is lovely there this time of year,” said Arlie as she headed over to the cage. Freeing the young spider girl, she found her to be a bit frightened but otherwise in perfect health. The girl was too young to speak, so she looked into her mind and saw through her eyes what the men had done.

Apparently a few weeks ago, the men had attacked her mother's nest, slaughtered her mom’s harem and killed her sisters. All in front of the girl, before kidnapping her. The girl was understandable still distraught over this, but it didn’t show outwardly because of a mind spell that had been cast on her. To Arlie, the spell was really amateurish work, and it was clearly designed more to control the girl than to protect her health.

Arlie decided at that moment that banishing them to the Infernal plane was quite appropriate considering what they were doing to a baby. Immediately she went to work undoing the Mind Mage’s work. It took her about an hour to properly unravel his spell work, then she moved on to her own. Gently she erased the traumatic memory of her family being slaughtered in front of her from her young mind. Then she imprinted the girl onto her, to make her recognize her as a mother figure. She left all of the girl’s other memories alone and replaced the last few weeks with a less traumatic series of events to help explain why she was with a caretaker and not her mother. Something that she wouldn’t need to do for a Human, but Arusi are born with perfect memory and never forget anything.

When she was done, she started heading home carrying the girl. Who she had learned had been named Ren by her mother. However, the girl quickly told her she was hungry. She didn’t bring food with her, and even if she had the girl was too young for solid food. Which led to one choice left. Directing a bit of magic to her breasts, she forced herself to start lactating and began to breastfeed the little girl on the way back. “I never thought I would do this again,” thought Arlie thinking back to her last daughter Milith’s mother Ariala.