Private Journey of Solitude (Solo thread)

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

Ingrid went to practice alone, Kveld didn't accompany her, which she didn't mind at all. It is not certain that the animal would have endured well if he had to see the dead animals to move. The wolf may not have understood what it was. To tell the truth, the woman was tired and wanted to relax, but it was such a luxury that she couldn’t afford it. She had to practice and develop.

After all, when else would she have practiced something like this? When she is in the Eternal Empire, she is bound by the affairs of the Empire, and in her spare time she is occupied by either Tubrok or Adrian. She remembered that they had been slowly thinking about having a child with her husband for a year or maybe even earlier. Now wouldn't be the time to do that. She wasn’t the kind of person who would prioritize a child over work, for her work was her life. Even if the two men don’t understand this. Or they just don’t want to understand this.

She stopped at the place Kveld had shown earlier that many animal remains could also be found here. She reached into the Force and began to cast spells. Through necromancy, she felt the bones and corpses nearby, not only were animals here, but also the "human" inhabitants of the planet. However, she did not deal with them. She was able to bring back their bones as an unconscious puppet, but she was now interested in animals.

Continued to cast spells, having previously “resurrected” wolves here on the planet for their bones, but that was different now. Now she tried in greater proportions and more. She could feel and hear the ice and snow crackle, begin to break under her feet and farther as animals of different sizes climbed out of the frost. Different creatures from the very tiny to the huge, from different ages. There were at least three dozen animals around her.

The spell was created, Ingrid sank exhausted into the snow as the animals watched silently, motionless. After that, she tried to control them, and they listened to her word, they did what the red-haired woman told them. They acted in the same way as those whose summoning was taught to her by AMCO . She’ll try these again tomorrow, but until then, she didn’t need them.

She let them “die”, the magic dissipated, the bones fell into the snow, and she went back to her shelter. There she even had to deal with meat and other things, frying meat, serving, and then when she was done, she fell asleep almost immediately after a little dinner.

​

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

Ingrid had a perfect idea of what she was going to do out there in the city the next day. Usually, if a person has such ideas, for some reason it will not happen. Well, that's exactly what the lady did today, nothing. Now that she was in town, she could hear at night how the wind hissed out between the buildings. And in the morning, nothing could be seen due to the pouring snowfall and the strong wind.

There was enough fuel here now, so the woman didn’t have to worry about it, and they were seen with plenty of food. From both berries and meat. She was starting to miss the more varied diet a bit, but she didn’t have to spend that much time here anymore, she could finally go home soon, but she would have to endure a few more days. The red-haired woman was already past two-thirds of the trial, there wasn’t that much left.

To actually recover from the illness, staying home for a day may even come in handy for her, but she sure won’t make her condition worse. Kveld wasn't so bothered by a snowstorm, so he went out because he saw other wolves nearby and went to meet with them. This didn’t bother the woman, if Kveld didn’t want to stay with her, the wolf was a free animal, he would stay with them and go with them.

However, since Ingrid was locked up and though she had reached far enough with the spell, she had a different idea. She didn’t have to go very far for alchemy and for the various poisons she can create with alchemy. She also read about this and had theoretical knowledge, she knew that very interesting things could be created from it. She could get as much water as there was quite a lot of ice and snow here. So then she set out to deal with it.

At first, she created things she had already read about, using hand gestures and words to do so. These were mostly drinks that accelerated regeneration or just gave more endurance. Nothing complicated, they would have required other components. In any case, she spent the whole day doing this because the snowfall didn’t subside out there.

She could only hope that it wouldn’t be multi-day now, but that she would stop tomorrow and be able to continue practicing outside with the undead animals.

​

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

As has been the case here recently, snowstorms and bad weather didn’t last for a single day. The next day it all got worse, the wind was blowing harder, not to mention that the snowfall was even more intense. Ash has now been mixed into it, because the wind has turned and volcanic ash has brought it to it. Not to mention that that neighbourhood has become more active again.

The animals used to feel this, which may have been the reason Kveld returned to the woman in the middle of the night, in a rather restless state. As far as he could tell, he tried to get Ingrid's attention to the departure. As the storm got stronger out there, it was impossible to make it go out. She didn't really know what to do, so she went back to sleep. The night was quiet anyway after all this.

In the morning, this was far from the same, as she woke up to a stronger earthquake. The only luck was that she chose a more stable building for herself so it didn’t collapse, but she could still hear the crackling of metal and wood from afar. Through the crevices, she saw the largest ruined building through which she also saw the area collapse, dragging with it the other buildings nearby.

Through the Force, she felt the animals flee, saw the earth open in several places, huge cracks had formed in the area, from which poison gas and sulfur had risen. The whole quake lasted for long minutes, ruining almost the entire city. The woman's life was saved by choosing a low-rise building that was stable and had one floor. She didn't really have a place to crash.

However, the snowfall was too heavy so she couldn’t really go outside. She knew a solution, but it wasn't long-lived either. The dopplegänger “died” out there very soon because it couldn’t stand the adversity. Because of this, most of the woman’s day was spent trying to make her shelter safer and getting ready to leave town and find a safer place for herself as soon as the snowfall finally stopped.

Provided there was any safe place anywhere on this planet.

​

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

The twenty-third day.

If she counted it as zero when she arrived on the planet. If it is first, it is the twenty-fourth. In any case, she only had to endure one week here, no more. Ingrid hoped the whole place wouldn't collapse beneath her, or if it did, she would be evacuated. In that case, she was not interested in her trial, she wanted to believe that her life was more important than making her Lord Commander. For it is not certain that the Eternal Empire would have survived if she had also died. She just hoped that during her stay here, Tacitus would return home.

Kessia could have played for a long time, of course, but Ingrid was smarter than her bodyguard. And in the long run, she thought completely differently. Returning to the present, the earth shook again at night. Not as strongly as the night before, but for much longer. It may have been deeper in the epicentre of the quake, or farther away. It didn’t really matter, just that this city wasn’t safe anymore and they really had to go further.

The only positive was that the snowfall was really over. At least, if nothing else, it was certain they were two days old. However, they had to move fast and make a lot of progress. In the morning, the red-haired woman quickly packed up all their belongings and they could set off. Kveld wanted to run to get away from this place, but the wolf was too small to be used for riding, but at that moment something came to her mind.

She saw an undead animal fit for equestrian two days ago when she experimented with necromancy. Hopefully this will be perfect for riding because to capture and tame a taun-taun. So out on the outskirts of the city, among the ruins of the buildings, she with necromancy and sith magic brought back two yak-like animals as undead. One was meant to carry the gear, and the other was ridden by the woman.

Kveld had no problem rushing for many hours, so they got far enough away from the area. However, there were fissures on the ground, traces of fleeing animals everywhere, even further afield. There was really nowhere to go according to these. And this was supported by the landing evening, when volcanoes waking up in all other directions except the direction of the ocean could be seen. From what they saw, they were trapped from essentially all directions.

And the ground shook unstoppably under their feet.

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[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

Ingrid didn't really want much more than the forces of nature to leave her alone, but she had no such luck. The ground was now shaking under her feet, without stopping. There was a growing feeling that Wardens wanted to kill her, and the trial was just a disguise so they could consolidate their takeover while she was away. The awakening of a cursed super-volcano must have had a trace. She should have chosen the planet herself and not left to them.

Now any advice from AMCO (other than to leave the planet that was not easy in the present situation) would have been really great if the Sith Lord could have said something about how to slow down or stop this process. Actually, the worst part of it all was that there was nowhere to run. Even if she’s lucky and manages to get out of this chimney, the eruption of this something can make the whole planet uninhabitable, or at least most of it.

In a few days, even on an undead yak capable of continuous movement, she can’t get far enough to survive. She looked up at the sky, was there anyone in space watching what was happening? Will they intervene or will they really wait for thirty days. In fact, the woman didn’t want any more benefits, she didn’t want to shorten it, but she didn’t want to die either. So she didn’t even give up, she really wanted to stay until she was sure she was going to die. Ingrid didn’t want to give up after that either, but it was a situation where she could do anything, not win.

What was survivable survived, but it is no longer. Most of all she could do was try to survive. So, in fact, her day was spent looking for a relatively safe place where nothing could go wrong. The air temperature today was warmer than ever, closer to frost than ever. In places, the ice and snow under her feet were already melting. Elsewhere, flowers began to appear. Whatever is done here will happen very, very quickly.

With the help of Kveld, they found a somewhat safer place, and they had been on it all day, it was even better in the evening that everything was steaming, the ground was warm, and it was warming the air. Nevertheless, the earth shook without stopping, the red-haired woman saw the earth crack in the distance, the air filled with the smell of sulphur. She could only hope they were still alive in the morning. And the next day they will have to go to the taiga part to see if the air is better there than here…

​

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

This night was no better than the previous one, the ground was still shaking without stopping. Sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, but one thing was certain until the end that didn’t want to stop. Fortunately, it didn’t get any stronger than what was the strongest before. And out here, the duo didn’t have to worry about something falling on them, or just being buried in an avalanche, or a tsunami coming from the ocean. The water surface was too far away for that, or at least a very good chance.

The next morning the air was even warmer, and Ingrid knew that if the earthquake stopped after that, it would be a problem. That will be the sign of a volcanic eruption. In the air she saw birds fleeing from here, she felt the terror of the animals through the Force. Kveld was also afraid, she also felt that something was going to happen. She didn't want to torture the animal, it would have been nice to just get him out of here so she could finish the trial herself. But the wolf may not have left without her.

As they set off for the next day, she saw animals running confused everywhere back and forth, not knowing where to go. The volcanoes were now blazing in a circle and active. It was based on visibility, which was up to a hundred or even more kilometres, but the point was that a semicircle was formed in all directions, and the remaining direction was the water surface. And the woman didn't want to go near it, for security reasons.

The air was really warm enough, the whole tundra was in bloom, the ice and frost were gone. Needless to say, it all provided a very nice sight, although in this situation there was not much opportunity to think about it. Breathing fortunately remained easy, with fresh plants and flowers filtering the air properly. It was only the constant earthquake that disrupted things. Most of their day was spent searching for a larger herd of herbivores to follow.

After all, the animals might have known any way out of here. They camped again in the evening and they had to face another bigger problem now that the ice and snow cover had melted. It will be much harder for them to find water in the coming days because they can’t melt ice. Food will surely be because herbivores have been everywhere, but tomorrow they will have to look and find water first and foremost.

It can be endured for quite a long time without food, but water was a much more critical point than food…

​

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

The situation was the same the next day, it was still the same. The ground shook all the time again, without stopping. Slowly, it was all that if it had stopped, it would have been very strange. The whole thing was still very little just felt, but it was present without stopping. The animals still could not get used to it, as they felt the change in nature, more than a human. However, there was another inconvenience that occurred at dawn.

It was even dark outside when a stronger earthquake shook the area. It all came from the ocean, on the surface of the water in the distance a higher one rose out, another volcano. This was good, at least in terms of being between the more distant surface of the water and the shore, so there was even less chance of a tsunami washing the shores, especially since it was not possible to know how much trouble all this would cause, what would reach a height.

The task of finding water in this place proved to be quite difficult. Of course, everything stood in the water, especially the groundwater because the ice and snow melted. But these were utterly undrinkable, not even the animals touching them, because all of them were too sulfur. Following the animals, they managed to find a larger pond from which they apparently also consumed. Here, Kveld had no problem drinking, but Ingrid had to boil what she wanted to drink.

The taste of the water was horrible anyway. Fortunately there were quite a few animals in this place now, so Kveld could hunt without any problems, as did the woman. Because now there were really only days left of the trial and this place was nothing worse than any other, Ingrid beating a camp in the shadow of the nearby rocks and heights. Now she didn't want to go on from here unless it was absolutely necessary.

She had four or five days left before she could finally get out of here, back to the civilization she wanted more than anything now. Since there wasn’t much else to do after getting water and hunting, the red-haired woman spent the rest of the day practicing and meditating after setting up camp. Meanwhile, Kveld was touring the neighbourhood, finding nothing exciting in Ingrid saying strange words and making and concentrating on various hand gestures or she was just meditating.

In fact, it could be said that this day was also completely average, and the ground was still shaking non-stop.

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[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

It probably shouldn’t be mentioned, but during the night the situation in the area didn’t get any better, it just got worse than it was. The earth cracked in more and more places and the air became even warmer due to the gases released. And even more toxic. In the distance, the mountain in the water has become even bigger and the earthquakes are stronger than before. No birds were visible in the sky anymore, only terrestrial animals remained, which were trapped in this area. There was no way out, if there had been, they would not have been here long ago.

During the night, the lake that caused the woman and Kveld to camp here boiled. Her only advantage was that at least she didn’t have to boil again before consuming, although for Kveld the water had to cool down to be able to drink from it. Due to the eruption of countless volcanoes, a thick ash cloud formed in the sky, through which the sunlight could barely pass, so even in the daylight hours there were only dim conditions in the area. And Kveld was afraid, very much, the red-haired woman could barely reassure the animal through the Force. Otherwise, she didn't even have that much chance.

Apart from today, there were only two days left, all that was left was to endure, hopefully the volcano would not erupt below them. She can wrap a cloth in front of her face and thus inhale less of the sulphur-smelling air, and asked the wolf to stay in the tent, which, because of its material, filtered out the environmental influences anyway. They had food, water could be obtained, they just had to wait for it to cool down. So all that was left was to spend her whole day practicing.

At that time, she really could do no more than that, her survival for two days had not depended on her own talent, training and/or her wits, but on the whims of nature. With this state, no one knew what to do. This went far beyond her. Nevertheless, she tried to perform as best she could. The red-haired woman also spent the day with sorcery and necromancy throughout. She was able to recall unconscious dead bodies from the grave more and more easily.

It was only in this place that it had no real benefit, other than gaining practice, which could come in handy later. However, busy all day with this is very tiring, so she fell asleep almost immediately in the evening due to mental fatigue. And the earth was still shaking…

​

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

The situation became even more critical during the night, as the quakes stopped as dawn approached. There was one last big one, then nothing. After days of continuous earthquakes, it was as if everything was dead and the earthquakes were the death knell of the planet. Maybe it really was if it was true that the super-volcano was about to erupt, as they could wreak havoc.

The animals were even more confused than before, their fears were ingrained in everything, they could be felt perfectly, or just seen when someone saw them. They did not escape, they did not feed, they were just waiting for something close to each other. Probably for the whole thing to finally end so that they all die. A lot of scientists also thought that animals would understand if something like this was going to happen, this place was a great example of that.

Everything was as if time had stopped. There was no wind, there was no sound. So far, the quakes have had some side effects, but now nothing. Only in the distance was the red lava, the storm over the volcanoes with countless lightnings. The whole place began to take on a very apocalyptic atmosphere. There was still no trace of the "saving army" of the Eternal Empire. Still no one came for the Empress Regent.

Kveld was scared, too, he didn't dare come out of the tent and hid under the sleeping bag there as well. He didn't want to come out and she couldn't reassure him anymore. Halfway through the day, something happened even in the “light”. It couldn’t really be called clear because it was constantly dark because of the clouds, but in the “daylight hours”. In fact, even this constant darkness caused a rather apocalyptic mood. And that something was nothing more than a disturbance in the Force.

As a result, everything was so “confused” that the woman's spell she was dealing with was interrupted. The summoned zombies fell back to the ground and she was no longer able to summon them. But at the moment, even the simplest task was difficult, that is, to send a telepathic message to Kveld or maintain the telepathic connection with the sithspawn. The whole Force almost roared that there was danger. It's not like she wasn't aware of it.

After that, she really didn’t really know what to do because the Force didn’t want to obey either. She felt the Force around her for now, but rather only the dying, the dying of the planet the most. The whole situation and Kveld's fear didn't leave her calm either. The red-haired woman could only hope that the next one day they would still be able to survive and not start the unstoppable destruction. She could not sleep during the night…

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[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

As expected, the cataclysm began during the night with a huge earthquake. With a size that the entire tundra and taiga part began to separate with a huge fissure. The whole thing originated a few hundred meters away from where the tent was. The earth was shaking constantly, all the volcanoes that had previously been seen in the area erupted at once. And the rift was constantly widening.

The seawater began to flow in, but due to the lava bursting from the deep, it also immediately turned into steam. Throughout the area, temperatures crawled up from frost-like conditions in minutes, to average early summer time, already in the continental climate, average early summer time, during the day and not at night. The volcano in the water also erupted, now, despite the night, it was visible in the distance, thanks to the lights caused by the volcanoes, that this time the tsunami had already come.

Fortunately, the camp and this area were tens of kilometres offshore, or even further away, so hopefully this area was safe enough. Even if the closer areas do not. The animals nearby began to flee as far away from the fissure as possible, as very little else could really be done here. That's why Ingrid and Kveld did the same, though the woman was slower in the dark, with some of her gear.

The soil was still cracked in many places, cracks were open, the air was constantly filled with poisonous gases, and it was harder and harder to breathe. Fortunately, due to the earthquakes, more hills or heights rose out of the ground, the higher one went, the easier it was to breathe, for now. Of course, this will probably change in a few hours.

And indeed it did, more and more places began to collapse and fall into the chimney of the volcano that was under that area. The area below them also began to do so, collapsing, for the time being the duo had been able to run so far as to be roughly safe, but it was difficult and they felt worse and worse from the air. It was hard to breathe, it was painful and of course toxic.

The thirty days passed, she survived, but she had a feeling that no one would come for them. However, as soon as she thought about it, she heard a familiar sound and then saw a dropship just heading in their direction. The rescue team has finally arrived.

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[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim-Ragal
Empress Regent of the Eternal Empire, Overlord of the Eternal Empire, the Emperor's hand
The Red Witch; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium​

Location: Unknown planet in the Eternal Empire
Equipment: Meagre survival supplies || Kveld

The dropship was able to land about fifty to sixty metres from the woman because there was a free surface for that. Kveld was scared of the vehicle, but when he saw and felt Ingrid rushing over there, the wolf did the same. She didn't even wait for the invitation as soon as the dropship door opened, she had already jumped on it with the wolf and yelled at the pilot to board immediately. Since it was still difficult to perceive here through the Force, she could see, especially from body language, that both the soldiers and the pilot were shocked to see her.

She already knew they hadn’t been inaugurated, so they didn’t really know what Empress Regent was looking for here when she had probably been seen several times in her office in the past month. But now was not the time to deal with it. Another shout to get started because they don’t have time to waste. She saw no senior officer among them, only low-ranking Ultranauts, general soldiers. The Overlord hoped that she would get answers on the ship from which they came.

The rescue team really arrived at the last minute. They had just reached the atmosphere when everything beneath them exploded. The shock wave threw even the dropship very hard. Much of the frosty continent exploded beneath them. For the time being, the damage could not be seen, only that the whole place had come together into a huge super volcano and provided a very horrible sight even from space.

They soon left the atmosphere and arrived on the ship and landed. Some of the soldiers here were also shocked (not just because of the wolf), but the Warden members were not. Everyone greeted her with respect and saluting, but she did not speak to anyone, but went to her own accommodation. At last, she once wanted to bathe, clean herself in a normal way and do the necessary health things as well. For the next few hours, the red-haired woman was busy with these, while Kveld also explored the area. Long hours later, Ingrid could finally be back to normal, in her own uniform. So she went up to the bridge where several Lord Commanders were already waiting.

<”Would you tell me what lasted so long, or did you intentionally want to kill me?”> she asked in a frosty voice.

<”My Lord, the scanners didn't work due to volcanic activity, we tried to find ourselves a week ago!”> replied a Lord Commander who also had the rank of Admiral.

She handed a datapad to the woman with the reports and itineraries of all the teams posted who were looking for the woman. The data matched what the man said, they were really looking. A meeting was held for quite a few hours the next, as Ingrid had to catch up on official imperial affairs by the time they returned to Kalidan. Needless to say, she overperformed and passed her Lord Commander trial many times, so the Overlord was given that rank.

Fortunately, there was a fairly peaceful cycle in the Empire during this time, so not many substantive things happened, she did not have to return home to a crisis or chaos. However, a few days after her return home, her whole life changed because Onrai invited her to Endor, where everything changed…

The End.​

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