Well... this stranger does look like some kind of sorceress. Rita probably shouldn't be surprised she's so interested in a barrier powerful enough to protect an entire planet.

She sighs. "The barrier was in place for so long, nobody even knew it existed... until some total idiot started messing around with an ancient, forgotten technology. He thought it'd be a powerful magic weapon he could use to conquer the world. Instead, he broke the whole damn thing and nearly doomed us all." Her tone is, of course, dripping with disdain for said idiot. His plan would've been stupid enough if it succeeded, but it's even stupider in retrospect, considering what a failure it was.