I felt shaken, my mind still reeling from the glimpse behind the veil. The knowledge that something so strange was lurking just beyond some barrier was unsettling. Add in the fact that a mere glimpse had been enough to drive my mind close to a breaking point and I was humbled. Experimenting with magic, especially Blood Magic, suddenly seemed a dangerous idea. Maybe, just maybe, I should focus on my Ice Magic for now and some Darkness Magic to mix it up.

“What happened? Are you alright?” Sigmir asked, her voice thick with concern.

“Yes I’m alright. Can you tell me what you saw?”

“I heard the nymph scream and suddenly, I was hit by an aura, a powerful and alien aura and I saw you driven to your knees. It was rather obvious that the aura was emanating from the nymph, so I made it go away.” Sigmir explained.

“I felt the aura as well and thought it would be a good idea to make sure that the other nymph did not join her comrade.” Adra added.

Lenore took that moment to leave her Hallow and perch on my shoulder. Through our link, I was able to feel her inner turmoil, at least as strong as my own.

“By the Ancestor, just what was that?” she asked.

“I think it was some sort of Nethersprite. Or something similar. It reminded me of the Devourer in Tegi, just taken up to eleven, or maybe twelve. I wish I had an idea what caused its appearance, so I can avoid it.” I explained, focusing on Lenore.

“It could be a coincidence. How exactly did that collar work? I know you channelled power into the other, but not this one. So where did the power come from?” inquired Lenore.

“Blood Magic. There were barbs inside the collar, drawing blood and power from the nymph wearing it. Once it was powered up by me, it was self sufficient, empowered by the wearer. The stronger the wearer, the stronger the power for the collar. I thought it was an elegant solution.”

Lenore tilted her head, something I had seen her do when deep in thought. After a few moments, she blinked and came up with a theory. “Didn’t the Grandmother tell us that all Blood Magic leaves a miasma and higher concentrations draw Nethersprites? So what you did was create a continued stream of misama, flowing into the world and maybe other realms? A continued flow that something could follow back, leading it to a weakened, subdued mind, ready for the takeover?”

The mental image Lenore’s words invoked was rather pointed, a nymph with a line hanging down into different realms, similar to a fishing float with a lure hanging below it, leading to the surface. If that was what I had done, I was relieved. Not that I would test it out, far too dangerous, but it did not mean I would have to completely give up on Blood Magic, even in dire emergencies. But I would take care not to do something similar, or similarly stupid. In addition, I should run my ideas past Lenore and maybe Elding and Hringur, they had more knowledge about other realms, hailing from there.

Blood Magic reminded me a little of nuclear power generation in the real world, relatively easy to use but with incredibly dangerous side-effects, allowing for unexperienced or careless users to kill themselves in a myriad of ways, possibly taking huge swaths of land with them. Only that Blood Magic was possible for an individual, making it even more dangerous. Somehow, the alleged persecution made some sense now.

Forcibly shaking off the remnants of terror that still clung to me, we quickly broke camp and mounted, now able to move faster, without the two nymphs. During our ride, I explained Elding the events and got her opinion and it turned out that she concurred with Lenore. A continued stream of power into a different realm was a subtle, but obvious lure for more powerful denizens of that realm, allowing them to use their own power to follow the stream, letting even the most powerful beings cross over the boundaries between realms. And what I had seen had probably been one of the most powerful Nethersprites in their realm, powerful and ancient. According to Elding, beings on that level could only cross over by their own accord or if they were summoned with their true name and insane amounts of power or sacrifice. So to put it into perspective, I had goofed and dropped a lure into the water and managed to fish up the Leviathan.

We rested for lunch and I told the other two about the adjustments to our plan. Sadly, we were missing the central part - the unquestionable evidence that the dryads had done the deed - so it would have to go down to circumstantial evidence, for example the enchanted sleep-darts we had found on them. Those were pretty damning and in addition to the trails we would lay into their lands, hopefully into one of their camps, it should be enough. Personally, I would prefer more evidence to remove even the most unreasonable doubt, but sometimes one had to play the cards one was dealt. Now, we had a decent but not good hand and had to bluff the rest.

After lunch, Sigmir started to recognise the first landmarks and it told her that we were roughly two days march away from her tribe’s permanent village. That told me that I wanted an overwatch, so I talked Lenore into flying scout for us, making sure that we did not run into a hunting party or something similar. In addition, I started to focus on hiding our tracks. There were two ways to do so, either simply let our tracks form and use ice magic to alter or erase them or stop them from forming in the first place, using ice magic to send the weight placed on the snow into the deeper layers.

My plan was to use the first method for now, mainly because it was similar to the method used by the dryad group we had fought before. Once we had guided the Jonari to the dryads, we could use the second method, which I thought better and more secretive, to disappear. But for now, I wanted our tracks to look as similar to the tracks of the dryads as possible.

For the night, we found a camp not to close to the Jonari village, meaning we would easily be able to make our way into their camp the next evening so it was time for us to rest and recuperate before our night raid the next night. One of the easiest ways to make sure we were awake during the next night, was to stay up as long as possible and try to sleep during the next day.

During the evening, Sigmir drew into the snow, making a rough map of the village, as she knew it, making sure that we knew what was in store for us. To me, the collection of houses looked nothing like a village. The houses mostly formed small clusters, up to five houses if I saw it right, but there was no obvious connection, like roads or straight paths between the clusters. My mind wanted to call it a chaotic mess but to the Jonari, it was what they called home. I asked about the clusters and was told that each cluster was home to an extended family, sometimes the adult children stayed close to their parents and extended the cluster, sometimes they started a new cluster. People like her father, who left for an extended period of time, always started their own cluster - in a way forming their own, new family. I could see that there were further social norms, maybe unique to the Jonari, maybe part of tribal culture but for an outsider like me, there was no unravelling them.

The cluster housing the chieftain and his family, including Jongarn, was central to the village, the shaman was housed at the edge of the village, secluded and hidden from view. Our plan was to hit the chieftain’s family first, as the main target. Killing the shaman was important - and a voice within me called for his blood, wanted to kill him in the most grievous of ways for the pollution of Sigmir’s soul - but the quest that guided that traveller-group to us was more important. Yes, revenge was best served cold, icy cold, but it was not my priority.

On her crude map, Sigmir showed us the best paths of approach, just in case we needed them. She even suggested splitting up, Adra and I going after the chieftain and she going after the shaman, something I thought about for a moment. The only thing keeping me from dismissing it out of hand was that Sigmir made the suggestion, someone who I believed to be an extraordinary fighter, with a firm grasp of tactics. But I felt that the disadvantages far outweighed the advantages, so I explained my reasoning to her and then dismissed the idea.

Deep in the night, with only the faintest glimmer of moonlight in the sky, we started our guard-rotation. Tomorrow night would be a dark and windy killing night.