After sitting on the ground for a bit, I had recreated my throne, making myself comfortable while reducing flowers to dust, trying to firm up my perception of the energies released during Death and the ways to manipulate them using magic. Lenore, in an attempt to train her Ice-Magic was sitting on my shoulder, surrounding us with a thin layer of cold mist, making me quite comfortable despite the heat. Sadly, our training was interrupted when Sigmir and Ylva suddenly reacted, their silent vigil near me interrupted.

“Someone is approaching. More people than just Adra and Rai.” Ylva growled, caution causing her fur to stand up. Standing, I readied myself for combat as well, stepping behind Sigmir who had Lok’nar at the ready. Lenore, knowing that for us, the physical body was a rather significant weakness, retreated into her Hallow, mentally closing the distance between the two of us. We didn’t quite join together in the Avatar-State, due to the strain it put on us, but we were ready to do so. In addition, I took control of the cold mist while drawing the blades at my waist, pulling the Frozen Shuttles out of my nearby cloak and carefully threading the vines of my Eisblumen through my sleeve, wrapping them around my arm, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

“Everything is fine, we brought someone who wants to talk.” Adra called out, before anyone ever entered my perception. Her calm voice made both Sigmir and me relax quite a bit, still not all the way, just in case some shenanigans were afoot, but neither of us remained ready to strike first, possibly ask questions later.

With Adra’s shout giving me a location to focus on, I was able to hear the approaching people myself, even if I was unable to get a fix on a number. Even if my senses had been improved by attributes, Ylva and her canine ears had me beat by a mile.

“Four are coming, two of them are Adra and Rai.” Ylva stated, her attention still fixed towards the forest. “There are more, I think another four, remaining behind. I think they are Orcs, they smell similar to the ones we met in the last village.” she added.

Moments later, just as Ylva had told us, four people stepped onto the clearing I had been using.

“Morgana, Sigmir, I want you to meet Sakgu and Tarod, two scouts for an Orc Warband. They are hunting a group of centaurs who have been raiding in the area, making off with quite a bit of loot.”. Adra introduced the two orcs with her, one male, the other female, before turning to the orcs. Both of them were focused on me, with the rather conspicuous display of magic around me and my throne standing behind me. It must have been a strange sight, a glistening throne of Ice, in the middle of a forest during the height of summer. But it was a comfortable seat for me, so I would keep using and creating it. In addition, it felt right to sit on it.

“As I told you, these are Morgana and Sigmir, our travelling companions.” she added, finishing the introduction, causing Sigmir and me to relax, while making us tense in another way. Having centaur-raiders was bad but orcish warbands were a possibly immediate threat. It didn’t look like it and by now I had some trust in Adra’s people-skills but I remained on my guard. Knowing that Ylva would most likely hear them long before they got close enough to harm us helped, even while my paranoia reminded me that it might be a ploy to get our guard down, that an openly approaching group was a useful distraction.

“Greetings and well met. As your companion said, my name is Sakgu. She mentioned that you had a run-in or two with the centaurs further back east and that you might be willing to trade information for some supplies to continue your journey.” the female Orc said, giving a strangely formal nod with her fist across her chest.

“Greetings.” Sigmir responded, when I hesitated for a moment. “Indeed, we had and supplies would be useful in trade.”

“We would invite you to rest in our camp, while explaining your information to our leader. Will you promise to hold your peace while within our camp?” the orc asked, now focusing on Sigmir, after another short glance at me and the Ice-Blades still floating behind me.

“We will act honourable while in your camp.” Sigmir responded, her voice taking on a formal tone.

“Good, then I will formally invite you to our camp. You will be treated as guests, not harmed or hindered if you wish to leave. This, I, Sakgu of the ‘Bright-Hollow’-Clan swear in the name of our Ancestors.” the Orc-Lady said, matching Sigmir’s formal tone. I could feel the world react just a little to the oath, similarly to the way it had reacted to the oath I had given the Ashenforge-Dwarves, hinting that there was the intent to keep the oath. It didn’t mean I automatically trusted them, not without knowing the actual rules governing such things and what possible loopholes there were to be exploited. People could speak honestly of their desire to pay their taxes to the fullest, meaning the fullest extent required by law, while using various loopholes in the tax-code to pay no taxes at all. Without knowing the code, the rules, I wasn’t about to trust in them.

However, the oath seemed good enough for Sigmir, trusting the Orc’s word, her stance relaxing, a relaxation mirrored by Ylva next to her. I wasn’t quite convinced but could feel from Lenore that it would be a grave insult not to take their word, implying that their honour and ancestors were worthless to us. While my hands sheathed my blades using muscle memory, my mind carefully guided the floating shuttles into their own sheathes sewn into my cloak. Given that I wasn’t wearing the cloak, not with the summer heat bearing down on us, getting the shuttles put away was harder than anticipated, causing me to extend the frozen vines of my Eisblumen, stretching the cloak out to allow me easy access.

Focusing back on the orcs, I noticed a strange look on their faces, maybe due to the casual use of magic. I had noticed that the native spellcasters had been quite circumspect with their power, never really using it in public unless needed. I didn’t plan to hold to such a convention, not if actually using my powers allowed me to slowly hone my control over them. Sure, I might not have my Astral Power filled to the maximum and it was exhausting at times but so was physical training. Only by using skills did they improve.

“Do you need extra time to break camp? If we leave soon, we can make it to our camp before nightfall, even without hurrying.” Sakgu asked, again addressing Sigmir, who looked back over to me, letting me decide.

“A few minutes should be enough.” I said, deciding that getting some supplies and maybe good will from the locals would be useful, especially if the locals had trouble with the Centaurs. While I didn’t subscribe to the idea that the enemy of my enemy was my friend, I did believe that there was potential to ally against a common threat. It just had to be done cautiously, while keeping vigilant.

Keeping with that idea, my first action to break camp was a quick runic-formation, instantly created despite the additional power-cost, shattering my Throne into a cloud of Diamond Dust, floating under my magical control, to join the mist around me. It made the temperature drop quite a bit while making the mist a lot more opaque, turning me into a vague silhouette within the freezing cloud, but it allowed me to maintain the mass of Ice, without making it too obvious. Compressing the Diamond Dust into solid Icicles was a simple application of Ice Magic, without the need for runes or to conjure up new Ice, cutting off time needed to attack.

Similarly, in an attempt to project my personal power without making it too obvious, I simply used the vines growing from the Eisblumen around my arm to pack my bag, needing only moments to do so.

Neither Sigmir nor I actually needed more than a minute to have our bags packed, the magical bags we were using quite useful for that, and soon, we were ready to depart. I made a mental note to find out what Adra actually knew about the Orcs and their Clan while asking Lenore to covertly leave her Hallow, taking a reconnaissance flight once we had an idea where we were going. But that would have to wait, until we could do so without notice. It wouldn’t be a good idea to make the orcs think I didn’t trust them, or their word of honour.

“What can you tell me about your mission and the Centaurs you are after?” I asked, trying to get as much knowledge as possible before even beginning to negotiate for anything.