The negotiations had been fast and furious, both sides trying to get useful concessions, while keeping in mind that time was of the essence, that we needed to make use of the night, if we wanted to get things done. They quickly agreed that the plan that kept both groups separated was the better one, that bringing a group of unknown elements into the middle of a difficult battle was a good way to get everyone killed. I could live with that, liking the other plan better anyway, mostly due to the increased security for us. I had fewer concerns with being able to get my group to safety by slipping quietly into the night, compared to the frenzy of a pitched battle.

As they negotiated terms, I noticed that Adra focused on trying to get the agreement, and thus the quest we should receive, to say that we were only obliged to do our part, not that the orcs had to actually win the day, while Dura wanted that part to remain part of the deal, so that her tribe wouldn’t have to pay, if things went south.

Still, with the need for a quick agreement hanging in the air, both sides conceded some points, shaking hands on their deal after just fifteen minutes. With the handshake, I received the alert that we had gained a quest.

Quest Alert! Support the Orcish Nightraid! Quest Difficulty Medium You are to support the Brighthallow-Orcs, under Leadership of Dura Firebringer, in their Night-Attack against the Centaurs and their allies. Your part is to scatter the centaur camp.

Centaur-Camp disturbed: 0/1 Quest Reward 75 Gold-Coins, Information on a Place of Power Bonus Quest Reward, if Dura Firebringer survives the attack Magical Artifact out of Dura Firebringer’s personal possession.

“Good. How long do you need to get your people into position?” I asked, once the negotiations were finished.

“We need to move quietly and carefully. I would suggest that you start your part of the attack one hour after midnight, you are able to tell that time, are you not?” she asked, not quite answering my question but giving me the necessary information.

“I will. You will notice when we began our attack, as the centaur-camp will be plunged into darkness.” I told her, my lips curling into a grin. Maybe they would even be able to hear their screams. Hopefully, they would.

Shaking off the dark thoughts I had regarding the centaurs, I focused on the present, noticing a slightly disturbed look on Dura Firebringer’s face.

“Then we will speak on the morrow. May fortune favour you.” she wished us, before giving out orders to organise her people.

“That means we should get going. I would like to be in position well before the orcs are, just in case.” I told the others, knowing that even a little bit of rest between the march of the day and the fight of the night would be useful, possibly allowing us to prevail where we would otherwise falter. But here, in the middle of the orcish troops, our rest wouldn’t be very restful.

And so, we made sure that our directions to the centaur-camp were as accurate as possible before setting out, leaving our allies behind.

As we walked, after leaving the orcs behind, my mind was going over the potential troubles for the nightly operation. The biggest fear were that the centaurs had hidden trump-cards, something that neither the FIrebringer’s nor my own scrying had revealed. In addition, the lay of the land was crucial for our own movement, approach and execution of Lenore and my scheme had to work out or we would be in trouble.

“I’ll take a look.” Lenore suggested. Now that we had left the orcs behind, the possibility of a showdown with the shaman was greatly reduced, giving us the freedom to split again. Neither Lenore nor I had liked the idea to be without the other, while in close vicinity of her, her mere presence ruffling our feathers. Even Lenore was starting to dislike the Sun and what it represented, the searing heat, preferring the cool darkness of the night. It was calming, to be shrouded in darkness, sheltered be the night’s loving embrace.

“Be careful, will you?” I asked, knowing that only carelessness would get her caught. Otherwise, she would be just one bird out of many, her shape and regular size giving her an advantage that no magic could match. People tended to overlook what they were used to seeing. With another, reassuring thought, Lenore left her Hallow, quickly taking wing, leaving me with my thoughts and considerations.

I quite liked the idea we had been working on earlier, trying to use an advanced version of the magic we had used quite some time before, during our attack on the dryads of Tegi. When we had tracked them down, in their reinforced valley, using mist and mind-magic to confuse their senses, giving us time to fight the dryad herself. If we were able to use something similar, only that instead of confusing their senses, the spell would make them feel isolated, alone and afraid. It should work well with the recent upgrade to my mind magic, while targeting what I thought was a psychological weak-point of the centaurs, that part of their nature was still herd-animal, one that was more likely to run than fight if faced with a predator.

My biggest problem was that Mind Magic, at least what I had learned of it so far, didn’t really lend itself to thorough planning, few runes could be used, improvisation was key. Tapping into deep emotions, projecting them outwards was a useful tool and I had no doubt that the memory of the feeling I had when crossing the second divide would be useful but at the same time, I wondered if there was something better to be used.

As I was considering the best ways to invoke feelings of fear and terror, Lenore returned as we were about to make camp for a time, not quite near the centaurs but not very far either. Their wolven allies would be unable to easily detect us but we could get to them with a quick march or short flight, as Lenore had just demonstrated.

She returned to her Hallow, sharing her memory with me, so that I would be able to know what we were dealing with. She had focused on two different topics, the centaurs within the camp, the feeling and perception she got from them and the camp itself.

The centaurs seemed to be ordinary, no super-powerful centaurs, at least not that she could detect them with her sight, one of the better tools we had for judging the power of someone. The only way she could have gleaned more information would have been by directly using the Observe-skill, something that would have been noticed for sure.

Other than the cenatus, the wolves in the forest were difficult to spot and even more difficult to judge when it came to their strength. Lenore was reasonably sure she had found the groups we had to take care of on our approach, but we would have to be careful. Luckily, we came from a direction they weren’t covering too well, simply due to the terrain making it difficult to get into their camp from there.

The camp, on the other hand, was a lot less planned out and rigid compared to the one we had seen before, it was clear that it wasn’t planned to last more than a day. But some of the structures we were seeing were similar and, as we shared ideas, Lenore was the first to realise that I had missed a crucial detail when trying to think of a way to invoke the feelings of fear in the Centaurs.

They had posted guards. If we were able to capture one of them, maybe using the sleep-magic I had used a few times before, I would have an excellent source of fear to use, it came even with a small supply of Astral Power, ready for the taking.

“That is one vicious idea.” Lenore noted, approval in her voice. She didn’t like the centaurs any more than I did and using one of their own had so much potential to understand more about the magic we were using, how emotions were processed in the complex network between the areas we had dubbed Body, Mind and Soul.

“We could use our Avatar-State, just to find out what has changed after we both have crossed the second divide.” I suggested, looking forward to seeing the world even clearer, by joining my perception even closer with Lenore’s.

“Mhm, I like the idea.” she agreed, the idea to experience something new intriguing to her, too.

With most of our plans made, we settled in for a quiet, careful rest, waiting for the appointed time to make our move.