That night Endrian went home and after cultivating some more he did a little self-reflection on the day. He realized that he had acted pretty childish with Chiyo. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what to do about it. He had tried being civil and then tried to be ignored, but neither worked. It’s not like he could say ‘look I have close to 50 years of experience.’ That would almost be the same as saying ‘the pink elephants keep telling me everything’s fine while they try to sneak around like ninjas.’ In the end, it doesn’t matter how old or young you are there is only so much a person can take before they snap. Still, Endrian felt he should have been able to handle that better than he did. Sighing to himself at his inability to deal with emotions he went to sleep.

For the next few months that Endrian went to school, there were no earth-shattering changes. He went to Chiyo’s class every other morning as scheduled. This class gave him an overview and a general concept of what the classes involved. He went to the math class once and then never went again as the math that they would cover was mostly basic math such as addition, multiplication, subtraction, division, and fractions. It seemed mostly geared towards creating a foundation for merchant children. Instead of math, he opted to take a music class.

One of the things he really missed about his homeworld was the great variety of instruments. Electric guitars being one of the main ones. Unfortunately, he had never looked into how an electric guitar worked so he had no confidence in being able to produce it. They had instruments similar to guitars and pianos. There were drums and wind instruments. Interestingly there were no bow type instruments like violins or cellos. He had some basic knowledge of guitars as he had played with one in his previous life but he had always been fascinated with the violin especially after he had heard songs by Lindsey Stirling. Since that was the case he asked someone to make a violin based on his description of the instrument. It took some time but he got it and the bow made. He was honestly very excited and so were some of the other people in the music classes which included Aanys the priestess of Ordises the god of music.

As interested as everyone was to hear the sound that this new instrument would make, Endrian was, unfortunately, a complete novice. This lead to an amazingly painful and atrocious sound. So much so that everyone had to make him stop. Nothing like enhanced senses to really appreciate how awful something is. He had a song in his head that he really wanted to play he might not be able to get the backbeats and supporting sounds but he loved this song and it was potentially something that he could hear in this world. This allowed him to focus on practicing the violin getting accustomed to the feel of it and the sounds, where to position his fingers, et cetera. It took him 5 months before he could start making real music with it. He still wasn’t at the level where he wanted to be but he was very happy with his progress.

Other than music his cultivation was taking off. The week while he had the AI thing to questions he spent time asking about obstacles he had come across and discussed different concepts that he had come up with. The possible pros and cons of the concept and what he wanted from it. He had had a lot of ideas about what to do unfortunately most of them were way over the top. Like, imbue the concept of Superman in his body. He thought if he could imbue a concept might as well go for invincible except for an irradiated fragment from his homeworld. This didn’t pan out for Endrian though because there were multiple aspects that made up Superman. After a lot of discussions back and forth he determined that the closest he could get would be to strengthen his bones, muscles, and skin and he would have to constantly cycle through these as he progressed so that they could keep up with the changes to the amount of mana. Then there was the problem of actually getting the concept into the desired area. Endrian found that just because you want something and understand it’s supposed to work a certain way does not always mean that it will. The best way to describe it was the quote from the matrix “...there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

As his cultivation proceeded he found that the minor breakthroughs weren’t near as amazing as that first one. Endrian was also both interested and a little scared about what will happen when he breaks through to the Earth rank and beyond. He was able to advance to the 5th level of condensing after about 3 months. During this time Suseras had finally given up trying to get whatever he was looking for which made him irritated and depressed. However, after learning about Endrian’s enlightenment and his successive breakthroughs he was ecstatic. Endrian had broken into the 7th level of condensing another 3 months after making it to the 5th level. This was also right before the mid-winter break. The speed at which Endrian was making breakthroughs was shocking. Endrian also felt that the density of his mana was just as shocking as his speed but he hadn’t had a chance to confirm differences between other people at his stage of cultivation.

With his cultivation becoming stable and advancing he was able to start sparring Kyuuthia and Esalana on a regular basis. He is making good progress with identifying attacks from mana as well as keeping track of the opponent. His movement techniques have improved with him starting to move at speeds which he felt were close to what an expert assassin from his homeworld would be at. That being said he still gets his ass handed to him on a daily basis by Kyuuthia and/or Esalana. Either one used to be able to beat him in seconds when they decided to put him in his place after getting an ego on his advancements. Now after 6 months he still gets beat down, but he is able to hold out for a little while when they step up their attacks. His longest record to date was being able to last for a handspan of time. Which he found out is when you use your hand to get a measure on how high the sun is from the horizon and the hand span is the width of a hand difference. He wasn’t sure of the exact amount of time but with his hands, it was roughly 10 minutes and he knew that 4 of them composed an hour. However, this impressive achievement is only when he is fighting against one of them. As soon as he faces off against both of them it still only takes them seconds to create an opening. Even that though is improving. It only to one move from each of them to draw him out. Now he can take 4 or 5 moves from each before getting knocked on his ass.

As far as his array studies, he was able to get the books on arrays that were restricted and his understanding of arrays progressed by leaps and bounds. Lailah had checked out the books and would share them with him during the class time. He could now see logic gates and input/output patterns. Coupled with his knowledge of when he was in the Navy he could start to lay out arrays that contained patterns that he hadn’t seen the patterns for. In other words, he could logically deduce how to create a multi-functional variable output array. He spent time discussing the insights he had with Lailah and the advances that she made on arrays was actually more impressive than Endrian. This was mainly due to her being able to draw the patterns precisely because of her experience and familiarity with the patterns. Now he just needed to figure out the pattern for lightning and he will have hopefully created the first electrical power source on this planet. Unfortunately, most people in the arrays did not have lightning as their elements. Actually, it was more accurate to say they have never had a lightning mana controller take an interest in arrays. This lead to the fact that was causing Endrian so many headaches, which is that there are no known patterns that use lightning in the arrays.

Finally, Endrian has been working hard on his mana manipulations. His metal manipulation is making good progress. He is able to mold and bend the metals easier which gives him flexibility with his weapons and can allow him to move his attacks but he loses the ability to control it once it enters another person’s personal space. Which means that he can’t make changes to the weapons within a 3-foot radius of the person he is attacking. He has gotten to the point where he can “hone” his weapons he can even maintain this in the personal space but it is reduced by a significant margin. Still with this reinforcement using mana while attacking he can keep his weapons from chipping or getting damaged and allows him to put more force behind his attacks.

Endrian’s lightning manipulation is growing and he is now able to create a ball of electricity in his hand. This was actually both lightning and magnetics. Unfortunately, this was just a light display that looked cool and drained the crap out of his mana reserves. The problem with lightning is that it only becomes visible when excited or moving. Once it moves it has achieved its goal of balance and will disappear afterward. So having a sustained lightning ball in his hands looks really cool but wastes mana like a broken dam. He is able to positively charge his weapons which when he comes into contact or gets close enough causes a spark to discharge. The first time he did this he was fighting Kyuuthia and it had blown his spear and her sword out of the hands to embed themselves in the wall. Endrian was alright for the most part but Kyuuthia’s hand and arm were numb for the rest of that class. Unfortunately, this got Esalana excited and she beat him into the ground so hard that he only woke up after class and lunch were over, and it only took her two moves.

As for his magnetic control, other than the ability to create a magnetic field to hold the lightning in he had come up with some other applications as well. First was his ability to magnetize his weapons. This had led to some amusing spars. Since he was smaller and lighter and weaker than the people he was sparring with when he magnetized his weapon and they would clash it would often result in Endrian being pulled around or losing his weapon. The upside was that once the object was magnetized he didn’t have to supply mana to it and it would still be magnetized. Which left his instructors trying to pull his weapon from theirs or having it stick to their armor. He did figure out how to set up a coilgun, kind of. He could shoot metal balls or spikes or really just about anything metal by setting up a staged magnetic field. The problem was that without something to guide it and to time the fields on and off it was less effective than throwing it with mana enhanced muscles. Still, the principle is there so theoretically if he can get used to the timing and set up some guides, like a tube on his arm or something he could, as he gets stronger, be able to shoot them with his magnetic control. This, of course, got him interested in the principles of a rail gun and is why he is working on creating an array using lightning.

Endrian worked some of his other elemental controls but the downside of having a whole bunch of elemental affinities is that there are not enough hours in the day to be able to train them. This left him with the option of focusing heavily on a few and just cycling through the others.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

While Endrian was working hard at the academy Rantak had decided she was getting restless and felt like going out on patrol. Usually, she stayed in the city and oversaw everything that was going on but right now the restless feeling was making her twitchy. She had tried sparring but it just wasn’t enough for her. So she went to talk with her sister and see if there was anything she needed to worry about before heading out for a few lunar conjunctions.

“Hey sis, how’s it going?” Rantak said as she walked into Chiyo’s office.

Chiyo was bent over her desk reading some papers and scribbling on others. She paused what she was doing and looked up at Rantak while setting down her quill and saying “It’s… frustrating, exciting and busy.”

“Well, you’re always busy so what’s the frustrating and exciting parts?” Rantak asked with a little surprise.

“At the start of school, I decided to personally take a class so I could keep an eye on a specific young boy. I put him in the best class and had hoped to watch and even help him make some connections with these nobles so that he had some backing when he starts to get to the bigger arenas. Not to mention he needs to learn how to socialize properly.” Chiyo said with some complaint obvious in her voice.

Hearing this Rantak chuckled and said “Two things Sis. First, I think he socializes just fine probably too well for someone so young. Second, think about me. How well did I get along with the people I was supposed to? Actually, let’s take that another step. How well did I do when I was forced into something?”

Hearing this Chiyo gave a wry smile and was obviously thinking back on some amusing memories. “I remember when you beat Tyrina to a pulp after you found out that she was setting me up for cheating. Then you exposed her for what she did. I still don’t think she has gotten over that.” Sighing wistfully Chiyo paused and then said “Well you did straighten out when you went in the city guard.”

Shrugging Rantak said “That was my choice and I knew what I was getting into. I had already accepted the requirements before making the decision. If someone had forced me to go into the city guards when I didn’t want to… well, you know what kind of mess I make.”

“Yes, yes I do. You are quite the Afroiffit in a glass home.” She paused for a moment while thinking of the two-headed cat like flying beasts the size of a cow and the amount of damage it would do in a glass home. “Still he is ruder than any other child I have ever dealt with.”

“I think that’s part of his charm personally. I mean how many boys… no, forget that. How many men are willing to talk back to the great and mighty Chiyo, or flirt with the barbaric Rantak? It’s like he has eggs the size of Ampleforth.” Rantak said amusedly.

“There are plenty of men who flirt with you Rantak.”

“No. There are plenty of men who throw around that they have money or power or whatever and that me and my pride would be a good match. That’s not flirting that’s just greed. Plus I am pretty sure most of them are interested in me so that can get to you.”

“We are not having this conversation now and I still have work that needs to be done, so if there is nothing else,” Chiyo said slightly irritated. Her sister was beautiful probably one of the most beautiful women in the city well, next to the Blackward women but still way up there. Any man would be lucky to have her but she has refused every one. I don’t know how many fights we have had over getting a man. Now she was in a bad mood again.

“I’m sorry Chiyo I didn’t mean to bring that sore topic up. Though I still say you should have gone with our other sisters and been happy. Anyway, the reason I came here is that I am getting a restless feeling. I’ve tried to work it out but I’m still feeling pent up so I wanted to see if there is anything you need me to do for the next few months. If not then I am going to leave Serra in charge and go on a patrol. Take a look at these abominations myself and see what’s going on. Plus I just broke through to the 9th level of Core Formation and I want to get some real fighting in.” Rantak said to Chiyo.

Chiyo paused to think if there was anything that would be needed after a few seconds she said “No I think everything is going good. Oh, I forgot to tell you the good news or exciting news. Endrian has already broken through to the 5th level of condensing. Just three months after having to remove his cultivation and start over from peak gathering. On top of that, he’s made some pretty decent advances in personal combat and fighting multiple opponents. It’s really exciting to see him advancing so quickly.”

Smiling, Rantak looked at her sister and said “I’m glad you are excited to see him becoming stronger. I would just make one recommendation that might make it easier for you two to get along, and that’s, try treating him like you would treat me.”

“But, he’s a boy. Nothing more than a child,” she said confused.

“I know you see him as a boy and a child but I want to point something out. When everyone was fleeing from the towns. His escape vessel was the only one to crash. He took his sisters into the forest, helped them survive and keep their spirits up. He even helped rescue other people from the crash. Finally, he did kill one of the people that survived the crash. She had been wounded and was dying. It was a mercy killing and you know that in the wild fresh blood can attract other beasts. One of the first rules we are taught about hunting when we are old enough is that if someone is wounded fatally and there is no healer then you kill that person even if it’s your sister so that everyone else doesn’t die as well and then you move away from that location.” Rantak paused to let the information set in. “How many people have killed just after they turned 7? It’s a hard thing to do and it has consequences no matter your age, but even more so for a child. Yet Endrian was the one in charge and when that woman’s sister couldn’t do what she needed to, he did, at 7. Just something I think you should take into consideration.”

Chiyo was a little surprised. She had been given a report about the search and rescue which included information about Endrian but she hadn’t bothered to read it at the time. She only made a note about it because her sister had said something about him. “He never talks about it though.”

“Death and killing are not entertainment. Of course, he doesn’t talk about it in school or with you. If he did he wouldn’t be the type of person I think he is. Okay, we have gotten off subject if you don’t have anything for me I’ll be heading out. Make sure you have your personal communication crystal on you while I’m out.”

“I never understand why you are like that. You have a perfectly good communication crystal that goes straight to the city guard communication hub. Having a second one and forcing me to keep one on me when you are out is a waste of time,” Chiyo complained.

“I like to keep my options open. Never bet your life on only one plan. Don’t forget to keep it on you.”

“I understand. I’ll keep it on me please stop pestering me about it.” After she said that she pulled out the communication crystal that Rantak had specially given her and made a show of putting it in her pocket.

After leaving Chiyo’s office Rantak went back and geared up joining one of the patrols that was going deep to scout the abominations. Mentally reviewing the patrol reports she knew that so far there had been only a few problems. The number of abominations reported here and there was no different than keeping track of beasts. They only had sporadic sightings and a few incidents where one or two of the team lost their lives. Today she was going to go out with one of the advanced scouts a team of 5 women all of whom had worked with her for many years.

Showing up as the ship was finishing up loading she heard someone call out to her. “Hey, Commander, what brings you out here?”

“I decided to tag along with your sorry asses and make sure you guys don’t screw stuff up too bad.” Rantak hollered back at the voice.

“Oy, you hear that ladies?! We gots ourselves a special VIP just to wipe our asses.” the voice exclaimed while looking over their shoulder.

“Who needs a momma to wipe their asses?!” another voice rang out.

“Is the special VIP cute? If so she can wipe my ass.” said a cute voice that Rantak knew was attached to a large body.

“Well, get up here commander before Deyone starts looking for the cute VIP,” the first voice said.

Rantak climbed aboard and saw the squad leader Euandar going over the ship looking for anything loose or out of place. She was a somewhat shorter woman with a stout body with light blue hair and green/white eyes.

The large woman with the cute voice was Deyone, the team healer. She had no attribute and was on the younger side. A massive woman that even dwarfed Rantak but she had a flirty and cute personality which was very much at odds with her physical presence.

The other three on board were Aethra who was one of the main combatants, Klio who was the ship’s navigator and also one of the main combatant, and Lotis who was the advance scout and ranged attacker. Seeing these women all going about getting ready brought out a sense of nostalgia to Rantak who hadn’t been out on patrol for years. Smiling she hopped on board and stowed her gear.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been two months since Rantak went on patrol and it was just as boring and monotonous as she remembered. They had run across some wild beasts and been to the different villages that had been razed in the beast horde. However, there were no signs of the abominations that everyone was talking about. She couldn’t even find very many signs of animals in the area.

The land had started to recover from the devastation that the animals had wrought, but it would be years before the trees really recovered. Still, it made it easy to see, especially from the air, any signs of disturbances. It was today that Rantak finally spotted something out of the ordinary.

They were coming up to another village that had been mostly destroyed. There were still some buildings left standing in this one though. When Rantak was looking at it in the distance she saw something move. What drew her attention besides the movement was that whatever moved, appeared to be a person.

“Hey Klio, take us over to that village I think I saw something and I want to check it out,” Rantak shouted to the navigator.

The ship turned and Kilo yanked on a cord which was attached to a bell sounding the alarm. The bell sounded throughout the ship and alerted the others below deck that something was up. There were different bells that told the people on board what they needed to know. 1 bell was to say something was up and to get ready to investigate. 2 bells mean that there was someone or something approaching and to get ready quick. 3 bells or more meant immediate danger grab what would could and prepare. Klio only sounded 1 bell so people made their way out from below the deck to see what was going on while still getting their gear equipped. Even with one bell, everyone had already shifted to their combat form to prepare. Euandar was a dormouse type beastkin, Aethra was a jackal type of beastkin, Klio was a marmoset, Lotis was a civet and finally, Deyone was a chinchilla.

As they came to hover close to the village Rantak hopped over the edge of the ship with Euandar and Aethra. After which the made their way towards the city while the ship moved higher and moved slowly to watch over them. Lotis had her bow ready and was keeping an eye out. Deyone was beside Lotis relaying instructions with hand signals to Klio so the ship would be in the best position to cover the ground troops.

Rantak moved lightly and with no sound jumping from location to location that provided cover. Euandar moving similar to Rantak on her left and Aethra moving on the right. The proceeded to move through the city a tacit understanding of where everyone was supposed to be. Rantak could feel her blood starting to pump in excited anticipation.

She slowed down as she could hear something moving up ahead. Making eye contact with Euandar and Aethra so that they knew there was a possible contact ahead. They slowed down and positioned themselves to be able to support each other effectively.

Sitting on a chair in the middle of the remains of a building was a man. It was like no man that Rantak had ever seen though. His skin was a dull reddish color with black and purple veins and patterns all over his body. He was wearing a loose shirt with no sleeves a pair of pants that tucked into a pair of black boots that came up halfway to his knees. The clothes were a type of material that she had never seen and had many visible pockets on them.

“Welcome my dear commander. We weren’t expecting you so early but we are happy that you have come,” the man said.

Realizing that she had already been seen and hiding wouldn’t help she stepped out a little so that she could easily look and talk to him as well as react quickly if something happened. “The feeling is definitely not mutual. So who are you and who is this we?”

As soon as she asked that she heard the distinct twang of a bow releasing an arrow. Which was quickly followed by a scream of pain. This caused her to drop into a fighting stance and look around to see where the enemy was. Much to her dismay, she couldn’t find an enemy other than the man and when she looked around she found that the person shot was actually Euandar. Her left leg had been shot just above the knee.

“Well her adventuring days are finished.” the man said with a chuckle.

Rantak was still trying to understand what happened when a second twang sounded. This time she felt the threat and knew that the arrow was aimed at her. Reacting with surprisingly fast reflexes she moved her gauntleted hand into the path of the arrow before it could do any damage.

The man casually stood up and started walking towards Euandar while speaking. “The we I am talking about is myself and my slaves.” As Rantak was keeping an eye on Lotis in the ship she felt another person attack. Instinctively defending her two gauntlets blocked Aethra’s two swords and then she shifted her body to avoid another arrow that was fired at her. With growing dread, Rantak understood the situation.

“I have been tasked with the recruitment of fighters from this continent, and while I had no plans to capture you yet since you presented yourself so nicely I will not turn down such a gift.” While he was saying this he had moved to Euandar and rolled her onto her face. Placing his knee on her back he lifted her shirt and started to draw. Rantak was busy fending off Lotis’ and Aethra’s attacks which prevented her from stopping him from doing what he was to Euandar.

Despite her struggles and screams, Euandar could do nothing to fight off the man. She had condensed ice spikes and shot them at him but he just ignored them and they shattered on his body. They didn’t even damage his clothes. Nothing she did with either water or ice had any effect on him. He overpowered her easily as he drew a mark on her back. After a short amount of time, there was a red flash and Euandar stopped screaming and struggling. “There, now that the first target has been captured let’s get our bonus, shall we.”

Rantak had been defending primarily because these were her friends. To be attacked by them and they show not an ounce of remorse was hard for her. She wasn’t sure how these women had been captured by this man but she knew that holding back while fighting them was not going to let her survive. She wanted to save them and to understand what was happening but everything moved so quickly. Euandar was subdued within 20 seconds with this kind of power she felt no confidence in a direct confrontation with this person so she set her resolve to kill if needed.

Moving quickly she positioned her opponents so that Aethra was behind her and Lotis was in front. This allowed her to setup Aethra to take a hit if Lotis shot. Rantak hoped that this would buy her a second or two one way or the other. She knew she needed to hurry as the strange man had started walking towards her. Hearing a twang she jumped and set off an explosion of fire to confuse Aethra. Rantak moved towards the ship. She wouldn’t be able to outrun the ship so her only hope for escape was to take it back and run.

As she moved closer to the ship she set off a light pulse above and on the opposite side of the ship. It was enough to cause Klio to flinch and this moved the ship suddenly which unbalanced Deyone causing her to fall. Lotis was also unbalanced but due to her smaller stature, she was able to shift her center of gravity and brace against the railing of the ship. However, she was unable to shoot her bow while this was happening.

Rantak took this chance to jump up and use Deyone as a platform to launch herself back onto the ship. When Rantak stepped on Deyone she released another fire based explosion which launched her towards the ship and blasted Deyone into the ground. She wasn’t sure if that was enough to kill Deyone but it was enough to incapacitate her for a time.

Arriving at the side of the ship Rantak was able to grab onto Lotis and use her to pull herself onto the ship. This had the added benefit that if Lotis let go she would fall. Surprisingly, Lotis did just that. She stood up and fell from the ship trying to keep Rantak from getting on board. Rantak was a little surprised at first and then she smirked. With her hand still on Lotis, Rantak moved Lotis underneath her and then let off a double explosion which pushed Rantak up high enough to grab onto the railing of the ship that was starting to right itself.

“Damn it! Stop her!” the man yelled.

Lotis twisted in the air and started to float some which allowed her to bring her bow to bear again. Firing a shot that Rantak couldn’t avoid this time. Fortunately, the arrow did not score a direct hit and only sliced open a nasty gash on her calf before Rantak made it completely onto the ship.

“Crash the ship!” the man screamed.

However, by the time he was able to scream this and Klio react Rantak had already arrived in front of her. She threw a heavy punch towards Klio with her right hand but it was blocked by the two-handed war hammer that Klio used to fight. Rantak’s next attach looked like a missed punch and then she opened her hand as wide as she could. The movement caused Klio to look over out of reflex and Rantak created a burst of light blinding Klio for a few precious seconds. These few seconds were all Rantak needed to pick up Klio bodily and launch her off the ship.

While she was throwing Klio off the ship Aethra and Lotis were both working on getting back on the ship. Lotis had fired arrows into the hull and created some handholds on her fall down. She wasn’t strong enough to fly yet but she could control her fall and increase her jump with her wind element. Aethra had created some stone pillars to allow her to ascend and had grabbed onto the arrows that Lotis had fired into the hull. She channeled some fire mana into the hull through the arrows so that the ship would start to burn. Lotis had just started to run up the pillars of earth that Aethra had created when the ship lurched up rocketing up into the air. This ripped the arrows that Aethra was holding on out of the hull with her weight on it and Lotis wasn’t close enough to get on the ship.

Rantak was steering the ship she raised the height of the ship over what would be 1km in height. She then turned the ship and flew it at its maximum speed back towards Ampleforth. The implications of what she had just seen had rocked her mind. As soon as Rantak had the ship heading in the right direction she bandaged her leg. She wasn’t sure how long she would be able to last as she had used a large portion of her mana escaping. Still, it was no time to slow down. Taking out her communication crystal She contacted the City Guard communication center.

“This is Rantak, guard commander of Ampleforth. Designation 35ZL2. This is a priority alert. All guards are to be on alert and be examined for a glyph or some type of drawing on their skin. Do you copy.”

“This is Silion on duty communications officer. Acknowledge your priority alert. Is there anything else?”

Rantak paused for a second and realized this was not the response she would have expected. However, she was able to cover and say “No. My ship is damaged and I will be crashing soon. Please send help. Please follow the coordinates of this communication crystal.”

As soon as she ended the communication with the City Guards she opened them back up and contacted her sister. After a few seconds, Chiyo picked up and said “Rantak? What’s going on?”

“Sister I’m not sure how much time you have. I was just attacked by my patrol and a strange man.”

“WHAT?!?”

“Just listen. I think people in the city guard are being controlled. I don’t know how many people have been converted but I do know that the squad leader of this group had to be subdued before she was captured. They are using some kind of glyph or mark to take control. I think that this is some kind of mind control or something and doesn’t change the person’s loyalty just their ability to act. Otherwise getting away from this patrol and that man would have been impossible.”

“Oh, my goddess. Are you okay?” Chiyo asked with worry.

“I’m fine but I’m not sure who you can trust. I need to dump this communication crystal as soon as I am done talking with you to throw them off. You need to start getting people to safety. I’m not sure if the mark is in the same place on every person nor do I know what it looks like but I saw a strange red skinned man putting a mark on Euandar on her low back. I haven’t seen any marks on the people around me so I am guessing that the mark is placed in an area where it should be covered by clothes.”

“Okay, I know what to do. Where are you headed?” Chiyo asked.

“I am going to head to…” she stopped to think that if this communication was intercepted or if goddess forbid Chiyo was a slave. “Uh, I’ll find you. Do what you can. If it’s too bad then we can only evacuate.”

“I understand sister. Be careful and hopefully I will see you soon.” Chiyo said and then ended the communication.