The sun rose from the east casting a long cool shadow over the tired army encampment. Stone-Eye mountain stood like a giant’s silhouette in the light.

The whole morning had been a scramble of various chores and training, the soldiers all taking to their routines with ease even after the hassle of the night before.

Noone stood silently around the edge of the camp looking out into the forest. His thoughts were on the night before… and the coming day. He stretched out his limbs, cracking his bones as he breathed out heavy breaths of bad air he didn’t realize he had been holding in.

He walked towards the smell of breakfast before sitting down with a steaming bowl of some type of porridge.

After the ‘all clear’ had been sounded the night before, everyone began to grumble their way back to their tents over the false alarm, casting faint curses at whoever it was that blew the first horn.

The exception were the various officers who went to check in with General Armuu. This included Tobias – and subsequently Noone and Sarah. This was when they found out that indeed there had been a reason for the horn.

After examining the scene, it was determined that a dark elf must have snuck into the camp alone, assassinated Johnson – the guard – and freed the prisoner.

Noone took another chance to look around the tent as the various officers spoke with one another.

“But why would they do that?” One of the officers – a tall and blond elf – spoke with disbelief. “That’s not how dark elves work! They don’t have any sense of comradery. They would rather let one of their own die than ever risk their own necks to rescue a prisoner.” He scoffed.

Another officer nodded – judging by her outfit she must have been part of the medical unit. “Laissyon has a point. This is very out of character for them.”

The general thought for a while, putting his finger to his chin. “Could it have been some new bond of solidarity? If they were really exiled or had to flee together from their homes in the south… they could share some bond that would justify this recourse?” he proposed carefully. Almost tasting his words as he spoke them.

The officers looked at each other but none were sure what to say. That would have to be the only option… right?

Noone did his best to be as unassuming as possible, but he listened carefully to each word that was said.

When he thought back to the dark-elf they had seen in the cage though, Noone couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that accompanied her odd lifeless smile. He frowned, quickly hiding it from anyone who might look over. Luckily for Noone, no one else had caught on to the oddity earlier that day, and had no reason to suspect him of anything now.

After sending the officers and Tobias back to their positions, the general closed down the camp until the next morning. No one was to be moving about that night, a message conveyed by the officers to the soldiers and personnel under them.

“Noone can you hear me?”

Noone’s hand paused for split second as he was bringing a spoonful of army ration food to his mouth.

“I can hear you.” He thought vaguely. “Where are you?” Noone recognized the voice speaking into his mind immediately as Alaviv – the gnome wizard they had split ways with in Stone-Hand. Although he was shocked at first by the mental intrusion, Noone easily slipped into his casual tone with the wizard.

“I’m in Stone-Eye right now. Under the city at the teleportation circle.”

“Inside the mountain? How did you get inside? I was expecting to see you in the army camp honestly.” Noone asked incredulously.

“I am one of the strongest beings in the common realm and you’re asking me about how I slipped past a few dark-elf twerps? Get some perspective Noone.” The gnome chuckled and scolded. Noone had nothing to say about that.

“Alright… I’m with the army encampment. What’s the next step?” Noone thought. He casually looked around to see if anyone had caught on to his discrete mental transmissions – especially Tobias. So far it had seemed he was in the clear.

“They should be preparing to send the first wave into the caverns to hold the ground and make a push into the city. By my count though… they may have seriously underestimated the number of dark elves they are dealing with.” Alaviv chuckled bitterly. “If you can get in with the first wave, then once you’re inside I can guide you to me. It should be easy enough for you to slip away in the heat of battle as long as you’re careful.”

Noone was silent for a few moments while he ate and processed what Alaviv was telling him.

“Alaviv… Have you noticed anything off about these dark-elves?” Noone asked as he thought about the odd prisoner...

“Off? How do you mean?” Alaviv asked, genuinely unsure what Noone was getting at.

“No… it’s nothing. We can talk about it later.” Noone waved it off, not sure how he would explain it.

“Mm. Alright Noone. I have to go now, I need to focus on repairing the magic here. I will sense you as soon as you enter Stone-Eye. All you have to do is be careful… And remember, I am only going to guide you to me. If you get caught up in anything, it’s all on you.” Alaviv spoke evenly.

Noone nodded, unsure of whether the wizard could see him.

Noone spent the next two days casually hanging out around the camp and cultivating what little universe energy there was permeating the natural air around him. The last thing he wanted to do was to tip Tobias off about his plans, so he hid it away in the back of his mind.

“Ugh… It wasn’t that long ago when the thin clear threads of natural energy were enough to fill me up…” Noone moaned to himself. “If I didn’t have the ability to suck the energy out of enchantment’s it would take me a year at least just to advance past level 7.” Noone lamented the fact he was unable to buy any more enchanted weapons. He had blown all of his money over the past months on every enchanted weapon he could get his hands on in the small towns between the edge of the world and Stone-Hand.

Now though… he had advanced from early level 7 into the late stages. His meridians were flushed with highly condensed energy stolen from the universe.

“Soon.” Noone thought. “Soon I will be free of the Order’s grasp and I can focus on building my strength and biding my time…” His eyes flashed with energy as the memories of Tapestry threatened to overtake him before he quickly suppressed it.

In his heart, a plan had been forming. He had spent a while on the surface world now. Despite there being so much to learn and so many things to experience, he was already beginning to think about his revenge.