Year 2, Winter, First Month, Third Week.

When dealing with dangerous and unpredictable situations, a simple plan has more chances of achieving better results, and that’s what the Council decided to bet on. Unfortunately, the consequences of their plan couldn’t be avoided, so they hesitated, but in the end, they could only follow through with it. Whether they would be able to execute it, was an entirely different matter.

Lew observed carefully as Karl placed the arrowhead on top of the Array. The momentary glow that spread through the drawings and the following wave that dissipated through the air made him feel a little less nervous. The memory from a few minutes ago returned to his mind, he remembered the Councillors shifting uncomfortably in their chairs as he asked:

“And how would we do it?”

At that time, almost everyone looked at Omero. His control and power had diminished, but he still acted as their leader.

“Before we do anything, we need information. The plan becomes useless if we don’t know what is happening outside…”

And that’s what they were trying to do right now, understand the situation outside the barrier. The first step was discovering Tael’s location. Using the magic locator, they sent a wave designed to react to his arrows.

Fortunately, the magic wave reader started to shine a little over a minute after the wave was sent, which indicated that Tael was approximately 500 kilometers from their location. Karl repeated the action three more times until they narrowed the position of the missing archer with enough precision.

Using a twig, Diana drew a small circle a few centimeters east of the big circle that represented the outpost. Then, Karl replaced the removable part of the magic locator with another Array, which looked the same in Lew’s eyes. Seeing his confusion, one of Karl’s assistants quietly explained to him that the difference between the Arrays was which characteristics they extracted. Specifically, the Signature Extraction Array (pentagram form) used to search for Tael was designed to react to the specif magic properties of the enhanced arrows, while this new Array would do it for metal.

Ten minutes later, they had a general location for both Tael and the enemy. Unfortunately, the locator couldn’t point how many enemies were out there, only indicate their positions. However, with a few tests and some adjustments to the locator’s position, they estimated the presence of at least ten enemies. The number itself didn’t tell them much since the enemies’ strength was still unknown, but even so, it was something.

Another memory flashed in Lew’s mind. Omero’s words weighed heavily on his mind.

“The next step would be bringing Tael back… Or at least tell him to run. But that might be too dangerous…”

The unspoken words were clear to everyone, if they couldn’t rescue or warn him to run, Tael would probably be sacrificed for their survival.

Lew breathed deeply and moved forward to join the small team that would try to rescue the archer. He tried to remember why he had volunteered for the job, but nothing came to his mind, was it him being impulsive, or was he still trying to prove himself? Either way, now that he took the job, he would do his best to see it done or at least try not to die while doing it.

The rescue team would be formed by Lew, Sania and Toni. Lew could guess Sania’s motives for participating, she wouldn’t pass down on a chance of fighting against Kingdom, while Toni should be doing it for his friend.

The trio moved towards the barrier unsure if they would ever come back. The scene was very heroic and ended up getting more attention than it should. But then, who could blame others for admiring them? The trio was walking into a possible death trap just to save one of them.

The other Councilors didn’t stay idle, they have much to prepare before showtime. Karl and his disciples rushed towards the center of the outpost, they would need to work fast, otherwise, they would be captured or destroyed.

***

Thundery impatiently stared at the blue barrier. Their mission was to investigate the situation, but she already decided to test the other party’s strength. They were only waiting for the bubble Mage to drop the protection spell before making their attempt. The problem was that such a time never came, apparently, the Mage didn’t care about wasting his spiritual energy on the aimless task. Actually, it wasn’t aimless since it prevented them from attacking.

Fortunately, something changed and rescued Thundery from dying of boredom, a team left the barrier and moved towards the east. She smiled and exchanged a few words with Johann, if they captured the team they would be able to get some information about the Mage maintaining the barrier.

“This looks a little strange…”

Thundery rolled her eyes at Johann's comment and replied in a mocking tone.

“Stop overthinking everything. Don’t tell me we can’t capture them because it’s risky…”

“I’m not saying that, just feels strange for them to be leaving camp at this hour and they don’t seem to be in hurry to go back…”

She ignored him and gave orders for three Fighters to follow and capture the team as soon as they were out of the camp’s sight. Then, she turned her attention back to the barrier. When she saw the team exiting the camp, her first impulse was to capture them herself, but then she realized they were just common villagers, so she lost interest. The only one who could get her blood flowing was the Commander inside the camp, or at least another Mage.

Ten minutes passed, but nobody returned. Something was definitely wrong, Thundery looked at Johann, they exchanged a serious nod before he started to walk towards the direction that the Fighters left, but a voice stopped him.

“Welcome distinguished visitors… May I ask who am I having the honor of addressing? And to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Johann was so surprised that he misstepped and made a mess to recover his footing, ending any chance of hiding his location. Thundery and the Fighters, on the other hand, stayed silent, they wouldn’t give the enemy any free advantages.

“I’m Joh… I’m a representative of the Wind Lord and I came looking for some missing villagers…”

Johann saw the old man hesitating when he said who he was representing, but the man quickly recovered his posture, he couldn’t help but praise the man’s ability to maintain his ground.

“Oh, I see… I’m sorry but we can’t help you.”

“Preposterous! I order you to…”

“This is not the Kingdom. Neither you nor his Grace has the authority to order anything here… If you don’t have any other matters to attend I suggest you and YOUR friends leave soon, the Forest is very dangerous at night…”

“Your filthy commoner, you dare to refuse a Mage’s order? Let me show you how far the Kingdom’s power reaches.”

Johann started to circulate the wind power around him, making track marks appear in the snow as he moved forward. Thundery only smiled at the old man’s stupidity, now he could only survive if their Mage decided to appear and protect him. At this time, a volley of arrows exited the barrier and flew towards them. Johann had to interrupt his spell and use the energy he gathered to block the arrows with a Wind Shield. Thundery couldn’t stay hidden anymore, sparks danced around her as she easily dodged two arrows. One of her Fighters wasn’t fast enough and got hit on his leg. Everyone was surprised by the arrows’ speed.

Thundery smiled, maybe the villagers could be a tasty first course until the Mage decided to appear. Strangely, the elder didn’t look scared by their performance, he just walked back to the camp leaving behind a few words.

“Farewell…”

Then, another volley of arrows flew in their direction. Thundery snickered at their futile attempt, this time they were prepared and nobody would be hit. In her contempt, she failed to notice that one arrow lagged behind the others, and something was shinning on its tip. Johann felt something amiss and a gust of wind appeared from nowhere dashing towards Thundery. The shine in the arrow intensified until it blinded everyone, waves of energy formed around it, distorting all physical matter. For a second, everything was quiet and silent, but then the energy expanded faster than the eye could see and destroyed everything on its way.

***

Without warning, the wind inside the throne room started to rage like a hurricane. The attendants tried to run from the elemental rage, but only a few escaped in time. A scream echoed in the room before leaving Sky Palace and spreading through the Wind region:

“Thundery!”

***

One hour earlier, in the Council meeting.

Lew was shocked speechless by their plan, so he said the only thing that came to his mind:

“And then what?”

“Then, we run.”