Year 2, Winter, Third Month, First Week.

The sunlight had left the camp for almost four hours, but Anya refused to end the day without some good results. Fortunately, Councilwoman Reiner had chosen only workaholics to compose her team. Although her boss was criticized by many disciples, she was praised for being farsighted by those that could see the bigger picture. A proof of this was that she had masterfully allocated the most fast-working and tireless disciples to help Anya craft the energy detoxifying tool.

As one of the major problems in the camp and something that was victimizing dozens of workers every day, there was an urgency to finish the tool that would reduce the cases of magic poisoning. To put more pressure on the Alchemists, the tool would work by moving magic energy inside the body, which was extremely dangerous according to Karl. However, none of these made Anya anxious or coward from the task, she was known as the best disciple and she would maintain the position through hard work and effort.

“Phew… I think it’s ready.”

The image of the four meters square Array stole deep sights from the tired disciples. Unfortunately, they would have to wait until the next day to test it and make the follow-up adjustments, or at least they should. Anya jumped inside the Array and commanded:

“You, quickly power the Array! We should test it and anticipate a few adjustments…”

Even the most hardworking disciples thought that she was being a little excessive. Now, testing the Array they just finished on herself was just throwing away any rationality. The disciples exchanged worried expressions, without knowing what to do. One of the disciples, who was closer to Anya, tried to coax her.

“Maybe we should test it first in the wind Horses, Master did warn us that it could be dangerous…”

“Non-sense, we should trust our work or else how could we ask others to? Besides, Master thinks the Array would only affect the external magic energy and we still didn’t add the Runes, so the effects should be really weak… Stop wasting time and do it.”

The disciples couldn’t convince the forceful Anya, so they unwillingly powered the Array. The glow traveled from the energy crystal through the Array until everything shined. While most of the disciples closed their eyes, praying for the Origin to protect their leader, Anya focused her attention on feeling the differences in her body. She frowned and tried to move her muscles until she felt a subtle tickling. It took almost five minutes for Anya to feel some measurable difference.

“It’s too weak, but I do feel lighter. Like a heavyweight was lifted from my shoulders… Even without the Runes, we could some small improvements before resting… Any suggestions?”

“…”

***

“Don’t struggle or I could cut you, accidentally…”

The Fighter pushed Samia towards their camp while the other two checked the surroundings for other spies. The situation was dire and would probably get worse, but she could only comply and keeping moving, the blade in her neck prevented her from doing otherwise.

As they approached, Samia observed the group discussing something, strangely, the Fighters or non-Mages were being particularly casual with the supposed Mages, which contradicted all that she learned about the elite group. Another oddity was that the rest seemed to be more respectful, if not obedient, to two figures, the grey-robed and a female Fighter. When they arrived, the man holding Samia hostage passed a bag and weapons, a dagger and two recently craft throwing knives, to the female Fighter while saying in an annoyed tone:

“She didn’t say anything but came without resisting…”

The woman seemed to evaluate the hunter from head to toe, which was also Samia’s response, only more discrete. Then, she exchanged a nod with the wind Mage before analyzing the weapons.

“You don’t look like an untrained lonely rogue and your weapons are especially well crafted… These markings… Maybe they are some tribal thing… What do you think?”

The wind Mage receive the weapons and analyzed them, but didn’t seem to find anything out of the ordinary. The Fighter proceeded in analyzing the bag’s contents but became even more confused with the wooden slates and the thin metal rod, which also had strange markings. Fortunately, Samia always carried her crystals in the hidden compartment of her coat.

“Who’re you and what are these? Why were you spying on us? Staying silent won’t help you… We know you probably have friends nearby, it’s just a matter of time before we find them…”

Samia knew the Fighter was right, she would need to play it smart and try to use this chance to gather information about the group. She pondered for a minute before answering.

“I’m from the AK Tribe. The markings represent my ownership over these things… I was hunting in this area and found your tracks, I wasn’t trying to do anything, it’s just strange to find someone from outside the forest during winter.”

The Fighter and Mage analyzed Samia again, her garments and the marks on her body actually matched the identity of a tribal, and the fact that she could resist this level of magic energy without being a Fighter or Mage also pointed to a native group.

“How about your weapons? With these weapons, you should have a very good blacksmith… Where’s your tribe and how do you survive in the forest?”

Samia pretended to hesitate before answering. Before sending off the scouting group, the Council had decided on a fake story in case they were caught, so it wasn’t difficult to answer these questions.

“The weapons aren’t from our Tribe, we exchanged them with a group that comes into the Forest every year after the rainy season… My Tribe is… far. We’re not weak! Every adult can kill a LT beast alone… We just don’t need to fight them all the time, because our Tribe is protected by nature…”

Samia tried to sound especially hesitant and vague while talking about the Tribe, like she was afraid of them attacking it. Fortunately, the other party seemed to believe her, or at least in most of her story. The other Mage interrupted the two leaders’ scrutiny to add something.

“Ah… Chris, maybe we could ask their help or trade with them… We still haven’t found any MT beasts and we can’t go back empty-handed or…”

“Not now! Don’t discuss our matters in front of potential enemies…”

“Come on, Chris. She’s just a young girl, besides she already said her Tribe is used to trading with other groups…”

At this moment, the arguing Mages were interrupted by the two Fighters, who had just returned from scouting the area.

“We didn’t found anyone else, maybe she was alone.”

Samia, who already had collected enough information, saw an opportunity and decided to take a risk.

“I think my Tribe would be happy to trade with you, these weapons help a lot… The Chief might even award me something… My hunting group is too far from here, but I could call them with my tools. We have a sound signal to call each other, you just need to hit the metal with a knife…”

The leading Fighter looked suspiciously at Samia, but decided to try, she took the metal rod and hit it with her sword, but didn’t get much effect. Samia quickly added:

“Let me show you how, you need to hit it and let the blade slide, my dagger is better for this…”

The Fighter tried with the dagger but still failed to get a recognizable sound, so she hesitantly passed the dagger and tool to Samia. The situation was strange, but what could the girl do surrounded by so many enemies.

Samia took the dagger and prepared to hit the metal, but she swiftly pressed against a part of her coat instead. The action alerted everyone, the Fighter stepped forward to immobilize her and the wind Mage took a step back while preparing to activate a spell.

However, before they could reach Samia, her coat started to shine...