There was a creepy tension in the air, as if there were monsters in the dark while we moved closer to Tegi. Normally, I felt at home in the dark, as if a comforting blanket covered me, hiding me from the world. The darkness here was different - it felt oppressive, choking me.
As we moved, I used Ice-Magic to erase our tracks in the snow and I cast a concealment-cloak of shadows on all of us, trying to keep us undetected. In addition, I tried to stretch out my Darkness Magic, searching for enemies around us, in the dark.
Running into hunting parties so far out of Tegi gave me a bad feeling; we'd have to stay stealthy for the entire duration.
After moving about two hours, we stopped to make plans. Staying hidden was our priority, so we had to move during the night - during the day, my concealment was far less effective.
We kept moving through the night and for some reason the trees around us got larger the further we went. In addition, the strange humming got more pronounced and I finally realized what it reminded me off.
Close to the Barrow Den, there had been an aura of death, strong and solemn, like a large bass-drum, its sound almost inaudible, just recognizable due to the vibrations in the air shaking my very being.
Here, it was different. The 'sound' for lack of better word was akin to a hundred small insects buzzing. Not truly louder but more recognizable. If I had to link my feelings to my sense of smell, I'd say the Barrow Den smelled of the clear, crisp, slightly mouldy air of an ancient grave. The area here smelled like a carcass left in the heat of summer: fetid decay mixed with death, blood and rot.
The realisation made me a little sick. What I was feeling was the result of reckless killing, using death and blood without pause for who knows how long. With that, I also twigged to the Nethersprite and the meaning of it's appearance. The hunters of Tegi had killed so recklessly that the world was out of balance, with Nethersprites oozing through the cracks, despoiling the land further.
Shortly before there was any light out, we found a dry hole beneath the roots of a large tree, a good hideout to spent the day. After we crawled into it, I used a combination of Ice and Dark magic to hide the opening, giving us shelter for the day. After a cold meal, we went to sleep.
We slept the day away and as the sun was gone, we rose from our hideout, stiff from the hard ground and the uncomfortable quarters. I had to stifle a snigger when I imagined the scene for an outside observer. A dark, shadowy figure, breaking it's way out from underground, groaning and moaning as it goes, followed by another dark figure. Luckily, there was nobody around us to call the zombie-police or we would have had a problem.
Back on the ground, we continued our stealthy march toward Tegi, dodging both patrols and Nethersprites. Some time during the night, the feeling around us changed in a profound way. The buzzing feeling was still in the air but it was muted, for lack of a better word. I was still able to feel it but it was different, more removed. Walking a few steps back, the feeling changed back again, not gradually but at a perceivable place, with a clear demarcation. Using Lenore's sight showed me a fuzzy grey nebula hanging before me. It easily parted around Sigmir, not sticking to her or reacting to her in any way. To make an semi-educated guess I'd call it a barrier against the Nethersprites and hope that it has no other function or we'll have a problem. But I was certain that I'd have to keep up the concealment magic as long as we were within the barrier.
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Sadly, I was unable to gain more information other than the fact that the mist was spread out in a huge circle, big enough that the curvature was almost invisible.
We moved on and maybe two hours before first light, we reached a hill and were able to look down on Tegi. It was nestled into a river bend and had a huge, overgrown hedge instead of a wall. It didn't look like a city or even a town, more like a garden or maybe an arboretum. Tall hedges created strong lines, separating different parts of the garden from each other. The whole thing was bathed in a golden glow from multiple small crystal lamps and a single, large crystal in the middle. The lamps were suspended from various trees and the large crystal in the middle was hanging from the largest. It towered over the grove, it’s crown spreading out over the central plaza.
In the glowing light, I was able to see that there was not a single speck of snow on the ground and the river was thawed close to the shore. Looking at it with Lenore's vision showed me a mess of magical lines, fields and formations. Especially the crystals gave off a strong magical glow, surrounding the area. The strongest source however was slightly to the south side of Tegi, close to a large, open area. From our vantage, it looked like a ziggurat and if I'd have to guess, I'd call it the temple as it was one of the only points that had people standing in front of it at this time of the night. It looked like the barrier was centred around the highest point of the ziggurat.
After looking at Tegi for a bit and trying to etch the map of it into my mind, we left the hill looking for a good hideout for the day so we could plan.
A short time later, we had found another nice hole in the ground, hidden it with snow and magic and settled down to plan. The bare bones sounded simple enough: sneak in, find the apples, find the sacrifices, free the sacrifices, sneak out. Prepare one or two distractions if Murphy rears his head. Make sure to keep the brown matter well away from the rotary impeller. Our resources were sadly very limited so our plan was limited as well. It came down to me, Ylva and Lenore sneaking in, Sigmir staying well outside on her mount. Ylva would go in with us because of her better senses and ability to signal Sigmir with their companion bond, Lenore would go with me to lend me her sight and I'd go for my stealth, magic and opposable thumbs. Luckily, the next nights were moonless as it was new-moon.
We'd make our way over through the river, using a small, prepared ice-plank to cross the thawed parts or we'd be in trouble; I doubted that even my cold-resistance would hold up against the chill-factor of dripping wet clothes. Once we were in, we'd make our way to the temple in hopes that the apples were close to it in the only non-overgrown part of Tegi.
Once we had the apples, we'd search for the sacrifices for a limited amount of time, and if we had no luck then we'd abort and leave. If at any point we were discovered, Sigmir would throw a few burning torches into the hedge hoping that it would provide enough distraction to get away. In addition, the Hail-Mary option for distractions was Lenore flying up to the barrier focus and I'd throw as many Anti Magic Spells against the focus as Lenore could sustain. If the barrier that kept the Nethersprites out would break, the nymphs and dryads of Tegi would have bigger fish to fry than us.
With that plan in place, I took quite a bit of time to create a plank out of hard ice and a few Mist-Crystals. I planned to seed those at the river bank, to create a large misted area if we had to cover our tracks on the way out.
We slept away the rest of the day, making sure that we were ready for the night of action. I took my time to use the leftover Shadeleaf-Yarn to improve the concealment-enchantment on Sigmir's cloak, hoping that it would be enough to hide her. Funny how I was much more worried about Sigmir and her part in the action than I was about my part, no matter that mine would objectively be more dangerous.
After a refreshing slumber and the necessities in real life taken care of, it was time to head out. According to the plan, we'd move together until we found a good spot for Sigmir to hide out, I'd have to guide her as she had no special low-light vision and the starlight was not enough to navigate by. As soon as we found a good spot for her, hidden and close to the hedge, Ylva, Lenore and I would split, moving to the river and taking the open spot we had seen from the air. Sadly, the opening was on the north-side of the river, forcing us to move around town in order to get to the temple.