Now that we were on our mounts and they took over navigation, I was finally able to check the notifications I had ignored all evening.

Skill increased You increased your skill: Stealth [21/100]

Bound Nymph of Tegi died You gain 2.500 EXP. For killing an opponent 2 levels above you, you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP . . . Bound Nymph of Tegi died You gain 2.500 EXP. For killing an opponent 1 level above you, you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

You reached level 47

Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Rune-Mastery [55/100]

Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Magic [17/100]

Skill increased You increased your skill: Blood Magic [30/100]

Trait gained You gained the trait: Defilement Your use of Blood Magic has defiled a large Area. The power you gain when using Blood Magic is increased but the chance of letting Nethersprites into the world is increased as well.

The trait sounded interesting, increasing the power of my blood magic but also the risk I took with it. I had yet to draw a Nethersprite so I had a feeling that it was more a long-time, area specific use of Blood Magic that caused trouble in that regard.

I heard Sigmir and Adra talk softly in front of me but I was only able to make out bits an pieces. The parts I did hear were about me and Adra questioning my sanity. Oh, well, she had just seen me unleash some kind of unholy abomination so I could understand it. Still, I had done it, in part, to save her, so calling me a 'murderous lunatic' was a little unfair.

As we rode, we saw a few Nethersprites move past us, drawn to the power radiating from Tegi, they all ignored us, letting us pass until one of them was heading directly towards Sigmir. As she was unable to see in the dark, it fell to me to stop Elding for a moment and strike at it with a burst of consuming darkness. Luckily, it was a lot more drawn to the feast behind us to try again and we got past it. From that point on, I took the lead, preventing me from hearing even the smallest bit of conversation.

We spurned our mounts onward, channelling Astral Power into them to give them more stamina, retreating north as fast as we could. Neither Sigmir nor I wanted to stay within the area overrun by Nethersprites longer than necessary. Sometime around noon, I was done. The night had been stressful and I needed rest. We continued on but kept looking out for a good hideout to rest for a bit. We get lucky and found a fallen tree that would easily shelter us. We could even light a fire and hope for the best. After dismounting, Hringur and Elding returned to their crystals at once and Ylva left her Hallow, rejoining us outside. Even Lenore made an appearance for once.

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The camp-preparation was done in exhausted silence and while I was preparing some food, Adra approached me.

“I... I want to thank you. You saved my life.” she spoke up, exhaustion and apprehension colouring her voice.

“Don't worry about it. A friend of ours asked us to save the sacrifices in Tegi, I'm not sure if she was aware you would be amongst them but I have a feeling there was purpose in our meeting.” I answered.

“Still, you did the deed. Sigmir told me a bit about your friend, I would like to travel with you so I can meet her.”

“Well, we will need to move north for a few days. I'd be happy to have you with us. As I said before, my name is Morgana and I'm a Traveller. You've met Sigmir and those two are Ylva and Lenore. I'm sure Kallista will be happy to meet you.” I introduced the rest of the group to her and we all gave a rough description of our abilities, learning that she was a level 50 Dryad and her preferred fighting style was a mix of supportive magic, suppressive magic and close-quarter-combat.

We didn't speak much more after that short talk, all of us were just too tired. Sigmir and I snuggled up once more, causing Adra to blush a little, at least that's how I interpreted her look and mannerism. Experienced, she was not.

Over the next three days we moved further north, Adra no longer joined Sigmir, she used a long spell to turn into a strange goat-like creature and kept up with Elding and Hringur for hours on end. We had to slow down from time to time, but she was able to keep up with magical mounts, something that astounded me to no end. When I asked her about it, she told me that she was able to turn into this shape she learned from an elder in her grove and into the shape of a large cat - based off a lynx if I'd had to guess; it was not too large or imposing. According to her, she had never to use that particular brand of magic, preferring a more direct approach, either using spells or using her spear. As we made camp one evening, she recreated her spear, taking a large, straight branch from a tree and, over the course of hours, shaping it into a beautiful implement of death. Again, I asked about it and learned that most nature-caster were able to create something like that, preferring the shaped living matter to cold, dead steel. The living matter grew with them, never became dull and they could mend it in the blink of an eye using their magic. It was quite similar to my use of my ice-weaponry.

All in all, our way north was peaceful; wildlife felt that attacking us would be a bad idea and we only hunted what we wanted to eat, avoiding unnecessary bloodshed, remembering the empty forests around Tegi in which nothing but Nethersprites remained. There was no need to create more such areas,

As we arrived in the area around Yari, Sigmir asked Adra to venture into the town, getting some supplies and information for us as we might be a little unwelcome in the small town. She had no trouble with it and took off with part of our hard earned coin. Sigmir and I enjoyed the time without an outsider in camp. Ylva and Lenore didn't count, they were linked into our minds anyway but neither Sigmir nor I felt comfortable being fully relaxed and intimate with each other while Adra was in camp. Not that we did a lot that night but it was a welcome break for the two of us. We estimated that she'd stay in town for a full day, mainly to gather gossip and rumours, the supplies should be easy. We stayed a day in camp, relaxed and did maintenance on our gear, searched for a nice brook to have a bath, things like that.

The next day, Adra came back to camp in the late morning and looked quite agitated.

“There are bounty hunters in town!” she blurted out immediately. ”I think they are looking for the two of you.”

Her announcement made me sit up straight, there was practically no one who I had pissed off this early in the game. Well, no one but Sigmir's former clan. I looked over to her and she met my eyes and cringed.

“Tell us what you've heard.” I told her.

“It was quite a strange group, one dwarf, I think an orc, a leopard beast-man and some kind of sylvan. I overheard them in the inn, talking about their target a tall giantblood female accompanied by a strange, small elfin creature. I kind of doubt that there are many like that running around here. They talked about killing the small one first to take the other one back to her clan for their justice.”

“Lenore, can you scout for us?” I asked in my mind and a second later, Lenore took off from my shoulder. At the same time, my mind went to the obvious reason for such a diverse group. They were all travellers, probably people who had played together in a previous game and were now here and had taken a quest for Sigmir from her clan. We'd have to take care of the quest in the future but for now, we had to decide either to take down their group or flee and hope that they were unable to track us further. Yari was an obvious place to start, it was one of the few towns in the area and we had been there and left an impression. The only question was, did they know we had left heading south - in which case we might give them the slip - or were they able to track us somehow?