Story From The Elders—

Long ago, the tribes were divided by our totems. A broken people that raided each other as much as we raided the Olimpians.

Living in the valleys of the Broken Peaks could never be called easy. Snow comes down in sheets in the winter, trapping us in our homes. And in the summer, we would be too busy fighting with our neighbors to stock up for the winter.

Then chieftain Grantly put aside her pride. A chieftain of a wolf tribe looked past the squalor of her little village and looked for something better. Something different.

She saw the wealth of food growing in the fields under the rule of the Olimpians, and instead of stealing only their harvest as she slaughtered them, she captured the farmers along with the seed.

She made her villagers watch the Olimpian farmers as they were forced to work.

The Kin watched, and we learned. When the ground was not what the plants needed to grow, mages altered the land. When there were rocks in the way, they were moved. If water was needed, it rained.

As the harvests grew, Grantly reached out to the neighboring tribes. She taught those who were willing to cooperate how to farm. How to be more. And for those who wanted to keep to the savage ways, she gathered those who would cooperate and drove the savage from her lands.

Thus were the origins of the first faction and our separation from the lost. And yet, we can never forget that this story could only exist thanks to the Olimpians.

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Kanieta walked in the center of a line of warriors. To her right and a step back was Nareta, who was holding her head high, looking straight ahead, acting like she didn't have a care in the world. To Kanieta's left was Hurring, whose body was tight with tension and head constantly swiveling, looking for danger.

He was not looking at the forest for that danger, which would be expected, but at the warriors from the Crescent Moon Faction around them. Most of the warriors of the other faction weren't even making a pretense. Their hands were clenched tightly around their spears and clubs, while their heads were constantly turned towards Kanieta.

It was to the point that she was considering asking them how they stopped themselves from bumping into each other. Or if they were so bewitched by her beauty that they feared she would disappear if they looked away.

She was having trouble deciding which she should ask. Each one had its own positives and negatives.

Not that it mattered, she was in her Clan Leader guise. 'Action like that would bring shame to her clan and faction while undermining her authority in the eyes of the other chieftains.' Or so she had been told by Elder Lurta so many times that her whiplike voice echoed in her head even now.

Elder Lurta wasn't wrong. Which was the main reason that Kanieta followed her teachings. That old bat will be wrong sooner or later… Kanieta thought to herself as she got lost imagining all the ways she would hold the Elder's mistake over her head.

Happy thoughts continued to track through Kanieta's mind as she took one step after another, ignoring the forest on this pleasant evening stroll. The stiff back of the Elder Jolten only added to the walk and made her mouth twitch in amusement.

The camps had to be close enough to support each other on the off chance the Olimpians attacked, but it shouldn't have taken most of a day to reach the bridge over the river. It couldn't be helped, though. Kanieta had so many interruptions and meetings. Once those were done, no one could find Hurring and tell him he was escorting her.

Before anyone knew it, most of the day had passed.

Kanieta blinked and found they were at the edge of a large cleared portion of the forest.

All across the miles-wide clearing were the remnants of campfires. And it seemed as if there was a stump poking three feet up from the ground every dozen feet with the same smooth, nearly reflective surface. Everywhere in between the stumps, there were footprints. Lots and lots of them.

The ground was so torn up that every step should kick up a cloud of dust. That was if the general damp air and morning fog coming off the river weren't a thing.

Combine those two facts, and you get a field with a layer of mud across it. A slippery field that Kanieta had no intention of making a fool of herself crossing while getting muddy.

At the far end of the clearing were thousands of Kin. They were gathered around the eastern side of the bridge Kanieta and Green had seen the night before. They were busy. Must have been running over the bridge all night and day to get everyone over this fast. And… yep, theirs the rest of the bastards. Kanieta's eyes lingered on the mass of bodies across the river for a moment, then went to what was her real problem.

Looking at the mud-churned ground with annoyance, Kanieta flashed a hand sign at her cousin and then nodded her head to the clearing.

Kanieta caught the impish smile that appeared on Nareta's face before it vanished and knew she was in for a show. So she sat back and watched in curiosity as Nareta stepped past her, pulling back the long loose sleeves of her light green and white dress. Her dress was a traditional outfit of their tribe and had multiple layers of tight clothing across the chest and waist before falling to a loose skirt. It was quite the contrast compared to Kanieta's leather armor and cloak.

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When Nareta was two steps in front of Kanieta, she flicked her wrists, and two blue fires burst to life, hovering six inches from the ground and nearly on top of two of the warrior's feet.

"Ahh!"

"Damn fox!"

Shouted the two warriors at the same time as they jumped back from the intense heat of the ethereal fire. One even lost his footing in the mud and fell onto his backside.

"Apologies," Nareta said with a bow of her head, "I was just making a path for my Chieftain."

Kanieta fought to keep her lips from curling up at the edges as she continued walking, ignoring the glare Jolten shot at her. And she held her nose in the air as the two on the ground flashed their teeth at her.

That could easily be taken as a challenge, probably should be, and all challenges were dealt with in blood. But opening the door to allowing the Crescent Moon to question her authority was something that she must avoid.

Nareta kept the fire at the same distance from her as they walked, and even though it was only hanging over any patch of ground for fractions of a second, the ground Kanieta was walking over was baked as if it had spent the whole summer being cooked in its heat.

While Kanieta and her people walked over the field on solid ground, none of the warriors so much as put a foot down on the baked ground. They are so arrogant and proud that they would rather slip and fall rather than ask for help… Fucking wolves.

Their pace slowed significantly as the guards and Elder couldn't keep up the pace.

The struggle became more comedic as time passed, and eventually, a figure ran out to their group from the gathered mass at the bridge. It was only after we had passed over a quarter of the clearing.

As the figure slid to a stop, Kanieta could tell he was a mage by the collection of focuses around his body. Without anyone saying a word, she could feel mana surge from the new arrival and move through a focus, casting a spell that pulled the water out of the ground, making a solid path for their band to walk on.

A frown settling onto her face, Nareta stopped her spell and fell back to her place as the group quickly traveled the rest of the way.

Some of the wolves even threw looks of superiority as their mage worked the ground, making it solid. All she could do was shake her head and think, bloody wolves.

When they approached the mass of Kin, they parted, bowing to the Elder and murmuring words of respect.

We walked over the three-fourths mile-wide bridge with him at our head. Kanieta let her mana senses seep out of her as she walked to inspect the bridge. It was far better than looking at the pompous ass walking with his chest out at their head.

Before, when she saw the bridge at a distance with Green, all she could see was the massing of mana, not the spellwork intertwining it all. Mana leaked into her eyes, and they roved over the different spells holding this construction together. She even reached out with a strand of mana to pluck at a section of the spellwork that looked… off.

"Wohh!"

"Ahh!"

"What the—

"By the Frozen Peaks!"

Dozens of other voices rang out, shouting similar phrases of panic and fear.

Pulling her energy into her body again, Kanieta looked around with a look of bewilderment on her face as the bridge beneath their feet rocked and shook.

At the end of the bridges, Kanieta saw streams of mana burst out from the tops of two towers positioned on either side of the bridge, then seep into the bridge, reinforcing it. Within seconds of the spells entering the bridge, the shaking that would have resulted in its collapse ended.

"Not the best workmanship," Kanieta said in the shocked silence that enveloped the area. She did not say them loudly, but with the only noise coming from the river flowing beneath them, everyone within a couple dozen feet could hear.

Elder Jolten whirled around, his face white with fear, and snapped, "If some people didn't interfere with the spellwork, this situation would not happen."

Giving him a shocked look of surprise, she held one hand to her chest, "I would never put people in danger for curiosity! And if I ever did, it would be because some people can't take the most basic precautions of securing their spellwork for interference and probing." Her voice was laced with an affronted incredulity at being accused before shifting to a mocking thoughtful, "I mean, who could even dream that someone might take those precautions on a… military structure?"

The Elder's face went through a series of rapid emotions at her not-so-subtle accusation, finally settling on arrogant scorn. This should be good, Kanieta thought to herself.

"Why would we bother doing such a thing? It's a waste of effort! The Olimpians lack the imagination to think we could build this, let alone that we already have. And how could their feeble powers interfere with ours? The very world adds to our strength!" By the end, his arms were raised in the air, and those of his tribe were shouting, egging him on.

Kanieta shook her head and started walking forward again. She could not believe the arrogance the Elder was displaying.

It was true. The Kin knew far more about the Olimpians than the Olimpains knew about them. It was one of the advantages of having a hidden society for more than the last half a millennia. Even if you don't want to, you learn quite a bit about those you're hiding from.

On the other hand, if you are always busy hiding from them, you will never see their best. The Kin knew of the knights and heard of the lords and their families ruling the cities, but they had never really seen them in action. They had never seen what happens when Olimpia really goes to war. Because the last time they really fought, our ancestors threw themselves at them in a mindless fury…

Kanieta was almost past the Elder before he turned, from basking in the glow of his followers to 'leading' her to the fort holding the bridge's western side.

As she walked past the gate between the towers, she entered a courtyard and froze.

The sun was setting and was already casting the courtyard in shadows. Taking up one wall of the fort were dozens of cages filled with Olimpains.

“Ahh…" Said Elder Jolten, slipping in next to Kanieta, "I see you noticed our… resources. They will greatly add to our power in the coming battles."

Kanieta's eyes caught on a prone figure covered in blood lying in the closest cage, then her eyes swept over the spellwork still being laid out over the square. Her stomach dropped to her feet, and she said half in horror and half disbelief, "You can't be planning to harvest their energy… That spell is forbidden!"

"Not during wartime." He said with a twisted smile filling up his face.

"Only because we have never been at war, and the Conclave has never ruled on it!" Kanieta shouted at the old man in incredulity.

"That is your opinion, Chieftain." Said the Elder in a snide voice, his smile shifting to become smug as he turned to walk away, leaving her in the courtyard.