Deep in the truelands, there stands a tower. In the tower sit two men. One is man covered in the cloak of a beast. The other is a middle aged man, one that seemed to have retained all the defining features of his youth. The middle aged appears at ease in the tower while the cloaked man had the aura of a man that was facing his deadliest enemy. To an outsider the scene would look as if the latter man owned the building, though the opposite was true.

"Why are you always so tense around me, cloak.", the middle aged speaks. "It makes me feel as if I am a monster that has to eat you up.".

"Well, in my opinion you are worse, lord wolf.", cloak replies, regaining his composure.

"I will not ask you to explain how you managed what you did. I will certainly not ask you to ever use it in my favour any time soon. I was sure that child of yours would be declared executed unanimously."

"I am trader by nature, cloak. I naturally traded for that favour.", Lord wolf replies. "Now, I hope that you have not forgotten our trade."

"What is that you that can give to those ancient bastards that they are willing to leave me alone and leave a child of the legion alone. That to with that detestable bloodline.", cloak replies.

"That would be a trade secret. It would be wise if you did not poke too much into this matter. Otherwise what you have faced here will seem tame to what the council will pull on you.", lord wolf replies. "Well, that reminds me, you are of a calm sort. I have never seen you be so reckless. To directly attack and maim a soldier of the council. You have a death wish, do you."

"Well, it was kind of strategic. The council is always headed by youngsters. There is very rarely any need for the actual people that I need to worry about to come into action." Cloak spoke. "If I really wanted to I can empty that building in a day. Youngsters need to be shown with whom they are not supposed to mess with."

"What happened this time then, I have never seen the tribe leaders so agitated.", lord wolf asks.

"Well, the tribes all have a sensitive spot for one in the legion. That is still fine, but the kid managed to poke into one of our most sensitive holes. If a person of the legion makes the claim that a person is using legion arts, it is not a claim that can be taken lightly." Cloak speaks "normally this matter would be buried quickly for just how much it can divide the council. The tattoo tribe did not allow that to happen this time. He decided to come personally after what I did. If a tribe leader joins the council, the others have to present themselves. Why they are taking this so seriously is something that only God can tell."

"Well, there is no need to bring God into this, my friend. After all, you are the man that knows what is going in the head of the tribes." Lord wolf speaks. "Without that, you would have found yourself dead quite quickly."

"Well, I can guess their intentions. They are good guesses but they are guesses. I can't think of any reason for why it happen. It suddenly just escalated" Cloak speaks. "Well, you have managed to manage the situation quite well anyways, lord."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Well, I have given my pound of flesh though. Still, what about my ship. You should have it ready by now." Lord wolf asks.

"The ship is ready, though I do not understand why you need the widows tear. Heartwood is amazingly durable but it simply is not suitable for a sledder.", cloak asks instead. "If you want to study them, I can easily get infinitely better ships. I even managed to smuggle out one of the tattoo tribes most recent flagships. They are pieces of art, lord.."

"Well, your tattoo magic is quite different from formation magic in general. I would not be able to understand much from a more complicated tattoo, as you clearly know.", lord cloak speaks. "And you know the materials are quite suitable for an airship."

"But, you would not need to go such hassle for simple airships.", cloak speaks.

"Well, the airship is not for me, cloak. It is for my annoying disciple.", lord wolf replied.

"Isn't a heart wood ship a bit too valuable as a gift to your disciple." Cloak replies. "Even after so many years and and even when it is clear that nothing amazing can be made from heartwood. It took me quite a lot of time and resources to acquire this ship."

"Well, at the moment I have had to destroy quite a lot of the kids handiwork. The only thing that I have spared is the kids sword. It is a tradition of ours. When it is time, we destroy all the formations of our disciples except the one that has the highest chance of succeeding." Lord wolf continues.

"In what my lord.", cloak asks.

"Well, that is a secret of our people, my friend." Lord wolf continues. "I have spoken too much already. Well, point me to the ship and I will take my leave. Also, make sure that the troublesome brat is placed on it first though."

"As you wish, lord." Cloak replies.

(After almost a couple of hours.)

The grand wolf, formation master of the black mountain is at the moment carrying a ship by hand from the truelands to the snowwind empire. The man knows many methods of placing it in other dimensions, his ring being his favourite method of doing but the tattoos used here instead of formations are quite fragile to anything but the ice mana that causes so much trouble in this land.

Studying these tattoos, so similar to formations was one of the reasons that he had built up his presence in the region. The other was related to the kid he had to come here to save.

"Lord wolf, it is a surprise seeing you here.", a voice spoke behind him. He had not detected the man until he spoke. He really became annoyed whenever they did that.

"Well, things certainly got hectic over here aren't they. To think that the legion would send an observer.", lord wolf replies.

"Well, the kid is still legion born. The commander is within his rights when sending us.", the observer replies.

"Well, I don't care my friend. The legion have given up responsibility of the kid. You have as good as abandoned all claims over the kid.", lord wolf, his voice taking on a snarling tone reminiscent of a wolf.

"You have sent a child of the legion right into the headquarters of a tribal force, one that is clearly hostile to us." The observer replied. "We have the right to ensure wether the kid is dead or alive."

"Well, I had protections in place for the kid. The tribals should not have been able to detect neither part of the kids abilities. Since that happen I am left to wonder, if you people illegally ran your rituals on a kid.", lord wolf replied. "Run back to your master and tell him that the kid is safe with his master and I do not need the interference of the legion."

"Well, it seems that your protections failed and my master was right to worry about the kids safety.", the observer speaks.

"Well, I wonder if the legion conducts their rituals on little kids. My protections would have easily held against his bloodline as a sage. Even in the council they should not have been able to detect it." The sage replies. "What could have burnt through the protections, I wonder. When you return remember to ask your master that."

Saying that the grand wolf continues, holding that ship of his in hand.