The blood tribe is a interesting place. There are many reason for this. For one, cloak obviously is very antagonistic about the people here. You could see it in the way that they treat each other. It is a careful politeness meant to ensure that no side would be pissed off.

Even the way in which the man speaks of them to me is very different. How do I put it better, the man is very careful on the way in which he presents the information of the other tribes. He is very careful in only providing me with the surface level information of the other tribes.

The kind of information that would make it easy for me to work with them, but not enough so that I would be able to exploit that knowledge. After all, even this bit of information is something that most scholars would trade their hands for. (I mean that quite literally too.)

With the blood tribe, the man is very open with his information. That is the other thing with the man, he clearly has a very good idea about the blood tribe. He knows about the them in the same way in which we know about our enemies. The way that the scholars of the black mountain tend to study our enemies, in fact.

Well, right now I am standing in the capital of the blood tribe, whose name I will never be able to pronounce. Translated the name of the place means "bloody city". That is what I will be calling the place for now.

Simply put this place is a fort in disguise. They put their utmost effort in trying to hide it but I am a formation mage. A majority of our work is related to forts and defensive structures. It would be embarrassing if I were not able to tell.

The first thing that tips you of is the location of the place. It is located in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. It makes this place almost impossible to scale, especially if you are here in large numbers and you are like cloak and his ability to scale a mountain. There is certainly no chance that they will be able to bring any war machines here.

As if that wasn't enough, you can look at the shape of the city itself. It has a ring like structure divided into three rings, with the housing of the people present at the very center in the innermost ring.

The houses are clustered together in the center of the town, with houses reaching till the fourth floor (even most houses in the hex mountain usually tend to be two floors high). It is made up of the same kind of rock as the black tower so it is very durable as well.

You can be sure that hidden somewhere in this ring, they should have a grain store and a source of water hidden in there. Not that I will be able to find it's precise location. Not that I should anyways, that would piss of our hosts.

Surrounding the houses in the middle ring is the less important things that you need in the city, like their markets, their shops and most importantly their barracks are here. This ring of shops and markets would act as a barrier for any invading army, making it easier to defend against them.

All of these markets and shops are arranged in such a chaotic manner that any invading force would essentially come to a standstill in this place.

By the way, the point of the barracks reminds me something. These guys have a pretty impressive standing army as well. I already could see it in our climb to this place, but it is even more clear here.

The way that they do things actually remind me of the legion. The way that the legion works is not to create a single massive army that would be able to work together in a war. Instead, the legion works to nurture teams. Usually consisting of five members these teams are taught to work together independently and without any support from their fellows. They are also trained to work with other teams, though that does occur pretty rarely.

The training of the legion is good enough that you could drop a team anywhere in the continent and you could be sure that they could survive.

Well, that is the minimum requirement to be a legioner, with the number of enemies that we have.

Anyway, returning to the topic at hand, the soldiers here are trained in a similar manner. That is actually pretty rare and I can actually understand the purpose for that.

Such an independent style of working would make them very useful in guerrilla warfare, which is what these people must be expecting to handle here.

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I am sure that these people would be able to hold back a much larger group even with their more limited number.

Finally, surrounding this two layers of the city is a final ring of farmlands. While, I am sure that they are not lying about the place being a farmland, I am sure that the large "channels" that they have dug in the ground are certainly not meant to transport water across the farms as they claim it to do.

Well, it could be true but the "channels" could be flooded quite easily to make them into moats.

Even their source of water for this is very well guarded. It is somewhere under the ground is all that I have managed to figure out about it.

All of this makes me conclude very easily that this place is meant to be a fort and that these people are more than ready for a fight.

Well, until now I have been speaking about my observations of the place as I have studied it in the last couple of days. Even now I am standing here in the balcony of the room assigned to me looking at the flow of the people below me. It is a pretty busy little place, if I am allowed to speak.

Now, I will record what cloak has told me about the blood tribe. Where should I start from.

Yeah, the blood tribe is something of an anomaly in the council. The other tribes in the council all have something that makes the useful to the others. The beast tribe are the merchants facilitating deals between all the forces of the tribes.

The spear tribe act as guards protecting the many sledders going to and fro through the truelands. The tattoo tribe provide many things, the chief of which is the sledder.

Finally the wolf tribe act as mercenaries for hire for all the tribes. This all means that all the tribes of the council have a certain degree of interdependence. Harming the other side would end up harming yourself to a certain degree as well.

The blood tribe has nothing like that. The only thing that they really have in terms of trade is their black rock.

Well, the only thing that I have understood about the black rock is that it is one of the only materials in the truelands that is able to survive a storm of this area and is something that all the tribes desire.

Due to that it is one of the most popular materials to construct your houses and forts from. The blood tribe are the masters of carving, shaping and procuring this black rock (which they mine from the mountains surrounding them). Even the black tower of cloak is a creation of the blood tribe.

Other than that, the blood tribe keep to themselves. This is to a point that it is supposed to be impossible to see a blood tribe member outside of the bloody city. Most of the times, they don't even tend to visit the council.

Their vote is always known in the council. It is always against the popular vote of the council. The only reason that they interfered this time is due to something that my master has promised them. I wonder what that is.

They are also extremely self reliant, rarely needing to trade with people outside of their tribe.

That is another thing that is weird about them. They have a extremely negative view of the other tribes.

Most of their encounters end up in conflicts with the other tribes. The reason for that is beyond me though. There is a limit to how open cloak is willing to be, even with the blood tribe.

(After an hour.)

"You should be wary, child of the legion.", a voice speaks behind me. "The people here do not like to be studied."

I guess that I should act surprised but the man has been behind me for a while now, from even before I started this log. He is the man that spoke in the council.

"My lord, why should I be wary. You have taken responsibility of my safety and I can see that I am in good hands.", I speak. "Your people also seem to be equally curious of me. They have been studying me for a while now."

"Well, that is true but you seem to be a kid with a good head. You certainly would not like to piss of your only allies.", he replies. "You are in our care, as you said and we have little care for honour like the other tribes. That is actually why we are not doing anything to you right now."

"Well, I do have cloak. He seems to be taking good care of me.", I speak.

"I guess that is the truth. We are the only allies of yours that know what we are dealing with though.", he speaks. "Cloak plays a dangerous game, trying to please both sides. The man does not realise what your master is capable of. This gambit of his will fail, of that I am sure. What do you think of this winter loop. What has the man spoke about it."

"Well, it is the safest option among many dangerous options according to him.", I reply. "The laws of the winter loop prevent them from trying to get me killed."

"Well, that is a truth. It is not the complete truth. The tattoo tribe will try to kill you. They are the tribe in the council with the least respect to those rules. Even we are not as crazy as them on that front. The duel has restricted their chances, but they would be fools not to try it. We certainly would have.", he speaks. "Of that we are sure. You are the disciple of the great wolf. I am sure that this warning should be enough for you to make your own preparations."

"Well, what has my master promised you?", I ask the man.

"Well, aren't you a curious lad. That is between your master and us.", he speaks. "Let's just say that the man shall provide us with wings. That is something that is not important to you now. Let's discuss something that is. Do you realise what you have done to piss off the tattoo tribe."

"Well, I have no idea. Is it the fact that I am of the legion?", I ask.

"Well, that is a reason. The reason right now is different than that.", he speaks. "Use your mind, legioner."

I think for a bit, finally replying.

"Is it because I have the bloodline of a sage.", I reply.

"Well, it is and isn't, kid. Rather than your identity the problem is more with your timing.", he replies.

"How exactly am I supposed to understand that.", I reply.

"Well, it wasn't really meant for you. The men who would be reading this log of yours would have understood it.", he replies. "As for you, the only warning that I will give you is that be wary of cloak. Most men here fight to protect their home from their enemies. Cloak fights because he fancies himself a man that can bend the council to his schemes. Don't think that you truly understand his motives."

"And is he actually capable of that?", I ask.

"Well, who can really tell. The man is dangerous is all you need to know.", he speaks. "For now though, he is your ally."