Things have been pretty hectic after the trial. Almost as soon as the spear tribe abstained from voting, we were out of the building. It was almost like there was a fire under the cloak's ass.

We have already returned to the black tower. The man disappeared after dropping me off in my room. The man has been doing something in another part of the tower. He did tell me what it was but he was in such a rush that I barely understood what he was trying to say. All I really understood about it was that it was related to gifting some kind of a sledder to my master.

Well, right now he is at the top of the tower. Which is why I have begun recording in the first place.

I am surprised that my mana sense is even working in this place. Even the warmest and most open person in the black mountain tend to have formations to block the mana sense of a guest in their homes after all.

As I am thinking this, cloak appears in front of me. There is something about the man that tells me of his power.

It is nothing overt like it is with the commander, nor is overwhelming like with my master. It is hard for me to describe it, but the man has the presence of somebody in charge.

"I can see why the people outside tend to be so nervous around your kind.", he speaks suddenly, breaking me out of my thoughts as he speaks with a seriousness that I did not expect him to have. "Well, I would need you to listen here kid."

"Why, are things that bad?", I ask the man, not sure if I could manage to hear the answer. Sometimes it is better of not knowing the answer.

"Well, it is a mixture of both. The bastards of the council managed to fuck it up quite spectacularly. Well, at least the blood tribe managed to salvage the situation.", he spoke. "That young lady does not seem to know her place. The tattoo tribe is going to suffer quite the bit from that exchange."

"How would that be?", I ask again.

"Well, the interests of the five tribes are more mixed than any of them like to admit.", he speaks. "If we are willing to suffer a bit, we still can cause the tattoo tribe to suffer quite a bit. Any chair to the council that doesn't realise that fact has always failed at their duty. Anyway, all of that doesn't matter to you. Let's return to the matter at hand shall we."

"Certainly.", is my reply. "What exactly even happen? I only have a vague idea that I managed to cause some kind of an argument."

"Well, the politics of the tribe is more complicated than it seems. I will try to simplify it for you. Right now the tattoo tribe can be considered to be the most powerful among the five tribes. This is only by the thread of a hair, but it still is there.", he speaks. "Due to this, the spear tribe and the beast tribe have a tendency of supporting them. This alliance is pretty weak though. There are still many matters on which they don't tend to agree on."

"Like the sages, I guess.", I reply.

"Yeah, the spear tribe has clear reason to hate the sages. They managed to fuck them up the most after all.", he speaks.

"This spear valley incident?", I tried to guess. I wish I could get more information on that event. I have heard of it a few times now.

"Yeah, that isn't the only event though. Anyway, where was I, the tattoo tribe tends to be quite supportive of the sages. They were even trying to get the treaty changed to allow for more limited access to the truelands in controlled places.", he speaks. "This makes the spear tribe wonder whether the tattoo tribe is in league with the sages."

"And how true are they.", I ask.

"Well, it is more than likely that it is the truth. After all, the magic of the tattoo tribe is too similar to the sages formations for us to not to have doubts. There must be some collaboration.", he speaks. "Anyway, all of this does not matter to you. The main thing is that you and the blood tribe have managed to split the spear tribe and the tattoo tribe. That leaves us with room to prepare and negotiate."

"Negotiate?", I reply.

"Well, the spear tribe won't be throwing their support towards us for free.", he speaks. "Still, I am not sure that the negotiations will be completely successful. I can't prevent you from getting charged."

"So how exactly am I supposed to be dueling a second circle being?", I ask.

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"Well, you are not the first hot headed kid that dueled well above their level of strength.", he replies. "We thankfully have a contingency for that. The only problem is that it is not meant for outsiders like you. You are going to have a busy week, my friend."

"Well, what is it?", I ask the man.

"It is going to be the winter loop for you, kid.", he speaks. "And before you ask what the winter loop is, it is better that I show it you. That is why I have been so busy too, you see. After all, arranging a sledder on such a short notice is very hard. Especially if the tattoo tribe does not want you to have them. I managed to get a training sledder for you at least."

As the man says this, he directs me to the door to this room.

(After about a couple minutes.)

Well, outside the room is a long spiralling set of stairs that just keep going down and down. The tower is way longer than it looks. If I was sure that there was no chance that these people were using formations, I would have thought that he had used a spatial expansion formation.

Anyway, we have finally reached to the bottom of the tower and I have gotten the shock of my life.

Moored at the edge of the tower is a ship. (Moored would be the correct here since the ground here is equivalent to the sea at it's roughest.)

It is not an airship, that much I can tell immediately. After all, I can't detect any of the formations that would have propelled the ship and the two massive slabs of wood at the bottom of the ship made it more than obvious that this was not something meant to fly.

Even with a propulsion formation this thing will end up crashing into the ground.

"I am sure that you do not know what this is. This is known as a sledder and this is about the only way that you can travel in the truelands.", he replies. "And within a week you are supposed to be able to run this thing. It is the only way for you to be able to survive a winters loop. Let's just hope that your master was not boasting when he told me of your skill with airships."

"What is a winters loop?", I ask him again.

"Well, how do I describe it. it is a sport for our people, where we race our sledders through a winter storm.", he speaks. "The first sledder to leave the storm can be considered to be the victor. It is also one of the few types of duels where you will be able to live even if you were to lose."

As we are speaking, the man has been taking me into the ship. On the deck, I can see that the ship is pretty similar to an airship. Whatever this sledder is supposed to do it is derived from the design of an airship.

As we go deeper into the place, I can see the differences. The differences is mainly in the formations that these guys are using. Well, to call them formations would be wrong. After all, it seems more like these are paintings of runes. They spread out across the ship in the form of nonsensical patterns that I cannot make heads or tails of.

If I am supposed to be piloting this thing then there is little that I can do if I am supposed to be using these squiggles to do so.

I have to assume that these are kind of like the runes that were used in the council. I have to think that the tattoos of the tattoo tribe are also something similar to this.

That I can't say for certain. After all, the bastards are certainly hiding these runes in their tattoos. It is actually kind of ingenious. Most of their tattoos are images of various kinds of beasts and plants, which can be used to hide their magical runes too.

Anyway, it is time for me to return to the topic at hand. We have finally reached somewhere. Right now, cloak is fiddling with some kind of key which does not seem to be opening this lock.

After a few embarrassing moments he finally manages to get it open. As we step into the room, I can see a set of runes that are more than familiar to me. This room is full of formations.

"Well, welcome to the steering room. It is the only place in the truelands where you shall find formations, as you people call it.", spoke cloak behind me, explaining. "Formations are banned in the truelands, except in places like the steering rooms. Let's just say having too many formations can have very destructive effects in our lands. The formation here are supposed to help our navigators in steering these sledders. I have heard that it is supposed to be like steering a airship. Can't personally tell if that is the truth. I have never used either."

As he speaks, strings of mana emanate from my hand, connecting me to the formation.

As soon as I connect to it, the first thing that I feel is the strangeness of the ship. I don't know how exactly am I supposed to explain it. I think the best way of describing it is trying to speak a language that you barely know.

You know the meaning of each individual word but you have no idea how they are supposed to go together.

As I flex my connection to the controls willing it to go forward, I can feel that the ship moving to the left.

Fuck, how the hell am I supposed to stop this fucking thing. Fuck, fuck, there it is.

I can feel the ship slow down as I finally bring it under my control. Well, that was intense. How the hell is it so reactive. I had just nudged the formation a little bit and the damn thing flew. I do not know of any formation that would be able to achieve something like this.

I break my connection to the formations of this ship as cloak looks at me. The man has a look of judging curiosity. He is wondering if I will be able to handle this particular challenge. I have seen that look too many times for it not to be something very familiar to me. The legion is not gentle.

"So what do you say, young wolf. Will you be able to master this within a week.", he speaks. "If not, things are going to be much harder."

"I shall be able to master this sledder. The control to the ships are quite similar to that of an airship. The only thing is that the controls are not the same as the one that I am used to. It will just take me a while to get used to the controls of the device.", I speak, more to myself than to the man opposite me. "I should be no magician with it but I will be able to steer it pretty well. Not enough to beat a person that must have practiced it from childhood."

"Well, the goal is to survive, young man. Not to win. Make sure you are able to do that and it will be fine.", he replies.