Larisa carefully sneaked her way towards the edge of the tent. There, she was supposed to slide under the flap and go inside. She needed to be quiet and unseen to outside perceptions, that’s why Ha’na disallowed her from manipulating the Essence around to her advantage, since the professor could perhaps feel if she were to do that.

The Wild Essence was inside Larisa and that, this professor wouldn’t be able to feel. The same could not be said for the Essence all around them. That was the Essence she could feel, so Ha’na said under no circumstances to use it. Larisa had to rely on her natural skill with being quiet and unseen.

She left her bear skin with Farre since it would just hinder her movements here, and she needn’t wear anything with a specific colour like in the jungle. There was no vegetation to hide around here, so no need to blend in. She simply had to be quick and not make any noise, but upon making her way inside she wasn’t sure if she’d manage doing that.

Everywhere her eyes landed there were stuff. Pillows, books, rocks, and maps. Stuff that Larisa could identify and stuff she could not. Massive amount of clutter just begging to fall. This was going to be a challenge.

Larisa knew she had to be looking out for a metal box, similar to what Farre had. Ha’na said that metal was a great isolator for concentrated Essence that was halcite, and that it was rare. So there wouldn’t be many metal boxes lying around. At least not in the open.

Larisa, at the moment when Ha’na said that, had no reason to doubt her reasoning but looking at the inventory in this tent she felt like she might’ve been wrong.

There was an open chest in the far corner of the tent and inside all Larisa could see were metal boxes. The chest was not big, thankfully, but there were still at least a dozen of them there. She had no way of checking if the contents had the thing that they were looking for, so the only other way out of this situation was to bring them with her. But how would she manage that?

Larisa decided to ponder that question as she carefully stepped around the mess inside. She also tried to make sure the rope on her ankle would not get entangled in anything or else Farre wouldn’t be able to warn her.

The tent was tall and wide. Larisa imagined there could be three of her standing on top of each other to be able to reach the highest point. As for the width, well, Larisa could do five full jumps to cross from one edge to another. And Larisa had long legs so that was saying something.

As she looked over everything that was laying on the ground she noticed many of the maps to be of places other than what Ha’na had showed her. The place they called Gretan-Ta seemed to take only fourth of the map, maybe a little bit less. There were three other continents that were at leats as much wide and tall as the one Larisa was standing on. The world was so vast. Larisa felt small.

But this could wait. She needed to move. There was a conversation happening outside, she could hear. Just as they planned Ha’na was talking to her professor. About what, Larisa had no idea but it seemed to be an engaging conversation as both of their voices carried out clearly despite the space separating them.

As she crossed over a pile of books that were thiiiiis much from falling on the ground, a sparkle appeared in the corner of her vision. There, as she looked, was a metal box wide as Larisa’s forearm on both sides and high as the palm of her hand. This had to be it.

They actually hadn’t seen the way the box looked like. If it was big or small, Larisa had no idea. The sound it made when it closed did not give anything like that away either. But here was something that was telling her that this was it. She had a hunch so she started to go where it was laid out.

The box had the same dark grey sheen as the one Farre’s had. It looked shinier though, and thicker. If the metal was supposed to block the Essence out, then Larisa thought that it made sense for it to be thicker.

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She was so close to reaching it, but various books, chests and weirdly shaped pieces of wood were slowing her down considerably. She tried to make sure her steps were always on a solid surface, or else there was the risk of stepping on something that might fall down. Then, a word, a name, brought Larisa’s attention to the conversation outside.

“I don’t have time for this, Ha’na. There is a lot I must still do today. Tell me about this Farre Lerto and the Nacht soldier you found and be on your way. I’ve listened enough of your theories today.” The professor said.

“Professor Dilor, you know how I can get. Sorry about that. As for those two they didn’t have anything interesting to say, except-” She heard Ha’na say.

It seemed like Larisa had to get a little quicker.

The metal box would be within her arms if she took two more steps, Larisa wagered. She would reach it if not for the way the tip of her foot got caught on one, big and sturdy rock that Larisa could swear was not there the last time she checked.

She couldn’t help but fall face down into the clutter. Upon impact, even to Larisa’s sensitive ears, the noise she created appeared to be loud.

As fast as she could, she tried to get up. She pushed all the things away to make way for her to pass, so she could reach the metal box she was aiming for. Then, as her hand touched the cold surface of the metal hiding the mysterious thing full of the Essence, she felt a tug on her ankle. It was weaker than she anticipated, probably because when she fell she managed to tangle it between something with many wooden sticks jutting out from its centre. She couldn’t walk with it still attached to that thing, so quickly Larisa untangled the rope, grabbed the surprisingly heavy metal box and ran as fast as she could through the piles of this rubbish.

“What was that?! Ha’na, stay here! I need to go check inside, I think I heard something.”

“I’m sure it was just the wind, professor. You know how the nights here get. Oh, I actually have something else, I’ve wanted to ask you-”

“Not now, Ha’na. Go back to your tent.”

Larisa could hear the conversation happening outside as she skipped through the various-looking things. She was almost there. Almost at the edge.

Unfortunately, because of the heavy metal box, Larisa could not be as fast as she wished so when the entrance of the tent flopped open she barely managed to hide behind one of the piles of wooden chests. The edge was just before her but if she raised it up now, the professor would see it. She had to wait.

“What a girl… Why did I agree to mentor her again?” The professor sighed. Seemed like that was a pretty characteristic thing for these people.

“Now, what was it?” Larisa could hear the footsteps of the woman approaching the direction opposite of where Larisa was hiding behind. Small mercy, she guessed.

Larisa wondered how the woman moved so quickly considering the clutter but when she felt a heavy gathering of the wind Essence she could guess the woman was using it as an aid.

“I don’t see any-” The professor stopped her sentence. Actually, why was she speaking to herself? Not that Larisa judged, but still. “Fuck!” A curse flew from the professor's lips.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This can’t be happening!” Larisa heard some rustling and things being thrown around. She took it as her chance and carefully, as little as possible, flipped the edge of the tent up.

A second, two, and Larisa was outside. She pulled the metal box after she emerged and ran away as fast as possible to Ha’na’s tent.

They were supposed to meet there if things went sour.

As she ran through the camp she heard voices yelling from the direction she just ran away from. Looking back, lights lit the camp and heavy footsteps trampled on the ground as soldiers and other camp residents gathered there, Larisa guessed.

When Larisa came into the tent her chin was met with a cold steel of a dagger. It was Farre.

“Hal! I thought you were someone else.” She said as she put the dagger away.

“You got it?!” Ha’na exclaimed the question.

In response, Larisa brought the box to both of the other women to see. They knew it was what they were looking for.

“Yes! Yes! We got this! I told you the plan would work.” Ha’na smirked at Farre.

“It worked, yes. But now we have a whole camp after us. We need to go. Now.” Farre reminded the two women. Sombre expressions appeared on their faces and with haste everyone gathered what they needed to. There was still some leftover rope, so Larisa tied it around the metal box to carry it on her back. With that they were ready to depart. They were ready to run.