Banging open the door a group of four more pathfinders entered the building. Lleu recognized all of them from the frontmost groups back when they had still been together in the large column.

“Hey Jestix, is the west open?” asked Ria, waving at the leading newcomer. He was the oldest pathfinder Lleu had yet seen. Well scarred with a head of pure white the old man sat down with a straight back before the fire pit and replied,

“One of the passes is, the other two were closed. How's the east?”

“Mine and Manix’s were both shut, Aelan’s too”

“So the entire east is closed this year. This is becoming far too frequent.”

Jestix really did seem worried so Lleu bent over to Aelan and whispered the question,

“Is it really that bad?”

“Each year more and more of the passes have been closed, this is the second year now that either the west or east have been entirely closed. A few generations ago there would only be one or two passes and we had much more live passes back then.”

“What happens if they all close?”

“Something bad probably. The seers might know but we know they only tell us what they choose to.”

“What do you mean, why wouldn't they tell?” asked Lleu carefully.

“Apologies, I forgot you were lower district born. The behavior of the seers is in a way the worst kept secret the city has. You might have heard that their magic allows them to predict the future in some limited ways but that doesn't mean they decide we need to know their predictions.”

Jestix who had apparently been listening interrupted,

“Chances are that if you ever meet one of their lot he is only there to pull you into some hair-brained scheme meant to increase his power. Ignore everything most everything they say and you will live longer.”

Aelan took Jestix’s brief pause to continue,

“We pathfinders don't really have much love lost for the seers, they have a bad habit sending us into danger without bothering to give warning. Apparently, they told Jestix when he accused them of needlessly sending his men into danger that events had to unfold in the proper way for the correct result.”

“And when the proper path of events includes the death of my comrades...” Jestix finished angrily shaking his head.

‘If they know the future how could one of them get hurt like that?’ wondered Lleu remembering the wounds on the dying seer he had met, although, he did not dare ask Jestix and the others as he still did not know who had been chasing him that day.

“So how has Aelan’s mentoring been, made any progress with your magics?” Jestix seemed to have woken from his anger and his eyes questioned Lleu.

“He is, and yes”

“And he has given you a totem, yes?”

“He gave me three,” Lleu responded as he displayed each of the totems in turn

“Aelan, are you trying to rob the society blind? You gave him two high tier totems!” Jestix’s anger seemed to have been woken as quickly as it had faded before however this time it was focused at Aelan.

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“Only one of them is from the storeroom, the other is from my personal collection.”

Anger fading again Jestix asked, “And they all worked for him?”

Lleu nodded in reply and Jestix, rubbing his hands together looking happy said, “Show me!”

Unsure if it was a good idea Lleu looked towards Aelan who nodded.

Taking the Shroud-Disk in hand Lleu was now aware of another presence in the back of his mind, one of those presences had appeared for each of his totems as he had practiced with them and he was not sure how he could have missed them when he had first begun considering the strength of their presence. He squeezed what he knew to represent the totem as carefully as he could, all the while imagining himself being cloaked in darkness.

Out of the disk, a black fog blew and quickly surrounded him. In only a moment he was covered from head to toe, leaving nothing uncovered except for his eyes mimicking Aelan’s demonstration from earlier.

“Excellent, I recommend covering a larger area while actually scouting so the shadow does not have a human shape. It is slightly more taxing to hold but helps fool those rare Aberrations which can recognize a human shape. Nevertheless, you have made an excellent start!”

Next, Lleu mentally shifted to using the lightning totem. Seizing the power which seemed to have been waiting for him as gently as he could, lightning began wreathing around his right arm just as it had earlier. He let it dance for a moment and adjusted his mental image of what he desired to reshape the lightning. After a few seconds of manipulation, his entire right upper arm ended up being coated in crackling lightning which came together at his had to form a set of long claws.

“Excellent again, these are an inheritance from your old mentor I presume?”

The question was asked towards Aelan who nodded in response.

Lleu pulled back his will and recalled all the lightning which went peacefully back into the source they had come from. Shifting his focus, he touched the final power source and began pulling in the power it provided. On the outside, nothing happened but Lleu was suddenly flooded with vivid sensations from all around him.

This feeling had only begun late into his practice and it was as if he could feel with the surrounding air a solid pace in every direction. With the extra sensation, the heat from the fire was as noticeable as if he was pressing his face into the hot coals. Even though that was a little disconcerting the part of the ground that intersected his senses was even more so.

From Lleu’s perspective, it was as if he should be able to feel what was happening below the ground but there was something blocking him, this was an extremely uncomfortable feeling that was oddly similar to knowing someone was behind you but being unable to turn around to check who.

Seeing that Jestix was still looking at him, obviously waiting for him to do something, Lleu decided to experiment in a way he had not before. Instead of simply feeling the air around him and trying to solidify small areas he tried imagining a feeling. ‘A hard surface below me’, the thought sprang into reality and Lleu felt the ground beneath him change. Instead of the rough stone he had been sitting on for some time he was now on a perfectly flat surface. Looking down Lleu could not see any change in the ground although the air around where he was sitting seemed to be an extremely faint shade of green.

Next, Lleu pulled out a memory of himself jumping across rooftops and tried applying it to the surface he had created. It was as if the ground had fallen away from underneath him. Lleu shot straight upwards and promptly collided with the ceiling. His head spun slightly from the collision but Lleu maintained his focus and toned down his attempts somewhat. He fell like a rock. This time his collision was much nicer since Manix and Ria had quickly moved to catch him. As they set him down he was suddenly embraced by the crushing hug of a laughing Jestix.

"Great talent in three different affinities!” He happily said. “What family are you from?”

Jestix must have assumed that Lleu was part of one of the more famous magical families that occupied the upper and middle districts.

Although the people of the upper and middle district had much better chances at having an affinity as there were many families with the talent the unfortunate truth was that most of them only had one which was usually earth.

For those people and families joining a specialized society was next to impossible, their only choice relating to the expedition was membership in one of the societies that served in the main force. These societies had the weakest influence and while they still were able to take their share of the loot they would rarely have a chance to obtain the best of what was found.

“No family, I'm from the lower district”

Jestix ended his hug and looked at Lleu with a surprised expression which quickly sprung back towards joy.

“Even better, no nonsensical family politics to get involved in for you then!”

Lleu concluded that this was the most enthusiastic man he had ever met.