As Lleu made his way through the vast camp he saw a different banner in front of each building. He recognized some of those banners as being those from famous societies but the majority were unfamiliar to him. Among the ones he did recognize were the Boomers, Breachers, and Lightning Guard.

These three societies each were in charge of a core function within the expeditions formation. The boomers were the center of any ranged attacks, the Breachers were at the front of any charge, and the lightning guard took care of the main defense.

Lleu hoped to one day see a charge by the Breachers, supposedly it was an awesome sight to see the heavily armoured warriors smash their way through obstacles.

As for the rest, they would be the societies who participated in the main force and there competed with another for glory and recognition. Unfortunately, most of them would be forgotten as the specialized societies would get most of the fame and spoils.

It was then that Lleu saw the conflict between societies to be worse than he had initially thought. Where he had first only seen invisible lines between the groups he could now see members of rival societies staring each other down or even trespassing on each others ‘territory’, likely with the sole purpose of angering them.

Lleu decided to take Aelan’s advice to heart and ignored everything related to the conflicts. He walked across each and every invisible line he detected and happily greeted the members who had puffed themselves up, visibly making themselves ready for conflict.

Looking at everything new, and to him most everything was new, he left behind a series of confused faces. It was then Lleu realized that he really could trespass anywhere and nobody would touch him. As much as they seemed to posture, the people seemed not to want to start any new conflicts, especially not with someone who was only looking around.

A while later Lleu had wandered into a small clearing marked with an unfamiliar banner. The area was empty save for a pair who were practicing with their totems. Lleu noticed that they seemed younger than him which was surprising as everyone else he had seen either was older or about the same age. Most likely they had been in their society since birth.

Watching, Lleu observed the first of them, a very light skinned girl with brown hair tied in a bun. She was clutching what looked to be a clay rod in her hand while waving it in a set of fluid motions. As she did so a pebble lifted off the ground and shot forwards in the direction of her final wave. With a sharp crack, it exploded on the side of the building, sending dust and shrapnel everywhere.

“That was awesome!” shouted the other youth. He had the same light skin and brown hair as the girl but was clearly at least a year her junior.

Her motions confused Lleu a little. He recognized some of the things she had done to be variations of the steps Jestix had him practice but wasn't sure why she was using them in casting. When he had practiced his magic he had done so without any fancy movements with no issue.

Sitting down Lleu continued watching as each of the pair passed the rod to the other who then practiced shooting pebbles. Showing her seniority, the girl often gave tips to the boy who had much less success than she did although he did not seem disappointed. Only a little while after Lleu's arrival the girl looked up, noticed him, and grabbing the rod from the other levitated a stone in obvious aggression.

“Who are you? Don't you know this place belongs to the Slingers?”

“I’m Lleu!” he replied, “I’m a pathfinder, the whole territory thing doesn't apply to us since we need to go everywhere!”

A little confused at his upbeat tone and friendliness in response to her challenge she began whispering with the boy while keeping an eye on Lleu. It seemed that she had no idea if Lleu was telling the truth.

Since the pathfinders, fortunately, had the reputation of being a little odd, Lleu had noticed the truth of this in the days prior, the girl eventually decided that he was not a threat and replaced her scowl with a friendly smile.

“I’m Bresia, this is my brother Ranit.”, she said with an outstretched hand and a nod towards the younger of the two. Lleu took the hand and shook,

“Glad to meet you,” he said and after a brief pause continued, “I couldn't help but notice you practicing and I was wondering… why are you doing all those extra movements?”

A little taken aback at the question she looked at her brother briefly in confusion and then answered, “We are practicing the Slinger arts. Surely you pathfinders have your own set of arts to control your magic.”

“Not really, everyone just kinda does their own stuff.”

Lleu’s reply brought about two pairs of raised eyebrows and disbelief on the siblings' faces. Thinking back Lleu realized he had seen other societies members doing similar things all over the outpost, maybe they were more than just exercises for one's mind.

He would have to take Aelan aside later on and have him explain how the other societies did things. Apparently, the pathfinder method of throwing totems at a new recruit and letting them fumble around until something happened was not common.

“Sis is a genius you know” piped in Ranit, “We’ve only been training in the arts since last year and she already managed to throw a stone fast enough to shatter!”

The boy Ranit was obviously excited to share his sister’s achievements but Lleu was shocked. A year of training and being able to throw a pebble slightly was considered good?

Suddenly Lania’s efforts to find him a suitable mentor, Aelan’s generosity, and the enthusiasm of all the pathfinders made a whole lot more sense. He had been a little curious as to why he had been getting such good treatment. Deciding the talk with Aelan needed to include standard progression rates of totem users Lleu continued, trying for some more information.

“I see, and you both share that totem?”

“Yeah, we are only still only in training so we have to share the Slingrod between the two of us, one we get better each of us will have one.”

“You want to take a look?” she asked holding out the Slingrod.

Lleu looked closer and noticed fine lines traced in a complex web all over the rod. He reached out with a hand to trace the lines but the moment his finger touched the rod a presence, akin to that of his own totems, blossomed in the back of his mind.

This presence, however, felt absolutely revolting. Lleu’s best description was that a rag covered with an oily filth had appeared in his mind and he was briefly reminded of the blue stone replica he had used prior.

He retracted his hand feeling absolutely disgusted, thankfully the filth vanished the moment he lost contact with the rod.

“Are you alright?” Bresia asked, a hint of worry in her voice. It seemed that something of Lleu’s experience had shown on his face.

“I’m fine” he replied.

“That's good, for a second you looked like you were going to be sick,” she said still looking slightly worried.

“Do you have a totem yet?” asked Ranit interrupting.

“Yeah,” Lleu said pulling out his shadow disk which was now attached to a string around his neck.

Reaching out with his mind he activated the disk. Darkness flooded from the hand in which he was clutching the totem and within a breath covered him from head to toe. Keeping with the advice he had received earlier he kept the form of his creating without defined shape, suddenly a thought came to him.

Since the purpose of the disk was mainly stealth how was creating a black fog to hide in practical while the mist that covered everything was white? Experimenting, Lleu tried to shape both the color of his fog and not just the shape. It instantly went white.

All of this had happened in a blink and Lleu could hear astounded gasps from both of the siblings.

“Are you still there?” asked Bresia, slightly hesitant.

“Yep!” replied Lleu while letting the fog go at the same time. From the sibling's perspective, Lleu had melted into the surrounding mists and a moment later reappeared in a slightly different location.

“That was awesome!” Ranit seemed to have found a new target for what appeared to be bottomless enthusiasm. “Is a pathfinder art?”

“I guess s...” Lleu was interrupted by the shouting of a woman inside of the closest building.

Bresia and Ranit looked at each other briefly,

“That's our mentor calling, we need to go, was nice meeting you Mr. Pathfinder” Bresia called all the while moving towards the door, Ranit waving alongside her.

‘I guess I’ll go interrogate Aelan then’ decide Lleu.

For his way back he decided to take the most direct route, all the while practicing with his totems. His control over the color of the fog that surrounded him grew quickly letting him blend into the mist, Lleu doubted that many of those around him even noticed him passing.