As Jeanne had expected, her arrival wasn’t celebrated. No. There weren’t even additional people who were waiting for her appearance, either to instruct her where she was expected or to inform the strategists.
The official statement in regard to that treatment might be that they don’t want their enemies to know about her presence, but the truth was most likely that they were annoyed with themselves. It was likely humiliating for them, that they had to ask for help from the Church of Mana.
Soon they reached a tent which had been assigned to the young woman. Then, after being instructed to stay nearby, as they would inform her, once a plan for the upcoming fight has been finalized, her escort left again, letting her take care of herself.
Not really unexpected with what she knew from her parents and the people they met and how they treated the members of the churches dedicated to the basic elements, but she had hoped for a bit more … something.
Unwilling to waste more mental and emotional capabilities on the church idiots, Jeanne was about to enter her tent and rest for a bit. Strictly speaking it wasn’t necessary, however, as she was only a temporary ally, she also didn’t want to train and show more of her capabilities than necessary. So her options to pass her time were limited.
Though before she could enter, the girl noticed a group of people, who were like her not officially part of the Flame Sea Shore faction. Were they scavengers or scouted from other realms due to their abilities like her? Well, technically she would probably also qualify as a scavenger.
However then she saw the scroll emblem on the armor of one of the members of the group. Looking a bit closer, the others also had either the emblem on their clothing, armor or an accessory with it. The Followers of Law were here?
Their general presence when wars happened wasn’t that surprising, as they wanted to prevent the unnecessary loss of lives and the involvement of those who didn’t want to participate, though by now they should have already finished their investigations and left for other realms. Did other reasons appear, which caused them to stay here?
Driven by her curiosity and boredom, she decided to head over to the group. Openly, so she wouldn’t appear like a spy.
“-they think we have nothing better to do?”
Waiting for one of them to finish, she interjected their discussion. “Excuse me, why are the Followers of Law still in this realm? Did something happen?”
Exchanging looks between each other and a few shrugs later, the one with the highest level answered.
“The invaders or some other anomaly might have appeared in this realm or was present some time ago, as at least one person suddenly vanished in an unknown location, according to our information. Also we suspect the presence of a powerful mind mage, which may or may not be connected to the first case. I assume you just recently entered the realm, since you don’t know about it?”
“Yes, they kind of hired me as reinforcements…” Jeanne answered.
“Well, in case you see anything or have issues remembering things, let us know.” They added.
“Thanks for the info.” She thanked them, before turning back and going over to her tent, digesting what she had just learned.
Their presence here in this camp most likely meant that they hope to find the cause of those issues near the site of the ritual. She doubted that they haven’t already checked the other camp and while traveling with the other party might offer less resistance, should the suspected mind mage and anomaly or invader be on the side of the ritual casters, the whole faction could turn hostile till the war is over.
So it wasn’t surprising that they chose to investigate everything on the side of the Flame Sea Shore.
Also the mind mage might be an issue. While the followers didn’t talk much about it, more like an afterthought, finding the presence of a strong mage who can change your perception or memory is basically impossible without aids.
The rings are usually enough, at least in the lower realms, and better items are handed out in realms with higher leveled enemies, but if those could suppress the issue, it wouldn’t be a problem the followers had to look into.
So how did someone notice the presence of the mage? Most likely the followers did run into them. As far as she knew, they liked to keep protocol of everything, so issues with time and memory magic would be quickly noticed. While sudden changes in perception and distances could be found later once they went over the logs. Or maybe they had other means, not that she expected them to share all their methods, just because they seemed like one of the more reasonably bigger organizations out there.
With the reinforcement being frozen in shock or awe or something and Sarah not showing any signs that she would instruct them, Sera took it upon herself to take care of them. Well, Nia might have also been able to handle it, as the warrior wasn’t about to disclose any big secrets or give complex instructions, but it was a welcome change compared to her trying to level her classes without good materials to work on.
“Hi, i’m Sera. So i guess you are the first ones to arrive? Are more on the way or are you the only members of our faction?” Sera asked.
With them finally recovering, she received a more or less understandable answer from the newcomers. “Oh, ahm, yes, more should be arriving soon. I think. We were nearby and decided to look into… this. And then met her.” The answering girl nodded in the direction of their guide. “You are the ones responsible for the war? No one over level 100 who set this up? No big group? Ah, and i’m Tanja.”
“Good. And yes. Though it was mostly my sister sitting there who took care of the ritual. So as long as you protect her, everything will be fine. In regard to the spell circles you can see everywhere… i guess they are kind of important, though if it gets dangerous you can disregard them and prioritize the elimination of enemies. We can fix the circles later. And in case you are asking yourself why the spell got suddenly visible, well, we were initially trying to stay hidden, but are now assuming that the beasts figured out where we are. Maybe we killed a few to many of them in this area… Anyway, we thought it would be good to inform everyone about our location, before we get overrun by some high level beings native to this realm. So… thanks for coming here fast and not after the beasts forced us to flee.” Sera explained, though a certain seriousness seemed to be missing for someone who is currently risking their own life as well as that of her party members.
Tanja could only groan once she heard those answers. “Do you have at least some kind of plan?”
“Yeah. You see the spell circles above us? Basically the whole area under it is filled with traps. Their power is unfortunately a bit limited, especially against high level opponents, but since they have to be manually triggered, it’s hard to find them. Also we have a few other gimmicks and surprises hidden away. In a nutshell, as long as you take care of high level creatures and those with good senses the rest shouldn’t be a problem.” The warrior informed them, though still mostly like one would talk with their friends over ideas in a strategy game and not a war they were currently participating in.
“You are aware that most of the humans in the other faction will be around level 100? Though i guess we can still use the traps as a distraction… Not that we have much of a choice.” Tanja answered while holding her head as though she had a headache. She didn’t like the missing sense of urgency and the rather crude plan, but she doubted that other low level humans who likely somehow stumbled into the war would have even half of those preparations.
Nia seemed like she also wanted to add something, but in the end decided against it to not undermine the feeble sense of authority the twins had created. It was time for her to be a good silent assassin… hunter!
