That night Xavier took the first watch. He needed to review his UI and look for ways to just do better. The first thing he looked at was his inventory. He had removed the majority of what they had found in the Deeps into the armory at Rynthavael. Poisons, weapons, armor, all of that ended up on the shelves there for the crafters and guards to better protect the village in his absence. He felt good about that decision since he regularly forgot what was in his satchel during battle. This way he could ensure it was used to the best purpose possible.

  Next, he pulled up his skills tab. Having auto-accepted any skills change to remove the distraction of their notification prompts he was surprised to see just how much his skills had improved.

  The number of skills he had accumulated in the short period of time was almost overwhelming. He sighed when he saw the two skills in magic, he had completely forgotten he had that capability now, he had been so focused on just surviving that all his attention was into avoiding being hit and hitting things as hard as he could with Vaeltheris. It had worked out well for him so far, but he knew that wouldn’t be the case forever. He needed to remember everything he had at his disposal. He placed the 80% of skill growth that he had been sitting on from leveling into his small blades skill as it had been keeping him alive so far. Then tweaked the skills to show in sections instead of a whole list. Soon he had a tab for martial skills, magic skills, crafting skills, and general skills. Smiling now that he no longer had pages of skills to wade through just to find a single skill he closed the section.

  He next switched over to look at his attributes, luckily, he had remembered to apply his points and had nothing to update there. He was still impressed with his numbers. Already at level 16 just within a few weeks of coming to Arath he had grown in leaps and bounds. His body shown it as well. He was much more muscular and fit than he had ever been back on Earth. “Fighting to survive nearly daily will do that to you I suppose,” he muttered to himself.

  Shaking his head slightly he closed the tab and switched over to the city interface, he was not surprised when he got the red warning message that he was outside of his city’s sphere of influence and was unable to view or change anything on that section of tabs.

  Satisfied with the updates and changes to his interface he closed the semi-translucent screen and turned his attention to the vast plains surrounding their small camp. Lianna had set a small nearly smokeless fire giving them limited light and a way to warm rations and water. Xavier had watched how she had done it closely and was sure he could do the same in the future if required, another small bump to his survival skills he supposed. He leaned back against the rock that was making up his impromptu chair and listened to the night sounds, the plains were far different that what he had become accustomed to in the Silverwood. It was like this that Lianna found him when she woke for her turn at watch.

  The Iskari woman rose from her bedroll and made her way over to where Xavier was seated. He turned his attention from the surroundings to her when he felt her draw near. He grinned at how, when he was focused, the connection with the Earth Ley Line meant nothing could sneak up on him, walking at least.

  “Quiet night?” Lianna queried as she took a seat nearby.

  “It has been so far. Different sort of quiet but still quiet. Can’t quite shake the feeling of something building out there however.” He replied just as quietly as she had.

  She nodded, the fur on the back of her neck was still slightly raised leaving her unsettled. “I have it for now. Go get some rest. Gods know we will need it if things go badly.” Unconsciously she touched the collar around her throat scowling slightly at the feel of the metal.

  “I will in a few minutes, I have a couple questions for you before I do though.”

  Her eyes shifted from the plains to where he sat, curiosity in her gaze. “Questions for me?”

  He chuckled softly knowing she was surprised he wasn’t just asking Ella. “I respect your knowledge as well, besides Ella has admitted she hasn’t been outside of the area around Rynthavael much and I know you have.”

  Again, she nodded to him. “Alright what questions do you have for me then?”

  “Magic, outside of what I know and what that slaver tried to cast on us when we rescued your people, I have not seen nor really heard much of it. I know it exists, I just expected to see, well more of it.” He stated bluntly.

  “Ah, well Xavier, you also have not been outside of Rynthavael much. But you are not wrong in how… limited it is. A couple ages ago Magi tried to take over, they went to war with kings, emperors, nations and cities. Proclaimed they had the right to lead due to their magical prowess. Lore says they nearly succeeded as well. Mind you, history is not my strong suit, you would be better off to talk to the Elders or read more of your own lore books for it. But the long and short of it was the people revolted against their attempt. Several of them were captured and forced to adapt a version of these.” She fingered her collar briefly, “To be specifically for those who are magically inclined. Ever since then most nations require mages to be collared and registered. They are generally allowed to use cantrips and simple spells but anything more is regulated by the nation they live in. For the safety of the people.”

  Xavier looked mildly horrified, both at the attempt of the mages and the resulting answer of the people. “What about those touched by the gods? Are clerics and divine magic users similarly constrained?”

  “Not as such, they are bound by their gods and church. I think I have heard of a couple nations or cities that were more theocracies, but it is not common.”

  “So, when we get to Ironhaven or eventually Thandor’s Reach, I shouldn’t ask about magical tomes or spells.” Xavier smirked slightly trying to lighten the mood.

  “Only if you want a collar of your own. It is clear that the collars Ella and I wear are not Zor’kaan but Drekh’tar.” She replied but a small smile came to her lips.

  Xavier’s talent for languages triggered on the two words and quickly translated them into something he could better understand. Both were ancient Arathian, basically the precursor to the common tongue used now. Zor’kaan basically meant sealed power. Fitting for a tool meant to bind magic users. Drekh’tar simply meant submission binding. He did not like either term or their implied use, but knowledge of any sort was a powerful asset.

  Rising to his feet he smiled at Lianna. “Thank you, gives me something to think about, I just wished I had looked at that mage’s collar closer before turning it over to the Elders.” He bid her a good night and headed over to his own sleeping roll to retire.

  The night passed without incident. Morning found the trio up, dressed and eating a cold meal of travel rations. They had not seen much sign of wild game while traveling the slowly deteriorating roadway through the plains the day before so hunting was scare, and they felt it would be better to leave that to the cats for their food instead. Breaking camp they made their way back to the roadway. Xavier found it odd that what once seemed to be a well-traveled and maintained route was allowed to fall into such disrepair. He worked on his tracking skill while they moved, the usual tell tale sign of travelers was well worn away, in fact most of the tracks of wild animals were days if not weeks old as well.

  “Lianna, are you seeing what I am seeing?” He turned to look at the more skilled ranger. Something about the lack of wildlife rubbing him wrong.

  “I am, there is something wrong here. Even the land and wildlife are feeling it. Frostclaw and Valkra had a hard time finding enough to sate their appetites yesterday and I am worried more about them today. We may need to get more meat for them when we next find merchants.” She motioned to the dry grasslands around them as she spoke.

  It was then that Xavier noticed both great cats slinking closer by than before, they were just barely within the high growth of dry grass on the edge of the roadway where prior they would roam out further afield to hunt. He paused his walking and focused his attention more on their surroundings. It was eerily silent the only sounds being that of the wind through the grasses. Scowling he lengthened his stride when he started walking once again, hurrying to the top of the rise ahead of him.

  From the top of the ridge, he confirmed there was no movement, no birds, no anything around. It was as if something had stripped life from the whole area. Then he noticed it, well Ella did and pointed it out to him. Near the base of the ridge there was a half-collapsed structure already being reclaimed by the earth around it. Even from the distance they could tell it was the remains of an old waystation. Its decrepit state only reenforced the fact that this roadway seemed to have been deliberately abandoned. It spoke volumes to the state of Arenvalis’ relationship with its neighbors.

  It took them about half an hour to descend from the ridgetop to where the ruins lay. Scorched beams and shattered stone lay strewn about, signs of clear disturbance. Lianna moved ahead of the party and was the first to see the fresher signs of distress. Drag marks, broken weapons and spots of seemingly fresher dried blood. She found several sets of tracks leading into the area and then a single set leading away.

  Xavier caught up to her and knelt beside her as she traced fingers over several of the marks. A scowl was on her face when she finally gave voice to her observations.

  “Raiders,” her voice was tight and strained, “or more slavers.”

  Xavier’s eyes followed the path she pointed out and could not help but notice the small trail of blood that complemented the tracks. It was fresh enough to still draw insects, they were not far away, far enough to not be easily seen though.

  Ella called out from back near the structure. She was standing next to a half-buried marker post. What had caught her attention was a crudely scorched symbol in the old worn wood. The shape was unmistakable, and as fresh as the tracks they had been studying. It was the mark of Ironhaven whoever had taken refuge here were a tithe that had been taken. The attack hadn’t been random, they were targeted, and this was the ambush site.

  Xavier’s jaw tightened as the implications settled in. His fury was burning in his core. Lianna’s ears flicked towards the trail leading away from the ruins, her eyes focused on the trail once again.

  “They are not very far ahead,” she motioned to some distinct marks in the tracks. “You can see they are moving slower. Dragging something at times. They have prisoners, I do not think they had killed anyone when they struck.”

  Ella rejoined them after looking in the partially collapsed structure. “No one was left behind. Considering how close they were to the checkpoint they are not afraid of the military hindering them.”

  Lianna nodded slowly. “Which means the raiders, slavers and mercenaries of Ironhaven are operating with impunity if not endorsement of the powers that be. Things are much worse than I expected. I do not ever remember hearing of them attacking within the boundaries of the wildlands, they always attacked beyond their borders.”

  Ella looked between the two. Her fingers traced along her bowstring slowly. “What do you wish to do Xavier?”

  He growled softly. “I want to attack and rescue whoever they have taken but doing that risks exposing us.”

  Lianna spoke up softly. “We could trail them and see what we could learn. Our disguises held at the checkpoint. It would also let us know for certain where they are going, though their path does head towards Ironhaven and where we need to go first.”

  “We follow, I want to know if this is a group just gathering for the slave market and striking at random or if that mark was proof of Arenvalis turning a blind eye to the expansion of Ironhaven’s works. There is too much we don’t know right now. If Arenvalis is endorsing it then this is more than just random raids, even those into the Silverwood, it’s a system being built or expanded. If it is a system, we need to know how extensive it is if we are going to be able to do anything about it.”

  The two women nodded grim looks on their faces as they trio turned and moved carefully down the trail of the raiders path while Valkra and Frostclaw moved further afield helping to hunt and scout their new prey.