**Magican's Guild inner branch

"Guild Master... Have you already received Senior Researcher Jackob's message?" a slight gentle voice came from the other side of the door as the receptionist asked.

"Yes. I've already been informed" I said in a low muffled voice.

Earlier today Jackob asked for a sudden audience. He lived in the outer city and was appointed a slow job with measuring the constant flow of mana in the area. When I heard the tinge of urgency in his voice I cleaned out my morning schedule as I agreed to his request. 

When he entered my office he looked flustered and sleep deprived as he carried a bunch of notes in his hands.

"Guild Master Henrik" Jackob said with a slight bow as he made his way towards my desk.

Nodding in acknowledgment I looked at him with an questionable look on my face. I've seen Jackob a lot before he moved to the outer city to conduct his research. But his current appearance was somewhat new to me.

"Please have a look at this Master Henrik" looking at the messy handwriting on the notes before me. I sigh as something in life never changes. Before getting past the first few written words Jackob started narrating his findings like a child afraid no one would understand his jokes.

"Yesterday morning, one of my old friends came to me with information about a change in the flow of mana towards  Anbriot's forest. As I quickly confirmed that something had changed recently I started making close observations throughout the day and night..." Jackob kept narrating his story with an overly exiting look on his old face.  After the first few lines he started forgetting where he was and loudly started talking endlessly about his findings.

An hour later, Jackob had explained the situation in depth to Henrik.

A few moments of silence pass between them as Henrik's eyebrows slowly scrounged together.

"This makes sense" Henrik said.

After thinking it through, he continued "Yesterday I received some alarming news. Some researches had reported an excessive amount of free floating mana in the air. And as you know... Karusha lives on a thin thread. Too much mana wont do us any good."

Henrik looked at Jackob in deep thought as he mulled over his options.

"Jackob. You should...." before finishing his statement, someone knocked on the door.

**Anbriot's forest. Near the edge of the Great Expanse.

A girl was on her knees with her face near edging closer as she starred intently at something buried beneath a pile of old leaves. Faint tinged of red could be seen sticking out through the brown leaves. As she got closer and closer she suddenly stopped. Completely frozen as she picked up the sound of a faint rustle to her right. Slowly turning her gaze towards it with a slow and steady movements. The girl's pale white skin slowly turning sickly as she stood frozen. A chilling gaze washed over her as the newcomer slowly studied her. As an unsure predator it remained still at approximately 100 meters distance as it meticulously studied her every move.

As an apex predator near the inner most part of the forest it had fought countless intruders in the past. Only the most powerful beasts were able to secure a spot this close to the Expanse.

Starring into the beast's eyes I sensed a faint trace of intelligence. A subtle look of curiosity flashed by its gaze as it studied my body. I slowly raised myself from the ground as the beast slowly stood its ground. Its gaze slowly went from slight curiosity to an uninterested look as if it was looking at rocks on a cliff. When it finished studying me, its eyes focused on my left hand. My grip tightened around the core.

I had spend the last few days walking around working on filling this core with mana... After walking around in the forest I came to realize something very important. By observing the lifeforms around me I found that I was utterly lacking something. Even the small critters and birds in the air had something I lacked.

An home. A nest for those stormy nights when it rained and the wind felt freezing on my skin. I had no clue about how I would make it. But whatever form it would take I would surely need a lot of mana! With that thought in mind I had started walking around draining whatever mana was stuck in the ground and in the plant life around me. This was also what got me into this situation. After going around for a day filling up my core I had sensed something utterly tantalizing. From a short distance away it looked like a small plant with red leaves sticking out of a bunch of dead leaves. But before I managed to investigate further this big boss came about!