We parked right in front of the nomad tribe settlements.

It was still there, exactly where we had left it.

The massive cage with the caged Cyclopses was still there, a huge cloth protecting the creatures from the weather, yet this cloth seemed rather thicker, though. I guessed that although Cyclopses were resilient to cold, they could still very much die from it.

Today was also colder than the day before, and the sky was covered in dark grey clouds that threatened to rain the whole Abyss on us.

It was the perfect day to face a Necromancer, really.

Aisha was covered from head to toe in her fur coat; we were covered in fur as well but suffered from much less cold than she did; also, her fur coat was gorgeous and stylish; ours were, yeah, fur coats.

I was a Shade-cursed and very in sync with Shade; Nova had a Passive to resist both cold and ice. We would be alright.

"So,” I opened, “Aren’t we going to check on them from afar first?"

Aisha shrugged; “I'm a Thermomancer, Loke. I can literally melt any undead they can throw our way."

"Yeah, don't worry, Loke. It's not like you can't trust Aisha; it's just me that you can't trust, right?"

I sighed at the umpteenth dig that my sister threw at me.

I had decided not to play her game.

"Right, Loke?"

Nope, just ignoring her. No answering.

Aisha chuckled, "You are so cute, both of you. You make me wish I had a brother or a sister, or even both, really."

"You would trust them, though. Right, Isha?" Nova asked.

She chuckled in response.

If there was something I couldn't stand about Nova, although that was a big word, it was that if she wasn’t cute and lovable, she became a pain in the ass. Especially in my ass...

 

The village standing in front of us, if it could even be called that, looked rather busy, but somebody had already seen us, they were heading our way with a Flow-cart, although, it looked more like a Flow-scooter from here. A Flow-scooter was nothing but a Flow-cart which could only house a person or two without additional cargo. It was used for fast travel and could really not care much about baggage, if at all.

The young woman riding it stopped near us; she was a regular, tall with dark skin, brown eyes, and equally brown hair that had been braided in the typical style of the nomad tribes.

Their maroon-colored vests, used to distinguish them from both the sands and the icy grounds, were adorned with laces through which glass spheres had been tied for the whole length. They clinked together as she dropped off the scooter.

If memory served me right, the more the glass spheres the higher their wearer’s levels.

 

"Who are you?" she asked more than unwelcoming.

"Sun bless, sand-sister," Aisha said. She had come prepared.

"You are not a sand-dweller, sister; you can't call me that. Do you come from the City?" she asked, turning her attention to us too, lingering a little more than normal on me before turning once again to Aisha.

Aisha nodded, "Fair enough; and yes, I am the Twilight Envoy; I came here to discuss in the name of the Inquisition."

"Well, Twilight Envoy, you can go back to your Inquisition. We have already denied their invite to leave our lands. We will not be moving from here, and the Titan shall stay in peace."

"I'm sorry, but that just won't do. What you are doing sooner or later will be discovered. Not only are those Cyclopses people just like us, but they have a proper functioning society beyond the Peaks. We shall face retribution for this behavior…"

"You mean we will face retribution. You wouldn't even be touched, so let us handle our possible future problems."

"Please," Aisha said, pleading, "let me speak with one of your elders; I'm sure we can find a way to mediate this."

"You shall speak only with me, and my answer is: No. Now go back to your Inquisition. They are free to take whatever rebuttal they deem necessary; we shall be here to wait for them."

 

It was clear that Aisha was not used to speaking to this type of audience.

So, maybe it was my time to intervene.

I studied the woman standing before me. There were up to a maximum of five beads per lace dangling from her sleeves and around the collar of her hood.

Judging from their numbers, she should have had a Class level of fifty, the maximum number for an Advanced Class.

For her age, for her status, and for the Wastelands as a whole, it was too high a number.

Given their life and the fact that they spent the nights out here, in the Drylands, their average level was much higher than ours. It was something that had to be considered. People here were not delvers, not at all.

Yet I Traced her to be sure.

 

Kaleeki Onai, SpectralRanger Level 50 (Max/500.000), Green Tamer Level 50 (max/500.000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 96%

 

Agility: 20

Constitution: 20

Strength: 20

Focus: 21

Perception: 19

Willpower: 36

 

Strengths: Combat Form, Pet, Willpower

Weaknesses: None

 

Class Skills: Phantasmic Dash (Agility), Phantasmic Throw (Strength), Hunting Tactics (Focus), Phantom Vision (Perception)

 

Sub-Class Skills: Phantom Union (Constitution), Bridle Undead II (Focus), Animal Instincts (Perception), Bridle II (Willpower)

 

Race: Human

Sex: Female

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 75 kg

Age: 25

Origins: Drylands

Family: Terra Onai

 

Yeah, she was dangerous. I could see it now.

Judging by how her Skill’s name had changed while promoting her Skills because no regular Skill from a root Class could have that type of naming, I could be certain that there were level three Skills among them.

Still, like everybody else, she would just be fodder in the face of Sundoor's might.

 

"You will all die, you know?" I said.

And although she had come to meet us weaponless, I could see a slight movement of her hand, as if she had been ready to react with something I couldn't see.

Maybe Phantasmic Throw made her weapon invisible. It was possible.

"I don't remember asking the opinion of a double-crosser Shade-cursed. You don't speak here," she said, trying to fulminate me with a look.

I chuckled, "You entire village is worth one cannon shot of their Sand-Crawlers. But you should know that. You've done your calculations, am I right, Spectral Ranger?"

If her eyes could grow any wider, they would have popped right out of their orbits.

"You brought a Tracer with you, envoy; how much did you buy this weak-willed individual for? Give it to me; I shall buy him from you."

That was indeed not the reaction I was expecting, but it was still something.

"He is not mine to sell; he is a Citizen residing in a free village. Speaking of villages, you could create one by yourselves if you just left this place be. We could even help you find the right place for you to settle if you allowed us to.”

The nomad, however, laughed heartily at her.

"You will never understand.” She shook her head, “The Drylands is our home; nothing will take them away from us, much less one of you. Now leave, go back to where you belong."

Seeing her grip her hand around something really invisible, I had a realization.

"For how long?"

"How long? How long what, cursed one, what are you trying to ask?"

"For how long have you been training with undead and ghosts?"

The woman had a moment of stillness.

"I changed my mind. You shall stay here," she said, raising her gripped hands at us.

I took both Nova and Aisha from her coat and pushed them away.

I roughly understood what we were dealing with at that point, "She has an invisible spear!"

Aisha raised her hand toward her, Flow accumulating on her palm, but it was not fast enough.

A bolas coming from somewhere hit her on the side of the head. Dropping her, hopefully, unconscious.

"Nova, don't form them!" I shouted as I saw what Nova was about to do, "we surrender!"

I did not surrender just because Aisha had fallen. I looked in front of me; there were more than ten warriors that had appeared from nothing.

Judging by the state of their clothes, they had been hiding under the frozen lands.

It took just a few seconds to realize that they had pretty much all reached the maximum level for their Advanced Classes: fifty.

We had been given a chance to leave. And we had let it escape from our hands.

"I just want to heal her!" Nova shouted.

She had been kneeling near Aisha to apply healing to her, but she had not been given a chance to; the woman, Kaleeki, was pulling her from her arm; she had chosen the moment to do it while I Traced the warriors around me.

"Let her go, or I shall slaughter every one of you," my tone couldn’t get more glacial than that.

The woman held my gaze; she looked at me as if trying to gauge if I was joking or if I was the real deal.

Yet, once again, she preferred to change the topic, "Is this your sibling?"

"Yes."

"Is she a Healer?"

"Yes, she is," my eyes didn’t waver.

"Then I guess she will like to heal our sick people."

I looked at Nova; it was her decision, after all.

"Of course, I will but now let me go; I have to heal her too."

"Fine, "said Kaleeki, letting Nova go, "but after that, you both follow me, by hook or by crook."

Could I take her on? At night? It would be a joke, but right now? Somehow I didn't feel comfortable about that invisible spear.

I would do as she said, for now.

Considering that our ace in the hole was still freely roaming the lands, we could calmly take the set back.

Loki could come and save the day at my order.

Although we could not communicate at this distance, if I connected us through our sight sharing, he would be able to understand that I needed help and would come to our aid.

I had left him free to hunt and maybe, given his Ghastly Senses, find the source of the undead problem. If anything, though, we might have already found it.

"Take that woman with you and follow," she ordered.

And I did as I was told.

It was better if I took care of Aisha than letting others manhandle her.

 

---

 

Their village was bare up close exactly as it looked from afar. Still, it was something no simple nomad tribe could allow.

This village had all the possible commodities, and it was also rather spacious. There would certainly be no problem the likes of "your neighbor stepping into your garden's borders".

There were a few traditional yurts, but some of them were massive.

I could only hope those were farms because I wouldn't believe they were the places in which they did their rituals.

However, despite the massive tents, the village's eeriest thing was the laments of the Cyclopses, barely shielded by the thick veil placed on their cages. Their howling was dreadful.

It was… disheartening, and it made me recall memories I did not want to remember.

Thoughts of a naked Roana held up by her neck flashed across my vision; the smell of blood, feces, and foulness of every kind returned to my senses thanks to Synaesthesia.

Thank the Sun, Nova had not been there to witness all that; she would have been scarred for life, and I would have never forgiven myself for that.

Crappy Perk… I shouldn't have chosen it.

They led us through the village and brought us into the most embellished of the yurts; it was the biggest among the ones that I had understood were for housing, and it was also the most colored.

If memory served me right, the brightest colors belonged to the head family.

They were bringing us to their chief.

"Get the girl to the hospital tent," ordered Kaleeki.

"You do not divide us," I said, stopping on my tracks and turning back to her.

Spears were at my throat in moments.

"You don't give the orders here, Shade-cursed, I do. Is that clear?" She said with a mocking frown.

"Why do I have this feeling that you despise Shade-cursed like me? You know that doesn't make you any different from the Citizens, right?"

She scoffed. "That is probably the only thing in which they are correct. You are a plague that we have to extinguish."

"Well, good luck with that. We are far too many to do that, here, but cross the border with the region," I pointed at the mountains, reminding what Logan told me, "and you'll find millions like me."

"As long as they stay away from my tribe, we're fine. But if they dare come here to mock us like you are doing, then they are not welcome," saying that she raised her hands, gripping her invisible spear, and I could feel the cold of metal under my chin.

I was sure she had drawn blood.

"At least yours is still red," she said, as a drop of blood ran along the invisible blade of the spear; for me, it looked as if it was crawling through the air.

"Anyway, you go to the chief, your sister will help heal our sick and wounded, then she'll be returned to you. Healers are sacred, everywhere.”

"Mind that if you so much as remove one of her hairs, I am going to slaughter every single one of you, starting with you and ending with your Terra. Did I make myself clear?" Once again, I could feel coldness trying to seep through my eyes; it was the second time it happened to me.

She headbutted me at that moment.

Her head was damn tough. Both I and Aisha fell to the floor.

"Loke! Stop it! I'll be fine, please!" Nova shouted.

I spit blood and felt one of my teeth had weakened from it. It had never happened before; a little scared of losing a tooth, I used my Technomantic Body to assimilate part of my clock-arm to fix my tooth back into place.

It became firmer right away, and it barely shaved a millimeter from my new arms' pinky finger.

Maybe the power of the healing was related to the power of the metal.

Still, I nodded to Nova and did as I was told.

Healers were treated well in every culture.

 

"Speak of my brother again, and I will stick your body so far up the Titan's ass that he will throw you up from his mouth. You'll come back as a puke-Wyrm ghost. Did I make myself clear?"

I smiled at her; she had given me more than a few heads-up with that statement.

"Sure, Kaleeki, you were very clear."

She ordered the other nomads to get us to the chief, telling them that she would join later.

 

---

 

The chief's tent was as vast and, I had to admit, beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside.

The fur on the walls and on the ground had been worked to recall spearheads patterns, and everywhere I looked, I saw bone statues representing monsters that appeared around these parts.

The biggest among them seemed to have been charged out of a Sand-Wyrm Titan's shed tooth, given its size, and it was more than detailed; it was spectacular.

 

As I looked around, studying the place for whatever could be useful, the warriors had us sit on the carpet and wait for our chance to speak with the chief.

Aisha started to recover as I waited.

She had received what could have even been a killing blow if Nova hadn't been there to heal her.

"Loke…" she said, weakly.

"What happened?"

"It was a trap, and we were being expected; I think that the acting chief has been waiting for us, maybe they have a Seer of decent abilities. It seems we pushed too much on their patience."

"...and now? Where are we?"

"The chief's tent, we are likely waiting for them to decide what to do about us."

"Nova! Where's Nova?"

I was sincerely happy that she asked that question; it told me that she sincerely cared for her.

But my answer was blocked by the arrival of the chief.

It was an old man with white braided air and a thick braided beard; he could have been very old judging by how his wrinkles overlapped with each other.

He was dressed in an electric-blue coat and had what couldn't be else but seventy glass beads dangling from the collar of his coat, they seemed to have no real color pattern among them, but they were colored with a few more colors than I could cite.

Accompanying him was a slim, little boy; he could have been twelve, thirteen at best, and from his frame, it was clear that he hadn't spent a single point of his forming Class levels into Constitution; he reminded me of myself when I was younger.

Like the previous man, he was a regular, he had very big and dark eyes, while his hair was… silver.

Very strange.

The boy might have seen a few more tragedies than he had any right to see.

However, what confused me, even more, was the number of glass beads around dropping from his coat's collar.

Those might have been at least sixty? How was that possible?

I looked at Aisha for confirmation and noticed something that she might have already noticed.

However, our suspicions were cleared in the few moments that followed.

When the boy left the old man's arm and sat on the chair at the center of the room while the man sat on the ground near him, I understood.

We would have to deal with a kid in chief.

"It has come to my attention," he said in his young voice, "that you have come here to solve our trouble for us. So, speak, how do you propose we solve our issue? But know this, we won't be leaving our lands."

The utter sureness in his voice and the unwavering decision with which he spoke told me that this kid was dangerous.

 

Terra Onai, Necromancer Level 63 (1.589.657/6.300.000), Summoner Level 70 (max/7.000.000)

Health: 200%

Stamina: 95%

Shade Capacity: 300%

 

Agility: 10

Constitution: 9

Strength: 9

Focus: 64

Perception: 34

Willpower: 64

 

Strengths: Focus, Perception, Willpower

Weaknesses: Physical abilities

 

Class Skills: Health Funnel (Constitution), Undead Overpower (Strength), Rise III (Focus), Life Vision II (Perception), Undying Following III (Willpower)

 

Sub-Class Skills: My Body is yours to take II (Constitution), Phantom Summon (Focus), Ethereal Sight III (Perception), Will Harvester (Willpower), Blessed Birth III (Fortune)

 

Race: Human

Sex: Male

Height: 153 cm

Weight: 42 kg

Age: 13

Origins: Drylands

Family: Kaleeki Onai

 

And the Tracing confirmed to me that he would be even more problematic than his sister.