Year 2, Winter, Third Month, First Week.

“Should we move?”

Said asked the question, but she didn’t want to hear the answer. They barely recovered and winter was at its worst, so nobody dared to answer the question lightly. Omero, who was still in the process of recovering his prestige, decided to make a few observations.

“I think we should be ready to leave but wait for Samia’s contact, it shouldn’t take long for her to make visual confirmation…”

Kanin had to force himself to stay calm, the memories from that day were still fresh in his mind and body. Even so, he had the duty of saying something.

“Omero’s right, but we have to prepare ourselves to leave at any time.”

All Councillors agreed with this, so each department Head discussed their preparations and left to execute them. Somehow, the news of a possible attack spread through the camp, probably, because all departments stopped their current tasks and started organizing an escape. Fortunately, Samia’s contact arrived after a few hours, before the camp was lost in despair.

Relief overflowed the recently built Council pavilion, most couldn’t help but sigh exaggeratedly. However, Omero thought it was wise to remind them:

“We can’t rule out the possibility of they being part of Kingdom’s forces or even Mercenaries sent by them…”

The excitement quickly faded from the room and Lew decided to propose something.

“I could go and check the situation. I’m not doubting her, but I would be able to comprehend their purpose better.”

Slowly, they started trusting Lew, he had proved himself more than once and even gave up priceless material to help them. So, they didn’t hesitate in letting him go. The Councillors also decided to make a public announcement explaining the situation, even though they risked panic, it was better than letting rumors inform their people. While the others left to organize the announcement, Karl and Lew went to the Alchemy pavilion, so that the Fighter could learn how to use the communicator and the magic locator.

Karl guided him to the center of the pavilion where a student sat, visibly paying attention to the tool in front of him. Lew observed the tool curiously, the wooden support didn’t look special, but the thin metal pole that went from the ground and passed through the rough vine ceiling was a novelty. Karl noticed the Fighter’s curiosity and started explaining:

 “This is the core of the magic communicator… Fortunately, Arnold brought enough metal and we only had to melt a few swords to build it. Basically, the signals sent by Samia go through this pole and make a few sparks appear in that Array. The number of times it sparks translate into her message, of course, we only agreed in a few codes…”

Seeing that Lew was looking sympathetically to the student, Karl added:

“Oh, isn’t as bad as it seems. We exchange the students every couple of hours, also, they can use this time to practice their drawing… Anyway, let’s move on to your communicator…”

However, Lew wanted more than the general explanation, after all, he loved magic-related things. After he pleaded for more information, Karl was forced to indulge him with more details.

“The tool is divided into three parts, what you see here, are actually two independent parts. First, the core part, called the signal attractor, is responsible for attracting all lightning signals in the surroundings. It works by directing the lightning attraction property of a MQ lightning crystal to the metal pole. The lightning element is a little different from the other elements, its physical representation isn’t static. Essentially, lightning exists as an energy transference from a point to another, so lightning is always moving from one place to another. The attraction property creates an opportune destination for all lightning inside its reach.”

“Which brings us to the communicator Samia is using. The communicator generates physical lightning, which is attracted to this metal pole as long the attractor is powered and she’s within its reach. The last part is the Array connected to the metal pole, we call it communication reader, it’s tuned to absorb the specific lighting energy sent by the communicator with Samia…”

Karl tried to be as concise as possible, but Lew wasn’t satisfied, he wanted to understand the Arrays, so the Alchemist continued:

[Property Extraction Array configured to extract the lightning attraction property]

[Attractor Array]

[Attractor tool v1]

“In the attractor, the Property Extraction Array (star form) gets the lightning attraction property, which is increased by the Stimulus Rune before being transferred to the metal pole by the Direction Array (triangle form). The Combination Array (small circle inside of a big circle) is used to merge the effects before sending them.”

[Communicator Array]

[Communicator tool v1]

“The communicator only has to generate lightning, so it uses a Property Extraction Array (star form) to get the electrify property, which is increased by the Stimulus Rune and physically manifested by the Manifestation Rune, before being sent by the Direction Array (triangle form) through the small metal pole. Again, the Combination Array is used to merge the effects. We could have used the lightning energy from the crystal to directly manifest lightning but it would waste the lightning energy in the crystal, which isn’t infinite…”

[Signature Absorption Array]

[Communication reader Array]

“Last, in the communication reader, the Signature Absorption Array (six-pointed star form) is used to absorb the specif lightning signature used in the communicator. The Signature Extraction Array (pentagram form) supplies the right signature for the previous Array, that’s why the Signature Extraction Array is inside of the Signature Absorbtion Array.”

After explaining a few times, Lew was finally satisfied. Then, Karl taught him how to use the communicator tool and the magic locator before sending the tiresome Fighter away.

***

Samia stopped behind a tree and started to consider how she should proceed. The supposed Adventurer group had divided itself into two groups, one stayed near the river to process the wolves they slew, while a smaller group moved further, probably to scout a safety perimeter.

In the end, instead of following the scouting group, she remained with the bigger one. However, she chose to retreat a few hundred meters to avoid being detected by the scouting group when they came checking in her direction.

Ten minutes later, Samia was in a much safer position, she would wait here and check on their movements with the magic locator until it was time for her report. Unexpectedly, the sensation of a cold blade pressing against the back of her neck stopped Samia’s movements. 

“What do we have here? Aren’t you a pretty curious girl?”