Everywhere he looked, Tahir saw bright colors occasionally broken by the dull of wooden and stone buildings, or the tan of a tent. The Blooming Grove had four main paths, all leading toward a stone building that surrounded a massive tree that bloomed with petals of every color, and whose branches seemed to reach across the entirety of the village. “I suppose that’s the leyline crossing.” Tahir noted. He could assume they wouldn’t just let him in if he asked. Just the size of the stone building and how well they maintained it compared to some of the other buildings surrounding it told him that they held it in high regard.
Instead, he focused his attention with the others in looking for the right tent that belonged to the guild. Theo noticed them first, a collection of tents with large, black feathers hanging down to mark that the Crow’s Black Feathers occupied them. Nearby, they could spot the ruin that popped up as well. As opposed to a tall ruin with multiple floors as the last two had been, this ruin only had a single floor, and no doors or walls, either. Just a square of stone block about 40 feet on each side, and in the center he could see a staff rising up, made of a dark wood with a purple gem floating in the center. It looked Vudranian in origin, and he could see a group of darkly dressed researchers surrounding the area.
“That’s what they’re studying?” Tahir asked.
“It seems more like a ritual site than anything else.” Meti replied. “And it is hard to tell from here, but I sense some powerful magic within that staff. I imagine they seek to understand the purpose of this site before trying to remove it.”
“At least they’re taking their time with it at least.” Hasio said. “Another mage’s guild might have just tried to pull it out. Then again, I guess that’s why the nomads here are letting them stay.”
“We’ll find out.” Tahir assured. “Let’s just talk to them and see.” He gestured to the largest tent, the one Harris directed them to. Without the ability to knock, the four of them simply made their way inside. From what Tahir could see, they made this tent into a kind of research space. Shelves lined the edges of the tent full of books, and in front of the shelves Tahir could see desks full of papers and writing materials. At the center of the room, a larger desk stood with a man sitting, writing with a quill and ink. He looked to be a human man in his thirties who had long, black hair, and dark blue eyes that hid behind a small pair of half-moon glasses.
“Telistis, you have guests.” A voice drew the group’s attention to the far right of the room, to a woman sitting on one of the desks and casually reading a book. She had short, pure white hair, and piercing sky blue eyes. Tahir immediately picked up on flowing clothes she wore, and the sword, while sheathed, both reminded him of Murabi’s attire. If Tahir had to guess, this person likely came from Shinevi.
“I’m well aware, I was simply hoping to come to a better stopping point in my writing.” The man said, and set down his quill before looking at the group with a smile. “You must be the ones Harris told me about. My thanks for helping with that engagement, I’ve been told it was quite harrowing.”
“We just happened to be in the area.” Tahir replied.
“Quite, and just happened to be able to restrain something that could keep a dozen of the Blooming Grove’s hunters at bay. The most average of them you’d see in their hunting parties would be considered platinum, you know?” The man said back to him. Tahir stiffened, having no reply. They definitely seemed strong, and his thoughts went back to Shukri’s aura shield being intact after getting thrown across the clearing. “But where are my manners? I am Telistis Opilio, also known as the Raven. I’m the guildmaster of the Crow’s Black Feathers.” As he let the introduction hang for a moment, his eyes moved across the party, likely giving each of them a cursory glance. “And, do forgive me if I’m wrong on this, but would you happen to be Theoris?”
“Huh, me?” Theo pointed to herself. “Yes! I’m Theoris, have we met?”
“Perhaps once or twice, when you were little, but certainly not recently.” The Raven said with a smile. I’m a friend of Callipho’s. We’ve been writing to each other quite frequently, and he’s mentioned you and your friends on a number of occasions. When I heard from Harris about a blonde alchemist, and an Iskarai smith, and an Osni Redcloud, I put two and two together.”
“Wait, so does that mean you’re the one who gave Master Callipho that map?”
“Hmm? Ah.” The Raven took a moment to realize what Theo meant. “The one that showed the leyline crossing, yes, I passed that along to him. I’m well aware that he only barely uses the mana that he has, but I’m sure you’ve been able to see the difference in the surroundings the leyline has had, and how they’d benefit an alchemist. It would seem he’s sent you down here in his stead.”
“Well - kind of.” Theo replied with a sheepish grin. “My friends here would actually like to use the leyline crossing, but it seems like a real big deal here - bigger than we were expecting. It seems like you’ve been here for a while, Master Raven, do you know if they would let us in?”
After hearing the question, the Raven leaned back in his chair and adjusted his glasses, seemingly lost in thought. “I’m sure you’ve noticed the people of the Blooming Grove aren’t particularly hard to please, I believe you’ve already started in their good graces based on what Harris told me. Becoming trusted seems to be a different matter, but the Crow’s Black Feathers might be a different beast due to our position.”
“You mean your guild’s current investigation.” Meti said.
“Correct, Metilia I presume?” The Raven answered. “The rumor is floating around that we are behind the increase in powerful monsters making their way toward the grove. I can say for certain that we aren’t intentionally doing so, but the possibility exists that the ruin and our tampering with it is causing this attraction. And even further beyond that, the possibility of foul play exists as well.” At the last part, he shrugged. “I’ve tried to alleviate concerns by having some of the guild members join them on their hunting parties, and having the rest stay within the boundaries of the grove. As things are, however, I’m afraid I can only be content with them only having suspicions and letting us continue our research. As for you, however, I imagine joining their hunting parties of your own volition will go a long way. Despite the somewhat strained relationship they have with us, the nomads tend to enjoy their interactions with travelers. I suppose finding decisively the reason that powerful creatures are drawn toward the grove would also help sway them, but if you decide to go that route, if it does truly involve my guild, or the aura-using muscle that we’ve hired to escort and protect us, I’d ask that you tell me about it first.”
“Oh? If you’ve had your suspicions about us aura users, Sir Raven, you could have said so.” The woman sitting on the desk spoke, sitting her book down on her lap.
The Raven sent a glance her way, keeping his small smile. “I have no way of knowing, Blade of Frost, but among the few, I’d struggle to comprehend your motives in interfering in a partnership that your people asked for, rather than the others that whose time we've simply bought with coin.”
With a satisfied smile, the woman brought the book back up and brought her attention back to it. “So long as you’re aware. I don’t really like the thought of a bunch of newcomers getting into my business.
“Er…we can work with that.” Theo replied to the Raven, after the brief pause that exchange caused. “Thank you, Master Raven! We’ll be sure to let you know if we find anything out. We didn’t want to keep you for too long.”
“Very well. I anticipate our research will wrap up relatively soon, but its been nice to meet some nearly familiar faces all the way out here.” He gave a short wave, and Theo glanced back at everyone with a smile before moving to leave. As everyone else gave their thanks and followed behind, Tahir snuck a glance back toward the woman from earlier. She was looking toward the group, and Tahir could swear her gaze locked onto the sword at Tahir’s side, one he imagined looked similar to hers when unsheathed.
“So, what do you think?” Hasio asked, as they started to make their way back to their tent. The sun had set at this point, but between a crowd of floating, magical lights created by the Crow’s Black Feathers to illuminate the ruin site, and other, seemingly unrelated lights that floated around from the grove, the group had no issue making their way around. “Think the guild’s drawing the monsters here to get them away from the ruin site or the Leyline crossing?”
“I can’t imagine why.” Tahir replied. “If his original goal was the leyline crossing, they probably wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of setting up here in the grove. If he was the one who told Callipho about the leyline crossing, then Callipho probably would have warned us when he gave us the map that we had to worry about the guild. I think we can safely cross them out as the problem, at least intentionally.”
“Which means either the ruin itself is the problem, or someone is sabotaging the guild.” Meti concluded. “But we have no way of determining which.”
“Yep. We’ve got no clue of who’s even in the guild other than the Raven, or any idea of what they’ve found out about the ruin so far, and I’m guessing it’s gonna look mighty suspicious to ask about either.” Hasio said. “Unless we go directly to the Raven, I guess.”
“I’d feel kind of rude about just bothering him for information even if we are helping.” Theo replied. "I agree with Tahir on thinking Master Callipho would have told us if we needed to worry about the Raven or the Crow’s Black Feathers, but maybe…Oh! Tahir, Dahlia said she could feel the leyline crossing when we got near it, right?” She looked toward Tahir, and continued when he nodded in response. “Do you think she could tell if the ruin’s the source of the problem?”
“That’s a possibility.” Tahir replied. “But maybe one we can leave until tomorrow. We’ll have to work out joining one of those hunting parties.”
“I’m sure they’d be glad to have you along with you and Dahlia if every hunt goes as well as the one we walked in on.” Hasio said with a grin.
“I’m gonna have to tell them that we could only do that maybe three times before we’d be out of energy. Four if I didn’t care about keeping my aura shield up.” Tahir shrugged. “Although I guess they’ll only want one if it's something as big as what we walked into.”
“Do you think they’ll mind if I stop to look around for things while we’re hunting?” Theo asked. “I mean, they probably will, right? I should probably just stick to looking around whenever they stop.”
With the plan to ask about joining one of the hunting parties established, the group returned to the tent that had been picked out for them. It certainly wasn’t the biggest tent available, but it had enough space for them to set their packs and equipment down along the edges, and roll out their bedrolls side-by-side so they could all sleep next to each other. Tahir felt that they had come into an odd situation for sure, but not an entirely unwelcome one to devote themselves to while they waited for news about the larger ruin in Osni.
