I was still standing in the square, watching the young man who told me that the Anfer Clan had been destroyed months ago. His words echoed in my mind, as if they were a slow stab piercing my certainty.
"No one passed through it and came out alive."
The phrase kept repeating in my head, until I felt the sound of the man fade behind the noise of my thoughts. I saw the old man. I spoke to him. He handed me a drink. Gave me a map. It couldn't have been a hallucination.
I moved slowly, almost mechanically, stepping away from the square without answering the young man's continuous questions. I needed peace. Solitude. Logic.
I entered a side alley and sat on a cold stone. I reviewed the details: the warmth of the drink. The texture of the paper. His voice when he spoke of Kaster. Could he be a ghost? Or something else? Or perhaps... a type of being I still didn't understand? The possibilities weren't important now, but what was clear was that what had happened wasn't ordinary.
I took the map out of my coat. It was still there. Real. Tangible. The smell of aged leather wafted from it. I wasn't insane.
I refocused.
Kaster.
The goal hadn't changed, but the method needed adjustment. I couldn't attack directly. Not yet.
I looked at the map. The Ronz clan was surrounded by a series of icy mountains, forming a natural ring around it. Dangerous, yes, but an opportunity. Kaster's abilities to manipulate ice and storms might be limited there. If he exerts them on a large scale, he'll endanger his own clan.
That gave me an advantage.
I decided to send out the shadows. My creatures. My eyes and ears in the dark.
I slowly raised my hand, and with an inaudible whisper, the first three shadows emerged from nothing, as if torn from the fabric of space before me. Without sound, without light, they sped through the roads and mountains, heading toward Ronz.
"Watch. Do not approach," I commanded them in an internal voice, as they vanished between the ice crevices.
I would stay in this clan for a while. Watch. Gather information. And wait for what the shadows would bring.
Before the night stretched on, I had marked weak points on the map. Hidden passages. Guard movements. The extent of Kaster's influence.
I set up a simple makeshift camp at the edge of the clan.
I spent the night thinking. Not just about the old man, but about everything: Kaster, the shadows, and the journey ahead.
The next day, I wandered among the people quietly. I watched the market, noticed the accents, and asked in a low voice about any possible connection to the Ronz clan. I never mentioned Kaster's name. Just Ronz.
I discovered that some traders passed through there, but they avoided stopping for long. "The land there is cold enough to kill," one of them told me, as he loaded a sack of potatoes onto a weary donkey. "And the people don't like outsiders."
I returned to the camp and began drawing a new version of the map. I realized the map I had was mostly outdated coordinates, perhaps placed decades ago. I used my own symbols now. A small circle here, a dashed line there. The shadows had started sending flashes. Short, distorted visions, but enough.
I saw the central square of the Ronz clan. I saw tall barracks made of dark wood. People in heavy clothing, carrying weapons adorned with ice. And I saw someone... tall, with white hair like ice, standing on a high balcony. I didn't need anyone to tell me who he was. It was Kaster.
I felt something strange. The shadows hesitated as they neared him. One of them froze in place, then shattered like black dust.
He could sense them.
I ordered the rest to retreat.
The next night, I spent time refining my attack plan. Not a direct breach. But a cold breach. Silent. Through one of the ice passages where the magical current weakens around his village. From there, I would enter.
I needed an element of surprise.
At the same time, I thought about sowing chaos at the edges of the clan. A rumor that a group of mercenaries was approaching. Or letting my shadows appear publicly in a distant place to draw attention.
Kaster is clever, but his overconfidence is my entry point.