Part one:
It was a whole week since the incident at the Aperture Temple, and the first snow already fell upon Razihelnor. Given the altitude of the city, it will linger until the spring comes.
The streets and the rooftops of houses were regularly cleaned from the accumulating snow, but the mountains above and below the city had layers that were a whole metre deep.
Zafer and Skil were both resting after completing their mission.
Skil’s mission was to get a new Miyalin weapon, and Zafer’s to lure the vindictive Arcanie so that officer Uk could slay her.
It wasn’t that Temper paladins hated her or that she posed a threat to the whole faction. It was just that having a sinister and chronical traitor like her running around wasn’t good for anyone, and once Banana saw a chance to trap and kill her, he used it.
However, on the brink of her death, she randomly turned into an apparition just like any other human could at any moment, causing officer Uk the unforeseen trouble.
Because of these troubles and the fact that he didn’t get any praise for his bravery, Zafer decided to take the Book of Runes and Curses from the Aperture temple as his reward, just because he needed it and doubted anyone would notice it’s absence.
“Alright but what did you mean with the designer girl? Did she sell you the book, or did you just blatantly steal it? Please respond”.
“Report to the Garden”.
Those were two scripts that were laying on the table of Zafer’s accommodation.
The first one was a message from Skil while the second one was coming from Simra, summoning him to the Gardens of the Elite.
Zafer closed the book of Runes and Curses he was reading and replaced it with yet another book labelled “The basics of the Ancient language”.
It was a manual gifted to him by Skil that could be used to write simple codes such as instant messages via scripts.
The S-mails or Script-mails were a common way of communication on distance between 2 paladins. They were sold in a pair of 2, and each of the paladins would take and carry one of them.
No matter how far apart the two paladins were, every time one of them wrote something using the ancient language on their S-mail, it would also appear on the other pair that was kept by the other paladin, hence allowing them to write instant letters to each other.
Nevertheless, for the message to copy itself onto it’s distant pair, a specific code in Ancient Language was necessary before and after the wanted message.
Zafer was still learning these codes.
The Simple physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 3:
It was a common misconception of what the difference between Anomalies (A) and Artifacts (AR) was. A simple example would be the A-8, the Adjustment. In this case, the anomaly was the SKIN of a living owner of said anomaly, but after the skin gets peeled of and processed, it becomes an artifact called the PARCHMENT.
It was the same thing, but in different circumstances. Each anomaly could be transformed into its corresponding artifact, and the stronger the anomaly, the stronger its artifact would be.
„He’s here”, someone spoke from inside of the building.
A black shadow passed near the window, opening the door from the inside before Zafer could even reach the door handle.
“Take this”, Priest exited the building throwing a backpack on Zafer.
It wasn’t bulky but was somewhat heavy.
„What’s inside?”, he didn’t know if it would be disrespectful to look inside himself.
„Potions”, Simra followed up, “come on. We need to check something bellow”.
He meant bellow the city of Razihelnor which would be the foothill.
“Bellow?”, Zafer got confused, “you mean the foothill?”
Although the mountain range was huge, it’s pedestal wasn’t nowhere near the sea level.
“Yes. Our guards spotted some changes using binoculars this morning”.
All 4 of them were walking towards the waterfall at the edge of the Gardens of the Elite.
Zafer bent over the fence, gazing down on the snow-white landscape. Not even trees could be spotted since they were also covered with snow.
“What changes?”
The fourth person spoke up in an annoyed tone, “The snow melted on a specific area. You can’t see it from here. Now shut up and listen to your orders”.
Among Temper, just like any other province, a conflict between its members was usual, but despite that everyone still managed to work as one. This was usually due to the fear of the stronger paladins and the banishment one might face as a consequence of bringing turmoil.
The one who silenced Zafer was the 2nd officer of the Temper province, and he was the 4th member of today’s expedition.
„It is alright to ask but stay focused”, Simra commented.
Did Simra just defend him? It felt that way, but it also might be that he just wanted to silence the 2nd officer.
The naïve Zafer still could not understand the relationships between each paladin of the Temper.
„We are set to go. You drink this“ he turned towards Zafer handing him a long but narrow vial that was filled with an opaque white liquid.
„Is this a potion?”, Zafer placed it on his lips.
„Yes. The saliva of fliers”.
Zafer chuckled but still drank everything.
Its taste was even more awful than that of a red potion and it will linger for hours. If he was required to drink another one, he would probably reflexively spit it back into the vial.
“What does it do”, he didn’t feel any difference.
The second officer looked at him somewhat disappointed, “seriously? He never even drank a white one, yet you wanted to have him around?”
He was speaking to Simra.
“Well Uk said that he is a fighter”.
This was a reference to when Zafer purposely let the inverse Arcanie smash his head. It was a whole week after the incident and he finds only now that his action was in fact noted.
He suddenly felt somewhat bad for taking the Book of Runes and Curses from the Temple. Well, not like the book belonged to Temper, but he just hoped nobody finds out.
The Priest walked over to Zafer, “alright now, it’s just better to show you than to explain”, he squatted and grabbed him by the legs.
“Hey! Wha-“, he was too afraid to resist but was also scared of what was going on.
Nonetheless, it suddenly all made sense to him.
The Priest threw him of the cliff.
The droplets of water and frozen ice particles were colliding with his face as he was accelerating towards the foothill, and then he hit the ground, leaving his body print in the snow layer.
Zafer felt no pain from the fall and just stood up unscratched.
The effect of the white potion was indeed easier to show than to explain.
“Don’t be mad”, the Priest approached him from behind, “nobody jumped voluntarily the first time”.
Behind them was a lake that was formed by the waterfall, but falling into it would just wet their clothes and maybe even sink those who wore Miyalin. Not to mention how cold it was.
Zafer wore a special coat made only for this weather, but those who were training their anomalies were rarely getting sick anyways.
The two of them waited for both officers to get down as well, and once they did, they set on a hike towards the suspicious area where snow was melted.
The uneven and steep terrain was covered with snow, making their every step more difficult than it should be. The constant uphills and downhills as well as the slippery ground made it quite troublesome to progress, and as the time went on, it was obvious that Zafer definitely wasn’t the one that will slow them down.
Due to his constant financial struggles, Zafer never relied on portals for travelling like the most paladins did.
It was safe to say that his calves and legs were the second most prominent muscle on his body, right after his forearms, but that was thanks to his anomaly anyways.
The distances that he would usually travel were quite enormous since most important cities were just that far away from each other.
He would sometimes come across a farmer or a caravan that were transporting goods who were willing to take him with them on a trip, in return for safety from monsters, beasts, and robbers.
This was happening too rarely however, since the pathways that Zafer took were usually those that horses or caravans could not travel over.
To him this was just a normal walk outside, but for the 2nd officer it posed quite a challenge. The only reason why Simra and the Priest were keeping up was because of their battle experience.
To become an officer of a faction, one was not only required to perform excellent on the battlefield, but also to do a lot of paperwork, construction work, and so on.
Since the 2nd officer wasn’t known for his fighting capabilities, he had to make up for this by doing paperwork.
This extra time spent in an office took a noticeable tool on his physical capability.
Luckily, his torture ended an hour later when they halted on a viewpoint to scout at the dried area with binoculars from afar.
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