Disturbance

It was the afternoon of the third day when the expedition finally reached the planned spot for their base of operations. And as the knights set out to prepare the campsite and all its amenities, Rethys was busy listening to the mages as they discussed their discoveries so far, all while taking notes of his own. As they talked on and on about magical ingredients and components, their elements, purity and ways of use, he listened carefully and absorbed all he could.

As the sky continued to darken, the camp kept taking shape until it resembled a small village of tents around a raging but controlled bonfire in the middle, with the largest of the tents in the core of the camp serving as the command center of this operation. Eventually night fell and all retreated into their own quarters, and as Rethys entered his and his mentor's shared tent and lay down in his sleeping bag, he reflected on the past few days of the expedition.

His master Fulgrith was more or less having the time of his life discussing theorem with his fellow mages, while Rethys himself expanded his knowledge where he could. Though his magical knowledge was severely lacking due to not having unlocked his own magic, he could still collect notes and findings of magical ingredients, processes and phenomena that would form the bulk of his knowledge and would later be shaped into his very own magical heritage. The thought of that excited him, and he stopped to think of how pleasantly surprised he was with the results of the expedition thus far. Things were going great!

Tomorrow would mark the beginning of the exploration missions into the unknown, as the mages would descend into the lush green canyons and look for any and all things interesting or useful, all the while mapping out the region to eventually have a serviceable map of it to serve both to accelerate the current mission, and to later become publicly available to all mages of Northwood that would use it to facilitate further exploration of the region.

As daylight came, everyone quickly shuffled out of their tents. Breakfast followed and it was then time to split into groups and set out, from there Rethys didn't have to wait long for his group to assemble.

"It's a pleasure to work alongside someone of your expansive knowledge Sir Fulgrith." Said a young woman with the bluest eyes Rethys has ever seen.

"Ahaha... The pleasure's all mine Miss Elkieth! We are lucky to have someone of your talent and skill in our group." Fulgrith guffawed with his contagious laughter.

"Oh my, thank you for your words of compliment Sir Fulgrith." Elkieth replied with the dainty attitude noblewomen loved using and that made Rethys want to retch.

"Oh, stop it with your noble talk, having to hear it makes me want to hurl." Said a tall old man who seemed to share Rethys' sentiment, before walking up to Fulgrith and shaking his hand. "Always good to work with someone who can speak like a normal person Fulgrith."

"Glad to work with you again Turavar, though you shouldn't be so mean to our colleague." Fulgrith said as he returned the handshake.

The group that Rethys belonged to would consist of five people, three mages and two assistants. It would be a balanced group, with Mage Elkieth as the group's utility mage with her Creation and Earth element specialties, Mage Turavar as the group's healer despite being a Fire element specialist first and a Restoration element user second. And finally, Mage Fulgrith as the group's muscle with his strength-enhancing Life element. The assistants meanwhile would serve as extra pairs of hands to help with all things miscellaneous, and wouldn't intervene in anything serious, even though mage Turavar's apprentice is capable of simple Earth magic.

Mage Elkieth stood out as the youngest of the mages of the expedition. She was a woman seemingly in her late twenties with sky blue eyes and smooth black hair. She was quite pretty and would've made Rethys' heart skip a beat if it weren't for his innate distrust and dislike of the nobility and, to a lesser extent, people in general. She was also coincidentally the one responsible for creating paper for the rest of the expedition to use.

Mage Turavar also stood out, though in a different way, as he and his apprentice couldn't make a stranger pair. Turavar himself was a bald frail old man permanently wearing a disinterested look and with an attitude to match, having an opinion about everything and gladly sharing it. While his apprentice was a small, expressionless young girl with golden eyes and hair that seemed utterly out of place here.

The master and apprentice though, seemingly got along quite well, with Turavar taking the time to teach her about every small technicality of magic he could. The elderly mage went into such detail in fact that Rethys doubted if the inexpressive young girl was even listening. And though both were clearly noble, he couldn't bring himself to apply his anti-noble biases towards the strange pair.

"Oh please, you don't know the half of it Fulgrith. If only you could see what these so-called 'noble' women get up to." The elderly man responded, snapping Rethys out of his thoughts.

"Surely this is no place for such language, Lord Turavar." Mage Elkieth commented with a frown.

"Yeah whatever. I came here to study bloody herbs and rocks, girl, not to talk all fancy." The elderly mage continued before sighing gravely. "Nobles and their so-called etiquette..."

'Well, he seems like he has a bone to pick with someone, and I don't think it's Elkieth.' Thought Rethys. 'Also judging by the way she's talking to him, he seems higher than her on the social ladder, much higher.'

Rethys tried his hardest to make himself seem as unimportant as possible and to blend in the background during the argument, yet still managed to attract the attention of Turavar's assistant. The small girl stared at him for an uncomfortably long time before scurrying to her master's side without saying a word.

'What the...? Never mind.' Deciding not to think about the unexplainable, he instead looked at the other groups, and then went back to their own group.

Their group, unlike the others, would not have a knight among them, partially due to Fulgrith and Turavar having enough combat capabilities on their own, but mostly because Turavar protested at length that he didn't want any knight stomping around and potentially ruining valuables. It was clear he's had horrible experiences with them in the past, so the group differed to his wisdom as the eldest. The fact that he trusted his young apprentice more than knights around materials, however, showed either that the strange child could be trusted around valuable materials, or that his prior experience with guardian knights was simply that abysmal.

It didn't take long after for them to gather their bearings and begin descending down into the winding lush canyons below the plateau and take to a path unique to them to explore.

*****

Rethys plopped down on the soft grassy ground, breathing heavily and straining to open his water flask. Finally accessing its insides, he drank like a madman, taking large gulps that threatened to choke him. The ether rich water from the rivers flowing through the canyons tasted sweet, odd as it felt to drink it.

"Easy kid, the water's not going anywhere." Said the elderly Turavar while patting Rethys on his back.

"I'm fine... Turavar... sir." Rethys replied

"You don't look so fine. Fulgrith! Are you sure the boy can keep going?" The elderly mage asked with visible concern. He had grown to appreciate Rethys' serious attitude and surprising wealth of knowledge and the boy in turn respected the old mage's rational and sensible attitude.

"No, but good luck convincing him, stubborn as an old kred he is." Fulgrith sighed.

Two hours into the exploration and things were going very well. The group managed to find many rare or at times even novel materials and ingredients in the form of plants or natural growths upon stone or trees, all the while avoiding any wild animals wandering along the canyons, at times thanks to Rethys' manifestations that proved capable of detecting magic beasts as well as they did humans.

The group often differed to Fulgrith's and even Rethys' superior knowledge to understand the rare and extrapolate upon it to identify the new. Even Turavar's small assistant was proving her worth and experience, expertly treating and packaging their foraged magical ingredients and even successfully following all of Rethys' instructions to the letter. She seemed to absorb knowledge like a sponge and silently carry out instructions with golem-like efficiency, not that Rethys has ever seen a golem before, only heard of them.

Things were indeed going smoothly, except for the fact that the ether density got substantially higher the deeper they went in and had Rethys struggling to keep up. While this meant that the quality and quantity of magical resources would continue to increase, it did not bode well at all for the still magically inept apprentice. His mentor tried to help with Life infusions, but Turavar argued that they would make it harder for him to get used to the intensifying pressure of the ether.

Even Turavar's young apprentice was handling the increasing weight of the ether on them better, barely displaying any signs of exhaustion herself. Sure, she was magically more gifted, but it didn't sting Rethys' pride any less.

"The boy should return to the camp already; he has been slowing us down for a while now." Complained Elkieth. "We should have covered much more gr-"

"If you want to keep going, girl, you can go on ahead. No point covering ground if we don't find anything, and the boy knows enough about this stuff to-"

Just then, a truly ear-splitting roar shook the lush canyons and interrupted the two mages' argument as everyone turned in its direction. Shortly after, the communication talismans in the three mages' possession simultaneously triggered with a loud tolling sound. In an instant, the three mages switched into combat mode, Rethys could almost feel the air around them growing heavier.

"Of course, something had to happen..." Sighed the elderly mage before commanding in a stern voice. "Us two combat capable should head to the emergency at the third group. Elkieth, lead the two kids back to the camp and tell them to prepare the infirmary there, join us if you see fit after you're done. Fulgrith, if you will."

"Understood." Elkieth replied.

"On it!" Fulgrith replied while sending his Life ether to each one of them to enhance their bodies.

Rethys felt a wave of power surge through him like never before, his mentor using a measure of power unseen by his apprentice until now. He didn't stop there however, after enhancing the whole group he focused on applying his own Infusion magic, a kind of magic meant for melee mages that enhanced their bodies to extremes in return for robbing them of all ranged capabilities.

Fulgrith's already sizeable muscles swelled with raw, unstoppable might. This was his combat specialty as a Life element mage, specializing in physical enhancement, of others but mostly himself, as each of his fists became more akin to a battering ram.

Elkieth also prepared herself for combat as she surrounded herself with a shimmering golden aura while her eyes took on the same color as well. Rethys did not know enough about her element of Creation to understand what she did, but he guessed it was a defensive barrier of sorts.

Meanwhile Turavar for his part did not display any visible changes. His eyes, however, grew sharper and his aura grew so cold that even Rethys could feel it, the change sending shivers down his spine.

"Good enough." Mage Turavar declared. "Let's move out!"