After our encounter with Samodiva, Sigmir and I slowly made our way west. We might be able to cross the distance in a single day but we took two days, asking our mounts to take their time so we could relax and recuperate from the exhausting excursion on Mount Yugid.

The further west we travelled, the less game was detectable. No matter how we searched around, the previously abundant game was gone. At the end of the day, not even Ylva was able to sniff out anything bigger than insects when we made camp. Something strange was going on. I felt as if something was vibrating in the air - not loud and strong but a low, annoying sound, like a fly that was buzzing around my head and no matter how much I wanted to smack it, I was unable to.

After making camp, Sigmir and I relaxed together, I used Sigmir's lap as a seat once again, and we watched the gentle snow falling around us. Ylva had not given up, she was out and about, searching for smells of wildlife, I think the absence of animal life around us creeped her out.

I was softly nuzzling Sigmir's neck when she suddenly stopped me and went alert.

“Someone's coming, Ylva warned me.” she hissed at me. The naughty thoughts I’d had were instantly discarded and replaced by vigilance. I stood and used my concealment magic on both of us, activated the enchantment of my cloak and hid myself in the shadows around us. Had Samodiva found us, or was it something else? After Ylva came out of the shadows and hid in her Hallow, Sigmir hid in another shadow, staying vigilant. I used my Ice-Magic and a bit of the surrounding snow to prop up one of our blankets, making it look like a hooded figure, sitting close to the fire.

We only had to wait for a few minutes, before a soft thunk sounded out and something struck the blanket. I made it fall over as if struck down. Shortly after, two slender figures moved into the fire light, both rather tall, holding spears and speaking softly.

“Nice shot. We got lucky that we got that one before the Nethersprites got here. Cursed things force us to hunt further out every time we go out. Let's gag it, bag it and take it back. The Mother will reward us if we bring in good prey like that.” said one of them to the other.

“Can't be too powerful if the spelled dart could bring it down instantly. But we can go back to Tegi and while the others have to search for more prey.” They closed in on the decoy and just before the first one reached it, Sigmir attacked the second one. The figure must have heard something as it turned just as the Lok'nar whistled through the air. Still, even the reflexive dodge-action was useless, Sigmir's attack struck true, hitting the collar-bone and biting deep into the body. Now, I was able to see that it was a female, just like her companion who had was now fully aware that Sigmir had struck. Despite the brutal wound, the struck female retreated behind her companion with surprising speed and started to emit a soft, greenish brown glow.

The uninjured being and Sigmir faced off while I used Observe to gain some extra information.

Bound Nymph of Tegi, level 48

The uninjured Nymph was level 48, the other level 46, giving me some confidence. To make my first strike count, I used a Heptagon out of Hard Ice, Hail and Cold, creating a wonderfully sharp Icicle, something I should rather call an Ice Spear and launched it into the wounded Nymph.

The Nymph had no chance to dodge, as she was unaware of me even being there.

My Ice Spear struck true, easily penetrating her cloak and any armour she may or may not have below it. Her companion heard her fall and oriented herself, trying to find me, but was only able to see her friend slumped over, with about a foot of sharp ice coming from her chest. I highly doubted that she would ever stand again.

The remaining enemy was now snarling and tried to back away. The soft glow of Ylva leaving her Hallow pulled her eyes back to Sigmir and I took the moment to complete a Curse of Cold and Torpor, trying to hinder her. She started to sway a little and both, Sigmir and Ylva started to circle her, forcing her to focus on them . I used the time to cast a stronger spell, channelling curses of freezing, torpor and cold onto her. Her steps became less secure with every passing moment until she stumbled and fell into the snow, no longer moving.

Sigmir checked her, took away her weapons and bound her. I stopped channelling the curse and after a few moments, she started to twitch a little. I used Lenore's sight to make sure she didn't try any magic.

Our captive opened her eyes and immediately tried to cry for help. I stuffed a hand full off snow into her face, muffling the shout.

“Be quiet and you might live.” I glared at the captive. “Now, why don't you tell us why you tried to attack us?” I asked and let her turn her head to get rid of the snow in her mouth.

The moment her mouth cleared, she tried to start shouting again, just to eat another load of snow. With her allies possibly in the vicinity, there was no way to interrogate her and I doubted that Sigmir had the skills to do so. I knew I had no practical knowledge in that field.

As there was little use in keeping her, I stripped off her chest-piece and then used my athame to cut the Blood-Runes into her skin to drain her strength. As I was carving, the Nymph's eyes got big and panic was clearly visible in them as she tried to squirm away but Sigmir had tied her down quite well. It got a little annoying, trying to carve into a moving object, there had to be a better way than simply holding them down.

I was fascinated with the slightly grainy texture of the Nymphs skin and the thick, amber fluid that oozed out of the lines I carved. The fluid looked almost like tree-sap and had a mellow taste and smell. I took my time to carve as I wanted to make sure the formation was perfect. When I was satisfied with my work, I carefully stabbed my athame into the middle of the formation, not too deep, just drawing blood.

The formation was made up out of three small triangles, linking one of the three condense runes to a generic blood-rune and an exsanguinate-rune. The three condense-runes were also interlinked with another, larger triangle and all the runes were linked with a heptagon-shape that was only missing the line between the neighbouring exsanguinate and blood-runes. I started channelling Astral Power into those two runes, filling the formation in a symmetrical manner until the flow culminated at the condense-rune in the middle of my victims chest. An amber substance crept up the fuller of my athame and into the built-in settings as the Nymph first went stiff as a board and then gave off the most eerie and inhuman groan, as if her soul was ripped from her body. I felt power in the growing gems but it was definitely not blood, but it certainly looked interesting. The Nymph twisted, squirmed and tried to get away, but to no avail. As I watched the amber gems grow the Nymph's struggles grew weaker.

During the ritual, I felt the buzzing in the air around us intensify, but kept my focus on the struggling Nymph.

After maybe a minute of struggle, the two gems had grown into small pebbles and the Nymph stilled, devoid of life.

Bound Nymph of Tegi died You gain 2500 EXP. For killing an opponent 2 levels above you you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP Bound Nymph of Tegi died You gain 2500 EXP. For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Rune-Mastery [54/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Rune-Mastery [49/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Blood Rune-Mastery [43/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Stealth [19/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Blood Magic [27/100]

I softly touched the two pebbles and they were quite solid, if I'd have to compare it to anything, I'd call it dried gum. Holding the athame, I was able to feel the two lumps and knew that it would be easy to channel the power trapped in the gems into a spell that I drew with the athame. It wouldn't off-set the full expenditure, at least not without huge inefficiencies, but the gems would pay quite a bit of the power-cost.

“We should check their things and leave.” I told Sigmir. Somehow, she looked a little pale; we had wanted to spend a day resting and those two Nymphs had ruined it. Still, I had no desire to stay next to the two corpses and our camp-site was not good enough to make me clean up the corpses. First, I went over to the snow-filled blanket decoy and looked for the projectile they had used. It was a small dart and inspect told me it was an enchanted dart, but looking at it with Lenore's sight showed me that there was no more magic remaining. The two Nymphs wore clothes made out of a rubbery, leaf-like substance and their weapons and armour looked like it was directly grown out of wood. Inspect told me that they’d rapidly decay unless they were infused with appropriate astral power. In addition, we found a few extra enchanted darts and I could see the glow of magic on them, but was unsure if their creator could track them. I knew that I was able to feel things I had created when I was close enough - maybe something similar applied here. No matter, I didn't want to find out, so the darts were tossed alongside the clothes.

As we were working, something strange rushed out of the undergrowth, it looked like an indistinct blob of mottled grey slime, only it was not slow or creeping, but hovered slightly above the ground. Just looking at it made a shiver of revulsion run down my back. This thing felt wrong, as if the world itself had been sick and this was the result of it puking.

I used observe and the system told me it was an Unformed Nethersprite and level 40. The moment I used observe, it attacked me, I reflexively used my Shuttle to attack it but the Shuttle simply moved through it, without slowing it down in any way. Luckily, Sigmir was next to me and struck with her Lok'nar, causing it to emit an piercing, otherworldly shriek and driving it back. She followed through, chaining more strikes, harming it and giving me time to create one of my Anti-Magic Spells. The spell struck and I kept it active, channelling more power into it and looking at the thing with Lenore's sight. To my right eye, the thing grew less and less substantive, until it gave off one last shriek and vanished into thin air. To my left eye, it looked as if the inky darkness of my magic was consuming the mottled grey glow it emitted and the moment the glow was gone, so was the thing.

Unformed Nethersprite died. You gain 225 EXP. For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

There were more shrieks around us, some distant, some rather close. Neither Sigmir nor I wanted to face more Nethersprites so we fled into the night, trying to angle toward Tegi.