Rai and I were rather lucky regarding the timing of our night-attack. The weather, something mostly out of my control, was playing along beautifully, the night a little windy, the sky completely covered in clouds and even beyond those clouds, the moon was merely a waxing sliver of its normal glory, which strengthened my Darkness-Magic, even if it wasn’t as pronounced as during a new-moon. Still, it would be enough.

Shrouded by shadow, we closed in onto the camp, quietly observing, watching the guards with our own eyes, not just using my scrying magic. They were on edge, that was easy to see, but that edge had dulled quite a bit, due to constant use. My little bit of Blood Magic had caused quite a few Nethersprites to come into reality, mostly on the other side of the camp, and their repeated attacks had worn on the centaurs. In addition to that, there was the uncertainty what was going on, they must have noticed the massive, magical disturbance a few days ago, even if they likely had no idea what it had been.

After we had timed the guards’ patrols and while we were considering the best time to sneak in, a shriek ripped through the night, coming from the other side of the camp. Another of the nethersprites had made its way into reality, attracted by the lingering miasma and driven by its hunger. Seeing a good opportunity when it presented itself, Rai and I tightened our magical concealment and ghosted forward, our passing merely a whispering breeze, barely disturbing the night.

Some of the guards were moving towards the disturbance but even those that stayed on their post were clearly distracted and a wide opening allowed Rai and me to slip into their camp, with no-one the wiser. Staying in the shadows between tents, we silently made our way towards their storage-area. I knew that they unpacked the magical bags they used to transport their supplies, most likely to send them back with their supply-teams, so their supplies were in a lightly guarded area, near the middle of their camp. But as the guard was in the middle of their camp, he seemed rather unconcerned with a sneak-attack, making me itch to directly demonstrate just how wrong his feeling of security was. I held myself back, instead using the surrounding Darkness to use the sleep-spell I had thought up ages ago, when attacking Tegi, slowly but surely putting him to sleep. He even remained standing, stable on his four legs, but utterly passed out.

After sharing an amused look with Rai, we ghosted to their supplies, quickly picking out the barrels of water and taking a close look at them. They seemed to be well made, but their lids were a little loose, tight enough to keep the water in, as long as they weren’t put upside down, but not air-tight. Or, in this case, not tight enough to keep me from pushing a thin capsule made from Hard Ice into the barrel, before using my magic to crack it inside while swirling it around, making sure that the escaping poison was spread throughout the water.

We repeated the work with the other barrels, making sure that their water was fully poisoned before taking a look at their food-storage. Sadly, we lacked a good poison to sprinkle on the food, we had used what we had on the water.

Once we had completed our task, we ghosted right back out of the camp, without anyone the wiser, just as we had planned. If they had known that someone had broken into their camp, they might have taken precautions, but the way we had worked, the worst they would know is that one of their guards had fallen asleep during his shift. Bad behaviour and he might get in trouble for it, but not an incident that required serious investigation.

Having accomplished our goal, we moved back towards the edge of the camp, staying in the shadows as before, but just before we got there, we ran into a bit of a snag. A patrol, equipped with lit torches, was moving towards the area we were in, most likely coming from the other side of the camp, where they had just dispatched the Nethersprite that had made the ruckus we used to get in. Looking around, there was no good spot to hide and I was about to abandon stealth, when Rai pulled me deeper into the shadows that I had deemed too flimsy a cover, especially given that they had light.

I glared at him, thinking that he had misjudged the shadows, when I felt a subtle pulse of magic emanate from him and the world around us turned hazy and insubstantial, as if looking through thick smoke. Not quite knowing what was going on, I readied myself to fight, but when the torch-light flickered over the spot we were hiding in, I felt the most eerie feeling, as the shadows were pushed back and we went with them. Before, I had looked out of the Shadow he had pulled me in, once that shadow was gone, we were just in a dark and hazy place. The most disturbing thing about that place was that I felt an itch between my shoulders, as if there was something watching us. That sensation made me freeze, unwilling to move, unwilling to speak, simply hoping that Rai had a plan to get us back out. It felt as if hours had passed but I was quite certain that it had only been about a minute, when the torch was carried on, the light receding and the shadows returned and with them, we were returned as well.

I would have to talk to Rai about reckless, magical experimentation, even if it would be the pot calling the kettle black.

I managed to quickly pull myself together, my senses scanning the area if we had been given away by anything. But the night remained mostly quiet, the soft sounds of the camp-activity around us the only thing disturbing it. We nodded to each other and continued on our way, quickly ghosting over the wide staging-area separating us from the trench and the open field beyond. Without magic, sneaking into the camp would have been next to impossible.

Once we were back amongst the trees, we reunited with Adra and Sigmir, who had waited for us, just in case we needed rescuing. I was quite humbled that both of them were willing to attack a small army, in case Rai and I got into trouble and glad that it hadn’t been necessary. As we walked, Rai broke the silence to talk. I had kept my silence about his new magic, wanting to talk about it privately.

“Master, why did we wait until now to make a night-attack? Couldn’t we have poisoned them earlier, just like we did now?” he asked, sounding curious.

“We could have, sure.” I began my answer, noticing that Adra was listening in closely, “But every action provokes a reaction. Before, we were trying to keep them in place and annoy them into going after us, not continue their push into the windswept plains. For that, we attacked patrols and their supply-teams but never their camp. The idea was that such attacks would provoke the reaction we wanted, which mostly worked. The storm was a lucky break, allowing us to make them miserable without giving the game away, it seemed natural.” I explained, to which he nodded in understanding.

“But this attack on their camp, it won’t kill them all, no chance. It might, if we were in a location with nearly no available water, some sort of hot desert maybe. But here, there are abundant water-sources, sure, it will take time to gather water but after the rainfall of the last few days, it won’t be a problem.” I continued.

“However, if one were to look at the attack, I think it would look like the precursor to a larger attack, aimed to dislodge the centaurs from their camp, to push them back into the west. Now, Rai, how would an organised group react to that information?” I asked, turning it into a lesson of sort. He thought about it for a moment, before I could almost see the moment of realisation and he answered.

“I can see two options, either they pull back to consolidate, ready to react to a larger attack or they reinforce their camp, depending on their reserves.” he started, to which I nodded in affirmation that I thought the same.

“And if they reinforce, they would also step up their scouting, pushing into the windswept plains quickly.” he continued, getting the point I had wanted to make.

“Exactly. I didn’t know what the wolves were planning, didn’t know if by provoking such a response, I would doom our friends. But now that they bound themselves into a dungeon, I don’t think an organised response would matter. So, we can kill as many centaurs as we can, before moving further west ourselves.” I finished the point, pleased that he had understood my lesson.