Year 2, Fall, Third Month, First Week.

One minute passed, then two and finally three. Toni released his long-held breath and turn towards Caiset’s direction, he wished Karl could bring the magic barrier soon. The construction of the Outpost had been progressing well, but the possibility of a MT beast appearing at any time was crushing his nerves. Again, why was he chosen for this task? Either way, he could only accept his obligations and do his best.

The sound of crushing leaves caught Toni’s attention. Fortunately, it was just another team that came back from watching the perimeter, Nemera was with them and she didn’t look good, wasn’t she on the morning’s watch?

“Hey, Nemera came here, please… Wasn’t you in the morning’s team? Why have you gone back there? You don’t look good… You need to respect the shifts, you’re of no use if you get sick...”

“I’m sorry Ton… I’m sorry team leader, another defender fainted and I was feeling OK, so I decided to cover his shift…”

“Toni is fine… I know you did it for the team, just be sure to take enough rest…”

Toni made sure to observe the girl until she entered one of the resting huts built near the Contple Tree. The villagers around him saw his actions and started to make some teasing remarks loud enough so he could hear them, he blushed but regain his posture before the situation became too embarrassing. After shoeing the teasers away, Toni looked around the construction site with visible concern, their numbers were decreasing too fast, as was the health of the remaining villagers.

In the first week, the hunting teams successfully moved 200 workers to the Outpost location inside the Forest. Their goal was to clean the place and start building homes as fast as possible. Although they were keeping up with the schedule, they had limited numbers and the deadlines were too many.

The villagers would have to move out of Caiset before the end of the month and winter was already in the corner, it wouldn’t be acceptable to escape from the Kingdom just to die from cold. Initially, the 200 workers would be enough to build the huts before the end of the month, but each day dozens were being sent back because of magic poisoning.

The reason why they chose this location in the first place was the Contple Tree. Because of its size and power, the tree would drain a good amount of magic energy, making the energy on its surroundings thinner. In addition to the tree’s effect, most of the village’s supply of detoxifying herbs was being used to lessen the effects on the workers. Even so, dozens of workers had to be sent back every day while their replacement didn’t arrive yet. Fortunately, the 50 hunters under Toni were still holding and the attacks lessened by the day, apparently, the beasts in the region were being pushed back. Even the death of three villagers that happened on the way here, seemed to be within their best estimations.

But something else was bothering him right now, Toni had an important mission, perhaps the most difficult one, convincing Alfeur to go back. The Councilman responsible for the Crafting Department arrived almost a week ago and had worked tirelessly since then. His presence had clearly improved the workers' efficiency, but he still looked awful. Unlike Toni, the man only spent the mandatory hours outside the village, so he didn’t build a strong resistance to the magic energy. When the signs of poisoning started to appear, two days ago, Toni urged him to go back, but he asked for a little more time to put things in order, which apparently meant unlimited time.

Toni walked towards his fellow Councilman, thinking of ways to convince him and avoid forcing him to return. The smile and relief in the man’s face when he saw Toni, only made the situation more complicated.

“Alfeur you have to…”

“Oh, Toni. You came at a great time, I was about to look for you, I have a small request... The Forest’s materials are much better than ours, the wood is stronger and more flexible… But that makes it hard to work on it with our resources, fortunately, the enhanced tools are tough enough, but the straw fibers aren’t. So, I was wondering if a few workers couldn’t go around to collect some vines, they would need to be escorted of course…”

“Hmm… It depends… If you… If you accept returning to the camp, I can arrange a team to look for it.”

“That… Can’t I stay a little longer? Just until we finished some basic things…”

The two continued negotiating while the outpost took form.

***

Arnold moved around the busiest village in the Kingdom trying to find someone that could help him. The two months of tools maintenance brought back memories of his time as a blacksmith apprentice and was surprisingly relaxing, of course, the village’s sumptuous meals also helped. But now he grew tired of it, and these rumors circulating about fleeing the Kingdom and entering the Forest were making him crazy.

Three months ago, he was happy and conformed with following his calm life in Wind Castle until he died, his youthful dreams had faded somewhere along his 50 years. He was ready to find an apprentice and handle over his forge in the next ten years before retiring. However, that Origin-forsaken fox enticed him with something he couldn’t resist.

The possibilities of the so-called Alchemy looked endless in his eyes, somehow the blacksmith tales about ancient magic smiths didn’t look that crazy anymore and he had a chance to be the one that would bring them to life. Arnold decided to bet on the small chance or at least check it before giving up on dreams of greatness forever, but after a few days in the village, he was certain that this was what he was born to do.

Unfortunately, in his two months living in the village, besides eating luxuriously and complaining about their sleeping conditions, he didn’t do much and learned little about Alchemy. The villagers were too occupied to discuss the crazy ideas popping on his head and they didn’t trust him enough to reveal their secrets. But even so, he stayed, after all, the village’s hero, the one if supposedly vast knowledge of Alchemy, promised him to give all of his attention once winter arrived. The only problem was he realized that when the time came they could already be dead.

“Hey, Miss… You’re one of the famous direct disciples, aren’t you? Miss Anya, if I'm not wrong…”

Anya looked at the strangely tanned burly man before remembering who he was and answering:

“Oh… Yes, yes, I’m. And you’re the blacksmith, right?”

“You can call me Arnold, I was wondering if your Master could spare some minutes to talk with me…?”

“Hmm… Things are a little crazy right now… I think Master is resting, he spent the whole night finishing the design for the magic barrier… Ops, I shouldn’t say that… Could you pretend you never heard it?”

“A magic barrier? Are you kidding me? Is it like the Path or stronger? Is it mobile or big and heavy? Does it block people too?”

“Shush… Don’t speak so loud, please! If the villagers learn about it, they will storm the Alchemy pavilion and force Master to give an open lesson…”

Arnold’s eyes shined with the possibility of listening to an open lesson about the tool, he still couldn’t forget the high of participating in the one about the magic locator, how could someone so young think of crafting such a complicated thing? It took a lot to suppress the urge of screaming about the tool all around and force Karl to give the lesson, but he couldn’t waste this advantage.

“OK… But I need you to help me… I’ve been waiting to talk to your Master for months now, I need some answers before all Originless grounds break loose.”

“Hmm… I can’t disturb Master… But I could get Chairwoman Reiner to talk to you… She knows everything about Alchemy and Master’s plans…”

Soon, Anya was leaving Arnold in the care of one of Reiner’s assistants. After waiting for half an hour, the blacksmith was finally taken inside the Alchemy pavilion to talk to Reiner. In these busy times, most of the Council members chose to stay inside their department's pavilions, where the villagers wouldn’t dare to enter, after all, everyone was tense and had dozens of questions. To avoid mass hysteria, Omero was conducting daily public announcements at the village square, but even so, he couldn’t talk about some secret matters, like the specifics of the escape plan, so the villagers still felt nervous. Fortunately, the Guards in the Kingdom’s magic fields didn’t care about their strange behavior, they were actually used to it once the time for taking slaves neared.

“How can I help you, Mister Arnold?”

“Eh… Chairwoman Reiner, the thing is… I was invited to the village to work in some kind of improvement using Alchemy and blacksmithing and I’ve been waiting for winter as Chairman Karl asked me to, but I heard some concerning talks around the village… Don’t get me wrong, but are you going to rebel against the Kingdom in a couple of weeks?”