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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=E3485D][b]Location:[/b][/color] Ifrise Forest, Sovereignty of Dryadalis[/right][/sub][/color][hr]
[color=E3485D]“Noted.”[/color] Pythia nodded, the murmurs of Pagonia whispering under his breath apparent to her but not something she could pick out. He was probably calling her a bitch. She would not blame him.

She had once been told she needed to open up, but every time she seemed to she was proven right in her paranoia and something happened. She always blamed herself. She bit her lip, her eyes attentive and ears open. Now wasn’t the time to think about Marius or her parents or anybody else she had failed. Now was the time to save a group of innocent people on a barge and have the inquisitors off her trail. That was her primary concern. She sighed, as the group continued their advance into the wood, the sound of human footsteps crossing leaves and branches, a dead stillness in the air. One single cry from a crow fluttering from the forest. It wasn’t a pleasant sound or feeling. Pythia’s eyes widened, albeit only slightly, as a voice cracked through the silence. It was not a voice that sounded particularly human... [i]or sane[/i] 

[color=988C72]“I wasn’t expecting visitors. How quaint.”[/color]

[i]That would be the magi.[/i] She thought, looking in the upward direction it had come from. Hard to pin down, but she was perched somewhere above. She had a sightline of them, but not vice versa. Her hand gripped the hilt of her sword tighter than she had before, looking for any sign of creatures she had tampered with. But what should she be looking for? What element was she? What was her ether? 

[b][i]Malum.[/i][/b] Right. Her element was Malum. Of course, she had corrupted the krovar’s natural biology and that of the crows. Her train of thought seemed to continue. What was [i]exactly[/i] native to this forest? Drydalis was known as the city-state that represented the emeralds and foliage. There could be more krovar, but they were rarely seen in density. She had not heard any wolves. That left natural killers. Treeants, vinkarls, and other things. Most of the magi’s pet crows were accosting the Eoldysseus. 

As Pythia looked around, the ether in the earth seemed to get heavier and filled with malice. Before she could catch it the trees around them opened, like they were the maw of beasts. The vines around the group seemed to lunge at them all. 

[color=E3485D]“Watch for the vines!”[/color] She managed as the magi who had drawn them in began to laugh.

Pythia had never seen what malum could do to treeants before in her life and she wasn’t certain this was a normal appearance. She moved the sheath downward, just an inch so the blade could cut through the incoming vines for her. She wasn’t sure about the rest, well, they’d have to react just the same.







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