TBATE - What if Tessia was the legacy ? - The legacy of it all

Making out the shadows

{Reynold Lewin}

-Over here." Said the guard walking in front of me as I stepped out of the carriage in the middle of the forest next to the beast glades.

Following along as we stepped away from the dirt road and walked deeper in the forestry at seemingly random along with two other people wearing some basic adventurer gear.

Glancing back, I saw the line of carriage that we had left continue along the road toward the southern part of the kingdom, I started feeling anxious, but knew that there weren't many other options.

Continuing in the forest, we walked in the wilderness for about twenty minutes with no sign of civilization or hint that anyone had ever been here before, I started seriously considering the idea that I had fallen in a tram and was about to be jumped on by the three others.

This line of thought didn't last much longer however, as our group's leader stopped next to a rather large boulder, partially covered in moss and, with a single move, grabbed onto and lifted the thing up like it was nothing.

Staring at the man with my eyes wide open as he placed the rock that was twice his size to the side while the two others jumped down in the pit he had uncovered.

Stepping behind them, I leaned to look down the hole that seemed to lead down to some kind of tunnel about three meters deep. Hesitating for a bit, I leaped in and landed in the suspiciously spacious tunnel.

Not that two people would feet side by side, but it wasn't as cramped as I originally imagined.

Taking a few steps forward, my eyes winded again as I saw one of the two adventurers pull out a lit off torch from their large bag and light it with a snap of their finger as the other used earth magic to dig a branching path for the tunnel.

Hearing the person behind me land I was even more shocked when I saw him block off the entry with a new layer of dirt and stone before telling us to continue along the path that had just been uncovered by one of the adventurers.

Walking along the tunnel, I started to wonder just how strong the mages I had been traveling with were. I had heard many debates and discussions about the abilities of the Unity members.

Some thought that they were no stronger than regular soldiers with only a strong elite force, but, unless Unity was willing to dispatch some rather high end mages with elemental affinities to guard a single man from a trusted source, it meant that a large number of members were mages.

-How long will this take?" I asked the man behind me as we headed down the corridor.

-About one or two hours, depends if we take a break and how many tunnels we have to dig and fill in." He explained with a somewhat annoyed tone, although I didn't know if it was because of how tedious the process was, or because he thought that answering me was annoying.

-This travel seems like quite the hassle to manage." I commented with a friendly tone, trying to strike up a conversation.

-Yeah, it was rather chaotic at first with people going everywhere and getting lost, but we managed to organize after a bit." Explained one of the two adventurers in front of me as the other dug yet another tunnel with earth magic.

-I'm curious just how many mages are needed to stay and operate this gallery system." I asked, trying to make sense of why Unity would use so many of their precious mages to keep this system working.

-There's a few people on transport duty, but other than that, each group going in and out can navigate the tunnels," She answered in shrug as I was shocked by how casually she mentioned that there might be hundreds of earth mages dispatched by Unity around the continent without much care.