A Hand-Woven Universe 156 155. Approaching the front line

Noone's gaze was trapped within the deep blackness of the dark elves' eyes. From the first moment Noone had looked over, he quickly realized that this thing was staring past everybody and right at him.

Noone discretely checked to see if anyone else had noticed. So far no one else in the room had seemed to catch on. Everyone's gaze was on the dark elf instead. Noone quietly stepped behind Tobias, not breaking eye contact with the smiling figure in the cage.

Noone's heart thumped in his chest as he moved. The woman's eyes were purely trained on him and they followed him as he moved. He stopped moving so he wouldn't bring any more attention to himself and observed everyone around him. Noone was beginning to feel that these weren't her eyes anymore, instead the expression on the dark elves face was lacking any of the emotion of a sentient person.

Only a few moments had passed, but everyone in the room had turned so anxious that it felt like minutes instead. General Armuu unceremoniously cleared his throat, eyes wide as he stared at the dark elf. "Alright. Everyone. Get out. You have your assignments." He said without leaving any room for argument.

Tobias's eye's tightened as he stared at the general. The feelings he got from the captive was more than enough to make him consider sticking around… however, he took a glance back at Noone who had discretely stepped behind him.

"I have my own duties, I can't afford to get caught up in something strange." He thought to himself frowning. Finally he nodded and, against his better judgement, turned his back on the cage and left the tent practically dragging the rest of his party out with him.

Giving a final glance at the woman in the cage, Noone quickly left the tent before anyone could notice her eyes trailing his silhouette.

Unbeknownst to Noone, the smile which had been on her lips – wide and full of mischievous malice – was quietly etched into a corner of his thoughts. "What in the world was that thing?" Noone thought to himself. Once outside of the tent, he was finally able to breathe. The amount of pressure those eyes had caused to envelope him left a cold feeling on the back of his neck.

Noone looked down at his hands. For some reason, they were shaky with adrenaline as though his body had just been through some life-threatening experience.
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"W-What was that? Tobias?" Sally was the first to break the silence which had taken the group. Her composure was on the verge of being completely broken. Tobias brought himself out of his thoughts and his gaze softened as he looked at the disheveled Sally. This was not a fault of her own, Tobias knew. The pressure from the dark-elf had been too much.

Sally was extremely devout, and her sensitivity to things that went against the good gods of life was especially keen. She had had no time to prepare herself against the thing in that cage, and nothing had ever made her feel like that thing had.

Even the usually carefree and carefully neutral Rae was frowning from the experience.

Feylin and Sarah had got off relatively easy. Feylin was too young and low level to be extremely sensitive the way Sally was, and Sarah had the protection of Hoar which had strengthened her mind against certain types of influence.

Noone said nothing, however he couldn't stop thinking about why it had been staring directly at him. Was it coincidence? Noone took a deep breath calming his heart.

Tobias stood with his arms crossed considering a lot of things that he didn't make known to the group. Eventually he could only slouch slightly in defeat, having no answers.

"Whatever occurred in there does not concern us. We are here to subjugate the dark elves and use the portal back to the capital. Everything else is a matter of the army and Cinapul." He said with a sigh. "We have our assignments. See to it that you don't cause trouble. Raelith, you take charge. I will take Noone and Sarah with me to the front."

Rae nodded her head and gave a gentle pat to Sally's and Feylin's shoulders, motioning for them to follow her. This wasn't her first rodeo with an army, so she had a general idea of where the medical tents would be set up.

Noone and Sarah followed Tobias silently, weaving between tent after tent and watching the going-ons of an army encampment as they pushed what had occurred just moments before out of their thoughts.

This was the first time either of them had experienced an army. Sarah knew what to expect from what she had heard living in the common realm her whole life… but Noone was gradually becoming completely overwhelmed by what he was seeing.

Every person he saw was dressed in some manner of uniform and carrying a weapon. There was the exception of a few freelance individuals who did not fit in with the rest.

It was loud. It was rambunctious. And everywhere Noone looked he could see a mix of young newly trained soldiers to battle hardened militants.

There must have at least been just less than a thousand individuals.

Noone grit his teeth. Around 800 people specifically trained for battle? What kind of concept was that? And this was just for subjugating a small town of dark elves, he thought. When two countries go to war… how many people does it require? How many soldiers? How many... die?

He thought about what the magic council had told him about the last epoch-tribe war… an entire nation numbering innocents in the millions perished.

What about the current oncoming epoch-tribe war? They had said they were trying to negotiate with the golden-body tribe… but what if it doesn't work out? Will everyone he has met so far just become ash… like Tapestry?

He had been in the common realm for a while now and Noone had come to understand that there was truly no shortage of humans in the world. Even other races outnumbered Noone's conclave by multiple folds.

What once was the entire world to Noone - the ten thousand residents of Tapestry - was now only some remote, forgotten, and inconsequential gravestone at the edge of the world.

Noone's head throbbed and his body swayed suddenly as a pounding wave of nausea overcame him. He clutched the pendant which hung from his neck, squeezing it tightly in his hand. He sent power coursing into it, forcing the pendant into a submissive state as he gasped a breath.

Again…? Noone thought. His jaw tightened as he looked inside the pendant. The figure within the ice was as lifeless as usual, but Noone noticed the ice containing it had melted slightly since the last time he checked.

"This is the second time the bedeviled will had put pressure on my consciousness." He thought to himself. "The first was when I was in front of the magic council…. And then this time." He quietly contemplated the pendant and the will inside of it as he followed Tobias, no longer paying attention to what was around him.

"It seems to want to influence me by pushing my mind towards the cold and cruel thinking… and it does that when I'm already distracted with similar thoughts." Noone considered his options. "What would happen if it succeeded? Would I become like before?" He thought about what had occurred after he inherited the common heritage.

"I think… no matter what that would be a bad thing."

He quietly tucked the necklace behind his shirt again and continued following Tobias until they had arrived at the edge of the encampment, closest to the base of the mountain.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for whoever is in charge of the front line? We were sent here to join." Tobias spoke to a man in a well-kept but worn uniform – obviously an old hand. After a minute of talking the man pointed Tobias to a drinking circle nearby along with a rough looking dwarf who sat next the circle but drank on his own.

Tobias thanked the man and they all walked over to introduce themselves.

Noone was reminded of the process they went through with Novrada, the dwarven woman who was in charge of the caravan security. All in all, there were no hiccups except for a few stares Noone received from the nearby soldiers. Even in an army of almost a thousand, Noone's presence was enough to draw attention to him.

Many people who saw him couldn't help but feel that he looked like a carved marble statue come to life, with an iron-axe and all.

When Noone introduced himself to the dwarf as a fighter, the dwarf quietly scoffed as he looked up at Noone and mumbled something about the Cinapul army having nothing but brutes. It was a weird sentiment for a dwarf, Noone thought.

Soon the three were shown to a crowded tent and given three cots to sleep on.

"When will we begin the assault?" Tobias asked the dwarf who merely shrugged by way of response.

"Whenever the scouts finish a full report. We have been here for a week and it shouldn't be long, but the dark elves know we are here which slows us down by quite." The dwarfs thickly accented voice clarified for Tobias.

Having a paladin on the front lines was a huge boon to their strength and as such the dwarf would not be shy about appeasing Tobias's curiosity.

Tobias nodded but said nothing. Obviously, he had his own thoughts as he looked towards the mountain.

From the look in Tobias's eyes, Noone thought he could sense an ire from the paladin. He scratched his chin in thought. By this time night was quickly approaching, and the three prepared themselves for the next day.

Chapter end