The woman was injured, perhaps looking for a safe place to stay, just for a single night. Another stray, isolated from the rest of her race. Perhaps because her hair was not black. A sure sign of mixed blood, and only royalty were allowed to mate with another race.

Stragglers from the main army were common, which was why the patrol would have taken her out as soon as they saw her. But, for whatever reason, they were slacking.

Her leg was dragging behind her, flesh twisted and mauled near the top of her right thigh. It didn't look to be from any animal, perhaps a mace of some sort, but the wound had become infected. Badly. Aghet could smell it from where she knelt behind some brush.

A thought ran through her mind, of going back to the village to retrieve some medicine. Helgit was a gentle soul, and had helped Torbak civilians in the past, but Aghet saw that the woman was unstable. Her eyes were much too wide, the glow nearly gone. The veins in which they manipulated their bodies and spirits were in plain view, which only happened when one was attacking. Plus, many of them had turned black, some even white, which was a bad sign. When they all matched the color of a Turbak's eyes, which were always white, she would be dead.

She was also getting much too close to the village.

Aghet looked down at her palm, scoring one nail down the center of the tattooed skin there, right down her fire mark.

"Death by the purest element is much too honorable for this scum." A gravelly voice rose from behind her, and Aghet felt a chill run down her spine at his silent approach. The woman in front of them snapped her head up at the sound, skin flaring up with millions of energy lines as she readied an attack, or whatever she could manage in that state. Her eyes were wide, frightened. As most were when they saw Qrev.

Aghet could see why village stories hailed him as a shade plucked from hell's depths. His face was gaunt, and his missing left eye only added to the image. It was covered with thick scars that marked his tangle with a Turbak patrol, as he had been the only one to return that day, and he was just turning fourteen at the time.

Aghet didn't like the man. He was fiercely loyal to their tribe, which was admirable, but he would not hear a single word of what she had to say when related to peace between nations.

On an added note, Qrev was depressingly boring.

Lifting a heavily marked arm, Qrev slid a finger down the one in the crook of his elbow. It lit up a brilliant silver, and before the woman could act, a single shard of metal was sent straight into her throat, right on target, as always. Turbaks had one weak spot, and that was the base of their throat, where their calls were made. Qrev hit it every time.

She crumbled to the ground, the left side of her body already sinking into the bog, and Aghet looked away, running her hand down the flaring mark she hadn't used. It faded back into its usual dark color, and Aghet shook herself, feeling her energy drain a bit.

Qrev took her hand, helping Aghet to her feet, and bumped her forehead softly with his.

"When will you go back?"he asked, still not releasing her hand.

"When I feel like it." she replied, carefully extracting herself from his grip. Aghet looked him in the eye and continued, "Why did you come after me? I told you where I was going."

"I thought you had gotten lost again. It's been a while."

He replied, very much referring to the multiple times Aghet had lost her way in the past. She couldn't help it, she was always spacing out. It was the main reason she had gone through the painful process of getting her seventh mark, Guidance. Though she did forget it was there many times, seeing how she had it on the back of her upper thigh, where she could reach it but hidden from another's view. If Qrev knew she had marked herself with it, he wouldn't be pleased, seeing how he didn't think she was strong enough to have that many on her body.

It was her favorite mark, the cause being that it had helped her many times, and it also had the most unique design out of any other marks.

"Go home, Qrev. I'll be back by nightfall." Aghet said, ignoring his previous comment and waiting for him to move. He didn't.

Knowing he couldn't refuse her, Aghet turned away from him and went deeper into the trees, where the undergrowth became more tangled and the animals much louder. The air hung thick with moisture, and she found herself regretting how many layers she had worn that morning. She didn't hear Qrev following her, but knew he had put some sort of tracker on her. She felt the pull, though it was very slight. Her kind's bodies were attuned to the elements and to each other, making it easy for one to trace the footsteps of another in their race.

Not many could do this anymore, though. The mark of the traveler was needed for tracing and those who were able to receive marks usually could not withstand more than one, maybe two. The traveler was useful, but beside some of the stronger marks, it paled in comparison, so many chose not to receive it and waste limited strength. Most had trouble with just one.

The only exception being Qrev, who had twenty of them.

And herself. Though it did wear on her body sometimes, Aghet didn't regret any of her seven marks. She was told multiple times by her mother that the main reason she didn't like Qrev was because he had overtaken her by a landslide. Before he had come along, Aghet had been the only one in years to have more than two marks.

Aghet admitted that it might have been a factor.

The moss was a gentle cushion beneath the worn soles of her boots as Aghet headed into a darker patch of the woods. Shadows ran over her bare skin like clouds across the sky on the windiest of days. The leaves would not stay still, creating a constant rustle that comforted Aghet as she went on her way. It was helping her clear her mind. She would not have much time to do this after tomorrow. Instead, she would be spending her nights completing the mating ritual with Qrev.

Either an exhausting or pleasurable experience, from what she had heard from those who had completed it before.

Their tribe's birth rate was getting worse every year. Children were only conceived if the parents were a perfect match, and markbearers to boot. Those without marks would not have any chance of producing offspring.

Aghet seated herself on an overhang, hanging her feet over the small creek below and running both hands down her face. She only hoped that she and Qrev would match. If not, their leadership would be met with a lot of rebellion.

Clasping her hands over her knees, Aghet sighed, feeling the sweat on her arms start to freeze in the cooling air. It was getting closer to nightfall, but not that close. She still had time.

A sound made her freeze, as it wasn't a normal animal call or twig snap she had grown used to. No, this was a sliding sound, like something was being dragged over stone.

Fearing something was behind her, Aghet quickly rose to her feet, turning around with two fingers on her left forearm, where her protection mark was placed. She saw nothing, but the noise had stopped, so Aghet was on edge. Waiting.

Her searching eyes finally found something, and she tilted her head up to get a better view of the person above her. Standing on a cliff to the side of her, which was just a bit higher than hers.

This Turbak was powerful, Aghet could tell from just looking at her. Stronger individuals tended to be much taller than their lesser kin, and this one towered above Aghet, made even more threatening by her higher ground. The woman didn't seem to be royalty, or a leader in their army. Her hair was pure black, and she was dressed much like a token servant would be, aimed to show off wealth. An elegant black dress fell low over her shoulders, and long black gloves covered her arms. Clothes meant to impress. Nothing too intricate, but fancy enough to mark her as a higher up's.

She didn't seem to be hostile, as none of the veins were appearing on her skin, but Aghet didn't lower her arm, asking her.

"Who are you? You've passed the boundary."

The woman's haunting white eyes were narrowed, focused on Aghet, and she didn't say a word, holding something tightly clasped in her left hand. As Aghet watched, small white veins began to spread outward from her chest, and she noticed that the front of her gown was stained a deep red.

With a slow, shaking movement, the woman lifted her arm, and pointed straight at Aghet, who didn't know how to respond, but found she didn't have to, because she promptly collapsed a moment after, hitting her head hard against the stone below and blacking out.