Salvar - North of Tirel Port
One hour prior
Familiar blue tendrils still flickered at the edges of Telos Soltair's vision as the swirling, funnel shaped portal from Telgradia collapsed around him, shattering into a million particles before dissolving entirely into the cold Salvar air. Over the rim of his thin golden spectacles, he judged the two foot gap between the lip of the portal and the snow-capped clearing and stepped down perfectly; Telos’s foot pressing, for the first time, into the soft white beneath him and sinking a couple of inches as the grass underneath collapsed under his weight.
Immediately, a chill jolted up the captain’s spine. Telos had prepared for his journey as best as he could, making sure to wear a thick, grey wolf-skin coat over his traditional gold captain’s haori and black and white uniform to keep the warmth in, but the chill cut through his attire as sure and true as any blade. The saliva in his mouth felt as if it would freeze and dry scents of pine and ice wafted into his nose on the cold breeze, a gift from the trees surrounding him.
Salvar, the frozen country of the north, we meet at last.
The captain’s own journey on Althanas had now started, and by the looks of the scenery around him Telos had at least arrived in the correct location. He'd been tracking his quarry and their movements around Salvar from the safety of Telgradia’s council chambers, using the powers of a seer in an attempt to discern a pattern. The Telgradian captain did it the way the captains do when they are serious; finding out every little detail about when and how they slept, ate and moved. Like the Shinsou Vaan Osiris he had known three years ago, his target was wily and had his wits about him when it came to escape and evade tactics, varying all of his patterns and habits and moving only under cover of darkness.
However, unknown to Shinsou and Bane, Telos was a step ahead. After all, he was the best tracker in the Council of Five. Pulling his coat tighter around him, the captain took stock of his surroundings.
Telos seemed to be surrounded by a smattering of brown, frost-bitten twigs, the innumerable flashing fragments shining in the brilliant wintry dawn light. Today there was no weather; no cloud, just sub-zero temperatures and the wind. Ahead, the icy surface of a narrow path glistened like white quartz, carving the evergreen woods around him in two. It was the woods that most interested Telos here, though, and as he approached the edge of the clearing he stopped in front of one of the pencil-like trunks and peeled back its bark.
Redfern. This is a good start!
Redfern was exactly what he was looking for. This type of tree was native to only a very small section of Salvar, usually to the south where temperatures were lower. Shinsou’s last location, as determined by the seer in Telos’s service, was just north of the southern port of Tirel in a Redfern clearing and that area only had a ten kilometre expanse.
It’s first light, already, so he’s probably on the move again. He’ll be heading north, and if I know him he’ll be heading to where the terrain gets rugged to hide his tracks. I’m probably a day behind, which is excellent. Time to move.
As his breath rose in visible puffs, Telos remembered why he came, and let his mind wander for a moment even though he didn’t want to. He was here to kill or capture Shinsou Vaan Osiris at the behest of Dxun Ra, his commander and the highest authority in Telgradia. It wasn’t an odd mission, with the threat of Shinsou’s resurrection too much to ignore, but the manner in which it was being executed by command worried him.
Why send the entire council out against protocol? It’s never been done before in the history of Telgradia. Is Dxun that worried? As for Shinsou…what has become of that man, the boy I taught?
The disorientation from the cold and the portal was beginning to ebb. The breast of Telos’s wolf-skin coat was dark and flecked with snow particles from brushing against the ferns. His brown, flowing hair hung limply into his face. Quiet, with an unmoving expression, Telos began to move towards the path out of the clearing, matters weighing heavily on his mind.