Mara carefully removed the back panel of the repair drone and gazed at the circuitry and wiring inside of the machine as it rested in the red sands, mentally pursing her lips as she tried to trouble shoot the machine. The mid-morning sun hanging over her Zephyr's head as she went about her work, bundles of wiring and a box of tools at her side.

The drone was a Tenno design, similar to the extractor drones used to collect resources. However it did not bare any of the storage tanks used by extractors on its back, instead it carried a single large battery pack to power the Omni's mounted inside of its four fingered claws. Size wise it was slightly smaller than a Corpus Orbital-use Osprey. The Corpus were not the only ones who used drones and robotic proxies for construction and maintenance.

Most Orbiters had two repair drones loaded. While Orbiters were designed to avoid combat, they still had to have a means of repairing themselves on the field, mostly when it was necessary to repair the occasional dent or hole caused by debris which managed to slip through the shields. In addition a Tenno may not be able to repair a ship themselves, so using repair drones controlled by the ship's Cephalon helped ensure that a ship could be fixed without having to return to a Dojo or Relay. When you were tasked with responding to and observing developing situations across an entire system, from conflicts suddenly erupting on mars, to dangerous new strains emerging from Eris, and war-criminals hiding on Venus, you would often not have the luxury to return to friendly space for minor repairs.

Of course Mara didn't just need to repair the ship, she also needed to make some modifications if she wanted this thing to become mobile but she was certain that Logi could handle it. Drone number two had developed a fault, nothing that outright disable it but enough to affect its performance. Mara decided it was best to fix the issues now rather than having to risk dealing with a breakdown later. With some luck it was just something that had come loose during the crash.

Logi's avatar appeared at the side of Mara's HUD.

"Mara?"

"Yes Logi?"

"I was thinking about last night."

Mara looked at the wires and, control units and circuit boards which made up the internals of the drone. She was looking for any loose connections or damaged components which could be disrupting the drone's balance while it was flying using its repulser engines. Meanwhile the Cephalon presented his query to the Tenno.

"As you know you told the humanoid hostaaaa- Aelf, that you were a Tenno."

Mara paused her work as Logi continued.

"You want to remain in the shadows, to remain secret. Yet last night you gave away that you were a Tenno. Granted, the chances that someone in the mortal realms having knowledge of the Tenno comparable to anyone within the origin system is approximately 0.000093% rounded up, but it still doesn't explain your actions."

Mara took about a second before she began to, carefully, look through the nest of wires as she explained her reasoning.

"If you had some unknown actor, whom you know nothing about, suddenly appear and disappear, said actor is seemingly attempting to leave as little evidence as possible, you would assume that this actor is more likely to have hostile intent. But what if that actor openly and deliberately left a piece of information behind?"

"It would appear that the actor does want to be found, suggesting a less hostile intent. So this comes down to seeking help from the Stormcast? I thought you wanted to remain hidden and continue observational work?"

"Yes, and I still intend to observe before stepping into the light fully." Mara looked down and noticed that the gyroscopic stabiliser had come slightly loose from its bearings. "But the situation is beginning to change; judging by how they behaved, we can . Previously the only major threat to us was effectively rendered null after King Marrow was eliminated. Now though that will almost certainly change. As much as I dislike the idea of putting our lives in the hands of the Stormcast while we don't have much reliable intel on them, it might become our only option."

"You do not sound thrilled at the idea."

"I do not like the idea of having to trust an unknown faction." Mara remounted the gyro stabiliser, and secured it properly to its mountings before she began to replace the back cover. "Just as much as they won't like the idea of trusting an unknown mercenary. Knowledge is everything, in war and peace. For now though we continue with the plan and focus on getting the orbiter mobile."

She did not openly say it, but Mara hated unknown factors, she was blind once; not knowing the truth, she languished and suffered from falsehoods and lies until her eyes were opened... at a heavy cost. That was why she wanted to know as much as she could glean about the Stormcast, if she could understand their modus operandi, their objectives and goals, she could offer them a deal, as well as protect herself should they set their sights on her.

"Okay, try it now."

She stood back from the drone as it took to the air, hovering about a meter and a half off the ground.

"Gyro was knocked out of its bearings." She stated as Logi moved the drone from side to side, checking that it realigned itself perfectly.

"Stabilisation errors are within acceptable perimeters." Logi reported as the drone flew off to join the first drone which was carefully dismantling the Linset. "Completion of the refit of the orbiter will be approximately 148 hours."

"Good." Admittedly Mara wanted to have the ability to move the orbiter across the land far sooner than 6 days, a lot can happen in the space of 6 days, and she would spend a large amount of time vulnerable to discovery and attack. However she would just have to deal with it.

"And another thing." Logi continued. "Sakura vitals indicate that she may reawaken in the next 24 hours."

Mara couldn't help but feel a small sense of relief. She knew full well that in the grand scheme of things, Sakura waking up from her coma was a minuscule victory, and that the Tenno would still stuck on a world she barely knew anything about. Despite this it was still a victory; when you routinely had to brace yourself for bad news, you welcomed every shred of good news you found.

Mara felt warm air breeze past her Zephyr's back as she began to turn back to the ship's airlock, tugging the ornaments on the back of the warframe's helmet. She could feel her Zephyr silently beg her to sail upon the winds. The Operator couldn't help but agree with her Warframe's urge.

"I'm going to perform a long range patrol, prep the weapons from the C1 loadout. Oh, and do you know where my sketch book is?"

Come to think of it she had been neglecting to do any drawing lately. Maybe she could get an answer for her intel problem? She moved back towards the grounded orbiter, the airlock door hissing open, welcoming the Tenno back inside her sanctuary.

Once again Helena found herself walking through Franzburg. As she pasted by the dwellings of the townspeople she could hear the mutterings. News about the attack had spread like wildfire through the town. The presence of the servants of the dark gods was always an ill omen. The presence of those who worshiped Tzeentch was particularly troubling; unlike most of the other dark gods, a hostile action by a Tzeentch cult was rarely just a simple random action of violence or an attempt to gain another territory so that they would have a stepping stone to other targets. Each action was a carefully mediated move in the malicious changer of way's game, any enemies killed or ground gained was a bonus for the god.

At the time Helena thought that the attack was designed to prevent sorely needed supplies from reaching to town. If so then the attack was a poor attempt, they managed to destroy some weapons but they paid a steep price. For a moment it looked like the Astral Templars had thwarted the machinations of Tzeentch, until the mercenaries realised that there was a missing person.

Turns out a Loremaster by the name of Althorian had paid extra to the mercenaries to transport his son, Ulthan, to Franzburg. At that moment Helena suddenly realised that the attack was merely a diversion for another objective; to abduct the Aelf. While the lord-Aquilor could only guess the disciples intentions, she could say with certainty that it would lead to dire consequences.

The Lord-Aquilor immediately began to gather Palladors with the intent of finding the Aelf before the cultists escaped with him when another twist began when 3 beams of light lit up the night sky. At that point Alric lead some Palladors to investigate the source of the light as Helena began to sweep the area for the Aelf and his captors, though it was abundantly clear that the main force had disappeared and had once again escaped into the labyrinth, yet moments later Alric signalled that he had found the Aelf and discovered the fates of his nine captors.

Two human acolytes' heads and two Tzaangors were smashed open like soft fruit, two more humans and another Tzaangor were killed by a blade while the final two acolytes had a hole burned through their skulls. Ulthan was slightly bruised, and certainly looked like he had seen whatever had butchered the disciples, was clearly exhausted both physically and mentally, but was otherwise still alive. Helena decided to allow him to rest, see a healer and leave questioning for the morning. As soon as the convoy reached Franzburg, Dietrich was informed about the attack and Ulthan and requested that he should be assigned guards (she got the feeling that this was to the Aelf's chagrin but it was for his own good).

While she was not a gambling person, in both her previous life and her current one, but if she was she would wager her last piece of Ur-gold on the identity of the Aelf's saviour. However that still left the assassin's motive, as well as just how they did it in the first place.

She walked up towards the two guards who stood at the entry way of the Manor house, both men in their middle age. One had tanned skin and seemed to be Aqshy born and bred, the other seemed to be of mixed Azyrite-Aqshyian descent. From what she could see they were not completely new recruits and looked like they had seen some action, but they did not hold themselves like veteran soldiers.

They stood to attention and told Lord-Helena that the captain was waiting for her in the same room that he had held council in during the previous day. The Lord-Aquilor gave her thanks before she proceeded inside and proceeded up the stairs, her mind still dwelling on the matter.

Helena knew all too well how vast the mortal realms were, with forgotten secrets hidden in every nook and cranny. Some were secreted away so well that even the gods were clueless about their existence, many were best left undiscovered. It was not completely ridiculous to say that their mysterious assassin could have been descended from a tribe forgotten since the age of myth. Yet her gut told her that the assassin was not of any of the realms.

She pushed her theories and thoughts about the assassin to the side for now. Even though it was likely that the assassin was the Aelf's savior, that did not mean it was assured.

The Lord-Aquilor arrived at the floor the room was located at. Once again two long beards were standing at the door, the same ones from yesterday. Surprisingly neither one of them appeared to be grumbling about anything, especially . Aelves and Duradin have had a rather... interesting relationship. It was best summarised that, according to myth, that the Aelve's ancestors had managed to earn a place in the legendary 'book of grudges', a tome which recorded every slight against the Duradin's ancestors, (Helena couldn't help but wonder what they had done to earn a place in the book, since it was not clear what would count as a major offence,) however this grudge was set aside as the world-that-once-was made its final stand against chaos. Nowadays the majority of conflicts between the two races were slightly less-than-good-natured verbal ribbings.

Helena gave them an acknowledging nod, which was returned by the Duradin, before she opened the door to the room that they were guarding. The room remained the same as it was before, with the map table dominating the centre of the room as it did before. Captain Arronson was seated at the west side of the table, a slight look of tiredness in his eyes, the Warden-King waited at the north end, while at the east end the Aelf, Ulthan, was sitting looking slightly nervous. That was somewhat expected; being in the presence of persons of authority, such as a Freeguild captain, a Duradin Warden-King, and a Stormcast Lord, tended to cause people to act like they were convicted of some grievous crime against the gods, even when they were clearly not.

Helena stood at the southern end of the table, trying to appear relaxed and as un intimidating as possible, a challenge when she was a demi-god like being and clad in sigmarite, decorated with furs and a necklace of fangs. Not to mention that she had learnt fairly quickly after being reforged that a Stormcast in full armour was not, by any stretch of the imagination, light weight and that trying to seat herself on a rickety stool was not a good idea.

Dietrich cleared his throat before he addressed Ulthan. "I apologise for questioning you like this, but due to the current situation, we require an account of the events which transpired during the ambush." He said, his voice calm and measured. "We believe that there may be a connection to a previous incident."

Ulthan nodded in response.

Helena knew that the captain was avoiding trying to lead him and get answers they were expecting rather than true answers. It was arguably somewhat unnecessary to not inform him about the assassin which had butchered their way through King Marrow's court, since at this point it was public knowledge in Franzburg, but Helena knew that Dietrich was just trying to be thorough.

"Let's start from the beginning; why did your father put you on the convoy, and send you to Franzburg in the first place?"

Ulthan paused before he gave voice to his answer, his words were hesitant, despite his attempts to keep himself outwardly calm, Helena could still feel that he was still shaken. Judging from his accent, he was probably Hammerhal born, though she could hear a slight hint of what seemed to be a Hyshian accent.

"I... I do not know exactly." Ulthan admitted. "My father just told me that it was dangerous to stay in Hammerhal, to lay low in Franzburg, and that he would inform me once it was safe to return."

"Can you give us your father's name and occupation."

"Althorian, he is a Loremaster serving Magister Aventis."

Helena placed her gauntleted hand on her chin in thought. It was no secret that Hammerhal was a target for the dark gods, being the one of the largest free cities in the mortal realms. The first city was easily one of, if not the greatest outside of Azyr, having one half in Aqshy, and the other in Ghryan, it stood as a bastion of hope, unity and order. Showing that victory against Chaos was more than simply a wistful dream. For the dark gods, it represented everything they detested, and ever since the first brick had been laid, they had made every attempt to raze it to the ground. Of course the city's defenders were more than simply just a band of determined humans, aelves, and duradin, the city's forces were counted among the finest mortal armies to raise their banners for the forces of Order. In addition the Hammers of Sigmar, arguably the most famous Stormhost to have descended from Azyr, stood alongside them. It was not only guarded from attempts to destroy the city from without, but also from within; Lord-Veridents, witch-hunters, and more scoured the city for hidden cults tirelessly, and more than one plot against the god-king was foiled by them. Yet this did not mean that the city was completely safe from these hidden cults.

Perhaps the Loremaster had found something he should not have found, and the disciples of Tzeentch wished him to spill his secrets, one way or another. He must have decided to take precautions and have him outside of the city rather than within it. Of course this plan had almost certainly been discovered by the disciples, through one means or another, leading to the events of last night.

The captain rest his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together, fingers interlocking with each other. He regarded the Aelf with observent eyes, studying his expression before asking his second question. "Did you notice anything unusual before the attack?"

Ulthan shook his head. "No, from what I could see and what I was told by the mercenaries, there was nothing else unusual about the journey except my presence."

From what Helena had gleaned from talking to the surviving mercenaries, Ulthan was right; the disciples had given no visible warning before they attacked. Of course the attack had the most of the hallmarks of a well planned ambush, meaning that they must have known that the convoy did contain their target. The two most likely scenarios were that the disciples had been tipped off by someone inside Hammerhal, or that they had guessed that Ulthan had been smuggled out of the city and had observed the roads. Both were possible, but both presented the same question; why did they stage the ambush close to Franzburg, when more isolated areas were available to them?

Helena mentally marked that question down; she could sort out which enigma she would focus her attention on later.

"Now, can you give me an account of the attack from your perspective?"

The Aelf paused, then began.

Alric looked at Garik as they circled each other, trying to divine the Hunter-Prime's next move, while his opponent watched the Pallador-prime intently as he attempted to guess his opening attack.

This had not been the first time these two had clashed; the Gladatorium exercises were not just limited to large scale drills, but on occasions duels between Stormcast were held; most of the time these were held for the sake of training, but sometimes it was done to hold certain honours within a chamber or to settle a dispute. Even though neither party pulled their punches during those matches, this was very much a friendly rivalry between the two Stormcast. Here though, they would have to as they didn't have the arena's magical protections which prevented them from being sent back to the forge. That merely meant that they had to be careful with their arms, not go easy on each other.

After what seemed like an eternity of looking for a gap in Garik's defences, Alric perceived something which looked like an opening in his opponent's guard. Seizing the initiative, he dashed forwards and swung his axe to the right. Garik responded by quickly blocking with his saber, the two blades crashed with force as Garik was forced back but maintained his guard.

Alric began to push the advantage, unleashing a flurry of attacks as he forced Garik towards the boundary of the ring which was carved into the dirt, the Hunter parried each attack with trained precision. Even though the Pallador seemingly held the upper hand, he remained on his guard; Garik was no fool and had managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat many times (quiet literally on one occasion).

Soon Garik was a step away from the edge of the arena. Seeing his opportunity, Garik suddenly surged forwards, throwing caution to the wind in an attempt to seize victory against the Stormcast by pushing him out of the ring. Garik swiftly stepped to the side before suddenly striking Alric with the flat of her blade, sending him sprawling to the ground, outside of the ring.

Alric spat out the dirt as he lifted his head from the ground, before he made his opinion known.

"You barstard."

Garik chuckled as he sheathed his blade. "Bastard, or not, you shouldn't have let your guard down." He said as he knelt down, before adopting a more serious tone. "Remember; in a battle to the death, the winner may not always the man who fights bravely or honourably, but it is always the man who survives. To that end you should be mindful or traps and tricks."

Alric slowly sat himself up, he knew that Garik's words were not only a reminder that the enemy certainly wouldn't hold back, but also a reminder to keep his pride in check. Even though he did not admit it openly, he was beginning to see a pattern between his glory hunting, and his near death experiences. That being said he still needed to prove himself; he didn't have the same amount of time serving within the Tempestborn or the Storm Eternal as veterans like Garik.

Garik offered a hand to Alric, who took it and allowed the Hunter prime to help him to his feet. "Other than that, it was a good fight."

"A good fight indeed." Alric agreed. Garik noted that he had improved immensely over a relatively short span of time; if Alric had not fallen for his little trap, Garik doubted that he would have been able to claim victory in this bout. While he could be bull headed and reckless, the Pallador prime was still a fast leaner, and showed signs that he could adapt to a changing situation; an attribute which was invaluable for commanders. He still had a long way to go, but he would be able to close that distance, it was just a matter of time.

Something caught Garik's eye, a distinct flash of colour in the sky above the camp. Looking up, he spotted the iridescent form of an aetherwing. A small patterned ribbon, coloured white and maroon, marked it as out as belonging to the Tempestborn, though the message canister clutched in its talons the bore mark of Hammerhal.

The Azyrite hunting bird circled around the skies of the encampment three times, before it cried out and began to fly towards Franzburg, in a streak of dark blue, leaving the two spectating Stormcast to look on in curiosity.

"Aren't Atherwings carrying messages supposed to return to their handlers if any officers aren't at their camp?" Alric said quizzically, he motioned towards a spire of rock close to the entrance of the camp, on which the Raptors had set up a sentry post with a commanding view of the nearby area which they could use to pick off any unwelcome guests. One of the raptors, a Stormcast known as Adyrn, sat at the top with her Longstrike crossbow resting on her shoulder as she carried out her vigil. She watched the bird fly towards the town even as it became too far for a normal mortal to spot.

"Unless the message is urgent." Garik answered with a frown. "It would be a safe bet to say that Firestrike has made some sort of discovery linked to the throwing knife."

"And therefore has found something relating to the assassin." Alric sighed. "I swear something about this assassin doesn't feel right."

Garik chuckled slightly. "I'm surprised; the daring Alric Swiftstride, is the voice of caution." The Hunter elbowed him in the ribs lightly.

"Be careful, or you might also taste the dirt." Alric replied in a half-joking tone before continuing in a more serious one. It was clear that he was addressing this matter with all due seriousness. "Honestly feel like we've stumbled across some great unknown."

"Is that not our purpose? To face the unknown? To shine a light on the darkest corners of the mortal realms?" Garik questioned, though to be truthful he could not help but share Alric's unease.

"True, but all Helena, and the rest of us for that matter, have are theories." Alric pointed out. "Usually, we would at least have a rough idea of what we are facing, but we don't have even a shred of information that could be used to give even a plausible idea of who or what they could be."

Garik looked towards Franzburg thoughtfully; Alric was right, judging by what he had been told by his brothers in his unit, by Helena and by Alric, the assassin was unlike anything they had encountered before. Reason told him that, so long as they remained on their guard, they could overcome whatever challenges the assassin would present to them, but instinct told him that they had strayed into foreign grounds, a place which not even the gods had a clue existed. Questions were plentiful and answers were in short supply.

"We will face the unknown, as we have always done." The Hunter mused out loud. "Right now, all we can do is remain vigilant."

It was all they could do.

The Warden-King, guard captain and Lord-Aquilor sat in map room; Ulthan had been excused once he had answered any remaining questions following his account, Dietrich had asked him to remain in his quarters until he had organised some guards to escort, he would need to go outside sooner or later since the Manor wasn't exactly the coolest place in Aqshy so Captain Arronson would organise some guards to go with him.

The three did not speak as they mulled what they had been told silently before captain Arronson broke the silence.

"Thoughts?"

Kurik raised his finger as he leaned forwards on his elbow before he spoke. "Why is it that Aelves always seem to be rescued by damsels?"

Dietrich sighed a little, sounding something between mildly annoyed and disappointed. Helena was just an glad that Ulthan was not in the room to hear that poor jest, she didn't need to break up a argument between Duradin and Aelf; though to be honest Ulthan struck her as mature enough to not take the bait.

"Relevant thoughts."

"Apologies, I had to get that off my chest." Kurik answered somewhat childishly before he took a more serious expression. "But joking aside, this incident only leaves us with more questions than answers, though considering who was involved in the skirmish that isn't exactly unexpected."

The captain leaned forwards as he addressed the Warden-King and the Lord-Aquilor. "Let's start off with the Disciples; it clear that the main objective of the attack was to capture Ulthan, the question is why?"

"Perhaps the beardless cowards intended to use Ulthan to get to Althorian." Kurik offered. "If I was a honourless, yellow bellied, bastard who worshipped the chaos gods, as I am not, that is what I would do."

"A plausible motivation, if they managed to compromise the Loremaster they could gain access to everything ranging from information to arcane artefacts." Helena said as she weighed in on the Duradin's theory. "But I would have little doubt that Althorian would defend his son personally with his life, which would most likely render that tactic useless. He must have believed that they would kill him to get Ulthan."

"You believe that Althorian has been murdered?"

Helena nodded grimly. "And that he saw his own murder coming, yes. Though this would explain why his father went to so much trouble to get far away from Hammerhal unnoticed, it still doesn't explain why he was targeted in the first place."

The room was silent again as each of room's occupants contemplated what the disciples' motivations could have been before each of them theorised. Was he in the possession of some sort of arcane artefact? No, they would have taken it from his corpse rather than kidnap him. Could he know some secret that was critical to the cult's machinations? Helena would have sensed that Ulthan was hiding something, while he was nervous, it wasn't because he felt like he was going to get caught lying. Despite their best guesses, none of them had a concrete answer until Arronson spoke up.

"Do you think they require him for some sort of ritual?"

There was a pause before Helena answered. "It is plausible, though that doesn't narrow down the disciples' goals. Never the less, our strategy remains the same; protect Franzburg, and seek and destroy the Cultist forces before they complete whatever schemes they seek to fulfill."

"I'll see that some Duradin bolster the town's defences." Kurik offered. "That will leave the Stormcast with more soldiers to hunt the beardless cowards down."

The captain nodded appreciatively, all three of the room's occupants knew that Franzburg was in a precarious place, with barely enough men to protect it should it face another assault of similar strength to King Harrow's attack, the reinforcements could decide if the town stood or fell to the insidious cultists. "That would help greatly. Unless anyone has any other suggestions on how to deal with the cultists, I think it's time to move onto our next great mystery."

"The Tenno." Helena said as she leaned forwards. Helena was as well traveled as she was experienced, having fought across the mortal realms in service to the God-King. During her campaigns she had met many different bands of warriors, from the famous like the Phoenix Guard, to the more obscure like the Eviscerark Spears. She had fought alongside infamous corsairs and gallant Gryph-Lancers. Yet none of them, not even the semi-mythical Seraphon, secretive Deepkin or the dread shadowblades, held as much mystery as the Tenno; she and her kind were unknown to Helena, and most likely unknown to everyone else in the mortal realms.

"It seems we are destined to be left with far more questions every time we find even a shred of truth." Lord-Aquilor sighed; right now seeking out and destroying the Disciples of Tzeentch was the simple objective, the dealing with the elusive Tenno presented a much greater challenge.

"We should focus on her potential motivation." Captain Arronson suggested as he unclasped his hands, laying them both flat on the aged map that covered the table. "If we can figure out why she decided to save Ulthan, we come one step closer to divining her intentions."

Helena nodded in agreement, seeing the captain's reasoning. "A good idea. We know that she is cunning, well equipped, and has a set of useful powers; in short she is a force to be reckoned with."

"You sound like you respect her." Kurik rolled his shoulder, the meeting was beginning to drag on, though the Duradin was not complaining vocally.

Helena smiled a little as she leaned forwards. "A little piece of wisdom that I past down during my days as a mortal; respect both prey and predator; you underestimate the speed of a deer it will escape, if you don't recognise that a wolf as strong as you it will tear you apart. I respect the Tenno because I have seen just how capable she is."

The Warden-King nodded his head as if to say fair point before Helena brought the meeting back on course.

"I don't believe that she acted out of impulse. Not when rescuing Ulthan, and not when killing King Marrow. We can say that she has been gathering intelligence for at least a few days before King Marrow's attack." Helena stated before adding, "that being we can say with certainty that she doesn't know everything, as evidenced by our encounter in the keep."

"So chances are that the Tenno might have stumbled on the raid by accident." The captain theorised. "She decided to stay back and observe rather than act immediately and put herself at risk; so she finds herself a vantage point and hides herself there, that way if she needs to intervene, she can just pick the cultists off from far. She spots the cultists attempting to escape unseen, decides to intervene and the rest is history."

Kurik cleared his throat after a slight cough before he spoke. "What I want to know is why did she tell Ulthan what she was? Granted, it doesn't give us any greater idea about what exactly she is and why she is here, but st-"

TAP-TAP-TAP

The room was silent by the sound of something tapping against the barred glass window that let light into the room. Kurik's hand went for a short axe held in his belt while the captain's hand hovered over the flintlock pistol that rested in its Tusker leather holster, however both relaxed when they spotted the radiantly coloured bird sitting patiently on the windowsill. Helena moved from her position and walked towards the window, her heavy footsteps filling the silence. She wasn't expecting a see the bird that she ordered the Ironeyes to send to Hammerhal baring her report and the throwing blade until she returned camp at least. That meant that the message was important, which usually meant that it wasn't good news.

Helena lifted the window upward, brining in a gust of warm air, before she held out her a gauntleted hand. Aetherwing handed the message container to the Lord Aquilor and, with its mission complete it gave a shrill cry and launched itself off the window before it ascended on the thermals. To the few onlookers who were still milling about on the street under the afternoon sun it would become a mere speck of colour in the sky within a few seconds.

Helena watched for a moment before she turned her attention to the messenger canister. Usually these were just made to protect the message from the wether while they were carried by messenger birds or other aerial couriers. Ones these size which belonged to lords of the realms were often decorated with intricate patterns, emblems and were annoyingly fragile (well, fragile for a Stormcast). This one was not, this one was designed to be durable while still being lightweight, a single emblem decorated it; the insignia of Hammerhal.

Helena twisted the canister open. The threaded lid came loose to revealing a scroll of paper with a Azyrite seal keeping it closed, preventing any unwanted persons from opening it without incinerating the message, and giving themselves a nasty shock in the process. For a moment she reminded herself that Hamilcar, Lord-Castellant of the famed Bear-Eaters, was unnerved by the concept of letters. She was dreading to open this one. Still she broke the seal with a quiet snap, a spark flickered across her fingers and she unfurled the scroll with a dry rustle before she read it to herself silently.

To Lord-Aquilor Helena Tempestborn

I am writing to you to inform you of what has been discovered through the efforts of Professor Eisen Oswal.

To summarise, I have reason to believe that the Assassin is not native to any of the mortal realms.

Helena felt her stomach sink when she read that line. This mission had just gotten a lot more complicated. She continued to read the rest of the letter.

The materials used in the blade do not match with those found within the Mortal Realms. This alone would not be enough to confirm that the Assassin did not originate from the Mortal Realms, we are both aware that there are hidden tribes and peoples that have remained secret from even the gods. However we discovered residue of the energies of the true void on the blade. To give a brief explanation as to why this is significant, only a being born of the true Void can harness its energies which allowed it to ignore magical countermeasures during its assassination of King Marrow.

This is undoubtedly a major discovery, but unfortunately I cannot help you directly, Loremaster Althorian, a close ally, was murdered in his own home and his son is missing so my hands are tied until this matter is resolved and his killers are brought to justice. While I would advise that you do not allow it to run free unmonitored, whether you choose to attempt to detain the assassin, or use diplomatic means, it is up to you.

May Sigmar watch over you.

Aventis Firstrike, High-Magister of Hammerhal.

Helena felt a weight settle on her shoulders; she couldn't claim that she was close friends with the High-Magister, but she knew him well enough that he would not claim something like this unless he was confident in the evidence that was in front of him, and the people who gave and analysed that evidence. If he had reason to believe that the Tenno belonged to a realm beyond the mortal realms, then chances are he was right.

"Well? What seems to trouble you?" Kurik asked, concerned at the Lord-Aquilor's furrowed brow as she re-read the message to check that it was indeed correct.

"Loremaster Althorian is dead, as I feared." Helena said as she walked back to the table. "I would suggest that we break the news to Ulthan sometime; preferably sooner rather than later."

"I will inform him of his father's death." The captain offered solemnly. "While I can say that I do not enjoy the task of bringing someone's next-of-kin news of death, it is necessary. Is that why this message concerns you? You worry that the Aelf will not take the news well?" He looked towards the Stormcast.

Helena paused for a moment as she thought about whether she should reveal the Magister's revelation; there would be consequences if this knowledge become widespread, but she could not leave her allies in the dark when it came to the Tenno, who could very well shape the mission intentionally or not. They needed to know just what they were facing, and what complications they would have to face.

"It would best if you read the rest of the news yourself." She said as she passed the letter to Captain Arronson.

The mortal's eyes scanned the neatly written letter a few times, a look of bewilderment on his face as he finished the letter the first time which then transformed into worry after he read it the second time. "Sigmar guide us." He muttered as he then handed the letter to Kurik. "Are you certain that he is correct?"

"I should bloody well hope so." Kurik said with a furrowed brow after he quickly glanced through the letter before he proceeded to read through it again. "If he is getting us worried about nothing, I swear I will march myself to Hammerhal to let him know my disapproval."

"He might be a warrior first and a Scholar second, but Firestrike knows what he is talking about, and what his subordinates and allies are talking about as well." Helena assured with a grim tone as she leaned on the table slightly, eliciting a soft groan from the furniture piece. "Despite this revelation, my previous recommendation still stands; we do not engage her unless out of self defence."

Kurik nodded. "Agreed, this has the potential for an absolute disaster if we make a misstep. Still though, one question remains; why is she here?"

Helena paused as she looked out of the window. Why was the Tenno here indeed? That was the question everyone in the room needed to know the to answer; they could worry about how she arrived later, it was her purpose that was everyone's concern. Yet that was not the only question on Helena's mind; even she could see that the presence of entity, that existed outside of the mortal realms, changed the game drastically.

So what sort of consequences would the Tenno's presence bring?

The Zephyr was still as Mara stood at the edge of a sparse gathering of petrified trees; their grey branches grasping skywards in many different directions. In the distance she could see a towering stone, similar to the one she had used as a sniper perch during the raid last night. From what she had gathered, the rock was known as the Matyr's Cornerstone, named so because a force of soldiers perished during the war against chaos. She had on occasions stumbled across ghouls here, seemingly scavenging the bones of long dead soldiers. Since they were gone she didn't have to worry about encountering them as much.

She couldn't but feel that the area surrounding the Matyr's Cornerstone reminded her of some place she had visited in the past, long the Zariman Ten-Zero's ill-fated voyage. Could it had been Earth? While the forests of Earth were dead for most of the Orokin empire's reign, there probably were some before the Zariman left the origin System. Maybe it was Lua? The Orokin were not the first inhabitants of the moon, though she couldn't remember if her teacher mentioned anything about Arboriforms during her lessons, nor her...

She could feel the pain that came with loss flare up inside her, threatening to consume her. Even though it had been countless years since that day, the scars that she bore still felt raw even after all that time; time could heal the wounds of body, but the wounds of sorrow and anger could not fade, perhaps they never would.

She pushed the memories aside as she studied the pillar of rock, there was no point on dwelling on the past. She could see an outcropping which held a decent amount of shade, while still maintaining a decent view over the surrounding area. In short it was a good spot for Mara to perch for a while, now only the question of how she could get up there remained.

She looked to her warframe's right to see a stone tree. After making a few rough calculations in her head she decided on her method.

She ran as fast as she could towards the tree. About five meters away from the tree the Zephyr leapt into the air. Despite carrying her Veldt rifle, two pouches of Spira throwing blades, a Kestral boomerang and a cloth satchel with her drawing supplies, the Warframe's Oxium laced Chassis to achieve a gravity defying leap towards the tree. She planeted her feet on the petrified trunk and sprung off it. As she did so, a burst of air launched the Warframe through the air like a rocket, her shields adapting further to streamline the Warframe's already sleek profile. After that brief burst of speed upwards she began gliding through the air like some sort of mythical avian as she felt her Zephyr rejoice at the rush.

Mara landed on the outcropping with grace and without smacking into the pillar of rock face first, despite the speed she was going at and the width of the outcropping, bending her legs on impact and moving to a crouching position. She slowly turned and seated herself on the rock.

Reaching into the cloth satchel bag, she carefully unbutton the clasp, which was designed to resemble the counterweights of a Zaw, and reached inside. Her warframe's armoured hands felt the vanished wood cover of her sketchbook as she pulled it out.

She had gotten it some time ago from the markets of Cetus. The merchant who had given it too her was a good man, though he was quiet and timid and to some people he was more than just the 'simple merchant' he claimed to be. It was gifted to her after as a bonus for completing a errand in a timely but thorough fashion. The pale wood cover and back, along with a set of metal rings bound the drawing paper together, creating a bulky tome. Despite the length of time she had owned the book, she had yet to fill its pages, despite the fact she had stuck in a few of her previous works from before she had the book.

Mara traced her Warframe's fingers across the Ostron characters that were engraved into the cover and painted red. Starting from the top and ending at the bottom; she spelt out the quote of a famous prospector who once lived in Cetus.

'Remember the past, plan for the future, but live in the present.'

In the bottom left hand corner, Mara had carefully carved her name in curving Tenno script, for the sake of marking her ownership of it; though she was never negligent enough to lose it.

It was not uncommon for a Tenno to take up an art in what little spare time they possessed. It was not difficult to find a Tenno who played an instrument, danced, drew or painted, though many would never see their work personally. On a practical level, it helped Tenno develop greater synchronisation with their Warframe, allowing for them to be more dexterous while operating them. However these habits dated long before their discovery by the Orokin; when the Zariman was lost to the Void, many of the children used the arts as a coping mechanism as their world was flipped upside down. Many would continue with these practices during the old war as a means of helping them cope with the pains and stresses that came with a life of battle.

She reached inside her bag and was about to grasp onto her case of pencils when she heard the sound of heavy footsteps and the clattering of metal along with what was most likely a huffing of a person who was probably not used to excercise.

Mara slipped her drawing book back in her satchel and unholster the Veldt from the Warframe's back before she laid flat on her belly; she could hear the footsteps coming closer to the pillar. That wasn't good; was she spotted? Mara doubted it; she was paying attention to her surroundings when she was making her 'flight' to the outcropping. She did not have Ivara's cloak to hide her in view, but she did have Zephyr's speed if the situation began to deteriorate.

It took what seemed like an eternity before the runner staggered into Mara's field of vision, doubled over from exhaustion.

Mara immediately identified the runner as a non-human; he was a hulking mass of a mix of muscle and fat, and would most likely tower anyone that wasn't the height of a heavily augmented Grineer. His clothing was simple, a single round brass plate protected his belly and had the jaws of some sort of predator mounted to its front, maybe Aquatic since it looked like a Lanx. A belt of flint lock pistols, seemingly made for a human to use, was wrapped around simple brown pants and his feet were covered by steel toecap boots.

However he was not alone, he was carrying a woman, bound, gagged and dressed in rags with a pale complexion and ragged dark hair. Judging by her condition she was not here willingly; Mara could see that she was emaciated, likely from starvation or malnutrition, despite this the woman's eyes darted around like a frightened animal, desperate to find an escape from her situation.

In the space of twelve hours, Mara had found herself in another hostage situation.

The Tenno rose her rifle to her warframe's optics and slowly began to train her crosshairs on the kidnapper's head; while the situation was similar to last night, she did not have a suppressed rifle and she did not have a stealth based Warframe; that meant that if his pursuers were close they would almost certainly detect her.

She pulled the rifle's trigger, only to hear the sound of hooves, the crackling electricity, the rushing of air and the clattering of armour.

The oversized humanoid looked up at the newcomers with a looking of anger with a hint of fear in his eyes. They were hidden from Mara's view since she the pillar blocked the other one-eighty degrees of her view, but judging from what she could hear, she could make an educated guess on who they were.

"Stormflesh." The kidnapper growled in a guttural voice as he hefted the terrified and wriggling woman up by her neck, clearly intending to use her as a human shield from what Mara assumed was multiple Stormcast. "Can't you tinned runts leave a honest Ogor in peace?"

A second voice, female, spoke; she sounded softly spoken, not a tone would expect of a fearsome warrior, yet her voice carried well and there was a underlying coldness, suggesting that she was not the delicate flower she sounded like to the casual observer.

"Goreguts, exile of the Stonegut tribe."

Her voice... it sounded familiar to Mara.

"You are charged with the crimes of slavery, robbery and murder, surrender for you have no place left to run."

Mara was so caught up in trying to figure out who the female Stormcast's voice resembled that she nearly missed Goreguts fish out one of the flintlock pistols with his chubby fingers. The Tenno mentally scolded herself for loosing focus.

"Ya think I'm dumb and that I just brought her as a snack? I would be insulted if it came from anyone else's mouth." He said with a sneer as he placed the pistol against the woman's head, causing her to cease her squirming. "I say ya let me go my own merry way... or this pretty little thing's head will be reduced to mince meat."

Mara kept her sight on the Ogor's head as silence reigned. This was not good; she could take the shot and run. Her odds of outrunning the Stormcast were decent, but low enough that in most other scenarios it would discourage her from taking the shot. However the fact that the Ogor was not concerned if the hostage lived or died and had a gun to her head increased the odds. Mara could see that he was at his wits end as well, with sweat falling past his beady eyes being the most obvious indicator; that certainly complicated things.

The female Stormcast spoke again in a calming tone, addressing the hostage. "Please, stay calm, I promise that we will get you out of here safely."

For one reason or another, Goreguts decided that this was reason enough to snap and do something monumentally stupid. He pointed the flintlock pistol, the thing which he was using to threaten the hostage, at the Stormcast. Mara realised that he had just cost himself his life in a truly avoidable fashion before he even opened his mouth.

"Hey! Listen to me ya St-"

A bolt, most likely from the crossbows used by the Stormcast, shot through the air and struck the Ogor in the head. The combination of the projectile's high velocity and the energies that charged it was lethal, as testified by the fact that Goreguts' head detonated in a gory fashion. The Hostage began to try and pull herself free before the lumpen slaver fell but his arm, now in rigor mortis, refused to relinquish her.

A Stormcast dashed forwards in a blur of purple. Surprisingly, they bore a pair of crystalline wings on their back; then again, considering that they were demigod like beings, it made sense. Judging by the ornamentation on their armour, they were an officer of some description, maybe a 'prime' of some sort of formation Mara had yet to discover. As for their equipment they bore a sword and a lantern like apparatus, both currently strapped to their belt.

Said winged Stormcast pulled the Ogor's meaty arm away, freeing the hostage who promptly stumbled into the armoured warrior, breathing heavily as the adrenaline from her harrowing experience began to fade. The Stormcast held her steady as they removed their (or her, judging by her appearance) helmet. The Stormcast had tanned skin, perhaps having originated from this realm, and sea green eyes and pity cut dark hair.

Mara couldn't help but shake that something about the Stormcast was familiar to her.

The Stormcast looked over the now freed slave with concern in her eyes, searching for serious wounds but despairing at the amount of bruises and scrapes that covered the woman's limbs. From what Mara had heard, the Astral Templar's were drawn from the ranks of war-like tribes, so this Stormcast's behaviour was unusual, though it could be explained that she had a negative experience with slavers in her past, giving her some empathy towards the woman's plight.

"Are you alright?" The winged Stormcast asked (confirming that she was the Stormcast that was calming the hostage before) before receiving a barely convincing nod from the woman.

"Where are the others?" The woman then asked, her voice barely audible to any of the listeners. Mara could hear the strain brought on by thirst and hunger in each of those four words.

"They are well." The Stormcast answered with a reassuring smile before she began to lead the woman carefully away, out of Mara's sight once again. A second Stormcast spoke up, male, probably middle-aged.

"Both my brothers should have reached the base camp by now with the other liberated prisoners, Knight-Azyros." He said. "We won't be able to reach Franzburg under the midday sun without risking her falling to exhaustion, so we'll report to the Lord-Aquilor, at camp until then."

"Is that okay with you?" The female Stormcast asked in a soft voice, presumably to the woman. Her response was none verbal but after a moment Mara heard the sounds of hooves and claws against dirt followed by the rushing for air as the Stormcast left.

Mara remained still for a moment before she stood up and placed her rifle back on her Warframe's back hardpoint; she honestly felt like she was being purposely denied any peace for mediation.

Still, the Knight-Azyros' apperence bothered Mara; in the back of the Tenno's head she felt like she resembled someone she knew. When she thought about it though, a theory began to creep into her head on who it could be, and it brought memories that she had wanted to leave behind to the forefront of her mind. Mara pushed them to the side swiftly; it couldn't be her anyway, she was dead; Mara had watched her die on the Zariman.

But the Stormcast were forged from the souls of the dead according to the locals.

Mara felt her frustration began to rise; she had too many questions and not enough answers. She was stuck up a creek without a paddle while also being almost blind.

She sighed before she dropped off her vantage point and began to walk towards the deceased Ogor. Most Tenno had learnt to acquire materials whenever and wherever they could to keep themselves supplied. Grineer propaganda and Corpus PMC recruitment ads liked to jump all over this practice, and conveniently forget that they were just as guilty of grave robbery as the Tenno.

The pistols were more or less useless to Mara. She wasn't even sure if they could be broken down for raw material, some went for the 'belly plate' (that and Mara had some scruples when it came to acquiring material). However she spotted a red velvet pouch, closed with a piece of string, which was probably attached to his belt which had somehow came loose sometime between him lurching here and having his head blown off.

She crouched down and picked up the bag in her hand, it was heavier than she first thought. She could hear the sound of metal on metal as she lifted it from the dust. Mara swiftly realised she had probably found some of the dead slaver's savings.

She pulled the bag open to find that it was filled to the brim with gold coins. Mara plucked a coin out and inspected it curiously. Unlike Ducats; these had two different insignia's on each side; one was a helmeted, bearded, visage while another was a twin-tailed comet; the latter would seem to suggest that it was the official currency used by people who were under Sigmar's rule, since she had seen a similar logo on a temple dedicated to the god in Franzburg and similar iconography was used by some of the Stormcast.

An idea formed in Mara's head; if her observations were correct, then the town's markets should be open for the duration of the afternoon.

Logi certainly wouldn't approve of her plan, but she didn't have a better idea.

Kept you waiting, huh?

Sorry about the delay, as many of you would have seen from my update, life has been somewhat... too interesting for my mental health as of late.

This chapter is a bit of a filler, 'not much happens', chapter. It was always going to be one of those chapter though so... yeah. That being said, this chapter does have some significance, but I'm not completely happy with it since I was in the 'getting back into the swing of things', stage after my hiatus.

Next chapter will be ALOT more eventful, that I can promise you. Until then, I'll see ya next time.