I've decided to make my chapters shorter so that I can update faster so I'm sorry if this one is too short; I'm still trying to figure the right length for it.

xii.

The top most sheet contained a set of thin lines, almost resembling a sketch, which appeared to be in a pattern. Seeing no clear sign of what it was, they moved on to the next one which appeared to be a letter in scribbling handwriting and blotchy strokes. Deciding they would look at what they had first and figure it out later, they proceeded to the next piece which had the appearance of a rough outline similar to the following three. Finally, in the last page was another pattern of lines although this one had thicker stokes and x in random locations. As they were done, Maiah stepped back to allow for the others to make out what they had obtained.

"Well, strangely enough, the letter and outlines are written in the common tongue." Will pointed out what Halt had been mulling over at the time. It did seem strange for them to communicate in their language when they were trying to keep it between the invaders.

"almost as if tempting us to take the bait." Rodney mumbled remembering not too long ago when Morgarath had tricked them into believing the threat would come from the mountains when in truth he was striking from the south.

"unless they are used to using the common tongue when transporting secrets because the people they dwell with do not understand it fully. Highly unlikely, but still a possibility." Halt said almost too low for anyone to hear him.

As if they had silently agreed on it, all four of them turned to look at Maiah for an explanation. Wisely, she had waited until they asked for her information since saying it straight away would make her appear as if she was trying to convince them it wasn't a trap. "Our language is not really…well, we don't have a written language in Mazoniria. We have a set of symbols that code for the essential stuff—food and stores in the market place or occupations—but for the most part, our population is illiterate."

"But that means..." Will was flabbergasted. He knew not every single person in Araluen knew how to read and write, especially in the countryside; but a whole population that had no way of written communication!

"It's a way to control them." Halt said patting his old apprentice's shoulder comfortingly. "If the mass of the population can't read or write or communicate other than through spoken language there is no chance of them organizing against the government. I'm not surprised the only symbols they have are for foodstuffs and main occupations, ways to go by in their society without any threat of opposing the state. Total control over what they learn and think since they can't think for themselves."

"It's like herding sheep." Maiah added quietly. "The state manipulates the whole population and indoctrinates them in favor of it. They make sure any sign of resistance is quietly crushed down though by now the old generations are gone and the only ones left are those who never learned how to read or communicate so that they don't know any more words outside of those the state permits."

"Now, don't look so surprised." Rodney chuckled when he saw Gilan and Will stare wide eyed at the girl. They still couldn't believe such savagery still existed in the world of today; then again, Gilan thought, war wasn't the noblest of interactions and once in the battlefield most men needed to go back to their animal instincts if they wanted to survive. "when an empire is as large as she says Mazoniria i,s there needs to be more control of the population or else it would break apart the minute troops were sent from one side to another."

"I guess so."

"The only people the monarchs have to watch out for this way are the small portion of intelligentsia. The nobles and Seers, which are if just a handful of the total population." Halt said finishing the subject. "and they don't have to worry much looking at the schools where they send them to. Maiah here is but an exception of someone who finally stood up against the ideology. And as you can see, they are chasing her down for it."

At that moment there was a knock on the door followed by the Baron and Morton entering the room. The men were somewhat surprised when Pauline came in behind the newcomers, however, a part of each of them hadn't doubted the woman from getting involved in this business even when her field was more towards the diplomatic approach—something Mazoniria certainly did not have.

As all of them crowded around the desk Halt spread out the second paper, with the thin scribbles and lines and tried to make sense of what it was. Finally, with a quiet yelp of victory Pauline made out the map that none of them had ever even dreamed of. There was the familiar shape of Araluen—though somewhat rougher than Araluens drew it—with Gallica and Skandia close by much like their own maps showed. However, they were drawn smaller than usual so that they were not the only ones in the paper but rather just occupied a small corner of the overall space. On the bottom left was a still rougher looking shape, somewhat elongated so that the tip of the top was level with Araluen's middle section.

"I would suppose that is Mazoniria." Pauline finished explaining while pointing at the last sketch with her long finger. As soon as she had said it they all turned to look at the girl who had shrunk almost half her size if that was possible.

"It's a drafter." She said quietly. "I had never seen one of them since only the most experienced Seers get to carry them mainly because they give too much information."

"Well, by the looks of it I don't think scribbles and shaky lines give us much to go for." Morton said recovering before anyone else. Halt couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"They outline the position of a location in relation to a wider section. Usually they are used to make a plan of attack giving the invaders a closer route to their destination. They don't mark it more in case it falls in the hands of the enemy."

"Apparently, we've been doing just what they don't want us to do." Will said with a hint of pride in his voice he had been unable to hide.

"But consider the fact we have a Seer on our side. Without her we wouldn't have known about the vials."

Going back to looking at the drafter, Maiah explained how the most probable path of action of the Mazoniria would be to send Seers into the new territory as fast as they could. That would mean sending them to the north tip of the empire by land, with horses and running, where they would then take the Lacandu, the fastest ship they had which resembled the wolfships of the Skandians and cross the ocean to Araluen. That meant they would arrive from the west most probably near Selsey and those little towns since they weren't under any king's jurisdiction. and begin exploring the landscape to begin planning a strategy. Will would probably be the one dealing with them if they kept to their initial plan but he would also have the help from local Rangers. They couldn't spare to send Gilan or Halt with him since they had to watch the east as well, and now with an actual position of where their attacker was coming from they realized a larger problem was in the way. They had sent no one to watch the south. It was highly improbable for an attack to come from there especially since after the encounter with the Skandians and Morgarath invading from there it had been carefully watched by troops. Nevertheless, Halt knew he would have to get Crowley know about it as soon as possible so that someone could cover that portion as well as reinforce the coasts.

"I believe we will all be more efficient if each reviews one of these papers instead of all of us crowding around the same piece and being unproductive." Pauline reminded them after five minutes of simply staring at Maiah measuring and scaling the map to real life. As the rest mobilized the courier took hold of all the papers and set to distribute them among the people. She gave a letter to Morton—he would not stop talking until he got something in his hands—then the four pages of outlines to Halt, Will and Rodney since they could discuss strategies and understand them better than anyone of the presents. Finally, she got the maps and went to sit by Maiah while leaving Gilan to open the second vial after the girl gave careful instructions as to how to proceed.