Things felt too peaceful as we traveled the path back to the steel heart camp or more likely to intercept them as they had said they would be traveling to the tower. I just hope they hadn't been close enough to see it change as that would raise questions that none of us wanted to answer.
The land around was a contrast to what we'd seen in the tower and I kept waiting for something to pop out at us, but nothing ever did. We saw the occasional beasts but a single flare of aether from any of us sent it scurrying. Only months before we would have had trouble with such beasts, but now, I doubted there was a beast strong enough in this part of the plains to challenge us. The moss troll that we'd fought would be no problem now, in fact, I was certain I could take a few of them on, especially with this latest boost in power.
