"I thought we would find you here."
Ushpia, Abel, and Tsuji stood on the floating trunk of a collapsed tree, looking at Warden Sidonia and a short-haired, blue-eyed woman with droplet-shaped stigmata on her tanned face.
The unknown woman held the Auctor Septem in her hands, carefully placing it into an obsidian-carved box littered with inscriptions in Olden Sethiae. Then, she glanced at the two magi, tilting her head, "Who? Me?"
"I ignore who you are," Ushpia sneered. "I was talking to that spiteful Warden next to you. I guessed that even during an attack, the Neoteric Syndicate would prioritize retrieving their precious Grade 1 Relic over dealing with the assault. Since it was the core sustaining the False Domain, I figured following its trail would at least lead us to an imperial magus."
