Sera's pace quickensd as she went through the forest, her senses were enhanced with aura. She followed the footsteps of the soldier from before. Finding a small clearing, she found what she expected a temporary camp, with tents scattered around and fireplaces set up.
Hiding in the forest Sera could tell that it was not an invasion force because of the lack of fortifications and haphazard setup, they looked like mostly scouts with 1 strong commander. Even though it was a good sign, it was still unsettling because soldiers never came this far out in remote areas. After not finding anything that seemed worrying a few hours later she retreated into the night.
The next morning the village was full with activities as the merchants that would come every month arrived. Of course there were a mix of some Xoliti clan members to help hide the Phoenix clan members presence again but there was more news than just that this time.
There was a person who was moving through the crowd while making himself unseen. He kept moving across the village until he went to a house on the outskirts of the village. This person was a trusted member of the current Xoliti Clan leader and it was never a good sign when he came to visit.
There were 5 Phoenix clan members in the house he entered one of them being Sera, Noah or Elena would also be in these meetings but right now they had other matters to attend to. All of the members were the stronger survivors of the Phoenix Clan disaster. With one of them being an old gentleman looking to be in his 80s with long white hair and full white beard, he was the brother of the last Phoenix clan leader and the current acting leader as he was the strongest survivor, Bane a legendary tier aura user. His face was covered by the dim lights he was the first to speak. "There was no scheduled meeting for today did something unexpected happen"
The man spoke without taking any pauses to quickly convey the entire message. " The Black Talons have stopped their operation in the other continent their entire forces are being to operate in Varlud now. This is because of their recent expedition into Svarenrh (Asia in real life,) as you know there are no human settlements there and it's habited only by strong creature. The expedition was led by many strong aura users, they most likely paid tribute a high tier creatures called the Svarogus's they are known for their ability for detection on massive scales with their numbers. They tried to pinpoint the exact location of your clan members but that was unsuccessful because of our blessings to help conceal you. However, they decided to use all hundreds of the Svarogus's to locate the Phoenix. Out deity was able to stop it but was only able to limit the region to the Varlud region, otherwise they would have found out that the Xoliti Clan was helping the Phoenix Clan."
In a husky voice the old man replied "so they are intensifying their search here"
In a respectful tone the man replied "Yes but they are not gonna act rashly, the empires are not wanting to waste more resources as they lost some strong aura users in Svarenth. They have decided to make their groups smaller from 50 to 25 too cover more areas"
This time Sera responded " I can start patrolling more, no one can detect me unless they have blessings specialised in that area. We should also inform the rest of the members here telling them to be more inconspicuous and careful."
The man nodded in agreement, "Yes we will also have more eyes and ears for the Varlud continent with the merchants as we can also stop operations in the other continent."
Bane's eyes glowed red, "If they start getting to close to the Phoenix we can go on the offensive for distractions, I can destroy a thousand soldiers worth of troops in a night far away from this village, to help everyone relocate"
Sera replied in a disagreeing tone "It won't be that hard for them to figure out that it could be a distraction, for now we should just stay hidden and help train the rest of the members more and the kids, we can't go straight to fights, even if we use our Phoenix blessings using them after a long time will lower our efficiency, I think it's time we look more activity for creatures who's blessings are compatible with the Phoenix's blessing."
Bane replied the red disappearing from his eyes "I agree, I was just mentioning in the worst case scenario"
A few years later after the meeting, the members in the clan had all intensified their training and training of their kids. One of them being Luis who was now 12, being 5'5 tall nothing like the kid he was before, with better understanding of what his fate was and already an adept aura user about to get his first blessing he could use, as he could not use the Phoenix one, in case of it getting located by detection blessings.