The Dawn of the New World

Uthyr was standing in front of a group of hooded figures with a book in her hand. Behind her was an empty fountain. She looked at the figures in front with passionate eyes.

"Remember, we need them alive. They will be sacrificed to further increase Lord Ra's power, soon he will be able to show himself on this plane as well and give us everlasting life!"

She was a fervent supporter through and through and it seemed like she already had other plans in place that Agueda was unaware of. With her in the lead, the group of hooded figures made their way through the dense settlement.

Everyone that saw them slightly bowed from the waist. Even the naughty children went silent upon seeing them.

She reached the temple where Hao Xuan and Jin Wang were supposed to be staying at but found it empty. With furrowed brows, she started looking around. It was pretty clear that they had barely spent any time here.

She went back out and bowed thrice to Ra's statue at the entrance before calling over the hooded figures once again.

"Go, fan out and find them! Question the civilians, and look for Buse. They were her liability and she must take responsibility for their disappearance!" she said loudly, her fuming words creating a minor shockwave.

"Yes, elder!" all of them bowed at once and ran away as if their lives depended on it.

After relaying her orders Uthyr went towards the main building but stopped just outside the entrance. Her already scrunched brows furrowed even deeper.

"What....is that?" she looked around. It wasn't that she was seeing something odd, but feeling it. There was a thread of spiritual sense coming out from the building and going towards a random direction.

"Who?"

Only she and her other sisters were powerful enough to separate their spiritual sense and send it out like this. A minute trace of black Qi came out of the mark on her chest and covered her entire body in a thin film.

She pushed opened the door and made her way to her sister's rooms without making a sound. One by one she checked all of them and until finally she stopped in front of a room. It belonged to another one of her sisters, one she was very close with. Her name was Gerfrid and they had known each other since they were infants.

As soon as she entered her room the thread of Spiritual sense vanished into thin air. She looked around and saw Gerfid laying down on her bed, eyes closed. It seemed like she was sleeping.

Uthyr closed the door to her room and walked back out. She then went to each of her other sisters and got them to join her.

"What's wrong Uthyr? An even older lady asked. She was looked a bit younger than Agueda but age-wise she would come in right after. The others seemed to look at her respectfully as well.

"The outsiders are missing," Uthyr replied grimly, carefully examining every one of her sister's expressions.

"What? How?"

"I don't know. I thought Agueda might have done something stupid but as I was coming back I saw a thread of Spiritual Sense going out. It....was coming from Gerfid's room," she faltered at the last sentence.

"Gerfid?!"

All of them were as shocked as Uthyr, perhaps even more so.

"What about...Agueda? Should we tell her?" another one asked in a light voice. They exchanged glances with one another and knew the answer.

"No, we'll deal with Gerfid ourselves. I'll ask for the truth and if she doesn't answer, well we all know how it ends," Uthyr shook her head coldly.

About an hour later a body lifelessly fell into one of the numerous deep holes located in the tunnels.

Agueda who was sitting in her chair smiled as soon as that happened. A young girl that was cleaning her room saw her smile and inquired.

"Did something good happen, elder?"

"Yes. A mosquito that was bothering me for quite a while just died, nothing big," she replied casually and closed her eyes, signaling the end of the conversation.

The thread of Spiritual sense was of course hers. She knew that Gerfid was in charge of keeping an eye on her whenever Uthyr was out and about, so when contacting Hao Xuan she made it look like it was Gerfid that was doing that.

Upon being questioned Gerfid of course denied the charges and was ultimately killed off by the others.

While all this was happening, Hao Xuan and Jin Wang were standing over a river of the so-called ancestral essence. Behind them was Buse with a troubled expression on her visage.

"Careful, there are beasts living in the river.. Don't get too close!" she warned.