Right now things are going pretty well if I have to say so. Cloak is right now carrying me through a storm into the truelands. He is carrying me in a manner that is similar to how I was carried to the black tower.

  The man is delivering me to the council, who will be deciding whether I die or not. I am surprised the man was willing to speak about them so much. Even our allies don't tend to be so open with us and this is one of the tribes. They are as hostile as they can get.

  As the man told me, the snow tribe is not a monolith as they like to show themselves to be. Instead, they are an alliance of smaller tribes that work together to form the council.

  There are five major tribes form the core of the council and it is of these five tribes that I need to speak of today. Each of them is going to be voting on my fate and each will be having one vote to decide my fate. These five tribes are supposed to be the five strongest tribes in this area.

  The first tribe is the tattoo tribe. As their name suggests, they are masters of tattoo magic. As far as I can tell these tattoos of theirs are supposed to be a variant of formation magic.

  Other than that they also are the strongest of the five tribes that make up the council. In terms of pure military might, only the spear tribes come close to challenging them. They are supposed to be strong enough that none of the other tribes will be able to beat them on their own. An alliance of two or more tribes will still be able to beat them which is why they can't ignore the council.

  They are also going to be after my head now. Turns out the giant was a person of the tattoo tribe and a pretty important one at that. The damage that I have done to the giant would have been enough for them to come after my blood. My identity as a legioner just cemented the deal for them.

  The tribe after that is the Spear tribe. They are masters of the spears and are supposed to be masters of weapon conjuration. They are supposed to be particularly proficient in making spears. These spears are supposed to be some of the strongest weapons present here in the truelands.

  They are also after my head. In this case, though, the reason is due to my identity as a sage to these people. Cloak has been very non-commital about why that is the case. I have to assume that it has something to do with that place called the Spear Valley. Well, at the moment that is not important.

  The problem is that my identity as a legioner is no better with these people as well. After all, they have been fighting with the legion even longer than the issue with the sages.

  The third tribe is the beast tribe. They hold the ability to command the ice beasts and a variety of other beasts. In the council, they hold a pretty interesting position since they do not hold any real combat capability. Cloak claims that the only reason that they are considered part of the five tribes is because their trade is extensive and widespread. Nobody can fight them without losing a lot of money. They provide ice beasts, beasts of labors and many more things to the various tribes in this place.

  Due to their tendency to be merchants, they also are the only real neutral force of the snow tribe. They have a good relationship with almost every force of the snow tribe and they also have the most unpredictable vote due to it. It could be against me or for me, depending on whether I manage to convince them that I don't harm their bottom line.

  The fourth tribe is the wolf tribe. They are supposed to be item mages, based on how cloak speaks of them. It is a rare branch of magic, where the mage uses magic to bind to and empower a particular item. In this case, their magic is bound to their cloaks, made from the skin of the winter wolf. As you can guess cloak is supposed to be a member of this group, though the man claims that he is independent of them.

  They are also the only force in the council that supports me. More accurately they support my master. With him here, I can at least be sure that these people won't backstab me tomorrow.

  And that leaves me with the fifth and the most interesting tribe of them all. They are called the blood tribe and their abilities are unknown. Cloak is unwilling to tell me about them. I am now even sure if he knows anything about their abilities. The only thing the man has confirmed is that it has something to do with blood. (I would have guessed that by just hearing the tribe's name honestly.)

  They are the smallest tribe, having only a thousand or so people. Yet, none of the other tribes seem particularly inclined to fight them. Cloak doesn't tell me why they are so feared, only that none of the other tribes want to fight them.

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  They are also supporting me, though the only reason for that is my master. Cloak doesn't know anything beyond this. How and what my master has traded to buy their support I do not know and neither does cloak.

  So these five tribes together form the council. I guess that I should also explain why the council is needed in the first place. Well, the simplest way to put it is the truelands is not a gentle place to live in. The snow tribe can resist the chill and live in the northern wastelands but even they are not able to survive in the storms of this place.

  Storms in the truelands occur only during the winter and they are devastating to put it in mild terms. That is if you are not ready for it. Only the snowlords and their masters can physically survive in the truelands during the winters. (For every snowlord there must be a thousand commoners here.)

  That is why, every tribe has to make sure that they are protected against the storms. Well, the only way to do that would be to erect massive barriers that would be able to block the storms, protecting the weaker of their people. How exactly these barriers work I don't know. Cloak has been very cagey about this topic for obvious reasons.

  Anyway, the council is here to make sure that every tribe will be able to survive. Firstly, they make sure that every tribe will be able to set up these barriers. If they are not able to do so the council will absorb these tribes into other tribes that will be able to do so.

  By the way, I do not know any details on this barrier that cloak speaks about. All I can tell you is that it is not formation m

  That is why they need to raid the snowwind empire. That is the only place nearby that would be able to provide them with the supplies that they would need to feed the refugees.

  Naturally, the council does not do this for free. They are supposed to extract a very heavy price for their protection in the form of tributes. However what form these tributes take is something that the man is not willing to speak about again. Now that I think about it, the man does have experience with the black mountain. He knows how to hide the truly important stuff.

  (After about a couple of hours.)

  The council of the snow tribe is a piece of work. It is a massive crystal mountain, that seems to be glowing like a sun in these frigid lands. Well, it would be wrong to call it a crystal since the entire mountain is made up of a special kind of ice. All I know about it is the blood tribe has a hand in its creation.

  As for why the mountain is called the council. That is the only name that all of the five tribes could agree on when naming it. Any other name and the tribes would have returned to fighting within the week.

  The mountain is a massive environmental formation that is working to stabilize the weather of the surrounding region. Well, calling it only a formation would be wrong. Whatever it is, it is based on the tattoo magic of the tattoo tribe. I could spend all of my time here trying to study the runes of this formation and I will achieve nothing.

  You can say that it is completely a different language for me with completely different spell models to empower each spell. I would need somebody to explain at least a few of the basic runes to me to make any head or tail out of this mess. For me, all of this is just squiggles in my mana sense.

  Still, I can tell you that the formation is something very powerful. The mountain barely shows any pulsation of mana. No mana leakage is often a sign of mana efficiency and only a good formation mage can create formations of that variety.

  The amount of mana being leaked compared to the amount of mana that is pulsing through that mountain is negligible. I can say very clearly that it would require somebody at the level of my master to create a formation this efficient.

  Granted I can't tell how powerful it could be. However powerful it is, it is doing its work amazingly well. The instant that the mountain came into view, I could feel the wind around me stabilize almost stopping now that we were much closer. The white void has disappeared to form the sight in front of me. A bunch of shops through which people are walking about about trading stuff. It is so crowded that It resembles a busy town square.

  The market is also another thing that gives power to the council. It is supposed to be the greatest market of the truelands. Almost every tribe can make their way here and trade for goods without having to worry about worrying about an ambush from the other party.

  The way that the market connects the people of different tribes is also one reason that the council holds such great power. It also gives the council a reason to work with each other. After all, even the beast tribe (they are the richest of all the tribes) would not be able to afford the cost of building this mountain. They will bankrupt themselves creating something like this.

  As I have been recording this, cloak has been going over the market to the gate of the council. Even as I land on the ground, I can see the massive gates of the council tower above me. In most places, such a gate would exist to intimidate enemies. Here it is needed to accommodate the sea of people going in and out of the council. Right now I am standing outside the gate waiting for cloak to take me into the place. Cloak has just dropped me here just a couple of moments ago.

  He is right now securing my entry into this place. If I were to try and enter without permission, I would be frozen to my death before I could take a step into the place.

  I hope that cloak doesn't take too long. The people around me are giving me curious looks as if they are wondering who I am. Well, it won't take them too long to guess who I am. While the council has yet to reveal my presence to the public, it doesn't mean that the rumors are not spreading. If the people realize who I am, I don't think there will be anything of me left for the council to pronounce a verdict on.

  I almost breathe a sigh of relief as I notice Cloak coming to pick me up.