Lucy was finishing her careful line work when, with a quiet knock on the doorframe to announce his return, Alex stepped back through the door into the room. Lucy looked up just long enough to give him a smile and a nod, acknowledging his presence. Julian, who was just replacing the fuel for the fire in the wood-burning stove that heated the room, finished his task and dusted off his hands before turning to see Alex in the doorway. His demeanor remained generally cold as was his custom, but he acknowledged his commander’s presence with a nod as well.
“I may have found some help,” the lynx replied quietly. Lucy did not look up from her work, but Julian favored him with an inquisitive glance. “Another patrol commander arrived to speak with the commander of Hareford immediately after I was turned away. Evidently he had received word that someone was in need of help within these walls, and came to see what was needed. He has gone to fetch the mage under his command, and should be here before very long.” “When did we send out a request for aid?” Julian asked quietly. Alex sighed. To say that he had not considered the same question himself would have been untrue. It had caused some hesitation when the wolf had announced his purpose as well. “We did not,” Alex confirmed with a sigh. “I do not know; perhaps after our arrival last night someone saw fit to send out a call for help.” The moondog shook his head. “That makes no sense. It is one man, a man whose life is not even particularly endangered by his situation. With the threat of plague within the Keep’s walls, there is no reason that such a request would have been sent.” Alex had to agree. “We are in no position to turn down help,” he stated regardless. “We can ask them what they heard when they arrive. Be prepared to fight, but let’s be certain that we do not make the first move in aggression and then live to regret it.” The moondog responded by adjusting the sword that hung at his hip. He was the only one of the three to still be wearing his primary weapon, although Alex would have little use for his bow indoors, and Lucy was far more capable with magic than with any weapon. Alex’s paw went to the dagger that he kept as a sidearm, though he continued to hope that he would not need it in the near future. Lucy finished her work with the chalk, spinning it about her fingers before storing it somewhere with such effortless grace that it simply seemed to vanish. Leaning close to the tabletop, she began to collect every small fragment of chalk that dared to stray from her meticulous piece of magical artwork. Finally satisfied, she replaced her supplies in their pack and placed it back underneath the table. “Now, let’s see if this helps reveal anything,” she whispered. By themselves, the chalk lines did nothing, but Lucy activated the enchantment with a little additional effort. The lines glowed visibly, even to the magically inept commander of the patrol. She immediately resumed her examination, leaving Alex to watch in ignorance. “I am not familiar with the function of these lines,” Julian admitted, watching her work from a distance. Lucy chuckled quietly as she again opened her eyes to the magical world. The ermine within the cage was looking at the glowing lines of magic with apprehension, but with nowhere to run it simply stared at the strange sight without understanding. “It would be somewhat difficult to determine exactly what this spell does without already knowing.” “Please, I’ve waited in ignorance long enough already. I don’t need any assurances that my confusion is justified,” Alex said, sounding annoyed. “In the presence of other magic these runes will react in different ways to indicate various sorts of magic. In this case, the way it reacts should tell me if there are any hidden spells or traps on Lois. I could proceed without it, perhaps, but I am uninterested in triggering any traps that might leave me in a similar state to his.” “Wouldn’t hiding the spell have required some time?” Julian asked. Lucy looked at him for a moment with a grim expression before shaking her head. “Yes, it would, and that confuses me. It seemed that the spell was cast from a distance, and whatever preparation was done would have had to take place in Lois’ absence. There should not be any traps, but by the same logic, Lois should not be under this spell either. Clearly the latter of those two does not apply, so we cannot assume the former.” Julian nodded soberly, and then joined Alex to watch the young mage work. He could detect the slight changes in the weave of Lucy’s enchantment more easily than Alex could, but he did not know what they might mean, or whether they might simply be part of the spell’s natural function. Lucy did not offer any insight into the process, so he was forced to guess at her progress on his own. What progress she was making was interrupted briefly after it began. A knock on the door drew her attention away. Alex took a deep breath, nodding towards the portal as he moved to answer the knock. Julian gripped the sheath of his sword in his left paw, but remained relaxed enough to avoid seeming threatening. The lynx wondered how often he had been forced to tread that thin line while in the company of his enemies. Whatever the answer might have been, he was glad to have him by his side. Opening the door revealed a pair of men, one cursed into the form of a black wolf while the other remained human. Alex immediately recognized the wolf as the one to whom he had spoken earlier. He was dressed in clothing that was clearly intended for camouflage on patrol, rather than to keep up appearances among polite company, its patchwork of blacks and whites designed to escape the eye on cold winter nights. There was not a blade to be seen on his belt. Instead, a pair of stout wooden rods was secured in harnesses on either hip. The strange weapons drew Alex’s eye for a moment, but he avoided lingering on them long enough to cause suspicion. The man was nearly his same height, so meeting his gaze for a moment was fairly easy. The man standing beside the wolf helped to redirect the lynx’s gaze. He was of a very stout build, and the truly impressive number of scars that crisscrossed his bare skin spoke of many years spent in battle. His head was bald, but his beard had been expertly woven into a pair of black braids that hung down to his chest. He wore no weapon, but Alex doubted he would need one to be a difficult opponent. If the lynx’s surmise was correct, the man would not depend on strength alone in combat, either. According to what brief discussion he had undertaken with the wolf, the man was also a mage of some power. A well-trained mage was easily dangerous beyond even the finest of swordsmen. The wolf smiled as he saw the familiar lynx standing near the door. “Hello again, Commander Alex. I have come in the company of my party’s mage, as promised. This is Balrog; he will certainly be of a great deal more aid to you in this effort than I will myself.” Balrog nodded to each of the members of the party in turn, although he clearly lingered at the sight of Julian before continuing on to Lucy. When he spoke, his voice was very much what Alex has expected, a gruff, deep voice colored with a slight accent that implied foreign upbringing. His manner of speaking, however, was quite distinct from the lynx’s expectations. “Greetings, gentlemen. Milady.” He favored Lucy with a short, respectful bow. Alex could see her rolling her eyes, but she accompanied her sarcasm with a smile that clearly showed some gratitude for the consideration at least. “My commander informed me that a member of your number was subjected to a spell that reduced him to feral in mind and body, and I would like to contribute my own experience and knowledge to rescue him, with your permission.” The formality of his speech almost made Alex laugh outright, but it certainly did help to cool the tension that the lynx felt mounting in the room. Either the man was sincere in his desire to help, or his acting was camp in its most distilled form. Whatever the case, Alex favored him with a smile and a nod in return. “You are correct,” he confirmed. “Our companion was seeking to scout a lutin camp for information, and it seems that he ran afoul of the shaman.” He waved to the cage on the table. “The effects of the spell used against him are clear, but the nature of the magic eludes us.” The man stepped forward as the wolf beside him took a step to one side to let him pass. The man squinted at the white-furred creature that crouched low between the bars, focusing intently to make out every detail that presented itself to his gaze. “I see no trace of a fetish stone,” he observed. “I suppose that is likely the first thing that you ruled out?” He glanced to Lucy. It seemed that he had determined that she was a mage, likely due to her proximity to the caged ermine. She nodded, and he sighed with a shake of his head. “I cannot fault your investigation, then, although I am sorry to say that it leaves us very short on possible causes. To my knowledge, fetish stones are the only implement that have been used to affect such a change since the Curse itself.” He grumbled and stroked his chin as he rounded the table. Looking at the chalk lines that had been drawn about the cage, he gave a pleased nod. “Good, I see that you are certainly capable with enchantments. You suspect a hidden spell, then?” Lucy almost blushed at the implied compliment, but the mention of their present business returned her attention to the problems of the present. “I have inspected the weaves of magic around him to the best of my ability, and I cannot detect anything foreign besides the Curse itself.” Oddly, it was the wolf that responded, not the mage. “That is odd,” he remarked. “Most warriors have at least some enchantments to aid them in battle, especially during missions of stealth.” Alex shrugged. “The only magic I use is intended to make my archery more useful in various ways, and thus is applied to my weapons and armor rather than my own person. I expect his was a similar situation.” “I do not mean to suggest that every man has such enchantments, but a great number of them do, myself included,” the wolf insisted. “I am simply trying to note something I see as odd if it might perhaps suggest some useful course of action.” “Unfortunately, they are right,” Balrog replied. He had been staring at the former assassin in silence while the others discussed the situation as hand. “If he had been under any sort of enchantment prior to encountering this spell, it is little more than a faint echo now, and those would be both difficult to find and useless to our current pursuit. The magic we need to find should be new and currently active, and pulling at loose strands in the dusty reaches of age-old enchantments will not lead us to any breakthroughs in that venture.” He sighed and scratched his head in confusion as he continued to stare at the creature behind the bars. “What devious device has the enemy used against you this time, Lois?” “Lois?” Julian looked to Alex, who nodded and gave a subtle gesture towards Lucy. Julian continued to pounce on the use of their companion’s name by a stranger as he stepped towards Balrog. “How do you know his name?” he asked pointedly. Lucy, despite being at a disadvantage of both height and strength, interposed herself between the stocky man and the cage with a hard scowl. Alex and Julian confronted the wolf, although Julian’s body and attention were still turned the face Balrog. He slowly unsheathed his weapon with his right hand and pointed its tip towards the wolf, while a ball of flame developed in his left, the orange of its base giving away to a light blue hue the further the flames licked into the air. The human stood straighter and turned slowly to face the man who had challenged him. “I know Vincent Lois from many years ago,” he explained. “We met a decade ago, perhaps more, in the lands south of this Keep. We made a business of culling the smaller groups of lutins who escaped your patrols and harassed the local farmlands. I understand your suspicion, but there is no reason for us to come to blows.” He raised both hands in surrender, specifically turning his gaze to the moondog. “No, I cannot prove it to you, at least not until Lois can provide his personal vote of confidence.” Julian glanced towards Alex, watching as the lynx stepped towards the wolf. “Perhaps that may be so,” he conceded. “However, that is not the only thing that you inexplicably know. For instance, how did you know that we were here, or that we were in need of help?” “I told you, we received a request for help while we were returning to the Keep last night!” “That is impossible; we sent no request for aid, especially not last night!” Alex declared hotly. “We had not even returned to Hareford until late in the evening. What is the truth, then? How did you really hear about us?” While the wolf looked ready to insist on his earlier explanation, a loud sigh from his human companion brought him up short. “Sir, I realize that you do not want to so easily reveal your secrets to strangers, but revealing the truth is infinitely preferable to being skewered on someone’s blade.” The man nodded to the wolf seriously. Nathan looked quite unhappy with his companion’s conclusion, but he was forced to admit that Balrog was correct. “All right,” he said with a quiet growl behind his words. “I did not wish to reveal this needlessly, but it seems that the current situation affords me very little flexibility. I was telling the truth in a way when I claimed that I had received a request for help, but the nature of that request is what I did not admit. I have the ability to detect echoes of events either present or future. Last night while returning from Metamor, I felt a great cry of distress from the northern reaches beyond Hareford. As is often the case, I could not determine the reason for the feeling, but I have learned not to ignore such flashes of foresight when they are given to me. When I heard you speaking with the guards at the keep, however, I made the connection that your companion was the one whose distress I detected.” “This all seems like quite a convenient set of coincidences,” Julian noted, never lowering his guard. “Why would your patrol, which you have already admitted was nearly to Metamor when you detected Lois’ distress, not only detect the cry for help from so far away, but also just happen to have a mage who is friends with the man in question?” Alex nodded his agreement. “Julian speaks for my thoughts as well,” he agreed. “It seems more likely that the two of you, and perhaps more, have been tracking Lois for some time, and only now do you see an opportunity to strike him down while he is vulnerable.” Again Balrog spoke, still holding his hands in the air in calm surrender. “I know that your suspicion is not unfounded, but I would ask you to rethink your logic. If either of us had wished to kill Lois, we could have done so immediately after our arrival. A fire spell used on Lois’ cage would not only have likely dealt with him in a matter of moments, but it would have distracted the attentions of either one or both of my fellow mages in this room.” He nodded individually to both Lucy and Julian, who was still brandishing the wreath of flame which danced about his paw with a will of its own, never once singeing his short fur. “As a friend of the man, I realize that Lois has more than a few enemies, but I also know that he has spent most of the past ten years slowly culling the numbers of those that seek to do him harm. If we wished the same, we would have not spared any risk to see him killed immediately.” Alex nodded slowly. “You make a few good points, but you still show no proof.” Nathan took up their defense next. “As Balrog has already stated, our stories could be proven if Lois was released from the spell, but until then you must either find a reason either to trust us, or to utterly reject our claims. At this juncture, can you truly find enough wrong with our words to justify shedding our blood on friendly soil? Can you truly afford to reject our help because of a few doubts?” Lucy maintained her position between Balrog and the cage, but she nodded her agreement. “We have made no progress on our own. Any help that we can come by would certainly be helpful.” “Can we trust this help, however?” Julian argued. Alex stepped towards the wolf to look directly into the man’s eyes. The wolf met his gaze fearlessly, although even he could not stand the odd inspection without cocking his head inquisitively in utter confusion. Alex’s face betrayed no emotion, however, and he avoided even blinking as he stared the wolf down. Finally, he gave a sigh and stepped back, only to repeat the process with the human. Balrog took the inspection in stride, although he did once glance towards his commander with a helpless smile and a shrug of uncertainty. Finally, Alex stepped away from both of them and waved to his own companions. “Stand down. I do not believe that they mean any harm to Lois. Do not lower your guards entirely, but let them try to help at least.” He nodded to Julian, waving for him to sheath his blade and dispel the fire that still guttered along the pads of his paw. The moondog was none too happy with the sudden orders, but he obeyed them with no question, although he kept himself in position between the two strangers. Lucy, who had never prepared a combat spell at all, simply stepped aside, joining Alex and Julian between the other two. Balrog gave a grateful smile. “Thank you for your vote of confidence,” he said with a quiet sincerity. “I will do what I can to see the spell broken. I hope that we can cast aside any suspicion once it is done.” Nathan said a few similar words, but Alex’s attention was instead on the moondog, who was waving him to a private corner with no degree of subtlety at all. Alex apologized for his quick departure, and Julian waved a paw, keeping the sounds of their conversation from leaving the corner where they would be speaking. “Would you care to explain to me why we are so quick to trust them now?” he asked with a harsh cast to his voice. “A few moments ago, we were seconds from attacking them on suspicion of intent to harm Lois. What changed your mind so quickly, and what in heaven’s name were you staring at?” “I was looking for tells, signs of deception on their part,” Alex explained. “With little else to go on, their argument was valid: we cannot deny their help simply on suspicion of some kind of treachery. If they had given me some other reason to suspect them, we would at least have forced them to leave. As it stands, however, they gave me no reason to suspect that they are here for any reason besides a wish to help break the spell.” “I thought you said that you were no mage,” Julian observed. Alex nodded. “Still, there are some things that are simply human nature, and require no magic to detect. I had a friend who taught me much about the ways men react when they are deceiving others. They are not perfect, but in the absence of absolute certainty I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.” Julian met his commander’s eyes seriously for a few moments, looking worried while still managing a small smile. “Very well then,” he said quietly. “They still make me uneasy. That said I remain extremely fond of the idea of help. While I have had little time to appreciate Lois as a friend, what I have seen convinces me that he is a valuable comrade-at-arms. Especially considering how he was able to kill the shaman at the camp last night.” He kept his gaze fixed on his commander to drive home his point, and while Alex managed to remain composed for the sake of appearances before the others in the room, he felt his heart sinking within. He kept his eyes fixed on the moondog’s face, but he knew that he would fail his own tests of sincerity now. “You suspected something, then?” Julian chuckled. “You forget, I worked for Nasoj for quite some time. He is evil, yes, but one thing that should never be confused for evil is stupidity. Nasoj is not stupid, and that means that he knows not to leave any sensitive information, especially written information, in the possession of such petty creatures as lutins. They can be as easily bought as stolen from, and he is well aware of that fact, and the Keep has learned the same over the years. It is for just such a reason that military doctrine regarding dealing with lutins prescribes little or no search for intelligence following engagements with lutins.” Alex sighed and rubbed the fur on the back of his neck. “It was supposed to be a secret. The chief and shaman of this lutin tribe have been in power for years, and they have gathered more and more power as time has gone on. The scoutmaster decided that it was in our best interests to have them removed, and let the naturally vicious politics of lutins help cull the numbers of their followers.” The moondog nodded seriously. “I do not question the Keep’s decision; I only question your lack of trust in me. If you can look these two strangers in the eyes and come to trust them in a few seconds, certainly you can extend that same consideration to me.” He kept his eyes on his commander, his gaze serious but not truly angry. “I’m sorry,” Alex replied in a subdued tone. “I could say that they did not give me enough time to get to know you, but your point stands. I should have been able to trust you.” The moondog gave him a sympathetic smile. “You cannot undo what is already done. All I ask is that you do not make the same mistake again. If you can trust a stranger, you can trust me. We are, after all, not strangers anymore.” The lynx smiled. “I will take care to keep you informed in the future. For now, let us both keep an eye on our pair of strangers, shall we?” The moondog nodded, and waved a paw to dismiss the spell that kept their conversation private. The two stepped back towards the group, finding that Balrog was examining the entrapped ermine with intense focus, and Nathan had found a chair and sat, watching his companion at his work without comprehension. Lucy gave her two companions a look of exasperation; it was clear that she did not appreciate being left alone with two men she did not trust. She had managed however, so she simply rolled her eyes and shook her head when Alex shrugged his shoulders innocently. “Anything?” Alex asked. “Nothing new,” she replied. “I can tell what he is doing because of the enchantment I have created, and he has seen nothing that I have not seen already.” “Let us hope that the winds change, then,” Alex muttered. He sighed. Since he had been unable to speak with Sir Dupré, it was as likely as not that they would be called upon to aid in the quarantine patrol routine before long. He hoped that they would find their solution before that time came. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
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