The Spy

Once Sabina left him to his own devices, Ceriden settled down at the base of a tree and began to read. He reviewed the spell Sabina wanted to do, then he turned to the glossary and familiarized himself with some of the terminology that he hadn't heard before. After that, he turned to the index to find other areas of the book he needed to go over before he would be ready to do the spell. As he read, he felt a tingle go down his spine as he tried to wrap his head around the extraordinary claims the book made about the dynamics of the spirit realm and the potential magic that performed from exploiting those dynamics. He knew he was going to have to test these claims, but doing so would be fraught with danger. He would probably become an outlaw, which would be tragic, yet if what this text said was true, then the cost would be well worth it.

As Ceriden considered these things, he realized he felt an uncomfortable but somewhat familiar sensation. He was being watched. Ceriden had learned a long time ago to trust his instincts, and in this case, he could feel that the eyes on him did not have his best interests in mind.

Pretending that he was still reading, Ceriden stealthily cast a life detection spell. His vision was distorted from the effects of the spell, with living objects emitting a glow. The more sentient the lifeform was, the more radiant its glow was. He could see no shortage of trees, but some animals and insects he hadn't detected before became apparent, and behind a shrub...

There was a figure.

Ceriden knew this was the source of his discomfort. This person was spying on them, no doubt. And if he/she had seen Gareth eat... then they all could very well be in trouble. No, Ceriden could not afford to let this person report back to his/her superior, whom, if he had to guess, was probably that meddlesome Commander Styliane. She would not appreciate Ceriden not telling her that Gareth was a vampire, and bad things reliably happened to people that pissed off the Commander.

Ceriden made sure not to stare at the figure in the bushes. If the spy realized that he/she had been detected, then he/she would probably abandon the scene, and Ceriden would probably lose him/her. Ceriden was going to need to figure out how to get close to this intruder without alerting the person to his malevolent intentions until it was to late.

Ceriden glanced at Gareth and frowned when he saw that the vampire was asleep. The vampire did need to wash up, so Ceriden had been thinking about pretending to search for a stream with him. But waking him up might arouse the spy's suspicion too early. Ceriden took a deep breath, then got back to pretending to read Sabina's book. His best course of action would probably be to wait for Sabina to return, then pretend to search for a stream once she got back. So he settled down and waited, occasionally recasting the life detection spell to make sure the spy hadn't buggered off.