Out of Hand

Adisla brought her steed to a halt as she reached the magical signature of the third trap, her hand coming up to stop the others behind her as well. It would not do for a careless soldier to blunder past her and ignite the trap. No, that simply would not do at all. Moving her left leg over the pommel of the saddle, Adisla slipped down Madison's side before walking slowly towards the trap. Sticking her hand out as she neared, she absorbed the magic much like she had done before. This time however, it brought with it a new surge of resistance as if the magic was a sentient being that was doing all that it could to protect its caster. Growling as she took an unsteady step forward, she brought his left hand up to the side of her head and hissed in pain. Groaning gently as she began to cast a healing spell with her left hand, the hiss came back before transferring into a soft sigh as the pain went away. Looking to her left as she heard footsteps, she was happy to see Abigail coming with her small troop. Nodding towards her, she stood up straight and dropped her hand before speaking, "Well, you made quite great timing, my scout. Now, we must only wait for our poor mage to cast another spell. Until then, we continue to follow the tracks that they have left us."

Stepping back and pointing off down the trail of footsteps, Adisla moved back to the side of her horse and reached her hands up to pull herself up into the saddle again. As she was mostly up, she faltered as she felt the beginning of an annoyance behind her ear. Resolving to pull herself up anyways, she lost her footing as suddenly there was a much larger surge. Falling to the ground and landing hard on her left shoulder, she let out a soft groan as she laid there for a second, trying to regain her breath. Looking around with fuzzy vision, she began to push herself up when suddenly she felt hands reaching under her arms to pull her to her feet. She tried to fight away from their grasp, but with every movement her vision became worse and the headache grew exponentially. Leaning against the horse as her men finally let go, she muttered out a soft, "Thank you," to the two soldiers who moved away before pressing her forehead against the flank of the horse.

As she stood still, the headache maintained its grasp on her, but her vision began to focus again. Looking around her, she tried to find the faint image that would signify the mage's next trick. As her eyes fell on the ghastly image of a man, she squinted her eyes before growling deeply and closing them again. She could not believe what her eyes had shown her, but she had no reason to doubt her abilities so far. A wraith. More specifically, a wraith from Erik's soul. It was one thing to kill one of her men, another to kidnap them, but to damn their soul and use it as a slave, Adisla felt her blood beginning to boil inside of her veins. Gesturing for Abigail to step towards her, she opened her eyes and saw the woman flinch away from the raw fury that seemed to be pulsing like fire from her eyes. Snatching a hand out to pull the woman back to her, she spoke in a stern voice, "Track them as far as you can, but do not engage. They have a strengthening vampire as well as a mage who is not afraid to step into dark to accomplish his escape."

Seeing the scout nod, she let her go before pulling herself into the saddle, happy that she was actually successful this time. She looked at the troops around her before speaking in a louder voice, "Back to the town boys. This is going to be a longer search than we had originally thought." Seeing the men gather what belongings they had with them, she rode through their ranks to let them follow behind her as she guided them back to the town. They did not need much guidance, fortunately, because Adisla's mind was not completely on the task of making sure there were no stragglers. If Ceriden had cast a spell to create a wraith, then he no doubt had his hands on a particularly powerful grimoire. This was a promise that he would begin casting more powerful spells as he got desperate, which could ultimately lead to a mistake. However, taking into account her reaction to the wraith's summoning, Adisla could not afford to follow too closely behind the fugitives. She would be risking a violent reaction that would make her vulnerable to a counterattack.

Glancing over her shoulder, she grimaced as she felt a tinge in her head before continuing her thoughts. She would need to find a powerful mage, one more so than herself who specialized in similar magic to Ceriden's current path or that could at least track them. Tracking them with magic could be an issue, but she would be able to solve that by going back to the inn and getting access to Ceriden's room. Along with the spell however, she simply did not have the manpower to comb through the forests once the spell located the trio's rough location. She would have to send her runner to the garrisons around them in order to summon additional troops as well as to spread word of the criminals to the towns around the area.

{I was thinking that this could be a tool to introduce Kline if you wanted.}