Murderous Mindset: On The Heels of Evil

“So how is this going to work?” Aspen asked, leaning over a crouching Parvil watching as he dug around in his pack. “I’ve seen wizards half cast a spell and it never ends well for them.” she added.

Parvil gave a large shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t really have a plan yet, just more of an idea. Not to mention I’m not half casting a spell. I’m just leaving out a step.” he explained, pulling out what looked like a ring box.

“I fail to see how that’s any different.” she chided.

Sitting the ring box on the ground, Parvil went back to digging around in the pack. “Let’s see if I can explain it.” he said tilting his head up slightly to think of the best words. “Tracking spells usually require an object of personal matter. Things like hair, clothing, jewellery, even blood.” he said.

Aspen tapped her foot loud enough for Parvil to hear her annoyance at this part being explained. “I am very much aware.” she said.

“Right, but once that magic locks on from the person’s object the ley lines of ‘The Weave’ guide the connection between your magic and where the object came from.” he held up his thumb. “Everyone is unique, like a fingerprint or a snowflake.” he went on. “Your magic, My magic, her magic, everyone’s magic leaves a unique ‘thrum’ against ‘The Weave.’ So rather than track the source of the plucking tune, I’m just going to follow the tune.” he said.

Aspen blinked. “Somehow that both makes sense and was total nonsense.” she sighed. “So how do you plan to do this? It can’t be easy coming up with a spell like that on the fly, most wizards can’t do that, it takes them years to figure it out.”

Parvil started to shrug again and felt a hand slap his shoulders. “Stop shrugging.” Aspen snapped.

“Fine…fine…” Parvil rolled his shoulder. “For someone short you sure do have a Hells of a slap.” Parvil said pulling something else from the bag, it looked to be a length of cordage made from impossibly thin strips of leather that looked about the length of a necklace. “I plan to improvise. Same principle of tracking with an object.” he said flipping open the ring box to reveal a small gold object, that looked like two golden cones put together and held there by a gold band. Parvil looked the cord through a hoop in the top of one of the cones, then he wrapped the cord around his arm letting the tied off gold diamond sit in the palm of his hand. “Think of it like a compass. This little thing can take in a bit of magic. And store it, I’m going to take some of the magic she left behind and use it to keep locked on to her magic. It won’t be perfect and once I cast the spell we’ll have to move quickly, but if she lived in a manor she won’t have gotten too far. Most people like that wouldn’t camp in the woods. So once we have our heading, we check inns and boarding houses and the like.”

“I have to hand it to you Parvil, it’s a pretty brilliant idea.” Aspen leaned in giving the little gold thing a closer look. “Gretchen?”

Parvil nodded. “Gretchen.”
“You’d be dead without her.” Aspen said, shaking her head.

“Oh give yourself some credit Aspen. I’d be dead without you too.” he said, before kneeling again. “I hate ritual spells.” Parvil grumbled, as he started the work of drawing a circle and its subsequent runes on the dirt under his feet.

After a few minutes of work Parvil stood directly in the centre of the circle and in a whisper said a word Aspen could not understand. The ring of runes alit in bright green light, but vanished as quickly as they’d come. When Parvil opened his eyes the small golden object jittered and began to float slightly off the palm of his hand. The end without the loop pointing in a horizontal direction, when Parvil moved his hands the tip moved for a moment but slowly bobbed back into the direction it was pointing as it readjusted.

“We’ve got our heading.” Parvil said.

—

They travelled the rest of the day and into the night, to reach the next town over. Parvil was able to keep pumping magic into the little tracking spell, but it was fading and eventually he’d have to attempt to recast it if they didn’t find the suspect soon, and he was in need of sleep to recharge at this point so it was now or never to find the person they were hunting.

When they reached the centre of the town Parvil stood in the middle of the road, something he’d not have done if there was midday traffic but now it was quite enough. Aspen slammed into Parvil’s back as he suddenly stopped short. “What is it?” Aspen asked rubbing her nose, it wasn’t broken but it stung to just hit it like that.

“I…I’m not sure…” he said confused, lowering his hand a bit so she could see it. The little object would point one way, jitter then swing and point another, staying in place jittering a moment before changing direction again.

“Maybe she walked past here a bunch of times? And things got tangled like yarn?” Aspen suggested but didn’t sound at all sure.

“Maybe…” looking around Parvil saw a tavern that served as an inn. The lights inside were low. Probably only a few people up at this hour if any, maybe just the bartender. “Let's start there.”

The two made their way inside, there was a middle aged man standing behind the bar. Fairly tall but not as tall as Parvil, “Two ales.” he said, paying and taking them to a seat. Mostly to blend in.

After around an hour a woman came through the door. Moving somewhat quickly, as she walked Parvil felt the little charm move, and eventually jerked hard enough he felt it in his lower arm. “That’s her.” he whispered.

“Are you sure?” Aspen asked, her message coming to Parvil as a thought rather than words.

“Positive. Back me up.” he said, with a small flick of his wrist he sent a coin rolling across the floor. The only sound it made was when it bounced off the stairs. The woman was already halfway up the stairs when Parvil spoke. “Ms. I think you dropped this.” Parvil only a step away from her.

Anais turned to face Parvil, a look in her eye like someone trying to hide they know they’ve been cornered. “No it's alright you keep it.”

Aspen stepped in behind. “Ms. we need to ask you a few questions.”

“Its late, can we do this another time?” Anais said looking over her shoulder.

“Does the name Keligrin mean anything to you?” Parvil asked, watching her face. Catching a fraction of a second flash in her eyes of panic that was snuffed out just as quickly.

“Never heard that name in my life.” Anais said, “Now if you will excuse me.”

Parvil took a gamble. “That’s not what he told us.”

That flash of fear again, though this time it stuck, and the woman lashed out with something that hit Parvil, for a second he didn’t falter but he suddenly buckled and fell down the stairs. Clipping Aspen on the way down, and the woman, Anais took off running. The stumbling start Aspen got was enough distance for Anais to have a good head start. At the top of the stairs Aspen looked at Parvils prone on the floor. She could see he was breathing rapidly. She looked to him and then to the door the woman had burst through then to Parvil again, before hearing a window shatter, she ran for where Anais had. Seeing a room with a broken window and a woman running into the night. “Gladium Glaciei.” she shouted, a dagger of ice materialised and rocketed towards the woman but narrowly missed as she burst into the tree line. Aspen punched the windowsill, and remembered Parvil.

She ran down the stairs trying to skip as many as she took and nearly tumbled. It took effort but she managed to roll Parvil onto his back, shaking him slightly when she saw the blood in the corner of his eyes, under his nose and ears. “Wake up…wake up…wake up…” she said, each one more desperate and clogged with the sound of choking back tears.

After the eighth hard shake Parvil started coughing. “Ow…I think she poisoned me…” he said woozily “Did…did we get her?” he asked, but before he got an answer Aspen pulled him into a hug. Her head smashing against his chest, he could feel her glasses being smushed. “Hey…don’t break your glasses.” he said jokingly but out of breath.

“You idiot…” she said, through a hiccuping sob. “If it weren’t for you being a warlock you’d be dead…”

“At least we know what she looks like now,” he added.

Parvil could suddenly feel rather than see the bartender standing over him. “Do you need medical attention?” he asked.

“No, just let us lay here for a minute.” Parvil replied.
“Okay. Someone’s going to need to pay for that window.” he said before walking away.

From across the room, a wooden chair squeaked across the floor, and the sound of a heavy amount of coin was dropped on the table. “Allow me.” he said, “Drinks, and the window, paid in full.” The mysterious man said, hooking his sword back to his belt as he left Aspen looked up to see his cloak, recognizing the symbol. When the door was shut Aspen whispered to Parvil, “That was one of Reinhold’s men…”

“Just what we need right now."