There May Be A Way

((The Golden Oak, Osilon))

“Draken? Soularous? What would they want with the Mortith?” Severos wondered.

Orla shrugged, at a loss for an answer. “Kelmoran was easily the most accomplished necromancer in all the lands. No one in centuries has approached his level of skill and knowledge of that forbidden art. Perhaps they wish him to work a great magic that not even a demon lord would be capable of?”

“Or maybe, just maybe, Shade was doing the bidding of someone else?” Reise suggested, chiming in with a smile. He had finished scribbling and looked up after something said brought back a memory. “Orla...” he paused, “Do you think that girl...the one with the angsty name is still kicking around? Iris Wisteria...or something like that?” He drummed his fingers on the table. “You know, the one who was so good at all that zombie mumbo jumbo.”

“Oh, you mean Hemlock Nightshade!” Orla said as if only remembering the name herself. “I haven't the remotest idea where she might be now."

“Who is this Hemlock?” Severos asked patiently.

Orla turned back to the young mage. “She too was a necromancer—not at the level of Kelmoran of course—but she was of no mean ability. I have not seen her since the Fall of Dalen.”

“That was over a hundred years ago.”

“Yes, and she may well have perished during the war. But from the stories she told she had been around nearly as long as Kelmoran. Transferring her soul from one body to another. As far as records were concerned, she also had the distinction of being the only ‘legally practicing’ necromancer in the kingdom of Dalen.”

“More a secret one-woman crime unit of the Watch than anything,” Reise explained. “I mean who better to ask who killed a victim than the victim themself? Hemlock also constructed the golem at Jocelynn's Inn that protected the place from bandits.”

“You visited that inn quite frequently,” Orla remarked, a little teasingly.

“What are you implying?” Reise gave a good natured chuckle. “You know I had a dear friend who worked there, and that’s how I learned about the golem and who made it. I just thought if Hemlock was still around she'd be someone we could look to for answers since she's the only necromancer I ever met who wasn't evil or crazy or both.” He turned back to Severos. “Apologies, you asked Orla a question.” Reise held up the thick black paper with Reise Hund, and Horo Inu written on it in beautiful flourishing penmanship. Turning the card back to himself, he tapped it on the table to reveal they both translated to "Wandering Dog" in Common. “Does this answer your question, Severos?”

He looked to the card and looked back. He was silent as he processed what he saw. He thought back to the days in Warfall. A hazy thought of then tickled at the now, Severos trying to remember. Then it dawned on him. He always wondered why Horo appeared strange to him even after he met him.

"Horo Inu? You have a few lines now... More than you can count... It is you! But how? What-?"

"Best we leave that for now," replied the Wandering Dog.

"That is fair," the mage answered. "But getting the Mortith back is going to be hard. The Church of Sarnia has a mark upon my head and-" Severos stopped at what he said. Something was knocking around in his, this time from the college days now gone. He thought about what he said even as the other two glanced at each other.

"A mark! Oh, that may work! Yes, but if only..." Severos went suddenly, stroking his chin as he mused on his thought.

"What?" Orla asked, confused at his thought process.

"Hmm? Oh, I think I may have a means to track the Mortith," Severos replied. "Magic leaves a very clear residue. I remember something Master Soran once said about it. Diviners can search for it if they look hard enough. And I have managed to study the wards and magic, I should be able to identify it!"

"Excellent! So shall we start with that?" Orla beamed.

Reise saw the look that crossed his face at that and sighed as Severos replied with a slightly deflated voice, "I do not have the materials for such magics and I am not very good at it. But there had to be others from the college that survived. Master Soran, Master Pending, Grandmaster Stormcrow... Someone that is more versed in divination than me."