Asking Questions

Aspen and Parvil sat at a table in a small shop that served as a fairly cozy restaurant and bakery. They didn’t have anything truly savory in the form of things like breakfast meats, and the slightly savory ones that did have weren’t really fit to be eaten as breakfast fare. Aspen had gone for a cinnamon swirl bread, and Parvil for a lemon poppyseed bread.

Parvil choked down a bite. “This is really good, I just wish we didn’t have to buy whole loafs,” he said, looking at the two large bread loaves. “We’re going to be eating this for lunch and dinner.”

“Don’t be such a baby.” Aspen chided. “It's good, and at least we didn’t have to eat at that weird inn.”

Parvil sighed in resignation and agreed. “What’s our plan today?” he questioned.

“Hit the streets, ask some questions, try to not look crazy asking if anybody has seen a seven foot tall bunny man and a tiny child.” Aspen told him before taking another bit of the fresh soft still warm cinnamon swirl bread.

Parvil took another too large bite and shrugged. “I guess.” he slurred through chewing.

Parvil's eyes suddenly widened in a realization of some kind and he had begun to write something in a notebook. Aspen could scantily see a magical formula on the page through the movement of his fingers. And seeing he was locked into something and was busy not unlike a real wizard and didn’t want to distract him. But when he stopped and flipped the page she gave him a look of wanting to ask a question.

“So…about the spell you were going to alter to track the child.” she broached it. “It’s something you can do? You are sure?”

“No.” He said honestly. “I’m not sure I can. I think I can figure it out and I will be able to. But…” his face twisted a bit. “I’ll only get one shot at it.”

“One shot!” Aspen said shocked. “Why only one shot?”

“I’m tracking a person based on their parentage. Tracking spells like what we can use to find this child so it’ll take a large sample. And I couldn’t get much from the crime scene.” he scratched his head. “And, its not the way the spell should be used so…”

“So you don’t think it will work.” she finished.

“For all I know it’ll just point us back to the crime scene.” Parvil sighed. “My help assures me it's possible to pull something like this off, and for it to do what we need it to but…won’t tell me how I have to figure it out.”

“Some help that curse is…” she mumbled, but waggled her fingers to tell him to hand the notebook over. Once it was passed over she looked at his scribblings but then she looked closely at the runic glyph. A series of multi sized circles interlinking with crescent shapes and a long string of runes around their perimeters both inside and out. While it wasn’t the work of a master mage it was by far something that should be beyond his skill. “You said he wouldn’t help you?” she asked, looking at the rune craft again.

“He’s refused so far.” Parvil said, “Partly.”

“Partly?” she asked. “What do you mean partly?”

“Well…it wants some more control and is not going to happen. Give an inch…”

“Take a mile.” Aspen finished, “Yeah…this isn’t worth the risk if you can’t puzzle out the spell we’ll find a way.”

Parvil ran a hand through his hair far enough back to rub his neck. “I won’t lie…its loud sometimes but easy to ignore if I don’t think about it.”

Aspen sighed. “Parvil.” she said her voice sad. “You need to break that curse.”

“I need it for now.” he said. “This thing needs me as much as I need it. Probably needs me more. I’ve got legs after all.” he said trying to joke.

He grabbed the notebook back and scribbled something and slid it back. The note read ‘it can’t see everything I do or everything I say, I’m learning to build walls just keep it under wraps.” Paril waited for her to finish and raised an eyebrow and nodded, and she nodded back slowly.

“Good idea.” she said, trying to sound like she was looking at a change in his previous formula.

Parvil nodded and started to wrap up the bread. “We should get started.” he said to busy his mind with other thoughts, and finished his tea. “We’ll head back to the gate, talk to guards first and work our way to the far gate.” he said, “Does that sound good?”

“Sounds good.” Aspen responded, but looked hard at Parvil for a moment, seeing him get seemingly distracted for a moment. “Something wrong?” she asked.

“We might need to find a magic shop,” he said. “Probably need some supplies to make this work since I don’t have a focus.”

“You should probably consider getting on or having one made.” Aspen said.

“Nah.” Parvil responded. “I don’t want to fumble around with something I’m not used to using. My hands work just fine.”

“You’d have made a great wizard…as short lived one but a great one.” Aspen said in a joking tone, shaking her head. “Come on, we're burning daylight.”

The two walked to the front gate and Aspen stayed back while Parvil did some talking to the male guards. She watched at a distance, Parvil gesticulating to the guard, going as far as to use his arms and hands to mock ear like a rabbit on his head. She watched the guard snicker and shake his head. Parvil’s shoulders slumped but another guard came over and spoke a lot with his hands and pointed down the road they’d come from.

It wasn’t long before Parvil came back, “They didn't see anyone with large ears but a man in a cloak and his child came through a few days ago, they don’t think they stayed in town long and just passed through, the guard said they seemed in a hurry, they got food but just kept moving after that, heading to the next town I suspect, but they didn’t see them leave not through the north gate anyway..” he said. “It could be something to look into. They did some shopping so we could check with the food stalls.”

“Good work. You looked ridiculous by the way.” She said, commenting on his display.

Parvil gave a little actor's bow. “Always pleased to provide you with entertainment,” he said. And the two headed to ask more questions.