Yefka: Following a Trail.
Yefka ran up to where the person had been standing, brandishing her staff in front of her. If they’d opened a portal she’d have felt it, if they’d crawled away she’d see them moving in the tall grass, and if by some weird chance they were a druid changing form would have left a ripped in The Weave she’d have felt. But she felt nothing. The most she’d pulled from the cursory investigation was a slick substance on the dirt. Sort of like a slug’s mucus trail leading to well…the grass. But nothing stirred, or made the magical senses prickle or hair bristle. “Strange.” she said as loud as she dared. “Has the mad man turned himself into water…” she puzzled over the idea, deciding it was silly, but not improbable. Given that fact the according to Lord Calabrix and Genlamin he previously had no magical talent. Yefka wasn’t so sure she believed that, she’d bet coin on that he was just never trained and managed to pull off something special in a moment of ‘cornered animal’ desperation. She had seen something like that before, and though she’d never ever say it out loud, she believed that this Parvil wasn't as strong as was claimed and just took Lord Calabrix by enough of a surprise that he won or rather survived the day. Frankly, she didn’t know which would make Lord Calabrix feel more humiliated or angry or any other number of negative emotions, if the magicless man somehow surpassed him, or a moment of blind panic and thrashing at the jaws of his demise was enough to survive. It didn’t matter, Lord Calabrix would not have some foolish ‘warlock’ beat centuries of gathering of power and training.
Scanning the grass again and deeming whatever she’d seen as either a trick of the light or long escaped, she shifted her pack on her back and let out a long breath. Yefka took hitching steps, not used to walking this much, or not on such uneven dirty ground. She’d been so focused on thoughts of how serious the situation was and another thought came back. What they would do to her if she was discovered. Lying was not a strong suit, and neither was acting which some might argue are kith. “Probably kill me and save the trouble of a trial…” she thought, knowing she wasn’t afforded the same protection as Lord Calabrix.
Far off in the distance she saw some source of light, flare up. From this distance it was little more than a halo of light in the distance but the pale white light she could tell was magic and not fire. “That must be them…” she said, and tried to hurry.
As she got closer she slowed down, shifting from a jog to a brisk walk, then a slow causal walk. Feet crunching on the dry dirt and loose pebbles. She could see the two figures talking in the dark. The one called Parvil was nearly as tall as Lord Calabrix, and he was a tall man. Had he described Parvil like that before…”No…I don’t think he did…” she answered herself.
Without warning the two spun on her. Aspen staff drawn, cracking like fresh wet snow underfoot, a bright whitish blue glow lit the space around her, wisps of fog falling from the staff as the warm spring air cooled against the ice cold crystal. Parvil’s magic cast a much smaller bloom of sickly green light in a wobbling orb at the tip of his outstretched pointer and middle fingers, his eyes glowing the same sick green. “FRIEND!” Yefka shouted, letting her staff drop to the dirt and putting her hands up. “Friend.” she repeated, turning her shoulder slight to show the insignia on her capelet, and nodding in a wide eyed panic.
Aspen looked at Parvil and gave a small nod to the staff, Parvil used his long leg to move it out of range of Yefka. “Okay.” Aspen said, “If you are a friend, papers.”
Yefka swallowed; she still had magic aimed at her and from two sources. She was sure one of them alone could blow through her shield spell then it was ‘goodbye world’. “I…I have to reach for it…” she stammered. “So…please don’t attack me.” she said, looking at each form of magic pointed at her, one she knew well. Ice, either a spike to the heart, or a blast of air so cold she’d freeze in place. The second she didn’t, but looking at it made her feel ill, like she had a mouth full of scummy pond water and made her vision unfocus when she looked directly at it, even her head pounded like her eyes were trying to escape her skull. Lord Calabrix was right…it was bad magic.
Aspen nodded but didn’t lower her staff, and Parvil didn’t stop pointing. Yefka tried to smile as she reached under the cloak and took out a small file satchel and pulled out a few documents, and prayed they would not focus too much on them and it would pass a quick glances scrutiny.
Yefka reached out the papers to Aspen, but Parvil closed the space, taking them with his free hand and taking them to Aspen. Parvil raised the free hand and called up light for Aspen. Still focused on the offensive spell. “He can split focus…that’s not good…” Yefka thought but didn’t change expression. Yekfa watched Parvil who was looking right at her, as Aspen read the documents. The longer she looked at him two things became clear, despite how ominous his glowing eyes made him look, he wasn’t a scary looking man, not like Lord Calabrix was, but soon after the realization something else became clear. The dark behind him writhed like a mass of arms and tentacles and unspeakable things, inky black and angry. A strange dichotomy between the two, she would have to be careful. No warlock she’d ever seen or read about was anything like this.
After a painfully long silence Aspen passed the documents back to Parvil, who in turn gave them back to Yefka. “We weren’t expecting back up.” Aspen said, “But after the two most recent reports we could use the help.” she said, then nodded at Parvil who scooped the dropped staff off the ground and offered it back. Yefka sheepishly and tentatively took the staff from Parvil.
Yefka watched the man flick his wrist and the magic vanished. “Okay.” he said, voice smooth but tired. “Let's get going. I’m tired, my feet hurt, and I can’t shake the feeling of eyes on me.” he scanned behind them, then to the sides.
Yefka nodded, swallowing hard. “Lead the way.”
The two walked ahead of her and she left out a silent sigh of relief. Step one complete, she hoped Lord Calabrix would be proud, the thought put a small smile on her face. Imagining the words she hoped he’d say. But was snapped out of it because she hated to admit it but she agreed with Parvil, it did feel like they were being watched, but not by people, or animals. She couldn’t place why she’d even know that or rather know how to even feel something like that. Hopefully the next town wasn’t much farther.