The ground of the unnatural clearing was torn open, the metal plate was cracked, seemingly consisting of countless small needles melted together. In the middle of the landscape, two metal pillars protruded from the ground, around which the wave had bent. Many trees at the edge of the clearing had been destroyed, ripped out, or completely stripped bare by what seemed to be very strong winds. In one place, a very wide path had been carved into the forest, where not a single blade of grass still stood upright. Like a peninsula, it attached itself to the clearing.
"But no trace of any bodies," Nero said and looked around searchingly. "At least not here, but the fight clearly continued in that direction."
He pointed in a direction where a broad strip of destruction went through the forest. There, one could clearly recognize traces of a hunt, because in one long line, trees were destroyed, deep holes were in the earth, and metal spears protruded from the ground.
"How do you know the fight did not come from there?" Zyta asked suspiciously. "Maybe it ended here."
Nero nodded. "Possible, but Tissling is over there, which was the direction from which your colleague was supposed to come. So that would mean he was attacked on his way home, but why would the Reil attack him if he was the one being hunted?"
"Good point," Julius said thoughtfully. "But it could also be that they were caught in an ambush and tried to retreat… but then we would have to see traces here somewhere that the fight ended. Something like blood, or perhaps even a corpse…" He looked around the gigantic clearing.
They split up in four directions and carefully examined the clearing.
"Here!" Eleanor called. Immediately, the three came to the place where Eleanor stood, and there were indeed drops of blood on the ground.
"The drops seem to go in that direction," Nero said and pointed in the same direction he had pointed before. "And since most of the blood is here, and there is less and less in that direction, I assume this…," he hesitated briefly as if he was not sure about the name, "Tark, or Isabella, was wounded here and then fled in that direction while closing the wound."
"I can't argue with that," Zyta said reluctantly. The blood trail was not long, but if one looked closely, one could see a very small hole in the remains of some trees, which went through the trunks.
"Alright, there seems to be nothing else here. Let us hope the blood belonged to the Reil, not our friends. We move on," Julius decided after they had looked around a little more.
Together, the group followed the long path of battle traces. Here, the forest was clearly denser again, despite the occasional destroyed trees or metal spears protruding from the ground.
"No trace of the Reil's magic," Nero murmured. "So he cannot be a fire mage, water mage, ice mage, metal mage, or any other kind of mage whose magic leaves obvious traces."
"That makes sense," Julius said. "According to the report, he was a body mage. They are known to leave no traces except," he made a dramatic pause, gesturing broadly at the surroundings, "except, of course, the usual destruction."
Nero nodded but said nothing more about it. They continued walking, and it took some time before they reached a new place.
In the middle, metal spread out in a circle, covering the ground. But not in one single even form, rather as if the metal had sprayed from here in every direction. It was strange because the traces indicated that the metal had once been liquid, but now it had solidified firmly, as if someone had stopped time in the middle of motion. In the center of this circle, a gigantic dried bloodstain could be seen, from which two drag marks led into the forest. Everywhere on the ground lay remains of metal objects, some smashed into the smallest pieces, others cleanly split in half. Around the bloodstain, periodic metal walls spread out at different radii, or at least what remained of the walls.
Julius looked around with his brow furrowed. "The fight clearly ended here…" he murmured. "From here, I see no further traces of battle."
Nero nodded in agreement. He knelt over the dried blood. "It does not look good for your friends," he murmured and picked up a small scrap of clothing that hung on a protruding metal spike.
Julius shook his head sadly, but said nothing. Eleanor looked around the battlefield curiously.
"I will fly up again. Maybe I can discover something," Zyta said. Her magic surged as she lifted off the ground, carried by a golden light.
Julius now came to Nero and looked at the two blood trails running parallel to one another. "There is no doubt…" he murmured. "They were dragged along here. Whether dead or unconscious, I cannot tell."
Nero nodded and slowly straightened up. Meanwhile, Julius ran his hand over a severed metal shield. No one said anything while they examined the clearing. Finally, Zyta sank back down. "Nothing," she said. "The fight clearly ended here."
"That much is certain." Julius sounded more angry than sad, though there was also something indefinable in his voice. "But something else also becomes obvious here."
"And what would that be?" Nero asked, trying to sound as uninvolved as possible. Inside, he was already thinking through every possible scenario in case there was indeed a trace pointing to them.
"This was not the work of a body mage. Look at the cleanness of these cuts, and then at the same time, the devastation that was caused here. This cannot be the work of a body mage."
"So the reports were wrong?"
"I don't think so. After all, we also have witnesses of the fights. The Reil was almost certainly a body mage, but this here is not the work of a body mage. I was already skeptical anyway, because there is something I did not tell you. The Reil was already badly wounded when our friends chased him into the forest. So in his condition, he should never have been able to defeat Tark or Isabella, let alone kill them. If necessary, they could simply have flown away, but whatever they fought here, it caught up with them. This was clearly Tark's last stand. I assume Isabella was already out of action here, because why else would they be fighting here on the ground?" Julius concluded.
"So what now?" Zyta asked her brother.
"We follow the blood trail, of course."
And that was exactly what they did. Together, they walked in the direction in which the blood trails seemed to run. They searched further through the forest for almost a day, but no more traces of Tark and Isabella could be found, which did not surprise Nero. He had made sure the bodies would never be found again.
…
"I am sorry that we wasted your time so much, honored gentlemen," Julius said apologetically after he had accompanied Nero and Eleanor back to their lodging. Zyta had already returned to the Order's building to send the necessary reports.
Nero shook his head. "There is no reason for you to apologize. I should apologize that we were of no help and could not find your friends," Nero spoke with a friendly but burdened voice, as if he was truly disappointed not to have been of greater help.
Julius smiled sadly. "You couldn't have done more than you did," he said. "Sooner or later, we will find the one responsible for the murder and hold him accountable, I can promise you so much. The Order does not allow the murder of one of its own to go unpunished. Whoever it was is most likely still in Huma, then we will definitely find him."
Nero returned the smile. "Then I wish you good luck."
"Thank you very much, honored sir. And what do you plan to do now?"
Nero's black eyes flashed. "We will remain here in Tissling for some time longer, to take in the beautiful culture, before we unfortunately have to move on again. There are some important people who expect our presence."
Julius's eyes gleamed with interest, but he knew better than to ask like a curious child. Instead, he simply said goodbye politely and left.
Nero closed the door behind him, turned around, and looked at Eleanor.
"What is our next course of action?" Eleanor asked, directed at his duce.
Nero smiled, but it was not comparable to the polite and friendly smile from a moment ago. It was cold and calculating. This was Nero's true smile. "Were you not listening to me, oh good Eleanor? We will relax and enjoy the culture of this beautiful city."
Eleanor raised an eyebrow. "Nothing more? No further investigations? No more fights or planning?"
Nero shook his head. "There is no reason for that. We have searched the libraries from top to bottom, read every book that was halfway interesting. There are certainly still secrets in this city that we have not uncovered, but with the eyes of the Order on our backs, we cannot allow ourselves a mistake. So enjoy the break, Eleanor, relax your mind, practice your magic, pass the time somehow, because soon we need to leave."
And that was exactly what they did. The next two weeks passed as if in flight. There was no further contact with Julius, or with Zyta, or with any other member of the Order. From time to time, Eleanor discovered the aura of their stalker, who occasionally watched them from a distance, but apart from that, nothing exciting happened anymore. Despite Nero's words, they went to the library a few more times, more out of boredom than out of hope of finding something new. Unfortunately, these visits were always without result. They learned no new information that seemed useful, only half-knowledge, myths, legends, stories, and events that they had already seen described in countless other books.
And so it came that about two days before the rift was supposed to open again, they rose high into the air in the middle of the night, carried by pure darkness. They flew above the cloud cover. They were almost invisible against the pitch-black night sky. If one looked up, all one could see were blinking stars when they briefly blocked their light.
With Eleanor's help, hardly any aura escaped from them, yet they did not fly directly to their destination. Instead, they flew for almost an entire day in a completely different direction before turning around in a wide arc. Eleanor made sure that no one was following them. What they did not realize was that their exact movement was being tracked the entire time.
Julius was still deep underground in the Order's facility, where he stared at a table with concentration. Beside him stood his sister, but behind him, in the darkness, stood another gigantic person, waiting eerily in the mixture of darkness and faint torchlight, not moving a single muscle.
The tabletop was an artistic map carved from strange wood, showing the entire continent of Huma. It was a masterful work, not only faithful in detail but also true to scale.
On it glowed dozens of small points in different colors, most of them completely still. But Julius's full attention was on one quickly moving point, which was currently moving several kilometers away from Tissling.
"I knew it!" Zyta growled as they watched the point move back into the forest where Tark had disappeared.
"Not bad…" Julius murmured. "For a short time, I really thought they had nothing to do with it."
"Come on! What are we waiting for? Have them imprisoned!" Zyta said eagerly, but then the point suddenly stopped.
"They have stopped!" Julius said.
"All the better!" Zyta said. "Then we do not have to hunt them." She had already turned to leave, but Julius stopped her. "Wait a little longer…" he murmured curiously, not taking his eyes off the point for a second.
"For what?" Zyta asked, turning around angrily.
Julius did not know exactly, but he had a bad feeling. He opened his mouth to answer when the point suddenly vanished. In the very same second, symbols lit up on the tabletop, which faded not even a heartbeat later as they lost their connection.
Julius blinked, perplexed. "What happened?" he asked, more to himself than to the other two.
Zyta went back to the table. "Where did they go?" she asked in confusion.
"I do not know," Julius said as shock spread through him.
"Did they see through your trick?"
"That cannot be," Julius said. "The symbols on the cloth make it almost impossible to destroy. If they had thrown the cloth away, we would still see the point, but it simply… vanished."
"It does not matter how it happened, only that because of you, we let two traitors escape. You were too confident in your little trick with the cloth wrapping the Eye, so confident that you did not even think about what would happen if they noticed it."
Julius did not know what he could answer to that accusation. He had truly assumed Nero or Eleanor would not notice that the symbols in the cloth were not only there to hide the aura of the Eye, but also revealed their exact location.