Eiyuu Kishi Den

The trio emerged from the spirit plane into a wooded area, a good distance away from the city. Eliamn collapsed on her hands and knees, breathing heavily from the exertion. Naclia was feeling drained as well, but even with their combined spiritual power, it was Eliamn who took the greatest toll. She would manage though, and Naclia and Wil likely had enough strength for any other summons they would need.

Naclia helped Eliamn to her feet and observed their surroundings. "Well... I suppose we're in a good place," Naclia said.

"We are west of the city," Eliamn paused, taking a breath. "No further than Aiden or the others could have gone in a few hours."

"Right," Naclia replied, her eyes scanning over the woods, then up at the sky to regain her sense of direction. Using the stars she could see overhead, she easily regained her internal compass. "I'll see if can find Aiden. Let's just wait here for now."

Eliamn stepped aside so Naclia could use the proper summoning gestures, and the ranger began to call upon the spirits again. Instead of turning to Sylph again, Naclia tried something a little more down to earth and put her hand against one of the trees, calling up the fairies within. "Fairies of the wood, impart to me your knowledge. Find the elf known as Aiden, and lead us to him." Naclia felt the fairies' agreement, but it would be some time before their path was made clear.

Still panting, Eliamn numbly watched Naclia coax the attention of the faeries to her. An exhausted sigh hissed out from between parted lips and she wiped sweat off her forehead. Her fingers then came down to pinch the neckline of her robe and gave it several tugs as she tried to air it; perspiration had made the garment feel uncomfortably sticky against her skin.

Eliamn dumped her backpack and sat back on the ground, opting to rest a little until the stars swimming in her eyesight faded. She reached to the side of her pack retrieve her waterskin. Eli unstoppered it and gulped down several greedy swallows until a trickle of water escaped the corner of her lips; she stopped and nonchalantly wiped the errant water away with the back of her wrist, too tired to really care about being unsightly.

After about twenty minutes, the fairies returned. "They found him. Let's go," she announced, taking a step forward. However, remembering Eliamn's condition, she looked back to see the shamaness's obvious exhaustion. "Eli, can you walk?"

Wil, having caught his breath, walked over to Eliamn and knelt before her, back to her. "Get on." He half-ordered. "My mother told me rituals feel like the life has been sucked out of you and it takes a full night's rest to recover from such a feeling. I may not be much help otherwise, but you can borrow my back whenever you need to rest."

Eliamn was about to gladly accept Wil's offer but hesitated; she wasn't actually sure he could really carry around her and her gear at length. Could the half-elf be rashly overestimating himself in an effort to try and make himself useful? While she dreaded offending him by refusing his generous offer, she also wanted to spare his pride if he tried and couldn't do it after all.

The blonde elfwoman finally reached out and wrapped her arms loosely around one of his arms, as if he had offered it to her in a gentlemanly fashion. "I would be most grateful if you could just support me as I walk, Wilhelm," she told him sweetly. "Thank you."

"A, alright then. Uh, I mean, you're welcome." Wil stammered with a small blush upon his cheeks. "Shall we then?" He asked, looking to Naclia to lead the way.

Naclia led on, following the path laid out by the fairies. Their trek was not an easy one. It took them through forests, on a gradual incline. They crossed several roads, but Naclia was on a direct course through the forest. As they stepped out of the woods again and onto another road, Naclia noticed an odd pillar of ice. It was barely a foot tall and melting, but there was no snow at this altitude. "What in the name of Falis?" she muttered, but she didn't want to waste time investigating, lest the fairies get upset by waiting on her.

The trail led them further up a steep road until it veered off into the woods again. They were drawing closer to their destination, but with no campfire, Naclia was unaware of this. Soon enough, she heard the horses. However, aware that they were being hunted, she had to be cautious. Dropping her hand to the hilt of her sword, she kept following the trail until she could make out the forms of several horses...then a centaur...and then the pale hair of Aiden and the shine of the faint moonlight on Talen's armor.

Aiden heard the approach of several people, which first jostled him from his nearly meditative state, then he saw the faint green glow of the spirits. "Naclia?" he asked, rising to his feet. Sure enough, his friend was the one approaching, with a very exhausted looking Eliamn and the Minstral in tow. "Thank Falis... the soldiers have been searching for us," he sighed, and threw his arms around Naclia.

Eliamn's hands slid down from Wil's arm and she slid a step aside, standing up straight with a deep breath. Her features were drawn, but she wasn't entirely crippled like the time with the wagon bearing the fake dragon egg.

The shamaness wanted to get right to business. While it was true that they were being hunted and that it was worrisome, she felt that staying on the offensive and getting things done was better than suddenly stoop to the role of fugitive.

But... something was missing. It took her a moment to realize it. "Where are Lyassa and Kima?"

"Kima is sleeping," Aiden said, jerking his thumb back toward a dark form laying on the ground. "Lyassa...was captured by the soldiers," the elf said reluctantly.

"The Duke should not have started to miss us so early," Eliamn frowned. "They are obviously informed about who we are. Any idea on why they would be after us?"

"Well if the information we got from Roke is correct, then it's probably the agents of Roess and the Mur-Cavendrel's manipulating the information behind the scenes." Wil added in, "the duke may have his ear to the Mur-Cavendrels since they are lords."

Rylan saw the others return and nodded in greetings, he had been keeping watch for any trouble but they seemed safe now. Still the information brought back seemed rather ominous to him, he knew little about human politics except that it was both treacherous and to be avoided. "Then it looks like the obvious source are useless, their obviously tainted." Was all he managed to say, before sitting down and waiting for others to respond. He was trying to come up with a few things that might help, of course maybe they could ask the elemental spirits in the area if they knew anything as well. "We could ask the spirits in the area." He voiced his second thought, but then it was up to the group.

Eliamn shook her head lightly and then launched in an explanation: "We found out that there's a good chance the person employing Roess could be one of the younger nobles from the Mur-Cavendrel household. We have also conjectured that it was quite likely that this person used the resources his family could provide him to fund magical studies and that he might have indulged himself in necromancy. That could explain the interest in collecting the egg - it is likely the spell component for some arcane craft."

The shamaness brow furrowed, her eyes intense as she looked in Aiden's. "We have three days starting tomorrow until the deadline Roess set on the letter comes to term, assuming he is not faster or slower. Seeing that we are looking at confronting a young noble along with his hired mercenaries and possibly the backing of his family, we can hardly afford to not be subtle and diplomatic about the issue if we wish to avoid making ourselves fugitives. Seeing that, we have located the place where the Mur-Cavendrel nobleman in question might have had studied magic, or at least peddled in magical grimoires and spell components. It is my belief that if we can gather more evidence about the nature of his studies and perhaps discover the intended motive and purpose behind him stealing the egg of the golden dragon, we might have a proper case we could present to the Mur-Cavendrel family. It might not solve everything, but it would remove the sternest impediment in our way to accomplishing the task Mycen has trusted upon us."

"No Rylan, I don't think the spirits would know anything else in this regard," Aiden replied to the centaur, glancing over his shoulder. The spirits didn't concern themselves with human affairs. "It could also be possible that the duke simply didn't trust us to stand by our word and sent someone to check on us at the Drecloud manor."

The ranger turned back to Eliamn. He was impressed by the amount of information Eliamn had been able to come back with, but did they learn where the Mur-Cavendrels actually were? Whether or not they did, Eliamn made a good point in accumulating evidence about whoever was behind the egg theft. "So, do we go to this place of study then? Have you found the location of the Mur-Cavendrel family yet?"