The first person to arrive was not a guard. Instead the archmage Nicholas entered the building and walked towards us.
“Greetings. I heard you found a demonic ritual?”
“Hello Nicholas. Yes we found something, how did you know?” While I encountered the archmage briefly before I did not know him. His arrival was rather suspicious. I had no idea how to address him formally so I simply used his name.
“Ah. I was at the guard headquarters dispelling some ice magic. Seemed like some inquisition folks did get into a bit of trouble.” He chuckled. “The guard did not have anyone powerful enough to free them so they called the academy. It got me curious so I went personally. I was still there when a panicked guard stormed in shouting about demons. It seemed like a serious matter so I came immediately. The guards will probably arrive in a few minutes.”
That did make sense, if it was true. But it would be easy to verify. “I see. Well, have a look at what we found.” I pointed at the crates.
Nicholas walked over to them and studied the ritual while stroking his beard. “You are right, that is a demon summoning.” He frowned. “A delayed summoning. It was activated and you dispelled it I suppose?”
“Yes I did.” Lucy said proudly.
Nicholas looked at her closely. “I see. You look different than last time we met.”
Lucy just smiled.
“Anyway, this is concerning.”, Nicholas said. “Demons are not something to take lightly. It also means an experienced magic user is involved. The academy will cooperate fully with your investigation. After a short pause he continued: “I am a friend of William by the way. Thank you for saving his life.”
Our conversation was interrupted when more people arrived. Unfortunately Jessica was one of them.
“Master Earthbreaker, you should not have rushed ahead. While we welcome your assistance this is a guard matter. As for you…” She pointed at me. “You are probably responsible for this! You were in here alone and suddenly there is a ritual.”
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Nicholas sighed. “Nonsense. If Amaya placed the ritual, why would she report it?”
“She is probably trying to frame someone! I sent word to the inquisition, they will help us find the true culprits!” Jessica insisted.
Nicholas just shook his head. “Those ritual circles are inactive but we need to destroy them. I can confirm Amaya and Lucy’s assessment.”
“Master Nicholas, I am not going to destroy evidence. The inquisition will handle them. They have centuries of experience in dealing with evil forces.”, Jessica said.
Yeah, how could that possibly go wrong? It was good that Nicholas did the talking. I had no patience left for Jessica. We did our duty, it was time to leave and look for the trail Lucy found.
“It’s been nice meeting you Nicholas. We will be on our way then.” Nobody stopped us as we left.
“Lucy, what do you think about Nicholas?”, I asked.
”I think we can trust him. He is not a fan of the Empire. Frederick often complained about him.”
“That is good to know. He could be a powerful ally.” I looked around. We had moved to an alley nearby. Nobody seemed to be watching us. “We should follow the trail you caught.”
Lucy nodded and turned into a fox again. I used a spell to turn us invisible. We needed to go back to the warehouse to pick up the trail. I did not want the guards to spot us. Thanks to my magical eyes I could still see Lucy. Otherwise following her would have been difficult. It was not a power Lucy inherited though, at least not fully. She could only see some distortions where an invisible person was. That problem was solved with magic. Thanks to the spell See the Unseen. With our preparation complete we started the hunt!
The trail led us to a tavern in the seedier part of the docks. Lucy transformed back and I cancelled our invisibility. We entered the establishment and took a look around. While the patrons wore cheap clothing, and did not look clean, they were all in remarkably good shape. Everyone watched us as we entered. The bartender seemed tense as we approached. He was a big man. I decided to not be subtle about this. I wanted to see his reaction.
“Hello. Have you seen any demons around here?” Interestingly, the bartender seemed to relax.
“Demons? What sort of nonsense is that? Do I look like some fancy magician to you?” He shook his head. “This is a respectable tavern. Lot’s of hard working folk around here.”
While the man was talking I noticed something on his forehand. There was a rune there. And it was starting to glow. I could not quite figure out what sort of rune it was.
“You certainly start to look like a fancy magician now. Care to explain that rune?” I asked, while taking a step back.
He frowned. “I am not sure wh… wha…” He could not finish his sentence and started coughing. Something was very wrong here. I started to cast dispel magic on him. While the rune disappeared, I heard screams from all around me. I watched in horror as 6 out of the 8 patrons in the tavern burst into flame. The flames shifted and took the form of large dogs, with horns. The monsters hide looked ashen with crimson streaks, their eyes glowed red. I started to cast chain lightning. I could mentally select the targets it would jump to. I even pushed the spell from the 5th to 7th circle to make it instantaneous. Lightning sprang from my fingertips. The smell of ozone filled the air as it arced from target to target. 4 of the hounds collapsed. The last two still stood, slightly dazed. Lucy did not give them a chance to recover. She summoned her spear and stabbed both in the throat.
It was all over so quickly, the surviving patrons were still frozen in shock. I looked back at the bartender. He appeared a bit sickly but alive. The floor of the tavern was charred where the monsters appeared. There was also ash. It looked like the people did not transform into hounds. No, they were sacrificed, burned alive to summon the hounds. Someone put a spell on these people. Hopefully the bartender could tell us more.