“Sir, I didn’t know you were in this part of the city!” Grace exclaimed, watching as her mentor approached casually. “Weren’t you meant to be meeting with the council to discuss the new quarterly budgeting?”

“Originally, yes, but a few of the others got pulled away due to an emergency,” Rubeus explained without pause. “Somebody forgot to follow the safety rules while experimenting with a self-replicating mud elemental, and they had to get it all under control before anything else, so the meeting got delayed until tomorrow. And… In the meantime, I went to the castle to try and congratulate a certain man for reaching the position of Royal Healer, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found.”

Elijah glanced at the people who had stopped close by, listening in on the Royal Mage’s words. This wasn’t going too well.

“Ah, sorry, I know that look,” Rubeus said in a much quieter voice. “Do you mind if we go inside? I would prefer not to have the old ladies talking even more than they’re going to now.”

I’d prefer it if you just left.

Even if it was subtle, and even if Grace hadn’t spotted it yet, he could see the slight glimmer in the Mage’s eyes. That flash of purple and blue matched his regular Aura well, but it was still distinct enough for him to see the difference, the coloring darker than the rest, and he had little doubts about why it was there.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Elijah lied, opening the door and letting the two others walk inside before entering alongside them. He closed it afterward, locking it once again and hoping nobody would dwell too long on it. “I can make tea if you’d like.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I won’t be staying here too long,” the Royal Mage replied, looking around again and again. Eyes were narrowed, searching for something amongst all the noise. “And, now that I can speak plainly again, I must say that I’m happy to hear of your new position. Alin, who you’ve met already, told me about his experience with you.”

Without asking for permission, Rubeus took his steps towards the private areas of the house, looking into the laboratory, up the stairs without going on them, and then over to the back where the hatch door into the basement was located.

“I hope the Earth Mage had nice things to say,” Elijah commented, looking on from a few meters away while the Royal Mage stepped on the hatch door again and again, not fully knowing it was there due to the carpet that sat on top of it. “Is there something wrong with the floor?”

Beside him, he could see Grace frowning at her Mentor’s actions as well. She had no clue about why he was doing this and what it could possibly do good for.

Good thing that she doesn’t.

“There’s a strange draft of sorts coming out here,” Rubeus explained. “You wouldn’t happen to have a basement?”

“Oh, right, he does,” Grace said before Elijah could lie about its existence. “I remember getting down there years ago to help clipping on herbs on strings to dry. Isn’t it just a hatch door under the carpet?”

“I… yes, that’s right,” he confirmed without any other alternative. He wasn’t a fan of this at all. The back door looked completely undisturbed, the carpet was the same story, and no hints of quick travel could be spotted. There was a legitimate chance of them still being below their feet. “Though I’ve not used it for anything of importance since that time. It became too hard on the back, to go up and down those steep stairs every week.”

“That’s very fair,” the Royal Mage replied, looking back down as he pushed away the carpet. “... Is there any chance I could see it?”

If a normal person had requested such a thing, Elijah could’ve told them ‘no.’ It was an entirely fair choice to make, as opening up a rarely-used basement door would make a frightening amount of dust spread out around the house. And, yet, this wasn’t the average man asking. It wasn’t the average Mage. It was the Arcane Mage, who stood above almost all other Mages in the entire country. Was it a strange request? Most certainly. Could he say no? Not in his dreams.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“If it would help alleviate your concerns,” Elijah allowed, walking over and taking his sweet time opening the hatch up. With the way the wood had warped on the edges, acting as if it was rather hard to get moving wasn’t too difficult. “Grace, if you wouldn’t mind?”

She went over to help, and, together, they were able to pry it open in just about a minute. Elijah went to take the first steps down, but Rubeus was faster, the Royal Mage nearly speeding down them without a care for possibly falling.

“Be careful, sir!” Grace warned, seeing it as well.

Elijah went down second, following at a normal speed while Grace was just behind him, jumping down the last few steps and moving over to her teacher who inspected the empty crates stacked next to the closed window.

Other than those, however, the basement was empty.

They’ve been moved already.

“You said you didn’t come down here recently?” Rubeus asked, pulling away the cloth that covered the glass from being seen from inside. Elijah couldn’t care much about the questions, however, too elated about the danger vanishing. “I fear that others might’ve.”

“Why do you think so?” Elijah replied innocently, walking over to see what the Royal Mage was pointing at.

Rust had fallen off the old hinges to the window, a side-effect of them being used again after so many years. By the looks of it, however, it wasn’t from today but from several days ago when they had first used it to escape the house.

“It might not be obvious, but I believe you had some recent visitors,” the Royal Mage explained, putting his finger on the rest of the flecks next to the window. He frowned as it stained his skin, not coming off when he tried to wipe it away. “They seem to have stayed here for a while if I’m not mistaken.”

“Are you sure, sir?” Grace questioned, sounding mildly worried about her mentor. “There’s just dry dirt around here. Not really a place criminals would be hiding out.”

There was also the incredibly thin root system embedded in the far side of the wall, which traveled down deeper into the earth in search of nutrition, but Elijah didn’t feel like pushing the attention towards that particular plant.

“... Maybe you’re right,” Rubeus gave in, studying Elijah for a moment before the eyes moved away once more. Was he seeing residue on him? If so, the reasoning was likely because of his continued interactions with the two that were being searched for, yet that implication might not have been obvious to the Royal Mage. “Sorry about all of this, Elijah. My eyes must be getting tired after a long day. I should perhaps take my leave before I cause more trouble.”

Elijah did the routine of assuring the other man that it was all fine, that everybody had moments of confusion, and that he could surely stay for tea. While Rubeus did seem interested in the latter, the flicker of purple in his eyes made it clear there was no intention of doing as much. Before long, after talking with Grace about Elijah possibly borrowing the book regarding Biomancy and agreeing to it, he had moved out of the front door once again.

That went well.

All in all, he couldn’t say it had gone too bad. His heart still pounded, and he was certainly still worried about the speed that the Royal Mage walked with as he continued following the trail to hopefully nowhere, but it was over for now.

“I really need to apologize about this, Elijah. He usually isn’t this distracted,” Grace said after he’d found her the necessary medication to help with her mother’s sleeping routine. “He’s gotten into these half-distracted moods before, but they’re usually limited to when he’s working on something in the laboratory. It’s never outside.”

“It’s fine,” he assured her, before asking about the other times something like this had happened.

As it turned out, the absent-minded replies and brief moments of apparent confusion were a result of heavy usage of his Mana. Whenever he finished some grand creation or had been modifying some component for several hours in a row, the Royal Mage could operate in a similar state.

“I just can’t figure out what he could’ve done to get like this today, since he was meant to be having a light day of slow meetings,” the Wind Mage said, quiet for a few seconds before shaking away whatever thought she’d had. “I’ll try to come by in a few days with the book. Take it easy until then, Elijah, alright?”

“Of course,” he promised without an inkling of truth to his words, waving her off before he locked the front door once again and went out the back. It was time to return to the castle once more.

Hopefully, they could solve this very soon, or the Royal Mage would be back on their trail.