Chapter 11: Pursuit
After Dano Calrimann's order, the temporary King's adviser for the Waldemar house, four men entered a small town with less than a few thousand souls living inside.
This town was quite isolated and as a result perfect for many kinds of illegal activities. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that this town had an infamous reputation.
For someone with the status of Arthur Waldemar, coming into this town was already quite surprising. The fact that he chose to move secretly without any guard was without a doubt to avoid any unnecessary attention.
If not for the careful attention of Dano, his movements would have stayed undetected.
The four trusted men of Dano easily found the coachman in this small city. He was the only one providing the expensive Vrapy carriage.
The owner of the carriage was an old man looking frail but with a sharp gaze testifying of his long experience.
After a handful of coins had changed hands, he explained everything. There wasn't anything like secrecy policy in this kind of town where money was king.
“So you drove the old man to an old house and you left him near the Great Forest of the West when a little boy attacked him?”
Jacis, who was leading this small squad, clenched his fists in anger.
“Who is this boy?”
“I don’t know. I came to this house with the old man and came back with a beautiful woman and a small kid. We stopped to eat at the edge of the Great forest to rest a little before crossing the Wilderness, but the boy suddenly attacked the old man. I felt things would get worse, so I left.”
“You left despite being paid in advance. Don't you have any shame?"
Another man of the squad exclaimed in anger after hearing the explanation of the old man.
The gray eyes of the old man became cold as a snort escaped his thin lips.
"I don't care what you think of me. I was hired to transport those three, but he never mentioned anything about possible fights. If he did, the price would have been higher, but I wouldn't have left."
"You..."
"Enough!"
Jacis interrupted his subordinate who was ready to retort.
"Do you remember this boy’s face?”
The old and bald coachman answered as coldly as before.
“Yes, I clearly remember. He was short and slim. He had sky blue eyes and I also clearly remember that he had brown hair with red strands.”
“Red strands of hair?”
Jacis tilted his head. It wasn't as if he never heard about a human having red hair, but it was quite peculiar nonetheless. It was also possible to change the color of your hair using some product created with common plants, but it would be surprising if a small boy used that.
“You will lead us where you saw them for the last time.” Finally ordered Jacis.
“No problem... if you pay.”
Jacis handed him a purse full of gold coins after hearing the cold voice of the man that didn't leave any space for negotiation.
The coachman smiled mischievously before heading toward his carriage.
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The coachman led them at the border of the Great Forest of the West where he saw them for the last time.
Crossing the wilderness wasn't an easy thing, but with a Vrapy carriage using the Blueway, it was possible to be fast enough to avoid any trouble with the creatures living inside.
Despite his cold and arrogant attitude, the old man was talented and enabled them to reach their destination sooner than they thought.
Jacis and his men were standing where the coachman saw his customers for the last time, just in front of the Great Forest of the West.
The two Great Forests of the Eastern Continent weren’t a part of the Human kingdom. They belonged to the Elven race.
The relation between the Great forest of the West and Humans was better than with the Great forest of the North but that didn't mean that it was possible to do anything near their territory.
As a result, Humans weren’t allowed to build anything near the forests. They weren’t allowed to enter without permission either. If they were found inside without any authorization, then they would be at the mercy of the ruler of the forest.
As long as they didn’t enter the forest, they would be safe. However, Jacis and his men couldn’t help but be more and more anxious with every second near it.
“They are not here anymore. We must find clues about what happened.”
“Jacis, what if they entered the forest?”
“Don’t be stupid. Master would never enter the forest. He is too smart for that.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.”
The men separated to look for clues.
Jacis didn’t expect to find anything.
Before they arrived, he was hoping that their master was just not able to move, but now that he saw the fighting traces, he was losing hope.
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“Here, bro. Look at that!”
The voice of one of his men woke him from his thoughts.
“What is it?”
A tall and sturdy man approached him with a little piece of wood in his hands.
Jacis took it and saw that something was written on it.
‘May you find eternal rest in this life or in the next one.’
“What is this?”
Jacis never saw anything like that, but he had a bad premonition.
“Where did you find it?”
The big man quickly pointed a few feet away from them.
Jacis ran as fast as he could to see the designated place.
He felt his body become colder as he noticed that the soil wasn’t hard like in the rest of the clearing.
“We must dig!”
His voice echoed in the clearing.
Everyone understood what his words meant.
For several minutes, they dug as fast as they could until they felt something hard.
It was ice.
They were temporarily stunned to find ice under the earth, but after a couple of seconds, they came back to their senses and continued to dig.
After several more minutes of effort, they finally found what they were looking for.
They found the body of their master.
Jacis wasn’t grateful or loyal to this man like Dano, but he still liked the old man.
He felt anger rising inside him as he looked at his face horribly deformed.
This wasn’t the body of someone who had a peaceful death.
He was sure of that.
“How is this possible?”
One of his men finally asked what the others thought.
Apart from the body of their master, they also found the body of a woman trapped inside a large chunk of ice.
Ice magic was a famous magic.
Many mages knew that it was possible to create ice if you were skilled enough in Water magic or if you were able to use the Sacred magic of Ice.
The most famous practitioner of this magic was one of the ten Archimages belonging to the magic council.
The magic council wasn’t related to any kingdom. It was an independent organization created after the Great War hundreds of years ago. By regrouping the most powerful mages among the countries, they wanted to prevent another war involving the different races.
They were the guardians of the peace.
All of them were very powerful and as a result, really famous.
However, Jalyse Vanothice was probably the most famous among them.
She was a Master Water mage.
Her achievements as a Water mage were impressive and complemented by her ability to use the Sacred magic of ice.
All elements were different. Each of them had their own aspect allowing the mage to use different kinds of magic and abilities.
Becoming a Master mage didn't mean that you could use all aspects of the element. For example, Jalyse Vanothice wasn't able to create ice with her Water magic whereas others could.
However, she could use the Sacred magic of ice which enabled her to manipulate directly this element without needing to change her Water magic in ice first.
Being able to create ice with Water magic or using the Sacred magic of Ice didn't seem to make any difference in the end.
However, every mage with some accomplishment knew that the difference between the two methods was quite important in reality.
The difficulty to master one of the aspects of an element was overbearing. While talent, determination and hard work were necessary to use ice magic for a Water mage, it was possible to use ice magic directly for a Sacred mage of Ice.
If you were qualified to use the Sacred magic of ice then it was possible to skip the hard work necessary for the other Water mages. This thought of mastering a strong aspect of an element without needing hard work made this Sacred magic famous among the mages.
However, even if the Sacred magic didn't need hard work to be activated, its requirements still remained a mystery for most of the mages.
Some mages spent a lifetime trying to master one and failed in the end. Even if this magic didn't need hard work to practice, it was still difficult to master, dangerous to control and, more importantly, incredibly difficult to discover.
For that reason, numerous people thought that the only way to learn a sacred magic was to learn its secrets from another mage.
Jalyse had three famous apprentices able to use the Sacred magic of ice after her teaching.
Except for those four Sacred mages and a couple of strong users of Water magic having developed this aspect of the Water element, nobody was supposed to be able to create ice.
That’s why Jacis didn’t understand what he was seeing.
He touched the coffin, but only felt coldness on his hand.
There was no mistake.
“We must call Dano. If this was created by a sacred magic, then this is already beyond us.”
He had already found his master. Therefore, it wasn’t necessary for him to look for the culprit.
A powerful mage will have to take care of this.