Christ was on the fence. They had come to an agreement on the necessity of trying to pin down the enemy scouting force, at least so far as determining an identity for it, but none of that was going to get them any closer to returning to the Iriel'en fortress. He made an executive decision then, they would delay their hunt by a few hours to prep the sled for return to Irielhos and then the two scout parties would depart along the prescribed search pattern, crisscrossing the Canopy on their outward journey and back along the rolling floor of the great plateau's buried [Godtrees].
As it turned out, seven able bodies trivialized the packing. Many hands do, in fact, make for light work. Santa was a wizard for optimizing the load order and distribution. He was accustomed to breaking down beast kills in the wild and bringing them back in small sleds for the craftsmen. Under his guidance, the team managed to get the three-meter-long sled lined with even padding of wolf pelts. All of the spoils of the hunt would be coming. Only those being used as bedding were left behind.
Next came the bones and sinews of the same. Antlers from [Bladefern Elk] and [Bolt deer], along with what tendons Ulric had preserved, filled in creating a rather morbid collage. Elk hide lay atop that to create another cushioned layer, from there packed cordage from Santa and Cleaver secured the hunted goods. Ulric’s core collection came next, and required careful handling to preserve them from chipping, cracking, or other damage if things bounced around too much. The Elves handled that by packing cores interspersed with the preserved meat, to act as shock absorbers secured with another Elk hide so that it wouldn’t shift too much in transit. On top of them were laid the straightest sections of Ulric's [Steelwood] harvest, the main trunks left where they lay for being too heavy to haul by manpower alone but many smaller segments being suitable for use in a host of applications, and with those, was laid the great scimitar collected from one of the marauders so long ago. Braced as these were against the sled frame, Ulric saw that the interior of the sled was, essentially, sealed and secured. Clever.
Of the fallen Ancient, not much could be transported, it was simply too massive. A few wrist-thick boughs were carefully arranged to create a levelish surface, padded by the last of his [Bolt Deer] hides laid overtop. The penultimate layer was composed of stacked bricks of glassresin, melted in a stone pot in the outdoor fire pit, and poured into a set of molds via a quick [Stone Wall] form until the sled pack reached waist height. The Elves found that application of magic to be particularly ingenious.
Atop these went the gathered herbs, flowers, roots, and mushrooms in their leather-holding bags. Those that were edible and those that were not. Ulric had gathered a great many samples in his wanderings, mostly out of curiosity and a need for edibles. His far more refined mana sense detected swirls of essence in these plants that were indicative of their relative potency, compared to the woods surrounding the plateau. Even those harvested over a month ago retained a strong vibrancy to their aura, despite Ulric's lack of competency in appropriate harvesting methods. Instructor Gother would probably have had fits if he saw the butchery Ulric had applied to these exceedingly rare and powerful reagents. His Elven escorts were most impressed at the haul of glade resources, Christ was certain many of them might be unique to the glade or, at least, of greater value than their more commonly available cousins.
Over the top of the now chest-high sled cargo went the remaining [Forest Lord] hide, used as a tarp to tie down the goods, transforming the sled into a streamlined, sleek vehicle holding what amounted to Ulric's worldly riches. The Glade giveth its bounty, Ulric thought, sparing a moment to thank his home for its sustenance. Not that the land was actually listening, he was pretty sure even this magical place wasn't that kind of magical, but it was a good mindset to have, remembering gratitude for the place that you made home.
By the time the work was done, it was barely midsunsrise, only a couple of hours having been needed to secure Ulric's admittedly meager possessions. Christ decided that a meal would not go amiss before they started out on their canvassing of the great forest. Ulric obliged, sans the death spice, and the parties broke camp with the twin suns rising just above the snowy roof that surrounded the glade.
First came the climb. Ulric took them up via the same tree he'd descended with Brighteyes in tow, all that time ago. This area Ulric knew somewhat well, had patrolled on his hunts. How the beasts, Greater and Lesser, had ever gotten up to the canopy in the first place Ulric had no clue but chalked it up in the *shrugs* magic category. The climbing gear Ulric had thought he'd need for the descent down the plateau ended up not being wasted at all, they simply repurposed it for getting up the quarter kilometer, and then some, of craggy tree trunk that would take them into the lower reaches of the canopy. Using rope and piton was easier than free climbing and created a vertical “road” up to the canopy should he ever want to go up there and get eaten more efficiently.
From there, the groups diverged. Santa's party went due East, back along their original trek to reach Ulric's camp, and Geyrt led his own party along a North-Western direction. They moved with caution, as quietly as possible, feet crunching along in deposited snow that might hide a spectacular drop from the tree tops. The verticality and change of level possible in these twisted tree ways were mind boggling. It was a three-dimensional maze. Quickly, the party left Ulric's zone of familiarity, truly into the unknown. Geyrt took over completely then, on point, her bow dubbed Blinder nocked and ready.
Ulric was never so grateful for events that had conspired to put this huntress into his service. She moved like a hunting cat, agile and tireless. Frequently she would set the party to stay put and rove out for a brief circling, to take the lay of the tree-borne thickets and find the way forwards. At times she froze, halting the group with a raised hand. Inevitably her tuned senses proved precognitive, some creature or another would be heard rustling in the brush of lesser branches and associated parasitic bushes or even smaller trees, the [Godtrees] were massive enough to support a secondary forest amongst their boughs. If nothing else could drive home the fact that he was well and truly on an alien world, the great canopy of the [Plateau of Ancients] would.
Of the sources of his Shadow's caution, they saw none, she led them well around any potential threats. It was the job of the rest of the party, able to travel with greater assurance of safety in their surroundings, to scan the terrain for any sign of traversal by their opposition. As the team followed Geyrt's lead Ulric couldn't help but think that there had to be an element of magical navigation associated with both their enemy and with their guide. His Shadow was able to navigate more quickly than simple visual acuity and hearing could prescribe.
Ulric had never scanned the elf girl, which was probably something he should have put higher on his priority list, the better to know what tiger he had by the tail. Whatever the case, they were brought to a halt in a copse of some birchlike lesser trees, growing on a steeply angled rising main branch some thirty meters wide that had, briefly, paused in its ascent to produce an almost level place to rest. The party of experienced soldiers was relieved, it had been a tense bit of hiking for these last few hours. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to find his way back, should they be separated, which was why he’d never explored far from his entry points to the canopy.
Shaking her head and breathing out heavily, Geyrt spoke the problem on all their minds as they had come to understand the vast challenge of roving the canopy.
"This place is nightmare given form. Everywhere live beasts that, normally, would want a triad of Hunters to deal with. It is as the worst of the Deep Wood.” She said quietly to the group.
“In addition to the path under one's feet, there are ways above, paths stretching below and alongside all potentially paralleling or eventually crossing in ways impossible to foresee. Our enemy, if he is up here, will be almost impossible to find if they remain still." Twin Two despaired.
Christ nodded his agreement before addressing the other elephant in the room, "Already I think we may assume that our uninvited guests are being led by some form of scry. It would be madness to attempt this place with lesser skill than a most gifted Hunter. Those thorn-bearing vines, the ones that held that rotted ape skeleton, they were [Bloodrot Thrones], toxic beyond belief and we have seen many of them with paths trampled through them by some creatures able to shed their piercing touch or to suppress their venom. Ulric, your canopy reeks of dangers in untold number."
Ulric gave him an "I told you so" look.
"What did I say? It wouldn't even have occurred to me that someone could just roam around up here until you mentioned magical assistance. There's a reason I didn't hunt the canopy very frequently, despite the volume of game." He offered.
"No sign, whatsoever, have we seen thus far." Spoke Twin Two grimly before continuing in the same resigned tone "No sign do I expect to see for many a day either. We could travel these wood ways a dozen times and not use the same track. I am a warrior and not a Hunter, is it truly possible for us to locate our quarry in this vastness or do we shave frogs here?"
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That question was addressed to Geyrt, who was pensive. The fact that she didn't immediately exclaim that she would successfully find the interlopers was worrying. A lack of confidence was not one of Geyrt Iriel's character flaws.
"…There…may…be an alternative." Said Ulric's Shadow with hesitation clear in her tone.
She glanced at Ulric, a sidelong look that sent the lizard living in Ulric's brain to ringing alarm bells.
"Glade Chief, you may not like this." She admitted.
"While you learned your fundamentals with my mothers, they were instructing me in particular…skills…associated with being in your service." The rapturous woman spoiled her face with a grimace.
Oh hell, Ulric thought, this can't be good.
"One of them is the use of your body matter to enact a tracking spell, should we ever be separated and I need to find you over great distance. It is a close cousin of the working upon the artifact that allowed me to detect Lumyt'seit's return to Iriel." Geyrt admitted.
Ulric didn't think that sounded too bad until his attention snapped back to the term "body matter".
"What kind of "body matter" are we talking about here?" He asked skeptically. A feeling in the pit of his stomach was squirming around.
The twitching of ears in his companions did not bode well for her answer.
"This spellform requires a firm link to its target to be initiated. To operate specifically on your person I require your hair, blood, spit, and….seed." Said his Shadow ear tips reddening as she avoided looking at him.
Fandamntastic. His magic teacher hosts were instructing her in how to track him through blood magic. He'd never be rid of the woman, she could follow him anywhere he ran. Unless he figured out a way to shed the spell. Antidetection magic was now far, far higher on Ulric's priorities.
Wait. Seed? Ulric looked over at her with suspicion.
"When you say seed, are you talking about what I think you're talking about? This isn't some kind of euphemism in Human for something else?" Ulric probed, frowning.
"It's not as if I invented this spellform! It is ages old and has been used to great effect for generations! I am no archmage crafting new magics from the aether, I must do what I know." Complained his Shadow loudly, clearly about as unhappy as himself.
Christ stepped in to relieve the "young" woman of her place under Ulric's scrutiny and shushed her gently, his eyes doing a scan of the hazardous surroundings thanks to the volume of the outburst. Twin Two briefly gave her an exasperated scowl before returning to his study of the area. Geyrt wilted slightly at the general disapproval but then took up her challenging expression as if daring someone to complain. Which was mostly fair, she'd gotten them all this way, untouched, a feat no one else could have replicated as smoothly.
"Glade Chief, in this your Shadow is correct. Such magics are not unheard of in the Hunter circles, and they do require potent thaumaturgic links to their targets. Normally the materials are harvested from a dead beast to achieve a general tracking spell. For a spell to target a certain individual they require tuning to the individual in question, hair, blood, and saliva are the least needed. To refine the link it requires something of a greater…intimacy…to the target. Semen from a male, moon blood from a female. The blood and placenta of newborn offspring can be used for either as well but you have none of these. Yet." explained his training buddy and Captain of their expedition.
That was a particularly detailed and oddly specific thing to know.
"Christ you never mentioned any sort of magecraft, how do you know this?" Ulric questioned.
Christ smiled a little, almost awkwardly glancing toward Geyrt.
"Forgiveness Shadow, but he has asked and it isn't truly a secret." He told her before continuing.
"Upon the disappearance of Heir Lumyt'seit, Lady Shor instructed all the royal guard in the same tracking spell of which your Shadow speaks. She also insisted on each guardsman casting this spell on each of the Lord Iriel's children, so as to prevent future attempts like those on the Heir. I can find your Shadow, if I focus on her being, even if she should cross the great Vatyn sea into the cold wastes." Christ explained apologetically.
Well, ok, Ulric had to admit that that made some degree of sense, invasive and paranoid and super creepy as it was.
"Alright, let's say I buy it, it's a little lot invasive and kinda squirrelly but I'll grant you that the Elves have done good magery so far as I've seen. How does this help us?" Uric inquired.
Geyrt tossed her braid over her shoulder, regaining her composure, before answering.
"It is as Kryr'st has already explained. We use the spellform as it is used to hunt beasts. This only requires the blood, hair, and saliva, not the other, I can use this to make a detection spell that will allow me to home in on nearby humans, any humans. It should allow us to, at least, close the distance between the invading group, to find a bearing as I lead us." Said his Shadow with her usual aplomb.
There were some qualifying statements in there Ulric was not entirely pleased with, especially since he was going to be the reagent for the spell.
"You don't sound as certain about this as I was hoping, Geyrt. Are you sure this isn't going to backfire and do something heinous to me on accident?" He asked.
"…."
"…."
Okay, it took her way too long to think about that, Ulric decided. Just as he was opening his mouth to vote "nay" she interjected.
"It will be fine, it will work! The worst case is that the spell only works to tell me you are standing next to me, there are no ill effects. This is a simple modification of the working, any imbecile could do it." Geyrt claimed.
That was worrying on its own merits. Any jack jaw running around could get a sample of tissues and track you? Unacceptable. But Ulric shelved his complaints, for now. They needed a way to find the assholes running around out here. Now that he'd traveled well outside his usual stomping grounds, he could plainly see just what a mind-boggling challenge it was to find anybody anywhere in this warren of deadly tree ways. The near physical need to remove the presence of trespassers from his territory was more worrying than the less than stellar picture Geyrt was painting.
"Alright." Ulric decided. "You can try the hunting spell and we will, hopefully, be able to at least get a bearing on our targets. Let's just hope they are moving in a group and they aren't all Beastkin or something. I have a feeling this spell won't have the ability to track any non-humans."
That was confirmed by a quick negative shake of the head from his fellow party members.
With resignation, Ulric gave the go-ahead.
"Let's do this then, we're deep in the bush and burning daylight."
Geyrt drew her belt knife and took a small lock of hair, just a pinch that removed a few broken strands from his braided ponytail, instructed him to stick out his tongue so that she could scrape the blade lightly across it, and then, without so much as a by your leave, pricked his forearm to draw a droplet of blood. She had her components in a matter of a few seconds and then retreated to crouch over her knife blade.
Unlike the spellcasting that Ulric was familiar with, this had more of the feeling of ritual magic. Less mana manipulation through the core via internal logic and careful manipulations and more of a formulaic, pre-canned approach. The "body matter" was mixed with some kind of dust from her belt, a blue silver powder that might have been a mana crystal ground fine. The resulting paste turned jet black, then shimmering aqua-marine with blood-red pulses.
Not concerning at all. No sir.
Several runes were then carved into a small plate of, was that [Azure Cypress]? bark and the paste smeared across the runes. Geyrt must have been doing something with her mana because the runes drank in the fluorescent, glowing paste, drawing it like ink moving into paper, filling the runes until none remained on the surface of the plate. The delicate features of his Shadow were screwed up with concentration and one of her hands was doing some sort of complex crabbing gesture over the plate that directly gave Ulric the heebie jeebies.
Whatever it was, the spell must have worked, the runes flashed brightly and the entire plate burned to powder, apparently without heat, since Geyrt's hand seemed completely unaffected. When it concluded most of the intensity in her expression faded and she stood with eyes closed, like someone listening to music no one else could hear. Slowly she turned to face Ulric, eyes still closed. If this thing was working the way it was explained he should produce the strongest reaction since he was the source of the components for the link. Slowly, gently gnawing her bottom lip, as she tended to do when focusing, she turned a full circle. Then again. Eventually she opened those brilliant veridian orbs and dawn broke across her face as she smiled.
"The spell is working! It really…I mean…*cough* I can locate the general direction of the humans in the enemy force." Geyrt swiftly caught herself.
It would have helped her case if she didn't look like the cat that caught the canary. Smugness fairly radiated off her.
Ulric chose to ignore his Shadow's contradictory signaling and focus on the positives.
"How does it work? Can you tell how far away they are? Elevations?" He quizzed rapidly, without waiting for an answer.
"One thing at a time Ulric, you might make me lose it." Groused his Shadow.
After another brief closing of eyes, she seemed ready to make an assessment.
"The feeling is faint but definite. I cannot say how far with any certainty, I would have to train my senses to gauge the distances. It is a little like hearing a bird song in the distance. If you turn towards it, it grows louder. I think, perhaps, if we get closer, I might be able to better distinguish their exact position." She described.
Christ broke in then, with some excitement as well, "That is how the spell was described to me as well, she is successful Ulric. We no longer need guess, we can move much more quickly to close on them with direct heading."
It was just damn near voodoo. Like to like and all that arcane horseshit. Ulric was a little impressed but the implications were also more than a little horrifying. Given the success of the spell it begged the question he did not hesitate to ask.
"So…if this is so effective, why didn't we just start with this?"
Christ looked a little confused and then turned towards Geyrt. Twin Two's gaze likewise tilted towards his Shadow. Ulric turned to take her in as well. Under the adding pressure of their combined gaze his Shadow wilted slightly.
"What? I didn't know how absurd the [Forest of the Forgotten] would prove to be or that they have guiding magics to evade us. Besides, whatever cloaks them makes this spell useless if we were not almost on top of them already! Why is this now my fault?" She waffled under their continued blank stares.
Her ears began to twitch violently and Ulric's Shadow stomped her foot before putting her hands on her hips to berate them.
"You are the lot of you ungrateful, that is what you are! I should leave you all to find your ways back. This is your mission Kryr'st, you did not bother to ask! No one bothered to ask if I could use a [Hunter's Mark]." She flailed, before putting the final nail in her own coffin "I did not even know it would work!"
Ulric only sighed and contemplated his future prospects before he readjusted a few armor straps that didn't really need it. Christ and Twin Two shared a look before they began to shoulder their packs and make ready to move. No one said a word, excepting his Shadow, who continued to bitch in self-defense before trailing off.
Lapsing into silence, the group waited as wind whispered through the [Steelwood] sapling copse and a soft white reflected light off the snow that covered the canopy floor lit the place gently setting the world aglow.
The Amazon leading their group eventually wilted under their scrutiny.
"Alright." His Shadow admitted at last, "This is my mistake. I did not think of using the locator spell as a [Hunter's Mark]." She said, sheepishly.
That admission must have hurt physically.