Pointing at random servants he said, “You, go inform Violet Tidwell to report to me an hour before dinner. You, go get me the head researcher and his top linguist. You, get me background information on the Tidwell family.”

After the servants left at a run to follow his orders, he sat back in his chair to think. ‘If what they claim is true, this will get the other nobles off my back about having a lack of progress. If I can show that we have unlocked the language it will go quite a ways to smoothing over some ruffled feathers. I wish I had not boasted that I would have results within a year if I was able to stay in the barrier before coming here.’

It was over an hour before the head researcher and his linguist presented themselves. That meeting was as unproductive as expected. To their knowledge nobody had gained the skill for the language everything was written in. They tried to explain to him that dead languages could take several decades to translate. When they were asked about a child who had gained the skill the two men started laughing saying that it was unlikely to be true and someone was wasting his time.

When the servant with the information he requested about the Tidwell family returned, he was beginning to get annoyed. Zarek and Lyra Tidwell were exemplary citizens with no marks on their records for being reported for any type of infraction. Their child was inspected upon birth and later during the birth ceremony and found to not have any marks of magic.

‘Great I have to deal with feuds now it would seem. There is no way an unmagical child would be able to open “secret” doors. It is likely just another case of people being stuck together for far too long indoors.’

In the middle of his musings, one of the guards rushed into his room in a state of panic. “My Lord! There has been a murder!”

“Slow down, start from the beginning and tell me what happened.” He looked at one of the servants on the wall and said “See to it that my appointments are canceled for the rest of the day.”

“Sir, Wilks and I were making our rounds and we found the body of Jenner laying in the tall grass. Initially, we thought he was just taking a nap but when we went to nudge him awake, we noticed that his throat had been slashed with a sharp object. We made sure not to touch his body once we saw that. Wilks is guarding the body and I ran back here to inform you.”

“Round up all of the guard and people cleared to carry a weapon. Do we have any trackers with us?”

“No sir, Jenner was the only one with a tracking skill that I know of. I will inquire to make sure that is still the case.”

“I want all weapons accounted for and inspected for blood. I want this person caught immediately. Dismissed!”

As the guard left, he turned to the head servant and asked “Have you heard anything about the caravan with the senior nobles that we were expecting?”

“No Sir, they were due to arrive sometime this week but we were never given a specific date.”

“I want to be informed the second any caravan is spotted.”