Chapter 59 — The Murderer from the North

Jarrel stepped forward toward the farmhouse’s back entrance.

Some time had passed since the family was murdered, and the bodies had already been buried in the farm’s graveyard. If he was unlucky, too much of the evidence needed to solve the crime might have been cleaned up by the family in the process. On the other hand…

He ran his gloved hand over the somewhat parallel gouges in the doorframe. The marks didn’t continue onto the current door that still smelled of fresh construction. A quick look around the entrance turned up a broken piece of wood showing similar gouges to the doorframe.

The door was latched from the inside, but an improvised use of trapping wire allowed him to pull the latch up enough to push the door open.

A stale copper scent carried on the air as the mid-morning light revealed the still bloodstained plaster walls within. The patterns of the blood splatter told him much about the killer’s methods, and Jarrel was thankful he wouldn’t have to dig up the bodies to determine the killer. In fact, the messy slashing, splurting, and speckling patterns on the walls clearly suggested that his sought-after culprit was a beast.

And if his luck continued to hold, such a beast might have left a clear trail to follow.

When Jess arrived for her affinity testing and magic lessons, Ria was pretty sure the older girl was wearing her chapel best—a lightly embroidered cloth corset over an apple-red full skirt and a not-quite-white ruffled shirt. The way Jess looked nervous, as if she was unsure about dressing that way to meet a friend, made a smile tug at the corner of Ria’s mouth.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jess offered. “I dropped by the temple first, like I promised.”

Ah! The clothes were her chapel best!

Ria gave her friend a thumbs up. “Ready to get started?”

“Sure… what do I need to do?”

Ria handed Jess the waterstone and motioned for her to take a seat on the floor. “First, you’ll need to gain some control over your inner energy. So, you’ll do the meditation like last time, but you need to push your energy into the stone until it makes water.”

Jess didn’t have as much energy as Leon so using a compatible tool was going to be important. Ria also opened her grimoire to the section on Inwardly Focused Meditation and placed it on the floor next to Jess—but to the side, so it wouldn’t get wet.

When she placed a vial of energy-restoring potion on the book for Jess to use, Jess started protesting. “Aren’t energy potions really expensive? There’s no way I could pay you back…”

Ria waved off the complaint. “I made them last night with a new recipe that I’m trying out, so it’s no problem.”

Jess grimaced. “Um, but what about magic energy poisoning?”

“What’s that?” Ria asked, staring blankly at the worrisome phrase Jess had just introduced. There wasn’t anything about ‘magic energy poisoning’ in her grimoire…

“All the adventurers know that if your body has too much magic inside you can get really sick,” Jess said looking at Ria incredulously. “And the potion will make your body continue to produce more energy until it wears off, so you might even die… how can you not know about that?”

That sounded really dangerous! Ria tried to count the number of potions she has downed in the last few days… and her brow furrowed. Wouldn’t Kylie have warned her about such a risk? “M-my books never said anything about it! H-how do I know whether I have magic energy poisoning or not?” Ria worriedly asked.

“Fever, shakes, glowing skin and eyes. You’d know.”

“Okay…” Ria let out a relieved breath. “Can it be cured?”

“Burtan said that it wasn’t usually a problem as long as the magic was removed or used up before it got too bad but that non-mages drinking energy potions in attempts to unlock their inner energy wasn’t a good idea.”

Ria tilted her head. Was it just a problem for non-mages? Or when a potion provided more energy than the mage could safely store, maybe? If that was the case… “So, if I draw off the excess and store it in my staff that would solve the problem, right?

Jess stared at her for several moments. “Maybe?”

After convincing Jess to only use little sips when she became tired, they both settled in to work on their respective tasks: Jess, to make water from a stone; and Ria, to create a ward purely from energy without physically drawing it.

Ria returned to basics, nostalgically using her original thunder ward for her practice, but with the activation condition replaced with a simple toggle that she could actively change from inactive to active.

Though maybe because each part had meaning, when she focused on forming a new part of the design she kept losing the shape of parts she had already made, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to complete the entire design.

After an hour or so of not getting anywhere. Ria knew it was a mental block of some kind. The light spell from the guild library hadn’t given her near as much trouble, and it was arguably a more complicated design. Looking over at Jess, judging by the deep furrows on her friend’s forehead and the lack of water, her friend wasn’t having any better luck.

“Let’s take a break,” Ria suggested and Jess looked up, shoulders slumping. “Want to help me make my costume for the festival of fears?”

Jess’ face clouded over. “I know I don’t have any talent-”

“That’s not it, Jess,” Ria cut off her friend’s defeatism and gave her a supportive smile. “Magic is hard, and you have to let your mind rest when it gets tired. Let’s do something fun for a bit while we rest up, okay?”

“Ah… okay,” Jess allowed but seemed lacking in conviction.

Ria didn’t let the lackluster enthusiasm for her suggestion get her down and gave Jess an energetic thumbs up. “I’ll be counting on you then!”

Jess rolled her eyes, and a faint smile snuck out.

“That’s the spirit!” Ria encouraged as she skipped over to the sack hanging by the door, retrieving the black cloth and cones of yarn that she had purchased and laying them on the bed.

Jess moved closer to get a better look at the materials. “What are you making?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Ria drawled out like a showman as she scooped up her journal and flipped to the page with the designs she had sketched out. “A witch outfit, of course!”

Jess snorted and rebutted, “That’s not a costume! That’s your normal clothes!” but still leaned in with interest to better see the drawings. “You’re really good at drawing.”

“Yep,” Ria agreed and couldn’t help smiling at the compliment. She was good at drawing, after all—if she didn’t say so herself. “So, what do you think? Cool?”

“Well… with the short skirt, your legs will probably be cold, but the knit stockings should help,” Jess critiqued thoughtfully.

Hadn’t there been a similar misunderstanding with Keira? Was ‘cool’ not a saying in Crysellia?

“By ‘cool’, I didn’t mean ‘cold’, I meant more like something being ‘neat’,” Ria clarified only to receive a blank look in return. “As in… what you say when you find something you like that would impress your friends? Maybe?”

“Ah!” Jess’ eyes crinkled at the edges at the thought of something amusing. “Sometimes, Dags and the boys will say ‘that’s the junk!’ when they find something they really like. You mean like that?”

Ria laughed and shook her head. “Maybe it is...” She could almost picture Dags and his friends as little kids holding up a bug and calling out, ‘that’s the junk!’

They continued to chat while the fabric was laid out, marked, and cut into the desired patterns for stitching. When Ria asked about how Jess’ mom was doing, Jess had to stop stitching and wipe at the corners of her eyes before reporting that since activating the scroll her mom had started eating again, more than she had in a long time. Ria squeezed Jess’ hand in support and received a tentative smile in return.

“Ehem,” came a throat clearing from the doorway. “I’ve brought up some lunch. But maybe it’d be better to eat it downstairs than risk getting it on what you’re making.”

“Ah, hang on, Grandma Fana. We’ll have this cleaned up shortly,” Ria assured and hurriedly started collecting the cut fabric, scraps, and stitched parts into a sack to set to the side.

Grandma Fana chuckled. “You don’t need to rush, girl. Why don’t you and Jess join this bored old lady for lunch and tea and worry about that later, instead.”

Ria paused mid-collection and glanced at Jess who shrugged with a why are you looking at me? look. “Um, we’d like that very much, Grandma Fana.”

“It’s good to see Ria making reliable friends who can help keep her out of trouble,” Grandma Fana was saying as she nursed her tea.

Ria watched Jess grimace at the compliment.

“I think it’s the other way around, Miss Fana,” Jess demurred and placed another small sandwich made from the previous night’s feast on her plate. “Ria’s the one helping me and my family out.”

“You’re being too modest, Jess,” Grandma Fana asserted, setting her tea down, and leveled a firm gaze at the girl. “I doubt Ria would go out of her way to help just anyone if she didn’t think they were worth helping—especially with how busy she is trying to earn a sponsorship to the Grand Academy.”

Jess shot Ria a surprised look, and Ria gave her a supportive grin and thumbs up.

Her friend then proceeded to use the sandwich to hide her expression.

Ria had to stifle a laugh. Somehow Grandma Fana seemed to put tough-girl Jess completely off-balance.

Working on the costume and the leisurely lunch had done much to help Ria clear out her frustrations from the failures earlier in the day, but she still wasn’t confident that would be enough to overcome her current mental block which was obstructing progress. Though she doubted that Grandma Fana would have the specific answer to her problem, maybe the different perspective would prove helpful, and her new friend would probably appreciate the topic change.

“Um, Grandma Fana. Speaking of that sponsorship, I’m sort of stuck on something right now,” Ria began. “You wouldn’t happen to know of any techniques for paying attention to more than one thing at the same time, would you?”

“I may indeed,” Grandma Fana sagely replied, seeming pleased at the question, and the corner of her lip turned upward in amusement. “It’s actually advice my mother gave me for how to stay aware of multiple pots and pans on the fire and in the oven. She said, ‘If you focus on any one of them, the others will burn, but if you let your senses of smell and hearing do the work for you, you can know when each needs attention.’”

Ria was actually stunned by the answer. Could it be that simple?

She sensed the magic exclusively through her sense of touch, so hearing and smelling weren’t the answer, but maybe… she shaped a portion of the design, and it had meaning. When she let the shape distort, that sense of meaning went away. If she could find a way to maintain that sense of meaning without directly focusing on it…

Ria gave a bright smile. “Thanks, Grandma Fana!”

Grandma Fana chuckled. “Anytime, dear.”

Following the lunch, Jess helped Ria put the costume making supplies away, and they each returned to their earlier tasks, remotivated to try again.

Ria eagerly tried out the new ideas. The concept took a while to get a feel for, but her diligence was eventually rewarded when, after several initial failures, a rumble of thunder echoed out.

The thunder and her cheer of triumph caused Jess to raise an eyebrow at her.

Ah, Jess clearly hasn’t mastered the Inwardly Focused Meditation…

But Ria couldn’t help the grin plastered on her face. “I succeeded at the task that Lord Vorshan assigned me!”

Jess had a complicated expression and finally settled on, “Congrats?”

Ria laughed at the lukewarm response. “Now, it’s your turn, Jess!”

Her enthusiastic reply was met with an eye roll.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Now that I succeeded in my task for tomorrow, I can give you more direct advice,” Ria said, moving over to sit in front of her friend with expectant eyes, sandwiching the older girl’s larger hands between hers.

Jess stared back with a dubious expression before querying with an almost annoyed tone. “What?”

“Just try to push your energy into the stone.” Seeing Jess about to snap at her, Ria added. “I’m going to watch carefully, so I can figure out the problem.”

“Fine,” Jess huffed and closed her eyes.

After a few calming breaths, the older girl’s brows bunched in concentration, and Ria immediately realized what the problem was: Jess didn’t have enough inner energy—not even enough to form a single drop from the waterstone.

Ugh. Ria berated herself. Had she cruelly and recklessly planted the seeds of a hopeless dream in her friend’s mind? Jess would have to put in a tremendous amount of work just to increase her energy reserves to the point of using even the simplest magic.

Ria firmed up her resolve. That little bit could mean life or death for Jess in her future as an adventurer. Even a small amount of body-strengthening at a key moment could make all the difference.

Sitting back on her heels, Ria took a breath and let it out. “Okay, I’ve figured out the problem. There’s good news and bad news.”

“That quickly?” Jess asked, surprised, then her eyes narrowed. “Wait. Couldn’t we have saved a lot of effort if you had done that from the start?"

“Aha ha ha.” Ria looked away guiltily before grasping Jess’ hands more firmly. “I’m sure today’s practice has helped a lot.”

Jess eyed her suspiciously and asked, “Soooo, what’s the good news and bad news?”

“The good news is that you are definitely able to control your inner energy and move it around. Which means, you’ll definitely be able to use magic,” Ria told her with a smile and a bit more confidence than she actually felt.

“Okay, that sounds great,” Jess cautiously allowed. “What’s the ‘but’?”

Ria looked down then committed herself to meeting her friend’s eyes. “Your body doesn’t generate enough energy to power the stone yet.”

The older girl stared at her for a while, trying to process what that meant, and Ria carefully maintained eye contact even though she wanted to look away.

“…I know you said I didn’t have much, but isn’t that really terrible?” Jess finally commented.

Ria shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t really know. Luventi’s book did talk a lot about the methods for using meditation to grow your reserves and attunements. Maybe, starting out with only a small amount is normal?”

“And if it’s not?”

“You’ll just have to work harder. Worst case you can draw energy from a focus tool to cast your magic.”

Jess seemed to accept that, and relief washed over Ria. As a girl adventurer, her friend was probably no stranger to hard work and perseverance.

“Okay… so now what? Should I give up on the stone for today?”

Ria had an answer prepared for that question and gave Jess a mischievous smile. “Nope! I’m here, and we’ve got potions. So, now we cheat!”

Jess groaned and playfully shoved Ria over, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You’re terrible!”

“Yup!” Ria admitted, laughing.

Much of the rest of the afternoon was spent with Jess sipping tiny sips of the potion then pushing as much of the generated energy as she could into the waterstone, repeating until eventually a few drops trickled from Jess’ hands. Jess looked like she was going to cry for the second time that day and again rubbed her eyes with her sleeve.

Afterward Ria made Jess copy down the sections of her grimoire that would help the girl improve. Explaining the meanings of the various words reminded Ria of when she had to use her mom’s dictionary to read those same sections back in Shadewood. The memory was bittersweet. Ria’s thoughts drifted to her family and the friends from her time in Shadewood—the price paid that allowed her access to Jeni’s grimoire. Now, her grimoire.

Jess ate dinner with the family again, and when the time came for Jess to leave, she thanked Ria for her help, saying that she would work on her meditation more. They agreed to meet up again after the Festival. Ria suspected she’d be busy trying to save Amilee until then.

Jarrel moved quietly through the trees in the fading light of evening.

The tracks he had found near the farm where the family was slaughtered were older than he would have preferred, and after two rainstorms, losing the trail was to be expected. Fortunately, searching the woods around the nearby farms had turned up fresher tracks.

At one farm in particular, the beast had returned repeatedly, likely observing for an opportunity. The farm had torch-poles around the house and, no doubt, family members or neighbors took turns watching over the house at night with crossbows. Even so, Jarrel was certain that it was only a matter of time before another family died.

Around that farm, Jarrel had found the freshest set of tracks and signs of passage yet and was following the razor-clawed pawprints deeper into the trees toward an area that was becoming more rocky and sloping upward.

Having that dog of Ria’s around to track by scent and give him an idea of how close the monster was would’ve been nice about now. Jarrel snorted at the thought. Had he grown dependent on the old farm dog in the past two months?

He rested a hand against a large tree and looked down the slope he had just climbed as he caught his breath. Normally, such a climb wouldn’t even wind him, but he had been pushing hard to shorten his time away from Ria. Maybe he was being reckless.

Sharp pains in his back and neck as a weight fell upon him and his head slammed into the ground confirmed the thought. Wetness pumped along his neck, and his two-handed sword was yanked partially out of it’s sheath. In the process, the snarling weight shifted enough for Jarrel to spin around and scramble free, letting the sword on his back be drawn by the beast.

Rolling to his feet and drawing one of the blades at his waist, Jarrel caught sight of his adversary. A visceral. Similar to a wolfwere but closer related to wolverines than wolves and horned like most spawn that are thought to come from the upper hells. By its size, a C-rank threat.

The visceral threw the large sword still clamped in it’s toothy jaws to the side with a violent snap of its head and howled at the sky, causing waves of fear to radiate outward from its jagged-furred body.

Clearly, the pommel of the sword that had been strapped to his back had saved his life. Though, maybe only for the moment. Jarrel thrust his free hand into a belt pouch and slapped a glob of the pouch’s sticky contents against his neck to slow the bleeding.

As the visceral lowered its head and focused it’s glowing red eyes on him, Jarrel drew his other sword and, sword in each hand, resolved himself. This was going to be a difficult fight.