Ethan made his way back to the big red tent and outlying tents where he found Aria. She motioned to get his attention and he returned to his solid form shortly after.

“I see you got the job done with Sal. I gathered all of the researchers that were not immediately busy. What do you need to do still?” asked Aria.

“In my bag of stuff and around the camp should be the stuff I need to cast locator ritual. I’m not sure what steps have been taken to prevent this. Sal locked down the outpost for the next hour. I need to confirm where or not it is still here during that time. Arthur will be here soon. Give him something to keep himself occupied and watch his emotions. I should be back after the ritual is done.”

“I’ll take care of those things for you. Are you sure that Arthur’s existence has been leaked?”

“I can be 100 percent sure about this, but I know that my book of spells is missing and within it is some tertiary information about him. I doubt that the thieves could collect vital information about his construction that could compromise his construction, but it is a possibility. Until we can track down who has it we can’t make many assumptions. The thief may have already been here watching him for a day or a month.”

Ethan left the conversation at that and stopped Aria from continuing. He first ran down to the cellar where he collected some of his tools and the ingredients. They were all thrown into his spatial bag where they vanished. Next, he moved upstairs into the house above him where he went to his room to start.

Clearing out a space on the floor he began taking out items from his bag and from the drawers in the room. He spread a chemical power in a circle around him and then began to place other ingredients in a triangle formation around him. He kept stationary as he worked. Careful not to disturb the work he had done so far.

After a few more minutes he finished up his work and touched up the circle a bit more before casting. He had taken off his bag and thrown it on his bed. Ethan spoke the words of the ritual as he moved his hands. A spell formed where his hands traced and some of the items glowed and burned up as they were used in the ritual.

As the ritual ended the circle of powder burned up as well before Ethan received his vision. Ethan was met with a flood of information as the tracking spell expanded outward and tried to find the missing book. It took some time for him to filter the rush of information that he was met with. He sat back and laid against the bed and took several deep breaths in from the exhaustion.

Once he had collected himself after a minute he got back up. Grabbing his bag on the way out he rushed back to the tents. Behind him, he left the remains of the ritual which left a small amount of residue from the leftover remains of the ingredients he had used. On his way out he found Arthur pacing next to the door of the house.

“Oh, there you are. Come with me?” said Ethan as he opened the door and stepped out.

“Were you able to find it?” asked Arthur as he followed behind Ethan.

“No,” he said. “I’ll share more when we get to the tents where the others are waiting. There is no need to be repeating information after all.”

When Arthur and Ethan arrived at the tents Aria greeted them and brought them inside. Andre and a few of the other researchers waited inside. Sal also stood off to one side now dressed in formal wear.

“We have already been briefed by Aria on what has occurred so far,” said Andre. “How did your ritual go? We have already sent word to the gnome capital informing them of this incident so that they can be prepared as well.”

“I was able to gather some information on the location of the missing spell book. For the bad news, I can confirm that the book is not in the immediate area of the outpost. Whoever stole it has already left. The good news is that I now know that it left the outpost about 11 hours ago. Beyond that, I don’t know where it has gone. Magic interfering with the spell has since been put in place. Do any of you have ideas or suggestions?”

The room was in silence for a minute as they all thought to themselves.

“Can we track who has recently come in and out of the outpost in the last week? That should give us somewhere to start,” said Aria. “Sal do you have the information?”

“I don’t have it on me, but I will have a guard bring it in. Give me a moment.” Sal left the tent quickly and left the others to continue discussing.

“Having their names marked down by the guards at the entrances seems counterintuitive, but I don’t know if they could have left the outpost any other way,” said Ethan.

“Sneaking out most other ways is nearly impossible,” chimed in a gnome researcher. “The outposts barrier isn’t just for the roof above us now, but passively detects disturbances in the fencing it is made up of. Of course, there may be occasional false alarms and glitches with this sort of thing, but between all of the outposts there is only one or two of those a year.”

“So, we can tentatively check off escaping through those routes unless the thieves have extensive knowledge of the barriers. Enough to shut off whatever protections they have without alerting anyone,” said Ethan.

“And to do so you would have had to get the knowledge directly from one of the capital’s engineers that installed every piece of it,” said the researcher.

“I’m back,” said Sal as he moved the tarp to enter. He held a small book in one hand and opened it up. “Let us see who came in and out recently. Do you have any days you want me to check immediately?” he said looking up for a response.

“Yesterday,” said Ethan.

“Ok. In the past 24 hours, we had two hunting groups go out. They left in the morning yesterday. Then we had one of them come back in the early afternoon. Then we had Arthur and his group leave in the evening. Then an hour before dusk, the merchants left, and then about an hour after that, the second hunting group returned. Then this morning another two hunting groups left again at their usual times,” Sal said before closing the book.

“Tell me about the hunting groups that left this morning,” said Ethan.

“I can tell you about them and the others,” said a gnome man in the back of the tent. “I manage logistics for this outpost and communicate with the other outpost logistics managers as well as the capital about resources. Each hunting team is a group of three. I have known all six of them for at least five years. Some I have known almost ten. They do their jobs well and I have rarely had issues. They help us gather enough for winters or when the local populations migrate elsewhere. I don’t think they would have stolen it.”

“Well, someone has. I need more information on what differentiates the two groups. It may be within possibility that someone came here and bribed them to grab the book and sneak it out before dropping it off at a predetermined location. What about the merchants that were in town this week? Do you know them well?”

“I suppose it is a possibility that someone maliciously paid them to get it out of the outpost. The first group is a family of hunters. Two brothers and a father. They work well together and from what I know of them they enjoy working out here and are of good character. I don’t think they could have done this. They would not risk themselves like this. As for the other hunting group they are best friends that have moved around between the outposts before settling here five years ago. I probably don’t know them as well as the family hunters, but I am also doubtful of them stealing.

“The merchants are paid for thanks to an old friend I have in the neighboring outpost 14. He is a former manager like me and organizes the trading of most of the goods in the neighboring outposts. Since we started locking down this outpost in fear of this type of situation. His merchant caravans have been the only ones moving goods to and from here on my recommendation. I am on a first name basis with all of the traders and some of the guards that come here. Some of them are also children of my friend. I don’t know what I would do if they had been bribed to do this,” he said before looking down at the ground.

“I see. We need trackers to find the hunters. I assume some of you know where their usual hunting grounds are?”

“Yes. I am familiar with the hunting areas,” answered Lucas.

“Good. Gather a group and bring them back forcefully if it is necessary.” He then turned to Aria. “Come with me and Arthur. We will track down the caravan. Do you know where their next stop is supposed to be?” he asked the logistics manager.

“Yes. They are headed back to outpost 14 that I spoke of.”

“Then we will chase them on horseback. I will stay in contact with you, Lucas, and the others through my communication crystal. We will be back as soon as we can.” He turned to Arthur. “Use your magic to keep up with us as well as your endurance. Show me some of what you can do.”

“I can do that.” He answered confidently. ‘I messed up and he is helping fix this mistake. I need to pay him back and help him make this right again,’ he thought.