Excerpt from Alexan’s Ninth Journal, The Great Crusade.

It is so easy to get caught up in the escalation of using spells to defend against spells, even I can lose track of simpler and more mundane methods of observation.

Catching that spy provided a good reminder of this problem. All we found on his person was a cup to listen through doors, and a spyglass to peep from a distance. That damn goblin, unseeded, human from the waist up and Erlkin from the waist down, had been leaking plans for months.

The only thing that gave him away? His shoe fell off and someone wondered why he was hiding his hoof. No one had seen him without pants and he was thought of as a pure-blood Human. With mundane means he spied, and with mundane foibles he was found.

Unnamed Tal

The next two days went by with remarkable ease.

It made Tal suspicious, and he wasn’t alone.

Layessa’s eyes were constantly on a swivel, and Easil never dropped his enchantments for listening and muffling, the pit he was using to maintain the spells never leaving his hands. Nolsa had taken to channeling wind mana to support Easil’s efforts.

But they were making excellent progress. With a couple of days free of life-threatening beasts in the way, the four of them made their way up to the secondary layer of branches. Tal enjoyed not having to worry about tripping over unseen knots of wood.

Not that they hadn’t seen some of the more dangerous wildlife. Nolsa had spotted a pale wyrm at one point, convincing them to detour around that particular bough. That necessitated them backtracking to the previous bough and taking a lower route. If there was a pale wyrm outside the wood, it almost certainly had a nest inside the limb that let it pop out wherever it wanted.

Tal and Easil had already seen enough of that particular monster to last them a while.

More troublesome was the common shadow hawk. Most birds that developed a seed were supposedly creatures of wind who used the element to make flying easier or to protect themselves from competitors and predators. Most birds also couldn’t be found within the barrier.

Shadow hawks had a touch of both dark and light in them. They could be heard, but rarely seen. Tal had actually seen one of the hawks resting under cover on a branch thick with foliage. He was mostly just lucky to be looking the right way when the bird decided to shake out its wings. It was a pretty bird, mostly brown with white speckling on its belly and brown wings with light and dark alternating bars.

Seeing the bird made Tal wonder about the world outside the Hollow Home. Hearsay from Easil was that the shadowhawk was so named because it's shadow was all that gave it away when it was coming in for a kill. Having a shadow wasn't really a problem for the bird within the barrier, but every generation of foragers held onto the knowledge.

There was no spotting them when they were airborne. The creatures wrapped themselves in an illusion while flying. You might be able to hear their hunting calls, but you’d never see them swoop in to snatch up their prey.

These birds were the whole reason Gnomes didn’t like to go foraging in the branches. Easil and Layessa were little more than prey for the dangerous hawks.

Which was probably why Layessa cackled when she shot it. For dinner. That had impressed Nolsa. Easil and Tal were impressed too, but perhaps Nolsa had the best of idea of how difficult the technique Layessa had used really was. Layessa had duplicated the shadow hawk’s technique of hiding itself, but used it to hide a solid beam of fire that punctured the bird’s head.

The meat of the shadow hawk was gamey and a bit tough, but it didn’t taste bad like the winghound.

They weren’t quite into the surface layer where the villages were located, but steps would have to be taken to avoid foraging groups that might delve a little deeper than normal. There was always a chance that Erlkin foragers might try going a little further on a bad day.

It was now the third day, and the hunt for Perkay had started in earnest. Almost.

“The problem,” Layessa started, “Is that while I know he has a home, I never found out exactly where it is!”

“I’d be surprised if he isn’t out at the end of one of the boughs,” Tal guessed.

“Yes, but which one,” Layessa said with a sigh.

“Well, shall we try scrying then?” Nolsa asked.

“That takes more strength and skill than I have. I don’t even have a focus of any kind to hold the enchantment, scrying isn’t easy you know.” Layessa answered.

“Well yes, of course, but you have myself and Tal to help,” Nolsa replied as if it was obvious. “Tal is quite good at aether circulation and sharing and I think I might be sufficient as a support.”

Tal couldn’t see Layessa’s expression from where she had made herself comfortable in his rucksack, but he did hear her voice go from suspicious to cheerful.

“He is? Well then, we can probably manage something, but it won’t be easy. Hmm, the first thing we’ll need is a visual focus. If it’s for light we will want something reflective. Perhaps water? We’ll have to find a good spot to hold a little pool. Let’s look around.”

Standing water wasn’t something they were likely to find, especially not this late in the cycle of scattering winds and life giving mists. Water in general was a problem if one wasn’t prepared. So far the four of them had been cheating in their own way.

It didn’t rain outside of the ceremonies, and those ceremonies required a huge investment from the residents of Linumbra’s Hollow Home. To keep the water flowing and the plants growing required individuals from all over the tree to gather their strength and cast the spell together.

But if it could be done on a grand scale, it could be done on a small scale too. When the four of them needed water, Nolsa would cast a spell of gathering that would allow them the chance to drink. It was enough to make do. So, they didn’t find water, but they did find a nice little dip in the wood to hold some water.

Nolsa exhaled as she released the spell she had cast, the small puff of mist over the tiny pool quickly dissipating.

“Well, everyone get comfortable!” Layessa clapped while standing before the water.

Nolsa sat cross-legged on one side of the little pool and Tal did the same across from her. Layessa plopped herself down right in front of Tal while Easil made himself comfortable off to the side.

Layessa turned her head sideways and looked up to Tal. “Unfortunately this is pretty difficult, so we won’t have the leeway to really show you what we’re doing.”

“I understand,” Tal replied.

Tal waited for Layessa to settle herself, then placed a hand over her back. She was so small, his hand covered her back up entirely. Everytime he did something like this Tal couldn’t help but think about the difference in size between them.

Tal concentrated on the task at hand and started circulating aether. Tal could see himself being able to transfer aether without direct contact in time, but for now this would do.

Layessa hummed tunelessly as she worked, building the scrying spell slowly and carefully. Tal could feel the skin on his arm prickling with goosebumps as Nolsa added her skills to the spell.

Nolsa laid her hands flat on the wood, the tips of her fingers just shy of touching the water. Layessa had done the same. Easil watched quietly from his spot to the side and Tal just concentrated on keeping Layessa supplied. He could feel her rapidly draining aether as the work continued.

With no direct light and no real depth to the tiny puddle, the water barely reflected the world above. When it happened, the change was abrupt. At one moment, Tal could see the wood under the little water puddle; in the next, it turned as black as the depths of the Hollow Home.

Glowing tendrils of white light rose from the puddle, slowly merging themselves into a single ball of light. More and more little streamers came up from the water and the ball expanded until it was the size of Tal’s head. Once it seemed to have decided it was big enough, it flickered several times, then faded almost entirely from sight.

Tal could just see the outline of it, and the space where it sat between Tal and Nolsa warped, the light not traveling quite right.

The black surface that had been the puddle changed again, revealing Nolsa’s face as the scrying orb looked upon her. It turned around to look at Tal and he could just see the tracing of an eye on the orb as it faced him.

It was odd seeing himself like that in the puddle. It took Tal a moment to realize why it looked wrong. The scrying orb wasn’t showing him mirrored like Tal was used to seeing with his reflection. It was showing him as he appeared to others.

It had taken several minutes to form the eye, but the drain on his aether hadn’t stopped.

“Let’s go take a look now,” Layessa commented, her voice distant as she concentrated on maintaining the spell.

Nolsa only nodded.

The orb looked up and took off: the vision within the puddle blurred accordingly as the spell flew through the air. As the scrying orb gained distance the orb slowed and the vision within the puddle regained enough clarity for Tal to see the four of them from a great height.

The view flickered as the orb looked about, glancing one way then the other.

It was interesting looking at the tree from up high, although it was hardly the first time Tal had seen such a view. Being untethered from the nearest perch made the experience unique.

Layessa flew upwards, heading straight for the top layer of the tree. A minute later they were enjoying a fantastic view of the tree, although they couldn’t quite get the whole thing in sight with the barrier limiting just how far the orb could fly.

The orb looked down and focused on the closest village. It wasn’t Lisnail, their home village had a very obvious landmark with the Reach sticking out like a sore thumb. A closer look revealed the winding river snaking through the village with multiple watermills using the water for mechanical power.

“Linamill,” Nolsa said quietly. “We are in the southernmost portion of the tree, Lisnail is east of us.”

“That’s enough of that view,” Layessa mumbled.

The view blurred again as the orb dropped. Moments later they were looking down on themselves again.

“Okay, now to look around. Let’s go this way,” Layessa said, taking the scrying orb westwards. “This will get us the furthest away from Lisnail first, and Perkay probably wants to stay further away from his old home.”

“As good a guess as any,” Nolsa agreed.

Tal was starting to feel the strain of Layessa’s drain on his reserves. He could feel the sweat prickling on his forehead.

This time, the orb moved with more care and concern, as Layessa was more interested in spotting Perkay’s home than just getting an idea of their own location. Layessa brought the scrying orb from bough to bough, searching for wherever the old Erlkin had decided to make his home. Watching the puddle, Tal saw more and more tree. Each of the huge limbs wasn't quite like the last, the wood of different types and different colours with different arrangements of branches and foliage.

And yet every single part being different just made it blend together. Tal had to concentrate to keep track of how far along the scrying orb actually was.

Several minutes of flying and searching later, they spotted it.

“I suppose there is no mistaking that,” Nolsa said with a little giggle.

“He doesn’t like being spied on, I can only assume,” Layessa said with a giggle of her own.

Tal couldn’t blame them. “So that’s what it looks like when you block a scry? How does that even work?” he asked.

“What can be seen with aether can be blocked with aether,” Nolsa replied simply. “That old man has had more than enough time to prevent anyone from being able to peek.”

What they had found wasn’t a home or a tower or a little tent. It was a solid ball of darkness big enough to hide a house. Perkay had taken steps to prevent anyone from looking at him with something like the little scrying orb Layessa was using now.

“Well, you are right about him being far away from Lisnail,” Nolsa observed.

“So we head we-” Layessa paused mid word as something stepped out of the ball of darkness: a pair of Erlkin wardens, a male and a female, with full armor and weapons at their sides. The female Erlkin was wearing a mask that covered her face from the nose down, with a frame of wood covering her mouth. They each had a single large wooden cap over one ear. Oddly, the male was holding his hand over his throat, his expression pained. On closer observation, he too had a mask, but it was bunched up under his hand.

“Wardens. They must be looking for us,” Easil said from the side. “I haven’t heard them at all. Do I have to tune my hearing spell for footsteps?”

“If there are two, there are probably more,” Layessa said with worry. The view in the puddle blurred as the orb whipped around. It immediately flew back and moments later Tal could see himself and Nolsa as it hovered high above him.

Layessa stopped to check how they were doing. “How are you holding up, Nolsa, Tal?”

“I can go for awhile longer,” Nolsa replied.

Tal was sweating and he knew he’d be tired, but he wasn’t done yet. “You can keep going,” he said.

“Good, I’m going to look to see if anyone is nearby.”

Layessa took the scrying orb westward once again and almost immediately found another pair of wardens, again a man and a woman. They weren’t on the neighbouring bough, but on the next one over.

“They’re heading towards us,” Easil said, saying what they could all see.

“Let’s check going east…” Layessa said as she moved the orb away.

The orb had barely even moved past the bough upon which they sat when they spotted trouble. A pair of Wardens had just begun the process of crossing the same bridge from which they had come.

The bubble popped as Layessa released the spell. “We have to go.” She whispered.

Tal scooped Easil and Layessa up to his shoulders so they could climb into his rucksack.

Nolsa summoned a gust of wind to scatter the puddle. Then looked up to Tal with worry in her eyes. “We’ll have to go downwards to try and avoid them. Let’s go.”

Tal nodded and they took off running.

End Chapter