Investigations

Several hours later, the sun began to rise upon the former campsite of Chrys' caravan. The black robed and lithe figure of Ciara, perched atop an expensive looking desert horse of purest white, trotted into the wreckage. Wheezing and breathing heavily, the massive form of Darruk the half-ogre followed moments later, covered in a fine layer of sand and sweat. It was early, but the temperature was already rising swiftly and the heat would soon become unbearable.

Darruk dutifully took the reigns from Ciara and held out a massive arm for her to hang onto while dismounting. She deftly climbed down, her nose wrinkling at his burly scent of sweat, she held her breath until she alighted softly onto the morning sand. The remains of several camels lay nearby, it was hard to judge how many as they were torn apart and all over the scene. A few buzzards were already filling themselves with sandy gore, seeming unconcerned with the two bipeds who came upon their grisly feast.

"What have we here?" Ciara murmured as she took the scene in, her eyes flicking towards the tattered remains of a few tents off to one side of the dromedary massacre. She knelt and grabbed a flap of canvas that was jutting from the blood soaked sand, it crumbled to flakes almost immediately at her touch. She nodded silently to herself, as she recalled the words to an elementary spell of magic detection.

"Dey all dead, Shee-ara. Like de others." Darruk's deep baritone rumbled as he began to kick a pile of sand to the side on the ground. The black ashes and coals of a snuffed signal fire were revealed by his massive foot. "Wuz fire here. Prob'ly a watch fire. No bodies here." For his people, Darruk was very bright. His cousins would have been still figuring out how horse reigns worked.

Ciara was not easily impressed by his deductive skills as she finished her spell, eyes flashing with a silver glimmer. She scanned the area careful, nodding to herself as she walked. "Necromantic magic is off the scale here, just like the others, again." She frowned slightly as she looked off to the northern horizon. "It trails off that way, Darruk. See if you can find all the tents, but be gentle when you do. The necrotic energy unleashed here seems to have affected even the canvas of the tents this time." She paused for a moment before adding, "Gentle means careful, oaf." She continued to peer around the area, her eyes focusing on a dune that had clearly swept in recently.

Darruk growled softly as he continued to search around, his giant fingers becoming two surprisingly good rakes. "Not oaf," he whispered to himself, "Oaf means dumb." Sure enough, he found the remains of a tent that had been set into the sand about two feet covered by the sandstorm. Part of it had been made brittle and aged, half of it was still pliable and soft. He sat for a moment, looking around, several gears clearly spinning in his massive skull. He rose and began to walk a semi circle away from his find, using the clear divide of old vs new fabric to aim his steps. He drug one foot beside him, drawing a line in the sand as he walked.

Ciara took no note of this as she stood staring intently at energies she was only able to see. There, about four feet down, clear glimmers of a different magic. Elemental? She raised her right hand in front of her and murmured another incantation as she wove her hands into a few quick arcane patterns. A strong gust of wind howled from her outstretched fingers as she finished the spell, pushing the sand dune down and away from her. After a few seconds, she had uncovered the source of that glimmer, a small patch of green, new grass, buried deep in the sand. It was still somehow vibrant green, although being covered by four feet of sand was certainly not doing it any favors. She knelt down and ripped a few blades from the sand, raising them to her nostrils and inhaling deeply.

"Uhm. Shee-ara." Darruk's voice held a strangled note of alarm in it.

"What is it, simpleton? Can you not see that I'm- " Her tirade was cut short by the click of a hand crossbow being loaded very close to her left ear. Her right hand flew immediately to her belt and grasped the handle of a slim metal wand hanging there.

A genteel and soft voice called out to her, "Uh-uh. Hands up." She felt the point of the crossbow bolt poke into the back of her neck. She gently released the wand and slowly raised her arms. "Better." The voice seemed calm, it carried a strange accent Ciara didn't immediately place. "You know, you really should be nicer to the big fella. He was trying to warn you that I was here. Now, turn around slowly." Almost a Vaelian noble accent? But not quite right?

She gently turned and saw her captor. A pale looking human man, his dark hair a mop of truncated dreadlocks only a few inches long poked out from his jelaya robe which was a simple white linen. Her magical sight was still active as she scanned him, saw the ornate crossbow in his hand glowed with evocation magic, his robes with abjuration… beneath that… his skin radiated divination magic? How? She didn't have time to decipher that mystery at the moment. Darruk stood about twenty feet off to the side, grabbing at his feet as he slowly seemed to sink as she watched. Whoever this popinjay was, he was good.

"Uhmmmm. Shee-ara. Sand sinking me. Can't move." Panic began to burble from the large Darruk.

"Easy now, big fella. I just have some questions, and if your boss here," he gestured towards Ciara with his weapon, "Answers me honestly, I'll be on my way and you can just climb out safely. Sound fair?" Although his stare didn't leave Ciara for a second, he was clearly speaking to Darruk. "Hey! Big guy! I asked you a question. Stay calm and live. Does. This. Sound. Fair?"

Darruk's panicked eyes asked permission to answer from Ciara. She nodded imperceptibly.

"Ye- yes. Sounds fair to Darruk." He continued to struggle in the sand.

"Smashing!" The man unwound his face cover, revealing eyes of deep royal blue sclera and no discernable iris. Platinum pupils shone from them as he continued to aim at Ciara's face. "I'm Pleasant. As in that's my name. Sagacious Pleasant, in fact. And I can assure you that I will live up to that nomenclature until the very second that you lie to me. You." He focused his glare on Ciara, she felt some form of magic thrum through her as he focused his will upon her. "You serve the Black Keep?"

She dropped her spell of seeing magics to concentrate against his divination magics. It was a simple spell, he was trying to see deception, she knew the spell herself. She decided to see how strong his will was. "Oh, not at all. Just concerned neighborhood watch checking out a disturbance." Searing light filled her eyes and she screamed instantly. She could hear her companion wail in concern, struggling and thrashing in vain near her.

"Big guy. Hey. Yes. Look at me." Ciara heard him talking to Darruk as her vision returned. "Stop fighting. Spell will last long enough to kill you, and your lady is fine, just startled is all. Tell him."

"I- yes. I'm okay Darruk. Calm down." She whispered soothingly to him.

"We have a baseline established now, I trust?" He stared at her with a smirk.

She spat at him defiantly. "I know your kind, your Knights of the Silver Hand. And your enchantments. I'll break it soon enough and there are two of us here. Ask your questions quickly." She almost growled at him.

He shrugged at her accusation and chuckled a little. "Fair enough. What did this?" He gestured at the carnage around them.

Ciara raised her eyebrows theatrically and laughed richly. "You don't know?" If this whelp thought she would answer a direct question he was more foolish than she thought. Already her mind began to pick apart the enchantment that held Darruk in place. She just had to keep this intruder busy for a little longer.

"Maybe we do, maybe not." He tried a different tactic, continuing. "No humanoid corpses, but dead camels everywhere. And a small patch of vibrant green buried in the sand. A mystery for the ages, right here. Why no corpses, aside from these poor animals?"

She smiled cruelly at him before answering. "I don't know, for certain. If I were to guess, I would say that perhaps one ate the other?" Just a few seconds more, she began to use her mind to pull at the threads of the spell around Darruk's legs, felt it begin to come apart.

"Hmm." The young man frowned seriously and began to re cover his head and face. Ciara saw small ribbons of royal blue and silver woven into his dreadlocks. She exulted internally as his spell began to unravel, Darruk had stopped struggling and could surely feel the sand becoming firm under his feet. "Did they survive, do you think?"

The question caught Ciara flat-footed for a moment. He knew! They were searching for it too! He never got an answer, as Darruk exploded in a blur of muscle, lunging at the newcomer. He leaped away, impossibly high into the air, as two glowing and translucent wings erupted from his back, carrying him out of the half-ogre's reach. The metallic wand at her waist flew into her hand as she raised it skyward, a bolt of black arcing lightning lashing out towards her foe. He barely evaded being directly struck, although he did let out a satisfying grunt of pain as he spiralled away from them, headed north. She waved away her brutish companion's ministrations and grovelled apologies as she stared after the angelkin, mind working quickly.

"We need to leave, Darruk. Now. I must contact the Keep, things are more complex than I realized…"