Book 4, chapter 26

"Are you sure you didn't see anything odd last night?" Zee asked, idly watching a cart-laden lumber rumble by.

Clutching a child-sized Allevark on her hip, the brown-speckled woman shook her head. 

"No, sorry, I didn't see anything," She replied, her slitted yellow eyes scanning Zee warily.

Zee held back a frustrated scowl. "Don't worry about it, thank you for your time. If you hear anything, let us know, I will be in the Grey Wolf company warehouse down the street," Zee replied.

The door swung shut, and the Allevark mother disappeared, taking her little fluffball with her. Zee walked off the front porch of the two-story building, glancing up and down the street, a heaviness settling over her.

She spotted Greg down the street. The large Armenian met her eyes, making a b-line for her.

"Find anything that you can track?" Zee asked, meeting him on the edge of the street.

Greg stroked his thick beard with a large meaty hand. "There is only a very faint energy signature. It's like they suppressed her when they took her." Greg replied unhappily.

Zee had been hoping that Greg, a ranger, could find Yukna, but sadly that was a lost cause. Zee had personal experience dealing with stupid rangers and their ability to track her.

She let out a sigh. A few hours of knocking on doors to question the wary homeowners, and nothing to show for it. It appeared Yukna was truly missing, and they had no idea where to even start looking for her, much less who took her. At her side, the leather satchel bumped into her leg.

Zee reached down and opened the clasp, allowing the living book to float out. It flapped its pages unhappily, clearly discontent that she kept putting it in the leather satchel.

Zee eyed the floating book thoughtfully, an idea coming to her mind. Tar had said that the living book should contain a vast variety of different books.  If the skills of a ranger couldn't bear any fruit, maybe they could find Yukna with rituals?

"Hey, book, do you have any tracking rituals?" Zee asked.

The book bobbed in front of her in affirmation. 

"Well, let me see it," Zee said, her earlier dejection replaced by excitement. The living book ruffled its pages as if to say, I am not showing you the ritual.

Zee furrowed her brows. "Why not?" Zee asked.

The book gestured with a corner towards the satchel at her hip unhappily. It was pretty clear what it wanted.

"Alright, fine... If you behave, I won't put you back in the satchel. Please show me the tracking ritual," Zee said.

After some hesitation, the book swung open, a ritual diagram blossoming across its pages. No matter how many times she saw it, that was still super weird. Her eyes widened as she took in the depth, and complexity of the ritual. 

"Holy shit, do you actually understand that?" Greg asked, peering at the open book over her shoulder.

"Ya. I got this," Zee replied, her mouth dry, as her eyes traced over the sixth-tier ritual diagram. 

"Dern, you can help me with this ritual right?" Zee asked internally.

"Maybe. If you count emotional support as help." Dern replied. 

"Be serious Dern, Yukna is depending on us," Zee said.

"I am being serious. That's a six-tier ritual, those are no joke," Dern replied.

Zee hummed thoughtfully, "Hey, book, do you have any lower-tier tracking rituals?" Zee asked.

The book's pages rustled, flipping to reveal a much less complex tracking ritual. Zee smiled, scanning the ritual. 

"That's a lot better. Come on Greg, let's go find a focus," Zee said.

This ritual was only second tier, but it should still work. Zee walked up the street, entering the grey wolf company warehouse. The stench of death still hung heavy in the air, but she ignored it. 

The princess was already inside, looking up as she entered. "Did you find anything?" Allison asked hopefully.

Zee shook her head, "No one saw anything. But don't fret, I had an idea. We are going to perform a tracking ritual to find Yukna," Zee said.

Allison perked up. "Well, hurry, perform the ritual already," Allison urged.

"I need some of Yukna's hair, do you have any?" Zee asked hopefully. 

"Sure, be right back, there should be some in her brush," Allison said, the air cracking as she blurred towards their shared room across the warehouse.

Allison returned in seconds, her passage making the air whoosh around her. The princess reappeared holding a brush, with strands of mousy brown hair stuck in the bristles. Zee took the whole brush and placed it on a clean patch of floor.

Alright, hopefully, that would be enough to satisfy the requirements for the ritual. The stronger the focal point, the more precise the ritual could be. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Bastion and Malden entering the warehouse. 

With a sharp exhale, Zee pushed the distraction from her mind opening small holes in her aura, allowing streamers of energy to leak out. Having performed the fifth tier, soul-sucking ritual, as well as the equally difficult cleansing ritual, this one was easy. 

The tracking ritual was only second tier, but she gave it her full attention, not wanting to screw the ritual up. Following the diagram in the book, Zee guided the wisps of energy, forming the framework for the ritual.

Zee took her time, making sure to form each energy construct as best she could. Just because it was a basic ritual, didn't mean she was going to slack off when it was so important. She was finished in no time, but, hesitated.

Would this basic ritual really be enough to find Yukna? Greg had said the people who took her must be suppressing her energy signature somehow. Using such a weak ritual might be a mistake. With that in mind, she focused back on the ritual. She looked over the energy constructs that were responsible for the range, and potency of the ritual.

Expanding the ritual's potential shouldn't be too difficult. Tapping into the well of mental energy, Zee removed the two energy constructs for range and potency and replaced them.

The new ones were much larger, and more complex, usually only used in higher-tier rituals. The constructs snapped into place, and the ritual hummed to life, drawing in far more power than before.

The framework of the ritual diagram positively vibrated from the strain, threatening to burst apart. Zee tapped deeper into her Well of mental energy, forcefully holding the framework together.

The ritual diagram trembled unsteadily, but it was stable for the moment. Well, no time to dally, here goes nothing. 

The ritual snapped taught, and the air in front of her filled with smoke, forming into two figures. One of the figures made of smoke, was most certainly Yukna, her short hair a disheveled mess. Her wrists were secured behind her back with shackles that were covered in intricate etchings.

Yukna looked like shit, with blood leaking from her nose and mouth, her left eye swollen shut.  The second person, also made of smoke stood in front of Yukna, their mouth moving but no sound coming out. The creature was like nothing she had ever seen.

It towered over Yukna, making Malden look small by comparison. The creature was vaguely humanoid, with two legs, and two arms, every inch of its body covered in dense, rippling muscle. 

Its bovine face was covered mostly in thin fur, though the rest of his body was not. Wide, curved horns adorned its wide head, curving forwards and upward like a bull.

As they watched, the unknown creature leaned forward and slammed a massive fist into Yukna's jaw. Blood and teeth went flying, but Yukna didn't cower. The much smaller woman spat up into her interrogator's face, which prompted the much taller creature to hit her again.

"What the hell is that?" Bastion asked, the first to break the silence.

"No idea," Malden said. Next to him, Allison stared at the cloudy figure hovering in the air, her hands balled into fists.

"Zee, where are they?" Allison asked.

"I, don't know, I can't tell," Zee said, uncertain why the ritual wasn't working properly.

"What do you mean you can't tell? Greg said this is a tracking ritual," Allison said.

"Well, it is, but I think it malfunctioned. It wasn't supposed to show anything, much less something so lifelike," Zee said, gesturing toward the smoky figures.

As she spoke, the bullish creature paused, cocking its giant head to one side. It actually looked over, as if staring right at them.

The bull-like creature cracked a wide, toothy smile, just before the foggy image blurred, and fell apart.

"What happened," Allison asked.

"I don't know, but It looks like the people who took Yukna know we were spying on them," Zee said thoughtfully.

"Can you cast the ritual again?" Allison asked.

Zee tapped her lip, looking down at the ashy remains of the brush that had turned into smoke.

"I don't know. We can try, but I doubt it will work. If the people who took her are smart, they will probably be using countermeasures now," Zee said.

"Try it again, anyway," Allison said.

Zee did so, this time using a sweaty shirt that belonged to Yukna. The shirt turned to a cloud of smoke just like the brush did, but this time all she got was a fuzzy image, the smoke refusing to take shape. The ritual fell apart, and Zee gave Allison an apologetic shrug.

"Sorry, I got nothing. This ritual is just too weak to pierce whatever they are using to block me out," Zee said.

"Do you have any stronger rituals?" Allison asked. 

"Yes, there is a sixth-tier ritual, but it's a bit beyond me," Zee replied.

"Can you try it anyway?" Allison asked.

"Sorry, a sixth-tier ritual is just too hard to perform without at least a few days of preparation," Zee replied apologetically.

Allison kicked a wooden crate with a loud rattle, swearing loudly. "This is lizard shit," Allison swore. 

Allison was usually so composed and in control of herself. It was something Zee admired about the woman. 

Cracks shown in the usually calm façade. The sight of Yukna being beaten was just too much. The sight was enough to make Zee want to find the guy and cut him to pieces.

She couldn't imagine how it made Allison feel. Yukna was a close friend and a member of the team, but she was also Allison's fiancé. That was clearly impairing Allison's judgment, which wouldn't help them.

Zee took a deep breath, realizing she needed to get in control of her racing emotions and step forward.  Their leader was too distressed at the moment to make calm decisions. 

"Malden, go to the library. Check the archives, and see if you can find anything on what kind of creature that was. Greg, you go find Nanut and tell him what we found. Bastion, you go to the Glimmer Shroud trading house. See if you can by information on those creatures, we meet back here in two hours," Zee said calmly.

No one argued, disappearing with a burst of their perspective powers. Once they were alone, the cracks grew wider, and tears formed in Allison's eyes.

"It's happening again, why does this keep happening?" Allison asked wiping furiously at the tears in her eyes.

Zee didn't know what to say, so she wrapped the taller woman in a hug.

"First Pierre, and now Yukna is going to die. Zee, what am I going to do? Yukna is all I have," Allison said, her body heaving. 

"Yukna is not going to die, we are going to save her," Zee said firmly. 

Allison shook her head, "I'm not that lucky. Everyone I care about dies," Allison said angrily.

Zee held her friend tighter. 

"Not this time. We are going to save Yukna, and kill everyone responsible for taking her," Zee promised.

"And how are we going to do that? We don't even know who took her," Allison replied.

Zee pulled away, grinning maliciously up at the princess.

"I just realized, we have a secret weapon," Zee said.

"A secret weapon," Allison asked.

"Yes, I am going to make Grandpa help us whether he likes it or not," Zee said.

Allison cracked a smile, tentative hope returning to her steely grey eyes.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go find him," Allison said.

Zee raised a hand to stop her. "No need to go anywhere. Grandpa, are you listening?" Zee asked.

There was a long pause before Julian appeared as if summoned. He was dressed for a party, in a fancy yellow and black robe, that went nicely with his garish feather hat. It was a ridiculous outfit, making him look like an overly colorful bird.

"What is it, I am in the middle of something," Julian said, looking ill at ease in the flamboyant attire.

Zee straightened herself up.

"Sorry for calling you, but we have a bit of an emergency. One of our friends has been kidnapped," Zee said, seriously.

"I am kind of busy right now but don't worry, Sendredie will help you," Julian said.

With that bare-bones explanation, Julian disappeared. It was only about thirty seconds before a tall slender woman with extremely short pink hair appeared.

"Julian said you need help finding someone," Sendredie asked, leaning a crystalline staff, on her shoulder, her expression irritated.

"Her name is Ilukna, she is one of our teammates. She owns this warehouse we are in," Zee said.

Sendredie nodded, glancing around the warehouse at the piled crates, her expression turning thoughtful.

"Her energy signature is still heavy on the air," Sendredie said.

"Would a sample of her hair help, or maybe her toothbrush?" Allison asked. 

"No need for mundane measures. I have other much more effective methods to track people," Sendredie said, waving Allison off.

Sendredie gestured towards the open warehouse, and the air rippled like raindrops hitting the surface of a calm lake. 

A perfectly clear image of Yukna, and that creature returned, with much better clarity than before.

Yukna was still secured by chains to her chair, her face swollen, and her head slumped forward.

It looked like the beating had stopped for a moment, with the interrogator still in the room rifling through a tray with various sharp implements.

"Well, now, I didn't expect to see a member of the purgatory church here," Sendredie said thoughtfully.

"The purgatory church?" Zee asked.

Sendredie nodded. "To be more precise, that is a low-ranking member of the warrior cast. See the small size and lack of curve to his horns, that means he likely a low-ranking member in the church of suffering," Sendredie said.

"Why would they be here?" Zee asked. She had heard mention of the church, but so far they just hadn't been an issue. 

Sendredie shrugged. "They are likely here to cause trouble for the Terlashar. I heard someone tried to kill you last night. Given the church was involved with taking your friend, It was likely them that hired the assassins," Sendredie said casually.

"Can you take us to them," Allison asked.

Sendredie squinted, and the view in the air shifted, the view suddenly high above a rickety building.

Judging by the shawdy construction, the building was somewhere in the stacks. All of the buildings around it were in disrepair, with boarded windows, and a general heir of poor craftsmanship. 

Zee pointed, "Can you focus on that building, yes that one, the one with the faded plack," Zee said. 

" There you are. Should be easy enough to find that shop. Happy hunting," Sendredie said, turning to leave.

"Are you not going to help?" Zee asked.

"No, I have repairs to attend to. Besides, If I don't return to the ship, it might fall from the sky. I'm sure you can handle a few low-ranking members from the church." Sendredie replied. 

With that bare-bones explanation, Sendredie disappeared. 

Zee stared at the image in front of them, as the eccentric woman vanished. Allison took a few steps forward, hesitantly reaching out to touch the image hanging in the air.

The image rippled and shattered into thousands of moats of light, the image of Yukna's unconscious form fading.

"Should we wait here for the others, or go get them?" Zee asked.

Allison straightened, her expression returning to her usual cold calm mask.

"Let's go get them, waiting a few hours for them to return is unacceptable. We are going to save Yukna," Allison said.

Slipping out the front door to the warehouse, Zee went after Bastion and Greg, while Allison went to get Malden.

If she hurried, she should be able to catch up in no time.  They had left not minutes ago, and she knew where they were headed.

Taking the quickest route she knew of, Zee flitted across the rooftops, scanning the streets below. Spotting her target, Zee appeared right in front of Malden with a puff of mist.

"We found Yukna, come on, we are going to save her," Zee said.

Malden cracked a wide smile, sand gusting around him as he followed.