Carefully I divided up the crumbled remnants of the stone into four piles, picking up the first, I chanted, “Winds of the North, purify all evil.” Blowing into my hand, I caused the remnants of the stone to fly out of my hand, where it was caught by a north wind and scattered.
By invoking the purifying aide of the other winds, east, south, and west, the rest of the stone was disposed. That matter accomplished, I dragged my foot over the magical circle I had created, erasing all traces.
I then sat down, sliding my beads through my fingers as I thought. My client had reported rumors of New Ones. That would be very bad, and would also fit the scant evidence he had provided. However, I also found evidence of demonic activity at the client’s residence, namely the rock. In my professional opinion, the client most certainly was not demon possessed. Despite this, in his state of mind, burdened by guilt and sorrow at the death of his comrades, he fit the classic case of one susceptible to demonic influence. If he was being demonically influenced, as the presence of the rock might indicate, then all information I had received from him, including the piece about the New Ones was suspect.
There were also other reasons to doubt the story of the New Ones. If New Ones were present, I would think that the Dragon would have allied with them, yet no New Ones attacked the town. Granted, the very fact we call them “New” Ones means they are a new phenomenon, and thus we don’t have much information on them, so perhaps New Ones did not make suitable allies. Yet, if I, with my job, didn’t know much about New Ones, I would bet the Dragon wouldn’t know much about them either, and thus would try to get them to ally with him, perhaps even attempting to use force to bind them to him. Yet there was no evidence of the Dragon being in a battle before his attack, and certainly not a battle which he left the loser.
This could be explained away if there were another Magi other than the Dragon controlling the New Ones. If another Magi was present, then the Dragon would certainly avoid him if an alliance offer failed. If true it would also explain why the Old Man confined himself to a supporting role during the battle with the Dragon, he wanted to keep himself fresh in case the unknown Magi made an appearance.
I got up, starting to pace. Master Hen had once said “Let your mind be as motionless as mountain.” But then again, there were some things worth getting agitated over, and the possibility of facing a magi was one of them.
Of course, it was only a possibility, and a slight one at that, a possibility born of thin fragments of truth stitched together with inference to make a cloak of guesswork. Still…. Bah, information, I needed much more information. Normally I would attempt to contact some fey folk, they would know what was going on in their forest, yet I had heard the Dragon killed them all. And I couldn’t trust my client because of the possibility of him being demonically influenced.
Suddenly I stopped pacing. The Old Man. He would know. Though I hadn’t seen him since the battle, I would wager he was still around somewhere, sniffing around for the Dragon. At the least, he would know whether there was the possibility of another Magi around. At the best, during his hunt for the Dragon, he would have come across more information I could use. Either way, I needed the information he had before I could start my job in earnest. After all, as Master Sadaha said, “Only a fool steps when he does not know where his foot will land.”
