<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> A much longer part tonight to balance last night's brevity. -LurkingWolf ___ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> Opening the door revealed a pair of men, one cursed into the form of a black wolf while the other remained human. Alex immediately recognized the wolf as the one to whom he had spoken earlier. He was dressed in clothing that was clearly intended for camouflage on patrol, rather than to keep up appearances among polite company, its patchwork of blacks and whites designed to escape the eye on cold winter nights. There was not a blade to be seen on his belt. Instead, a pair of stout wooden rods was secured in harnesses on either hip. The strange weapons drew Alex’s eye for a moment, but he avoided lingering on them long enough to cause suspicion.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The man standing beside the wolf helped to redirect the lynx’s gaze. He was of a very stout build, and the truly impressive number of scars that crisscrossed his bare skin spoke of many years spent in battle. His head was bald, but his beard had been expertly woven into a pair of black braids that hung down to his chest. He wore no weapon, but Alex doubted he would need one to be a difficult opponent. If the lynx’s surmise was correct, the man would not depend on strength alone in combat, either. According to what brief discussion he had undertaken with the wolf, the man was also a mage of some power. A well-trained mage was easily dangerous beyond even the finest of swordsmen.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The wolf smiled as he saw the familiar lynx standing near the door. “Hello again, Commander Alex. I have come in the company of my party’s mage, as promised. This is Balrog; he will certainly be of a great deal more aid to you in this effort than I will myself.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Balrog nodded to each of the members of the party in turn, although he clearly lingered at the sight of Julian before continuing on to Lucy. When he spoke, his voice was very much what Alex has expected, a gruff, deep voice colored with a slight accent that implied foreign upbringing. His manner of speaking, however, was quite distinct from the lynx’s expectations.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Greetings, gentlemen. Milady.” He favored Lucy with a short, respectful bow. Alex could see her rolling her eyes, but she accompanied her sarcasm with a smile that clearly showed some gratitude for the consideration at least. “My commander informed me that a member of your number was subjected to a spell that reduced him to feral in mind and body, and I would like to contribute my own experience and knowledge to rescue him, with your permission.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The formality of his speech almost made Alex laugh outright, but it certainly did help to cool the tension that the lynx felt mounting in the room. Either the man was sincere in his desire to help, or his acting was camp in its most distilled form. Whatever the case, Alex favored him with a smile and a nod in return.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “You are correct,” he confirmed. “Our companion was seeking to scout a lutin camp for information, and it seems that he ran afoul of the shaman.” He waved to the cage on the table. “The effects of the spell used against him are clear, but the nature of the magic eludes us.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The man stepped forward as the wolf beside him took a step to one side to let him pass. The man squinted at the white-furred creature that crouched low between the bars, focusing intently to make out every detail that presented itself to his gaze.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I see no trace of a fetish stone,” he observed. “I suppose that is likely the first thing that you ruled out?” He glanced to Lucy. It seemed that he had determined that she was a mage, likely due to her proximity to the caged ermine. She nodded, and he sighed with a shake of his head.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I cannot fault your investigation, then, although I am sorry to say that it leaves us very short on possible causes. To my knowledge, fetish stones are the only implement that have been used to affect such a change since the Curse itself.” He grumbled and stroked his chin as he rounded the table. Looking at the chalk lines that had been drawn about the cage, he gave a pleased nod.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Good, I see that you are certainly capable with enchantments. You suspect a hidden spell, then?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy almost blushed at the implied compliment, but the mention of their present business returned her attention to the problems of the present. “I have inspected the weaves of magic around him to the best of my ability, and I cannot detect anything foreign besides the Curse itself.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Oddly, it was the wolf that responded, not the mage. “That is odd,” he remarked. “Most warriors have at least some enchantments to aid them in battle, especially during missions of stealth.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Alex shrugged. “The only magic I use is intended to make my archery more useful in various ways. I have no outside enchantments on my person.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I do not mean to suggest that every man has such enchantments, but a great number of them do, myself included,” the wolf insisted. “I am simply trying to note something I see as odd if it might perhaps suggest some useful course of action.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Unfortunately, they are right,” Balrog replied. He had been staring at the former assassin in silence while the others discussed the situation as hand. “If he had been under any sort of enchantment prior to encountering this spell, it is little more than a faint echo now, and those would be both difficult to find and useless to our current pursuit. The magic we need to find should be new and currently active, and pulling at loose strands in the dusty reaches of age-old enchantments will not lead us to any breakthroughs in that venture.” He sighed and scratched his head in confusion as he continued to stare at the creature behind the bars. “What devious device has the enemy used against you this time, Lois?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Lois?” Julian looked to Alex, who nodded and gave a subtle gesture towards Lucy. Julian continued to pounce on the use of their companion’s name by a stranger as he stepped towards Balrog. “How do you know his name?” he asked pointedly.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy, despite being at a disadvantage of both height and strength, interposed herself between the stocky man and the cage with a hard scowl. Alex and Julian confronted the wolf, although Julian’s body and attention were still turned the face Balrog. He slowly unsheathed his weapon with his right hand and pointed its tip towards the wolf, while a ball of flame developed in his left, the orange of its base giving away to a light blue hue the further the flames licked into the air.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The human stood straighter and turned slowly to face the man who had challenged him. “I know Vincent Lois from many years ago,” he explained. “We met a decade ago, perhaps more, in the lands south of this Keep. We made a business of culling the smaller groups of lutins who escaped your patrols and harassed the local farmlands. I understand your suspicion, but there is no reason why we need to come to blows.” He raised both hands in surrender, specifically turning his gaze to the moondog. “No, I cannot prove it to you, at least not until Lois can provide his personal vote of confidence.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Julian glanced towards Alex, watching as the lynx stepped towards the wolf. “Perhaps that may be so,” he conceded. “However, that is not the only thing that you inexplicably know. For instance, how did you know that we were here, or that we were in need of help?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I told you, we received a request for help while we were returning to the Keep last night!”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “That is impossible; we sent no request for aid, especially not last night!” Alex declared hotly. “We had not even returned to Hareford until late in the evening. What is the truth, then? How did you really hear about our crisis?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> While the wolf looked ready to insist on his earlier explanation, a loud sigh from his human companion brought him up short. “Sir, I realize that you do not want to so easily reveal your secrets to strangers, but revealing the truth is infinitely preferable to receiving the tip of a blade to the heart.” The man nodded to the wolf seriously. Nathan looked quite unhappy with his companion’s conclusion, but he was forced to admit that there was no flaw to his thinking.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “All right,” he said with a quiet growl behind his words. “I did not wish to reveal this needlessly, but it seems that the current situation affords me very little flexibility. I was telling the truth in a way when I claimed that I had received a request for help, but the nature of that request is what I did not admit. I have the ability to detect echoes of events either present or future. Last night while returning from Metamor, I felt a great cry of distress from the northern reaches beyond Hareford. As is often the case, I could not determine the reason for the feeling, but I have learned not to ignore such flashes of foresight when they are given to me. When I heard you speaking with the guards at the keep, however, I made the connection that your companion was the one whose distress I detected.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “This all seems like quite a convenient set of coincidences,” Julian noted, never lowering his guard. “Why would your patrol, which you have already admitted was nearly to Metamor when you detected Lois’ distress, not only detect the cry for help from so far away, but also just happen to have a mage who is friends with the man in question?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Alex nodded his agreement. “Julian speaks for my thoughts as well,” he agreed. “It seems more likely that the two of you, and perhaps more, have been tracking Lois for some time, and only now do you see an opportunity to strike him down while he is vulnerable.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Again Balrog spoke, still holding his hands in the air in calm surrender. “I know that your suspicion is not unfounded, but I would ask you to rethink your logic. If either of us had wished to kill Lois, we could have done so immediately after our arrival. A fire spell used on Lois’ cage would not only have likely dealt with him in a matter of moments, but it would have distracted the attentions of either one or both of my fellow mages in this room.” He nodded individually to both Lucy and Julian, who was still brandishing the wreath of flame which danced about his paw with a will of its own, never once singeing his short fur. “As a friend of the man, I realize that Lois has more than a few enemies, but I also know that he has spent most of the past ten years slowly culling the numbers of those that seek to do him harm. If we wished the same, we would have not spared any risk to see him killed immediately.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Alex nodded slowly. “You make a few good points, but you still show no proof.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Nathan took up their defense next. “As Balrog has already stated, our stories could be proven if Lois was released from the spell, but until then you must either find a reason either to trust us, or to utterly reject our claims. At this juncture, can you truly find enough wrong with our words to justify shedding our blood on friendly soil? Can you truly afford to reject our help because of a few doubts?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy maintained her position between Balrog and the cage, but she nodded her agreement. “We have made no progress on our own. Any help that we can come by would certainly be helpful.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Can we trust this help, however?” Julian argued.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Alex stepped towards the wolf, fixing a neutral gaze, looking directly into the man’s eyes. The wolf met his gaze fearlessly, although even he could not stand the odd inspection without cocking his head inquisitively in utter confusion. Alex’s face betrayed no emotion, however, and he avoided even blinking as he stared the wolf down. Finally, he gave a sigh and stepped back, only to repeat the process with the human. Balrog took the inspection in stride, although he did once glance towards his commander with a helpless smile and a shrug of uncertainty. Finally, Alex stepped away from both of them and waved to his own companions.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Stand down. I do not believe that they mean any harm to Lois. Do not lower your guards entirely, but let them try to help at least.” He nodded to Julian, waving for him to sheath his blade and dispel the fire that still guttered along the pads of his paw. The moondog was none too happy with the sudden orders, but he obeyed them with no question, although he kept himself in position between the two strangers. Lucy, who had never prepared a combat spell at all, simply stepped aside, joining Alex and Julian between the other two. Balrog gave a grateful smile.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Thank you for your vote of confidence,” he said with a quiet sincerity. “I will do what I can to see the spell broken. I hope that we can cast aside any suspicion once it is done.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Nathan said a few similar words, but Alex’s attention was instead on the moondog, who was waving him to a private corner with no degree of subtlety at all. Alex apologized for his quick departure, and Julian waved a paw, keeping the sounds of their conversation from leaving the corner where they would be speaking. <meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14"> <meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 14"> <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CNathan%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml">  <link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CNathan%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"> <link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CNathan%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml">  <style>  </style> </body> </html>