<HTML> Kevin knows he's supposed to be looking for something. He's just not entirely sure precisely what. Just a few minutes ago Jono said that they'd need him up here to potentially help out with an incoming marauding Lutin band; they wouldn't be prepared to handle same while dealing with getting the kids out of the tunnels, and so he was asked to prepare some means of defending them magically. This poses a serious problem for Kevin. For one, while he can perceive and understand all magic's like any mage and can perform a few basics from most any magical branch like most of the mages at the Keep, the vast bulk of his talent is with his historical divinatory magic, and the fire and heating magic's for when he has to go into combat; as a result, the only thing he can do to keep that many Lutins away would be to either defeat them all at once (which is unlikely) or find some way of intimidating them (a little more likely, but not much). For another, the storm seems to be deliberately blocking any attempts at spell casting. Or at least it was previously. Jono had mentioned that the mages that had been at the camp had all managed to toss spells of one kind or another, and if the storm was deliberately blocking Everything then obviously that wouldn't be possible. Even basic spell casting items like wands (which neither Jono nor Perry saw the mages using) have to draw on the surrounding mana, he knows that for a fact. So somehow they had some kind of mechanism for keeping the storm from impeding their spell casting. Jono wouldn't have called him up if he believed he could fend off the Lutins himself, so Kevin knows that he's got to find whatever it was that was allowing the mages to cast spells. So Kevin reasons this out. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of individual small-time mages in Nasoj's invading army; none of the really impressive types who can pose real threats to seriously trained personnel, but still having enough magic to help confound ordinary soldiers. He wouldn't want to get rid of that capability; he's been up against the Keepers before and knows quite a bit of what they're capable of; besides, his own common soldiers are going to obviously be seriously suffering from the storm, and the Lutins can't be as reliable as the average Keep footman, as they're in it primarily due to force. So he would have had to figure out a way to allow them to cast spells in this kind of environment. Casting a marking spell on every mage would be impractical given the difficulty of enchantments on living beings (they have to be willing, he knows, and he doesn't think Nasoj's empire to be a likely environment of absolute trust in one's magocratic superiors), and he couldn't easily do it en masse with everyone; even the Curse took the assistance of several other mages, and he'd had some kind of major power assisting him which would have its hands full with the storm, most likely. Now, there are types of items that can be enchanted en masse; he'd probably know that. And such talismans could easily be distributed to his forces. Amulets, or perhaps some kind of ring, or bracelet, or maybe even robes or something similar. The only difficulty with this theory is that Nasoj would obviously want to keep such away from the Keepers themselves, otherwise he'd be too easily routed - a single basic mage falling would be enough to possibly destroy either his storm or his army if found by the right Keeper. So he'd want to make them difficult to Keeper access; this implies something that would be set up at a camp. But that would slow down his forces' ability to use the spells in the First place... damn. Reasoning is not allowing Kevin to follow the easy chain of thought he's used to. This is more than a little intimidating to him; he's grown accustomed to figuring out what someone or something might have done, following the line of reasoning, and come up with an appropriate end result. This is not occurring. For all his training with the keep's tactical magery group and his studies of people's actions of the past, he still can't always fathom exactly what someone will do right now. It's difficult to see it through the lines of magic, too; the storm is literally blindingly bright overhead if looked at with magesight. There's two things that could be a result of; one is that the storm could be a magical creation of wild mana in an intensity rivaling the Keep itself; the other is that it's a circumvention device to keep people like him from disassembling the enchantment. Given the Keep's history, he thinks it's likely to be the latter, though it's not impossible to assume the amount of mana involved is great; he'd be surprised if it wasn't so much as to slow down the progress of the Curse if any poor souls happened to be trapped in th- "KEVIN! Have you got anything yet?" Voice is quickly identifiable as that bard. Jono. "I'm trying to figure this out! Have patience!" Kevin does not like it when people disrupt a running line of thinking for any reason. The bard appears to curse under his breath or something and then go on with what he's doing. Kevin's able to note the others in his party in the meantime; they're all rushing, trying to get all the kids out of the tunnels before the Lutins arrive. If he looks a little more closely he can see his boy Jeremy and Jeremy's two friends making up snowballs or something; his attention doesn't focus that way long enough to determine that much though. Better back to figuring. Three main lines, it looks like to him. Three major areas of magic lines repeated over and over from the storm. One seems to be dedicated to perpetuating the weather's abdominal state, one is incredibly dedicated to mana absorption alone, and the last is very pervasive, obviously intended to prevent others from collecting any of the other natural lines of magic in the area. This latter is the one that has his attention; the areas it doesn't cover are obviously going to be his indicators of how to get his spells back. He made the mistake of succumbing to emotional strain the last time he was out here; he's not going to do that again. Following that third major line, predictably enough, is unfortunately proving damnably hard. So he moves over towards the tents. They're still flapping in the wind, from both the entrances designed in them and the entrances crafted by Jono's and Perry's swords. This tells him right off that the tents were not the focus around which spells might be cast unfettered; if they truly were, then the swordsmanship inflicted on them would have seriously disrupted or even destroyed the enchantment, and the two mages had resisted with spells, so clearly the tents are not the answer. And looking around the tent's interior (noting the body within, though not focusing on it too much; Kevin still isn't all that happy with being in combat, and death doesn't help his feelings about same much) clearly reveals that the lines of magic making up the third major line are not only still in the area, they're... even more focused? * * * He's moving his forces, such as they are, as fast as he can down the tunnels, and he knows that's going to make a lot of noise that's sure to make the Keepers be aware of his presence long before he gets to them, and that bothers him a bit, but there's not much for him to do about it. They probably know already, Orrusk thinks to himself. If the Keepers could see them coming for their first encounter, they'll surely be able to see them coming for a second. And they also have a head start, which means that any attempts at stealth would cause him to lose his quarry. It's plainly obvious to Orrusk that if the Keepers had the capability to slaughter him and his forces that they would have done so. The fact that they didn't kill All his Lutins even after the sleeping air attack, while definitely insulting, shows that most of these particular Keepers are likely weak and have no taste for killing, and that the few strong ones among them are listening to what the weak say. That makes it all the easier for him to intimidate, charge in and destroy, doesn't it? Which he'll certainly have to do; the morons left behind by Tharag will probably be more easily beaten by the stronger Keepers with them. There's at least two strong ones; the powerful mage and the fierce warrior that killed that bootlicking disgrace of a brother. Get through them and at worst he gets plenty of prisoners with which to appease Nasoj. At best, he gets his tribe back. It's been long enough that the Keepers are probably going to make it to the end of the tunnels before he does. In that case, it's likely that they'll have run into the small force Tharag left behind to guard the entrance along with the mages that were working on that spell they were going to cast to let the Great One know. One warrior and one mage could probably fend a group like that off, if the mage is sufficiently clever - and he has to admit, this one probably is. They must know, though, that he's behind them, and so they'd do probably what he would do - attempt to rally the weak ones to fight with them, to go down fighting gloriously one last time. So he's having his group make noise as they move along, making it absolutely certain that he is coming to destroy them. That ought to keep the number of difficult opponents down to the two strong ones and that's all. Perhaps even less than that if he can intimidate them enough to get them to panic and run; strong ones courting weak ones like this obviously are those strange type of strong ones that try to defend the weak; they'd be swept up into the panic attempting to defend their precious weaklings and in the process become a non-problem. Which makes it all the easier for him to take advantage of their grave mistake in leaving him alive. Finally, something is going right after all the insults of the day. ---- Kevin blinks, then glances back, looking towards the dead mage but not at the body itself. The lines are going... to the body? A point on the body? He almost lunges forward in his excitement, quickly trying to get the mage's clothes open, his eyes always on the lines of magic... then as he pulls the mage's blood-soaked (ugh! a voice in the back of his head comments) shirt open, he finds the lines come to an amulet around the mage's neck, the back of it contacting the skin. There's got to be at least ten or twenty lines rushing to it, though a few of them are starting to disconnect and become free floating again. His mind is racing now... "The lines are going to that amulet... what could that mean? Some sort of gathering device? Or is the mage attracted to the dampening..." "Wait a minute... it's a KEY!" He dimly hears his name called from outside the tent; must have said that last part out loud. But that's not what his mind is focused on. _Okay. The amulet is a key, a key for something allowing the mages to cast spells. But that would mean that what he'd assumed to be a simple dampening spell also has an access mechanism built into it. Why? Storm is sucking up all the mana of the area to allow itself to perpetuate, so a mage can't cast any spells, thus keeping them from 'picking the lock' all that easily since you'd need to gather the lines before you could try to arrange them, and they avoid gathering, so whatever those lines are doing should remain secure, it's got to be feeding mana! Or something to that effect.  Allowing the caster to. . . He blinks. "to usurp mana from the storm? No, no, has to be redirection. The storm's already DONE all the gathering; casting spells through the amulet would allow you to divert some of that which is going to the storm to your own spell, long enough so that you can work it, and only enough for your spell being diverted so another mage can't take advantage of it. 'key' amulets could be fairly quickly enchanted, just do a few properly arranged gathering or focusing spells on various points on the amulet for the lines to go to, plus prob'ly a means of interfacing with the wearer or at least the wearer's spells so that it can actually be put to use." He reaches out, picks up the amulet off the mage's chest. As soon as he lifts it several of the lines that were starting to disconnect do so, going free much more quickly. That has to be as a result of the interface. It was already coming apart because he's dead, will probably lose all the lines if I take it all the way off. He reaches down, taking the chain and pulling the amulet up and off of the mage; a triumphant grin comes to his face as all the lines dissipate and lose contact with the amulet. Then a thought occurs. That'd be sending feedback, wouldn't it? The decay of the connection of the lines of magic could be noticed by Eli! No, probably not by Eli... but still, brilliant! It serves as a tracking system! That way he can tell if an amulet is stolen or if the wearer is lost! By checking to see if that decay occurs... and if it's reestablished, then he can track down whoever stole the amulet easily enough; just follow the newly reestablished lines! Would have a few communications problems if some mage loses theirs and then gets it back, but such things ALWAYS happen in invading armies. Kevin's mind is a blur at this point. This is hardly a new experience for him. He became a historian for really no other reason than to experience this sort of rush; when you're in the library in the early mornings with dozens of books scattered around your workspace, poring over passages, parts of a riddle running through your mind, little bits and pieces of the puzzle coalescing, rushing together like clockwork, it's one of the most enjoyable things in his life. The current situation - being in an actual battle that will surely be remembered in all the histories of this valley for the Northlanders' daring (if rather suicidal) gambit alone, and having to use this talent of his to help protect his child whom he loves more than his pursuits and his life itself as well as so many other children - only adds to the incredible feeling he's experiencing. Application of talent to not just understand the actions of the past, but to defend the historical figures of the present and future. This is what he would love to live for; all that prevents him from doing so is that massive invasions from the North are thankfully infrequent. "So," he thinks to himself. "Is it safe to keep this with me? Possibly. Can't keep it on, for sure, assuming it works if I do put it on." He stops for a moment, looks down at the amulet, shrugs, and puts it on, then waits, looking around for the lines. "Nothing," A few seconds of depression, and then he slaps himself upon the forehead. "Skin contact!" He quickly starts to open his robes and shirts, the cold around him briefly forgotten, then lifts the amulet and drops it on his chest, fidgeting. "Will the fur interfere?" After a few seconds, it's clear that again, nothing is happening. He quickly pulls out the small dagger from his belt, giving it a quick examination, then pushing his sleeve up and running it a short way up his wrist as a test. The fur comes away fairly easily; thankfully he'd made sure to keep the dagger good and sharp ever since the scare that had come after the Patriarch's murder. He places the dagger against his chest with the blade flat, oriented vertically and level with the amulet, takes a deep breath, then starts to cut at the fur with the dagger, using his other paw to lift the amulet up and away. He winces a few times as the blade makes a little too close contact with his skin, even barely suppressing a loud squeak as the tip starts cutting in a little far midway through, and there's a little blood there now, but he keeps going until he's shaved away a small patch of fur about four inches across. Then he wipes the dagger on his robe and sheaths it, takes in a breath, crosses his fingers and drops the amulet back down so it comes to rest against the shaved part of his chest. It takes two or three seconds before Kevin grins triumphantly to the accompaniment of the sight of lines reattaching themselves to the amulet. ***   End part 46</HTML>