In a tidy little box

Ed had discovered that he missed riding in the carriage with Rennish. The side benefit to this means of travel was that you made it in record time. It also meant you missed group meals and camping between villages. You didn't have to worry about forests full of wolves though. That was the upside.

A pack of wolves had spotted For'Ten and Ed running through a clearing in a small patch of woods on the way to a village a few days before. They had tried to catch them. In a wolf's mind, the only thing that runs that fast must be food. They only came in contact with speed like this in prey.

Unfortunately, this prey was too fast. They had tried to track the scent but gave up when they got to the edge of their known domain. They didn't want to get out in the open without the advantage that known terrain gave them. They gave up sullenly but often thought of the great prey that got away.

The sun was arched over the horizon when they reached the local lord's personal home. Normally local lords and magistrates would do business two to three times a month in the largest town in the village. It wasn't abnormal for them to have actual homes where they farmed, or hunted, or just lived to get away from petty squabbles and bickering.

This house was nicer than most of the others they had seen. Slate grey stone made up the floor of the lower walls. The upper story only covered half of the lower floors and was decorated with a white stucco and clay roof. It was incredibly well made. The house was either an ancient structure built to last. Or someone had spent a small fortune on dwarvish architecture and craftsmanship.

When they got within view of the house they both slowed down and walked the rest of the way in. The walk would be done silently. Ed was here as a tag along. For'Ten was rehearsing all the things he wanted to say. As the knight commander, he had a certain level of military authority he could swing around. He couldn't make any outrageous demands but seeing as he spent time in the council chambers it would be easy enough for him to name drop. Especially around certain groups who could make sure the magistrate was removed.

The walk to the door was quiet, even the air around the house was quiet. The normal noises of birds and insects died out the closer you got to the house. It was as if the house was absorbing the noise.

Ed wasn't curious at first glance of the house. To him, a house was just a collection of wood and stone. It wasn't until he noticed that he couldn't absorb mana at the same rate the closer he got to the house that he really started to notice it. For'Ten was almost in a full military march by the time they reached the door.

Ed coughed when they stopped to knock on the door. "Something isn't right. I can't absorb any mana here."

For'Ten nodded, "The air is too thick and all the animals are gone. Something is wrong here."

The ominous air didn't dissuade them from knocking on that door. For'Ten pulled a dagger from his chest and used the pommel of the dagger to bang on the door. Court rules required you to knock politely. Court rules were out the window when the animals all ran in the opposite direction.

A quiet shuffling could be heard from inside. Slowly the large wooden door creaked about two inches open. Only enough for one yellow eyeball to be seen through the crack and a voice to be heard from.

"Quick, what's your name, and then shove off!" The voice came out in a raspy hurried breath.

"Are you the magistrate of this land?" For'Ten said booming his voice through the door.

The eyeball darted up and down the knight's body and settled on his face. "I am, we aren't holding the meetings this month. I am very sick, very sick indeed. Trying again in another few months."

The man inside tried to slam the door. For'Ten hadn't released the grip on this dagger. So when the door creaked he shoved the blade through the crack and kept it from closing.

"I must insist you meet with me and my associate. I am For'Ten Kirgas, Commander of the knights of the Clear Glass. Keeper of the safety of the council and I am here to talk to you about... irregularities...." For'Ten used the strength of his hand to pull the door open and get his other hand inside. The man inside was pulling the door as hard as he could but couldn't fight the brute strength of a hardened knight.

"Uhh... Ugh... Uhhhhh...." Finally, the man inside gave up fighting and let the door open. "Fine come in, come in, but if you catch your death it wasn't my fault! My name is Titus Clairan."

From inside the door, you could see that the man was a blend of demi-human traits like most of the people in his domain. He had a canine look to his body. HIs ankles bent backward in a cantilevered walk. Canine demi-humans were rare, they had been killed during the great war because of their nature to trust humans. The face was a mix of features, yellow wolf eyes, taller than normal ears, and hair and fur that were too light to be a wolf. They were snowy ivory with dark grey at the edges.

"Head through that door and make your way to the parlor. Have a seat and I will be back shortly." The man pointed through a large set of double doors. He was fighting back the urge to shove them through. It was like he was hiding something from them in another room.

"Don't take long. The matter is of grave importance." For'Ten said and headed into the room.

Ed scanned the inside of the house. He was looking for anything that bled off magical or divine powers. Something ominous was at work here. The problem was that everything had a bit of a dark tinge to it. Like life, the very essence of the world was being sucked from it all.

He followed For'Ten into the parlor waiting room and stood against a wall near a fireplace. The fire had long since been out but warm ashes still lay at the bottom. No one had bothered to shovel them out yet. For'Ten looked out the window for signs of people escaping. No one came running out. He shook his head, sad that there wouldn't be a chase today.

Ed felt something pulling at his brain. A feeling that something was near. He scanned the room and felt nothing. He reached into his pocket where he kept his disk and closed his eyes. The dots were all relatively where they had been that morning when he checked them.

Ed sat down in a large high back chair and cleared his mind. For'Ten watched him. He could tell he was searching for something. For'Ten was a man of muscle and action and he didn't envy Ed for his part. Ed was a man of magic and the divines, which was new to him because he was a simple blacksmith in a backwater town not too long ago.

He closed his brain off from the world and calmed his thoughts until only the silence remained in his head. He knew For'Ten was staring at him but he blocked that thought out as well. He reached around in his brain and searched for anything that had power, divine or otherwise. The room was dark of any power, so he pushed out beyond the room, it was also dark. He scanned the house. The part of this technique that was useful was that it allowed you to create maps of locations by feeling out the mana and divine power in space. He had been practicing but hadn't expected it to be used this way.

The house was a blank, it was as if no mana existed anywhere. Ed concentrated and let a little mana radiate from his body. He could feel it enter the room and slowly disappear, like a ripple in the water.

He opened his eyes and looked around the room. The house looked normal enough, it had all the things you would expect to see in a well lived-in room. There were cups on an end table. The fireplace still had embers in it. Even the wood in the fireplace should be giving off a small bit of natural mana.

This was completely devoid of mana, either someone was masking it all or it was all be absorbed before it could go out into the environment.

"This is wrong For'Ten. The mana is all gone, completely gone, like it's all being absorbed by someone else." Ed walked himself around the room. Everything he put his hand on felt cold, lifeless, and devoid of warmth.

For'Ten nodded, "Yes it is like the house is absorbing the life of everything around it. Even the air feels dead."

Ed nodded and went to stoop down in front of the fire. He could see the smoldering embers. He could feel the warmth from the last bits of fire. But the air between him and the fire was cold.

For'Ten paced the room for the 15th time before losing his patience, "This is asinine." He walked over to the open doorway and peaked his out into the hallway. The door led straight into an open entryway. A room sat directly opposite the room they were currently in but the door was closed. A hallway went to the left and a stairwell went up to a second floor.

Ed followed For'Ten. He wasn't going to get left behind. Getting split up was how bad things happened and so far everything they had done was a group effort.

For'Ten walked across and peaked into the other room. It was a dining room. The table was cluttered with little bits of paper and boxes.

He backed away from the door and bumped into Ed who apologized quickly.

They both looked down the hallway past the stairwell at the same time. They had the same thought. Better to cover the ground floor before going upstairs where you might be trapped.

Ed closed his eyes and felt out for power, nothing showed up even other people Even For'Ten who was wearing clothing with spells woven in was barely a faint glow in his mind.

They went backward and the hallway opened into a large kitchen. An oven had another nearly dead fire in it. The sink was flowing with pans and plates. If this house had a maid they had obviously been gone for a while. A magistrate's house should have some kind of servant staff.

For'Ten held up a hand and Ed could see the ears on the top of his head move around. For'Ten waved his hand to the left pointing down a hallway that seemed to go to some kind of small hallway. It was undecorated and looked as if it was meant for the staff only.

A voice could be heard faintly at the end of the hallway. "Ignore them, they will leave on their own anyway." A nasal voice could be heard at the end of the hallway. Soft platitudes came about how smart and great the magistrate was. The closer they got to this room the more Ed's sense of unease came up. He was closing himself off from any Mana or Divine power being sucked away. Right now he was a locked bank door. Nothing was getting in or out from him. If anyone looked he would stand out but he also couldn't have the power leached out of him.

For'Ten put his hand on his dagger again and slowly moved towards the door. He was being extra careful to make sure his hooves didn't make any noise on the wooden floor.

"Yes, Yes, I am sure they will. Now tell me more about the great plans you have for my land..." The magistrate said, he sounded drunk. His words flowed and bounced off each other. They almost slurred together.

Ed put his hands on his body trying to keep anything from moving or making noise. He was trying to see if he could feel a build-up of power or anything. Actually the closer they got the darker the aura of the air around him got.

Suddenly Ed had a memory. He had heard this voice before... He couldn't place where he had heard it. And he wouldn't have. This voice had been around several times but never come into contact with him.

inside the room and out of sight was Felgar. He had survived the attack from the dwarves on mostly sheer luck. The message he had gotten from Hatsheput telling him when to leave had also helped.

He wasn't sure why the gods wanted to help him but they did. He assumed as always that it was because of his immense divine potential. But just like now, his personal habits got in the way of him being successful. Here in this house, he was leeching off this poor man. He was absorbing the free food and building up his power. He had visited the port town where the corpse of the god had been. After eating his fill he was almost back to full power.

Ysennia had promised him that when he got to full power there would be amazing things in store for him. It was only natural that a goddess would be into a man like him, he thought to himself. He paid no attention to greasy unwashed skin. He thought the flabby edges of his body gave him a healthy look. He looked like a worn-out overfed old man. Even his regal clothing looked dingy in the harsh yellow light of the room.

The slave operation had left him with a significant amount of money stashed away in little banks and properties here and there. This particular local area housed quite a bit of his unused land. Original the magistrate and Felgar had met when he asked for permission to build a home. The initial response had been a big fat NO. Felgar kept trying to win him over and finally resorted to a charm. The power to keep it up wasn't very much and it kept him from buying a home. He had just moved into the magistrate's home.

And this back head butlers chamber was perfect No one would expect him here in a servant's quarters. Who willingly took a butler's room, even if it was the head butler's room? It was very nice by normal house standards. It wasn't as nice as the magistrate's own room.

Ed and For'Ten lined up against the wall and listened for long enough to understand that the magistrate was never coming out. For'Ten fully removed his dagger and shifted it to his left hand. He grabbed the doorknob in his right and nodded at Ed to come around to the other side of the door.

When everyone was in place For'Ten threw open the door and Ed burst in first. The magistrate had been expecting For'Ten so when the human barreled in first him off guard.

The magistrate was looking up where For'Ten's face would have been. Seeing blank air he immediately moved his head down to look at Ed, but it was too late.

Ed had gotten into the room in a few small steps before the man came up out of the chair in surprise. Ed clocked his arm back and landed a standards fighter punch right to the outer tip of the chin. The magistrate's head swung viciously and his brain was tossed around inside his head.

The sudden shift in his brain caused him to blackout. His eyes rolled back in his head before he crumpled to the floor still twisting. The smell in the room was intense. It was like full-grown men who hadn't bathed in a month.

Felgar got up from his chair and tried to back across the room. He knew he could overpower them with divine magic but Felgar wasn't the least bit athletic.

By the time he started to back across the room towards a window For'Ten had finally made it into the room. He stepped through the door like a giant against the short squat backing off in terror.

"You wouldn't attack an unarmed man would you?" Felgar smiled and backed away putting his hands on everything as he quickly tried to plot his escape.

For'Ten pointed the end of his knife at him. "You are hereby under arrest for the corruption of local officials and interfering with government business!" The force of his voice made even Ed cringe a little.

Felgar was a man who had survived much the same way rats too. Always know your escape and never trust one source of food too long. He had hoped he would have had longer, but this would work.

Felgar stammered out a reply, "Oh... Oh... Oh... okay. Let me get my things and we will go back."

Ed had a feeling for what was going to come next. "No you sit down and we will go through everything. You touch nothing." Ed pointed to the chair he had just jumped out of.

For'Ten reached behind his back and pulled on a small section of rope.

Like a rat in a fire, Felgars eyes never stopped moving. It looked for even the smallest chance of escape. Rats will run from one burning room into another before realizing they are trapped. The same instinct was going full force right now. When For'Ten turned his body just to the left to dig in his sack for his rope Felgar dashed out of the chair and across a low table before bounding through the open doorway.

For'Ten cursed and turned around. Ed watched them take off, he took one look around the room to take a mental image of the contents of the room. One thing stood out at him, a small dark oak box sat on its own table. That was odd enough for it to be given a place of prestige like that for such an unassuming box.

It seemed vaguely familiar to Ed in some way. If it was so important that it got its own table when everything else was strewn about then it must be worth keeping an eye on.

Ed grabbed the box and turned around to follow For'Ten and Felgar. The sound of running was headed to the front of the house. Ed could hear the front door being thrown open. Seconds after that the sound of things falling from the wall followed as For'Ten bounced off everything to get caught up.

Felgar made it out the door and into the yard. He tried to summon a small miracle but couldn't. He's out of shape body was barely keeping up with the blood and oxygen needed to run this long. When he got a few feet out into the unkempt walkway he tripped in the grass.

It looked like he simply fell over. A voice of a woman laughed as the short fat man scurried and got up on his feet again. For'Ten came running out the door just long enough to see the man scurry across the lawn one more time. Ed followed mere seconds behind him.

He saw For'Ten chasing the little man. His terror was present on his face as For'Ten had pulled out two blades and his eyes almost screamed of murder.

Ed was stopped dead in his tracks when a woman in a maid's outfit stood just outside the door. "Oh my let me take that..." she pointed towards the box.

Ed clutched it even tighter. "This is evidence..." he said moving it away from her hands.

"Ed, that needs to be collected. Let me get it back where it belongs before they get too far away for me to reach." The voice changed from a simple maid to a voice of wisdom. It was a husky feminine voice.

"Who are you?" Ed's demeanor changed immediately. Anyone who knew his name had to be either against him or a divine or both.

"I am Or'Ain and I am not your enemy. But that belongs to someone else I am here to collect it from you."

"Damn Golliad," Ed muttered and held the box out.

Or'Ain held it delicately in her hands. She knew what this was. She wasn't going to spoil the party for anyone just yet. "He sent me to help keep everything straight, go help your friend. I will catch up with you later." She smiled.

Ed cursed under this breath and ran to For'Ten who was trying to hold the man to the ground. Or'Ain took the box and tossed it once in the air playfully. She smiled and walked around the corner and out of sight. She missed her favorite spot. She had no intention of sharing anything. This box needed to go back to its owner. And it was too damn dangerous to be in Ed's hands. The sooner it was away from him the better.