The bushes

I had felt quite confused by the way that man had turned me down. Most men leapt at the chance to get their hands on such a large number of coins. I had followed him at a distance using a tracking spell, and I was still a good distance away in my own campsite when I noticed something odd. I, despite my confident display earlier, was not very experienced in magic just yet. I was using mana life force detection as I meditated.

It was both how I usually relaxed before going to sleep, and checked for hostile presences. That swordsman's campsite was just on the edge of my range when I detected hostile presences crossing through the woods behind me. Their hostility wasn't directed at me so I had ignored them at first, but they were headed straight for that man. I was debating on trying to reason with him again. Which was the only reason I was concerned.

After all it had taken me several months to track down the man in the first place. It would be a waste to just give up after he refused my first offer of coin. It had only confirmed that he was exactly the man I was looking for. A highly skilled swordsman dressed in rags, and did not want to be paid in coin. I shook off my indecisiveness, and cast an illusion before I followed the path the hostile presences had taken.

It was difficult for me to focus on the illusion, and move through the woods so I was quite slow to follow. My mana was beginning to run low when I finally caught snippets of conversation. I could barely make out what was happening through the trees so I moved just a little closer. Now I could clearly see the swordsman being held by two large men as two men lingered close by, and one was clearly torturing the swordsman with a dagger. He had made several cuts from the look of them I could tell they weren't particularly deep, but it didn't matter.

If enough cuts were made the swordsman would die. The swordsman on the other hand looked as if he'd hardly been affected by the man cutting him up beside the twinge of pain in his eyes, and it was infuriating the man who was torturing him even further.