(My bad for the delay this time)

For a moment, the boy thought that his ploy was not going to work. His breath hitched in his throat and he felt a sense of dread over what might befall him. His finger twitched eager to cast a spell and call the lightning before his deception could be found out.

The goblin in the lead scrutinised the boy a few moments longer, he was suspicious though he was of like mind to agree with him that his people came first and as quicker they were away, the better off they would be. And so, Sage watched them leave and breathed a sigh of relief as he noted down one clear weakness of over relying on the eyes of his familiar and that he should not lose sight of what was happening right Infront of him. It had made him blind, and for it he had nearly payed a price.

With that said however, his Raven was able to see some most interesting things happening in the courtyard, such as was the woman’s intervention in the brief scuffle between the dark clad warrior and the slave. She had used a dagger inscribed with runes which brought the slave heavily to his knees.

It was a spell to be sure, but he could not make out the runes on the dagger and was unable to tell what the spell was doing exactly. From a logical standpoint, if the elder man was a slave, then the dagger may have been resonating with another rune placed upon his body to bring him to his knees.

Highly likely, sage decided as the other intruder was not affected. And yet, he certainly made a hasty retreat for something that may not have affected him. Sage raised a hand to his chin as his raven tried to steal a closer look at the glowing runes. Or perhaps the spell was more insidious and had an area of effect.

That was a troubling thought, but now that he had identified the woman had such a weapon at her disposal that if blows were to be traded that he had to either disarm the woman or be out of its area of effect. Which would not be easy in either case as the intruder had been at least fifteen feet away from the spell which meant that was his minimum safe distance at best.

Soon the woman was heaving up the old man by herself and took him back into the estate while the guards took one last weary look around and followed the woman back inside.

The courtyard was now clear, and his raven saw no one was looking out from any of the windows. Instead it saw an open balcony up above the estate’s veranda with a door that had been left ajar. His mind made up Sage let out a breath and steeled himself for what he was about to do.

Sage took a step back and looked up and over the wall into the courtyard. Sage bent his knees and took one step forwards where a pentagram seal appeared under his foot and the boy was launched up and over the wall clearing it with ease. His landing was not so graceful but he recovered well enough to lightly dash over the estates green lawn and used the same spell again to launch him up and onto the balcony where he ducked and held his breath listening for anyone nearby.

But the estate remained calm, and if he was lucky, no one would have seen him enter the premises.

With another calming breath, sage silently approached the half open door that had been left ajar and peered through the space to see if anyone was beyond.

With no one in sight the boy grew bolder and slowly opened the door fearing that it would cause a noisy creek as he did. There were a few creaks, but it was nothing at all like the ones found on a haunted mansion that served only to install a sense of unease into the protagonist or the reader.

The room beyond was certainly furnished nicely, it wasn’t a bedroom and instead it reminded him of his father’s study. Shelves of books lined the wall though most had a fine layer of dust, items had been placed to one side without any given thought and even a chair had fallen onto its side.
The room hadn’t been used in quite some time it appeared and the boy looked around nosily as he spied a novel or two on the shelf he had read before.

‘Good taste, at the very least’ He noted remembering the books rather fondly, before continuing to examine the contents of the room and spied an astro globe made of brass bars. It was a beautiful work of art, and as sage reached out to touch the spinning mechanism, he saw a stain on one the globes stand.

Little dark splotches that were not only on the stand, but were riddled all over the shelve and most of the wooden floor that pooled into an area close to the fallen chair. For a single moment, Sage pondered at what it could be. Blood, dried blood, there looked like there may have been a struggle in this room, and whoever had died it had not been a clean kill. Sage did not even need to use his eye of antiquity to know that was exactly what had happened. To the young mage, the answer was as clear as day.

“Well, you wanted to know who these people were, did you not Sage.” He quietly scolded himself “Slavers, murderers and…”

The boy looked up at a nearby parchment that had been discarded atop the bed. Morbid curiosity crawled down his spine as he rolled the parchment over to reveal a very unique crest.

“…And cultists too” Sage mumbled clearly recognising the crest for what it was and to what faction it belonged to…