Free Magic (complete)

Chapter 21

Jak rode hard on the main road towards Whitethorn. He had fresh clothes, fresh supplies, a good horse under him, and to his dismay, a lighter box of coin. Still, it would be worth it if he could put this whole mess behind him soon.

He was able to tether his horse safely under the cover of trees within reach of both fresh water and tall grass. He took his pack with him. If the horse was stolen fine, but he paid for his magic contraband and he wasn't ready to let it out of his sight. Once this mess was cleaned up, his next goal was to hunt down the thief girl.

The climb was easy. The wind wasn't biting as hard today, and it was only midday so the light shone on the rocky Cliffside. His pack weighed him down, but that was expected.

He went in the window after making sure no one was in the hallway and dawned his robes. He grew uneasy as he didn't run into anyone. No soldiers, no mages, no one. He made it to Anders's door to hear voices softly talking. Who would he be talking to? Jak wasn't about to walk in on someone he didn't know, so he took a blank piece of parchment and slid it under the door. He then went down to the end of the hallway and around the corner to the stairwell to wait.

"Jak? It's ok." Anders called from his doorway. He cautiously rounded the corner back into the hallway to see Anders waving him over.

"I heard voices." Jak said.

"Yes, and it's time you two met. We're right on top of the problem, come help me tell this tale and I have much to fill you in on." Anders lead Jak inside to see a short man in a white and gold coat sitting on the chair.

"This is your cousin?" The little man had a northern accent, he stuck his hand out for Jak. "Call me Harlow, it is nice to meet you."

"Cousin, right." Jak raised an eyebrow at Anders. It wasn't his worst cover story, but it was far from his best. At least the mage had the forethought to make something up at all.

"Now my boy, you were telling me about this journal?" Harlow sat attentively on the edge of his seat.

"Yes, well Jak found it, but I translated it. It was in old Selscript. Do you still have those translations?" Anders looked to Jak.

"Aye, I do." Jak handed the papers from his pack to Harlow.

"Let's see here." Harlow examined the notes for a moment, frowning.

"See here, this reference to a spirit gate? That had quite a few scratched out notes about how to gather enough power. And my device," Anders pulled his wire and rock contraption from a leather bag. "My research on this was stolen. This is what I was talking about the night we met."

"Fascinating." Harlow took out two lenses connected with a wire frame and perched them on his nose. Jak stared at the lenses for a while. They had a red tint to them.

"Is that a lens of truesight?" Jak asked before thinking.

"Why it is! How did you come to know of them?" Harlow looked at Jak curiously.

"Oh, I, read of them once." He leaned against the wall, determined to keep his mouth shut before he really gave himself away.

"Yes, very handy for seeing magic. Very hard to make as well." Harlow inspected Anders's device, which the young mage held up for him. "Quality work my boy. I would be excited to read about your process on this! Now, your notes on this were stolen?"

"Yes, but one day last week I came back and there they were, sitting on my bed. I was able to finish my work." Anders said. "But the worry was the notes were stolen to construct a similar device. If my theories are correct, our thief could have taken them to construct something similar. It would be able to store the needed power for the gate."