Concerned, Allia left the room and quickly hurried over to the main Tower. Things were tense, as large numbers of guards roamed the passageways, and Sorcerers, Initiates, and Novices alike moved around in a great deal of confusion and uncertainty. Everyone knew that something very strange had happened the night before, and it involved open fighting in the hallways of the Tower. But Allia didn't concern herself with others, she was there for only one reason, and that was to find her brother. She checked the three places that he may be in the main Tower, the kitchens, the dining hall, and the baths, but he was not there. The kitchen staff had not seen him, and neither had the Novices who tended the baths.
Fear beginning to creep into her, Allia returned to the North Tower and immediately sought out the two people that may have seen him. She found Dar first, as he was scurrying towards the exit to go to the main Tower for breakfast. "Allia, good morning," he said gently to her as she approached.
"Have you seen Tarrin this morning, friend Dar?" she asked immediately.
"No, I haven't," he replied. "We were going to play some chess after class. Why, what's wrong? Did he get caught up in that strange craziness last night?"
"I do not know," she said grimly. "Tarrin is not here. He would have told me if he was going somewhere."
"Why don't you go ask Keritanima, and I'll go ask Tiella," he replied. "I was going to meet her for breakfast."
"Yes, I was looking for her," she said. "Come back to Keritanima's room with your answer."
"Alright," he said, reaching out and patting her on the shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile. "He probably just wandered off. You know how he is."
"I hope so, friend Dar," she sighed.
When she returned to Keritanima's room, she was forced to pull Keritanima aside as a small ferret Wikuni chatted with Miranda. "Sister, Tarrin didn't go back to his room last night," she whispered to her in Selani. "His bed was untouched, and now I can't find him anywhere on the grounds."
"What?" Keritanima demanded, a bit too loudly. "You're sure?"
Allia nodded. "He isn't anywhere he would usually be."
"If he went out to watch the fireworks last night-" she began, then she snorted. "Come on, let's go see if he was in his room last night," she said, grabbing Allia's arm and pulling her towards the door.
Tarrin's room wasn't that far away from Keritanima's, so it only took them a moment to get there. With the immense Binter in tow behind them, Keritanima and Allia re-entered the room. Keritanima immediately closed her eyes and knelt on the floor, putting her black button nose close to the stone. "Tarrin was here last night," she said. "But he wasn't alone. There's a human scent here, one I don't know. It's female. She was here a while, but Tarrin wasn't. Bah," she snorted, standing up. "I'm not about to crawl around on the floor like a bloodhound." She raised a hand, and Allia felt her touch the Weave. A faint glow suddenly sprang into being on the floor, an erratic, splotchy trail of sorts that entered the room, moved towards the closet, then turned towards the center of the room. Then it merged back into the glow by the door. "That's Tarrin's scent," she said. "Now, let's follow it and see where it goes."
"Clever," Allia said. "You must teach me that weave."
"It's something I thought up a few days ago," she shrugged.
The glowing trail wasn't completely illuminated. As Keritanima walked along, the trail in front of her appeared, and the trail behind them winked out. They followed the trail through the North Tower and out onto the grounds, where the trail began to break up on the cold, frost-covered ground. Keritanima depended on Allia's sharp eyes to pick out the faint, weak glow among the frosted blades of grass, and they slowly tracked the trail across the grounds.
It ended at the main gate, where a group of guards stood vigil beside four or five covered forms. They eyed the pair of Initiates with hostility as they approached. Tarrin's scent trail went right through the gate, right across the Ward, to disappear into the streets beyond.
"What happened here?" Keritanima demanded.
"The same that happened on the grounds last night," one guard replied. "Enemy agents attacked last night, and they killed the guards to get onto the grounds."
"Posh," Keritanima snapped, coming over and lifting one of the blankets. The man had been young, and his chest had been caved in as if some Giant had grabbed him in his massive hand and squeezed the life out of him. That was not a wound caused by any weapon she had ever seen. "Unless the agents all joined hands and jumped up and down on his chest, I don't see how they accomplished this."
"They had to have had a mage with them," another demanded. "One of them was burned, and another was frozen solid."
"Arcane magic doesn't work on the grounds, blockhead!" Keritanima snapped at him. "This was Sorcery!"
"You're daft, woman!" the guard snapped back. "What would a katzh-dashi be doing attacking his own guards?"
"Idiots," Keritanima growled. "Allia, I'm going to follow the trail. I want you and Binter to go over to the far side of the grounds, to my Marines. Binter, I want you to order them to fall in and prepare for possible action. If Tarrin didn't leave by choice, and whoever made him leave still has him, we'll make them pay in blood for it. If Tarrin was taken by a Sorcerer, then we may need some serious reinforcements."
"I will not leave you undefended, Highness," the massive Vendari said bluntly.
"You have to, Binter," she replied. "I don't have time to go get Miranda, and I need my men to be ready now."
"I will go get Miranda," Allia said. "Binter will not leave you unguarded, sister. It goes against his honor."
Binter nodded simply. No more needed to be said.
"I will go get Miranda, and have her prepare your men," Allia promised.
"Alright. I'll meet you on the Knights' training field. Have Miranda form my men up there. If it does come down to a fight, I'd like to invite the Knights to join it."
"I will," she promised. She reached out and gave her sister a quick embrace, then left them and ran on swift feet back towards the North Tower.
Miranda was still talking to the ferret Wikuni when Allia entered, and she was not about to be patient. She pushed the slim male aside, his black furred face looking like a mask over his eyes, and put herself firmly in front of the cute little mink Wikuni. "Keritanima is following Tarrin's trail off the grounds," she announced. "She bade me to come to you and have you form up her Marines on the training grounds of the Knights."
"What?" Miranda challenged.
"We do not know if Tarrin left voluntarily. If he did not, then Keritanima wants to be ready to sally out and reclaim him, by force if necessary."
"Slow down," Miranda said. "What happened?"
"There was another scent in Tarrin's room, a female that Keritanima does not know. I believe she suspects that this female either lured Tarrin out, or forced him. The trail leaves the Tower grounds. We found several dead guards at the gate where they left, and they were all killed by Sorcery."