After a short, but tense journey the entire hunting party returned to Ashbourne. Even though Elvira repeatedly assured everyone that there was nothing to worry about, the guards were still on edge. Throughout the entire trip back, they kept looking over their shoulders, with their hands on their scabbards. Wary of any movement in the bushes.

  Hakon forced them to travel in a defensive formation. Most of the soldiers stuck close to the liege, but they also sent out small squads to travel a short distance away. As long as they stayed within sight, they’d serve as an early warning system. It would be impossible to ambush those on the outskirts, but that’d only give the others a chance to prepare.

  They only started to relax once they entered the safety of the palisade. Still, security was high on the captain’s mind. Two of the guards climbed to the top of the watch tower, while several more took up positions next to the gate. The rest carefully searched through the entire hamlet, making sure that no assassins managed to hide themselves in one of the hut. Rodger sent some of his own men to help them, as only they could recognize each individual peasant.

  Meanwhile, the rest of the hunters returned to the mansion for a well deserved rest. At least most of the nobles did. The lord instructed his chef on how the venison for tonight’s dinner should be prepared, while the king and Etty relaxed in front of the fireplace.

  The wizards instead got straight to work. While Elvira didn’t have anywhere near as much tools as she did back in her laboratory, she made sure to bring some on this journey. As the official Court Mage, she had to be ready to perform magical research at a moment’s notice. Just like today.

  Fortunately the three girls were already sleeping in the same room. They requisitioned one of the downstairs tables and while the servants carried it up, they started to bring in their own equipment. Their instruments were far too delicate and expensive to allow untrained peasants to carry. Instead, the girls had to trudge it up the stairs by themselves, only giving the bulkiest and most resilient artifacts to others.

  The materials were packed for transport inside one of the carts. The entire wagon was dedicated just for Elvira, carrying boxes and satchels by the dozen. Besides the tools, they also contained plenty of ingredients for various alchemical needs.

  Varre let them work in peace for several hours. At first, he occupied his time with listening to Etty’s stories about their childhood, and then, to Rodger’s hunting tips, once he had joined the pair. Clearly, the sport was the lord’s greatest hobby. He spent years practicing it and was very proud of his skills. He was eager to teach others and frequently invited wealthy nobles from other areas of the country to show them the ropes.

  Though he was an aristocrat, who normally only concerned themselves with the most chivalric aspects of hunting, he was so fascinated by it that he tried to learn everything he could. Even many of the details normally left to the peasantry. He had a good connection with the hounds and understood the tracking process, even if he left it to the actual experts. Still, this knowledge helped him understand how to better direct his men.

  “It was a good, clean kill,” Rodger congratulated Varre.

  “It wasn’t easy,” the king replied, “that stag was bigger than I expected.”

  The lord leaned back in his seat. “That’s what makes hunting them so exciting! Especially since this was your first quarry in years. Not every man could pull that off. Trust me, I’ve seen many fail.”

  “It’s a shame you can’t remember your last time,” Etty said wistfully, “even your own father was impressed with that one.”

  “True and Tymon was no slouch either,” Rodger added, “he too favored the spear.”

  “And which one do you favor?” Varre asked.

  “Me?” the lord smirked, “you have to practice both, but I must admit, I’m partial to lances as well. The sword may be a more noble weapon and there is honor to be found in facing your target up close, but it’s far too easy to damage the pelt that way. Spears tend to make smaller holes. If you know what you’re doing.”

  With the dinner rapidly approaching, the king went to check up on the magical investigation. The girls had been locked up in their room for hours by now and even deployed one of the Royal Guards to watch the entrance. They didn’t want anybody distracting them. Of course, the soldier wouldn’t dare to stop his liege.

  Still, the king wasn’t going to just interrupt them. Whatever strange things happened inside could have been dangerous. If his presence ended up accidentally triggering some strange reaction and destroying their research, or worse hurting someone, there’d be no excuse. Not to mention that doing so would be plain rude.

  He knocked. Someone yelled out their permission to enter, so he did.

  Inside, the room was cluttered with half opened boxes. Various tools and ingredients spilled out of them and spread out all over the floor. The girls had already been working for several hours here and it was clearly taking their toll on them.

  Elvira turned to look at the visitor, expecting to see the guard standing outside the doors. She was surprised to see Varre instead, but nodded in greeting. She knew someone would check on their progress eventually and the monarch was the only one who would be allowed in without her explicit permission.

  She was currently standing in front of a strange device. It reminded the former student of a microscope. Even though he hadn’t had many opportunities to use them in college, he had seen them often back in his high school.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  One of the eyeballs was removed from the deer’s head and seemed to float in midair, in between some bronze shafts. A purplish light shone through the center of that corridor. Then, an esoteric magnifying tool was attached to the top and pointed straight down at the organ, allowing for detailed analysis.

  Perry stood by the side of the table, frantically scribbling notes and calculations onto a piece of parchment. Several other filled out papers lied beside her. She must have been recording data for quite a while.

  Jury on the other hand had clearly had enough. She was lying on one of the beds, with her arms stretched out and feet planted on the ground. Noticing the visitor, she raised her head to get a better look at them. Then, realizing it was the king himself, she quickly sat upright and attempted to straighten out her outfit.

  “How are things here?” Varre asked, “have you learned anything yet?”

  “Yes,” Elvira replied and waved her hand next to the device. The strange light turned off as soon as she did so, and the eyeball gently floated down onto a little ceramic plate. “As we suspected, someone cast a vision spell on both of the deer’s eyes.”

  “And what does it do exactly?” the king inquired.

  The Court Mage brought her gloved hand to her chin. “Well, it allows the caster to see the same things that the animal did. In the case of an active spell, the images could be transferred remotely. That’s typically done to a receiving device, but in the case of some extraordinary magicians, they might prefer to send them straight into their own minds. It’s faster, but requires far more control.”

  “It’s definitely not an active spell, Mistress,” Perry added, “there isn’t enough aura devoted to it.”

  “Yes, as I thought,” Elvira nodded to herself, “in the case of a passive enchantment then, the visuals would need to be recorded somewhere and then retrieved at a later date.”

  “But, as we’ve discovered, there isn’t any connection between the eyes and the brain,” the apprentice continued, “I’m not exactly sure where these memories could be stored.”

  “I’m telling you,” Jury called out from her position at the bed, “they’re kept in the eyes directly.”

  The Court Mage sighed. “It would be very inefficient, but I must admit I can’t see another method yet. Perhaps you’re right.”

  “So? What does that mean exactly? If the images can’t be retrieved remotely, and they can’t be stored in… the deer?” Varre said cautiously, “then why would anybody do this.”

  “I’m not sure,” Elvira admitted, “the whole thing is strange. I’ve never seen spells designed such as this one. It’s so… inefficient.”

  “For starters,” Perry explained, “if you can’t retrieve the memories remotely, you’d need a find the same deer again to get them in person.”

  “I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to those animals, but it doesn’t sound very easy,” the king theorized.

  “Exactly,” the note-taking apprentice agreed, “you’d need to scour the entire forest and hope that you manage to stumble onto the same exact animal. And there’s hundreds, if not thousands of them out there, just in the vicinity of Ashbourne.”

  “I’m not even sure how they caught it in the first place,” Elvira threw her hands up, “casting an enchantment like that would take time, at least a quarter of an hour. And that’s assuming you were an expert. You couldn’t sneak up on the stag. At least not for long enough. You’d need to put it to sleep with another spell. But if you were already going to so much trouble, why wouldn’t you just make it active? It doesn’t make any sense!”

  Varre looked out of the window. He didn’t know much about the intricate mechanics of magic. But he could brainstorm some ideas.

  “Are you absolutely certain it’s a passive spell? What if it used to be active at some point, but decayed with time?” he suggested.

  “I doubt it,” the court mage dismissed the idea, “I can tell it was cast a while ago, at least a few weeks, but that’s not how an enchantment like that behaves. Both parts of the spell would age and decay at the same rate.”

  “Well, you mentioned that there is no connection between the eyes and the brain right?” the king recalled, “what if that was a whole different spell? What if only that part decayed, or was turned off?”

  Elvira needed a few seconds longer to think it over. “If it had decayed like that, there’d still be signs,” she looked pointedly at her apprentice.

  “There was nothing like that,” Perry replied, flipping through her notes again.

  “And disabling it?” Varre insisted.

  The court mage sighed. “Not remotely. I suppose you could do it in person if you managed to retrieve the animal somehow. You could then manage to remove all of the evidence of tampering with the brain. But if you were going to go through all that trouble, why leave the passive spell? Why not remove them both?”

  “Alright, fair enough,” the king conceded, “but what if catching the deer wasn’t a problem? Is there some magic that lets you attract them? Or perhaps some special skill?”

  Elvira considered the possibility for a moment. “I’ve never heard of a thing like that, but if it existed, I suppose it could be possible. There are plenty of rare abilities out there and I’d need to consult the library at the guild to learn more.”

  “It might even explain why there’s no way to store the images,” Jury chimed in, “if you’re going to call in a whole herd of the bastards, it might take too much time to sort through every little detail.”

  “Yes...” her sister slowly said, “you’re only going to find the most significant events that managed to imprint themselves into the animal’s natural memory.”

  “I can’t imagine any proper wizard being so reckless,” the court mage argued, “casting a vision enchantment on the eyes alone is already an impressive feat. It takes years of training at the guild to achieve that level. People like that are meticulous and careful with their research. They wouldn’t randomly stumble through forests, enchanting deer left and right.”

  “But mistress,” Perry contested, “this entire spell seems so strange and unusual! I can’t imagine any of our guild members working like this.”

  “True, it breaks nearly every rule in the book,” Elvira said and sighed again, “I just can’t understand it. I doubt there’s more than a couple dozen people in Logres who could cast magic like this, and yet it seems so… amateurish. They’ve skipped so many steps and safeguards. I can’t imagine some untrained hedge wizard pulling this off.”

  “What if its some foreign mage?” Jury suggested, “could it be the Langogneans?”

  “No,” the court mage immediately dismissed her, “sure, every guild has their own techniques, but they’re not that different from ours. Despite what they might tell you youngsters, we wizards stand above borders. We don’t mind cooperating and researching together with magicians from other nations.”

  “As long as Kadmos doesn’t find out,” the twin sitting on the bed said with a wink.

  “Now what did I tell you girls?” the court mage chastised her with a smile, “you know that all communication with foreign wizards must always go through the proper channels! We ask for permission first, then research together! Besides, it’s the Revered, or Respected Archmage to you. You never know who might be listening in,” she looked towards Varre.

  He raised his arms in defense. “I heard nothing. I was downstairs this entire time,” he chuckled.

  “Good. And so were we! It’s almost time for dinner isn’t it?” Elvira took off her gloves and washed her hands in the nearby washbasin, “let’s see what you managed to hunt for us, your majesty!”

  They offer some explanations, but none can be certain.