Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

Chapter 40: A Secret Silenced

Loren Rummage picked her way over, careful not to tread over any precarious-looking pieces, and knelt down again, sweeping her cloak tail out of the way. The magic tried to form what would have been the magic -- in this case, a rune -- created at the time. There were a few pieces missing and some lines were smudged, but it was obvious it was the same rune as the one on Seiren's necklace. Loren touched it. The shiver that climbed up her arm was familiar, conjuring up the mental image of spiced orange, surrounded by freesias. This must have been the one that Seiren drew to bind Madeleine to the necklace.

Loren's eyebrows rose. So she did manage that spell at twelve years old, after all. This must have been where Seiren and Madeleine were, where Seiren found the bodies of her sister and father. There was no second rune. Loren sighed with relief. At least that as good as confirmed it. Seiren did not fire the rune that killed her mother.

She made her way to the other two runes and touched them. Neither of them gave her that feeling she'd attributed to Seiren's magic. They were conjured by two different mages -- definitely qualified mages, at that. The spell immediately inside the door gave her a sickening, burning sensation in the back of her throat, reminding her of the time when, freshly graduated from King's, she'd gone to celebrate with friends and ended up at the local beer house and she'd downed some peculiar concoction. It made her feel sick.

The other one smelled faintly of newborn babies and flowers, reminding her of Bicknor Infirmary.

The foul-tasting cluster of magic near the door didn't form the shape of a rune. It was just a smattering of light, suggesting a rapid explosion of energy. Burst magic. Nothing much else left for her to see. The rapid surge and drop in energy with burst magic left very few traces.

She turned her attention to the last one. The intricate details were grossly intact, being in the most sheltered part of the house and shielded from nature. It was carefully crafted with more overlapping shapes than any violet rune Loren had ever seen. Six circle locks sat on the peripheries; she could make out a prolonging symbol and an invisibility symbol. A hexagram took up most of its interior, but within the centre there was another five-pointed star with a double outer circle. Semi-circles protected each of the circle locks.

One sudden explosion of burst magic couldn't possibly have killed Kristen Harred. This singular rune here was a violet rune, modification magic, not death magic, and this wasn't drawn by the one who'd used the burst magic. People had died here, fuelling Loren's chaos magic, but she couldn't determine how many. The burial of Kristen, Connor, and Madeleine Harred were confirmed, but the presence of such an expertly-created rune in absence of any mage-murdering evidence seemed to point towards--

Loren's blood turned to ice.

"No way," she said out loud. The silent countryside echoed her horror. From one pocket, she tugged out the pigeon summoning rune and activated it. With the other, she drew out a pen and scribbled a message before sealing it with a violet rune. She dashed towards Felora and Peron.

"What is it, Mage Rummage?" Felora said, alarmed. Peron, without a word, gathered their bags.

"We need to get back to Benover. Now."

"Why--"

On cue, a fat pigeon flopped down from the sky. Loren's hands trembled; she forced them to still and, as an afterthought, re-sealed the violet rune again with a slightly different design to reinforce the security on her message. She certainly didn't want her revelation falling into the wrong hands. She tied it to the bird's leg and let it fly.

"Have you found out something urgent?" said Peron in his quiet, rumbling voice. Loren nodded. He knew not to probe her further, respecting the mages' confidentiality.