[crow]

Moving through it momentarily would apparently do them little harm. It was, as things stood, no threat to the two of them. It was merely the question of whether Rhodes felt in a good enough mood to take care of it--- or if he thought it would be a sufficient threat to others. Sivain's own opinions on the matter were of less consequence, for he didn't have the means to deal with the problem. Besides that, he was neutral on the matter anyway, and wouldn't have argued either way.

Rhodes paused in his grooming to deliberate over this. “It... would be best if we looked into it,” he said slowly. “I don't like the feel of it. It's true that it doesn't pose much danger, but the implications...”

[crow]

He trailed off there, but Sivain didn't have to guess. Spatial magic must have been inherently powerful or dangerous in some way, such that evidence of its use was cause for unease.

“Very well,” he said. “Where should we start?”

Ah, that was the question, wasn't it? The cat sighed. It was his own proposal that they do something about it, but the truth of it was, he wasn't sure either. “We could... try to trace the magic to its origins,” he said, but his tone was doubtful.

[crow]

Magical tracking was a chancy thing at best to begin with. Throw in something like teleportation--- which was a distinct possibility when spatial magic was involved--- and it became downright impossible. If they were lucky, whatever this was wouldn't be a teleporter, but Rhodes wouldn't have bet on those odds.

Sensing his hesitation, Sivain said, “Do you think there's any chance they'll return of their own accord?” It was possible that the culprit had left in a hurry, and was aware of the mess they'd left behind. If they really wanted to cover their tracks, they would want to come back and erase all traces of it. Such logic was what one would expect with physical tracks, at any rate.

[crow]

He must not have been too far off the mark. Rhodes seemed to consider the suggestion. At length, he said, “We may be waiting here for quite some time if that's the case. You came here for a purpose, did you not? Do we have that kind of time to spare?”

... Ah. That was clever of him, Sivain had to admit. The cat evidently hadn't given up on discovering Sivain's purpose here. He smiled ever so slightly, merely a wry upward quirk of the lips. “I would venture to say we have some time before the army has need of us again, yes,” he replied.

[crow]

The cat's eyes narrowed. Sivain knew this was far from over, but for the moment, he had evaded the question. He had also scored a point, apparently, in their ongoing bout of subtle ribbing. That was certainly worth smiling about.

“Very well. But merely sitting here and waiting for them to come to us does seem a bit unproductive. I'll see what I can figure out from the feel of this place.” With that, he hopped off from Sivain's shoulder again and carefully began to pace around what must have been the perimeter of the disturbed area. He didn't seem keen on wading back into it. Based on what he had said about these places just now, Sivain hardly blamed him.

[crow]

“Would you like me to do anything?” he said. He felt... He didn't want to put it to words, but he remembered being a boy in his father's workshop, watching and wringing his hands while his father carved and waved off his offers of assistance. Even then, he hadn't liked feeling useless, and everything that had happened since then had only cemented the sentiment.

The cat eyed him for a moment, then resumed whatever it was he was doing before. “Set up camp. Watch for any sign of intruders. Warn them away, if you can. If they look like magic-users... Well, try to stay out of trouble if possible, young master.”

[crow]

The last statement was spoken in a half-scolding tone. Sivain allowed himself another small mirthless smile. He had an unhappy talent for what Rhodes magnanimously dubbed 'trouble', so he supposed he deserved that.

Rhodes' words didn't make him feel less like a child, but it did give him something to do. He knew full well that he had nothing in the way of magical assistance to offer. Rhodes' method of magic didn't seem to require much assistance anyway. He had once asked about it, and been informed that a witch might take a familiar, yes--- but Rhodes himself, having been a familiar, had no use for one of his own.

[crow]

It certainly wasn't going to be a person, even if he did. And for that matter, Sivain wasn't sure if he wanted to take that kind of position. To tie someone else to him, as Suvi had been, was too much to ask of anyone.

Shoving those thoughts aside, he ventured further up the nonexistent path. He had to find a suitable place to make camp, and he didn't fancy clearing one out of the woods himself if he didn't have to. It was really a pity that they couldn't have set up in the clearing. It had been a good-sized spot, with a scenic view, and ready access to the woods. He had little doubt that this was why it had been chosen by the mages too.

[crow]

Fortunately, their party was small and didn't require much space. He didn't find much further up the path, but he did come to an area where the trees thinned enough for him to set up a structure between them. There were branches and saplings aplenty to build with too, so there was no need to erect a tent in the cramped space.

He surveyed it for a moment, trying to assuage its merits, but in the end he figured he might as well. He doubted he was going to find anything better. They hadn't seen anything close by on the way up, at least, and they did want to remain near the distorted area. Anything else would have taken them further from it.

[crow]

He was just about to gather some saplings to get started when a thought occurred to him, and sent him back down to where Rhodes was investigating. The cat did not look up at his approach, but Sivain knew that he had been detected by the way Rhodes' ears swiveled back. “I've found a place to set up, but---”

“Yes, let me check it first,” said Rhodes, not missing a beat. “It was good of you to ask. It would have been a pity if you had started without me, and had to dismantle it.” He didn't sound as if he felt sorry at the prospect, but Sivain felt the sentiment himself keenly. Shifting camps would have been much more of a hassle if he had already built their shelter.

[crow]

It was true that they had daylight left, but neither of them cared for rations, and Sivain had wanted to do some foraging before darkness fell. Between the two of them, they had learned well enough how to make things palatable on the road. If they were lucky, they might eat better here than they did in the army. Of course, anything was an improvement over the rations they were currently carrying. The kind of food that could be kept in such conditions without spoiling were almost by nature unappealing.

Upon arrival, however, Rhodes couldn't detect anything amiss. He looked around a bit and paced through the leaf litter before sitting down primly in the middle of the space and said, “It will do, I suppose.”

[crow]

The cat didn't care one bit for wilderness living, so that was tantamount to high praise from him. Without further ado, he made off back in the direction of the distorted area, leaving Sivain to set up camp.

Sivain worked briskly, with the efficiency of experience. He felled saplings, cut off branches from the larger trees, stacked them together and tied the joints. He soon had the basic framework for a shelter. To that, he added ferns and other leafy foliage that he could find to form a roof and block the wind. It was cold enough here that he also went to the trouble of building a firewall before going off to gather more plants for the bedding. He would worry about the fire pit later, closer to when they would actually start a fire.

[crow]

The entire process of setting up the camp took some time, despite Sivain's quick work. Looking up at the sun, he figured at least two hours must have passed, if not more. It began to strike him as odd that he hadn't seen Rhodes at all during this time. Could investigating the magical mishap really have taken him so long? Rhodes could take care of himself, but Sivain still felt as if something was amiss, so he ventured down to the area in question.

No, it wasn't merely that he felt something was amiss. Rhodes had been right in suspecting his reason for coming here. Part of the reason Sivain hadn't told him was because he knew the cat would disapprove of the nature of the dealing.

[crow]

Some time ago, he had been contacted by... a demon, he thought. She did not describe herself as such, and he was unfamiliar with the specifics of the old banished race, but he knew enough to suspect her of being one. He would have liked to ignore it, as he did with anything else that reminded him of his former home, but she had included some rather alarming claims in her missive. She could have been lying, of course, but he wanted to be sure.

Coming face to face with her hardly guaranteed anything, but even then, it was better than communicating through missives. Unfortunately, it was riskier too.

[crow]

What Sivain was beginning to fear was that the whole thing had been a trap. If that was the case, separating them and picking them off one by one was a good strategy. Rhodes was enough trouble on his own, but he worked better in tandem with Sivain himself. As a familiar, much of the magic he knew had supportive properties. What he lacked in raw power, he made up for in his ability to hinder his enemies. Sivain, on the other hand, was a more concentratedly offensive fighter. They had fought together a few times on the battlefield during the war, and found that their respective skill sets matched up surprisingly well.