It was almost sad how readily the group Joshua had assembled turned on him, at least in spirit. Maybe it would have been different if he had been there to manage the aftermath of his disappearance, as impossible as that was, but without his presence, it seed that the people who were with him were quite quick to assu the worst. Sure, I had made sure to make it look exactly as if what they thought had happened had actually happened, but they sure swallowed it down, hook, line and sinker.
Nobody questioned whether the tracks they found were actually made by him, and while they did wonder why he had left, they readily assud that he wanted to get to the tower first and get so sort of advantage for himself. Really, they were ready to assu the worst, making wonder if Joshua had so sort of magical trick to make people agree with him. Otherwise, how would he have been able to spread the rumours back in Maggie’s community, or to get these four people to team up with him so they would get to Jademoon Tower safely? They certainly didn’t seem to be his friends, and only one of them seed to worry about his disappearance at all, but not that much. Instead, they were all considering what sort of shit they would give him after they caught up with him, or t him at my tower. Their ideas were creative, if nothing else, increasing the likelihood of so sort of ntal shenanigans that had now fallen off. Those often led to hostility in the aftermath, even if the people affected weren’t fully aware of why they felt hostile toward a forr manipulator.
Watching the group follow the tracks I had laid down after their breakfast was just as trivial as following them to their campsite, and it even gave a better read on these people. If they wanted to learn magic, I wanted to know what sort of people they were and whether one of them needed to be taken care of, as I had with Joshua. Or if they rely needed so gentle guidance, until they decided to take their nefarious sches elsewhere. I wasn’t about to try forbidding such sches, unless they were targeted at , as Joshua’s sches had been.
Unless the magic they had an affinity to was too dangerous, which basically ant Blood, Soul, Death and Mind Magic. Basically, the stuff that could rapidly spiral out of control and create a ss much greater than the involved power suggested. I had no interest in unleashing the sort of mayhem on the world that any of those affinities could create. Magical plagues, roaming undead, mind-controlled cultists or any combination of those weren’t sothing the world needed any more of, not with the ss already around.
The four people I had been watching were ripped from their casual, almost teasing, ntal state when they encountered the first signs that sothing bad had happened to Joshua. It was quite the obvious change; they went from a subdued sort of vigilance, the sort of ntal state necessary when wandering a potentially dangerous area, to high alert in an instant. Quiet words were exchanged, too soft for to hear with my distant scrying construct, but the change in their stances and general deanour was easy enough to observe.
Nodding to myself, I watched as they carefully advanced, checking to make sure that the predator wasn’t nearby while making sure that they didn’t disturb any of the tracks, just in case they wanted to study them closer. It was, quite honestly, sowhat impressive. No panic, no serious cracks in their composure, just the quiet, focused professionalism needed to deal with this sort of ss. Maybe these four would be excellent students, which would an I would have to thank Joshua at so point. I might even have to reward him, though that reward could co as sothing suitable, like a painless, clean death, once I was done with my other experints. Just because he might have supplied four adequate students to didn’t an I would give his previous manipulations a pass, not with the ss he had created in Maggie’s community.
The four of them started to investigate, but it didn’t take long for them to draw the conclusions I wanted them to. The side I had prepared was completely realistic, to the point that only a truly skilled tracker would have noticed anything amiss. Soone with a load of experience and the right combination of skills, traits and attributes. And even soone like that would have needed an initial suspicion, an incredibly strong intuition or a generous helping of luck to notice anything amiss.
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Without a combination of all of those, the physical evidence was just too convincing. Occam’s Razor at its finest, the explanation with the fewest assumptions generally being the correct one. Sure, there were cases where the razor was dull and just didn’t cut it, but identifying them was a challenge at the best of tis.
No, if anything gave away my involvent in Joshua’s disappearance, it would be my behaviour. The physical evidence was compelling, especially after I had dumped Joshua in my newly created prison and erased any evidence that he had ever been within my tower. Likely an overkill, it wasn’t as if I was planning to show the secret cells in the tower to anyone, at least not to anyone who would ever leave them under their own power, but it was the principle of the matter. In a world with nurous ways to divine the truth, I made sure to erase as much evidence as possible. Just in case.
I kept observing the four until they gave up trying to find additional information. They had found what they considered the truth: that Joshua had a run-in with a hungry bear and got himself killed because of it. With that determined, they continued on their path to Jademoon Tower. Given their speed and general caution, they’d need about three, maybe four or five, more hours to get there, depending on unpredictable circumstances.
More than enough ti to let visit Joshua, make sure his new accommodations are adequate for housing him, and that he is well-aware of his predicant. So, I dismissed the construct I used to keep an eye on these four and let myself drop into the shadows. After crossing a good part of the continent in an impossibly short ti, I stepped back out, letting myself drop onto the throne within my northern shelter.
Looking down through the grate of stone and crystal, I could see that Joshua was still out-cold. Maybe I had hit him a little too hard with my Mind Magic, but I wanted to take him out instantly, leaving no chance that he might try sothing, whether to fight back or alert the guys he had been with. Either might have beco a complication I wanted to avoid.
Reaching out, I sent a pulse of magic into his mind, causing the ntal equivalent of a loud gong to ring in his head. For a mont, his face twisted into a grimace of pain, then he started to twitch, his eyes flickering open after a second or two.
I could see him try to look around, only to realise that he could barely see the tip of his nose, with only traces of light from a distant crystal filtering into the hole he was in. He imdiately started calling for help, his hands clumsily feeling around, trying to explore his surroundings. Only to find nothing but perfectly smooth stone. It had been a bit of a challenge to polish things into these completely smooth surfaces, but I felt it was worth it. Keeping prisoners disoriented and confused could be vital to acquiring information and breaking resistance. Withholding information from them aided in that.
For a mont, I considered calling out to him, maybe mocking him for being trapped as he was, but I decided against it. Instead, I activated one of the light crystals set into the grate of his cell, giving him just enough light to barely make out the outline of his cell and, maybe most importantly, letting him see the toilet. That was the primary reason for the light, I didn’t want him to make a ss I would have to clean up. Plus, if I gave him the privilege of a toilet in the beginning, I could always take it away later as a punishnt.
Or offer him other basic comforts, like running water, better food or even sothing like a shower, if he cooperated with and my experints.
His shouting continued, turning desperate, but I didn’t give away that I was watching him, even as he cursed my na, likely guessing that I had to be involved as soone with a motive and, more importantly, with the ans to pull this off.
Not that it would help him any, knowing that I was responsible. He was within my grasp, and nothing would change that.
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