The matter was not helped by the fact that Maelen could easily extend his eyesight and reveal the flag of Oorstemoth flying on the approaching vessel. Maelen had only been there once, long ago. The people had a rather overzealous attitude towards law and order. Not, as Maelen could see it, any logical law and order, but some strange code of their own. Violators were hunted down rather ruthlessly. Recidivism among criminals was nil. No defendants ever seemed to survive the judicial process. Maelen was also relatively certain that he, as a passenger on Asmeth’s ship, would be considered an accomplice by Oorstemothian law. Thus, if he joined Asmeth at the bottom of the sea, so much the better.
Maelen glanced around the deck. His fellow passengers had apparently been hired to guard the ship in such an event as this. The young woman was pacing around in circles near the center of the middeck, she seemed to be biting her nails. Bad habit there, gave too much information away to casual observers.
The wizard Gastropé was peering at the Oorstemoth vessel through a telescoping device. He seemed rather calm, overall. The young boy, Rupert, was full of energy and excitement, peering over a stern rail at the approaching ship. Either the boy was so young he had no sense of the real danger, or he knew something about their chances that frankly escaped Maelen.
While Maelen had seen himself in Hoggensforth, there was no guarantee that he’d chosen the correct path to get there. He hadn’t seen any other, but he may have missed it, and chosen a dead end path instead. He didn’t feel, however, that he could afford the energy for another Seeing at the moment; he’d need it all too soon for healing. Also, he really wasn’t sure he wanted to know at this point.
The fourth passenger, Tom or Edwyrd, whichever his name actually was, also seemed nervous. Or perhaps tense with dread might be the better phrase. The lad had been extremely tense the entire journey, and, in fact, avoided Maelen more than any other young animage in his position would have. Most students at that age, if that’s what Tom actually was, who were pursuing a liberal education, were doing so on their own and hence always on the lookout for someone who could teach them something.
This reticence, which he’d sensed immediately, had at first led him to suspect the boy. However, when he’d looked at Tom’s aura, it had shown him so much power and life, that he’d nearly reversed his opinion completely. The young man was positively overflowing with it. Certainly not as well contained as one would expect from an animage with that much power, but so much life and magic that he had to be some form of Manipulator. The lad’s aura didn’t match any of the well-known patterns for wizards, nor did it seem to connect with the surroundings like a druid’s aura. While there were no obvious links to any divine sources, such as a priest would have, there was some form of minute link running extra planar. If, as seemed the only possible answer, Tom/Edwyrd really was an animage, then he must have some knowledge of astramastery.
Again, however, the aura wasn’t controlled like any animage with that much power would be. Certainly if someone that powerful was disguising themselves as a student, they’d also disguise their aura at the very least. Failing that, and no disguise, they’d simply be in better control of their essence. Truly puzzling, and that didn’t even add in what he’d Seen when he shook the lad’s hand.
It had been exactly as he’d described to Tom/Edwyrd last night. Wizards and demons all scheming around this innocent. Innocent? perhaps that was not the proper way to phrase it. Certainly this Tom was less innocent than any of his compatriots, except perhaps for Gastropé, but even so, the image of a young man thrust out on his own, against his will, out of his normal environment and in over his head persisted in Maelen’s mind. Another puzzle: while he’d seen a fundamental basis of good intent and a certain honor in the lad, he’d also seen blood and death. The reconciliation of all these images was not easy, Maelen had decided the lad was, at heart, ‘good;’ however, circumstances and fate might force his hand otherwise at times. Supervision, or at least observation, was called for. There was too much power here, to be left completely unobserved. If nothing else, others would try and use it.
