Jayna approached carefully, glancing over to Eva, who squeezed her hands more tightly. “Why does everything happen to Master Raollet?” Jayna asked.
“I would think he’d ask the same thing,” Eva said. “Of course, he would blame you for most of it.”
“This one isn’t my fault,” Jayna said.
“This time,” Eva said, chuckling.
Jayna pushed the door, and it swung open slowly, revealing a fog of smoke within. It was dark, making everything difficult for her to see. She didn’t see any active flames—just the smoke.
Jayna started to form a pattern when Eva grabbed her wrist, shaking her head.
“If you want to get information from him, you would do well not to destroy the inside of the shop.”
“Again,” Jayna said.
Eva nodded. “Again.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Let me try.”
She stepped forward, just in the doorway, and squeezed her hands. Her knuckles whitened and blood poured out from her hands. As soon as it struck the stones, it turned into a thick, billowy smoke, which drifted upward, swooping out and around, then Eva forced it into the shop.
The inside of the shop was in disarray. The dim enchanted lanterns provided enough light for Jayna to make out a pale-skinned man standing in the center, everything around him destroyed. He had dark hair, and eyes that seemed to reflect fire that wasn’t present. Something about him reminded her of Eva.
The man focused on them, and he turned, holding his hands outward. Smoke streaked away from him. Jayna stepped forward, using the magic ball technique. She blocked the attack, holding steadily enough.
Eva shouted at her. “Careful!”
Jayna glanced back. “I need you to disarm him.”
Jayna continued to brace herself, keeping the power wrapped around her, adding the energy of the Toral ring. It solidified in a barrier around her. Having seen Eva’s smoke, she worried it might somehow billow up underneath the barrier.
Eva tried something, pushing her hand out and twisting her wrist, forming a pattern of smoke she sent streaking out from her.
He deflected it, then stepped toward them.
What enchantments did he have that let him deflect Eva’s power?
He cocked his head to the side, watching. There was a strange energy within him.
Jayna had a chance to look at him then. He was dressed in a deep-red jacket, almost black, and matching pants. He wore two rings on either hand, likely enchantments he was using against them.
He raised his hand and the enchantment he used sent another streak of smoke at them. This one looked something like a snake, and it writhed around the barrier Jayna had erected, starting to constrict around it.
Those enchantments were powerful.
But Eva’s magic was incredibly powerful, even though it was instinctive and she didn’t always have the most control over it.
Much like what she saw from this man.
Jayna drew more power through the Toral ring, ignoring the pain in her arm as she used everything she could. The bloodstone continued to augment that power, giving her greater strength. Power surged, then she pushed outward.
It blasted out in a ring that slammed into the man and sent him flying backward.
Jayna glanced over to Eva. “Let me.”
She started forward, approaching the fallen man.
He lay there for a moment. Blood dripped from a wound on his cheek, and smoke drifted up from his hands, the enchantments flaring before power swirled outward.
Jayna had only a moment to question if this man was not enchanted at all, and instead more like Eva, but then power exploded into her.
It was a billowy cloud of energy that formed, sending Jayna staggering back. She braced herself, holding on to the power within the Toral ring, trying to use that to withstand his attack, but she didn’t know if she could prevent it from striking her completely. She had seen how Eva could get past even her strongest barriers. There was something in her magic, perhaps the smoke itself, that allowed her to slip past them.
Jayna stumbled back again, trying to hold the shielding around herself, trying to prevent the man from striking her, but she didn’t know if it was going to be enough—if she was going to be enough.
Eva was there, standing near the doorway and trying to pull the smoke away, but she had limited control over it. Was it because it wasn’t her smoke, or was there another reason?
The man fought with a different sort of violence, then he exploded forward. He lunged, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. It streaked between Jayna and Eva, then out the door.
Jayna shot Eva a look. “We have to find him.”
“Why?”
“If those aren’t enchantments, then we need to get you answers.”
Eva stood motionless, smoke swirling around her, hands clenched tightly at her sides, and finally, she nodded.
Jayna stumbled back out into the street, holding on to the power within her, ready to push it out through the Toral ring, but still worried it wasn’t going to be enough. She hadn’t seen any sign of Master Raollet in the shop, other than the shelves, the enchantments scattered all over, and the layer of smoke that had hung over everything.
She darted along the street, trailing the smoke, using that to follow this strange man, to find wherever he had gone. He had moved quickly though. Faster than she had ever seen Eva move.
“Come on!” Jayna shouted.
They hurried forward, but Jayna needed another way of tracking him.
At least with the smoke in front of her, she might be able to place a linking type of spell. The spell would be faint, but maybe she could hold on to it if it was bound to this man, bound to his blood the same way it was bound to Eva’s.
She took a moment. The linking spell was a fairly straightforward one, and Jayna had used it many times before. She created a tight spiral, looping around a swirl of smoke, then forced power through it.
It held, solidifying, then began to cause the smoke to shimmer with a pale-yellow light, but it bounced off the spiral of energy Jayna had created.
“What did you do?” Eva asked.
“I’m trying to follow him. I created a linking—”
“You linked to him?”
“Yes. It’ll be important to find him if we want to figure out who he is, why he attacked Master Raollet, and what he might know about who you are and where you came from.”
She could feel the man. He hadn't gone nearly as far as she had thought. The smoke drifting along the street created something of an illusion.
She pointed. “He just wants us to think he went away from here,” she said. “He hasn’t gone very far.”
The buildings in this section of the city were close together, the street narrow, and a thick layer of moss covered everything. At nighttime, the moss would glow with a phosphorescent light and release additional humidity, making the air even denser than it would be otherwise. Jayna had long ago grown accustomed to the strangeness of the city.
She followed the tracking spell. As far as she could tell, the man had only gone a few streets away. She motioned for Eva to follow, and they reached an intersection. The street itself was fairly empty, though smoke drifted in either direction, sweeping away as if to try to lead them astray.
Jayna turned right, heading toward the outskirts of the city. Toward the forest.
He hadn’t gone as far as the forest, at least as much as she could tell. He was still within the city, which left her thinking that maybe he still needed something from Master Raollet.