A Few Moments Prior

After encountering the conflict between Albatross and that pair that was Barnaby and Henrich and promptly resolving it, Salome moved to investigate the alleyway where Albatross was supposed to retrieve Theodore's undeads.

"Spread out and search," Salome whispered as she spread open her robe, whereupon a dozen rats suddenly fell out.

The rats were most peculiar, as each of them had a crystalline horn poking out of their heads, very much similar to the one protruding from Salome's skull.

Unlike Theodore's mouse, these rats were not undead and were very much alive. The horns' purpose was to allow information to be transferred between one another across the trace amount of Aether in the air. In essence, they function as both transmitters and receivers.

Using the horns, the creatures form a network of consciousness with Salome at the very center of it all, moving the creatures according to her will.

Though incapable of manipulating Aether on her own, Salome was found to have an unusually high density of Aether in her body and possessed high processing speed, making her ideal for this specific modification that Gesborne had devised.

As the horned rats spread out, their vision, their sense of smell, along with the rest of their senses were transmitted towards Salome who began to quickly process it all.

"This smells like a small creature, as well as... dandelions?"

At this moment, a falcon approached Salome from above and perched comfortably upon her shoulder. Thanks to the mage's robe, she hardly felt the claws of the falcon's talons. Much like the rats, the falcon too had a crystalline horn poking out of its head.

Absent-mindedly reaching a finger towards the falcon and giving it a gentle caress, Salome began to think back on when this chase began.

***

It had been by complete chance that she noticed the mouse falling from the sky. Of course, she had been flying her falcon in the vicinity to test the maximum range in which the horns could communicate with one another and the sharp eyes on the bird of prey made it that much easier to spot the small creature in motion.

When she spotted the crow carrying the mouse away, she instinctively felt that it was unnatural and decided to give chase. Her master, Elder Gesborne, had specifically asked her, due to her abilities, to keep an eye out and report any suspicious findings. Ever since the last time the elders convened, he had mentioned that something might be on the horizon. Thereby, as per instruction, she had her falcon fly high over the sky, higher than even the crow and as far as the horns could maintain a connection, and shadowed the crow and the mouse.

Salome's day would have been fine if that was all that had happened, but as if trouble had it out for her on this day, Salome came upon a scene she would rather not be in while following her falcon.

Though the falcon provided an unmatched advantage in perception as it flew high above, once a prey was locked onto, the falcon, by its nature as a bird of prey, would not take its eyes off the target. Due to this, Salome, who had been occupied with keeping up with the falcon, was blindsided when she abruptly intruded upon a scene that made her regret her decisions on that day.

What Salome encountered was a figure wearing a cloak most strange. It was a cloak that could only be seen when viewed from the inside but was near imperceptible from the outside. Underneath the cloak was what appeared to be a woman wearing form-fitting clothes.

The woman was laying on the ground, her strange cloak in tatters and tainted with blood. Witnessing this, Salome approached against her better instincts. She knew better than to intervene in such a business, especially within this city, but she could not help but rush over when she saw that someone might have been severely injured. It was only when Salome shifted the cloak aside did she realized that the injuries sustained were far worse than she could have imagined.

The woman's arms were twisted to the degree that they were near unrecognizable as arms and both her legs were snapped in two, her bones visibly sticking out of her skin. Salome felt her blood freeze the moment she saw that. She had seen a fair share of horrible injuries as Gesborne's apprentice, the elder in charge of the medical centers in the eastern quadrant of the city, as such it was not the gore that disturbed her, but the idea that the one who inflicted these injuries was nearby.

The woman was breathing heavily, barely alive. Blood dripped from her mouth as she softly gasped for air despite the clear agony the act of breathing brought her. Looking at the woman, Salome struggled to get herself to leave and abandon this heavily injured individual despite knowing the danger she was in.

"You're Elder Gesborne's apprentice, are you not?"

Suddenly, a voice called. It came from right behind Salome. So close the voice was, the owner might as well be breathing down her neck.

In shock, Salome turned right around. She had not expected anyone to be able to sneak up on her. The critters within her robes would have sensed them coming. Yet, whoever was behind her seemed to have appeared without a sound or even a scent, as if they were a phantom without a physical presence till this very moment in time.

Behind her, Salome found there to be a figure shrouded in a robe of dull grey, her face wearing a featureless mask. She recognized this person, few in this city don't, but not many could say that they truly knew her.

"You came at the right time," said the master enchanter, Annaliese, not at all concerned with the shock on the apprentice before her. "Could you run an errand for me? I need you to return this to the apprentice known as Henrich. You're acquainted with him, no?"

Salome, her body frozen stiff in place, was unable to properly respond when Annaliese shoved a wand into her hands. And before Salome could gather enough composure to say anything, Annaliese had disappeared, the injured woman along with her.

For a moment, it almost seemed as though none of it had happened, that it was all just a bad dream. However, the wand in Salome's hands begged to differ.

When she could move once more, Salome began shaking and her knees gave way, sending her plummeting to the ground. For a moment there, she thought that she was going to die.

There weren't many details known about Annaliese, but one of the things known about her was that despite being a master of enchantments, she was rarely found in the magic forges. Instead, she was often sent outside of the city, carrying out tasks of secretive nature. When not outside of the city, she was said to be seen prowling in the shadows, often spotted near sites where 'disappearances' had occurred.

Before anyone knew it, the mention of Master Enchanter Annaliese became one that brought fear into the hearts of mages, masters and apprentices alike.

After only gods know how long, Salome finally managed to recompose herself and began to move on from the area. The falcon that had been tracking the crow and mouse had long left the range of her horn, but Salome remembered where it was headed and began to follow suit.

It was shortly after she restored her connection to the falcon did she spot Henrich and Barnaby, as well as Albatross, through the bird's eyes.

***

Standing in the alleyway, Salome used her rats to perform a search within a small crack found along one of the walls. She had learned that this was where the mouse had hidden from the falcon's memories. However, the rats could find no trace of the mouse itself, only the small creature's scent and the smell of dandelions.

Beyond the crack, Salome's rats found an opening that led into the building. The building was an old workshop repurposed into a storage room. The scent of the mouse led to a smelter with a chimney, where the trail went cold.

Salome could only assume that one of the crows have extracted the mouse through the chimney and moved elsewhere while she was distracted by the disturbance caused by Barnaby a short while back.

After another search and confirming that the mouse was indeed gone from this place, Salome decided to return. She did not have much to show for after all that trouble, but at least it served as a good test run for the falcon.

When she reported the incident to Gesborne later that day, he merely smiled while mentioning that the terrarium where the Dandelion Mandragoras were kept had been broken into. For some reason, he seemed rather amused by all of this.

***

End of Chapter 61

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