Errant and Woody watched as the Guard took over for them. He stood across the


    street, hands in his pockets. The dog sat at his feet.


    “Those circles could be something useful,” said Errant. “They allow for people to


    mentally meet and share a collective image of what could be done. Spells could be


    crafted and used through an interface in the real world. Someone would try to use it


    for harvesting unless that was blocked off.”


    Woody barked, pointing out the obvious.


    “I noticed that the spell did the same as the Alvas room magic,” said Errant. “No


    physical bounds, but a mental transference instead. I wonder where Bass got his


    inspiration. Do you think he talked to an Alvas about how some of their magic


    worked?”


    Woody made a snuffling for his comment on the likelihood of that. The Alvas were


    not known for their sharing of their abilities despite the one who regularly raced


    across the continent.


    “I am curious if he was helped,” said Errant. “And we are suddenly at loose ends


    since we solved the magic leakage problem faster than I thought we would.”


    Woody barked about not being a cat, and they should let things lie if it wasn’t their


    business.


    “But it is our business,” said Errant. “It’s what the Queen would want, and we have


    pledged ourselves to looking into possible threats to the realm. Anything threatening


    the future has to be faced. That’s our field of expertise.”


    Woody snuffled but he knew he couldn’t stop his creator from looking into things.


    He was the Knight. He had taken up that task, and he couldn’t put it down now. They


    had walked all over the sphere, growing bulwarks to keep back chaos where they


    could, and pruning out threats that tried to ruin everything.


    An Alvas teaching magic wasn’t much of a threat unless the magic threatened to take


    the entire city apart.


    Causing an open war between Bern and the Alvas to the South was trouble. The


    Rhiem would join in just to make their neighbors miserable. The underworlds on both


    sides would be flooded with the dead.


    Woody barked a change of mind after the reconsideration he gave the problem. An


    Alvas trying to spark a war had to be stopped before he tipped things over to the other


    side of the scales.


    “I’m glad you agree with me,” said Errant. “Let’s start where Bass lived. Maybe we


    can find a clue to how he devised his circle. At the very least we should keep his work


    out of the hands of the irresponsible so they didn’t make more circles to harvest


    personal power from others.”


    The Queen’s Knight pulled a metal folder from under his light blue jacket. He opened


    the cover. Numbers floated in the air over the folder. He nodded at the list of things


    Time told him had happened and what had been changed by what he had done. It


    wasn’t much of a help, but every little bit was something. He closed the holder and


    placed it back under his jacket.


    “We should go this way,” said Errant. He pointed the path he wanted to walk out as


    he headed down an alley down the street from the wrecked magic site. They stepped


    out on a quiet street of tenements crammed together. He stood under a lamp, looking


    at the numbers and names on the front of the buildings around them.


    “I think it’s that one,” said Errant. He pointed to one building that seemed better


    looking than the others around it. “Let’s go up and see if we can get in without too


    much of a problem.”


    They walked over to the building, pausing at a locked outside door. A twist of fingers


    jerked the lock and the magic shield out of the way. They stepped into a foyer.


    “It looks like he was doing his experiments with others on the premises,” said Errant.


    He looked at the marked doors. “On the other hand, if he had access to the mental


    circle, he didn’t need that much space to work. He had as much as his mind would


    allow.”


    Woody sniffed at the doors. He chuffed a little at what he smelled coming from under


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.the doors. He shook himself and trotted back to where the man in blue waited.


    “What do you mean everyone’s dead?,” asked Errant.


    Woody barked his confirmation of his findings. The residents in the apartments on


    the ground floor were dead as far as his nose was concerned. If that had to be seen to


    be believed, he was fine with being doubted by his more insensitive colleague.


    Errant looked up the stairs that went to the other apartments in the building. Were all


    the residents dead? Had Bass used them for their lives before he recruited the others


    he had turned into murderers? Maybe he should have put a harsher punishment on the


    mental wizard.


    That was something that could be addressed when they got around to talking to him


    again. That might be a long time in the future.


    Errant started up the stairs. He kept his eye on the designations on the doors. He


    trusted Woody’s assessment of the scene. Once they had conducted their search, he


    would call the Guard to take care of the dead. It was all he could do for them now.


    He paused at the door. He turned off the security, and the physical locks. He pushed


    the door open. The room was dark. He snapped his fingers and a spark of light floated


    to a lamp. The lamp lit up to cast a dim glow over the thousands of physical drawings


    on the walls.


    “I would say that we have come to the right place,” said Errant. He scanned the room


    without entering. “This was where he started trying to build his circle.”


    Woody sniffed the air. He made a grunt noise to indicate they were alone and all the


    scents he could smell were old. No one had been in the place for a while.


    “So this is where he got started,” said Errant. He looked up and down the hall. None


    of the other doors moved. “He works his way through his neighbors. No one noticed


    that they were all going away. Maybe they did and he smoothed things over so there’s


    a reasonable explanation somehow. Maybe he created a zone in the building and


    everyone thought all their neighbors were alive when they weren’t. Sound


    reasonable?”


    Woody snorted he didn’t have a better explanation for what they had found so far.


    “I think we should take all of these drawings and make sure none of it will hurt


    anyone else,” said Errant. “Then we should find his real work space.”


    Woody barked his concern over the implication.


    “I think he did a lot of testing to find the right combination he wanted here,” said


    Errant. He pointed at a wall. “The notes indicate that someone gave him the initial


    circle and showed him how to make more. I am going to say an Alvas did that.”


    Errant gestured and the lamp directed light on another section. He frowned as he


    followed the writing and drawings.


    “Here is where he thinks he can use the drawings for harvesting more magic,” said


    Errant. “He has records of killing his neighbors, and how he did it. He reported gains


    to his personal reserve here.”


    Woody barked at the numbers.


    “None of his neighbors were magicians,” said Errant. He rubbed his face as he


    thought about the pitiable amount of energy stolen to feed the rising menace. “Their


    numbers wouldn’t give him much. He needed to take the life energy of real magicians


    if he wanted to expand his power.”


    The wanderer paused in his examination. He nodded at the different hand on one of


    the drawings. He reassessed the work with that as the central starting point.


    “All right,” Errant said. “There is definite proof that one of the Alvas gave Bass his


    start. That means we have a renegade working against the city. I think we need to


    finish cleaning up behind Bass, and find this problem causer. There’s no telling what


    other things he is doing if he feels he’s untouchable.”


    Errant looked around the room. He found a leather folder sitting on a chair. He


    grabbed and opened it wide with both hands. Blue light pulled the drawings from the


    wall and stacked them in the folder. Research notes followed as the spell went


    through the room and picked up everything related to the circle. Drawings done in the


    fabric of the building were erased by the light.


    Errant turned in a circle. The spell scrubbed the rest of the building. It wouldn’t leave


    the Guard much to work with when he was done, but the murderer was already in


    solitary. There was nothing they could do to him until they found his body and woke


    him up. The crime he had been turned in for would be enough for capital punishment


    without adding on the murders that had been discovered afterwards.


    The Knight wondered how much more he could personally add on to what he wanted


    Bass to suffer. He decided that he should not let his clouded judgement let him do


    something he would regret later. He had done enough things that he would take back


    if he could.


    Adding on to the tally wouldn’t help him all that much as far as he was concerned,


    and being immortal just gave him more time to think about the bad decisions he had


    made when he should be thinking about doing better things to offset the harm he had


    caused.


    The blue light snapped off when the spell was sure it was done with the building. The


    folder closed in his hands. He hefted it before sticking it in pocket under his jacket.


    Maybe down the road, he would have a use for it other than taking other people’s


    magic and adding it to his own.


    “Let’s let the Guard know what we found, Woody,” said Errant. “While they are


    cleaning the building, we can look for the main lab he moved to from here. Hopefully


    he hasn’t killed a bunch of people around it.”


    Woody wagged his tail. He doubted Bass had allowed people to live while he was


    trying to figure out what he was doing. Most humans weren’t that smart when they


    were chasing a dream.


    They walked out of the building.