Marcelle was frowning thoughtfully on the other side of the mirror. Several of the scouts clumped behind her to see what Jade was revealing, and their expressions were also troubled. Finally, one of them spoke hesitantly, “I counted at least thirty locations. Which one are we supposed to go to?” It took her a second to realize it was Garrik talking.
A grim determination crossed over her face as she responded, “It doesn’t matter, really. We have to find one of them and capture it alive. I’ll make it show us the way.” She was fairly confident at this point that she could overpower their hypnotism and use compulsion on them. She hoped. Okay, it was a terrible idea, but it was the best she had. After all, she’d come a long way from the encounter when her compulsion could only stop one of them in their tracks for a mere second. It would have to be enough, because otherwise…
She shook those thoughts off. She would find them, and she would save them.
“Then we should aim for the closest one.” Marcelle decided firmly. Jade nodded, looking over the dark clumps before choosing her target. It also happened to be one of the smaller clumps, which she wasn’t opposed to in the slightest. While she wanted to eradicate the menace, her primary objective on this hunt was actually rescue. Once their people were safe, she could eliminate them one by one. She would destroy their nests, their very foundation.
“Understood. I’ll set the course and come back down.” Marcelle nodded, and they both cut the connection, Jade stowing the mirror back into her ring again. While she was focusing on the mirror, she noticed the wind made her drift further again when she hadn’t been concentrated on fighting against the pull, but rather staying aloft and making her call.
Pulling out a crystal, she fixed the image in her mind, creating another projection that highlighted the dead trees. She then lowered herself straight down, alighting on the uppermost branch of the tall tree below. Now that she wasn’t fighting the wind, she took a minute to absorb all the light streaming towards the trees. She hadn’t wanted to create a giant dark spot in the middle of the sky any more than she already had, as she was aiming not to attract the attention of the flying creatures to the east. She had no idea how keen their eyesight was, but since she wasn’t as large as they presumably were, she hoped she was no more than the teensiest blip on the radar that they would ignore.
When her reserves were full again, she jumped down the trunk of the tree, making sure to keep her bearings straight so she didn’t mess up the directions. Therefore, instead of jumping branch to branch, she let herself drift in a slow freefall straight down the one side, only dodging a few branches temporarily before resuming her track. It was rather exhilarating, like she was skydiving from a tree. When she was about fifty feet from the ground, she slowed her descent until she could land lightly on her feet.
The two groups watched her dive from the treetops and made their way over with the animals. She was probably five large trees away from where they tracked the mesmer ascent. She was a little confused as to why the previous scouts still hadn’t left. Still, before she could forget, she grabbed a nearby rock and began to mold it into shape with earth magic, turning it into something like a multi-arrowed compass that pointed straight towards one of the nests. She set it down before looking at Marcelle expectantly.
Marcelle smiled at the compass before looking up at her. “The nest we’re targeting only looked like it was a league or two away. We thought it best to leave the animals here so we could sneak more easily. The scouts will be able to bring them to us afterwards.” Oh, that actually made sense.
“Sure, of course.” It was completely logical to make this an outpost. Especially if she was going to have to keep coming back… Deep in thought, she studied the surrounding area. “Are any of them earth mages?” She absently asked her question aloud, figuring Marcelle would know the answer.
“Yes, there are two. Why?” Marcelle’s voice was quizzical in her reply.
Jade nodded again, staring at a large boulder nearby. “Good, good. Then that means they’ll be able to open and close the door…”
“Door?” She heard one of the men ask, but she paid him no mind as she walked over to the boulder. She only glanced back long enough to take mental measure of how large the capall were as she placed her hand on the stone.
Her magic moved through the rock, then the ground beneath it. A few of the men let out startled gasps as the forest floor trembled slightly, and the capall had to be quickly calmed as the trembling continued. “What’s she doing?” She heard one of the men ask, but couldn’t pay any more spare attention to their question.
She started to sweat lightly from the exertion. She’d needed to convince several roots that they were required to move, and the ancient tree complied very begrudgingly. It was a good fifteen minutes later before she finally dropped her hand from the rock and sat down. She immediately pulled food from her bag and began munching on it as Marcelle approached her from behind. “Jade, are you okay? What did you just do?” Thankfully, Marcelle was a patient person and kept her people in check, even when Jade was being cryptic and doing unknown things for long periods without explanation. She should probably work on that.
Jade smiled wearily up at her, then gestured to the earth mage who’d spoken earlier. “Why doesn’t he touch it and see if he can figure it out?” She scooted away from the rock as Marcelle nodded to the man, obviously curious about what Jade did the whole time while they sat there waiting.
He walked forward cautiously, placing a hand on it and investigating with his magic. She watched in quiet satisfaction as his eyes opened wide and he looked back at her. “Can I open it?” When she nodded, he grinned gleefully, and a large section of the rock slowly swung inward like a door, revealing a large, sloping hallway. Though the beginning of the hallway was dark, it was easy to see there was light at the end of the tunnel. The man was staring in awe at the opening before him, while the others who didn’t have animals in tow moved forward to take a look.
Jade gestured to the tunnel. “Why don’t you bring everyone inside and start getting settled? I need to absorb some more light to recharge myself.”
“Even the capall, miss?” One of the men asked cautiously.
She nodded. “Even the capall.” Standing up and brushing the dirt from her pants, she smiled and gestured to the tunnel. “Welcome to your new underground outpost.”
Chapter Four – Outpost
Marcelle took the lead into the tunnel, showing her trust in Jade. I guess if she didn’t trust me, she wouldn’t have followed me all the way out here to the woods and waited as I did crazy things. Her inner monologue didn’t distract her from standing to the side as man and beast filed past her into the tunnel. She darkened the area around her as she sucked the light in for energy. The capall didn’t even flinch from her when she did it now, since she’d been doing it the whole time on the road and their senses seemed keener than the humans who rode them.
As soon as the last of the group entered, Jade quickly reached out with her magic, smoothing down the ground their passage had marked and returning it to a more natural state, so that their departure from the camp would be impossible to find, unless they were being hunted by a much better tracker. It was only five trees further into the woods, but that was still around five hundred feet. She stopped, sweating a bit after that exertion as well, though it had only required a strong burst of power at once, which was much easier than the prolonged drain it’d taken her to super pack and light the new underground compound.