Katlin was stoned. She watched the scenery in the small alley in the south west of the town. Her mind refused to accept what just had happened. She had witnessed the decline of Marie. Even she had the strong desire to help her when she saw here under control of these keepers of Mahjagoth, she was too intelligent to interfere. Marie had done nothing. Even though Katlin had seen what happened there she was not able to also hear that far. The last shot from Marie´s mind had been ´Damn, keepers found me again´. Then the connection broke down and it was broken down until now.
But of course Katlin had felt fathers reaction. She did not understand why he was so angry about Marie. It was just not in her power to withstand these white magicians. Katlin couldn´t imagine that Marie liked to be flooded by this white light. It must have been very harmful. Was she dead? Did these fanatics killed her sister? Whatever has happened to Marie, Katlin needed to keep the face of this powerful white magician in her mind. Father will also be very angry about her and Lenesti. They failed to rescue Marie. But Katlin also was totally unsure how she and Lenesti could aquire the heart of darkness. She wouldn´t dare to attack this white magician with her magic. Even though she did not try, she was sure he would easily fend her off. And he was not alone. His companions, the knights, were also powerful combatants. Her only possibility was, that the agent from the plague bay manages to escape Uhlheim. Then she could follow him and take the stone and his blood.
Katlin send a thought to Lenesti:"We lost Marie. You have felt it too. We have to accomplish this mission on our own. Arise more and more people to hunt the plague bay agent." If they were able to bring the city in chaos, the keepers would maybe not be able to concentrate on hunting the heart but need to bring order into the town. They yet know that vampires and black magicians were in town. No need anymore for secrecy.
Katlin focussed again on the heart of darkness and thought: "Go on little black mage, I will be your guardian angel from now on." She felt it. It was quite close to her. Looking down on the place her eyes where drawn to a man with a grey cloak. Opposite him, 10 meters away, stood a single keeper of Mahjagoth. When she examined her he only saw white light. Her aura was pure with just few single shades of very bright grey. She whispered: "No you fool what are you doing!" Her mind overturned itself by thinking about a method how she could help him. Bats! Katlin raised a hand in the air:
"Zash zir jo ta Lugan exhilio"
Some seconds later a large swarm of bats flew around the tower, coming from the north. Katlin commanded them to attack Marianne from Stormrock.
Lenesti walked, no she strutted, down the streets of Uhlheim. Everyone she saw she summoned to hunt the black magician in duty for the empress. She implanted the picture of him in everybodys mind and sent them to the central market place. The crowd had swollen to more then a hundred people who roamed the city. Lenesti pumped her vampiric power in the force and soon this mob became bloodthirsty. They started to hunt other people with black hair and beat them up. Lenesti sent pictures of blood, the scream of children and women in the mind of the people. Only for some minutes she vanished into a house and killed a young woman and drank her blood to replenish her power. Then she went on to enlarge the mass of rampaging citizens. She kept herself away from the central place and circled around it and sent more and more people to the hunt.
She sent a thought to Katlin: "This city will soon have no normal people anymore. How is the black magician?"
Katlin asked: "We need to give him a chance to escape, once he fell into the hand of the keepers we are done. Can you imagine what will happen if we return to father without Marie and without the heart. Can you change the peoples mind to attack the keepers?"
Lenesti answered: "I am not sure, I don´t think so. They are the people´s heroes and protectors. There will be only a few that would attack them."
"Anyway try it."
Lenesti raised all of her energy and sent pictures of the keepers, invading the houses of innocent people, burning innocent young women as black witches and sacrificing children in hidden rituals. But she felt that most of her energy fizzled without any result. These pictures did not resonate in the minds of the people. To long had the keepers been the protectors of the people. Their image was pure and without taint. Exhausted Lenesti stopped walking and leaned against the wall of a house.
Rovan looked out of his window. He had shut his door some minutes ago. He was terrified. What was happening here ? Since the far-trader had left the inn and this strange women sent the men after him the city had changed to a powder keg. Mobs were rampaging the streets and he heard screams of hate and pain everywhere. Why? It all began when he gave this stone to the far-trader. He knew the stone was evil. Could it be the source of all this? A very discomforting thought arose in his mind. Was he to blame for all this in the end? Had he caused this chaos with trading the stone to the far-trader? It seemed like all the evil in the stone had been unleashed. But the far-trader had seemed like a kind man to him. This strange woman accused him to be an agent. But why? She sent the men after him. Rovan could not believe that such a woman was an agent of the empress. Why did the men believed her just without even asking? Grown ups could be so strange sometimes. He watched the streets with fear. Then suddenly the blonde woman came down the alley again. She leaned against the wall opposite of his window. Suddenly she looked up to him. He ducked a little down and watched her. She doesn´t look so friendly and happy anymore then she did in the inn. Her search maybe did not went good. He heared her voice from the street. "I see you boy. I do not know who you are. How did you get the heart of darkness? Come down and tell me." Rovan was sure he would not go down. He did not trust this woman. The heart of darkness? Was this the name of the stone? A sounding name. He just decided to ignore her. She spoke again: "Don´t be afraid. I know you can hear me. The empress will reward you if you can unfold secrets about the stone. It is very important you know?" The voice of the woman had become soft and kind. Rovan raised his head about the frame of the window and looked out at her.
She smiled at him. "Come down and lets talk." She reached her hand out kindly in his direction. Rovan put his forehead in wrinkles.
He answered: "No it is dangerous outside. The citizens became nuts."
"Oh yes.",she answered and bent down a bit,"I just was able to escape three guys three streets down from here. I would feel more safe if you would come down and protect me."
What nonsense was she talking about? She an imperial agent want to be protected by him? It was obvious that she was trying to lure him out of his room. He starred at her and said: "No."
She showed a pout: "Thats not very knightly of you, young man. Would you give me shelter then in your room? I am foreign here and I know no one I can hide. Then we can talk."
He pointed somewhere and said: "Go to the imperial office. You should know where it is."
Lenesti got angry. This cursed little boy. How could he resist her? She heard the footsteps of a military division. She walked quickly of and turned into a sidestreet.
Rovan saw a group of keepers of Mahjagoth coming down the alley. They looked up at him indifferently. Rovan admired the keepers. They had great armor and were just and honest men. They were so above in his imagination that he never ever thought about becoming one of them. He was wondering why they were patroulling the city. Being in such a large city was quite interesting. There were a lot of things to see. But the people were not very kind. He had witnessed that they just passed each other and didn´t even greet.