The days after turning in Felgar and the local lord turned into mayhem. Overnight their main culprit Felgar had disappeared. What compounded the issues was that no one had noticed exactly when. They had heard voices from down in the hole but when he failed to come up when commanded they had needed to send someone down to find out what happened.
The only thing they found was an empty cave and a damp, rotting bedroll. The panic afterward turned into a three-day manhunt. The locals had searched every field, farm, forest, and ravine between the town and the next jurisdiction.
It was only after For'Ten had called off the search and declared him a fugitive that the search was called off. The villagers and farmers grumbled at the loss of the culprit, they blamed the local constables until For'Ten finally conceded that he should have taken him in personally. This gave them a suitable scapegoat.
After the whole mess was resolved Ed and For'Ten finally were able to head away from the town. They snuck out one morning before anyone else was up. They wanted to make it away before anything else decided to rear its ugly head. The towns needed to select a new lord and the power struggle was going to get vicious. It was something that a knight absolutely needed to avoid.
Once they made it out of the town Ed and For'Ten quietly began to cross the distance headed towards the coast. Only after the sun started to come up did they stop for the first time.
Ed had stopped in a clearing with some logs and sat down quietly. For'Ten nodded when he saw Ed come to a slow and put his own bag down and wandered around a small clearing. Ed pulled out a biscuit that he had saved from the village along with the compass and his own coin. First, he took a bite off the biscuit before putting it next to him. Then he checked the compass, it pointed north east towards where Erust and his company were traveling. They were not heading in the same direction as them.
Ed sighed and put the compass down next to his biscuit before putting his coin in his hand. He put a small amount of power into the codex and closed his eyes. He reached out for the dots of the other souls and found their lights had moved very little. Ed concentrated a little harder and found the set of dots he had been tracking. They had moved up what he assumed was a shoreline. Thankfully the direction they needed to go didn't put them in any direct danger.
With a sigh, Ed opened his eyes. He looked around the clearing and finished off the last few bites of his breakfast. "Still the same direction," Ed yelled to For'Ten across the clearing.
"Okay good. Do you think we will get there by tonight?" For'Ten walked towards Ed and adjusted his straps on his outfit that had moved while they were moving.
Ed nodded, "I think I'd like to head a little south of them just so I know when we find them." He knew that when they started to be towards his right that meant they had finally come upon them. Just in case they weren't at the shore and had moved inland.
For'Ten nodded. "Fine by me. The less likely we are to surprise them the better by me. It's only two of us and we don't know exactly who or what we are going to find."
Ed nodded as he pulled out the map. He opened it across his lap and took the pencil out. In the corner, his note was still there. Loran hadn't updated anything yet in the area for notes. Ed scratched his chin and debated if this meant she hadn't looked at it or hadn't decided to erase it.
He looked at it and wrote a small note on the edge of the space letting her know where they were. He wondered what she was up to that she hadn't replied yet.
Slowly the map got rolled back up and put into its holder. Ed then tucked it back into his bag as he stood up. He stretched his legs out and walked around the clearing. "I don't know what we are walking into. I wish we had any kind of warning."
For'Ten looked at him and licked his fingers as he finished eating his own biscuit quickly. "Do you want to have us travel one ahead of the other?"
Ed shook his head, "That doesn't have any advantage, does it? You can't help if something happens can you?"
For'Ten shook his head. "In a regular formation you could set off a warning but as quickly as we have been moving I wouldn't have enough time. It's probably best for us to travel as a pair for the sake of safety. Did Loran ever reply with an answer about the dragon?"
He shook his head. "No, and it's been a few days. I will check it after we make it into the town. I told her that we are probably a day away from running into whoever these souls are."
They both stood up and got their packs settled back where they belong. Then Ed nodded in the direction he wanted to go. He had tucked his coin into his pocket where he could grab it easily if he wanted. They then took off and bounced across the country side.
After nearly an hour they had covered quite a distance. Ed would occasionally stop and check the dots in his mind. After that hour they were starting to move to his right. He was right they were up and to the right somewhere. Ed pointed over his shoulder. "That way, we are coming up just south of them."
For'Ten nodded and shifted his bag. They resumed heading in their direction until Ed finally called for a stop. "Okay we are south of them now."
For'Ten walked up to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "Any ideas? How do you want to do this?"
Ed had thought about this. "I can't send you because your face is a little well known. I don't want to spook anyone in town. That makes it harder for us to walk around."
For'Ten nodded and grabbed Ed's shoulder. "Put your cloak on and head north. I will wait a few hours and then follow up behind you."
It was a decent plan, if anything went sideways it meant that backup wasn't that far away. And after the last few months Ed was capable now. He wished he had his full power back so he could reach out and see if he could feel divine beings. He could still do it but not that at the distances that made it useful.
They separated and Ed set out towards the dots. The landscape changed from rocks and fields slowly. The occasional house started to pop up and fields changed into farms. The smell of salt water started to pick up in the air. Ed knew they were getting close to the coast.
He paused every so often to check his mind. The dots weren't moving. After about an hour and a half he saw the town. It was a collection of gray buildings. They were all weathered old wood. The buildings had paint left over in any area that wasn't directly facing the wind. It gave the image of dead buildings or corpses.
The town wasn't small but gave off the air of being a backwater. Ed closed his eyes and walked forward slowly. The dots had moved from his right side to his left side. Ed paused walking for a minute. In his mind the dots had moved to his left but he only saw two. Hadn't their been a third dot just a few hours ago? He searched and saw just the two dots. One was nearby, the other was a little farther away, probably near the ocean.
Ed kept walking through town until the dot was at his left. When it stopped moving he stopped moving and looked over this shoulder. He scratched an arrow into the dirt to his left. When For'Ten walked into town he hoped that he would see it.
Across from him their were two buildings. Ed looked them over but didn't have to sit long to make a decision about where to go. One looked like a general goods store and the other looked like a bar. It was a fifty fifty chance of him being wrong, but if he was he could at least get a quick drink.
He walked up to the bar and started to concentrate on the auras around him. If they were like him they should an aura unlike anyone else in the room. His eyes took a second to adjust before he could make out the shapes of a half dozen men around the room.
Ed waited for his eyes to adjust before he could get a look around the room. He scanned the room, squinting his eyes to get the aura's to come into focus. And finally, he found it across the way. Two shapes in the back of the room came into focus and their auras were just a little bit brighter than anyone else.
Most of the auras in the room had a rich blue color like the sea. Ed had realized long ago when he started seeing auras that they took on the color of the environment that they lived in. These two had auras that carried glints of brown, gold, red, and green. The two men were having a meal in the back of the room. They were sitting unusually close to each other. Suddenly Ed realized their had been three dots. They were so close together that it looked like one big dot.
As Ed started to walk toward the bar the taller of the two men looked up at Ed. Ed could feel his gaze on him, it was almost making him uncomfortable to have anyone in a city focus on him this hard. He almost regretted not sending For'Ten first. Whoever this person was they were absolutely laser-focused on Ed.
Ed ordered a cheap house beer and sat and sipped the cold beverage. The eyes from across the room stayed focused on him as he sipped. Ed was deciding on what to do when the problem was solved for him.
The taller of the two men in the back of the room stood up and started walking towards the front. Ed almost panicked worrying how he was going to keep an eye on both of them before he gave up.
The tall man came over and held up a hand, "Hey, pass me another Ralph."
The man behind the counter nodded and grabbed a glass. The tall man looked over in Ed's direction and smiled to himself. "Enjoying that mug?"
Ed nodded, "Been on the road a while. I always need a good drink when I get into a new town."
The man rolled around facing out and put his elbows on the bar. "Yeah, I get that. Where you from?"
Ed glanced around the room as nonchalantly as he could. The other man in the back of the room was still there.
"Headed back north after stopping here. I was traveling with a friend who dealt with old coins."
"Oh, a numismatist..." The man said with genuine surprise. Ed stopped drinking and nearly dropped his glass. He knew vaguely that coin collectors were called Numismatist, he was surprised to find anyone here who was that educated.
"Yeah, and this close to the beach you get rare coins occasionally," Ed said standing upright. "You have any rare coins or know anyone who does?"
The man kicked his foot. "I would love to see what you have. I don't have any but I know someone who does. If you have coins I'm sure he would love to trade you."
Ed smiled. "Well let's go sit down. I have a coin I'd love to show you."
The man nodded and grabbed the mug that had materialized next to his hand. "That's fine. I want to ask you a few questions myself. Let me introduce you to my friend."