*****
Raelia bustled in her chambers, arranging for a spell of seeing. Her brain was decocing Decamod's hints at an accelerated rate. She had been studying spells, going through her inventory of materials and books, when suddenly it just had appeared in her mind. The waving plain. Yes, she indeed had such a plain that had waves – not waving as in motioning, but as in waves. Simply the problem of understading the stream of consciousness of the Decamod had kept her from understanding what it must mean right away. It was after all a common magic item, a vat of vision, which she often used to gain information and spy on her troops in distant realms. It was a simple vat, filled with water, but with certain spells it would show strange worlds and realms, and, depending upon the skills of its user, even underworlds and lost dimensions – mysteries of the deep that few dared to even think about. It has got to be that, she thought again and quickly collected all the things she would need to operate it. Now the only thing she needed was something to begin the search with. A place, an assumption of location…something.
“Ntu’vhis.” She waved her hands above the water and instantly it started to ripple. Intensively she gazed directly into the water’s depths, for it appeared not a shallow vat anymore but a bottomless well where vague images already started to appear under the vibrant ‘plain’ and she could not help but laugh out of glee for understanding the Decamod. She began her search. In rapid succession images changed into others and then yet new ones in the vat as she stared, but even after hours of trying she knew nothing new at all about Firnaraee. But in this kind of matters it was of no use to get nervous.
Strutto, the lousy captain, he had been right in one thing after all, even if all the other things in his miserable existence had not gone so well. Raelia had given him the magical stone, yes, for finding the grave, but it was also for spying on him. As a matter of fact, every single troop leader in Raelia’s army had one such stone, even if they had little clue about the actual use of them. And now, since she had not succeeded in finding anything by herself, Raelia put the beacons to use, going through her troops everywhere. Although the grave had been found and opened as well, thanks to those idiotic orcs, perhaps some servant had indeed stumbled over something significant and failed to report about it. Images of her troops all over the Brodérunn appeared and vanished in rapid cycles under the magical surface. There were images of bandits getting drunk, images of her knights in their adventures, images of orcs ransacking and raping a village. There were images of demons searching for elves to kill, images of monsters from the deep darkness, mutilated by creatures from even deeper in the whirlpool of fiery destiny. And then she came across a certain image that caught her eye for a while. It was Strutto and his army – or what was left of it. There was not a single goblin left whole. There were severed limbs and heads lying everywhere, scattered weapons laying on the soil having been useless against the unseen enemy, smashed bodies and arms all covered in dirt and blood and their own intestines and swarms of flies and a few wild beasts feeding on the carrion, feasting on the dead flesh already beginning to rot away. The scene or carnage in itself did little to move Raelia, for whom the horrible sight was like watching kittens playing. She had seen underworld demons and all kinds of terrors from different dimensions, and if such a sight could have moved her cold heart at all, she would have felt boredom at best. But it was an insult towards her person to dare and slaughter a troop of hers like that, and that angered her. For a good while she kept looking at the massacre, looking for clues on what kind of an army might be responsible, and then she became aware of Decamod beckoning her thoughts. Perhaps there was something in this particular image that needed to be studied. Perhaps the demise of his idiotic captain would turn into a success after all.
“Firnaraee” Raelia uttered softly.
The water in the vat surged a little. Raelia’s eyes dilated and her mouth turned into a catlike smile. She had found a clue. In that place, that battlefield there would be something she could use against Firnaraee. Something - or someone - had been an instrument of destruction for Strutto and his troop, and she was going to find out what. Looming over the vat of vision she began to examine the ground around the corpses in more detail. Her smile widened, baring her teeth. Soon she would find what she needed to find