A Call to Fate

Chapter 3 - At the door

"So he's gone." Alf, having woken late for his watch, had woken the others, and shared the news. "How gone is gone?" asked Teclis.
"Well all of his stuff is still here, so I doubt he's just cut and run" said Alf, "but it's still not great".

The mood in camp was gloomy at this. A mysterious disappearance in the dead of night was the last thing that they needed. Arrogant though he might have been, a wizard was still a useful ally, and it was a bit ominous for the mist to have just claimed him.

"Well we should start looking for him then, shouldn't we?" said Gialli. "I'm sure any of us would do the same."
"If you want to start, be my guest" contributed Alf, as usefully as ever. "Just tell us where to go". Tove cuffed him across the back of the head. "Don't be a shit", she said. "Maybe there are tracks".

A few minutes of very careful searching later, there was a triumphant cry from Teclis. "I have something! Footprints, leading away from the camp." Talani and Tove, the most familiar with this sort of thing, headed over to confirm. "Only looks like the one set" Tove said "So I don't think he was dragged away by anything".
"So he just wandered off?" asked Teclis.
"Or was lured" she replied. "but who knows by what". They looked up, but no sign of any distraction could be found. "I guess the best thing to do is follow them?"
"Don't they lead off the path?"
"They absolutely do."
"Hooray."
"I suggest," said Talani, searching through his pack "that we be intelligent about this". He ignored Alf's muttered comment, and pulled out a heavy line of rope. "We each tie this around ourselves, since we're moving in the dark."
Gialli sighed. "We should have done this from the start. Foolish of us to overlook this"
"We can chastise ourselves later." Talani started passing around the rope, spooling it out from his hands. "For now, we get moving. Tove, you take the lead and follow the prints, I can't see in this light. I'll take the rear. The rest of you, sort it out."

The line was handed out, knots checked and secured, and the slow procession stumbled off into the darkness. Mersingmergr walked alongside Gialli, and those who carried weapons walked with them drawn. In Talani's case this was a large axe. For Teclis, a sword. Gialli, a bow. Alf carried a shield with the divine symbol of Sol, the sun god. For days now he had been lamenting the weak connection he had to his god in this place, and wished fervently for a ray of sun to break through. He kept his other hand free for that magic which he could muster. Tove meanwhile absent-mindedly toyed with her own spell focus. Her magic was drawn from the stars, and the movement of the heavens. The cord she carried was strung with beads, and although it was simple in design, she twisted it into shapes of extraordinary intricacy as they walked, each pattern representing a different constellation, and glowing faintly from time to time. Here as well though, the power of the stars, even at night, was limited by the mists.

They moved at a snail's pace, Tove bent low to the ground and occasionally stopping entirely to make sure that they were still on track. In the dark and the fog it was next-to impossible to tell where the others were, and so they all put their trust in the rope. The occasional sudden slackening or tautening sent the heart lurching up into the mouth, but these were false alarms. Muffled footfalls on sodden earth, jangling packs, and the sound of their own breathing were all that each of them heard as they pressed on.

--

At the barrow, the situation was not improving. Backing up against the edge of the mound that formed this tomb, Reg steadied his sword in front of him. He mustered what bravado he could, and spoke confidently into the mist. "I'm warning you. Back off or I shall force you back".

Instead of the sound deadening in the fog as normal, it was instead picked up, and echoed around him a thousand times, voices emanating all around him. "Warning you", they called, in voices low and high. "Warning you" came the message, leaving Reg spinning, trying to face each voice. "Warning you" they said again, humanoid shapes in the fog stepping closer each time.