“Somebody kidnapped Noel?” said Kelser.

I shushed him. “Don’t say that so loud.”

“Why not? We need to start searching for her. She’s an elf with magic more powerful than any human’s. There’s no way they can stop her from leaving some marks or causing a ruckus!” he said.

“After searching the back of the hill, I went to her tent again to look for clues. But all the signs of a fight were gone!” I said. “It looked like nobody had been in there all night.”

“How is that possible?” said Kelser. “Were you gone for long?”

I shook my head. “Humans can’t be the only ones behind this. It’s too strange and unusual, and I have a lot of experience with the strange and unusual.”

We were crouching behind a stone wall near the Bek Tepe temple complex. I’d set up motion detection magic on the pathways leading up to us, and was disguising myself with magic too. Despite all of these precautions, I didn’t feel safe. Being faced with a powerful enemy, like the Immortal of Madness or the God of Evil, was one thing, but not knowing what was going on was far more terrifying.

How could someone kidnap Noel? And without anybody else noticing her resistance? Even when I’d first seen the signs of a scuffle in her tent, there were no scorch marks or other signs of magic, which meant Noel wasn’t even able to cast a single spell before being taken. And the tent had been cleaned up so quickly, right after I left, which made me think someone might have been observing me.

Which left me with my biggest question: why didn’t they take me too? If someone was powerful enough to kidnap Noel, surely they could take me too. Even if they thought they couldn’t keep it quiet, surely someone who could whisk away Noel so easily could take on a few human tribesmen armed with prehistoric spears and daggers.

“Listen, Kelser,” I said as I put my hands on the young boy’s shoulders. “I need you to be very careful, alright?” He nodded. I continued: “You have to tell elder Kezler to prepare for a battle. Tell him I don’t know who we have to fight, or whether there will even be a point in putting up any resistance, but tell him Noel and I need your tribe’s help.”

“I already know he’ll agree,” said Kelser.

I gave him a weak smile. “But tell him they can’t tell any other tribe.”

“Not even the ones we trust?” said Kelser.

“No,” I said. “The only ones I trust right now are the Roja.” I felt like Kelser’s chest puffed up a little as he heard that. “Listen, although I don’t want them to know what’s going on, that doesn’t mean we can’t get the other tribes to be useful. The Jora tribe are the prime suspects.”

“That makes sense,” said Kelser. “You were going to question them more thoroughly today, weren’t you?”

“Yes, we were. Maybe whoever is behind them was worried we’d find out too much, and decided to take matters into their own hands,” I said. I didn’t add that this line of logic still didn’t explain why they hadn’t abducted me too, but it was the best I could think of at the moment. “So you need to convince the other tribes to confront the Jora tribe about something. Maybe ask them how the festival will be run, now that there are real elves to preside over the festivities instead. Challenge the priests, make them think their social status is being threatened. Maybe one of them will slip up.”

“I’d bet we could get something out of Priest Mal,” said Kelser. “He’s famous for having pretty loose lips.”

I nodded. “Let’s hope he lives up to his reputation. Now go. And remember, be careful!”

“I will,” said Kelser. “But what are you going to do?”

“I think I’ll check behind the tents again,” I said. “In case I missed something.”

Kelser nodded and walked away. As I looked at his back, I apologized to him in my head. I already knew there was nothing else to see behind the tents, but I couldn’t tell him the truth in case whoever had captured Noel got to him too.

I took a deep breath. The day had only just begun, but the sky was overcast, and my mood was even gloomier. I cast some disguise magic on myself, and made my way carefully through the temple. Standing in front of the pit, I made sure to survey my surroundings. The elfin skull was gone. I frowned. I ran from statue to statue, before dashing into the secret passageway heading down into the darkness.

---

The passage seemed darker than before. I didn’t dare light a fire, afraid that I’d be found. At this point, I was assuming my dreams had helped me escape whatever forces had taken Noel. I didn’t want to give myself away too easily. I felt the walls with my hands and walked slowly. I tread lightly and took shallow breaths.

I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, but approached it cautiously. I stuck to the shadows and crouched behind a big rock, straining my ears to try and catch some sounds. I heard quiet whispers, and the sound of objects being moved around. I peered over the edge of the rock, making my hair and skin blend into the surroundings with my disguise magic.

A single torch illuminated a room full of humans. All of them had their backs to me, so I couldn’t immediately tell who they were. Their hair colors were tough to make out in the dim light, but I was sure there were many different colors here. I recognized a couple of priests from the human Jora tribe, but there weren’t a lot of them here. A figure shifted out of the way, and I saw a stone slab sitting imposingly in the center of the room.

The elfin relics were placed on this slab, as was the elfin skull that was usually kept in the pit. All of them were glowing with a soft, red light. The Jora priests stood right in front of the relics, their hands outstretched before them.

There was another passageway behind the group of people, which seemed to lead further into the darkness. Noel wasn’t in this room, but judging by how these people were holding a clandestine meeting in a secret passageway that had not been here yesterday, I figured it was safe to assume they were up to something. The only question was if I should rush in and take them out, or wait patiently and see what happened. Rushing in risked alerting whoever had taken Noel, and might even get me caught too, but waiting patiently might let these guys carry out whatever plan they were cooking up. Those glowing red relics were definitely not a good sign. I took a deep breath, and held up my hands.

“What was that?” said one of the tribesmen. The person they were standing next to looked up, just as a massive rock smacked into their head.

The other tribesman got out of the way. The whole gathering quieted down. The priests lowered their hands and the relics stopped glowing. The tribesman who had gotten hit on the head had a nasty concussion, but it seemed like he’d survive. The others figured a stalactite on the ceiling must have fallen down on them. An unfortunate accident.

The priest that had walked over to inspect the unconscious tribesman, walked back to the slab. However, his foot caught on something and he tripped forward, whacking his head against the hard stone slab.

Someone backed into the wall, knocking the torch out of its place, and onto her clothes. She panicked as her clothes caught on fire, slamming into the person next to her, whose clothes also, quickly, caught on fire.

The two tried to rip off their clothes, which sent pieces of flaming hide gliding on the wind towards more people. As people tried to get out of the way of the burning pieces of clothing, they tripped and hit their heads, or crashed into each other, or crumpled to the ground as if someone had hit them on the back of their necks.

The final Jora priest seemed to have kept her cool, as her eyes darted around the room. The torch had been snuffed out, so the only light came from the burning clothes. The Jora priest caught something in the corner of her eye, and turned swiftly in that direction, lifting her glowing red hand and shouting something strange.

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as I used magic hands to smack her in the neck. I wasn’t exactly a martial artist, so I had to hit pretty hard to make sure she was going to stay down. I looked around the room, where a bunch of humans lay unconscious, illuminated only by the faint glow of burning monster hide.

I grabbed the torch right before darkness engulfed the room. I lit the torch, wrapped the relics in someone’s clothes, and walked carefully down the next tunnel.