Rising from his seat beside Barna, Pi’ve walked over to Janareus who scribbled down— no… Janareus did not write with his hand; he was writing using a magical quill of some sort, or else he was managing the quill himself. The quill was dancing beside his open hand, which he held out towards the quill to, seemingly, steer it. Janareus did not seem the least perturbed by the small pen writing on the parchment in front of him. He wrote the last words of the hearing onto the parchment at last.

  The wizards on the benches behind Janareus had risen from their seats, migrating out of courtroom 3. Murgun had vanished without a trace before Pi’ve could see where he had gone off to. He continued peaking over the vanishing crowd to see if he was still inside the room.

  ’Here you are, Pi’ve.’ Janareus said, and placed the parchment he had finished writing on top of another parchment and waved his hand over it. He took the previously empty parchment, now an exact copy of the original, and gave it to Pi’ve. ’I knew you would wriggle yourself out of this one.’

  Shaking his head at the wonderful magic he had witnessed Janareus perform, Pi’ve almost forgot answering. ’Wriggle? I don’t know about that. You were nervous for a while too, weren’t you?’ Pi’ve said, even if it was he who had been nervous.

  ’Yes. I must admit—’ Janareus said, but Pi’ve’s mind had wandered to another place. He remembered that just before the hearing, Barna had given him a job. It was a job he was sure he would not get, and one he did not really know if he wanted.

  ’I’m sorry, Jan. I must go. I have some things to do… See you later, ye?’ Pi’ve said, and Janareus stopped mid sentence, and said ’of course. See you, Pi’ve.’ He said and another wizard came to get his copy of the court report.

  Pi’ve turned and saw Barna place his parchments in his satchel, and as he looked up, Pi’ve gave him a look which Barna interpreted in an instant. Pi’ve had accepted the aforementioned job, and was about to begin right away. Pi’ve opened the small gate, and tried to weave his way through the moving crowd, some of them patting him on the back as he walked past them. He stood at the balustrades on the second floor balcony looking down to see if Murgun was still in the building, but he could not see him.

  He must have left. Pi’ve ran down the stairs and over the floor of the -building and opened the door in a haste. He scanned the square outside and saw many wizards out and about; many of them had been at the hearing. He stood on the stair of the looking out, scanning, while wizards exited the door behind him.

  Pi’ve cursed to himself. There was no way to know where he had run off to, if he did not ask someone who knew. He thought it would be slightly suspicious if he asked people where Murgun had gone, and then tracking him down. It was right after the hearing, after all, which Murgun had ordered. So, he was on his own. He just then remembered something from inside the cave, from when he was standing in that crossroad, not knowing which way to take. He had done some sort of light-magic, and that had showed him the way.

  He walked down the little stair of the -building, and stood still for a second. He lit his staff, and two wizards walking past him turned their head to him with questioning looks. It was still bright outside, so using light for no reason was probably questionable. Pi’ve brushed it off and closed his eyes, looking inside him for the right spell. He had used , he remembered, but he had somehow forced it to show him the right way. What had he said back then? Ah, indeed…

  ’.’ Pi’ve said, and he opened his eyes. The two wizards who had walked past him turned their heads again sharply, and one of them asked the other ’What did he say?’. ’How did he move the light like that?’ the other asked.

  The staff had turned its light to the left, and it was now emitting a narrow beam. There were three streets going out of the wizard square to his left, and the spell was less precise now that he was out in the open with more than two options. He had to have a guess from here, because the light vanished as the spell had done its job. At least he knew the general direction to start.

  A hand grabbed Pi’ve’s shoulder. He turned quickly, being startled at the sudden touch. ’You should be careful practising spells out here, Pi’ve.’ Barna said, and this time he did not have a any trace of jest in his face.

  ’I am not practising. I am going.’ Pi’ve said, knowing not to openly talk about his job too loud.

  ’You are not leaving just yet. You raced out of that courtroom faster than I could keep up— and I hoped that you would not do anything rash,’ Barna said, now with an air of seriousness about him, ’Alas, what do I find you doing out here as you leave the hearing, . You should abstain from using too much magic around people. It is seen as aggressive using magic so close to people, even other wizards— it’s like cursing in a conversation, in a way. Either way, most people have not seen that kind of magic. In fact, I am not sure what you just did.’ Barna said, and he saw on Pi’ve that he was twitching, eager to go. ’No. You are not free to leave, not before you tell me you understand, and you promise me that you will read the law in its entirety.’

  ’I cannot promise you that.’ Pi’ve said flabbergasted that Barna would berate him like that when he was on the heels of Murgun.

  ’You cannot what?’ Barna said. His eyebrows was flinching. Pi’ve suddenly felt his body stiffen, and even when he tried to move his feet or arms, he could not. ’You will promise me, for if not, then there will be another hearing, and I will not be there to represent you. It will be only you, and your stupid decision to not integrate well enough to the wizarding society.’

  Pi’ve nodded, ’I promise— to read the law.’ He said and Barna released him from the body-bind. ’Go, then.’ Barna said, and Pi’ve set out straight away, walking almost fast enough to enter into a light jog, but he tried pacing himself as to not attract any more attention to himself. As soon as he had distanced himself from Barna he felt regret well up inside him. Why had he become so focused on following Murgun that he had done magic blatantly out in public, and then disrespected the man who had represented him in the hearing he had just left. He was going to have to apologise to him later.

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  He entered the second street to the left where the -spell had pointed him, as he thought that it would yield a better chance of seeing where Murgun had gone. He hoped he was close by, because not too far up the street a much busier street, and there Murgun could already be impossible to find.

  Three intersections down the alley and the cobbled roads were filled with common people. A river of men and women and children going down the slightly sloping street towards the fishers market. They seemed to not enter down any of the streets which lead to the wizard square, and Pi’ve wondered what it was that prevented them. Was it just that they knew there was a square there not meant for them, or was it something else preventing them?

  He was afraid that he had gone past Murgun, that he may have entered some of the inns that was inside the wizard square, or that the magic had failed him. He wondered if he should use that spell again, to see where he had gone to, and if he was going the right way, but he decided against it now that he was so out in the open. He wondered, though, how much mana it had used, so he looked at his status menu. He remembered that it had used a lot of mana last time, but he did not know how much. Before he used it, he had 380 mana— and that was the most he could have at this time. He saw now that the spell had used approximately 50 mana points, being at 345 mana now.

  Looking through the crowd walking up and down the street, he saw a few wizards going with the stream. As he turned, he saw nothing at first, but at a second glance, he saw two robed men going the other way. One of them certainly had a reddish robe and he hoped that it was Murgun’s representative Teligion, meaning that the other wizard could be Murgun. The wizard beside the one he assumed was Teligion had a dark robe on, and Pi’ve could only hope that he was right.

  Pi’ve walked towards them, against the oncoming mass of people, and found it easier to weave through them when he stuck to the side of the street, walking past shops, pubs and the entrances to peoples houses. It was quite uneasy to have so many eyes following him as he walked amongst the crowd, but he knew that he had also stared when he was just an ordinary boy. Wizards were seldom seen in the common streets.

  Following the two wizards with his eyes, he saw that they took a right turn a couple of alleys down, and counted that they had turned six streets ahead of himself. He counted the streets as he went past them, and peaked around the corner to see if they were there. They were not, so he went around the bend and walked slowly up the street. The street ended in a dead end, with two streets going to each side before it ended. He wondered if they had entered one of the doors on the side of one of these buildings.

  He walked past one of the streets going to either side, and as he came closer to the next, he could hear a voice. It was not a voice he had heard before… or was it? He had perhaps heard that voice, but it had been an angry voice then. It was Redrig. Another voice sounded, and that voice he knew well.

  ’— again and again. We do not want that.’ Murgun said.

  ’No we don’t…’ Redrig answered. There was silence for a second, and Pi’ve took another step. He looked down, and cringed as he stepped on an empty brown paper bag. To his surprise, it barely made any sound, and he remembered that he was wearing the silent boots.

  ’Ah! That Pi’ve! Did you hear when it was revealed that his mentor was no elf?’ Murgun said, and Redrig answered ’I did. That was well placed—,’

  ’Ah! But it was not. I thought so too. His mentor not being an elf would give him an excuse, but his mentor is. Gaudol is here from time to time. He should be acquainted with the laws of wizards than elf. Elves are never here.’ Murgun said. ’I wonder what their history is, those two… It does not seem right…’

  ’Indeed. I am surprised... You are right. That is indeed a major oversight.’ Redrig said.

  ’Indeed it is… Alas, the hearing is over. It is settled. Either way, I am not eager enough to pursue another trial. He can do as he wish. I don’t care.’ Murgun said.

  Pi’ve felt elated that Murgun would abandon pursuing this agenda, and he was about to turn to leave, as they did not talk about anything crucial to his job. He did wonder why they had picked here to talk, though, and why they had met so covertly.

  ’You have been busy the last week, but I wonder if you have come any closer to the matter regarding the .’ Redrig said, and Pi’ve stopped turning. ? What is a crystal palomy?

  ’No. I’m afraid we are stuck with the same information. Barna does not seem to know where it is, but I think maybe Kerlina does. She has one in her office, you know. I will have a listen.’ Murgun said. Kerlina has one in her office? Were they talking about the crystal ball which they had used to contact Dandrian with? There was a silence spreading, and Pi’ve was worried that they had begun to leave, and that they would turn around the corner in a moment, but then Redrig spoke again.

  ’Yes. There will be a meeting at later— tuesday, I think.’ Redrig spoke, and Pi’ve felt in his being that the way their talking stagnated that they were soon done with this conversation.

  Pi’ve turned to leave, and heard Murgun say ’Fine. I will attend.’ And just as he said that, attempting to tread lightly, he caught his robe in the handle of a metal bucket and it seemed like the world froze as he saw it tip over as slowly as a leaf falls through the air. The noise was not as loud as he had anticipated, but it reverberated through the street either way, and Pi’ve felt his muscles in the back of his neck cramp up as he froze.

  He had no time to freeze as he heard the two wizards around the corner turn on the spot. Pi’ve set out on a run, lifting his feet high, trying to mask his steps even now that he was running. To his surprise, his feet made virtually no sound as he sped down the alleyway, and turned around the corner to the main street. He ran down the street and pushed a couple of people out of the way, getting a few angry shouts and sneers in response.

  When he had run some streets further down, he turned to look over the crowd, and he saw that Murgun and Redrig was looking up and down the street trying to find the man who had been in their vicinity. They did not see him, and Pi’ve turned into a side-street that would lead him to the wizard square.

  He had heard the conversation, and what they had said, but he did not know if it had been significant. Redrig wondered if Murgun had been any closer regarding something called a , but Pi’ve had never heard of anything like it. He had to ask Barna what that was, and if that is something they should have access to, or if that is something which has been kept away from them with intention.

  Pi’ve also wondered if this meeting at had any significance. Murgun said he would be at that meeting, but if Barna was too, then that would be no problem. If Terler’s theory was true, then Murgun was attending this meeting, even if the wizards in the meeting knew or not. Pi’ve had to try to be at that meeting, or at least get Barna there to confirm Murgun’s attendance.

  Thinking about this, Pi’ve walked slowly towards the office of Barna to have a chat with him. The more he thought about that conversation, the more suspicious it seemed. Maybe if Barna was going to that meeting, they could provide some information that would steer Murgun in the wrong direction, confirming that he indeed was participating in the meetings unauthorised.