Ascended

We didn’t have to wait long.

We’d barely gotten back before Master James walked in, shaking his head.

“Why?” Val pointed at the door. “Another person is dead and you are helping them keep it quiet? What happened to…”

“There’s a Touched in the city walls.” His statement silenced her rant.

“What..?’ Val looked at me, “Did you know?”

I started to nod, then changed it to a shrug midway.

“How do you know?” Val turned back to the Bokor.

“There was a significant amount of magic used in the struggle.” Master James looked at me, then to Val, “I need to teach you how to sense Magic, but that is an exercise for later.”

“How did you know?” Val turned to me.

“I didn’t know for sure, but….” I cleared my throat. “There was still frost on the windowsill.”

“That could have been from…”

“In the shape of a handprint.” Master James interrupted her again, “Plus there was a significant amount of magic condensed around the wound along with a lot of water.” He waited for us to piece it together, but I had no clue what that meant.

When neither of us answered him, he finished. “The Touched created a blade out of ice and used it to stab the doctor.” He shook his head, “The bad news is that they seem to be wanting to stay hidden because they must have left the blade inside the body for it to melt when Helru showed up.” He shook his head, “Since the Mayor was blocking the front door, it looked like the Touched decided to go out the window rather than take a chance that Helru had any guards with her.”

“Was this a hit or accident?” I was curious what he thought.

“I believe it was an accident. With Winey it looked like there had been some thought put into it. Likely, the Touched knew they were going to have to kill Winey to destroy his research and had already planned how to do it. With the Doctor, I’m not sure why she was killed. Perhaps she stumbled on something.” Master James shrugged, “But the wounds are almost identical, so I think it’s safe to say that we’re dealing with a Touched in the town.”

He waited for the weight of what he’d just said to sink in.

“But how are we not noticing a Touched in the city?” I was running through possibilities in my head.

He nodded at me, “We have one right there.”

“I didn’t kill them!” I held up my hands as my heart sped up, “I…”

“I know you didn’t do it, Byler.” Master James cut me off. “You were out of town with Val when Winey died and you were here last night.”

I slowly started to nod, but realized that he had probably done something to alert him if the house was breached.

“What are we going to do about the other Touched?” Val’s voice seemed to waver.

“It’s possible that Winey developed a serum that wasn’t so toxic to Touched and could be used as eye drops to mask their eyes.” Master James offered. “If that is the case, then this becomes an even worse situation.” He took a deep breath. “If I can’t wrap this up soon, then I’m going to have to call in a Hunting Party.”

Val and I looked at each other. When the Bokor came in with a Hunting Party, they weren’t gentle.They’d work their way through a town lockdown, house by house until they found what they were looking for.

“Why?” Val demanded, “You know the amount of collateral damage that could cause!”

“I don’t like it…” Master James took a deep breath, “But imagine the amount of damage that a Touched could cause if they could walk into any town unnoticed.” He shook his head, “We are lucky that they haven’t decided to infect their victims, but what are you going to do if they decide that just dropping bodies isn’t enough? That they are going to make a Zombie in the middle of town?”

He let the ramifications of what he’d described sink in.

“Which is why we have to find this Touched soon.” Master James shook his head, “Or I will have to bring in a Hunting Party to protect every other town.”