[Admin: This is set at about the same time as the Sheriff's questioning of
Fillip.]

In answer to Brendan's question about teleporting Yals simply signaled the
mage to follow him. The red-haired man strolled a short ways down the
street, and around the corner - and the pair were walking in the depths of
the woods. A forest well-away from the re-settled farmlands, and so deep
that the morning's sunlight was but a green glow through the tree
branches. Nor did they have far to go before they entered a small clearing
and Yals pointed to an opened grave, and said, "Here is where Lucc found
her."

[Mage Brendan]

He followed in silence, deep in thought. Since he had come to Montfort
he had seen so much and yet learned so little. Beside him walked another
one of those unique powers.

He walked across the clearing slowly, tracing the tracks of everything
that had crossed it, fox tracks were scatter all over the place then the
marks of five walkers, one that walked with the heavy stride of the city
born, another with the light tread of a trained fighter. The third had a
unsteady gait as if intoxicated, another left only faint tracks, and the
last was a little small printer of a women that revealed a great deal of
grace.

He sensed the traces of a track covering magic but it was too late to
erase the spell and reinstate the track they covered. He tested the
grave next and affirmed this is where the young women had been buried.
His spells tracked out further, "She was buried by a male, but not
enough of his trace remains for me to say for sure the suspect was the
one that did it."

He brought out the vial that would trace the weapon, into it he dip a
small silver needle. With a few arcane words and gestures the needle
lifted and slowly started to float out across the forest, Brendan stayed
close behind feeding it enough magical energy to keep it on its track.
He glanced back to see if Yals was behind him.

[Yals]

Yals followed - but he seemed distracted. Finally he said, "'Ware where
you walk - there may be a chance he forgot to obscure his prints when he
went to throw the blade away."

[Mage Brendan]

He only nodded his head and pointed toward his feet. The mage no longer
touched the ground but walked above it. The needle continued on for
another sixty yards or so and then stopped it point dangling down toward
the ground. Brendan moved toward it examining the ground carefully.
There were signs of a footsteps and a hastily covered hole. With slow
movement he started his spell again and gathered the magic used to
disguise it. He placed the trace once more into a small glass vial and
then started to remove the soil from the hole. After a short time the
needle dropped into the hole indicating that the blade was near. Brendan
remove a small brush and a silk bag from a pouch at his side.

He used the brush to take away the last of the soil exposing the still
bloody blade. He took the silk bag and turned it inside out over his arm
then reach down and picked up the blade with the bag and then carefully
pulled it back down across the blade.

"That should do it. We can return to the Tower now."

[Yals]

Yals had been leaning against a tree - well away from the tracks; he held
so still that he seemed to nearly blend with the background.

When Brendan declared himself finished the red-haired man stepped into the
open, and gestured the mage over to where he stood.

"Those newly-discovered tracks have also been preserved," he told Brendan,
"For when there is need."

[Mage Brendan]

"I am not much use to such things. Where I was raised magic was an
accepted means of gathering proof of a crime. The evidence I have now
would be enough to gain a conviction. I am not so sure of that happening
here given the distrust that so many people in Montfort have for mages
and what they do."

He walked to Yals side, "It is a shame so many people here will never
accept the truth of what the Church was. Brain washing is a powerful
tool in the hands of those who have no scruples." He looked at Yals,
"Thank you for preserving the prints, I will return to take castings of
them to match against the boots he was wearing when he was bought in."

"Is there anything else I might have missed?"

[Yals]

Yals shook his head and said, "It can be hoped that enough magic will be
recognized that you can compare the traces of his essence - that are left
in the tracks. As well as the knife."

For a moment he looked about the silent glade, but whatever else he saw he
did not mention. If it wasn't for the fact that Montfort had need of this
trial - to prove that the mortal community was again functioning - he
would have easily left the murderer to the darkling hunter. And so Yals
saw no need to point out that traces of the pursuers would also be found
here; the knife fighter and the mage - by their aid - had earned the right
to keep their secrets. For now.

He gestured for Brendan to follow - and once again they had stepped from a
troubled glade to a quiet street in Montfort.