Allerick and Mavi made their way to their own designated location, the area outside the village. It was a small cluster of houses where it was used for guests whenever people outside of the village came; some sort of a guesthouse, to be exact. They were lined neatly on both sides of the stoned path. There were eight in total and every building looked exactly the same. They were dark, of course, since no one had been in the village for a while.
Allerick and Mavi made their way into the front yard of one of the houses. With Allerick in the lead and Mavi lit the way with a smaller crystal, they made their way in the darkness in silence and stepped into the front yard.
The front yard was small. There were also not many things, plants, in the yard. Only a small tree sapling on one corner. The cobblestone leading to the front door was still neatly lined and both of them stepped on them and walked towards the front door. Allerick, with his sword drawn, carefully tried the door. It was unlocked, unsurprisingly.
The inside of the house was very dark, even with the crystal illuminating it. It was the kind of darkness that was abnormal. The kind that swallowed up the light. Mavi shuddered as he stepped inside. His body felt cold all over and his heart was beating so fast. He hadn't felt this kind of fear in a long time. He couldn't help but to reach out and grabbed the corner of Allerick's clothes.
"What happened? What is it?" sensing Mavi's anxiety, Allerick hurriedly held him and asked.
"They fucking put on a restricting magic," Mavi spat out in disgust and annoyance. Allerick wasn't startled hearing his lover spouting profanities. But he was slightly surprised by how much disgust he heard in Mavi's words.
"Dark magic," Allerick stated without needing Mavi to elaborate further. Dark magic had a certain effect on Mavi since he was born out of magic. He never felt well when coming into contact with dark magic and those black masters. "Will you be okay?" Allerick asked again with more concern.
"I'll be fine. These are all only traces. But it envelops the entire house," Mavi said as he looked around the room. "Did a magic user live here during the whole ordeal?" he said almost to himself.
The entire house, not only was it completely enveloped in restricting magic, but it also reeked of dark magic. Even if it had been a while since any kind of magic was used here, the traces were still very apparent which showed that whoever used those kinds of magic were very powerful, both the dark magic and the earth magic. The traces were fighting each other, trying to eliminate each other. It was a headache for Mavi who was especially sensitive to magic.
"What have you perceived?" Allerick asked again as he rummaged through the living room, trying to find even the smallest clues.
"The trace of dark magic is fainter, unlike the earth magic. Either the one casting the earth magic was more powerful, or it was casted more recently," Mavi started explaining as he strolled towards the open kitchen. "Other than the restriction magic, I also felt some defensive magic, but not offensive magic, though," he said almost in wonder.
"Is that all?" Allerick asked again when Mavi went silent for a while. He was done checking the living room which was attached to the kitchen, and he turned around to see Mavi was standing in front of the sink, lost in thought as he was holding a kitchen knife.
"The magic… weren't hostile…" Mavi said, almost dumbfounded. He turned to Allerick with questions all over his face. Mavi's expression was so cute but Allerick also heard some unrest in his voice. Therefore, he pushed down his instinct to kiss the other man and instead asked him.
"What do you mean not hostile?" Allerick asked, approaching Mavi and took away the knife the other man was holding absentmindedly.
"There were defensive and offensive magic, sure and they did clash with each other, both the dark and earth magic. But there was no hostility. There were no traces of it and no traces of killing intent," Mavi said, shaking his head.
Allerick was silent for a while. He thought about all of the possibilities as to what it meant. It could be that both forces were just trying to test or sound each other out. It could also mean that hostility was never the plan since the beginning. It could also mean that whoever killed the villagers were not targeting earth magic users. It could also mean that one of the villagers was an earth magic user. Or was a citizen of Kalas.
"Or it could also mean that the two forces were working together and they just had a little altercation," Allerick concluded the thoughts he relayed to Mavi.
"How is that possible?" Mavi looked positively horrified by the thought that a magic user was working with a black master.
"We can't rule it out," Allerick said with a heavy voice and a heavy heart. He also didn't want to believe his own conjecture. But for now, it wasn't something that should be dismissed. "Let's check the second floor," Allerick said with a gentler voice and held out his hand for Mavi to take.
Mavi, still feeling unsettled, grabbed Allerick's hand tightly and followed the older man to the second floor.
Unlike the first floor, the second floor had more rooms. There were three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and one utility room, as well as one living room which connected to the balcony. It was as dark as the first floor but less suffocating. Mavi could finally breathe a little easier this time as he scoured every nook and cranny for clues.
"There are no personal belongings even in the closets," Allerick came out of the last room he checked and joined Mavi on the balcony. The warlock had his eyes closed as he tried to perceive the traces of magic. But unlike on the first floor, he couldn't find anything on the second floor.
"There are no traces of magic here," he told Allerick.
It was indeed a little stretch to be searching the house. If it weren't for the traces of magic, Mavi and Allerick wouldn't even bother entering since this house was only used as a guesthouse and seldom empty.
"There are three other guesthouses, should we check them all?" Mavi asked Allerick as they made their way downstairs.
"Do you perceive any magic front hose houses?" Allerick asked back.
"No," Mavi shook his head, "I sent some threads towards those houses earlier on the balcony. There were no traces of magic and I also felt no presence of humans," Mavi told him. His worry was growing. The scouts had been gone for a while and they didn't know how those people fare.
Allerick then took out the map again. Calculating the time and the number of people he had on his team overall, Allerick decided to visit the orchard first. It was the place where the first victim was before he fell ill. Maybe there was something there.