Chapter 91 ： Searching the Mountain
The conversation about elves had loosened everyone up considerably. By the time the carriage rolled on, they'd shifted naturally to the matter at hand, and Evan asked Roslyn to walk him through how the bodies had been found. She did her best, but she wasn't a trained investigator, and this world's approach to crime scenes was still in its early stages — nothing close to what Earth had developed by the twenty-first century. Roslyn couldn't say much with certainty. She didn't even know when the victims had died.
The following day they reached Lincun Village in Wilson County, a small mountain settlement. The two bodies had been found on the hillside above the village and were being preserved in a water-element ice spell. Both had become desiccated husks, the faces locked in expressions of visible terror.
Evan examined them carefully. No wounds anywhere on the body. He checked the throats with particular attention — nothing. No bite marks, no punctures. That ruled out vampires and most dark creatures, which killed by draining blood through physical contact. Whatever had happened here had extracted the victims' vital essence without leaving a mark.
He turned to the two students. "No signs of blood extraction at the throat. The vital essence is simply gone. What does that suggest to you?"
Shel studied the bodies with a furrowed brow. "It's not consistent with vampires or similar creatures. Based on The Dark Magical Creature Compendium, the only magical being I know of that can do this is a Shadow Wraith."
"Carpenter?"
"I'm not certain," Carpenter said, "but Shadow Wraith victims die with expressions of contentment. These faces show fear. It doesn't fit."
"What is it, then?" Roslyn asked.
"You're all overlooking one type of creature," Evan said. "Something created by a death mage through transformation. Something that can do exactly this, with exactly this presentation."
Emma's eyes went wide. "A lich? There's a lich here?"
The group fell quiet. Liches were rare by definition — the Creationist Church hunted them, which meant any living lich was careful to stay invisible. But careful wasn't the same as nonexistent.
"That's my hypothesis, not a confirmed fact," Evan said. "Unfortunately the bodies have been sitting for days. The water-element preservation helps, but we can't determine time of death from this. Let's ask around."
He spoke with the local mages and residents. The fifth-tier water mage Thomson provided the key detail: both victims had been seen alive and well at nine in the morning. They were found in their current state by five in the afternoon.
With that window established, Evan went back to the cave where the bodies had been discovered — a small hollow in the hillside, well-concealed, poor ventilation. His nose caught something, even after several days. Barely anything, the thinnest trace, but the stillness of the cave had preserved it. He assembled an impression: a dark-clothed figure, hooded cloak, details unclear. The clothing told him little, but the sense of familiarity that came with the trace was harder to dismiss.
The only lich he personally knew was Boniface. Who had died by his hand twice. Who he had fully expected to eventually return.
Evan kept his expression neutral and continued searching. Near the back of the cave he found a footprint preserved where the soil was softer. He measured it against his hand. Roughly half a cubit — twenty-five or twenty-six centimeters. Foot length was generally one-seventh of total height. That put this person between five-foot-nine and five-foot-eleven.
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He straightened up. "Likely a lich. Height approximately three and a half to four cubits. Wearing a hooded cloak."
"How do you know the height?" Roslyn asked.
"This footprint is probably the lich's. Foot length to body height runs at roughly one to seven in most adults — barring physical abnormality."
"And how do you know that ratio?"
"Death mages spend time on dissection. You learn human proportions."
None of them pushed further on that. Emma asked about the cloak.
"That's a reasonable guess. Liches tend to look like what they are — skin over bone. Heavy concealment is practical."
That settled it for the group.
"Next step: find out whether anyone in the area saw this person," Evan said. "The concealment approach shouldn't change, so the description should hold."
They split up and canvassed the village. Two residents had in fact seen a figure in dark clothing moving toward the mountain. Evan filed that away with quiet satisfaction. This world had no tradition of forensic investigation, which meant even elementary deduction produced results.
The mountain covered several dozen li. The question now was whether the lich was still there. No further incidents had been reported, which meant either the lich had moved on or was staying concealed and feeding sparingly enough not to attract attention. Evan sent everyone out to check surrounding villages and towns for any similar cases or sightings, and to quietly confirm whether the mountain's exits had been watched.
Three days later they reconvened.
No one had seen a dark-cloaked figure leaving through any of the mountain's three accessible passes. No similar incidents elsewhere in the area.
"He's still in the mountain," Emma said.
Evan agreed. "Three exits. We split into three groups. Emma, Shel, and Carpenter — take the southern valley approach, roughly ten li out. No need to be quiet about it. Roslyn and Thomson, take the northwest pass. I'll take the direct route up the main trail. First group to find anything sends up a signal immediately."
"You're going alone?" Emma looked concerned. "At least take one of the students."
"I have the highest tier in the group. I'll be cautious. What worries me more is your group — you have two apprentices with you, and Roslyn and Thomson are a pair. Don't engage if you find it. Signals first. And Emma — distribute the remaining scrolls and items before we leave."
Emma pulled scrolls and equipment from her storage ring, including a bundle of short signal rockets — magical devices that required only a touch of magical energy to activate, shooting high enough to be seen fifty li away, trailing seven-colored light and a streak of white smoke, with a magical pulse that anyone sensitive could detect at range. Hard to miss, impossible to mistake.
Evan took a Flames Ascendant scroll — useful against undead, though limited — and three of the signal rockets.
"One more thing," he said, before they moved out. "If you find it, don't fight it. Use the scrolls. A lich is not something any of you should face directly."
"We know how to value our lives," Roslyn said, smiling. "And Thomson has been doing this longer than any of us."
Evan glanced at Carpenter, who was visibly eager, and exchanged a brief look with Emma. She caught it immediately. He felt marginally better after that.
His real reason for going alone was something he couldn't explain to the group. If this lich was Boniface — and the sense of recognition from the cave trace hadn't gone away — then Boniface had come here because of Evan, not the village. Meeting him with the group present meant explanations he couldn't give. Better to handle it quietly if it came to that.
He took the small eastern path alone, dense brush on both sides. Two spells running simultaneously: Wraith Eye, hovering a hundred-odd cubits up and giving him aerial coverage of the immediate area, and a wider Perception technique extending roughly a li in every direction, particularly sensitive to undead signatures. He used the Perception for broad sweeps and the Wraith Eye for closer examination whenever something registered.
He moved slowly, stopping often, checking the denser and darker sections of terrain.
Four hours passed. He found a few areas that warranted a second look and ruled them out each time. The mountain was thick with old growth, the valleys deep and shadowed. If the lich had any sense, there were dozens of places to disappear.
Then the sky lit up.
Seven-colored light bloomed overhead. A white smoke trail climbed straight up. The sharp shriek of the signal rocket echoed off the mountainside, and with it the distinctive pulse of magical energy.
Emma's group had found something.