Inside the room, Finn casts a masking spell before turning to Sariah. He shares everything he’s gathered so far. Everything except Gerard’s history.

  “The news is spreading fast... I also spoke to Daisy while helping in the kitchen. What she said matches what Bren told you,” Sariah says.

  “Nothing new then… but did you notice what Bren was planting when we arrived?”

  “Planting? I thought he was just harrowing the soil,” she replies, puzzled.

  “He said the same thing. But I saw it. He was slipping something into the earth while he harrowed,” Finn says, his tone firm.

  Gerard chimes in, “He was adding fertiliser.”

  “I see. I thought it was seed, but fertiliser makes sense. You’re quite familiar with farming, Gerard.”

  Gerard lowers his gaze. “My wife came from a farming family.”

  A moment of silence lingers in the room.

  “Sir Gerard…” Sariah murmurs gently.

  “Let’s get ready to sleep,” he says, voice steady, never letting emotion distract him from the mission.

  One by one, they fall asleep, except the knights, who take turns keeping watch through the night.

  “Finn, wake up! Nyx is gone!”

  “Uhh…” Finn groans, blinking heavily until Sariah’s words register. He shoots upright from his sleeping bag. “What did you say?”

  Sariah is kneeling at his side. Gerard is already up, checking their gears.

  “Our bags are untouched. They only took Nyx,” he says.

  “How could that happen on your watch?” Finn asks, hair tousled from sleep but mind already razor-sharp.

  “Sleeping smoke,” Sariah answers. “Odourless, invisible… and only effective for about an hour. They must’ve released it through the door cracks. We inhaled it and blacked out.”

  “Classic trick. Still works, apparently,” Finn mutters, a wry smile forming.

  “Let’s follow their trail,” Gerard says.

  Before arriving at the village, Finn laid out a plan.

  “Let’s bait them,” he said, activating a masking spell. “I’ll play a wandering magician, not a very impressive one, travelling with my son, who is aspired to become a mage greater than his father.”

  He gestured to Nyx, then to the knights. “You two, a young married couple tagging along to visit friends in war-torn Mistwood.” With a sly wink at Sariah, he drew a flush to her cheeks. Too bad that Gerard didn’t notice.

  “That makes us an easy target,” Gerard nodded, convincingly.

  “Exactly. A weak magician, no strong ties. If someone takes the ‘son,’ the others won’t be able, or willing to retaliate.”

  Sariah frowned. “Wouldn’t that put Nyx at risk?”

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  Finn dismissed her concern with an easy smile. “He has a masked magic vault sewn into his clothes, he can protect himself if needed.” The words were a careful fabrication. Nyx does not need such tricks; his magic flows unbound. Finn had already instructed him to pretend, to hide his strength and only act if real danger struck.

  “Based on the reports, the cult acts in the dead of night. They likely use sleeping smoke to take children silently,” Finn deduced.

  “Sleeping smoke? How do you know?” Sariah asked.

  "It’s just a theory. But in the most recent case, adults who weren’t part of the affected family were found unconscious near the scene. That’s how it was first reported to the authorities, and more cases were uncovered later."

  “Could it have been something else?” she pressed.

  Finn pondered, stroking his chin. “Maybe. But this fits. No signs of struggle, no magic traces. Still… how did they get their hands on so much of it?”

  Sleeping smoke ingredients come from a rare rank-B predator. Tracking one is tough. Harvesting enough for multiple kidnappings? Even harder.

  “Let’s say we let them take Nyx,” Gerard said. “How do we follow them if we’re knocked out?” Its antidote is difficult to concoct and obtain, so they naturally ruled out this option.

  Finn pulled a pouch from his storage stone. “We sprinkle this powder onto Nyx’s clothes.”

  —

  Everything proceeds as planned. Finn expected they’d need a few nights, perhaps more, before the cult acted, but they seem impatient.

  He summons water, letting droplets fall onto the floor. As they land, hidden streaks of crimson emerge, painting a once-invisible path before his eyes.

  “Let’s move,” he says.

  He had ground Bloodroot Bloom into a fine powder. Once meant to flavour a meal, it now serves as his tracking tool.

  “How did you get the red powder to stay on Nyx to form a trail and not scatter?” Sariah asks, intrigued by the clarity of the path formed.

  Finn smiles. “Trade secret.”

  In reality, Nyx subtly summoned the wind to scatter powder from his pocket, a few grains at a time. Yet he cannot reveal that the sleeping smoke leaves him untouched, since he spent the night wide awake, lungs locked tight as the haze drifted in.

  They push through tall bushes, turning corners. The moon’s hidden behind clouds, so Sariah casts a dim flash to light their path. Finn continues sprinkling droplets to reveal the trail, as Gerard scans the shadows, alert to every sound.

  After twenty minutes, the red trail abruptly ends in the middle of the woods.

  “Where did they go?” Sariah whispers.

  “Let’s check for a mechanism,” Gerard suggests.

  They sift through tangled bushes, peer up at gnarled trunks, and even scan the canopy overhead. Still, the world offers nothing: no hidden doors, no shimmer of magic, not a single clue.

  “Did they vanish into thin air?” Sariah sighs, though she keeps her eyes peeled.

  An hour passes. Still nothing.

  “They must’ve used something we don’t qualify for,” Finn murmurs. “A condition...”

  He looks up. The moon. Crimson moon. And that prayer the heretic muttered in the prison: “Let ascendance bestow a bright path ahead of humanity…”

  The clouds had hidden the moon. That must be it.

  “Guys,” Finn whispers, “I think I’ve got it. We’re not seeing it because the moonlight is clouded.”

  “We’ll wait,” Gerard declares, his voice steady. Sariah nods, her eyes shining with trust in Finn’s intuition.

  Morale is low, but now they have a thread to hold onto. Waiting is better than chasing shadows.

  Half an hour later, moonlight breaks through the clouds.

  “What now?” Sariah asks.

  Finn scans the area. Nestled between the rocks, a faint wave pulses with a gentle, rhythmic glow.

  “Over there,” he points. “Gerard, be ready. Sariah, put up a barrier.”

  “I’ll guard the front,” Gerard says, already moving.

  Sariah forms a protective shield. Finn counts down.

  “Three… two… one.”

  He touches the wave and channels magic into it.

  It swirls rapidly. A dim red light pulses, and then a metal door that is embedded in stone appears.

  Sariah exhales. “So this is how they’ve stayed hidden…”

  Finn narrows his eyes. “The entrance appears only under moonlight. That means we’ll have to get the children out before the moon disappears.”

  His gut told him this.

  “Let’s move fast,” he says.

  The others nod, trusting his instinct.