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With the images that had been freshly imprinted in my mind, I wandered over to where they had opened the Gate. I made a mage-scan of the area and found the magical imprints there to be less than a day old, perhaps as little as a few hours. I called upon the Power of Earth, summoning a Gate that would follow this one to wherever it had exited. Silently, I chastised my kin. Never leave Power behind. It is as apparent as a papertrail in a clerk's office. The Power flowed along the fading magic trail, seeking where it was that the old Gate had opened. A Gate of my own flared open as the Power found the exit of the older gate, and hope surged in me. I stepped through, heedless of what could lie on the other side.I stepped out into a dark alley, the stink of refuse and unsavory liquids reaching my nose. I coughed and exited the alley, my eyes landing upon the city in which they had taken him.
Tybis.
I knew that if they found me, this would all be for nothing. I stood there, unwilling to step out and be discovered. I dropped my hand to my hip, and it brushed against Krolaun's cloak, that I had looped over my belt. The cloak. I brought it forth, but it was only sized for an elf, and would probably only work for one. However, it could be possible to convince it otherwise.
I drew again upon the Powers of Earth, feeling slightly dizzy from the overuse of the magic. I wound the Power around myself, making it seem to the magic of the cloak that I was an elf. It fluttered a bit, but by the wind or its own magic, I could not tell. It settled, however, and I threw it over my shoulders. I stepped out of the alley, praying that my idea had succeeded. I passed a shop window, and was pleased to notice that my reflection did not show upon the glass. I was invisible. I kept to the shadows anyway, stealing silently along the streets that led to the only prison in Tybis. The Dungeons of the Royal Palace.
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© 1999 E. Angeli Mansfield