Change of Merchandise(Levi)

[Ignotus Everto]

80th of Summer, 512AV "Shyke." Ignotus had been gone from Levi's camp for an hour. He always left for an hour to wander the city. He'd never improve if he didn't talk to people, after all. Camp was always exactly the same as he'd left. Every day. Why wasn't it exactly the same as when he'd left now? The doors of the cages were rent open, and a severed length of rope was on the trampled grass. Two pairs of human footprints led away from the broken bonds. Five feet from then was a shattered Kelvic collar. Both sets of footprints vanished then. One stopped at a particularly thick pair, then vanished completely. The tracks of a large feline simply picked up from the location of the collar and trailed off into the forest. "Shyyke!" They escaped. How did they escape? They were half-starved, wretched, scalded, bony, filthy little animals! They couldn't have just decided to just walk out! Someone helped them. Someone had to have helped them. Someone powerful. Very powerful. The only other explanation was that his absence had let them push and scrape and claw until their bonds broke, and he wasn't about to lay the blame on himself. He couldn't. If he blamed him, then Levi would blame him too... Levi! He was finished. He was the watchman. He didn't eat or sleep, so he was perfect for the job. Perfect! How could he screw it up? He was only gone for an hour! Who bends steel in an hour!? But that wouldn't be how he saw it, oh no. "They always blame the corpse. Always! Why? Six months of spotless community service, but you strangle one wench, and suddenly you're a corpse stealing villain! I really can't understand people any more!" Right. No time for bad memories. Back to the present. There was important work to do in the present. There was no way he could mask Luna and Crivus' escape... But he could mask the circumstances. Ignotus smiled to himself as he clasped his hands together and closed his eyes. Slowly, thin wisps of ethereal Res drifted from between his interlocked fingers and drifted dreamlike to the hem of his cloak. A small portion of the faintly glowing gas floated a few feet in front of him and coalesced into a small ball the size of an egg. He inhaled, an old habit that helped him concentrate, and reached out to the ball with both his arms. He let the air out of his lungs in a sharp burst, lighting the ball on fire, and whipped his arms down towards the Res-soaked fabric, the fire bolt following his motions and hurling itself at the ground. Ignotus wasn't much of a marksman. Still, it did the trick. The hem of his cloak burst into flame, and the wizard quickly set to work stamping it out. Hopefully, Levi would assume there was an attack. Hopefully.