Draven Makai surveyed the Valerius mansion's facade as he adjusted his tunic. The building, imposing yet discreet, reflected the status of a branch noble family dedicated to the craft of magical artifacts. He sighed with annoyance. Of all the missions they could have assigned him, this one was particurly irritating.

  "To deal with a missing brat," he muttered under his breath as he ascended the marble steps toward the main entrance. "They could have sent any other novice for this."

  The door opened before he could knock, revealing a butler with a stiff expression who scrutinized him with barely concealed suspicion.

  "Mr. Makai, we were expecting you. I am Gervais, chief butler of the Valerius family. Please, follow me."

  Draven followed the man through hallways decorated with tapestries that narrated the family's history and dispy cases showcasing wands and staffs of exquisite craftsmanship. The butler led him to a salon where Lord and Lady Valerius awaited, both with faces etched with worry.

  "Investigator Makai," greeted Lord Valerius, rising to his feet. "We thank the Eldarion Academy for sending someone of your... reputation."

  Draven detected the slight hesitation. His fame preceded him, though not always in a favorable light.

  "It's a matter of mutual interest," he replied with a calcuted cold smile. "The disappearance of a potential student is always a priority for the Academy."

  The sudden cessation of the boy's magical signature had activated arms in circles that the Valerius family didn't even know existed.

  "Days have passed," Lady Valerius interjected, her voice trembling. "We hired mercenaries to search for him, but we haven't received any news."

  Draven nodded with false empathy as he extracted a small wooden case from his tunic. Upon opening it, he revealed a lock of red hair pced on bck velvet.

  "This is the hair they provided when Ryan was registered to attend Eldarion," he expined. "It should allow us to track him, but it has lost all of its magical signature."

  Lord Valerius frowned. "What does that mean?"

  "It's... unusual," responded Draven, choosing his words carefully. "Not even death would cause such an abrupt loss of magical signature. It normally fades gradually over hours."

  He didn't reveal that this phenomenon was precisely what had piqued the interest of his superiors. A child whose magical signature disappears instantly suggested something beyond the natural—something potentially useful to someone with the right knowledge.

  "Are you saying our nephew could be…?" Lady Valerius couldn't finish the sentence.

  "Not necessarily," Draven interrupted, observing the anguish on the woman's face. "There are other possibilities I need to investigate. I'll need access to his belongings and any information about his st days here."

  Three days ter, Draven was browsing ancient books in the family library when he heard commotion in the main courtyard. He approached the window and saw a group of people entering through the main gates. He recognized the mercenaries who had been sent to search for the boy, but they were not bringing Ryan with them. Instead, they were accompanied by a gaunt woman and a young girl.

  "Interesting," he muttered, closing the book with a sharp snap.

  When he descended to the main salon, the Valerius family was already interrogating the newcomers. The woman, who introduced herself as Evelyn Aldrich, was recounting between sobs how she and her daughter had been rescued by Ryan.

  "He saved us," Evelyn insisted. "He appeared out of nowhere and eliminated all the bandits."

  "A ten-year-old boy?" Lord Valerius asked, incredulous.

  Draven remained in the shadows, observing with growing interest.

  "He didn't seem like an ordinary child," Evelyn continued. "There was something… different about him. And he had 2 tiny golems that healed us."

  That caught Draven's attention. He stepped forward, interrupting the conversation.

  "Golems? Could you describe them?"

  Evelyn looked at him, surprised by his sudden intrusion. "They were small, the size of a thumb. Their bodies were green, wearing some kind of clothes, and they had instruments in their hands that I had never seen before. They healed our wounds and gave us something for… malnutrition… as they called it."

  "And did they move on their own? Or did Ryan control them directly?"

  "They seemed to have their own will," Evelyn replied, increasingly intimidated by the man before her. And it wasn't for nothing, as a certain energy began to emanate from the mage's body, generating a kind of invisible pressure around him.

  Draven maintained his neutral expression, but internally his mind was racing. In his years of investigation, he had never heard of golems so small and sophisticated. Animating magic required enormous amounts of energy, proportional to the level of autonomy of the construct. What this woman was describing was technically impossible for an adult mage, much less a child without training.

  "Where is Ryan now?" he asked, trying to keep his tone casual.

  "He said he wouldn't be coming back," the little girl interjected, speaking for the first time. "He said he had important things to do."

  Draven knelt down to the girl's level. "What things, little one?"

  The girl shook her head. "He just said he didn't want to go home."

  That night, while the others slept, Draven sent a coded message to his superiors. The situation had taken an unexpected turn. The boy was not only alive, but he apparently possessed abilities that challenged current understanding of magic. This made him a priority target. Even if he didn't believe in the story of some women kidnaped and malnourished, it would be worse to discard something that could have some logical expnation behind.

  The next morning, Draven formally requested an escort of guards from Lord Valerius.

  "I need to investigate Ryan's st known location," he expined. "And given that there are bandits in the area, I will require protection."

  Lord Valerius nodded, pleased by the investigator's apparent dedication. "Of course. I will assign you six of my best men."

  Draven smiled inwardly. Six witnesses who would eventually have to disappear. A minor complication.

  The bandit camp was a macabre spectacle. Decaying bodies y scattered across the clearing, many of them with small perforations that Draven examined with growing fascination.

  "I've never seen wounds like this," commented one of the guards, leaning over a corpse.

  "Stay back," Draven ordered. "There could be dangerous residual magic."

  It was a lie, of course. He detected not even the faintest trace of magic in the wounds. Any magical weapon would have left some kind of signature, however weak. These wounds seemed to have been caused by extremely small physical projectiles.

  Using a grimoire he extracted from his tunic, Draven began to mutter something under his breath as the pages of the book were automatically flipped until they stopped at a certain page, emitting a certain glow before disappearing.

  The air around him shimmered as luminous lines began to appear on the ground, revealing the footprints left by different people in recent days.

  "There," he pointed. "Those are the tracks of the rescue group and the Aldridges."

  But his attention focused on another set of footprints, smaller, that were leading away in the opposite direction. The strange thing was that these footprints would disappear and reappear several meters further on, as if the owner of the footprints was flying or floating in the air for a while.

  "And those must be Ryan's," he murmured. "Let's follow them."

  The trail led them deeper into the forest, where the dense vegetation barely allowed sunlight to penetrate. The intertwined branches formed a nearly impenetrable canopy, creating a perpetual twilight interrupted occasionally by rays of sunlight filtering through scattered clearings.

  After several hours of walking, Draven noticed that the guards were becoming increasingly restless.

  "I don't like this forest," one of them muttered. "It feels like we're being watched."

  Draven was about to respond when a youthful voice, but strangely serene, resonated around them, seeming to come from all directions at once.

  "Just when I thought I'd solve this without violence... Today doesn't seem to be my lucky day."

  The guards drew their swords, looking frantically in all directions. Draven remained motionless, a twisted smile forming on his lips.

  "Ryan Valerius, I assume," he said to the air. "I am Draven Makai, sent from the Eldarion Academy. I just want to talk."

  A ugh erupted in the air, so carefree and genuine that it seemed out of pce in the tense scene. It was as if someone had heard the most hirious joke in the world. The guards tensed even more, gripping their weapons nervously, but the voice seemed to ignore them completely.

  "It's the first time someone like "you" wants to talk to me," Ryan said with a nonchant tone.

  Draven frowned slightly. Someone like him? He supposed the young man was referring to his status as a mage, though there was something in the tone that didn't quite fit. As he processed this, he noticed that the tall grass around them was moving subtly, as if caressed by an imperceptible breeze. However, he was too focused on locating the source of that omnipresent voice to really pay attention to these small details.

  "Very well, I'll talk to you," continued Ryan with a carefree tone. "I haven't had a good ugh in a long time, so I'll allow it. Go ahead."

  The sheer audacity of those words was palpable. Draven used the moment to extend his magical perception, scanning the surroundings for any trace of arcane power that might belong to Ryan or those strange constructs he had heard about. He also looked for signs of the possible master the woman Aldritch had mentioned just before she left to continue her investigation.

  It didn't matter if he didn't believe the story the woman told him, a mage always considers all possibilities, and even more so if he dedicates himself to investigating all kinds of "special cases".

  Still, there was nothing. Not even the faintest trace of magic.

  Disconcerted, Draven changed his detection spell to look for vital signs. It was then that he caught it: a brilliant and intense light above them, perched between the intertwined branches that formed an impenetrable canopy.

  Draven opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His mind, trained and disciplined, simply couldn't process what he was perceiving. The young Ryan, that boy he was searching for, radiated vital energy like a sun the size of a human.

  SpoilerNakusyer

  [colpse]