The wind settled again, but Fayne didn't move. The faint glow from the tuft of fur slowly dimmed, leaving only silence and the soft hum of his barrier.
He crouched down, brushing two fingers over the ground. The mana residue was still warm — fresh.
"Whoever took you didn't do it long ago," he muttered.
He closed his eyes and whispered an incantation, "Auxiliary Magic: Trace — short pulse."
A soft wave of mana rippled outward from his hand, invisible but sharp. The barrier shimmered faintly as the pulse passed through it, extending into the forest. Fayne waited.
Seconds later, he felt it — a faint feedback through the mana field. Not far. South-east. The same distorted signature as before.
"You didn't even bother to hide your trail this time," Fayne said, almost whispering. His tone wasn't angry — just cold, analytical.
He stood, adjusted his grip on the spear, and began moving. His barrier shimmered behind him, then faded as he deactivated it with a small motion of his hand.
He didn't like leaving it off — but if someone was testing him, he needed freedom to respond.
The forest deepened around him. The further he went, the stranger the light became. Patches of blue flickered faintly between trees, as if the air itself was remembering what had happened there.
Each flicker pulsed with residual mana.
Each pulse felt… wrong.
Fayne stopped beside a fallen log, kneeling again.
"It's layered," he murmured, feeling the faint resonance in the air. "They're masking their signature with echoes. Clever."
He traced a small rune in the dirt with the tip of his spear. Mana gathered along the pattern, glowing faintly green.
"Auxiliary Magic: Filtering."
The world around him shifted — colors dulling, but the leftover mana trails came into sharp focus.
And there it was — a new imprint. Not just one. Two.
One small, fox-sized… and one much larger.
"So you weren't alone," he muttered, straightening.
The larger trace pulsed again, a low vibration rolling through the ground, like a deep breath from the earth itself. Fayne's hand tightened on his weapon.
Living. Watching.
He turned slowly, scanning the treeline. At first, there was nothing — then, to his left, movement. Subtle, deliberate.
Two glowing eyes blinked in the shadows.
They were not like the fox's — these were deep amber, steady and aware.
A shape shifted forward — tall, humanoid, cloaked in faint ripples of mana distortion.
"You're the one playing with the echoes," Fayne said quietly.
The figure didn't reply. It stopped a few meters away, the air around it bending slightly, as though reality was fighting to hold its form together.
Fayne's voice lowered.
"You attacked a harmless creature. Why?"
The figure tilted its head. Then, in a voice distorted by magic, came a reply — soft, layered, as if several tones spoke at once:
"Observation… adjustment… response."
Fayne frowned. "That's not an answer."
The figure raised a hand. The mana distortion around it surged, forming a visible pattern — like broken glass reflecting invisible light.
Fayne's instincts screamed. He threw his free hand forward.
"Auxiliary Magic: Shield!"
The world erupted.
A surge of blue-white energy slammed into the shield, sending waves of force through the clearing. Trees shook, leaves tore free, and dirt lifted in a swirling ring around him.
The shield held — barely. Cracks of light spiderwebbed across its surface before fading.
When the energy dissipated, the figure was gone. Only the echo of mana remained — faint, like laughter carried by the wind.
Fayne lowered his hand, breathing steadily.
"Observation, adjustment, response," he repeated quietly. "You're testing spells… and me."
He looked down at the faint glowing mark where the figure had stood — a rune burnt into the ground, shifting like liquid light.
"Fine," he said softly. "You want a test? You'll get one."
He pressed his palm to the rune, sealing its mana signature with a focused burst of Auxiliary magic. Then he turned toward the heart of the forest — where the mana distortion seemed to pulse like a heartbeat.
"Let's end your experiment before it begins."