At the sound of a clear child's voice, the newly awakened Mishaer appeared before them all. Her unruly red hair was still crowned by the gleaming Horn of Kor, and behind her trailed the little elf, yawning in an utterly undignified way.
Ever since a magical mishap, Bella had hated hearing anyone make remarks about her eyes or figure. This was far worse—practically pointing at her and mocking her to her face. The female mage flew into a rage and let out a shrill cry: "Ah ma da!" She made two gestures in quick succession toward the little girl. To everyone's astonishment, poor Bella screamed and went flying backward, then slumped against the stone wall like a heap of mud and slowly slid down.
Everyone stared in shock at the unfortunate female mage, with no idea what had happened—everyone except Aelf, behind Mishaer, and one other person: the female magistrate, Sunderland. Both watched the little girl's helmet greedily. The little elf knew only that it was an impressive magic item, but Sunderland had somehow recognized it. She murmured in disbelief, "The Horn of Kor? How can that be?"
Still stunned that the detestable female mage had suddenly gone flying, the little girl keenly sensed someone's ill intentions. She felt that familiar stare every day from the little elf. Mishaer clapped a hand over her head and quickly hid behind William (we'll use William from now on), then peeked out and made a face at Miss Sunderland. The magistrate's mouth twitched, and she nearly burst out laughing.
The female mage struggled to her feet and glared at the elf girl, Aelf, with murderous eyes. She assumed that the yawning elf had countered her spell and attacked her, never suspecting that anything was wrong with the little girl. When Bella had recovered enough to prepare another spell to "get back at" Aelf, Sunderland stepped in to stop her. "Miss Bella! Please don't use offensive spells here!"
The furious female mage stamped her feet several times, but eventually gave up on attacking the elf girl. She strode over to William, deeply displeased, and gritted her teeth. "William! I'm here to handle the rest of the Habel Family's deal with you!" She pointed at the eager Alos and asked, "That him? Some ignorant brat who got lucky! You, little squirt! Come with me! But I'll warn you: the world of magic isn't all fun and games! One careless mistake and you could lose your life, ha!" As she spoke, the angry mage gave the boy, who was noticeably half a head taller than her, a hard slap on the cheek, as if trying to make up for what had just happened.
William watched Alos, who was so excited he'd lost his head. Even as the female mage smacked him almost hard enough to slap him, he wore an utterly blissful expression. What a fool—he had only himself to blame! That kid was in for a rough journey. The little girl, however, was clearly immune to Bella's charms. From behind William, she protested indignantly, "Ugly lady, don't bully Alos!"
Bella bristled like a wild kitten whose fur had been ruffled. "Damn little squirt! Who are you calling ugly? I'll never let you off this time! Die! Ah na li!" But the magistrate stopped the [Lightning Bolt] she was about to unleash. Sunderland spoke coldly. "Daughter of Daelry! Are you ignoring Lady Stagrim's warning? Control yourself, Bella! She's only a child!" Privately, she thought, So it really is the Horn of Kor! It's completely unaffected by the permanent charm spell! No wonder the last [Suggestion] suddenly went out of control and even caught me in its effects! But I need to get that unlucky girl Bella out of here quickly, before someone from the Habel Family discovers where this treasure came from!
William also felt it would be unwise to fall out too badly with the Habel Family. After all, he still needed their help with Alos. He pressed the little girl's head back behind him and said politely to the gritting female mage, "I'm terribly sorry, Miss Bella! Mishaer is still a child. She may not understand the appeal of your charms! Since you're already here, let's finish our last bit of business. Alos! Go pack your things—we're leaving!" He gave Alos, who was still in a daze, a light kick. Startled, the boy rushed toward his bedroom, failing to see the doorway and crashing headfirst into the stone wall. The lump on his forehead brought him fully to his senses.
Alos set off again with the Habel caravan, but this time it was led by Bella Daelry Harpell. The magic bag on the heavy wagon was packed with metal rods, and the caravan—now nearly thirty strong, with more than twenty new guards from Longsaddle and the four who had recovered from their injuries—slowly rolled out through Mirabar's north gate. Cries of pain rang out from the caravan now and then. The female mage, driven nearly mad by the little girl, took out her pent-up rage on the boy instead. Poor little Alos! Hopefully, Bella's temper wouldn't drive him insane before he reached Longsaddle.
Gosa and the other mercenaries had received their pay and decided against traveling with the furious female mage. The elf girl also declined Gosa's invitation. She still coveted the helmet on the little girl's head, but William had just confiscated all the commission she'd earned. "My little gold coins! Dreadful William! Greedy bloodsucker!" Aelf watched in tears as the "hard-earned" money she'd made risking her life was instantly seized by the awful "bloodsucker" to cover their food expenses.
When William and the others returned to the stone house where they were temporarily staying, Sunderland's gaze never left Mishaer's fiery red curls. The magistrate had been so distracted during her dealings with the Habel Family that she hadn't even haggled over the price before hastily settling the account. Then she had hurried to get the female mage out of Mirabar as quickly as possible.
William remained wary of Sunderland. Their first meeting had been far too strange, and the woman's attitude had changed drastically from one moment to the next. As the saying went, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." The excuse that she'd mistaken him for a dragon was too absurd. William couldn't guess what was going through her mind.
Sunderland had felt like she was going mad these past few days, too. For someone as well-respected as she was, the events of the previous few days had left her mentally and physically exhausted. When she first met William, the leader of that bizarre caravan, the high-ranking lady had suddenly felt mischievous. She'd wanted to toy with the country bumpkin before her—but then disaster struck.
Sunderland's tried-and-true [Suggestion] suddenly went out of control. Struck by the Weave's backlash, she could only moan, "Oh—oh!" as William held her by the neck. The woman she'd bewitched tried, without realizing it, to use false information to secure benefits for Mirabar. But as the spell gradually weakened, the magistrate finally realized, to her embarrassment, that she'd made a colossal blunder.
At that point, Sunderland could only go along with the misunderstanding. After all, it had its advantages for Mirabar. For a reason she couldn't disclose, she'd assigned people to keep outsiders away from William, and deliberately introduced him to Singers Macluff, the abandoned blacksmith. But Bella's arrival had led her to a new discovery: the Horn of Kor.
The Horn of Kor was an ancient relic created by a powerful neutral being in ages past. No one understood its true purpose, not even its successive owners, who'd been unable to uncover all its functions. It was said to have vanished a thousand years ago, and most sages dismissed it as a baseless rumor. Sunderland had once read a few lines about it in an old elven journal. According to legend, anyone wearing the relic was immune to all mind-affecting spells. It could even distort and reflect any triggered magic within a certain radius around its wearer. That was why most sages believed the Horn of Kor was fictional: no one thought such a ridiculously powerful object could exist.
When Bella's [Forcewave] had strangely been distorted and reflected after she cast it at Mishaer, Sunderland immediately connected it to the Horn of Kor, remembering what had happened to her a few days earlier. This wasn't because the magistrate had a particularly vivid imagination. It was because, just a few days ago, she'd heard news of another artifact: Crenshinibon.
The elven journal recorded three artifacts of equal renown, each representing one of three extreme forces: law and good, absolute neutrality, and chaos and evil. Crenshinibon represented chaos and evil, while the artifact of absolute neutrality was the Horn of Kor.
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