The hoofbeats faded into the distance as the rumble of wheels drew closer.
The girl jumped down from the carriage and gazed at the desolate ruins. The scenes she had once imagined and buried in her heart overlapped with the sight before her, and grief surged over her like a tide.
Seeing only Sovell before her, Artoria could not help asking anxiously:
"Where's Brother Kay?"
"He went to Saynor Manor. He'll be fine. He has one of the pearls I made."
When the worry on Artoria's face did not ease, Sovell changed the subject, extending a hand to her.
"Come up and take a look."
Artoria nodded and took his hand.
A moment later, Sovell leaped onto an abandoned house with Artoria. He tapped the stone slab beneath his feet, making sure it was solid enough before dispelling the weight-reducing magecraft on them both.
Looking at a roof beam broken in two, Sovell touched its blackened fracture and began to form a theory.
"These are traces of residual fire-aspected magical energy."
Sovell wandered through the ruins, listing several possibilities in his mind as he walked.
The first was that the settlement had been abandoned naturally.
He could now rule that out. The building materials had not decayed enough to support that explanation.
The second was that the village had been invaded.
That was quite likely. The residual fire-aspected magical energy on the broken beam supported it.
What he needed to determine next was who these "invaders" were.
The neighboring lords?
Impossible.
Sir Ector's rank was second only to that of the late king, Artoria's father. They would not have dared.
The Picts?
Also impossible.
Very few Picts could use magecraft or wield magical energy. Most of those who could lived deep within Scotland and rarely left.
A Demon Beast attack?