The Snowman II

It was a very simple Locator Talisman.

One simple rune and a piece of inferior Talisman Paper—damaged or creased, it didn't matter. It needed no complicated Talisman Foot, Talisman Core, or other structures. A tiny bit of magic power was enough.

"What a lousy joke," the young scholarship student muttered, crushing the Locator Talisman in his hand into a ball.

A few sparks crackled in Zheng Qing's palm like air escaping.

A wisp of smoke had barely appeared before the snowstorm swept it away.

"A pretty common prank." Nicholas smiled reassuringly. "You're lucky they only stuck a Locator Talisman on you and had two perfectly ordinary snowmen chase you around... When it snowed the year before last, some bastard modified a 'Stinky Snowman.' The smell of the snowballs it threw... Ugh. It was horrific."

Zheng Qing grimaced and tried not to picture it.

"Do these snowmen have a talisman array on their noses?" He looked down and nudged a carrot by his foot—the nose that had fallen off one of the snowmen. "How did they find me through the Locator Talisman?"

"With another talisman, of course." Nicholas hurried a few steps forward, bent down, and dug through the snow left behind when the snowman had "died." Before long, he pulled out a stiff Talisman Board that felt like a thin piece of wood. He wiped off the remaining snow and handed it to the young scholarship student.

With his solid grounding in Talisman Studies, Zheng Qing had little trouble identifying what the talisman in his hand was made of.

Its yellowed color and stiff feel told him it was made from papyrus.

This writing material from Egypt was not an ideal surface for runes—in a sense, it suited only a range of ancient Egyptian magic. Economically, though, papyrus was much