Chapter 4

"So where do we start looking for him?" asked Rory as he looked around at the crowd in the town square.

"I'm not sure. It's not like you can say 'Hey, has anyone seen any evil mages running around lately' and then have everyone know who you're talking about. He might even be from here or be terrorizing everyone into not talking," said Ariel as she looked around.

"I need to see if there is a mage and see if I can borrow his crystal. I would like to contact Galen and see if he knows about any powerful black mages on this side of the world," said Nathan.

"Lets all meet backup here in say four hours," said Ariel.

"What do we do about that," said Terrance as he slightly nodded at Kat.

As he said it as hurtful as he did again Kat looked at the ground again lost and hurt.

"She goes with me and..." started Ariel, but she was interrupted by a little girl.

"Momma, momma look it's the angel she came back!" said an excited little girl.

As the four of them looked at Kat the little girl, who couldn't have been more than four or five, ran up and threw herself at Kat. Kat caught her and picked her up and swung her around smiling as she rubbed her head.

"Katie have you been a good little girl? Have you been listening to your parents?" asked Kat smiling.

"Yes ma'am. Momma has been better since you found her and protected her from the wolves. Thank you for healing her. The town healer said that if you hadn't helped her she wouldn't have kept her leg or worse, but no one will tell me what worse is," said the small girl beaming.

Before Kat could even speak again a pleasant looking woman, with sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, and timid smile came up to them.

"Katie how many times have I told you to not throw yourselves at people? What if Miss Kathryn wasn't looking or prepared? She might not have caught you and you would have fallen to the ground," said Katie's mother

"But you said she was our Angel of Mercy, and, and, Angels are good, and they won't let us come to harm. You always tell me that," smiled Katie.

Smiling warmly Kat looked at Katie's mother and said "Don't worry Deidra I wouldn't let her come to harm. She's precious and needs to be protected at all cost,"

"What brings you to our town again? As you can see it's larger than it was last time. It's probably twice as big as before," smiled Deidra

"We're looking to see if there have been any mages that have located here recently?" asked Kat.

"You can ask around, but there was one that I know of who came a while back, but he left town in the middle of the night to do some experiment last season, but no one has seen him since. Some might know of others, but that's the only one that I personally know of," said Deidra.

As the two were talking, Katie was snuggling up in Kat's arms. Nathan, Ariel, Terrance, and Rory were shocked to see the exchange.

Knowing that Kat was a killer was bad enough, but to see various people from different towns treat her as a savior was too much. They were used to her hiding in the shadows and killing from there.

But these people not only knew her name, but she was conversing with them. And if the little girl was to be believed she was saving them.

Ariel was starting to think that she might have been right about letting Kat travel with them. Something about her seemed different than it had the last time she had seen her.

"Well, could we take my friend here to his house and show him? The rest want to ask around in town and I could visit with you and Katie for a bit," said Kat as she gestured around.

"Sure lets go," said Deidra as she reached for Katie, set her on the ground and started off.

Only Ariel and Nathan followed Kat and Deidra as they started off. Terrance and Rory stayed behind to question others.

"Well I'll be damned! What is going on here? Did you see that? What happened to her? How did she become so caring for others?" asked Rory as he watched them walk off.

"I'm not sure, but I'm not giving her a second chance to screw me over. I'm watching her like a hawk. I know she's just waiting for the right moment to kill us all," said Terrance in anger as he stalked off.

Both of them headed off to start questioning everyone they could about a black mage.

Deidra led the three of them to a small two bedroom home near the outskirts of town. Because of neglect the grass was almost waist high in the front yard and there was over growth on the walls.

Nathan approached the door and had to use his shoulder to force it open.

Inside was a sparsely furnished house, which would have been tidy, except for the spider webs and dust all around.

"Wow is he your man Kathryn? He's very strong. I always wondered who Elliot was," said Deidra as she gave Nathan an appraising look.

"No, he's mine and his name is Nathan," said Ariel with a mischievous smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry I meant no offense," said Deidra as she covered her mouth with her free hand that wasn't holding onto Katie.

"None taken," smiled Ariel at her warmly.

"So this is his home. What was his name?" asked Nathan.

"Nicolas. He was a green mage. He wanted to investigate the valley he said. He wasn't really sociable, so no one really knows any more than that," said Deidra.

As Nathan walked around the room he headed for a book case that seemed to have quite a few books on wolves. Taking one down he flipped through it, but nothing seemed to jump out at him.

"Hmm, is anyone staying here? Can we use this house for a few days?" asked Nathan.

"I doubt anyone would care, as you've seen no one wants to get to close to this house because it was once used by a mage. So it really shouldn't bother anyone," said Deidra with a smile.

"I know what you're thinking Nathan, and your right. We'll probably be here a few weeks so it makes sense to stay somewhere," said Ariel with a smile.

"And the Angel can stay with us again and we can visit. Yeaaaaaaaaaa!" said Katie as she ran up and grabbed on to Kat's legs again.

"Honey we don't know if she wants to do that," said Deidra as looked at Kat. "You know you are always welcome, but I don't want to pull you from your friends. Was one of the other men yours?"

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind. We're all just ... friends ... and I'm sure it will be ok if you don't mind having me. It might be a little tight here with us all," said Kat with a small smile.

"Yeaaaaaa, Yeaaaaa, she comes home with me. I get to show you my new baby brother. He's with my Nana right now, but you can see him," said Katie excitedly.

"Nathan, I'm going to go with Kathryn and visit around the city. Deidra is there a tavern or Inn we can meet up at?" asked Ariel.

"Yes the Pussy's Calling is a popular Tavern. It has a picture of a Cat with its hands to its mouth on the sign above the door. You can't miss it," said Deidra as she blushed at giving out the name.

"Ok honey, ask around and we'll meet you there in a few hours," said Ariel before she approached Nathan and gave him a chaste kiss and the three women and little girl headed for the door.

Watching his wife for longer than he needed to Nathan smiled as he realized he was suddenly really looking forward to their next night together. It had already been two nights. Tonight or tomorrow would probably be the next time they would do something.

Nathan had looked around the house and did some light cleaning.

As small as it was it didn't take more than a few hours at best to have it presentable. After opening some windows to air it out, the cleaning seemed to go pretty quick.

During his cleaning he located the communications crystal. Thankfully it wasn't too late and Galen was still up and so Nathan got to talk to him.

After catching Nathan up on his family and telling him how much his namesake grandson Aric was growing and that he was confirmed as a White mage since he was already five seasons old now, Galen's conversation with Nathan caused him to feel a little homesick.

It had been a season since he and his wife had been home and seen the family and it looked like it was time to start thinking about going back again.

With a few more hours to go before he was due to head to town, Nathan looked around and found a sling blade that he could use to cut down some of the wild growth in the yard.

It only took an hour but he was sweaty and looking for a way to clean up soon.

When Nathan returned to the front of the house, he saw a small boy standing in the yard looking at the door.

"Can I help you son?" asked Nathan.

"Sir I'm looking for the mage who lives here. Do you know where he is?" asked the boy as he looked at Nathan.