Amy wandered aimlessly through the city, carrying her things along with her. It was rough dragging around so much luggage so one of the first things she did was find a storage centre, a place to store her things now that she was no longer staying at the inn. She could've remained there, continuing paying and living comfortably, but Amy believed this to be a better alternative. Not only was it kinder on her purse it also acted as a sort of deterrent for herself not to linger around longer than she intended. Whilst she was homeless, away from her family and her belongings, she must always act towards her goal, to finding this Archmage, and, if she even could, seek some sort of revenge for what he did. And if it turned out that this Mage was truly insurmountable, too powerful to even dream of contending with, then she would take Felin's advice and do what she had always wanted to; return home to her family.

Until then however, she'd stay like this.

Paying four bronze pieces, she rented out a small storage area at a local place, less than what she would have to pay if she stayed longer at the inn. There had always been the option of downgrading to a worse room, but it wouldn't be as effective as a discouragement than simply not having anywhere at all. Some might call it childish, and Amy admitted to herself that it most definitely was, but she'd rather sleep on the streets. The less she stayed in one place at a time, the less likely any Mages who might be onto her can catch her. The only things she didn't keep stashed away, keeping them with her in a briefcase, was the Wizard grimoire; her notebook; the robe; and the coffin. Those were all too important to leave unattended.

Her first stop in the investigation was the only place she knew of that was related to Beatrice in any significant way. Their meeting spot.

Unsurprisingly the place was trashed, seeming like a storm had run through it, searching every nook and cranny. Shrouding herself in a Cloak just to be sure, she began her deeper investigations, searching through anything left behind that was not taken or not even there in the first place. As expected, there was little to find except small baubles and trinkets that only meant something to Beatrice and her gang.

Despite the bad outcome, it was entirely anticipated. Amy had little doubt to the effectiveness of the association enforcers and they wouldn't have likely missed anything she could find herself. Rather, opening her FPG and scrolling through the Arcane Repository, she wanted to try out a new Spell.

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Tier 5 - Scry

Brief - Peer into distant vistas or bygone times.

MTR-Mana Cost - (Medium - Extreme)

Attunement Difficulty - Hard

Range ~ (Self - 1000m)

Description:

Conjure a Scrying Eye to view locations that the caster is familiar with, or search into the history of the Mana Ocean nearby.

Casting Details:

Elements - Pure, Space, Time

Elemental Affinity - 31%, -12%, 8%

Previously Cast - No

Spellform - VIEW

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As should be indicative by her affinities, Amy had no interest in the spatial applications of the Spell, instead looking to the temporal. Felin had done this for her back in Triesen, when he had looked into the history of the Mana Ocean to find out what had been happening in the village hall, although she suspected it wasn't entirely the same as this. For a mere Tier 3 Familiar to cast a Tier 5 Spell like this would have drained Amy's previous poor mana pool to dregs, eating into her innate mana as well. It was for that reason that she suspected it to be an ability of all Mages who reach a certain Tier, yet another Ascendant power or something similar that reaches through the Familiar projection.

Ordinarily she would've already cast this by now, having memorised the Spellform and using it in minutes. If only it would be that easy for her. Regretfully, this would be Amy's first Tier 5 Spell. A part of her rebelled at her first Tier 5 being something she didn't particularly hold any strong feelings for, preferring an upcasted Witch's Cloak or Monstrous Visage to take its place instead. Of course, dreams couldn't always become reality. Pragmatism won out in the end though as Amy would rather actually dedicate her time to something directly important to the investigation instead of anything else. So, she settled on Scry.

Gazing over the projected Spellform, Amy could pick out the parts of the patterns that linked to the respective areas of Space and Time and noted how they interlinked with each other, weaving in and out of their respective channels and sometimes crossing over in some sections too. This might be another Monstrous Visage situation, Amy appraised. A curtain of Pure to connect everything together with Time and Space dancing in and out of it accordingly. It is odd though that this is all one Spell. Just from reading the description you'd expect this to be two separate Spells, not the same. Looking at the Concepts however...

As if detecting her curiosity, her Mage Sight alighted with mana, deciphering the mysteries of the Spellform's instructions, with her enhanced brain handling the actual decryption of its meanings. The Scry Spell is all about reaching out to things otherwise inaccessible to the caster. These inaccessible places can be unreachable due to a multitude of factors, but they all come down to two core reasons. They cannot be reached by distance, or by time. This suggests one can use this Spell to peer into the future as well, but that may veer into the territory of Journeyman Spells. Viewing what has already happened is a lot easier than what will happen after all. If you... even can. I mean, if you can view what will happen, doesn't that imply the existence of Elemental Fate. Perhaps... spying into the future is impossible?

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No, that'd be unlikely. I've heard of things similar to that in stories and I've heard it too many times for it to not contain at least a nugget of truth. Maybe, rather than Scrying into a certain future, which would be Fate, you'd Scry into a possible future? Or maybe the most likely one? That'd be a mess.

Well, the Concepts in this at least don't deal with something as complex as that sounds. It's all about extending possibilities, by allowing the previously impossible, the unreachable, which explains the presence of Pure here as well beyond the demand of linking the other two Elements together. Trying to use the entire Spellform here would backfire for me, as my Space affinity is so poor that it'd jeopardise the entire Spell. I should focus on just the Time aspect, keeping Space in the background along with the Pure. That's probably the intended usage anyway, focusing on whichever Element is needed for the specific application of the Spell. Pure then has another use, to replace the support that the other Element provided now it is lacking in emphasis somewhat. Enough worrying though, I should get it over with and just cast the damn Spell.

Turning inwards, Amy's Magecraft expanded out in front of her mind's eye, the stage of the universe visible once more. For the first time in a while, she would not focus on the audience, or the rest of the setting itself, but return to something simpler, something she hadn't done properly in a long while. The dancer moved through the stage with grace beyond anything Amy could accomplish, their routine enchanting in its perfection and smoothness. At each moment in the dance, the dancer could turn another way, do one small part differently. And yet, each time, they chose the ordinary way. In that narrowing of possibility, the realities where the dancer did those things broke off, slinking away into Pure mana coalesced directly from the Ocean. Time came easily after that, as the dancer intensified their show, their movements growing faster and hotter, and yet never seemingly actually becoming so, reaching for a crescendo that could never come to pass. An endless march into eternity, the dancer forever moving, forever growing, and yet persisting. Finally, was Space; easier to visualise than Time and yet infinitely harder for Amy to attune to. The stage of the show itself was the Space that the dancer moved upon, except it was difficult to actually ascend that ordinary piece of her Magecraft into something the mana could grip onto. Only after what felt like hours of intense focus did something finally hitch in her Magecraft, and the attunement to Space began to flow. And all because of my negative affinity.

Opening her eyes, swarming around her mana pool was three distinct types, two far more prominent than the other. A background for the other two mana's to intertwine with, while also overwhelming the other, was the familiar white-blue tinge of Pure. That strange mana that was almost drowned out by the other was oddly colourless, seeming more representative of the Space it occupied, than anything in particular; as such, it seemed to constantly shift, swirling through a rainbow of colourless colours depending on where the mana was in its rotation. At last, above it all, was Time, a dark static of chaos, always shifting in flux and never returning to the same form it might've held in the past.

All that was left was the Spellcraft. Forming in front of her was the difficult shape of the Scry Spellform, seeming like an actual eye wrapped in strange script and sigils. If Amy glanced at it at the right angle, the eye seemed almost three-dimensional, peering at her intently. The sheer volume of mana she had to handle was tough, and not because it wasn't in her capability to either. Rather, she simply wasn't as used to it compared to Tier 4, the jump in Tier harsher than any of the over gaps before. And this would only increase in severity when Journeyman was reached, Tier 6 feeling like a large chasm. With the new strength of her mana pool, her innate mana more bountiful than ever, Amy quickly became used to the new demand in skill required for the Tier. It was still hard balancing the force she needed to handle the mana - both due to the amount of it and the difficulty of Space with her affinity - with the delicacy needed to thread it all through the Spellform, but before she knew it, it was done.

As the last thread of Time mana spun into the Spellform, her will impressing upon it with her desires, it completed itself in a flash of static. Emerging from that chaos, the Time aspects of the Spellform flaring up before disintegrating into fractals, a floating eyeball manifested. It wasn't human, by no means, seeming more like the abstract concept of an eye than actually looking like one. Nonetheless, the iris of that chaotic prismatic eye was unmistakably dull green, the shine of Amy's mana.

"Now, to control it," Amy spoke to nobody, brushing off her hands after carefully watching the deaspecting mana fractals in case the new Tier tripped her up.

When she had first searched the Spell up, Amy was somewhat surprised by the high Tier of the Spell. Amy thought it because of the higher Tier Concepts in the Spell when she first looked over the Spellform then, and was proven yet again wrong when she reached into the eye with her mana to control it. Ultimately, it was so high Tier due to the burden it placed on the caster. Gating the Spell at the Tier would act as both a barrier and an empowerment for the Spell, stopping weaker Apprentices from attempting it and strengthening the Spell's capabilities. For gaining an entirely new perspective on the world, supported as it may be by the Spell, was not for the weak of mind. Amy imagined it easier for one focusing on the Spatial uses of the Spell, but through the Temporal lens, it was disorienting to say the least.

Instinctively, Amy could feel the way she needed to thread mana through the construct to look further into the past, as right now it was only configured to a few seconds, simply due to the initial mana she sent in. The eye rotated around according to Amy's wishes as the mana cost increased the further she delved into the past, getting to the point where she was able to see her own entrance to the hideout. Of course, through the eye's sight, it was less a physical entrance and more a magical one, as the mana of the surrounding Ocean seemed to distort slightly, Amy barely able to spot the tinge of Unknowable through the distortion of the Scrying Eye's vision.

I think I need to be more careful with the Spell, Amy considered. The strain on the mana pool is growing so much I doubt I even can view the Ocean a few days ago now. There must be a better way of doing this then, to limit the mana cost. Perhaps, limiting my perception?

Directing her intent through the mana linking to the eye, she constricted the eye's perception to only a couple of things: the area in front of the door, and only the imprints that people left in the Ocean, not of Elements. Immediately, the eye's distortion lessened and the strain on her pool eased. It seemed the Scrying Eye needed to be tuned first before usage, though she imagined those practised with the Spell would be able to accomplish much greater things with it than her at the same mana cost. For now, she had to wield it like a blunt hammer, ignoring its other capabilities that she could only vaguely sense. She had learnt it off of her FPG after all, not instructed in it by another Mage.

Winding the magical dial further back, the hours went swiftly past, all turning into a blur in her mind. Until a disturbance flickered when Amy was looking two days into the past by her estimates. It was an imprint, faded and barely visible. With renewed vigour, she hastily scrolled even further back, ignoring the burgeoning strain on her pool, until she finally reached it. A group of Mage association enforcers were searching through the place, a few people hanging around by the door, waiting. It was strange, watching everything happen in reverse, the room seeming to come back together from the mess it was in, the Mages acting almost like cleaners rather than the source of the mess themselves. Only twenty minutes further back than that did Amy spot when they first entered, followed by two people who stuck out to her in particular.

They matched Beatrice's description.

If it wasn't for the distortion in the Mana Ocean by looking this far back, Amy could've tried to gauge their strength, to see if this was indeed an Archmage, or something else entirely. However, it was impossible. Even if the distortion didn't exist, Amy doubted that she could even do it anyway, some things probably only possible in the present and not through a Scrying. What did surprise her was the presence of another individual, who, at the very beginning of the raid, seemed to show the Mages around at first.

Someone who Amy found even more familiar than the Archmage. Harris.

"...So Beatrice was betrayed," Amy muttered, thinking back to the frightened expression on her face when she had broken into that cell, as if Beatrice was scared that Amy was an enemy; as if she had been sold out and didn't know who to suspect.

Staring dangerously at that face in the Scrying Eye, Amy knew the next person she must visit. For the first time, she had a proper lead. And Amy only had to figure out where he was.

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