50. Clues.

The three of them reached William’s hut without any other incidence.

"First things first," said William turning to Julie. "If I may have your sword for a minute?"

He held out his hand.

Julie looked reluctant to hand her sword to him but finally put it in the outstretched palm.

William took it over to a table that was cluttered with beakers, vials and several things that Maria could not identify. She was not sure if she even wanted to know what they were anyway. William put the sword down on the table, after making room by pushing some of the clutter off to the side. This caused a few papers and small tools to fall off the end of the table, but that did not seem to bother William in the least.

He picked up a beaker that was filled with a blue liquid and dipped a brush into it. He liberally applied the liquid all over the sword.

"What are you doing?" cried Julie, looking like she wanted to jump the mage and take her sword back.

"Don’t worry," he said not seeming to realise the danger he was in. "The potion will not harm your sword and it will dry off quickly."

"Then why are you putting it on in the first place?" asked Maria.

"It will let me know if there are any hidden magical runes or objects in the sword," said William. "I suspect that there is something in this sword that was able to break the projections from whoever sent them. This potion should show me it. I hope."

They waited in silence for a time. Nothing was happening to the sword and Maria was about to say that maybe they should try something else when William cried out.

"There," he said. "See? There, on the pommel."

He pointed to the pommel of the sword.

The pommel was rather elaborate. Julie had taken it off a rich man’s yacht. It had been found in a locked trunk and Julie liked telling the story of how the man had practically begged her to not take it. She found it a good sword. Well made and weighted perfectly. She swore that it had saved her life a couple of times, when it did not break in a situation where any other sword would have broken.

The Pommel had several small diamonds and jewels embedded in it. As the three of them watched a small stone, that most people would not have noticed, began to glow with a slightly purple colour.

"See?" said William. "That little jewel is magical."

He put something against his eye and picked up the sword, examining the glowing jewel closely.

"Definitely magic," he mumbled. "Now to figure out what kind of magic."

He put the sword down and walked over to his stacks of books. he pulled one from the bottom of the pile, causing the others to topple over onto the floor.

"Let’s see here," he mumbled to himself. "Purple glow, purple glow, purple... Here it is!"

He read silently to himself for a bit and then, smiling, he slammed the book shut.

"I was right," he said, throwing the book back onto the table. "It is a spell to break psychic projections. Small but powerful. That’s why the creatures disappeared."

"So they were created by someone," said Maria. "Can you pinpoint where they may have originated?"

"Possible," said William.

He moved to a small map of the island on another table. He took over some powders and a small tool that had a flame constantly emitting from it. He put them all on the table with the map and began to mumble some words while every once in a while throwing some of the powders in the flame and around the map. After a while a glow could be seen on the map. William looked at the glow.

"That can’t be right." he said.

The two women moved to look at the map over the mage’s shoulder.

"Isn’t that Pauline’s place?" asked Julie.

"Yes," answered William. "That’s why I think something went wrong. She can’t have the type of power it would take to create those creatures."

"Especially not now," said Julie.

"Why?" asked Maria.

"She just had a baby and it did not go well," said Julie. "They almost lost both of them. Now she is resting in bed until the doctors say she can get up."

A bad feeling hit Maria in the pit of her stomach.

"Can she have visitors?" asked Maria.

"Yes," said William. "But you can’t seriously think she is behind this. She is just a washer woman. Not some trained psychic."

"Never the less," said Maria, "I need to talk to her. I have an idea but I need more information, and this is the only clue we have."

William nodded.

"Meet me in the morning and I will take you to her," he said. "As one of her physicians, I can get you in."

"Thank you," she said.

She left them to return to her hut, hoping her hunch was wrong.

The only problem was that so far they never were.