Back to the story.  At the end of Blog#2, Mage Edward has just secured permission from Captain Gerald for Donovan to accompany the Royal Expeditionary Force on their mission to Farmdale.  Donovan is less than enthusiastic about the journey, but Edward insists.

Before departing, Edward decides to search the Royal Archives to see if there is any information in them about dragons.  With the help of Osmond, the elderly Archivist, they search the records for hours but find nothing.  As they were completing their search, Wizard Victor appears and asks if they have had any success.

Victor seems pleased when he hears that Edward found no mention of dragons in the old records, and tells him “I told you so.”  Edward is disappointed, but not discouraged.  There may be other records somewhere else.  After Edward leaves, Wizard Victor hides himself with a Concealment Shield, then kills Osmond after he locks up the Archives.  The old Librarian’s death will look like a heart attack.  He was very old after all.

Edward returns home and searches his family’s records, but finds nothing.  As a last resort, he searches his late wife’s family records, and surprisingly, finds a letter about an ancestor, Wizard Amanda, who “abandoned her duty to her newborn son, to go and tend to the injured and suffering dragons.”  The records also describe how, two centuries ago, the humans ended the ‘Dragon War.’

Apparently, the humans agreed to a Peace Treaty with the dragons.  The terms were simple:  The dragons agreed not to eat people; and the humans agreed to provide 20,000 head of cattle to the dragons every two years.  However, the humans gave the cattle slow-acting poison before providing them to the dragons, and when consumed, almost all of the dragons perished.

Armed with this new knowledge, Edward makes the final preparations for their journey.  Edward and Donovan meet Captain Gerald and the rest of the Royal Expeditionary Force in the palace courtyard at dawn on Midweek, and depart Kingston, headed for the city of Fairview,

Things begin to go sideways almost immediately after the Expeditionary Force’s departure.  Within an hour, Specialist Lance, the Second Company’s Assassin, reports that there is someone following the Force.  While they are only traveling at a horse’s walking pace, the man behind them is not closing the distance.

Captain Gerald orders Specialist Lance and Mage Edward to slip off to the side of the road, conceal themselves, and capture whoever is following them.  Lance has a blowgun that shoots tranquilizer darts, so he is confident in his ability to disable and capture the lone rider.

As the rider approaches, Edward determines that he is not alone.  There is a Concealed Sorcerer with the other rider.  Edward conjures a Wind spell to blow a dust cloud at the concealed magician, and Lance shoots him with the tranquilizer.  Edward seizes the other rider with a Tether spell before he can escape.

Unfortunately, it seems that the Sorcerer killed his accomplice and drank poison before he was rendered unconscious by Lance’s dart, and both he and the other rider are dead.  Edward speculates that the Sorcerer killed himself because he realized that if he were questioned after ingesting a Truth Serum, he would have betrayed his superior who ordered him to follow the Expeditionary Force.

This is a troubling development.  Who is trying to keep tabs on the Royal Expeditionary Force’s movements, and why?