Tuculcha watched the group head up the stairs, ‘They better not touch anything but the mirror.’ She thought as she turned and returned to her study. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she was really worried about her dear Amar. ‘What if that imbecile of a Drow gets caught and Amar ended up in Venger’s hands? No, I must not think like that. Amar will be returned safely to me.’The raven-haired sorceress sat down on her favorite high-backed, red-cushioned chair and opened the closest book. ‘I should set my little vision spell in place to see what they are up to’ she said as a shimmery image of the group climbing the stairs appeared. She looked down at the page that she had randomly opened in the book, “An alignment detection spell…hmmm…now that could be interesting. A Drow on the side of good can’t really be good, can he? And what of that mysterious fire mage? I still do not trust that woman to be what she claims.” She quickly read over the spell. “Yes. This will do nicely. Lets see how ‘good’ these ‘good-guys’ really are? I wonder if I can dig up something interesting that can be used against them the next time we meet? I wonder if they really do have the capacity to kill my Amar if I don’t comply with their orders?”
The next few minutes were spent in preparation for the spell. She gathered the necessary items and said the magical words. An eerie glow filled the entire fortress for a matter of seconds and then disappeared.
“I wonder if it worked?” The sorceress said, lifting a hand before her, wondering if she could see her own alignment as proof of the validity of the spell. A faint aura in a very deep shade of grey, nearly black, surrounded her hand. A dark smile creped over her face, “Yes, it works quite well indeed. Now to check on the others.”
She shifted her gaze over to the shimmery image of the adventures as they examined the doors at the top of the stairs. The image first shifted to the backpack, which was surrounded by a deep midnight black. “That is my dear Amar, evil to the bone, although I would think that somehow Venger would be even darker.”
The image shifted again to show the quiet Monk at the rear of the group. The shades around him shifted by the second, not revealing anything conclusive about him.
The image changed to focus on the young girl with the war hammer. The aura around the girl was pure white. “Only goodness in this one. How dull.”
Her gaze shifted to the Adventurer. His aura was mainly white with just a little bit of grey in the center. “A pretty good boy with maybe just a touch of not so good. He is the one who is the least enthusiastic about saying the Lorekeeper. I believe that he voted in favor of forgetting her and going after Gareth. Maybe that explains his not so perfect aura, he is not exactly sure that what he’s doing right now is the right thing. Then again, I could be wrong. He is not really much of a concern anyway.”
“Ahhh…” she said as the image shifted to the Fire Mage. She rubbed her eyes, trying to make sure that she wasn’t seeing things. The girl’s aura included every possible shade – white, black and everything in between. Tuculcha made a face, “The poor thing must be awfully confused to have such a mismatched aura. I wonder if I could tip the scale just a little for the side of darkness…no matter this could be of use to me. She’s not as true as the others, although she’s not inherently evil she’s not inherently good either. This might explain the odd feeling I have had about her…”
The image shifted to show the dark-haired Warrioress. Tuculcha frowned, “Nothing useful…” she mumbled as she regarded the woman’s primarily white, with just a touch of light grey, aura, “she is a lot like the Adventurer, too good for my uses.”
She smiled as the image fell upon the Drow Swordsman, “Now just the man I wanted to see. Unfortunately not as dark as I hoped, but not such a goodie-goodie either.” She regarded the primarily light grey aura, with dark grey fringes. “It is probably due to his dual nature. The light grey is Sterling and the dark grey is the Drow Commander. I am not sure if this is useful, but it does explain why his actions are more questionable than the others. I wonder if the ratio of darkness and light will shift over time?”
Finally the image turned to the Elven Mage and his familiar. The image around the mage was pure white. “He is goodie-goodie to the extreme; almost sickly so.” She was just about to write him off when she noticed something strange; the bothersome bunny had no aura whatsoever! “That is impossible! How can the rabbit have no aura?!?! Even I have an aura! The bunny must have some alignment, how can my spell not pick it up?!? The only way I see that happening is if it is protected by some stronger spell. That’s impossible! The mage does not seem to have kind of power and why would he protect the rabbit against my magic but not himself? There must be some other sort of magic about, but what? Who would shield that accursed rabbit from me? Why?”
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