She was actually there. They took bearings several times, from several different angles, and the magic tool pointed unerringly towards the rebuilt cabin.
For some reason, after they ascertained this, Rafael insisted on holding her tightly from behind.
"Perhaps we should wait for nightfall?" Rafael suggested close to her ear, his breath tickling the miniscule hairs there and sending a shiver down her spine. "To conceal our approach? And give you time to calm down?"
Calm? There was no need for Maria to calm down. She was perfectly calm in the midst of her rage and cold fury.
"Aaaand you have more black smoke around you now," Rafael sighed. "Maria, calm down. We can't have you go charging ahead cutting down everything in front of you. That's an easy way to get stabbed from behind by someone standing behind the door!"
It took an effort, but Maria forced herself to settle down, to try and lessen the amount of smoke her Dark Magic was emitting. "She's right there," she said quietly, staring up towards the darkness-shrouded cabin. "Right there."
"And you've just had lunch," Rafael said. "It's probably a bad idea to go fighting on a full stomach. Take a brief nap, get your energy back, let it out, in the meantime Larna and I will scout around, figure the most concealed way up, see how we can get in, maybe see if there's some sort of guard in place."
"We will?" Larna Smith said, surprised.
"Yes, we will," Rafael said, giving her a look that was along the lines of 'shut up and roll with it'. "Best to avoid any traps, don't you think?"
"I could do it by myself," Larna Smith said.
"You want to enter the lair of a powerful, unpredictable Dark Magic user without the company of someone who can give you advance warning if they're nearby, heal you if you get hurt, or get Dark Magic out of your mind?" Rafael asked her blandly.
"Hmm… yeah, we should probably go together," Larna Smith said.
Rafael nodded. "Miss Shelley, can you stay with Maria while she calms?" Rafael said. "We'll be back soon."
Miss Shelley glanced towards the distant cabin with a glare, but nodded curtly in agreement.
"Thank you," Rafael said. "We'll move when we get back, all right? Pleas Maria, just wait."
Maria grit her teeth. "Fine," she snarled. "But be quick."
Rafael nodded. Taking a moment to make sure the sword she'd given him was properly belted on, he and Larna headed out.
Maria watched the two of them walking towards the direction of the cabin, and she felt frustration as they refused to run. Why weren't they hurrying? Her mother could be suffering up there!
Miss Shelley sat next to her and hesitantly placed a hand on Maria's shoulder. "We'll save her," she said quietly. "We will."
Maria's fury grew cold, then tepid, then awkward, then finally sullen. You can only support incandescent rage without a target in front of you for so long before you start feeling silly, after all. As she watched the black smoke thinning around her body, Maria reflected that Rafael's skill with Dark Magic hadn't all relied on shear power. He had been an expert at getting people to feel the way he wanted so he could use his magic to take advantage of it.
She'd reached the stage where she was feeling mildly guilty and embarrassed for being so childish when she was supposed to be a grown adult and knight of the realm when Rafael and Larna Smith returned. The latter looked the same as ever, though her expression was for once serious and grim. The former was wet, had leaves in his hair, mud on his shoes and trouser legs, and was wincing slightly with every step, despite the eldritch light of magic emanating from his hand, which was rubbing his shapely, ravishable posterior.
"He fell," Larna Smith briefly smirked by way of explanation. "A bunch of times."
"I don't remember that path being so slippery when I was a kid," Rafael said, gingerly sitting down with a sigh of relief before moving his eldritchly glowing hand to his knee. "And I used to be able to jump over that part all the time!"
"Old age," Larna Smith said cheerfully. "It happens. Get a little more soul in you and you'll be able to jump like a kid again."
"I've HAD a soul in me. It wasn't pleasant," Rafael said.
Maria summoned eldritch light to her hand and placed it on Rafael's leg, and he gave her a grateful smile. Then a blink as she took the opportunity to stroke his thigh. Ah, that felt so pleasant and relaxing.
"What did you find?" Miss Shelley asked, seemingly ignoring the pre-ravish touching.
Rafael and Larna Smith exchanged grim looks. "It's bad. They're using Dark Magic to make ogres roam the area around the cabin. We had to be careful not to be seen or smelled. Good thing I was able to use my Wind Magic to confuse our scent trail, but they've been a little roused. It might be hard to find a way to sneak past them."
"No, it won't," Maria said. "I'll just use Dark Magic on them on the way in."
"Speaking as someone with more experience than you at that, it won't work," Rafael said. "We feel it when a sufficiently powerful or complex magic is disrupted. It's how I knew to run when Katarina woke up." He flinched as Miss Shelley suddenly directed a glare at him as Larna hurried got out of the way. "Um, which I'm sorry and apologized a lot for! But I think this level of influence is complex enough they'll feel you if you override or counter it."
"And if we simply killed them?" Maria said.
"Er, I have no direct experience with that, but it seems like the sort of thing they'd notice," Rafael said. "It'll be complete loss of control, after all."
Maria scowled and gave Rafael's thigh another stroke to calm herself. She could feel his leg twitching at the movement as she considered their words. "Is there a road up to the cabin? Perhaps for a carriage?"
Larna Smith nodded. "Though we avoided it because it was too open. The ogres can see the road though, and they're likely to attack anyone that comes up it."
"Further evidence the caretaker has been suborned," Maria said as she considered. "Is there room for the carriage to turn as it reaches the cabin?"
"I saw a circular driveway in front of the cabin on my binoculars," Larna Smith said. "Only at a distance though. When it was obvious we couldn't get close, we climbed a tree. The road also continues upwards."
"There's a picnic area near the peak, as well as a way down to the other side of the lake along the road," Rafael said. "though I can't be sure the road still goes there. That woman never liked the altitude… so of course I liked having us picnic there every chance I got."
Maria gave a decisive nod. "All right. This is what we're going to do…"
The carriage rolled easily on the road up to the cabin, even with only two horses to pull it. As they got farther and farther from Hinderstap, rising up the mountain, the horses whinnied nervously, but kept resolutely cantering up the road.
Eventually, the roar of an ogre echoed through the dark, gloomy undergrowth, followed by another and another. There was the sound of plants being trampled, wood broken underfoot and the occasional cry of distress as the mud couldn't support the enormous weight of the aberrant bipeds and caused them to slide, slip, fall and tumble downhill. Despite this, the ancient creations of the Scholar of the First Sin converged towards the carriage intruding upon their range. While they often slipped and fell comically, they nevertheless relentlessly pursued the carriage, coming from the woods on both sides of the road. Though their noses were filled with the scent of the creatures, the horses nevertheless continued on at an even, steady pace that allowed the ogres to keep them in sight.
Eventually, the sounds of the pursuers and the pursued faded away, leaving the woods peaceful and quiet once more, perfect for a pleasant walk had it been sunnier and less gloom.
"How exactly are you controlling those horses again?" Larna Smith asked as she, Maria, Rafael and Miss Shelley walked quickly and quietly through the now more tranquil woods. Despite most of the ogres being drawn away, they kept their guard up, for not all the ogres had been drawn by the bait. They could faintly glimpse, through the distance and trees, little flashes of slow, lumbering movement. Miss Shelley held the light crossbow in her hands, which was drawn and knocked. It was no Avelyn, but it had decent range, though for an ogre it was barely an annoyance.
Maria herself was carrying the fully loaded six-shot rifle prototype in her hands. "I'm not," Maria said absently. "I'm all the way over here." Really, didn't this woman know how horses worked? Or was this the beginnings of her madness rising again?
Larna Smith turned to Rafael. "She's using Dark Magic to control them right? Right?"
"Larna, keep your voice down before the other ogres hear us," Rafael said.
Larna Smith made a sound of strangled frustration.