Julien unlocked the door to his mother's house, and let in his wife. He followed her inside, and then they looked at each other. From the smell wafting through the house, they could tell that Aurelie Blanchard was in the kitchen. As they made their way to the kitchen, they heard her call, "Ah, bon—vous etes ici!"
Entering the kitchen, they looked around at the dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, and the various pots and pans covering the walls. Looking at each other, Eiric nodded for Julien to speak first. "Ah, Maman, something smells...awful."
Aurelie looked up impatiently from where she was stirring a bubbling mixture over the stove. Her silver hair was gathered into a thick braid that ran down her back, and her normally warm brown eyes were all business. "It's the finding cantrip," she said shortly. She lifted a few strands of Adrienne's hair from a brush, and dropped them into the pot. "I'll need some blood."
Eiric picked up a dagger from the counter and pricked her finger, letting it drip into the pot. She took Julien's hand, kissed it, and then pricked his finger, squeezing until a few droplets fell to mingle with hers. She barely noticed as he slipped her fingertip into his mouth, quickly cleaning her small wound.
"Did you procure anything from her dorm room?" Aurelie inquired.
Eiric pulled a piece of chewed gum from her bag. "This is all that I could find—she had just done laundry before she left."
Julien sighed, "We should have kept an updated finding kit. Our blood, old hair, saliva from a piece of gum, do you think that it will be enough?"
Aurelie turned around, laying a weathered hand on both of their cheeks. Julien closed his eyes, and Eiric looked as if she were about to cry. "Ecoutez a moi, mes bebes. Notre Adrienne is fine. She is clever, she is resourceful, and we will find her, no question, eh?" They nodded hesitantly. "When was the last time that you slept?"
They looked at each other. "We slept some on the plane," Julien answered.
Aurelie nodded, as if confirming something. She sent a pulse through the palm against Eiric's cheek, and Julien had to catch his wife as she fell, unconscious. "Take her upstairs," Aurelie said, as she turned back to the stove. Both of you go to sleep, I'll finish here."
Julien swung his now-sleeping wife into his arms. "Merci, Maman. She hasn't really slept since she found out that Adrienne was missing. I'll take her back upstairs and then come back to help you."
Aurelie waved absently at him as she sprinkled a fine white powder into the noxious mess on the stove.
Julien carried his wife upstairs, and laid her gently on the bed. He removed her shoes, drew back the covers, picked her up again, and placed her against the warm, green flannel sheets. He drew the covers over her and turned around just in time to see his mother place her hand on his chest. Catching her son in her arms, she half carried, half dragged him to the other side of the bed, and plopped him in. Nodding to herself, she went back downstairs to finish her work.
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Eiric was the first to awaken the next morning. She gently shook Julien, who looked around confusedly, and then buried his face into the pillow, groaning.
"Your mother," she said.
"My mother, he agreed.
After showering and changing, they trotted downstairs, and filed silently into the kitchen. The pot on the stove was quiescent, and there was a large map laid on the sturdy pine kitchen table. Aurelie turned from the stove with two over-sized mugs brimming with hot chocolate. She put down the heavy mugs in front of them. They watched her as she picked up a white bag from the counter, and pulled out two fresh, fragrant croissants, laying them on saucers beside the mugs. She plopped down a jar of her homemade strawberry preserves and said imperiously, "Mangez-vous."
"Je n'ai faim--" Eiric started.
"You're of no use to her drained. Eat." Aurelie repeated imperiously. Eiric and Julien sighed like recalcitrant children, and then began to make quick work of their petit-dejeuner. When they had finished, Aurelie swept aside their dishes, and pulled a crystal from around a string on her neck. She dipped it into the pot on the stove, coating the crystal with the noxious potion. Shaking it a few times to remove any extraneous drops, she brought it over to the table. "Put your hands over mine," she ordered Eiric. Hands together, they swung the crystal slowly over the map, trying to scry for Adrienne's location. The crystal began to swing faster on its own. Excited, they moved it, trying to determine where it wanted to go. With a sudden, violent tug, it pulled itself out of their hands and smashed into the wall. "Well," Aurelie said tartly, "This is new."
Eiric and Julien looked at her in shock. "D'accord," she said, nodding decisively. "Next, we'll try to fire scry. Eiric, do you know how?"
Eiric shook her head. "None of our magic is procedural...it's all inherent," she said.
Aurelie tilted her head. "I'll show you how. Given the fact that you're her mother, and it's therefore also likely that her magic will manifest as fire-based, there's a higher chance that you'll find a connection to her."
"Okay," said Eiric. "What do I do?"
"Follow me," Aurelie said, leading them to the living room. Kneeling in front of the fireplace, she motioned Eiric down beside her. "Make a fire," she directed.
Eiric held up her hand in front of the logs, and heat waves began to shimmer in the air. A crackling noise began to build, and after several moments, the logs burst into cheerful flame.
"Now look into the flames," Aurelie instructed. "Clear your mind of all thoughts, save for those of Adrienne. Picture her in your mind. Think of the last time you saw her. What was she wearing? How long was her hair? How was it done? Was she wearing any makeup? Think of the sound of her voice, the cadence of her breath, the sound of her heart beat. Remember her scent, and the way she felt when you last held her. Experience everything about her as if she were actually here—you'll have to not merely picture her, but recreate a complete mental experience of her, down to the smallest detail. Once you have that simulacrum fixed in your mind, then you can begin to try to see her in the flames."
Several minutes passed. After a while, Eiric almost imperceptibly began to rock. A few more minutes passed. Julien made as if to say something, but his mother shook her head, motioning him into another room. "We can't break her concentration," she told him. "She has never done this before—it's not going to come easily to her."
"What can I do to help?" Julien asked.
"Adrienne went missing between her dorm, and here. You can go to her dorm to see if you can retrace her steps. Do you remember how?" she queried.
"Bien sur, maman," he murmured as he left for the campus.
When he arrived, he slowly made his way around the wooded perimeter that delineated the forest from the campus. He noticed a small footprint in the damp earth, and bent down to examine it. Holding a hand over it, he felt a slight tingle of familial recognition warm his palm. This was left by his daughter. Straightening, he looked ahead, and could almost imperceptibly sense her path. It was less an obvious guide, and more of a nudging unction in a certain direction, but he had been trained to follow that feeling when it manifested. Julien started into the woods, slowly orienting on the path that his daughter had taken.
*************************
Julien opened the door to his mother's home just in time to see his wife go flying across the room.
He could feel heat pouring off of her in waves as he hurried to her side, and when he moved to touch her face, he had to draw back to keep from being burned. "Eiric," he crooned soothingly. She looked at him, dazed, eyes incandescent with heat. He looked up to see his mother crouched on the other side of his wife, her face a study in surprise and worry. Recognizing her husband's voice, Eiric began to lower her defenses. Just in time, for her clothes had begun to singe and blacken in spots.
Cautiously, Julien reached out a hand to touch his wife's hair. Still hot, but bearable. He stroked it, feeling her temperature coming down under his gentle ministrations. He risked putting an arm around her. Barely tolerable, but it was obvious that she was pulling herself under control. Her eyes were slowly lightening from molten copper to their usual shining grey, her skin no longer the sullen ruddiness of heated metal.
"C'etait froid," she started, shivering at the memory "So cold. It was like a wall of ice just...slammed into me." She turned to him, grabbing his shirt front, her expression sharpening. "I saw our Adrienne! She was...cooking something, and then..." She groaned, held her head. "And then I was bitch-slapped with a bloody avalanche."
Julien gripped her tightly. "Elle a ete comment?"
Eiric shook her head wearily. "She looked happy. Healthy. She was in a wooden kitchen. The door opened, and then..." She shrugged.
Julien nodded. "And then 'Boom'!"
His wife nodded with him, "And then, 'Boom!'"
They didn't notice that Aurelie was gone until she suddenly reappeared next to Eiric with a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau. Eiric jumped. "Seriously, how do you do that?!" she said, incredulously. Aurelie shrugged.
Shaky with relief, both over the fact that his daughter was still alright, and that his wife was unharmed, Julien indulged in a slightly hysterical laugh. "That's her way, cherie." He took the glass of wine from his mother, and pressed it to his wife's lips, still stroking her hair. Eiric closed her eyes, and obediently drank. "There," he murmured, when she had finished the glass. He rubbed her back slowly, kissed her temple. "You did very well, mon amour; I'm very proud of you," he whispered in her ear. "Now, we know that Adrienne is unharmed."
He settled comfortably next to her. "You're going to be very proud of me, too. I went to her school, and was able to track part of her path through the forest. I was worried, because it appears as if she had been chased by wolves. Her trail ends near where a set of human male tracks begin. There are no signs of a struggle, but it does look like someone fell—probably Adrienne—because the male tracks lead away alone. It's obvious that he's carrying something substantial. Unfortunately, these tracks are impossible to follow."
