Rory accompanies Mage Canticle, a seer, across a hilly portion of Lamu, in search of a hedge wizard that has been reported as causing trouble in the area. They come across a village indicated on Canticle's map, but it has been razed to the ground. Rory attempts to search the area for survivors, but ends up tripping and landing on his nose while attempting to be stealthy. When he gets back, he finds that Canticle has cast a scrying ritual, showing events of the recent past. He observes as a young red-haired human girl commands a fire elemental in the form of a serpent, which razes a Lacinus village, after an exchange with the elders there. Rory and Canticle do not know the local tongue of the Lacinus, and thus are unable to make out precisely what has transpired. Wary of going on and encountering this mage unprepared, they decide to set up camp, and then seek out the Lacinus in the morning in hopes that they may have some information about this hedge wizard.