Truly Evil?

The fading light glinted off Ician's irises. He gazed at the Everfree Forest with a thoughtful expression on his face. He finally sighed, tore his gaze away, and moved to the first of the doors on the left.

The first door on the left opened easily enough, revealing a simple and small closet. Inside were the usual cleaning supplies of any common house keeper. A mop, a broom, a wash bucket, some bottles of cleaning supplies, and a couple of cobwebs on the upper shelf that held the bottles.

Dusk had kept with Ician as best as he could, knowing that going by himself in this place could be the end of him. He soon checked one of the other doors in the hallway, but not the final one in the hallway.

The second door, seemed to open into something of a study. A large writing desk sat with a single chair for it facing towards another set of window panels. The right wall was dominated by a large bookshelf, utterly filled with various books and nick-nacks while the other wall bore a large portrait style painting of what could be presumed to be Sin-Ester. Though in the painting, he appeared to be refined and holding an air of dignity, a far cry from the evil snarling grins the papers had given the stallion.

The papers on the desk seemed coated in writing, but upon closer inspection, it seemed to be nothing more than some tax and bank statements, the majority of which seemed to be large withdraws from various bank accounts belonging to several different ponies.

"Hey, I think I found his study. Maybe we can find something useful in here," Dusk said to Ician. He then entered the room and made his way to the desk. As he looked through the papers on the desk, he thought, How odd. Are these names aliases for him? If so, why would he withdraw so many bits and not keep the money in them for safe keeping?

Jon was lost, plain and simple.  He hated admitting it to himself, but he had no way to get to where he wanted.  There was far too much magic in the area to do his usual trick of 'showing up', at least without a pony to anchor to.  And since he had entered before anypony else, he had to walk.  He hated walking, his body wasn't built for physical exertion.  His legs were too small.  He kept a nose out for any new ponies, as any anchor would be better than none.  Suddenly realizing his mind had drifted, he looked around to try and figure out where he had ended up in his wanderings.  He sniffed the air as well, on the lookout for anything interesting.

Yes, after a series of turns, doors, hallways, and at least 2 flights of stairs, Jon was lost. And unfortunately, a fact that made itself very apparent very quickly was whatever magic was set into this house was also keeping him trapped inside. Jon method of 'appearing' would work inside the house, but leaving it was an entirely different matter that would be extremely difficult at the least.

Though after following a scent that was so saturated throughout the house with no success, Jon finally was able to pick up on the scent on somepony else. Two in fact, just past the door on his immediate right in the room he was in.

Ician enters the study as well, scrutinising the room. Thoughts run through his head, but he says nothing yet. He then moves to the bookshelf and starts pulling out the books and knick-knacks, his sword raised.

As Ician pulls the books and trinkets from the shelf, nothing happens other than the pieces tumbling to the floor. This creating a noise to go along with the new smells that Jon is able to pick up in this eerily quiet manor.

Ician only stopped when all the trinkets had been removed. He stared down at them in disappointment. "I'd thought there'd be a hidden lever or something. Ah well."

He moved over to the papers on the desk, reading the names and bank accounts of the ponies to see if they match up with any links with Sin Ester he'd read about in the military reports.

The reports hadn't made any mention of the ponies whose names were on these bank statements. Yet surprisingly enough, despite the rather sizable amount withdrawn form the bank accounts, according to these statements there would still be plenty left in the accounts, easily enough to keep a jobless pony afloat for a couple of weeks assuming they didn't get excessive or frivolous with the spending.

Suddenly though, a glint of movement from outside could be seen through the windows of the study. These said windows seemed to open into a garden of sorts within the twisting structure since the walls of the building were surrounding the small and well maintained section of greenery. A fountain dotted the center of the it, with stone path walkways that made a '+' before leading back into the house. Tall shrubbery obscured yet hinted at additional paths in the form of a maze, and it seemed that was where the glint of movement came from.

Ician noticed the movement. He slipped the reports off the table and kept them with him. He trotted over to the windows and opened them, peering outside to see if any more movement was immediately apparent.

((Assuming here that the window panels are the type that can be opened, if indeed window panels are meant to be opened.))

Dusk noticed Ician turned his attention to something outside. Figuring there wasn't much more to be found in this room, he left the desk and joined him.

Dusk and Ician would see no further movement from the outside, though even if they had, the windows for this room at least didn't open. They were simply large conduits to let in a significant amount of light, for the somewhat small room. If the two wanted to reach the garden, they'd need to head in a different direction.

Jon perked up at the new scent, and followed it quietly until he was behind the two at the window. He took a moment to ensure his sunglasses were completely covering his eyes. no need to give them too much of a fright, after all. Though it would be fun. He put on a smile, and cleared his throat. "So, are you two here to find Sin, or what? Also, please don't attack me."

Dusk's first reaction was to swing around with his sword raised, but when he saw it wasn't Sin Ester he lowered his weapon. It was relieving that he too was after Sin Ester, but his heart was still racing a bit from that.

"Please, don't sneak up on me like that again. Blast it all, this place is fraying my nerves already," Dusk said.

"Worst come to worst, we could always break the windows..." Ician muttered before he noticed Jon. "Oh... Hello." He eyed Jon suspiciously. "What's your name?"

Jon grinned.  "Thank you for not attacking.  Doctor Jonathan Kings, resident supernatural constr-"  A pause.  "No, wait.  Let me try again.  Doctor Jonathan Kings, local adventurer, at your service."  A bow, and a slight adjustment of the backpack he had slung over his shoulders.  "So, you're both looking for Sinny, right?"

"... Yes..." Ician looked him over. Note to self: check my back for knives periodically. "We haven't any leads yet, and we're not getting anywhere fast in this manor." He glanced out of the window, seeing how far a drop it was to the ground.

As the ponies conversed, the door leading into this room slammed shut but no locking sound was made. For several anxiety induced seconds nothing happened, eventually however the items from the book shelf that Ician had previously thrown to the floor began to glow, surrounded by a deep reddish glow. The items picked themselves up and began hovering in the air before moving back towards the bookshelf and resetting in their proper places. Once the last one found it's place, the glow dissipated, leaving no lingering traces.

The ground below the window appeared to be at least a story down, roughly a 10 foot drop to the garden.

Ician blinked. "Okay... that was strange." He moved over to the door that just slammed shut and tried to open it, testing to see if it was locked.

The door opened easily, and with as much resistance as well oiled and maintained hinges could manage. Though it was the sight beyond that would cause confusion. Instead of the hallways with doors on one side and windows on the other, the door now opened to what appeared to be a square stone walled room with a large furnace.

The old and heavy cast iron thing almost glowed with the heat it was producing, yet very little seemed to penetrate past it's surface. In fact, none of the suspected heat could even be felt at the doorway Ician was standing in just a few yards away. Past the furnace was another closed door, this one looking a far cry rougher than the smooth polished wood of the other doors previously seen. There were two more doors as well on the left and right walls, of the same condition and state as the one past the furnace.

A high shelf also almost completely outlined the room, and on it were various jars, baskets, and other containers. What was in these however for the moment would remain unknown due to the lighting and the not exactly see-through quality of the containers. A stack of wood and a simple table also took up some space in the room, but these seemed to be possibly the most normal things in the house so far.

Ician nodded. "I may not be good at much magic, but there's much to be said about my mastering the basics."

His horn glowed brightly, tentatively wrapping his telekinetic grip around as many containers as he could, testing to see if they were enchanted in any way that a normal unicorn could sense.

Jon followed Ician into the room of containers, and took a look around. he sniffed the air, trying to pick out the residue of any magic, or a hint of what might be in the jars.

Dusk quietly walked in, although he felt a little more comfortable with this room. It reminded him of his forge. He decided to take a closer look at that furnace. He knew he at least had some natural heat resistance, in case something like what happened in the first room happened again.