It had taken the better part of a week, but Zach finally had all the printouts of maps he could get. From one that detailed the entire mage school, including the floorplans of each of the rooms, to one that showed the whole continent. He’d even gotten one of the whole planet on a whim.

The ink method failed, so the next option was dowsing. It bordered on seer magic and wasn’t very precise. No instructor taught it, especially not to general track. Zach only learned it thanks to his mother’s old books from her family library. His great-something-uncle-or-something had been a seer. Or something like it.

With the door locked and the maps spread on the floor, Zach began. He placed the ring on a table in a corner of the room and then grabbed a teardrop pendent from his bag. The point of the teardrop pointed down and the wide end was connected to a chain specifically for this type of magic. He took a deep breath - in and out - and channeled his magic into the pendant. Using his wand he wrote in the air the same runes he’d used in the ritual: the soulmark and the twins.

Ancient runes didn’t have a mark specifically for a person’s ‘heart’. There was a mark for passion, a mark for love, a mark for the soul, a mark for life, a mark for thoughts, a mark for the mind, and many, many more. But there weren’t runes for physical things. No rune existed for ‘tree’ or ‘person’. A mage combined runes to give the impression of that object. Because of the imprecise nature of this magic, all rune magic was labeled ‘royal magic’ and locked away from the general population. They were taught spells instead, which gave magic specific intent and purpose.

Loose magic did what it willed.

The teardrop showed no reaction on the map of the dorm. No luck on the school grounds, as well. Zach felt his stomach leap when the pendant jumped on the map of the city, then realized his own hands caused the motion. Frustration built as he moved on to the province, and turned to anger as all of Leig disappointed. His heart wasn’t in his father’s lands.

The map of Dal - all of Dal - took up more space. Zach moved slower, taking care as he checked every inch. But the entire country showed the same result: his heart wasn’t anywhere he could reach.

Did he want to check the world? Really? If his heart was somewhere else it wasn’t possible for him to get it back. Realistically, Zach was the king’s nephew. Traveling outside the country would either invite war or turn him into a hostage.

“Maybe the runes are wrong?” he said aloud as he rubbed his temple.

Rune magic was personal. These runes represented ‘heart’ to him, but maybe they weren’t complete? The spell to remove his heart hadn’t been nearly so complicated!

Then again, royals used that spell every generation. All the complications had been hammered out hundreds of years ago. To the point where it really was a spell now and not just magic.

The ink proved his heart existed somewhere. Zach took the pendant to the world map because he needed to know.

He rubbed his temple as the magic lashed back, unwilling to show a location where his heart existed. With a growl Zach threw the pendant across the room and started ripping up the printouts.

Dowsing was a waste of an art anyway.