The blue thread stopped dead in the middle of the village.
It didn't thin, and she knew she didn't have to recast it for the rest of the day.
There was nothing more to follow.
She looked around.
A small open square spread out, in the middle of it a well, where some people sat nearby and one pulled some water in a bucket.
Sonder could smell baked bread.
Somewhere around here was something Sonder desired very much, but where?
The threads have proven to not be precise things.
Like they had led her to Aest's hut instead of Aest himself, and even then it wasn't exactly what she wanted.
This was about the same. Sonder felt like this was where she needed to be, but not much else.
Sonder rested on her staff for a brief moment and considered her options.
But standing still wouldn't bring any answers, and recasting the spell would most likely lead her nowhere, or in a circle.
So she did the simplest thing.
She approached one of the villagers.
He stood near the well, four hands busy at once drawing more water from the well, two tightening the cord of a bucket, the other two sorting through a small crate.
He noticed her approach almost immediately and turned to her with curiosity.
When Sonder looked at his face, she could see another detail of these elongated people.
They had four eyes. The upper set blinked when the lower ones were open and the other way around.
They reminded her of centipedes, not in a bad way, but that's just where her mind went.
Sonder inclined her head and then had to look up because the man was so much taller than her. "Excuse me."
"Yes?" He said, and though he was trying to have a neutral tone, a sort of unease seeped into it.
"I'm traveling," she said, which was true enough. "I was wondering if anything strange has happened here recently? Anything out of the ordinary?"
The villager paused in thought.
"Strange?" he repeated. "That depends on who you ask."
Sonder waited.
After a moment, he nodded to himself, as if he found the right answer. "If you're looking for strange things, you should speak to our mage."
"You have a mage?" she said, surprised.
"Yes. He knows about most things strange. If something unusual happened, he should know. "And," the villager added, looking at her with something like fond amusement, "he's also the strangest thing in our village."
"I see," she said. "Where can I find him?"
The villager pointed with one of their free hands down a street that curved away from the square. "Take the left, and you should find him at the end of the road. The house with too many wind chimes."
Too many, Sonder thought, and kept that thought in the back of her mind to see if that description fit.
"Thank you," she said.
He dipped his head in return and went back to his work as if nothing remarkable had happened.
Sonder turned in the direction he'd indicated.
Even if the thread had ended, perhaps it had done its job right this time.