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~~((National Corn on the Cob Day - page 10 of 10))~~
Lord Goffe had to press her. "Pauline."

She snapped back to herself. 'Ah. Give me one minute.' She reached out with her mind and surveyed the hole.

Her ability to monitor areas that she couldn't physically see was limited insofar as it required, at the very least, life to be present in said area. Technically, she could sense "souls" as they were often called, but only through process of elimination, because souls, minds, and auras all overlapped in various ways.

As far as she was aware, every mind had a soul attached to it, and every soul emanated a very weak aura. So while she couldn't exactly sense souls themselves, she didn't need to. Plants had their own distinct little auras, though it often required a bit of concentration to actually notice them.

But that hole down there, it seemed quite deep and quite devoid of life. So she kept going. Farther and farther.

The Beast's aura wasn't growing any weaker, which was a clue. If it were aboveground, then its aura would've surely diminished the deeper she went.

But that was also curious. If the Beast truly was underground, then the earth should've still been serving as a dampener against its aura, just in the opposite manner. So why was it still so strong up here, then? Was it just so powerful that the dampening didn't matter?

A worrying thought.

But the Beast must've also had some other route up to the surface. Given all the reports about its murderous activities, it wasn't sealed harmlessly away underground. Perhaps that other route was large enough that its aura could pour out over the rest of the forest, undiminished.

At length, she sensed it. A crowd of minds. Full of hostility. Clashing violently.

'I sense many beings down there,' she said.

"Okay," was all the Lord Goffe said.

But she could sense his aura flaring up again.