“It appears so.” Calmar said, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “Or it’s meant to. All of them are also unregistered.”
I blinked, and went through again, “How can you tell?”
“Because there aren’t any names, identification numbers, or even a basic class listed.” Calmar grumbled. “If they were registered, the records would have been pulled and we’d have someone to look at.”
“But… unregistered means no leads beyond someone who already owns slaves, which is at least half the nobility and almost all of the local farmers.” He leaned back hard enough I was actually worried he’d tip the chair, “Hell, with the current event, you could probably have swiped them from one of the dozens of abandoned properties outside of town.”
“Shit.” I said, setting the page down. I’d gone to copy it into a note, but Personal Library activated and offered to store a copy. “And what about Zaion and Elayne?”
“In jail, though I doubt that’ll last the night. If the guild isn’t making noise about this already, I’ll be starting in the monrning.” He looked at the half full liquor bottle on his desk in disgust, “Do you want the rest of that? I’m not thirsty, at the moment.”
I grabbed it slowly and pretended to check the label as I eyed him, “First time I’ve heard that. I didn’t think you were that close to any of them.”
Calmar threw his hands into the air, “I’m pissed off, okay?!” He rested on arm on the armrest of his chair and rested his head on his hand, rubbing at his eyes. “First thing I felt like I could actually help with and I blew it because the other person doesn’t give a fuck about the people he assigned to the job.”
I frowned and took a swig from the bottle before setting it on the desk. Bit of a burn on that one… I thought sitting on the edge of his desk closer to him. “Cal… you did what you could. I’m the one who should be pissed at themselves. Instead of being here, I was with Deacon playing with bugs.“
“You were out improving yourself, like usual.” He sighed. “Gods above and below, you’re likely already stronger than I am.”
“Cal…” I said, waiting for him to look up.
“All I do is write letters and handle ledgers at this point. I haven’t even attended any of the parties recently because of that trip. I’m a failure.” He sighed deeply, head firmly down and not looking up at me.
“Cal.” I said again.
He sighed deeply and leaned back, still not looking at me. “I don’t even know why your dad keeps me around. I’m not even that good at..”
I flicked the top of his head with my thumb and index finger. He yelped and held his hands on his head, looking up at me. “What was that for?!”
“Thank you.” I said, smiling at him. It probably wasn’t as genuine as it could have been, but I made sure the effort was made. “You did what you could, and Zaion and Elayne are still safe.”
He looked up at me and a bunch of emotions crossed over his face. Anger, likely from me hitting him or thinking I was pitying him. It was replaced by regret, then irritation rapidly before he finally settled on resigned. “You… wouldn’t bother lying about being upset with me…. Would you?”
“No, and if I had a better option I’d be out there doing something to find Paige.” I reached for the bottle but didn’t feel that would be wise. I was pretty sure if I didn’t have Regeneration my palm would be bleeding from my nails digging into it. “I’m upset at… everything.”
Calmar let out a self depreciating snort and reached over to grab the bottle, looking at it. “I want so badly to just… drown myself right now.” He looked at it longingly before setting it down again, “But I can’t bring myself to. Literally because of a trait. It’s fucking irritating.”
“Why not?” I asked, curious. “I’ve seen you drunk, though probably not at your worst. What makes right now so different?”
“Intent.” He said, grimmly. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
I thought about that for a moment, looking between him and the bottle. “Should I get Geraldine?”
“Gods, no.” He moaned, slumping in his chair. “She’ll insist on staying with me all night. Porter should be back soon. He went to check on how Elayne and Zaion are being treated.”
We were quiet for a while, and I opened the bottle again and took a long drink from it. I turned off Regeneration, not wanting sobriety right now. This whole city sucks.
“Where’s Deacon?” Cal asked after I’d been quiet for a while.
“No idea. Probably trying to find something to eat. Neither of us thought to bring much because of how close we were to the city.” I shrugged and pulled out my flask to fill it from the bottle. “Just dry bread and jerky.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Calmar shivered, “Better than some meals I’ve had, but not enjoyable.”
I set the now empty bottle down on the desk and put my flask into my Spatial Closet. “Neither of us could cook or I might have considered trying the meat off the big bug that came for us.”
“Big bug?” Calmar asked, sitting up, “How big?”
I smirked and stood up. I told him about the fight with the boss we’d somehow attracted and about the three adventurers we met. He asked questions about the fight, like if there was anything different I’d have done or if I’d heard of others like it appearing. I made sure to stick around till Porter got back and then wandered off to my own room for a shower and to get some sleep.
I had things to do in the morning.
The next morning started off with a short breakfast followed by a trip to the barracks. I had gotten in touch with Elias before heading to sleep and he’d informed me that things were in order, but there might be a discharge fee. Considering how long the process might have taken without his, or Calmar’s, assistance I wasn’t going to be too upset by a fee.
I went with Sam and Deacon, and rather than ride in the carriage, I sat on the seat with Sam. We had a short talk about what’s been going on, and he excitedly talked about his trip to the Flame Flower Fields when Calmar had gone up. About all the Flame Hounds and Fire Wolves were stopped by Porter and how he managed to collect enough materials to self fund his studies for the rest of the year if he needed to.
When he asked what I’d been up to, I got to tell him about the fights I’d been in and I was surprised when he asked more questions about Paige. He’d almost crashed the carriage when I mentioned sharing a bed with Deacon once, and looked incredibly annoyed when I said nothing happened. I didn’t get it, but I swore I could hear Deacon laughing from inside the carriage.
I had Sam park the carriage somewhere with a good view of the training grounds. Deacon and I got out and started towards the reception where we were told to sit and wait.
And wait.
And wait…
After about four hours, a guard finally escorted us to a plain room where Zaion and Elayne were cuffed to a table. They were both dressed in plain cotton shirts and pants, but otherwise seemed fine, beyond a bruised nose on Zaion and Elayne’s busted knuckles.
“How are you two doing?” I asked as soon as the guard left.
“PIssed off.” Elayne said, staring a metaphorical hole in the center of the table. “I couldn’t do anything, despite being ready for it.”
“It is rather frustrating.” Zaion added, calm but I could see a hint of anger in his placid expression. “Even right next to her, I could do nothing to stop her from being taken.”
“From the report I read, you did the best you could.” I said as I took a seat across from them. “Especially since we’d planned for trouble here, instead of enroute.”
“The gods laugh when mortals plan.” Zaion stated. We all sat in silence as that sunk in.
Another guard came in soon after, carrying a small box. He set it down on the table and opened it, revealing two silver collars as well as a sheet of paper. “There’s a few bits of paperwork to finish up, but you’ll be out in a minute.” He looked between me and Deacon and decided Deacon looked more authoritative. “We’ll just need some signatures and couple purple before we can transfer them to your care.”
I looked at the collars in disgust. “Do they need those?”
“The collars must remain on the prisoners until they have left the premises, at which point they are within the sole responsibility of those holding their debt.” The guard sounded off as he put the papers and a pen in front of Deacon, as if quoting from memory. “Rules are rules, sorry.”
I rolled my eyes and slipped three violet crystals from my Experience Bank underneatht he table. I held them out to the guard, “Will this work, or do I need to go break one of them down?”
He took the crystals and set them in the box. “We can have someone break them down. Do you want to wait, or have the remainder be sent to your home?”
“To my home, please.” I said and went over the release forms Deacon had already signed. I signed my name in a few spots and the guard collected the papers and put them in the box with the crystals.
The collars remained on the table, though.
“Do you know how they work, or will you need assistance?” He asked.
I grabbed one and held it up, looking at the intricate lines carved into the inner side of the collar. “Do you just… put them on the person?”
The guard frowned, “Yes, and provide a bit of mana or a PEC of sufficient value to restrain the person being collared.”
I got up and walked around the table. With a bit of disgust, I snapped the first one around Elayne’s neck, channeling a bit of mana into it. I felt a connection and saw an icon flash in corner of my vision. Looking to the guard, I ignored it and grabbed the second collar to put on Zaion. His took a lot more mana to put into it, and I got the impression that the hold was flimsy at best. Interesting…
“Alright, that should do it.” The guard said, “I’ll escort you out.”
I took the opportunity to check on the notification I’d gotten for both Elayne and Zaion.
Name: Elayne Keimer
Species: Humanoid
Build: Physical
Loyalty: #$@%!
Level: #%
Name: Zaion
Species: Humanoid
Build: Magical
Loyalty: *$)!!
Level: &#
What the fuck? I thought, unsure what I was seeing. I didn’t want to touch anything involving those options, but they didn’t seem… right. The gibberish text seemed obvious, but I hadn’t encountered something like that before, and this didn’t seem like the best place to ask.
Once outside, I collected Sam and I told him to head for the guild as I followed the others into the carriage. As soon as it started moving, I reached over and hand both collars off in moments. “Sorry that took so long.”
Elayne rubbed at her neck, “It’s fine… So what’s our next step?”
Deacon shrugged as I turned to look out the window. After a bit of thinking, I said, “I’m going to go find a criminal.”