------------- Bogsreach Exterminators Guild -------------
It didn't surprise Captain Sylde that not everyone was able to read and write. But to be thorough, he just took dictation for those who couldn't, though it took longer to write than it took to speak, and even longer to have people wait for him to finish writing what they said before they could pick back up from where they left off to continue.
The sun had since fallen, and though it was still visible, it was mostly the candle sitting on the table that let the man finish his writing. "Anything else to add?", he asked.
"What do you mean?", asked Pale.
"We left the dungeon, and did you have anything you wanted to say on the experience?"
"No, not really. Should I run the loot back to the Ministry?"
"No. Do it in the morning after you eat." The younger scout had drawn the short straw, but the risk of running him ragged wouldn't make him able to be on guard in normal rotation when his time came.
------------- Hillswatch Orphanage -------------
The middle-aged woman stood with her hands delicately folded, her puffy dress making any bodily features impossible to discern. She kept her head in a slightly bowed angle, and some of her hair failed to obey her ponytail, hiding a small but unique knife scar in between her left cheekbone and left ear. "Thank you so much, you don't know what this means to us", she said.
The priestess smiled. "It's not a problem at all. You have no idea how many children go wanting because of the loss of their parents due to the war. It pleases me greatly to see a couple as fine as yourselves that want to help those less fortunate."
"Of course", said the middle-aged man standing next to the puffy-dressed woman. "All exist to serve. Showing that to forgotten children is what we're all about. Is there anything else we need to do?"
The priestess lost her smile, but forced it to come back. "Um, no. These children don't come to us with much, and we do the best we can to provide what we can to make up for it. You don't get in trouble and obey your new parents now, won't you, Sesso?"
The little gelfling boy nodded. He looked nervous, but excited. These people were much better off than the Ministry's orphanage, that he could tell right away. Maybe he'd even get to eat three times a day and maybe it would be more than soup! "Yes, miss."
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The priestess kept her forced smile, but shifted her feet and weight slightly as she watched Seeso and his foster parents start to depart. There was a clatter behind her, and turning to look, one of the many other children had just found that the dyed cloth that covered the altar, when pulled, would bring the candles, that had been standing up and unlit, with it.
The woman with the scar and dress placed her hand ever so gently on Sesso's back, and the trio left the children's hall and made it across the short dirt road to their waiting wagon. The middle-aged man who really didn't stand out much, let down the wagon's back, making it possible for the kid to climb up and get into the back.
Inside and under the wagon's leather cover, were some old-looking dirty cloths covering what looked like large square or rectangular crates that didn't look entirely smooth. Some rocks sat on the edges of the cloths, keeping them from coming up in the breezes that blew through the wooden vehicle. Seeso turned around, and looked at his new mother. "Um", he started to ask. The woman with the unique and hidden knife scar wasn't smiling anymore, and had already started walking around the wagon to sit up front.
"Just sit down next to the wagon gate." The voice came from the boy's new father, who was locking the latch to the wagon so the gate would stay up and nothing would fall out no matter how much their ride bounced on the road. The gate up, the middle-aged man walked around and climbed up the wagon, grabbing a hold of the reins. A lash from him, and the animals started moving, pulling their charges with them.
"Fool!", the puffy-dressed woman growled, keeping her voice very low and stern. "You need to work on your acting. Where's our money coming from if they get onto us?" She didn't care about what other people thought of her as they traveled along the town's outer side road, but she still didn't like it when people stared at her when she was loud, no matter how blameless she was and they were. Screaming scripture at heathens was just so exhausting.
"Doesn't matter", the man grumbled. "We can still get them anyway. Just promise those idiot priestesses some resources and they'll stop complaining. Some of them will, at least. Other ones will be asleep. Doesn't matter."
"When you're right, you're right", the woman said. The wagon continued down the road.
------------- Plainsheart -------------
Melisande woke up with a start and a cold sweat. She found herself sitting up in bed, trying desperately to forget the dream she just had. It was just a dream. It didn't actually happen. Things like that only happen in nightmares. Only in nightmares. How could it be real? She didn't even know who her father was. Definitely not. Just a nightmare.
She was desperate, and looked around her small room. The decorations weren't fancy, not remotely, but she didn't want them to be. Not that she could afford it even if she did. She quickly found what she was looking for, and reached to the nightstand for it, but she mis-aimed and bumped her hand into the wood, bending a fingernail backwards.
"Ah!", she exclaimed as she started nursing her finger while using her other hand to pick up what had now fallen to the floor. Before more of it could spill out and between the floorboards, she downed the whole thing. She was just relieved that it wasn't the same weak sauce that the tavern had available.