Jonathan was getting the sense that he should investigate his options for recruiting help in town rather than summoning a demon. He didn't have a strict deadline the way he'd had with Abigail's problem, so he could take his time and ask around, maybe find someone who would be willing to help out in exchange for food and lodging. Heck, if Fowler and the kids were any indication, there was certainly a sizable chunk of destitute people in town, and given he could sense people's desires to a limited extent, he'd probably be able to find the good apples with a little practice.

"Duly noted," he said to Mr. Geiller. "I'll check in town for help before I go summoning a demon."

"See that you do," said Mr. Geiller. "I don't want clean up the mess you'd probably make. Now hold onto that leg while I loosen the attachments to the main array body."

----------------------------------------

Ethan and Chris were not back by the evening, and now that Abigail's array had been packed off by Mr. Geiller, Jonathan took the opportunity to move her into the same room as the other kids.

"I'll stay here in the room across the hall, just in case anyone needs me," he told the six children as they were getting into bed. "But Abigail's going to be sleeping here with the rest of you now."

Abigail seemed a bit conflicted about the whole idea, but Sandra, Bethany, Jamilah, and Yanni were all very excited to have her moving in with them, so Jonathan didn't think it was going to be a big deal.

And now he'd finally have a little privacy. Having someone in the room with him had been nice when he'd first arrived, but sometimes he wanted to stay up later than the kids and actually get something done, or just have some time with no one bugging him.

"Freedom at last!" he said when he finally fell into bed later that night.

Of course, Bethany woke him up by coming into the room and poking him in the side repeatedly before the sun was even up, so…so much for freedom.

----------------------------------------

"I'm sure Ethan will be here soon," Jonathan reassured Bethany for the umpteenth time that morning. "Do you want to walk with me to the main road and see if we can spot him? I'll bet he's on the way now."

"Yes!" she insisted and ran off to put her shoes on.

Might as well make it an outing, he supposed, and went to invite the other kids.

Sure enough, the prospect of a walk was a welcome one, and soon the whole gang was meandering down the road from the orphanage. When they finally emerged onto the main road, they took a break and started scanning what they could see of the road from their position up the side of the valley.

"There, isn't that Ethan?" said Kylus a couple minutes later.

"Where?" demanded Bethany.

"Right there, see where the road curves around that big rock?"

"I think you're right," said Sandra.

Jonathan peered down the road but couldn't really make out any individual people at this distance. "You must have really good eyesight, Kylus. Oh, I have an idea! Bethany, can you think about how much you want to be able to see Ethan for me?" He enlivened his magic, focused on Bethany's desire, and as the Infernal Abyss connected he pushed back to see whether he could manage his idea. Felt like it would be close to his maximum output, but not quite as much work as the flashlight, which was a little odd. In any case, he allowed the magic to flow and a moment later had a nice pair of binoculars in his hand.

"What's that, Jonathan?" asked Bethany.

"These are binoculars. Let me make sure they work."

He held them up and tracked along the road around where Kylus had been pointing. It took a few moments of fiddling, but he finally brought it into focus, and was pretty sure that Kylus was right; it looked like Ethan and Chris were trudging along the road, although it was still so far away he couldn't be completely certain. "Come here, Bethany. So you the way you use these is you adjust them here so that you can look through with both eyes, and then you can turn this dial here to bring things into focus. Binoculars allow you to see things that are far away."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Bethany took the binoculars awkwardly in hand—they were quite large for her—and looked through them curiously. After a few attempts, she finally found the portion of road where Ethan was walking along. "There's Ethan! You were right, Kylus!"

"I want to look, I want to look!" Yanni was practically vibrating as he eagerly awaited a turn with the binoculars.

The group spent the next twenty minutes or so loitering around near the main road with everyone taking turns using the binoculars to track Ethan and Chris' progress up the valley. Eventually, however, Jonathan convinced them to return to the orphanage to prepare for lunch.

----------------------------------------

When Ethan and Chris walked through the front door, Jonathan was waiting for them. They had ended up taking a little longer to arrive than he'd expected, so the rest of the kids had already eaten and were off running around the back yard.

Ethan and Chris both looked exhausted, and for some reason they were filthy; Chris in particular was absolutely covered in grime.

"Good grief, what happened to you two?" said Jonathan. "Chris, you need to go get changed immediately, and bring those clothes downstairs so I can wash them. Actually, Ethan, you do the same; once you're both changed, come on into the dining room so I can conjure lunch for you."

"Thanks, Jonathan," said Ethan. "We had a bit of trouble. I shouldn't have gone."

"Get yourself changed, we'll get some food in you, and then I definitely need to hear about it," said Jonathan firmly.

Once the boys were in clean clothes—their dirty outfits bundled distastefully by Jonathan into a corner of the kitchen awaiting washing—and food on the table in front of them, Jonathan was ready to interrogate them.

"Alright, now, what happened while you were in Eldridge?"

Unsurprisingly, Ethan was the one who answered. "I wanted to get in touch with some of my friends, let them know that we were doing alright and didn't need rescuing. We got into town just fine, but then one of the runners for the Petty Baron recognized me."

"Petty Baron? Who on earth is that?"

"He's—I don't know how to describe him. He runs a lot of the grifts and illegal trades in town, right up there with Fairbanks and the Rose."

Jonathan frowned. "So he's a crime lord."

Ethan wiggled his hand. "Somewhat? I mean, he likes to style himself as a lord, but he doesn't really have a court. Just a lot of street toughs."

"So what does this Petty Baron want with you?"

"Well, he's the reason I was looking after this group of kids."

"How so?"

"Bethany's not around is she?"

"No, she's in the back yard with the other kids right now."

Ethan sighed. "Good. I don't like to talk about this stuff around her. Our parents were in debt to the Petty Baron. They ran a restaurant, but during the wars they had to borrow some money, and business never really picked up enough to allow them to pay it back, I guess. Anyway, when they died, the Petty Baron told us we needed to work it off. A bunch of his men came and basically kidnapped Bethany…it doesn't really matter. The short story is that I eventually got away with Bethany, Kylus, and Sandra. We picked up Chris from Fairbanks' people when we were squatting in their territory, and then Yanni and Jamilah fell in with us later. Anyway, the Petty Baron never really left us alone. We had to move a bunch of times when they tracked us back to our hideout."

"Why would this Baron character put so much effort into you?"

Ethan grimaced. "I'm—I don't want to talk about that. I think he mostly was after Kylus and Sandra, actually. I'm pretty sure Bethany and I getting away was just—an insult to his pride or something."

Jonathan drummed his fingers on the table. He really wanted to press Ethan for more details, but this was also the first time the boy had opened up to him at all. Ugh, this was hard. "I want to respect your privacy, Ethan, but is there anything you're not telling me that would endanger me or the other children here?"

Ethan shook his head frantically. "No, nothing like that! I just—I really don't like thinking about that part of my life. Ugh, don't look at me like that! I'm an instinctive caster, okay? And in a way that was useful for the Petty Baron, but I don't—I couldn't—"

Jonathan waved a hand. "It's okay, Ethan. I trust you. Can you tell me what an instinctive caster is, though?"

Surprisingly, it was Chris who answered. "Instinctive casters can't do normal magic, except they can cast one spell really, really well. Or really often. Depends on the person."

"Oh, thanks, Chris." So Ethan had some sort of specialized magical skill that was potentially useful for crime, and had made an enemy of one of the people running the city's underbelly. That was just wonderful. "Is this Baron person a threat to us?"

"No," said Ethan, evidently relieved to be off the topic of instinctive casting. "It was a little touch and go there, but with Chris' help, I think we got away clean. Besides, I doubt he'd come all the way out here. But, uh, none of us should probably go into town for a while. Maybe a long while. I was surprised how fast the Baron's people found us."

Jonathan frowned. "Do you think that includes me? Is there any way this Baron person might know that I'm associated with you?"

"Not so far as I know."

That was a relief, at least.