We wake the following morning and get our breakfast, I love being able to eat well cooked and flavored meats every day. I never ate so well back in my homeland, we had to conserve the meats.
[morgan] “hey, I think I just noticed something. How much do you need to eat in a day?”
“oh just a plate of this size at most, it’s better to get more than that but any adult warbug can survive on that much indefinitely… why do you ask?”
[morgan] “well I need to eat three plates of that size a day to be healthy, I might survive on one but I would be malnourished, weak.”
“yeah but your kind can eat all sorts of things, we can only eat specific plants to supplement our diets. Nuts, a few berries, a small selection of herbs”
[morgan] “so, wait you said adult warbugs. What do the children eat?”
“more berries and a few vegetables, plus those and other things are usually ground into a paste for them to feed on. Once fully grown our digestion handles less of the plants and more meats.”
[morgan] “what do you mean more of the meats?”
“more organs, livers, kidneys, int-”
[morgan] “stop! I got the picture… kinda wish I hadn’t asked now. Hey do you think caela gained her different colored eyes somehow?”
“how would that happen? I figured it was just an oddity of her birth, like humans having green eyes.”
[morgan] “I never heard of it happening, maybe some magic did it to her?”
“well i-”
There was a knock at the door. I put my illusion back on and morgan walks over opening the door. Standing in the door was one of the lizard kin, a green mottling on his smooth scales besides the underside which was brown. Clothed in leather and cloth armor with a medallion just like ours hanging down his neck.
[Kesev] “Kesev Hathrrith, I’m to accompany you two on your trip out of the city, unless you aren’t morgan.” looking at her.
[morgan] “I am, uh glad to have you along kes.”
[Kesev] “kesev, I’m to provide you some martial protection… just in case.”
[morgan] “alright well come in and take a seat I guess, we’re finishing up breakfast.”
“you know what we’re doing?”
[Kesev] “investigating orphanages, that’s all I need to know about it. You are late risers I see, up after the dawn.”
[morgan] “what do you get up before the dawn?”
he nods his head, not answering with his smooth voice.
In the hour we’re off, and getting teleported near the town of Gashial. It’s a wooden walled place, with timber construction, the roads paved with a clay brick making it a place of orange and brown colors. There isn’t the strong smell of sea life or seafood here, instead it’s the scent’s of cooked bread, vegetables and spices. Walking through the market area I was tempted to try some of the foods despite what it would do going through me, the scent’s of these people's cooking was something that left me noticing my hunger every time.
We arrived at the Bright Clearing Orphanage. Letters painted yellow over the double doors. In the main room was a large long table and to our right was a stairwell then beside the door was a desk where a red-haired, truly red-haired, tan skinned woman with one blue eye and one orange greeted us with a smile.
[Roulla] “welcome to the Bright Clearing ORPHANAGE! How can I help you fine folks?”
[morgan] “where are the kids?”
I noticed that lack of noise; it was too quiet.
[Roulla] “well first my name is Roulla what’s yours?”
[morgan] “we’re the hidden monarchs agents, where, are, the kids?”
[Roulla] “taking a supervised trip, now names please.”
“Mianshal, and this is morgan.”
[Roulla] “and scales over there?”
[morgan] “our bodyguard. We’d like to inspect your records and when the kids return talk with them.”
[Roulla] “of course, you’re the monarch's hands after all how could I refuse such wonderful people. If you can would you tell me why our little orphanage has attracted attention?”
[Morgan] “just making sure things are lining up on reports sent.”
Roulla frowns at that clearly disbelieving it. Then she shrugs and leads us to a back room where the paperwork is stored.
[Roulla] “you three enjoy, I should be getting the kids' meal ready for when they return.”
She walks off as morgan and I start going through the paperwork, notes being written down. About two hours in Kesev nudges us.
[Kesev] “do you two smell smoke?”
[morgan] “yeah, actually now that you mention it, open the door.”
kesev moves the handle and pushes… the door remains shut, he kicks and body slams it. The door stays shut.
[morgan] “damn we’re on the right track, but we need to get out. Anything you can do mian?”
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“yes I can bla-”
The cracks open as kesev breaks through, and soon he’s made a hole big enough for us to get out. As we go, I focus my energy to my eyes and see magic on the lock. There isn’t the talk about it as we rush to the nearest door, which is also locked. The kitchen is a roaring blaze as it looks like the flame got out of hand while unattended.
[Kesev] “we need to bust through-”
“no! We’ll get out through a window, that won’t be as tough.”
He nods and we run up the stairs checking the rooms until morgan shouts out. Kesev goes first running through it, as the wooden slats were only meant to keep the rain out when it wasn’t opened for the flow of air. I followed using my power to walk along the wall as morgan held on. Soon we were back on the paved streets as Roulla ran over to us.
[Roulla] “thank the gods you’re ok! Oohh it’s so horrible, and it’s this mans fault!”
Pointing at a man as she spoke. The man sputtered for a moment and just as he was about to respond.
[Roulla] “no! Don’t you dare blame this on me! I told you that this had to be done later! That I couldn’t spare the time right then and you grabbed me! Held me away from returning to the meal I was cooking for the children and now they won’t have a place to sleep you bastard!”
he glowered at her.
[morgan] “yeah that doesn’t explain you locking us in! What the hell was that about!?”
[Roulla] “w-what? N-no I never locked you… ohhh gods it’s the, the lock on that room has a habit of sticking. I’m so sorry! I never meant for any of this to happen, I locked the front since I was the only one at the orphanage and I had to deal with this asshole!”
[man] “I’m done with this!” he storms off.
A bucket line was forming as the people were reacting to the fire and doing their best to keep it contained.
[Roulla] “when the other caretakers come they’ll tell you that lock would always stick, made keeping records a real pain.”
[morgan] “fine, we’ll wait.”
hours later the orphanage was burnt down to the ground level, walls partially standing as the kids and their caretakers returned with tears streaming down their faces at the sight.
[morgan] “hey, I need you to answer some questions. I know it’s a bad day but answer me. Did your records room door have any issues?”
[caretaker] “y-yes it locked up and would be difficult to open a lot of the time, we’d talked about getting it fixed but it was always to low on our priorities.”
“so what will you do now with the kids?”
[Roulla] “I know some families in the jungles that could take them in temporarily.”
[morgan] “NO, they need to stay in town. By order of the hidden monarch if it needs to be.”
[Roulla] “well that’s an idea but enforcing laws isn’t a part of the hidden monarchs legal powers, so unless the guard captain agrees they are going to where they can have a roof over their heads.”
morgan leads us off and soon we’re chatting with the guard captain, I can see the magic working on him.
[guard captain] “no, the kids must have a roof over their head and I can’t force anyone to take them in, the barracks will not be used either!”
[morgan] “sir! This is for their safety! They kids here are in danger!”
[guard captain] “miss your notes are not proof and as you don’t have any proof of your claims, you need to leave! NOW!”
I grab her by the arm as I get up.
“there’s no point in staying here.”
[morgan] “what? We, look sir. Any kids that are harmed will be YOUR fault!”
I lead her out. Then out of the town as she fumes at me, asking why I didn’t support her, that we need to figure out who’s been snatching the kids.
“not here, outside of town.”
once outside of town I use my magic sight again to check things and once I’m sure it’s fine.
“Roulla is responsible I’m sure, we started digging, and she tried to take us out.”
[morgan] “as much as that fits it’s also not solid, her story checks out.”
“no, it doesn’t when the doors were all magically locked, the guard captain was magically compelled.”
[Kesev] “hence we went through the window.”
I nod in reply.
[morgan] “wh- then how did she time it with that man she was yelling at? Did you see if he had magical compulsion on him?”
“missed it as I had switched when I walked us down the wall. I should have done better on that.”
[morgan] “no it’s fine, we don’t know how powerful she is and she has the town in her control it seems. What now?”
[kesev] “...follow them.”
We look at him then each other and nod. We needed to get at the cause of all of this.