Well, today has been productive in an unusual sort of way. Though what constitutes usual is probably different now than it was last week, so maybe I’m being hasty.
This morning started out with interviews of our newly acquired household members. I’m still not sure what we are going to do with them in the long term, but we have a short-term plan. Merlin and I are going to set up a household in a shadow near Flora’s earth. There the girls can be given a basic education and shown some options. Anyone who has interest in any particular career path will be found tutors. The rest can be trained as a guard force. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The people consist of 3 groups: the girls, the guards, and the cooks. There are 8 guards and 8 cooks and 48 girls. The guards were the mage’s bully men and some had mistreated the girls terribly. Merlin gave the girls sticks and let them have at the 3 worst of the bunch. The other 5 got to watch as an object lesson. Those will now be kept separate for their own protection.
Since the girls need a chance to adjust to the idea that they will have a hand in deciding their future as well as getting the education they will need to do any particular thing, we decided to set up a household. I don’t know much about shadow, so I let Merlin pick the place. He found a spot in southern France, in a shadow that moves quickly compared to Amber. It was fairly close to Flora’s though. In order to avoid unnecessary rudeness, we went to talk to her about it.
When we got there, she was drawing a pirate. Seems I have yet another family member. While most of them can be called colorful, this one is so in a literal sense. His name was Archimedes and he was even newer to the family than I was.
Flora was willing to have Merlin and I as neighbors, and would even spare some people to find a house for us, but she had a favor she needed in return. Her friend and long time secretary’s granddaughter had been kidnapped, and bits of the girl were being mailed back. In exchange for finding us a house, would Merlin and I find and rescue the girl? She’d even have Archimedes help us. Well, I’ll always choose to do something I’m good at rather than wander aimlessly. So off we went.
We got to the city where the girl had been going to school and were outfitted by Flora’s organization. We went to the girls apartment to talk to her roommate and look for clues. I did one of the new probability tricks that I’d learned so recently and got a trail. I followed the trail out to a grassy area. There were some strangely (magically) marked stones along the way. We made quite a parade, with me following the trail, Merlin following me, and Archi following Merlin. Good thing there was an audience to appreciate it. A crow had been following us. Archi picked up a rock and brought it down. It was a tough bird. It took another couple hits before he was able to knock it out and stuff it in his pocket. During that time, someone started shooting. What do you do when someone is shooting across a clear field at you? You charge them of course! You do if you’re a pirate anyway. The tactic worked though and we soon had a guy in a van. I called for the car to pick us up and unloaded anything that might have been significant from the van.
Once back at Flora’s place in town we questioned them. I found they were fairly easy to read and got out of them everything we wanted to know. Turns out they are a group of skinchangers. Flayed people who can assume the shape and identity of any skin they wear, including that of a crow. They were trying to do a power grab as some vampires had told them that Flora’s organization was vulnerable. He wasn’t real happy when I told him what a gullible patsy he was.
The girl and a couple other kids were being held in a building across town. They had some defenses that might have been good against normal people, but they didn’t slow us down much. Merlin Archi and I went in. Merlin stayed just outside to play havoc with the magical wards and provide the trump escape. I kept Archi and myself unnoticed as long as possible. After that it was just a matter of Archi killing skinchangers as we grabbed the kids. We trumped back to Flora’s headquarters where her secretary took over taking care of the kids.
That accomplished we should soon have the house for the girls. I think I may offer the remaining guards to Archi. That should keep them out of trouble, at least trouble of their own making.
