rgv

  child trafficking, mistreatment and dehumanization of prisoners, sves, awkward conversations with people that you probably shouldn't be having

  [colpse]

  Aside: Sir Stuart's Quest 2It'd been a few weeks since Stuart asked Lady Biyu to track down where the carts had gone. She'd initially spent days away from the city, only coming to inform him that she was still working on it. Then, Lady Anya had disappeared, and their investigation stalled.

  Stuart considered going to the Treasure Hunters to make other arrangements, but in the end decided against it. He did go to the Treasure Hunters, but only to take out a bounty for Anya's recovery. Everyone else had been too distraught to think of it. Nothing had come of it, for which he was honestly sorry. He had even gone looking with Sir Leon a few times, but the squalid settlement outside the city was full of too many unfriendly people and pces to hide.

  After a week of searching, Lady Biyu was forced to admit her search was fruitless. She redoubled her efforts to track the carts to distract herself. In a way, he was gd to have helped her indirectly. Soon after, she reported that she'd found what they were looking for.

  Now Stuart and Lady Biyu were traveling to a pce that Lady Biyu identified as the destination of the cart. The silence as they traveled was oppressive. He felt compelled to break it with a question he didn't want to ask.

  "How are you doing?" he asked.

  "It is… rough. I have known her a while now, and she has been near me for most of it. I did not…" She gnced at Stuart. "Our retionship was still developing. Still, I miss her. I think about her smiling face in pain and… she never deserved that."

  "She did not. Her Vices, as often as she indulged them, did little harm and never outweighed the good she did. She truly did believe in her Guilds tenets. If nothing else, I respected her for that." He winced after the words left his mouth, thinking it might be better not to praise the Guild that had betrayed Anya.

  Thankfully, or perhaps not, Lady Biyu's was only glum as he praised her missing wife.

  Or maybe her reprisal was asking, "Do you have someone?"

  "No. Listening to the old Knights grouse about their wives, it always seemed more trouble than it was worth."

  "It must be worth it, or else they would divorce." She looked at Stuart for a while, as though weighing if she wanted to say what she was thinking. He gave her time. "I would marry just to not be alone. It felt unfair, when she wanted things I could not give."

  "Marriage is not the only way to have people in your life," he replied. "Besides, there is time enough for that ter. I will live a long time. As you will. I suppose it is your rush that I find hard to understand."

  "Happenstance," she admitted. "Anya came to me for protection, because she thought I could. Iris, as you well know, was a lucky accident." She frowned. "Well, no. A bright spot in her misfortune." She shook her head, moving on. "I have made mistakes. I find myself wondering if it is worth it. When Iris consoled me, and when I think of Anya found and welcomed home and the relief she will show, I think it must be."

  "Are you urging me to romance someone?" he asked, losing her point.

  "I think it is a blind spot you have. That you should at least dally, to see if your worries are justified. You cannot be as ill-suited as I am."

  He stopped, staring at her back as she continued walking on. It was ludicrous for her, of all people, to have this conversation, now, with him. And yet, also bizarrely appropriate. Trotting to catch up, he answered her the only way he could think of. "I have not found anyone I am attracted too."

  "You have. You do not admit it to yourself."

  Again, she surprised him. "Who?" he challenged, certain she was wrong.

  "Chattel," Lady Biyu said.

  He had to keep himself from stopping again. "I admire her skill. That's it!"

  "That is enough to start. Carnal desire is not the only thing we can love in others. Do you know what I miss most now that Anya is gone?"

  "What?"

  "She knew who she was, and loved herself for it. I was always a little jealous of that." She looked him in the eyes. "There will be rules. The first is, she must choose a name. Rejoice, for she is not eager to pick one. I suggest you spend time with her now, to see if her skills are all you like."

  Lady Biyu suddenly stopped, a hand up to stop him as well, and looked around verifying where they were. She turned off the road, heading into the brush of a small wood. He followed her, wordless, while staring at the back of her head. That was just ridiculous. Had to be. He had found women pleasing to look at, but he'd never desired one before. And she was an Elf.

  They came to an edge of the wood, beyond which was a small manorial vilge. From their vantage, they could see vilge and its people. There were families here; grim people who were finishing winter preparations even as the first snows dusted the ground. There were unhappy children working alongside the adults. The youngest, Lady Biyu told him, were kept in one of the buildings under the supervision of a stern matron.

  There was something wrong with this scene. It reminded him of the time he had been at a hard bor camp as part of his training. He was being instructed on guarding criminal sves by a Knight from another Order assigned to the camp. That had been a miserable affair. There was no glory, and barely any honor, in his time there. They had done something terrible to be there. By Imperial w, and the w of most nobles, they were no longer considered Humans. It was called Forfeiture of Humanity in the relevant statues, and thus nothing you did to them was immoral.

  The camp overseers were mostly made up of sadistic men. Knights had to follow their orders, even those conflicted with their own inner morality. The criminal prisoners still bore Human shapes and felt Human pains. Stuart had felt an innate desire to protect them from those who would torture them for their own pleasure. Some were still so very Human, despite the conditions they lived in.

  Their teacher regaled them with a story their first night at the camp. It was about a particur sve who was friendly and affable that nearly everyone, sve, Knight, guard and overseer alike, liked. The criminal sve nearly escaped after stabbing an overseer he was friends with. Three men died in his attempt, but the criminal sve was captured alive.

  After being caught, he just ughed and admitted he erred. There was neither shame nor regret for the deaths he'd caused. That was when their trainer had stopped seeing them as people. After that, it was hard for him to deal with 'real' Humans. He kept working at the camp, because he was afraid of what he might do if he returned home. That they would see who'd he become. He was just as trapped as the prisoners.

  Stuart shook off the memory. Yes, it was a lot like the work camp. Grim prisoners and wardens gring at each other. He felt his stomach sink. "Do you know which manor this is?"

  Lady Biyu shook her head. "No. Have you seen enough?" She kept a wary eye on their surroundings.

  "More than enough." He looked at the unhappy children. He wished to free them, but doing so would just make him a brigand.

  "I have looked into a few other vilges. This is the only one with orphans I have found. There are not enough children here. Just the cartload I followed here. Some of those children are from the vilge."

  They withdrew back to the city, passing through the woods in case they had been noted on the road earlier.

  The Treasure Hunters was busy, as it had been every time he had come here. When he reached the counter, he said, "I need confidentiality." He pced an ingot steel on the counter. The clerk whisked him into a private room, where he was served fresh tea while he waited for a higher ranking member to attend to him.

  A middle-aged woman, a little portly, came in with papers after he'd waited an hour. A second cup of tea had been served to him along with a light lunch. He was just finishing it.

  "My apologies for the wait. I was working with another client. May I ask what brings you here today?"

  "Of course. What I wish to discuss isn't very exciting, but I believe there may be a conspiracy I could tip off if I made my inquiries publicly."

  "The nature of the conspiracy?"

  "Child trafficking. Orphans."

  "Paying to have orphans brought to manors is not considered trafficking in most domains."

  "I have reason to believe it's a front. For what, I don't know. That's why I am here."

  Nodding slowly, the woman tapped her fingers against the table. "Very well. I will need your name and affiliations."

  "I am Sir Stuart of the Order of the Stone Circle. I am part of Lady Chelsea's entourage, and a companion of Defender Elderwoods." It galled him to use the small woman's cachet to legitimize himself, rather than relying on his own or his Order's. "My Lady has granted me leave to perform this investigation, and I intend to report to Viscount Lonelyknoll if my suspicions are borne out."

  "Do you know how criminal investigations work with the Treasure Hunters? There are punishments if you misrepresent yourself. Even if you are simply mistaken, there will be repercussions. Before I expin them to you, I must ask if you are certain you wish to pursue this. It would be better to use the regur process, unless you suspect corruption."

  "I do. I would rather be punished for being wrong, then for the culprits to avoid punishment because I was unwilling to risk it. This is hard to believe occurring without help from officials."

  "Understood. I am required to ask you twice. Once before expining the terms and punishments, and once after. First, because you are a member of an organization with limited authority to perform such investigations, you are entitled to these privileges: you can waive all privacy fees, paying only for the information you request. Your investigation will remain confidential until such time as the investigation stalls without resolution for a protracted time, or you close the investigation. You are required to give the Treasure Hunters periodic updates, and we reserve the right to judge your progress. Local senior management can close your investigation if they agree your leads are exhausted and can no longer be completed.

  "We will also divulge all parties who have watch fees paid for any information you attain from us. For example, if a person has paid to be informed if they are asked after, we will inform you of that fact while keeping your request confidential. It is recommended you pay the appropriate non-disclosure fees if you are able to as you will be charged twice that amount if your investigation concludes that there was no wrong doing.

  "If you misrepresent yourself, and are seeking to harass, gain advantage, or otherwise use the information you acquire for purposes other than investigating criminal activity, you will be banned from the Treasure Hunters, all waived fees will be owed at three times the initial rate, we will report you to all appropriate authorities including the Ministry, all discoveries will be honored regardless of whether you paid the fees, and we will open a bounty against you. If you use the information to commit a capital crime, the bounty will be for proof of death.

  "If your investigation proves them innocent, and you conduct yourself appropriately, a note will be made in your record with the Treasure Hunters, and your privileges may be revoked, suspended, or limited as senior staff determine. This can be appealed. In addition, as I mentioned, you will owe two times any waived fees. Anyone for whom you had the fees waived will be informed about your requests, as per standard rules. No bounty will be taken out, and we will work with you to create a repayment schedule.

  "If your investigation proves a crime was committed, all waived fees will be forgiven, and any fees paid will be refunded. Merit will be added to your record with us, and you can expect favorable treatment in the future including expediting future investigations."

  She paused. "In the case that you commit a crime in pursuit of the investigation, or your investigation fails, all parties we furnished you information about will be informed of the investigation you requested as per standard rules. Or, in other words, your investigation will no longer be treated as confidential and all normal disclosures will be made retroactively. In addition, for all parties that have taken out a watch, they will be informed if you had the fee waived. That is why we recommend you pay the fees, as a successful investigation will result in a full refund, but it mitigates some damage in a failed investigation.

  "Do you understand these conditions and still wish to continue with your investigation?"

  "Yes."

  "Very well. Do you intend the steel ingot to act as colteral against fees?" At his nod, she rexed. "How may I help you?"

  "To begin with, I need information about," and he told her about the manor he and Lady Biyu had investigated.

  She left to pull the records, leaving him alone once again. When she returned, she was looking over the information she pulled. "The manor recently changed hands. There is a watch on this information." She looked at him sternly. "Last chance, Sir Stuart. Are you certain you want me to continue?"

  "Yes."

  "It is currently held by Lord Dmitri with no further names. The change was approximately two years ago. The watch was made by a man named Randal." She tapped it. "Give me a moment, I'll look for information on him. I'm sure you'll want that as well."

  It took a few days, but a picture formed as they pursued their inquiry. Between them, they found a number of small manors throughout the county being bought and staffed by commoners. That was not unusual for rich merchants, who would 'retire' to country estates that were so old and well run that management was little more than tea and cakes and the occasional check of the ledgers. Not Lords of the Land, although some bought that as well, but just men living out the end of their life in peace.

  None of the commoners who bought manor estates were rich merchants. Some of them were former street toughs who inexplicably came to buy a manor. A few were toughs suspected of being bully boys for Derrick. Others were minor merchants who were supposedly driven from the city by Derrick Noveljoys merchant company, Novel Joys.

  They also looked into the orphanages, that that provided little information except that staff was being repced starting from just before the manors were purchased. The Treasure Hunters had no cause for the change in staffing listed.

  Stuart's liaison was frowning at their notes, her lips pressed thin, as they reviewed the facts they had accumuted. "Sir Stuart, I would suggest you visit the Temple of Lord Charity. The orphanages stopped accepting alms at the same time, and the Priests should be able to tell you why." She tapped the table with agitation. "Can you please give us weekly updates? You will have a month's grace."

  He stood and gave her a bow before going to the Temple. When he got outside, he found it was te evening. He would go tomorrow. It was important, but not so important as to be a rude after hours visitor.

  "Greetings, Sir Knight," said the smiling Priest. "How may I help you?"

  They were in a little room, the doors and windows shuttered against the cold, with a soft blue light suffusing the warm room. Between them was a small table, their tea steaming upon it, only the ritual first sip drunk so far.

  "First of all, I wish to keep the purpose of my visit private. Just between the two of us." The Priest nodded affably. He surely had many such meetings. After all, Priests were the people many went to for advice about their problems, public and private. "I wish to know about the orphanages."

  "Ah, that," he said, his smile fading. "Sad business… ugh, what a terrible turn of phrase for this. The orphanages were all bought, except the one we keep on the Temple grounds. We were told it was a new business venture, providing manors with manpower. Their pn, as they expined it to us, was to take the children and offer them to the manors as temporary help for a fee to be paid each week. They said that way the children were employed, the manors had extra people when they needed it, and it made them money because children were cheap.

  "Renting children like oxen. Such indignity."

  "That's what they're doing?" Stuart asked, his brows rising. "Is that not illegal?"

  "Why would it be?" the Priest grumbled. He obviously agreed, but he also understood the arguments he'd been stymied with. "It's just like paying them wages, which is a legal obligation. They're the guardians of the children, so they are entitled to a portion of the wages until the child comes of age. So long as the children aren't treated too harshly and paid the wages they're due upon coming of age, it's not considered svery. Instead, it's an exciting new business venture, sure to improve the way farms acquire spare hands."

  "That is disgusting," Stuart said.

  "I agree. Yet, what am I to do? The children of poor families already work to help their parents. Would you say they cannot? Will you have families abandoning or killing their children when they can no longer afford to feed them? Or is it better to send them to these new 'orphanages'?"

  "Some of the children given to the orphanages are too young to work."

  "Ah, they had an answer for that, too. It's looking forward into the future. Raise them up so they see it as the way it's supposed to be. Much easier than kids who had parents that doted on them."

  Stuart grimaced. "I believe it to be a lie."

  The Priest leaned in with interest. "Oh? Please, share! I will help you any way I can if you can stop this bsphemy."

  "I will need to see a woman about investigating Derrick Noveljoys more closely."

  The Priest defted. "Oh?" he asked.

  "I believe you met Defender Elderwoods?"

  Hope returned to the man's face, and he admitted jealousy that it wasn't him who inspired it. He understood a little better why Lady Chelsea felt like Lady Biyu was stealing her glory. Was this what life was like for the companions of heroes? He supposed if it was Lady Chelsea he would be more inclined to bask in the glory she brought their Order with her accomplishments, rather than feel powerless while someone else did greater deeds than they did.