"Well, if you insist. I’ll stay for a bit and try one or two."
It was rude to turn down an invitation from others. I truly could not help it. That just basic etiquette, and my mom did not raise a rude daughter. I was trapped. So I really had no choice but to accept and eat a bunch of food.
"It was really delicious, Ms Sharity," I said, licking my lips to get any crumbs that were left.
"Oh, you’re such a polite girl, Melas. If you want more, you can come visit anytime."
I nodded, and made way for the door; another hour had passed, and I had things to do. If I was being honest, although I had no other obligations, I wanted to leave this town soon.
I had planned to go after collecting my Witch’s hat tomorrow, which may or may not happen depending on what I found at the gang’s hideout. And since it was already evening, I wanted to check out their base now. But before I could leave, the door flew open, and a boy ran in.
It was Jay. And his clothes were torn and tattered, and he was panting heavily.
Well, the former was not typically unusual, but it quite clearly had more rips on it than before. And as for the latter…
He was bruised all over.
"Jay, are you ok?"
Ms Sharity and Eaton both ran up to him at the same time. The boy was still catching his breath, but he immediately glanced up and spoke hurriedly.
"Hannah— they took Hannah!"
"What?" Ms Sharity stared with her mouth open, completely aghast. "Who did? What happened?"
"A group of thugs. They came out of nowhere and attacked us when we were going back." He babbled an explanation.
Eaton snapped. "Why? What did you do?"
"I didn’t do anything!" Jay protested, tears forming in his eyes. "I didn’t do anything. We were just walking! I— I didn’t even do anything wrong today. I was just trying to improve my sewing— find someone to teach me— and Hannah got mad at me for being out so late. But then they show up and now you’re mad at me as well! I really don't know what's going on. I didn't do anything!"
"Calm down, Eaton. This is not Jay’s fault."
The teenage boy clamped his mouth shut, and muttered an apology. "I… sorry."
"I didn’t want her to get taken, but I couldn’t do anything but run. I tried to fight— I tried…" he trailed off.
Ms Sharity wrapped her arms around him, despite looking incredibly worried too. But she nevertheless tried to comfort him. "It’s ok. Hannah is a strong girl. But we need to get the town guards. Before anything bad happens to her."
"I— I didn’t do anything wrong." Jay sniffled. "Who would do this? Why would they..."
"The guys from yesterday would," I stated simply. "They wouldn’t have given up after a single setback."
Everyone spun around to look at me.
"No way…"
It was shocking to them, but not to me. Unlike them, I was not personally invested in the situation, so I could think clearly at the moment; although they were in denial right until I said it outright, they probably knew the truth deep down even before I said a thing.
Multiple voices began speaking at once.
"We need to get the guards now, Eaton. Can you run over there?"
"They won’t be able to do anything. We need to get the Plague Doctor— he can help us!"
"Ms Sharity, big brother Eaton, what’s going?"
"What happened to Hannah? Where did she go?"
"Waaahhh—"
Someone was crying, and everybody was panicking. Ms Sharity tried to calm everyone down— to try and get things under control. But it was not working. Because no one knew what to do; they were lost, just as Jay was when he first came in.
But unlike them, he had time to process what happened. To fully understand it. So he turned to me, eyes still watered over, and he begged me.
"Please, can you do anything? Hannah— she’s my sister. I love her. If anything happens to her, I don’t know what to do with myself."
I took the boy’s hand and clasped it under my palms. I held his gaze, giving him the most kindly, gentle, and soothing smile, I could.
"Don’t worry," I promised, "I’ll bring her back no matter what."
And I meant every word of that sentence. Especially the last part.
Chapter 7: Kidnapping Thugs
It was midnight by the time I found their base. It was a warehouse a little ways away from the main road, but not too far off that it was invisible behind the trees. It poked out just enough for me to find it after an hour of searching. Once I did, I laid low, and began to investigate.
"Man, the boss was pissed at us when we could only get the girl. But I don’t understand, don’t we want the woman instead? She’d fetch us a better price right now."
"No, you idiot. With all the slave revolts in the Free Lands, nobody wants regular slaves anymore. Especially since Boleria banned slavery to avoid getting sacked, it’s only a matter of time before other cities follow suit. I even hear the Chalstics Confederacy is voting among their cities on whether they should do the same."
"So what’s the point of doing this? Wouldn’t it make both worthless? Y’know, the only people that would buy kids were from Besha, and most of their cities had been taken over by the slaves. It’s kind of funny, actually. They’re calling themselves the
Chained Lands—"
"Exactly. Without Besha, there’s nowhere else to get child slaves. But there has always been a market for it in the other parts of the Free Lands, and they will
