--- Kat ---
There was a little more back and forth between g and Strdl but it was more of the sa. Eventually g turned to the prisoner and said, "Well we’ve given enough ti for those two officers to escape and warn the bandits we’re on our way. So are you ready to lead on… Clyde? I want to say?" Read new chapters at empire
"Um… er…" the prisoner (Clyde?) was shaking like a leaf as he found himself the centre of attention. His eyes were darting between everyone else, though the three remaining normal officers were the least looked at. His eyes mostly went between g and not as he stumbled over his words. "My… um… my na is… er… not Clyde…"
"But does that matter?" asked g.
Kat winced at thee question as ’Clyde’ rapidly shook his head. "Er… um… no… I well… I guess… I guess I’m not um… overly attached to my na… so um… this is fine… I an… no this is fine…" It didn’t exactly sound fine but Kat thought interrupting the guy at this point would just scare him more. "But… um… I an… I still can’t take you to… to the hideout,"
"Oh? And why is that?" asked g.
Clyde swallowed heavily his eyes trying to focus on g as he answered her questions but failing spectacularly. "I… I don’t know… um… g…" g glared, "er… um… miss? Ma’am? I don’t know where it is. We… um… training… er… no I an… I only know how to get… get to this big eting room place… but um… Not said… said that was fine?"
"And that didn’t seem weird to you?" asked g.
Clyde flinched backwards, curling in on himself as Kamiko nudged her in the side. "What?" whispered Kat.
"Can’t you use your aura to help calm him? The poor guy looks like he’s going to have a heart attack or sothing… I’m… I’m worried he might pass out and g will just get worse if he does…" whispered Kamiko.
"Right but if I start helping him g will definitely ramp up, probably enough to offset anything I’m doing to help," Kat whispered back. Kamiko frowned, but didn’t say anything further. Kat wasn’t sure if Kamiko agreed… or if she was just trying to avoid an argunt. *Which is really not helpful. I an, I feel bad for the guy and I would be willing to help him… but I just feel like it’s too dangerous with g clearly playing around with him at the mont. Didn’t even let the poor guy tell us his na*
[I an based on naming conventions his na is probably Clde, or Clyd or maybe Cld if I had to guess. Then again it’s g so maybe she did just give him a random na. It feels wrong because that would indicate she’s ’wrong’ about his na so I bet she’s at least close…]
*Not sure that really makes it better.*
During this ti ’Clyde’ managed to recover enough of his wits to explain his answer. "I um… no… or I an… he was the sheriff so I didn’t think too much about it. I… I guess I might have thought… um… that he knew because of the fact he was the sheriff? Like… I an… the eting place has changed a few tis… when um… when it was ’discovered apparently so… I an… it wasn’t that weird…"
g waved him off, "Whatever just tell about the eting place,"
Clyde flinched again and Kat glared at g in response. He was only going on that tangent because g asked and now she was berating him for it. g turned back to Kat and flashed a grin at her. Unrepentant in the face of Kat’s continued glare. *If she keeps this up maybe I will just step in anyway.*
"Er… well… it’s a place where we were taught earth magic but the Mountain-" Clyde was cut off there.
"Pebbles," stated g.
"P-pardon?" queried Clyde.
"Pebbles. That’s his nickna and it’s not overly pretentious. Plus it’s shorter," said g. Though she definitely knew the tricks for saying more with just a few words or syllables like Hunter… so it was a pretty moot point.
"P-pebbles…" Clyde sounded like he was chocking. "Pebbles t-teaches us earth magic there occasionally… and um… that’s why I know where it is?"
"Why would you WANT to learn earth magic from that scum?" hissed Strdl.
Clyde shivered at Strdl’s glare while turning to g as if asking permission to explain. Seeing her nod Clyde answered. "Um… b-because he’s the only o-one that will teach us. The p-powerful mages from out of town d-don’t have ti and t-they don’t normally care enough to take us on as app-prentices.
"And… and the mining companies are w-worse actually. They don’t let any of their mages teach unless they’re imdiate family and I know that was a massive concession that they only got after a whole bunch of riots… but… but if you NEED the teaching and can’t get it from family you have to sign a contract. Five years of learning in exchange for ten years of work…
"But… but it’s really FIFTEEN years or work with essentially no pay for any of it. Because… because they feed and house you for all of them and you have no choice about it. Then you ’pay off’ the money they spent training you… and then after fifteen years they… they say that they’re sorry to see you go but if you sign another contract for ten years they’ll give you a pay bump…
"It might not sound the best… but you realise you’ve got no friends. No house, no idea how to live… and barely any savings so you stick around. Then suddenly you’ve been working there for twenty-five years, and your pay is about to go up again… so you just stick around. I… I HATE the idea of that. You still don’t get what you’re worth and they don’t even teach you that much. Just a bunch of control exercise and a handful of spells.
"It’s… it’s as close to slavery as they c-can get… but… well most of the mining companies are owned by nobles or… or like families of nobles and the ones that aren’t have ’friends’. So… so even though it’s bad it’s… it’s ’fair enough’ that you can’t get the crown or the church involved without risking massive political backlash… it’s…. it’s awful in a lot of ways…
"So… so when a friend of mine and his older brother convinced to go for lessons it was hard to say no. The mount-" g glared "I an… Pebbles… he… he promises a reward for any mage at all and a bonus for earth mages to show up. I an… they just have to co for one lesson and you get rewarded. It… it was a hard month for their family so I said yes… and then I kept going…
"Because Pebbles… for all of his faults… for all of the problems he’s causing… he DID teach how to use my magic. Even in the few scattered lessons he’s taught so much and I’m not the only one. If… if I brought in my friends they’d get gear and combat lessons and… and we always planned to leave one day. To leave and beco adventurers.
"I an… there are no contracts, and barely even a verbal agreent. So… so we go in for lessons, do a few light jobs that… that don’t really hurt anyone and once I get to Rank 2 I was planning to leave. Rank 2… it’s sothing most people never reach but… but P-pebbles has taught at least three others to that point… and um…
"I know it’s a risk. That every ti I do a little favour or get a bit more teaching… I get dragged further into his circle… but… but he’s TEACHING US MAGIC. I… it’s such a precious thing that so few are willing to share… and I an… he’s done it. He reached at least Rank 3… maybe more than that I don’t know. It… it seems to possible and I have… had hope that I could maybe get there one day. That I could leave this town… guess I have no idea what’s going to happen now,"
g frowned once Clyde finished speaking. Kat watched carefully just in case she needed to step in when g cursed softly. "Damn. Looks like things are more complicated then…"
"Um… what’s the issue?" asked Kat.
"The issue is that I’d missed a small fact. I was thinking that they were a dinky little team of bandits that had branched out and created a small town to support themselves as well using a strong mage for the place to get a good foothold… but that’s not what’s happening at all. Or well, I’m sure they’re trying to pretend that’s how it went down… but no. These bandits have ’official backing’ I’m sure," said g.
"Ah, the nobles are playing gas then…" agreed Hunter.
"W-what?" asked Strdl and Clyde at the sa ti while Kat and Kamiko wore frowns on their faces.
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