“What do we do!? We need to find him! I never should have left him out there…” Verrill floundered, overcome by panic.

  Professor Ridgeley grabbed him by the shoulders. “Calm down! We’ll find him.”

  “Ridgeley’s right,” Sebastian said. “This man has nothing

  to gain by hurting William. It would just invite trouble. He probably

  just wants… leverage.”

  The old man sat down on the couch, or collapsed onto it

  as his knees could no longer hold his weight. “Leverage for what? He

  didn’t leave any demands or instructions. He just… He just took him.”

  A moment of silence weighed heavy in the room. Nobody knew what to say, but eventually, Sebastian spoke.

  “We may not know why he took William, but we can get some

  help now that we found who is behind the thefts, especially when we

  recover the stolen items. I saw how he opened the safe, so I’ll get our

  stuff while you guys search the house.”

  “Search it for… for what?” Marcel asked.

  “We know this guy has been living here for a while at

  least. There might be something that tells us who he is. A painting on

  the wall, some picture on a nightstand, a diary… something. If we bring

  the stolen items and the name of the thief to the guards, then they

  should be able to find him, and William.”

  Professor Ridgeley nodded. “That’s good. The tavern owner

  said to report the thefts to the guards, but we all knew that there was

  nothing they could do in time. If we bring them this guy’s name and

  evidence, they should be able to help us. Certainly now that the matter

  has escalated.”

  Having something to occupy himself with seemed to do the

  old man some good. His despair turned to a single-minded focus. Together

  with Ridgeley and Marcel, he tore the house inside out looking for any

  indication of who this person could be.

  In the mean time, Sebastian went to the safe to get their stuff back.

  Through his [Mind’s Eye], he had seen how the thief opened the safe.

  On the inside wall of the adjoining bookshelf was a small

  circular crystal. Its texture was prickly, like a rough popcorn wall.

  The tip of Sebastian’s finger traced a pattern on the crystal—three

  lines from edge to edge, with the last line intersecting the first. A

  click signified that he succeeded, and the bookshelf slid open.

  His backpack was still there, thrown into the pile of

  stolen goods. He practically jumped into the safe to grab it,

  immediately opening it and taking out the manual. Releasing a breath of

  relief, the tension in his shoulder instantly released. Although he

  already knew it was there, having sensed it with his spiritual sense, it

  was only when he held it in his hand that he allowed himself to relax.

  A short while later, the others returned from their

  search as Sebastian was gathering all the stolen goods in the middle of

  the room.

  “We found something,” Professor Ridgeley said. He handed

  over a picture frame with an image of a family, it wasn’t a photo like

  Sebastian was used to but rather an image burned onto parchment with

  surprising detail. “That’s him, the oldest son. It only says the family

  name though, Redin.”

  “Alton,” Verrill said as he walked into the room. “His

  name is Alton.” He threw a ledger over to them. In it were a few names,

  including that of the man who had kidnapped William, Alton Redin.”

  ***

  Smaller towns like this one didn’t have a

  separate police force from the town guards, everything from protecting

  the town from monsters to enforcing the law was managed by the guards.

  The guard station was currently filled with passengers

  yelling at the staff about their stolen belongings. Although they had

  managed to calm the crowd somewhat in the past couple of hours, there

  was still quite a gathering.

  Sebastian and the other three walked into the station,

  each of them carrying as many bags of retrieved items as they could, and

  pushed their way past the upset victims. They strode up to the

  reception, ignoring the complaints about cutting the line, and addressed

  the two administrative workers.

  “We found him! We got back as much of the stolen goods as we could carry.” Marcel called out.

  They dropped the bags on the floor as the stunned crowd backed away to give them room.

  “You did what?” the staff member asked.

  “The man who stole from everyone, we found him. And he

  kidnapped my grandson and ran away! You need to find him, you need to

  save my William!” Verrill said, almost unable to hold himself back from

  physically shaking the woman behind the counter.

  “Oh, uh… Yes, of course.” She looked at the man next to

  her, both she and her colleague were uncertain about how to handle the

  unexpected development. Then she turned to the door behind them. “Sir,

  we need you out here!” she called out to her superior.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  A man walked out from the door behind the counter,

  wearing a beret and similar uniform to the other guards except with a

  stripe on his shoulders. “What’s going on?”

  “Sir, these men claim to have tracked down the thief and retrieved most of the stolen items. Also, the thief seems to have—“

  “He kidnapped my grandson! You need to go out there and

  find this man,” Verrill said. He was about to pull up the picture frame

  with the image of the thief, but the officer held out his hands and got

  everyone to settle down.

  “Please, stay calm. We’ll get to the bottom of this.” The

  collection of retrieved stolen goods were strewn out on the floor, some

  of the victims were already rummaging through it to look for their own

  belongings. “You two,” he said, pointing to the two administrative staff

  members, “take control of the situation out here. Organize the items

  and ensure that these people get their belongings back.” Turning to

  Sebastian’s group, he said, “And you four, with me. We’ll talk in my

  office.”

  The group followed the officer to the back, leaving the

  rest of the victims to find their belongings, assuming they were among

  what they had been able to carry back.

  As far as offices go, it wasn’t anything special. It was

  at the end of a hallway connected to a bullpen. There were only two

  chairs so Sebastian and Marcel chose to remain standing.

  “So, you four found the thief? I must say, I’m impressed. Now, what’s this about your grandson being kidnapped?”

  Verrill leaned forward. “We found him in a house on the

  northern edge of town. I didn’t want young William to risk going into

  the house when we went in to confront the thief, so I had him stay

  outside. Somehow he saw us coming. He had his cebids kidnap William and

  used that as a distraction to get away. You have to find him!”

  “We will, don’t worry. This house, where exactly was it, and did you find anything else of note?”

  Slamming the picture onto the desk, Verrill pointed his

  finger to the thief. “That’s him, Alton Redin. He took William and

  vanished.”

  The officer froze. He stared and the picture, his mouth

  opening as if to speak but closed before uttering a single word. A sigh.

  “I see,” he said. “I assure you, we will do everything in our power to

  get you grandson back. Thank you for your assistance in this, but we’ll

  take it from here. You should return to the train and wait there.”

  Sebastian, and the other three too for that matter,

  blinked at the sudden shift in demeanor from the officer. Verrill tried

  to argue, to push them to act immediately, but the officer shut them

  down. Without allowing them room to speak, he escorted them out of his

  office, and then out of the building itself.

  “Again, thank you for you help. Now please, return to the train.” He closed the door, leaving them out on the street.

  “What… What was that?” Professor Ridgeley said.

  Verrill was unable to utter a word, his shock and concern for William was paralyzing at this point.

  You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to realize how strange that was. Sebastian’s hand grabbed hold of his bag. Although

  I have my manual now, I don’t think I can leave this alone. These

  people may be mostly strangers, but they’re good people.

  Besides… It’s a kid.

  “That… was suspicious,” Sebastian said. “It’s obvious

  that he recognized this Alton Redin. For some reason, he’s… afraid.”

  Sebastian placed a hand on Verrill’s shoulder. “But that makes me want

  to agree with him. You should go back to the train and wait, I’ll keep

  looking. Clearly there’s something about this guy that makes the guards

  nervous, I’ll find out what, and I’ll bring William back.”

  “I can’t just leave! I need to save him. I—“ Verrill was ready to storm ahead, but Professor Ridgeley held him back.

  “Mr. Doe is right. At this point, it’s best that he

  continue on alone. He’s a higher level than all of us, and if this

  criminal is bad enough news that the guards are worried, we would only

  be holding him back.”

  He took some convincing, but Verrill eventually conceded.

  The three of them went back to the train. Sebastian, on the other hand,

  went back to the tavern.

  If the guards recognized him, maybe the tavern owner will as well.

  The Boarish Butter was less crowded than before. In part

  because it was now the afternoon and they simply had fewer patrons but

  largely because nobody wanted to risk being robbed.

  The owner was behind the bar cleaning glasses, just as before.

  “You’re back, and you’re in one piece,” he said when

  Sebastian arrived and walked up to the bar. “I’m guessing that means you

  saw reason?”

  “Actually no. We went after him, and we found him.”

  Sebastian held up his bag, almost like a token of victory. “However, he

  got away. Worse, he kidnapped little William, the boy with us, to do

  it.”

  Hearing the matter escalate to an abduction made the

  owner perk up. “Oh… Uh, I’m sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have said

  anything.” He shook his head in shame and guilt.

  “It’s fine, it’s not your fault. Still, I was hoping you could help me again.”

  The owner put down the glass and leaned forward on the bar. “Of course, what can I do?”

  Sebastian showed him the picture, which they had only

  barely managed to swipe back as they were chased out of the guard

  station. “This is the man, Alton Redin. When we told the guards, they

  acted… strange. Any idea why?”

  The owner took a breath, a deep one. “I do. That right

  there is the first son of the Redin family. They own much of the town.

  Alton has always been something of a black sheep in his family, rumor

  has it he was even kicked out a few years back. Still, they are

  protective of their own, so I’m not surprised that the guards are

  shaken.”

  Of course… Why would the thief be someone boring. Ugh.

  “So this thief is practically nobility in this town?”

  Nodding, the owner said, “That’s one way of putting it.

  He’s been seen around town a few times over the last couple of years,

  throwing money around. People always assumed he was still supported by

  his family even after they kicked him out and that’s where he gets the

  money. I guess now we know that’s not the case. He steals it.”

  Sebastian sat down on a stool, feeling some of his

  previous gusto deflating. “Alright… So, you say that they’re ‘protective

  of their own’. Do you think he would turn to them to hide after

  kidnapping a child?”

  “No.” The owner shook his head. There was no hesitation

  in his voice. “Although I’m not exactly privy to the inner workings of

  the Redin family, I don’t think they’re on good enough terms that he

  could turn to them for help. If someone is actively trying to kill or

  hurt him, they would step in. If someone actually succeeded in doing

  that, they would hunt them down without fail. But they wouldn’t protect

  him from his own crimes, at least not crimes like this.”

  Releasing a breath of relief, Sebastian nodded. “Alright, so there’s still some hope then. Any idea where he might be hiding?”

  “Maybe.” The owner took some time to properly think about

  it. “Actually, probably yes. During his rampages around town, he

  sometimes brings along a group of low-lives. They usually hang around by

  an old cabin by this grove on the east side, just outside of town.”

  Sebastian sighed. “Alright, I guess I’ll go check in on some low-lives.”