[Strange, Opposition]
I had Doug shrink himself then grabbed him and Daisy. I gave them both to Lu, thanking her for searching. If you find anything please let me know later, I should be in the bookstore. Wishing the three of them, Good Hunting.
First I went to the bookstore to talk to Sparky but he wasn’t there. I hit the bakery but Lily and Salome must have been out gathering magical ingredients. By then I thought that some teachers might be at the Pinewood Academy and I’d be able to warn them before speaking to Burgomaster Valen. Two guards blocked the entrance to the school.
“Excuse me, I'm here to speak to the head teacher or who ever is in charge.”
“Are you the parent of a student enrolled here?”
“No I’m not.”
“Only parents of enrolled students are allowed in or a person with an appointment. Do you have an appointment?”
“No, I do not have an appointment. I have information that a crime is likely to be committed against one of your students.”
“Which student?”
“I do not know, maybe if I was allowed to speak to the person in charge, we could figure that out.”
“The only people allowed in are parents of students and those with an appointment. Would you like to make an appointment?”
“Yes”
“Wait here.”
One of the guards left the gate and knocked three times on a shuttered window. A few minutes later an older lady came out and approached the gate.
“You wanted to make an appointment?”
“Yes I do, it’s urgent I speak to someone in charge. I have information that a crime is planned against one of your students.”
“Next Tuesday, Eight A.M. sharp.”
“By then it might be too late.”
“Well you should have come sooner to make an appointment.”
“I didn’t hear of the conspiracy until last night, how could I possibly come sooner? I don’t understand why none of you seem to care about your students' safety.”
“We care deeply about our students' safety, no student has ever been injured on school grounds aside from the minor sporting injury. Next Tuesday Eight A.M. sharp”
She turned around and walked back into the building. I looked at the size of the guards and the height of the brick walls, turned on my heels and walked away burning with rage. Just what kind of school was this?
Next up I walk to Burgomaster Valen’s Office. Town hall is open when I arrive and I see a clerk at the only desk in the lobby.
“Excuse me, I'd like to see Burgomaster Valen please.”
“Do you have an appointment, Miss?”
I wasn’t about to take this again.
“Yes I do, after I solved his ghost problem at the library he said to drop in anytime. I’m Rose the Bibliomancer. If he doesn’t have time for me I can just bring the ghost here to town hall. I’m sure she won’t have any problem seeing him as she can pass through walls.”
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“Umm, Yes. Just let me see if he’s in Bibliomancer.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry Bibliomancer, ma’am. His assistant told me he’s out but expected back this afternoon.”
“Perhaps I could speak to the assistant.”
“Yes, of course right this way.”
We walked into a rather stark office with a nervous looking man.
“This is the assistant to the Burgomaster.”
“Hello I’m Rose and I have information that a child will be kidnapped near or in the Pinewood Academy, everyone I have attempted to inform of this crime and hopefully prevent has pointed out that it’s not their jobs. Your gate guards won’t leave the gate to stop a crime. Where are the regular guards?”
“We had to let them go.”
“You what?”
“There was no money in the budget for guards. There are only four guards left that guard the gate and they also charge admittance to merchants, generating the income to pay their salaries. Burgomaster Valen was strongly against the proposal but the town counsel overrode his veto.”
“Well I’m very sorry to hear that as will the family of the little girl if my information is correct.”
“As soon as the Burgomaster Valen arrives I’ll inform him of the issue. I’m sorry we’ve taken up so much of your valuable time.”
“Thank you. I’ll be at Enigmatic Parchments if the Burgomaster needs anything.
Then I went to the bakery to warn Salome not to go out alone for a few days until this whole issue could be resolved. Then I went to the book store in search of Sparky.
“Did you know that this town has no Guard? None. The four guards they do have aren’t allowed to leave the gate.”
“And hello to you too, Rose.”
“Sorry Sparky, I'm just frustrated. I spent the entire morning trying to prevent a crime only to find out that that is impossible. There is something dodgy going on at that Pinewood Academy too. It’s guarded like the king’s palace but when I told them that someone was out to hurt one of their students they gave me an appointment for next week.”
“Well don’t you get involved Rose. I know you’ve been busy lately but you haven’t written anything since you moved to Wyldwood. I want to see some pages by the end of the week. But for now watch the store, I have a delicate experiment back in the tower. Take the afternoon to try to make an outline for what you’re planning to write next.”
“Did Lu come in with Doug and Daisy?”
“Nope not while I’ve been here, Outline, see you tomorrow.”
“Good night, Sparky”
What should I write about? I know, a stupid, short sighted, penny pinching town council. No I’d be too angry writing something like that, it’d come across as a diatribe. Maybe a romance set in the human world, hmm, hockey romances are popular right now. But I don’t know a thing about hockey except they play on ice and beat each other with sticks. I wonder why it has to be on ice. Couldn’t they just hit each other with sticks on the dirt or sidewalk? Outline, Outline, think come on, think. Maybe I should come up with a character first. That’s what I did for Juliet's world. Once you know your character it just kind of writes itself. I can’t think of anything.
“Hi Rose.”
“Hi Lu, thank the gods.”
“What’s the matter, did something happen?”
“Never mind that did you guys have any luck?”
“No I’m sorry Rose, we had a couple of false alarms. When Daisy thought a person looked familiar, but when we got closer she could see they weren’t who we were looking for. We covered most of the town but maybe they were working or possibly they live outside of town and just came to town to do the planning.”
“That’s very possible. It doesn’t matter much anyways. There is no guard to report a crime to. They’ve all been fired to save money. The school itself is extremely dodgy. I’d love to get a look in there but it’d be easier to break into a bank vault.”
Just then Burgomaster Valen walked in.
“Rose, I'm sorry I wasn’t in the office when you arrived. My assistant filled me in on the situation. Is there any way that you might be able to help us out again and investigate this horrible threat.”
“I’m sorry Burgomaster, Grandmaster Bright Spark, told me not to get involved. After I told him there were no guards to take the information I’d already gathered. I can’t catch four dangerous men on my own.”
“I could take Dogberry off the night gate and have him accompany you. It would give you an official cachet if you could identify one or two of the suspects. I could bring Dogberry before the council and force them to deal with the problem. I just ache for the poor child terrorized by such treatment and the agony of the parents losing a child.”
“I’ll speak to Grandmaster Brightspark tomorrow morning Burgomaster Valen.”
“Wonderful please tell the Grandmaster I implored you and I’ll have Dogberry here by nine A.M. Thank you so much, Rose.”
“Burgomaster, I still must do whatever the Grandmaster instructs me to do, but I will try my hardest to get him to change his mind.”
“Thank you Rose, thank you.”
Then he left, Sparky’ll be mad, I got nowhere with the outline and now I promised to change his mind and let me investigate with possibly the worst guard in the history of guards. Well at least I have a party tonight to take my mind off it.
“Let’s go home Lu, take a bath and get ready for the party.”
“That sounds good to me, I’m a bit dusty.”
“I’m a bit hot under the collar, so we wash away the day, and have a better night.”
