Even though the group is new to this, they’ve had a few discussions on basic procedure by now.  They know that interrogation is best done under safe and secure circumstances than out in public.

(The Watch handbook points out that if you interrogate in public, you will get answers like “Okay, I’ll tell you, our leader is…. AAaaaaaaaaahhhhh…”)

With this is mind, the group brings their two intact catches to the watch house.  Another is dragged off to the Temple at St. Abners, which traditionally offers healing to captured criminals.  (It is suspected that they offer healing to uncaptured criminals that they hope might see the light and begin the long journey to redemption, but this is something they do not talk about.  There is a tradition of clerical confidentiality.)

A fourth thief did not survive.  A curious thing about this one, and the very badly wounded one now at St. Abners:  they are older than the two doing the “hit” at the Glovemaker’s shop, even though they were the Distraction team.  The dead thief was a young male Human, no older than 18.

The fifth, the rooftop observer/director, was able to escape.  He knew the roofs and back alleys of Old Town very well, and even if he didn’t, Old Town is the Duchess’s land and the Watch is out of its jurisdiction there.  That one got away.

Justice moves swiftly in Auxeme.  It is the job of the Viceroy to hear all cases that are not handled by the Nobility, that is, cases in the Watch’s jurisdiction.  That means, the two captured thieves can expect a hearing before the Viceroy as soon as the Viceroy has time on his schedule.  There’s no set tradition about how long this is, it is a very variable thing, and from the early feedback you get, that’s at least 3 days away.

So now the Watch is keeping 2 captives at the Watch House.  And they are… their kids.  Teenagers.  One boy, one girl, about fifteen years old.  Perhaps they were full of streetwise bravado before, but that all changes when you are up against wizards who have no fear of blasting magic into a marketplace.  They are very worried kids.

Khay Vass is seated across the hall from the cells. He is stroking his chin thoughtfully. He does not like what he sees. These callow youths, so full of bravado and energy, live for thrills. He could have been just like these people.

"I could have been just like you," Khay says. "I love to climb, and run, and be with my brothers and sisters, and make mischief." He colours in embarassment. "I like to fight. To hurt people. It's why I have joined the guard. I needed something, some way, of acting out that is not... that is less destructive. Now I can climb on things all I want, and there will be people to fight who deserve it."

Khay eyes them to see how they are reacting. "I am sorry for hurting you and your friends. This is why I need a path to walk. Because afterwards, after the fight and the hurting, nothing is solved. I am left feeling unfulfilled and guilty. So it is with you. Stealing from merchants and irritating them makes you feel powerful. It accomplishes nothing, and now you are left with nothing but remorse." He kicks the bars as emphasis.

"Help me follow my path, and I will help you walk a better one than this."

11:43, Today: Khay Vass rolled 5 using 1d20.  persuasion.

Theirastra would walk up behind Khay and place a hand on his shoulder. "What he speaks is true. This is no path to walk. In the end it only leads to no future, and possibly even a cruel and bitter end." She said softly. "Help us end this all, and we'll see to it you all find a better way. Would you not like that?" She said, softly, serenely.


20:47, Today: Theirastra Nailo rolled 21 using 1d20+3.  Persuasion.

Khay does his best.. .but he doesn't strike the right tone with the young hoodlums, who shrink away from him, and become, as teenagers are known to become, sullen and withdrawn.

They have a collective immunity to adults like him "telling us stuff".

On the other hand, they are no angry outbursts.   They seem to be still in a sort of post-wizardry shock.  No one expected that!

*** *** ***

But where Khay ran into roadblocks, Theirastra Nailo finds a way around them.

Perhaps its her exotic nature.  Whatever the case, both of the young criminals seem much more moved by her than him.

"We don't have a future," the girl says.  "Not anymore.  The gang will never take us in after that.  No initiation in the whole history of initiations has ever gone like that.  There're probably thinking of their plan now, but it definitely doesn't have us in it.  We're out.  Failures."

"You do not need gang's like that to find fulfillment in life." She said softly, offering them a smile. "There are many many other more fulfilling things out there that are much much better, and will prolong your lives." She continued.

"Take me for instance, I am among the elven elite. I know magic, as you saw, but I use that magic through my blade. I am one of my peoples most elite, as a Bladesinger. To attain that, is an amazing feat for my people, and was my dream to achieve it." She continued. "Is there not a dream you had, other than being in a gang, that you want to achieve?"

The girl opens up to Theirastra.

"It's hard," she says.  "I have five brothers and sisters and not much of anything.  Kids in the Old Town and a lot of the crowded places, it's hard.  There's not much a girl can do except hope to get married to someone with a better life.  I don't know where to go to learn magic, or anything like that.  The Shadows were teaching me things, how to move, how to take things fast.  I've seen people live well for a year after a good robbery."

"There is always more a girl can do, always. You just have to put your mind to it, and want it." She explained. "Why live well for a year, what happens when that year is up? What happens if you don't make another robbery? Then you end up back where you started." She explained. "Is magic something you want to learn?"

Khay is eager to hear more about these 'Shadows,' but Theirastra is clearly on a roll. He leans way forward in his chair. His leg is bouncing with eagerness. He licks his lips in anticipation of a lead.

Khay leans over to Theirastra and murmurs in her ear.

"They seem to be motivated by money. Maybe we should offer them a reward. Do you want me to see if I can drum one up?"

The girl goes through a few quick changes of facial expression- initially, for a moment, defensive, then pondering, then skeptical.  She looks at the Elf closely, as if trying to judge whether Theirastra is trying to trick her.

Then she says, "Apprenticing to a wizard is expensive, and you have to be educated, and pass tests and read books.  We... my family... we don't have the money for schooling.  We don't have much of anything.  It's just my mother and us.  And none of us in my family was ever a magic user."

She nodded to Khay, thinking it a good idea.

"What if I give you two things, in return for one. You give y=us information of who is running the thievery's in the merchant quarter, and I will personally teach you magic and if it can be arranged, give you each a reward." She looked between them a moment, gauging what the think of the offer.

The girl thinks it over.

The boy, listening in, adds his own two copper pieces:  "They'd come after us."

The girl agrees.  "They would.  No one turns on them and lives long.  And now..."  she looks over at the boy.  "It's both of us or none of us, you know.  Because if one of us turns over and the other doesn't they won't know and they won't care, you can go back and shout 'it was her not me' and they have no reason to believe you.  They won't take the chance that maybe you ratted out for your freedom."

"I got more to go back to," the boy says, speaking up at last.  "I'm not poor, like her.  My family has a trade.  I can be an upholster.  It's the family business."

"Tell them why you joined us.. them..." the girl says.

"If you're in, if you're one of them, no one will hit your business," the boy says.  "I was gonna be in, and then we'd all be safe, and we'd make an arrangement and the store would be off limits.  I got no reason to learn magic.  We have a good shop."

"I could learn," the girl says.

"Like you said, both of us or none.  What has this got for me?"

"The protection of the Constables. It is why we are here, to keep the peace, and protect the people from acts of violence and crime from one another." She said softly as she looked at the boy. "If we can take them down, there would be no threat to your family business, right?"

"My name is Abby," the girl says, beginning to suspect that this is going to be a somewhat longer event than planned and therefore exchanging names would be helpful.

"You're going to get us killed," the boy says, not yet convinced.

"Malki, they're wizards," Abby says, as if that explains everything.

Of course, to the typical non wizard, it does.  To the non magician, magic is far beyond ordinary understanding that "wizard" explains everything.  Always.  A rabbit is flying?  Wizard.  A cloud is purple?  Wizard.  A gang that has thus far eluded justice can be thwarted?  Wizard, of course, with a wizard involved, everything and anything is possible.

"But you'll protect my family too, right?" Malki asks the "Wizards".  "You'll make sure they don't get attacked?"

Khay punches one fist into his palm, his expression set with determination.

"I go beyond the realm of wizard." She said softly to the children. "I am an Eladrin Elf, and more so, I am a Bladesinger. We are an elite user of both blade and magic among the elven people. I will see to it that your family is protected, on my honor as a Bladesinger."

Malki explains the situation.

The family business is an upholstery shop.  It's a big one, and he's certainly not from a poor background like Abby.  It's sitting in the middle of Old Town.  Like the entire district, it is the property of the Duchess of Pomton, and leased out.  As the area is still the private property of the Duchess and the Duchess is high nobility, the watch has no powers of enforcement in Old Town.

(Although it's been hinted that the Viceroy would like to get the nobles to agree to that, he's made no progress on that, and perhaps is not even sure how he'd proceed.)

The shop is a big place, with the workshop, warehouse, carriage house and two attached homes forming a substantial "family compound" in the heart of old town.  Characters who are native to Auxene may even have heard of it, although, as you own no furniture, you probably haven't done business there.

A purely "passive" defense of the shop against retaliation by the gang would seem impossible- the Watch simply can't commit to guarding every threatened business establishment full time.  Depending on how mean the gang felt, if Malki was thought to be a traitor, retaliation could be simple arson or vandalism, or much more violent.

He does not want his family hurt.

The gang, as the two youngsters report, is a kind of "farm team" for an adult gang, which they know little about.  Not everyone who is initiated into the child gang is picked for the adult gang- some years, they select no one at all.  But even a good effort means the gang will look on you with favor in the future, and give you a little protection.  This means, though there is only a small "professional" core, they have allies- people who were child gang members but didn't make the final cut.  They are support; they will provide information, and hiding places.

"Seems to me the best recourse would be to bring the entire lot down." She said in thought, tapping her chin.

Vass grins at first. Then his expression slowly fades, becoming a look of faraway consideration. He taps his chin.

"I like a good fight as much as the next man, but that seems like a big one to start. Do we really have the resources to declare war on such a large crime syndicate?" He looks around. "Also, we should probably get permission from our captain."

Silent for a long time, mostly listening to the others do their interrogation thing while she keeps up but doesn't interfere Andrea steps back into the closer circle to engage in the planning process now that a goal has been established.

”Not a war, we need to be a lot quieter than that.  I presume at least some of you can work under cover?  We should have access to a lot of information already about where to find them, where they go when in smaller groups, and good places to catch them off guard.  We pull them apart piece by piece and infiltrate the gaps we leave to spread misinformation until we have them all hiding in their homes, then we finish them.”

Khay boggles at this. His eyes are wide. Then he slowly smiles a wicked smile. The idea of infiltration and striking fear into the hearts of villains appeals to him.

"Exactly what she said." She said as she looked towards Andrea. Finally she looked towards the kids she had been talking to. "Well?"