Kiava was feeling annoyed. After finding her home so easily she had hopes of everything being so simple, but as it turned out finding an available carpenter to work on renovations was a whole different problem. After a series of recommendations from busy professionals, she found herself walking through an area of the capital that screamed "Danger: Enter at your own risk".
She chose to take the chance because she was outfitted with enough defense charms to stave off a full complement of soldiers or pack of monsters, and she had no idea how to navigate this part of the city. She looked at the hastily scrawled directions again and looked for the street name she was approaching. She could see that around the corner the aura of danger visibly eased which meant that the man at the last shop had given her the shortest route, not the safest one.
Her relief was short-lived. As she passed a side street leading deeper into the dangerous neighborhood, a strange procession caught her eye. Children between the ages of maybe three and ten, all holding hands between four adult men.
At a glance one would just think it was chaperones escorting a class, but all Kiava could see was the binding magic keeping the children quiet and hands clasped. Her feet stopped moving immediately before she had really even processed what she was seeing.
The border was a dangerous place. Monsters attacked frequently and it was often seen as a safe haven for people on the run because it didn't have a regular guard or even an overlord. The orphanage Matron had been worried about that element and had taken pains to explain to the children what dangers they may face, and how to spot them.
Kiava knew how to identify human trafficking when she saw it. There were almost twenty children in the group, moving slowly because some of them were so small. They wouldn't have taken them out in broad daylight if they had to go far. She probably didn't have a lot of time to act, or call the guardsmen. She took one last look at her goal before reaching into her bag and pulling out one of her items.
Combat spells can be stored in an item just like any other, but they could be hard to control; and if they are kept in a common item it is not unheard of for the wearer to forget that their necklace can cast a fireball hot enough to incinerate a full grown bear and accidentally activate it, thereby incinerating their friends and family. Because of such unfortunate incidents all combat spells are stored exclusively in wands - easy to aim and no one was going to stroke a wand as they showed it off at a party.
It was a wand that Kiava pulled out now, imbued with an immobility spell. The men hadn't noticed her, and luckily they were large, easy targets that towered over their victims. She threw out the first two casts quickly. Both targets froze mid-step and fell over, unable to maintain balance. Unfortunately, the other two men noticed and dodged after their companion fell.
The other two men ducked behind the corner of buildings, leaving the children standing in the street, hands still clasped but un-moving. Kiava decided to remain visible and rely on her wards as she pulled out another item from her bag, another wand.
"Where the hell did that come from?" one of the men shouted at the other.
This wand was in fact a prototype, not a combat wand but a far-cast Full Ward. It worked of course, and even if it faulted all it would do was cast full ward over her for a duration of a few minutes. As she cast it she saw it take effect and the spell that was binding the children snapped, cut off by the protective magic. She knew because most of them released each other's hands and as a whole they began to wail.
"Shut them up!" the thug snarled as he pulled a wand from his own pocket and hurled a fireball at Kiava. The other man got up and rushed to the kids, only to bounce off the ward like he hit a wall. If she had any concerns that they had good intentions these were gone now.
"Kids run to me! Stay together!" She wasn't positive which child had been hit with the ward.
They all turned to the new voice and as a whole rushed over, sticking tightly together. The man continued to fling fire balls at her and she was impressed by the number of charges the wand had. Soon she was surrounded by the little ones. She used her immobilization wand on the man who was still out of cover after trying to approach the children.
The last man swore and turned to flee, luckily also leaving himself open. Kiava watched his own momentum send him flying onto his face after the spell connected. Her hands were shaking badly as she looked over the children. All twenty were boys, and they were dressed in styles suggesting all walks of life. Adrenaline managed to keep her going as she led them to the street she had been looking for.
It was not a guard, but a knight that she and the group ran into, literally, as they rounded the corner. As soon as she saw the knight's emblem in front of her, the adrenaline that had kept her walking vanished. Kiava was caught by a couple of the larger children before she hit the ground. Meanwhile, every single child, still crying, began to tell the knight what was happening.
…
Silas was on duty. As a captain he could have stayed in the office but today he had decided to walk the city streets. He was still feeling angry and anxious about the people that had kidnapped Archeus, so he walked the area that the mage had been investigating when he was initially drugged. He was just about to enter the neighborhood in question when he was almost run over by a group of children surrounding a visibly shaking woman.
Her tension released when she saw him, and she collapsed. He was about to ask what was happening when twenty sobbing voices drowned out his ability for thought. He put two fingers to his lips and let out a piercing whistle. Silence fell.
"Alright, I get that something is wrong, but I can't understand when you all talk together. Now, Miss, can you explain?" Silas asked, turning his full attention to the woman for the first time. He let himself enjoy her beauty for a moment, but when she began to speak he focused.
"I was on my way to a carpentry shop on this street when I saw four men escorting these children." She looked at the boys around her. "I noticed that there were spells at work and I intervened. I used an immobilization wand on all the men, they should still be where I left them," Kiava explained, as well as where to find them.
Silas grinned and took out a short range voice transmitter, summoning other guards and knights in the area and sending them to where the young woman directed. While he waited, he talked to the older children. All were kidnapped from various places throughout the city. Today they had been told that they were leaving the city. If the young lady had not happened to notice magic at work all twenty of these boys would have disappeared or been ransomed. His men reported back that they had successfully detained all four men and found one of them with an almost completely spent wand.
"They tell me the men used a combat wand, is anyone injured?" Silas asked, wondering if perhaps the woman had collapsed due to injury.
"Oh, no, I had a full ward on me," she waved off his concern. "Some of the boys are hurt, they probably need a healer."
She finally got to her feet, the color having mostly returned to her face. "My usual fight or flight response is to run, but today it seemed that wasn't a reasonable route."
Kiava looked at the children around her. Several were clinging to her now and she stroked their heads gently. Silas noticed that after she had seen his face she had very obviously been avoiding looking at him at all. It was suspicious.
"We will have to take you to the knight house for questioning, Miss…?"
Kiava looked up to give her name and when their eyes met her cheeks turned a very pretty shade of rose and a small squeak like noise escaped her. Not suspicious, shy. Silas was very aware that he was good looking. He was still pleased that this pretty young woman thought so.
"Of course, I understand. I am Kiava Orben." She broke eye contact by offering a small bow.
"Thank you for your cooperation, and for interfering on behalf of these children." He used the transmitter to summon a mage to transport him and the witnesses to headquarters.
He regretted his decision to use magic as soon as they arrived and all of the children but three got sick. The mage used magic to clean the sick without missing a beat before disappearing again back to the crime scene. Silas directed subordinates to have the children taken to get washed up and fed before being seen by a healer and then interviewed. He also had Kiava Orben escorted to an interview room designed for witnesses.
…
Kiava sat in the interview room quietly. One of the guardsmen had brought her a cup of tea and some cookies while telling her someone would come to take her formal statement soon. She sipped the tea occasionally, but internally she was having a moment. Since leaving the border she had met three of the country's four most handsome men.
When she had seen the pictograms of them, and admired them, she had been half expecting the reality to not match. Editing images was a tried and true reality after all, but that was not the case. They were stunningly good looking - Archeus was drugged out of his mind and half conscious, but he was still beautiful. Both Perrin and Silas were stunning and had voices that elicited strange responses in her.
Luckily their interactions so far had been brief, but she was wondering at the weirdness of fate that someone like her had met any of them, much less three in a six day period. If she continued to run into them though, her standards for men might take an irreversible hit.
She looked up and felt her mouth open in surprise when Sir Silas Iaska entered the room carrying a recording crystal and a small bundle of papers. She had seen him earlier of course, but now that she wasn't concerned about thugs jumping out at them she could enjoy it.
He was very tall and well muscled, without being bulky. He had white hair and golden eyes, a sign that he was a demihuman. For his part he grinned at her as he sat down and arranged the items he had been carrying on the table. He set a contract in front of her.
"This is a contract staging that you agree to being recorded and for all recordings to be transcribed. It is also an agreement to tell the truth in your following statement," he explained as she read through the document. It was as he had explained it, just much more long-winded and stating some of the repercussions should she fail to meet the last qualifier.
Kiava signed without issue, she had no intention of lying. After she signed, Silas started recording. She explained what she had been doing in the area, told him the name of the carpenter's shop that had given her directions, and handed over the paper as evidence. She then explained the brief exchange between her and the four men. She submitted her immobilization wand, showing the use of four of its six charges.
"I… also used another magical item, but it's my own creation and I haven't gotten a patent on the spell design yet," she explained reluctantly.
So far she had managed to avoid looking at the knight too much, even though he was a very large presence on the other side of the table. Listening to his smooth warm voice in a small space was almost a heady experience. What was wrong with her, or was it him?
"You're an artificer yourself?" he questioned casually.
"Yes, I was just recently certified as a high journeyman. I'm going to be opening my own workshop soon, that's why I was looking for a carpenter for renovations on the building I bought." She put the wand down between them. "I will submit this evidence under the condition that none of the formulae be copied or used. It is a full ward wand, it can cast full ward on a target up to sixty feet from you, a radius of ten feet, and it can last up to three minutes if the upper threshold isn't exceeded."
"Ranged full ward," Silas said softly, looking stunned.
Kiava felt herself smiling as enthusiasm began to bubble up. "Yes, I mean you can cast full ward at a range, after all, it's just suicide to try to maintain such a complex spell actively on yourself, much less on someone else at a distance. I can't make the wand rechargeable, though. The added strain on the medium to cast it at a distance is too much to allow for the recharge function." She looked up and flushed to find him watching her with a very attractive smile on his face. A small noise came out of her throat and she made it out like she was coughing. "Ah, sorry."
"It's alright. We will submit this as well - it will be studied by Artificers at the office, just to ensure that it has no function outside of what you have stated," he explained kindly. "All magic items belonging to you will be returned after this has been confirmed."
"I see, that makes sense." Kiava parted with it reluctantly. "Is there anything else I can help you with Sir Iaska?" She wanted to leave - she was hungry now and she still needed to find a carpenter.
She was not done. She had to fill out a paper where she put down both the inn she was staying and her workshop with the date that she would be moving there - only two nights away. It was just as she was handing over the documents that her stomach verbalized what she had known for a while.
"Thank you for your help Miss Orben. As a further thank you for your heroism in saving the children, can I treat you to lunch?"
Kiava's mind had done that strange thing again where it felt like it had unplugged from the rest of her body. Internally she was freaking out, externally she just looked stunned. While she was trying to figure out what was happening, how to respond, and how to reconnect her consciousness with the rest of her, a knock came at the door that was then opened to reveal the fourth most handsome man in the capital. Theon Arvenor was not as tall as Silas by only a small margin, though he was a lot less broad than his friend, being muscled more for a runner than a combat athlete.
"I heard the young woman who intervened for all those children is still here," he said as he walked into the room, his eyes immediately settling on Kiava who was struck by their pretty deep green color and how well they complimented his golden blonde hair. "You must be her. Thank you for what you did, some of those younglings showed signs of sustained abuse." He bowed to her.
Kiava jumped to her feet like she had been electrocuted. Theon Avenor was the second son of a count, he should not be bowing to an orphan.
"No need for that my lord, I was there and I had the means to intervene. Anyone else in the same circumstance would have done what I did." Now she bowed to both of them. "Thank you for the invitation, Sir Iaska, but I really do need to get going."
Before either man could say anything she practically flew out of the room.