• Event • The Orange Crush

[Praetorum]

Winston and the ghosts, it seemed, had their own, rather strong opinions on the matter of these kidnappings. “If we can muster enough ghosts to do everything we need to,” Prae said, “There’s no reason not to.” He supposed he should have expected this from a ghost network that had been attached to Faith in particular. Looking at the ghosts now, he saw a few of them actually bore slave marks. It made a certain, tragic sense. Now that Faith was gone, they would want to take on her legacy, continue her work. He knew he was determined to, in his own way.

The question now was, how to divide the labor efficiently. Prae considered a moment. “What about this? Those who are willing to, and capable of carrying candy help with the rescue efforts, those who are not help sweep the city. We don’t need to search the entire city, either—no slaver is going to transport people to the sky quarter just to bring them back of the city. Let’s start searching the dust quarter first, and if you don’t find anything there, search the earth quarter, starting from the areas nearest to the gates.”

“Even if you can’t find any prisoners, finding empty cages, shackles, or suspicious carriages that lock from the outside would be helpful to help us identify the kidnappers that took all these people. If you see anything that might lead us to them, pass it on to Shinwa, and Shinwa, please compile the information and pass it on to Winston. Vivian and I will be able to receive it as well through the bond.”

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian turned to look at Seira when she spoke up, then reached out and put her hand on her daughters shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll find Seri if she's in trouble. If she's not, she's just been busy." she said, her tone confident and reassuring. She was, admittedly, covering up no small amount for worry about Seri's safety, but she meant what she said. And if someone had kidnapped her, they were very much going to regret it.

When Prae spoke up, she nodded at the big Ithecal. She'd been relying on translators to understand Dandelion and was relieved when she saw him give what she assumed was an explanation to Dandelion. "I have a lot of the knights being very visible at the exits and talking to people. Even in Dust Quarter, we have a reasonably good reputation, so anyone's that directly avoiding interacting with them right now is probably worth taking a second look at." she said to Prae. "I've also got the Inquisitors taking a look for anything suspicious. The moment we have a location, though, I can pull every knight in the Quarter not working on fire control and move against the kidnappers with overwhelming force. She accepted the paper and the martial aid, however. "Thanks for the extra help. A smaller force might be able to keep them from harming any of their victims while the knights get there." she said, nodding.

When Perdita's father arrived, if indeed she was with the rest, she nodded at him and Perdita. "If you could give us a description of her, we'll be able to find her. Rescue operations for anyone that got stuck are underway." she said, her tone polite and calm. Then she turned to the Inquisitors that came to speak to her and nodded at their concerns. "A valid concern. I've assigned knights to keep working at fighting the fire. My ability to control water is shot for the rest of the season, but we should be able to contain and eliminate any remaining fires through conventional means. If they start to get out of hand, we'll open traffic back up again. No one will be served by needlessly endangering the citizenry." she said, her tone calm. "Besides, we've been provided with a good means to catch our kidnappers the moment we have a confirmed victim." she said, holding up the paper Prae had given her.

She looked down at Winston as he co-ordinated with the ghosts, then knelt down to his level. "You were a friend of hers too, huh? I can't see ghosts normally, but Faith called on their help before. Their help will be worth a lot, thank you." she said, her tone gentle. She'd seen the look on his face after she'd revealed the kidnappings. "Don't worry, we'll stop them. That's what the Knights and Skydas are for." she said, her tone showing her confidence again. When Prae spoke up, she nodded with his assessment. "Even if they're selling in the upper quarters, any holding pens will most likely be down here in Dust, if they're keeping them in the city. It's why I constricted travel in and out of the Quarter." she said, before looking in the direction he was speaking. "It's possible they have secret ways out of the city, however. If you find anything that looks like tunnels under the city or the like, especially if you can find places where it looks like people were dragged, that could help as well." she said, her tone calm. Working with ghosts didn't bother her much, at least in terms of potential spookiness, but she did feel a little silly addressing people that she couldn't see.

Off Topic

I'm not sure if Vivian can see the ghosts. She doesn't have anything that specifically gives her the ability to do so, at least.

[Seira Shiryu]

18th Saun, 723

Seira gave her mother a grateful look when she put her hand on her shoulder to reassure her. And her words were as reassuring as her actions were. When her mother promised to do something, it got done. End of story. Seira had complete faith in her mother that she both could and would find Seri and rescue her if she had been kidnapped. So she nodded in acknowledgement of her mother's words, and the expression in her eyes showed her trust, love, and confidence that Seri would be rescued if she needed to be.

Her mother's suggestion that Seri might just be busy too was one that Seira very much wanted to believe. And yet...there was an insistent nagging voice in her head that told her that something bad had happened to her twin. It was possible that if Seri was really caught up in something that she might not realize how long she had been gone. Seira herself was guilty of that, with what was happening here in the Dust Quarter. So although unlikely as it was seeing that Seri loved their furry family members as much as she did, it wasn't completely impossible that Seri had forgotten to feed them. Especially if she was sick or injured, and was being treated in the Order clinic. But nothing would make Seri forget that Seira would worry about her just as she would be worried about Seira. Nor would she forget that home was the first place that Seira would go to look for her as soon as she could do so. There was no note, no anything that suggested that something had called Seri away. Only signs that she had been gone for at least a trial or two. For something like that to happen, Seri would either have had to have been kidnapped, or she was so badly sick or injured that she had been unconscious for the last couple of trials. Otherwise, Seri would have begged the members of the Order to leave a note for Seira or get word to her in some way that she was in the Order clinic. Neither possibility was a good one.

Seira also noticed that her mother was trying to hide how worried she was. Nothing in her mother's tone or expression or tone suggested that she was anything but calm, but she did use Seri's nickname when speaking of Seri. Their mother knew how Seri felt about the use of her nickname as well as she did, so for her to use it in front of people that Seri didn't know or trust, she had to be very worried.

Even so, Seira believed that her mother would save Seri if she needed saving. That knowledge kept her from falling apart, and allowed her to focus on what she could do. So when the ferret that her mother had been talking to asked that anyone who was missing someone to talk to someone named Shinwa, Seira moved to do so quickly.

Shinwa, it turned out was a ghost. Seira had never seen one before, but she did know that they existed. She might have been nervous about talking to one since she knew so little about them and what they were capable of, but she felt braver than usual totrial. As she gave Shinwa a detailed description of what Seri looked like, she felt a sense of joy. It was an odd emotion to have at a time like this, but she guessed that she felt it because she was doing what she could to save her twin if she truly had been kidnapped. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do as long as it was in her power to do so if it meant helping Seri, but she knew that if she tried to help with the attempt to find and rescue the people who had been kidnapped, she would only get in the way. But she could do this. She could give the people who were going to be looking for Seri and the others as much information as she could to help them identify Seri as they searched. When she had done that, she turned back to her mother and the people her mother had been talking to.

"How can I help with the search for survivors?" she asked.

That was something she was confident that she could do too. She had gotten some experience searching for survivors when the sink hole had opened up in the Dust Quarter a couple of arcs ago.

OOC

Prae's Inspire ability is also helping Seira to not fall apart as well as her own meager discipline.

Actions:

1. Return home to tell Seri she is alive and safe.
2. Finds Seri missing.
3. Feeds and gives water to her starving, dehydrated pets and hires a neighbor to feed them while she is gone and to get word to her if Seri returns home.
4. Tells her mother that Seri is missing.
5. Gives a detailed description of her twin to Shinwa.
6. Asks the people in charge how best she can help with the search for survivors of the fire.

[Pig Boy]

Saun 19th-20th 723:
Day Four-Five

The ghosts had no idea of the details that Dandelion was signing at them, as the few of them that had any knowledge of sign had lost it in death, or else were too rusty to understand the intricacies of his instructions. Some of them knew Dehasin, which included some non-verbal communication, but that was radically different from the relatively ostentatious common sign. Nevertheless, the instructions were eventually conveyed, as per the simple instructions, Glasses see candy and ghosts carry candy. And subsequently Praetorum's instructions to these apparitions.

Eventually the volunteers, and ghosts that were willing to help were gathered to search. For the most part, those willing to find survivors in the rubble were small, but the affected area was relatively small compared to the area where they'd need to search for kidnappers and slavers. So it worked out all in all. Those willing to find the survivors each took a lemon and honey drop, and began drifting around the affected rubble of the broken down buildings, searching for any survivors. They conveyed where they needed to, those who were capable, while other less powerful ghosts were set to watch and find likely places where people could conceivablly have survived a collapse.

The fire was all but out, yet smoke and fog covered the streets, making visibility very poor. As the ghosts searched the Dust Quarter for signs of those taken, they saw a few carriage wheels leading out into the roads and wilderness. But nothing to suggest that they were definitely kidnappers carting people out of the city. These carriage tracks went in several directions, toward Caervalle Road, toward MIstral Road, and a larger amount toward the north, toward Ywyngyll.

When Vivian went to meet with the Council, they of course deputized her to act with authorities on this matter. Many in the room seemed concerned. It may have been nothing, but the Voice was particularly perturbed, shifting in his seat and seemed very annoyed, especially when the subject of fire-fighting success was reported.

In the Medical Tents, the healers allowed Perdita to take reports from various people in there, allowing her to draw the faces of the missing and lost, so that they could be identified now or later. The healer sent out a messenger to the command of Praetorum and Winston, informing them that a helpful Perdita was taking descriptions and giving out drawings of the missing loved ones. These papers were subsequently distributed to those who needed to see them.

Perdita's father came somewhat late in the night, as Perdita was finishing up with the drawings, her hands aching with the effort of so much drawing.

The Lightning Knights divided the efforts to find the kidnapping victims, and finding survivors of the fire, moving debris and rubble when a missinig person was reported.

The Knights searched around the Earth Quarter, leaving the Dust to the Ghosts mostly. Unfortunately, no signs of any kidnapping victims, or holding pens were found within the Dust Quarter. However late in the evening, some of the Knights found at least a couple of pen-wagons stationed just outside of sewer entrances in the Earth Quarter, not far from the Mistral Gates, and the Ywyngyll gate to the north.

Survivors were found easily due to Dandelion's glasses, and a good few dozen pulled from the wreckage who were suffering from very bad burns and other injuries related to the collapse. There were probably more dead among the wreckage than living and injured, however the effort was still ongoing as they rolled into morning.

It was a relatively uneventful morning on the 20th of Saun, as the efforts at rescue continued. The weather was inordinately foggy, but hot overhead and humid. The Suns shone through a lot of the smoke and fog at certain points, oppressing all under their gaze.

[Dandelion]

Dan offered his thanks for the translation, handed over the glasses, and accepted the gravedigging assignment with a nod and a grim little smile. He probably was the best choice for something like that. He had long ago accepted that death was a part of life. Death came to people, to animals, to plants. It was a solumn moment, and you thanked whatever, whoever, had died for the life they had given, and then you got on with your own life. He had never really had time to spare just to grieve, he wouldn't be breaking down in tears now. And before the burial, before a grave was used, it was really just a hole dug to a specific size and shape, and that he was more than accustomed to doing.

His eyes continued to flick across faces even as he eased back from the discussion, a habit that allowed him to catch the emotional gist of the conversation even if not the words. Worry, and determination, and hope, and sadness, and a brief spike of awed delight from the cadouri, Winston, at the sight of the glasses. Dan nodded to him, one cook to another, accepted the thanks with a quick grin and spelled out, "Welcome," keeping the letters slow enough to be easily recognisable.

Once the group broke up to their various tasks, Dan headed towards the shelters. He gathered the other Rosebay folk to him with easy gestures, which brought some of the other shelter workers tagging along. "More digging," he told them, "but graves this time."

They looked grim, but generally nodded, and went to fetch their spades. Dan found a flat area of ground that was well clear of the camp, the road, and any water sources, and began to measure and mark out graves with wooden pegs at the corners. A three foot yard was a long stride, so it was two long strides down and one across, then a gap so that the sides of the graves wouldn't be so thin that they crumbled under the weight of mourners and funeral givers.

He set out a row of them, then took a spade and began to dig, letting the rest of the workers spread out, each taking a grave of their own to dig. Spoil and soil heaps were kept close by, piled as neatly as they could be, so that they could be shovelled back in after the graves were filled, but not so close as to interfere with burial.

When the first one was deeper than he was tall (although not as deep as the pit traps that he was used to climbing in and out of), he jumped, got his arms over the edge, hauled himself out, and moved on to the next unstarted grave.

Actions

Located a safe site for graves

Helped to dig a bunch of graves

"Signed words" Spoken words

[Winston]

Where you do your best work...

As Vivian knelt down beside him, he smiled in a welcoming fashion. As she spoke of Faith and the knights nodded as his smile become gentle and her statement touched him deeply.

"Den de Knights 'ave me camplete backin' an' dat af de 'ole af Isonomia."

He offered, perhaps redundantly, but nonetheless with complete and unreserved conviction.

Taking the description of Seri from Serira, the very formally held butler nodded and

took note very effectively into his set of papers

. He also transcribed the information into Winston's Echo scrolls, which Faith had given him, that connected to the Order or Adunih and Isonomi HQ's. Whether this helped or not, enough people could not know about this information, so it could not hurt. Promtnig he for any and all details, hight, eye colour, race, build... nothing was left to be assumed.

As they finished, the ghost reassured her.

"We will do everything within our power to find her."

Winston beamed at Dandelion with delight when he welcome him in Common Sign. Positively chuffed to have communicate with him using his emerging understanding of the language.

Winston was not an incompetent investigator, however the talents needed to run a city-wide search force were far outside his ability and recognise where one was best placed was sometimes a rare and invaluable skill.

He was currently their key driver with the ghosts... He had helped do that. He felt very much that really, Faith had done that, but nonetheless, she had done that for them and now he needed to ensure her efforts paid off. As such, he continued to ensure that the information from the Ghosts, via Shinwa, reached Praetorum and so Vivian and the Knights promptly, while he continued to manage the wells, the kitchen and generally speaking spread joy as he did so.

As the potions came in from the Alchemists, he ensured these reached the medics and fire-fighters to both help them and the worst of the victims they found.

Actions

Continued to encourage the Ghosts to help.

Continued to use Saiore's Mark to spread joy.

Continued to run the Kitchen.

Shinwa continued to co-ordinate/collate the information being gathered with Expert Intelligence.

Ensured that the information from the Ghosts got to the people that needed it.

Distributed the Alchemical Smoke Inhalation potions.

All template credit, love and admiration goes to Pyrre Ej'qy

[Perdita Westcott]

Fire in the Dust....

Her idea with the drawings was accepted as useful by the healers and Perdita was getting on with that. Then,

"Father?"

.

As her father hugged her, Perdita listened to his words. Her mother? Her mother was...

"I haven't seen her."

Perdita was clear. Her mind raced but not in a useful way. Thoughts collided with worried and intermingled with panic which combined to leave her momentarily stunned and unable to think. Her father hugged her and she returned the gesture, clinging on to him. If she had her way she would do that until her mother returned to her, safe and sound. Had her mother been caught in the buildings? Was she trapped somewhere, now, beneath rubble and dust, terrified?

Perdita couldn't begin to think that. She couldn't.

So, she looked at her father and she thought about it for a moment.

"I know who'll help us,"

she said and, with her father in tow Perdita turned and ran from the medical tent. There was one person in her mind at this moment, one person who could help she was sure.

Praetorum.

She didn't know his name, but she had seen him lead and take control and, more than that, being near him made her calm. So, she ran. By the time she got there, tears had cleared lines of clean down her ash-stained face and she ran up to Praetorum - not noticing or caring who else was there, frankly - and she skidded to a halt in front of him.

"My..my mother. Please help me,"

she said to the towering ithecal who she - for reasons she neither knew nor cared to examine - trusted. Her hand reached to his arm, not caring of the glowing band or such,

"My mother is missing."

Tears fell once more and Perdita looked in that moment to be just what she was. A young woman in her early twenties who had not experienced much of anything and who was, essentially, lost.

Noticing that there were others - some she knew like the cadouri Winston, and others she didn't - she reached a shaking hand and undid the locket at her neck. That, she opened and inside it was a drawing of a woman. There were more drawings than that, nestled and concertinaed into that locket, but that was the one she showed. It was done in quite obviously the same style as the drawings which had been being passed around to help find survivors and identify burn victims.

"Her name.. her name is Hermoine Westcott. Please, can you help me?"

Once she had calmed sufficiently to do so, Perdita would continue to help in whatever way she could and she suggested that her father did the same. She wanted to run off and help find her mother, but she knew that she could be more help here. Also, sitting at home and just waiting would not help. So, help here was what she did. Her hands cramped from the drawings she did but Perdita continued to draw people so that loved ones could find their families and friends. Of course, she also drew her mother and asked that this be added to the "please please look for them" pile. But, as she calmed down and focused, Perdita realised something. And then, when she did, she spoke again to Praetorum, but also to the people with him.

"My parents,"

she said.

"They're rich. Are... are other wealthy or influential people missing?"

There was a young woman there, Perdita had seen her in passing and she asked what she could do to help. Perdita frowned slightly at the young woman's words and then she spoke.

"They need help in the medical tent,"

she said, her voice rather sharp as she answered what seemed to be an unnecessary question to her.

"Help there. Or find something else that needs doing and do it"

If the young woman who seemed to be about the same age as her needed that much direction, Perdita could do that. She just hoped that the rest of the people didn't need to be led around like children and, instead, could get on do what so obviously needed doing. Because they were all tired and all worried, but there was still a lot to be done.

Art: GM
Appraisal: Expert (I guess this might be the best one for deciding what folks look like un-burned)

[Seira Shiryu]

19th Saun, 723

Seira was briefly startled by the sudden appearance of a woman who appeared to be about her age. She couldn't help but hear the worry in her voice as the woman asked for help in finding her mother. Seira could all too easily understand being worried about a missing family member given that she herself was worried about her twin.

"Shinwa is taking detailed descriptions of anyone who is missing." Seira told her as she pointed out the ghost in question.

Seira hoped that the people who would be searching for those who had been kidnapped would find the missing people safe and sound. But she knew that bad things happened, and that sometimes people simply just disappeared without a trace. Seira had learned that as a child before she and Seri had been adopted by Vivian. It wasn't something that Seira wanted to think about too closely. Then again, slavery was illegal here in Rharne now, and that was one of the reasons why "unimportant" people disappeared sometimes in Rynmere. So hopefully that wasn't the case here. Of course just because something was illegal, it didn't mean that people who wanted to do it badly enough wouldn't do it anyway...

Seira was grateful for the distraction from her own thoughts that came in the form of a question from the woman who had just arrived. The woman told them that her parents were rich, and asked if there were any other wealthy or influential people that had gone missing.

"My sister Seriel is missing too. We aren't rich or influential ourselves but our mother is a Lightning Knight, and she has a very good reputation among the Knights." she offered.

It seemed as if the woman was suggesting that the people that had been kidnapped had been taken for ransom. If the people who had been kidnapped were all wealthy or influential, then that made a lot of sense. But if they knew that much about their victims ahead of time, wouldn't they also know that she wasn't rich, and couldn't afford to pay a lot of money in ransom? She and Seri did have an expensive house, but it would take time to sell it and Seira didn't think that a kidnapper would want to wait that long for their money. Their mother was rich, but she was also a Lightning Knight, and a high ranking one at that. Seira had no doubts in her mind that their mother would pay anything necessary to get Seri back safely if she was unable to rescue her for some reason. But would the Lightning Knights allow that? Wouldn't it be a bad thing if Lightning Knights could be blackmailed into doing things that would benefit criminals? If they could be blackmailed into paying ransoms for missing loved ones, could they also be blackmailed into not arresting someone, or looking the other way when a crime was committed?

Another thought occurred to her. Could Seri had been kidnapped by someone as a means of revenge? The kidnappers had taken several people based on what she had heard. Were they all taken for the same reason, or did the kidnappers have different reasons for choosing the people that they kidnapped. Did they even choose their victims at all, or did they just kidnap people randomly in the chaos of the fire?

Seira tried to stop thinking about what she couldn't know, or help with and managed to stop that train of thought for the most part. The woman spoke sharply as she mentioned that help was needed at the healers' tent. Her words were not an answer to the question that she had asked, but they were an answer all the same. She had asked her question with the assumption that the leaders would have a system in place for the search of survivors. One that might be disrupted if she acted on her own, and she didn't want to do that. Still, Seira realized that her question was a stupid one all the same, and she felt more than a little embarrassed for asking it and wasting the time of the people who were in charge.

More than ready to get back to work now that she was sure that someone would be looking for Seri, Seira did just that. Not wanting to get in the way of any organized system that might be in place, she found the charred collapsed remains of a building that no one else was searching yet. She carefully looked for any sparks of fire or burning embers that remained, but was not surprised when she didn't see any after the amount of water that had been dumped on the fires. The smoke that clung to the wreckage was thick and it made it hard to breathe, so she ripped a narrow length of cloth from the bottom of her shirt and tied it around her mouth and nose to block out the smoke as best she could. Then she began searching the building for survivors.

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian had noted the Voice seeming particularly annoyed when the topic of the fire fighting had come up during her meeting with the Council. Vivian had described herself as "professionally paranoid" in the past, and had dealt with traitors in the knights ranks before. Nathaniel Dubois was from the Glass Quarter, and a lot of the civilian populace there didn't have much use for the Dust Quarter and its inhabitants. Could he have been responsible for the blaze? Vivian considered the possibility, but wasn't entirely convinced of it. Aside from the complete lack of evidence tying him to the blaze, it was just as likely he was annoyed that they'd been able to stop the blaze before it got out of hand. Granted, that didn't make him a good person, and Vivian didn't entirely discount the possibility, but there were more pressing matters to attend to.

The next day, Vivian gathered up the reports from the Knights and the ghosts. "Ywyngyll and Mistral seem to be the most likely places." she said, fiddling with the Gateway Ring she picked up from her house over the night. She had forgotten the ring the prior day, but with hostage rescue on the menu, she wasn't going to forget something that would let her teleport again. She had also applied her Runes, chaining Strength, Endurance, and Regeneration on each of her limbs, chaining Endurance and Regeneration on her chest, and chaining Diffused Strength, Regeneration and Regeneration Runes at the base of her skull. She would activate them as needed, but she was also wearing her armor and had her sword and shield, so it was mostly backup.

She was taking reports from the knights wherever Praetorum had set up his command center, since he had been running relief efforts in the Quarter before she had shown up. She considered her information for a moment, then nodded to herself. "Prepare six squads of Justicars for a sortie out of the city. Two each to Ywyngyll, Mistral, and Caervalle. They should be prepared for Shadow Quarter trouble, watching for tracks off the road as best they can. It's possible the Shadow Quarter doesn't have their catch all in one holding pen. They're to leave as soon as they're ready. Myself and possibly Praetorum may be joining up with them once they're underway." she said, her tone calm.

"In the city, have the Guardians keep up the checks and assisting with search and rescue. The same for most of the Inquisitors, but I want some looking into the source of the fire. Particularly the business connections of the owner of The Painted Swine. See if we can track down where he's gone and if it's on someone else's nels. Running a tavern in Dust Quarter won't make anyone rich, and if someone bankrolled this fire, I want to know about it." she said, her tone blunt. She still didn't particularly suspect Dubois, but he wasn't the only Glasser that disliked the Dusters, and one of them may have paid to burn the place to the ground.

Following that, she sent a message to Winston through the Qylios Bond, asking him to thank the ghosts for their help and to let her know if there's any supplies that Isonomia would need. Next, when Perdita came in, Vivian took down the information on her mother and nodded at her concern. "We've had several missing persons reports. I can't make a claim as to the motives of any kidnappings, but we are going to deal with anyone that's been snatching up our people." she said, her tone gentle, so as not to upset her any more.

After that, she took out the paper Praetorum had given her. "All right, lets see if this trick is going to work." she said, taking out a piece of paper and writing down a simple message. "Where are you?" was all it said, and it was addressed to Hermoine Wescott. Vivian hated, hated not choosing to use Seri's name first, but she didn't know how well she'd be able to control herself if something went wrong and she'd written down her daughters name. Using a name that was a step removed would help her keep balanced. Once it was in the air, she told Praetorum what was done and went to follow it. She'd take control of whichever Justicar squads, if any, were going in the direction of the paper. Otherwise, she'd have to hold on her own until reinforcements arrived.

[Praetorum]

Everyone took quickly to their appointed tasks, Dandelion to the graves, Winston to organize the ghosts, Vivian the rescue operations. Before they all scattered to begin them, however, someone else approached, visibly distraught. When Perdita asked for help to find her missing mother, Praetorum nodded, gently laying a hand over hers where she was grasping his arm. “We’ll do what we can,” he promised. It was strange, though—Perdita did not have the look of one who lived in the Dust Quarter, or even the Earth Quarter, and she had shown up with enough supplies to make quite a large difference. Her next words only confirmed what he’d suspected. These were not people who would have normally been in the Dust Quarter, and were not very likely to have been caught in the blaze.

But since her daughter was here, it was, perhaps, possible she had been coming to speak with Perdita, or come to help herself, and had been captured on the way. Which meant they had the name of someone who was quite likely to have been kidnapped by the shadow quarter.

“Vivian,” Prae said, but the knight was one step ahead of him. Pulling out the paper, she was already crafting a message to Perdita’s mother, so Praetorum left her to it, with a final reassurance to Perdita that they would find her soon.

With that now in Vivian’s hands, Prae considered what they needed now. There were groups searching for both the living and the dead, there were healers helping those who needed it… The fire was more or less out by now, but smoke and ash made visibility poor. There was a chance more kidnappers would try to take advantage.

Gathering up those of his mercenaries who were not going with Vivian, Prae set them to patrolling the Dust Quarter, guiding people to the basecamp if they wanted to, breaking up fights and scaring off looters if they found them.

He also tasked several of the ghosts to follow the carriage tracks, see where they led. Just in case.