(TFT) SOLO III part 022

["David Michael Grouchy II" <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>]

Solo III
Demon World
Part 022

     Next Rebecca calls "Julie."  All the kids look to one girl who gets up 
from a table triumphantly.  She walks over to the carpet like she knows 
every eye is on her, and sits down with a little flourish.  The other kids 
look on with envy.
    "Close your eyes and concentrate." Gail says.  You do too, and the next 
instance the three of you are floating in the cosmos.  Infinite stars shine 
in perfect clarity.  Julie's head swivels around like a tourist.
    "Think about you mom or your dad."  You and Gail are thinking of Julie 
and the next moment the two of you are floating next to her in a foyer of 
some regal estate.  Julie is looking at a maid sponge cleaning the marble 
floor.  She walks around the maid a little, then looks to you.
    The next moment the three of you are in a large kitchen where breakfast 
is being cooked.  You can't smell any of it, but the sight triggers smell 
memories.  Fried sausage, boiled eggs, slices of oven ham, a big pot of 
potatoe soup, and many many different golden breads.
   Suddenly you and Gail are in a garden where a man in cover-alls and a 
straw hat is trimming the hedge.  Julie walks up to his right side.  She 
just stands there next to him in astral form.  Watching him clip leaves.  
She seems to be hypnotized by the rythm of the shears.  She's just standing 
there, being close to the gardener.
   Gail walks up and puts a hand on her shoulder.  "We need to give the 
others a turn."  All three of you open you eyes and you are back on the 
carpet.  Sitting in circle facing each other.

    Most are children of servants.  Minor servants of very powerfull 
people.  Butlers assistant, cook, gardener, animal handler, seamstress, and 
other types of household servants.  Almost all the rest are children of 
magicians.
    After seeing the meger labs their parents work in you realize that your 
lab downstairs is very expensive and better equiped.  In fact one childs 
mother is a magician at a large guild hall with a huge lab.  And that lab 
isn't stocked with half of what you have.
    Out of all the children''s parents there are two interesting 
exceptions.  An orphan and a prince.  The orphan takes you and Gail to an 
alley where other kids hanging out.  You can see blankets behind and inside 
abandoned crates and boxes.
    The prince appears at the side of a Queen sitting before her vanity.  
She is being attended by four ladies in waiting.  They are helping her 
prepair her face.  Her thin gold crown sits on the vanity table by her right 
hand.  And there is great sadness in her eyes.

    It all goes quickly, and only one child cries when they come back.  
Laura, Jenifer, and Hildi, who seem so similar to each other, have totally 
different parents.  Hildi's mother lives in a cottage alone.  Out in the 
woods somewhere.  She is making potions.  Jenifer's mother runs a salon.  
Very aristocratic clientel of genteel ladies come there to buy magical 
beauty secrets.  And Laura has a den mother.  Her living room is full of 
children and she it teaching them to read.  It looks like some kind of day 
care or home school.

    Then comes Rebecca.  She has a father and six brothers.  They are hard 
working ranchers with fine looking horses and cattle.  But Her mother is no 
where to be found.  The three of you wind up by a small grave.  Rebecca 
seems saddened by the news.
    Ada doesn't want to go.  At first.  And she is the last to sit on the 
carpet.  When she does, she insists that Gail go before her.
    Gails mother and father are working together in a small shop selling 
herbs, animal parts, and other magical ingreedients.  They seem to sense 
Gail's presence.  They stop working and look at each other.  A brief moment 
of sadness.  Then they turn away and loose themselves in their work.
    Ada spends a bit of time just looking at the stars and working up the 
nerve.  Finally the three of you appear next to her parents.  They are 
wearing perfect suits of mithril plate mail, with staves of power and long 
swords at their sides.  They lead a large escort of guards in iron plate 
with nasty looking spikes, and they are traveling down a road.  There is a 
large wagon that is a cage and contains many silent children.
    They seem to be collection agents for the demons.  Collectors of 
children.  Maybe they gave up their own child willingly, as a show of 
loyalty.  Either way, due to the magical nature of their helmets the husband 
wife team immediately perceive the three of you.  They stop their horses and 
just stare at Ada like she is a ghost.  Ada grows scared and returns to the 
carpet instantly.

David Michael Grouchy II

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