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.
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