The Distraction - Part 4

"It's a front!"

"I think you mean this is the front," Sylvia replied with confusion.

"No, I mean it's… the grocery store is a cover for the slavery operation."

It annoyed her that just simple things people knew on Earth didn't always easily translate for Thalassia.

Anyway, she checked and double-checked, but from where they saw the hidden entrance, and the building behind it from before, this was the only building that was in front of the door. Looking down the side, she could see that the building was an 'L' shape, where part of it sat against the wall. On the other side was just some unassuming building with no one living in it as far as she could see.

It had to be a front for slavery. And it was quite a good one as well. No one would suspect a grocery store to be involved in slavery, and with all those extra mouths to feed, no one would look twice to a grocery store buying a load of food from traders. It was a very good cover.

The house next door was empty, if anything it could have been brought by the slavers. All they needed it for was to act as a wall on the other side, stopping people from seeing what they were doing. She couldn't see why there would be an empty house with the number of people that travelled here otherwise.

The question now however was how to deal with them. How were they going to get the evidence they needed to show that they were slavers?

…

"Why are we not going in?" was the first question Sylvia asked.

Standing outside, they could see plenty of people heading in and out of the store. It acted just like a normal grocery store, and Octavia was sure that heading through the entrance would either benefit them in no way or end with the slavers possibly finding out they were not human. Being a front, it was highly unlikely there would be anything in the shop front that showed they were slavers. And all it took was one slip-up for them to realise the two girls walking in could be new merchandise.

So, after telling Sylvia all that, rather than walk into the belly of the beast, they took their patronage elsewhere while they thought up a plan.

"We could try to get in through the hidden entrance," Sylvia stated.

That was one option. The problem with this was that they had no idea who would be behind the wall. And besides, it's not easy to break down a palisade wall. It's used for defence for a reason.

Another option that Octavia thought of was to sneak in through the front at night.

But again, a similar problem presented itself.

If you are a bunch of slavers, with a load of slaves to deal with, where are you likely to be staying? She couldn't imagine they would be residing in houses around or outside the village, or if they did, only a few would. A good number of them would probably be staying in the shop. It was a rather large L-shaped building so there was likely room. Plus they may even be residing in the house next door, just using it as a place to sleep.

They had no clue how many there were, or where they would be.

Which is why they needed to find out.

…

Heading to the local Inn, they purchased a room for the next few nights. They had no idea how long it would take them to deal with the slavers, so kept an additional night just in case.

They then wandered around, getting the lay of the land as Octavia spoke about her plan to learn about these people.

Which boiled down to a stakeout.

The shops in the town would be closing in a few hours. By that point, all the civilians would have left the grocery shop, meaning the only ones inside were the slavers.

Then, like anyone else, they would at some point in the night, head to where ever they went in order to rest their head.

Should no-one leave the grocery store, then it was clear they were all living inside. But, it was possible some left the shop to sleep elsewhere, something of which they would like to take note of.

Lastly was the building next door. As far as Octavia could see, it was a weak point. It might be just the place they could go to, to see what was happening behind the shop where the hidden entrance was. That was assuming no one was sleeping inside the building and it had windows on that side. Which was again, something they would check when staking them out.

This would take them most of the night.

And while it helped with actually learning about the slavers. It still didn't help with exposing them.

…

"If only we had a camera."

"A cam-er-ra. What's that?"

As she had expected, a camera meant nothing to Sylvia. But, that's not to say there isn't something else in this world that works similarly to one. And so, she explained the concept in simple terms to her.

"I've never heard of something like that before. But…I'm pretty sure I've heard there is magic that can 'hold a likeness of what your eyes behold'. That should work right?"

"Yes, I think it will. Is it a spell or-"

"No idea. I've just heard about it before from some travellers."

If they could get that, they should be set for gathering evidence.

She didn't expect there to be a ledger showing all the transactions of slaves or anything. With the literacy rate in this world, she doubted a group of slavers would have something like that. But, if they managed to find a way into where the slaves were being kept, that would solve the problem. Even though they would probably just look just like a group of prisoners, she was sure an image of that would be more than enough to get Lord Desmon to at least look into things. Doubly so if they could see the slave collars they were wearing.

But now, how would they find whatever could do that?

…

With a couple of hours left before they wanted to stake out the place, they headed to the shops. Not knowing what could actually provide this magic, they ended up being quite vague when asking around.

The closest place and first on the list was the general store, wondering if it was some odd item that had the ability to do so. But, the shopkeeper and the patrons had no idea what they were on about, so all they left with was some more rations and replacements for anything they used up on their trip.

They tried the blacksmith which was nearby but that was quite the longshot. If anything, Octavia wanted to go there mainly to see what weapons they had. But like before, it was mostly disappointment they got back, both on the weapon front and the possible item that could capture what your eyes behold. Most of the gear there was farming equipment and tools, rather than weapons. But from a chat with the proprietor, they did make them to order. Something that would come in handy for finding Sylvia a good weapon to use, once this slavery business was taken care of or they had free time.

Next was a herbalist, hoping it was some plant or a mixture of them that could do that sort of magic. But ask they asked, again they received a resounding no. It also occurred to Octavia then how would you see the image if all you do is ingest a load of herbs? What could play it back?

There were a few more shops they could have gone to, but they were sure it would lead to nothing. She didn't see how a stable and armour would have anything to do with magic.

This meant that the last place on the list was the apothecary.

But neither of them held out hope.

As they asked questions, they realised it had to be either object or item of such that provided the magic to capture the image, or it was actually a spell that one did. If it was the spell, they were screwed and would need to find some other way to record the evidence.

They could wander around trying to find someone who could perform the spell, but come on. The amount of time it would take to ask all these people whether they could perform such magic would be ridiculous. Then there would be the need to try and recruit them to take down a slavery ring, assuming they weren't part of the group of slavers anyway. Not many people would just agree to something like that, especially since their life would probably be on the line.

No, so they needed it to be an object that could perform this magic, otherwise they would need a plan b.

And with an apothecary selling potions and the like, finding a magical item within its walls was extremely unlikely.

But, it was close to closing time for all the shops, so this was a last-ditch effort before they headed off to stake out the grocery store.

Besides, they might even find some potions that could help them out with this. Invisibility perhaps. Or even being able to look through walls.

Not that she could recall any potions like these appearing in the shop in the capital.

'Huh.'

She was having a hard time remembering what the shop in the capital actually looked at inside.

It couldn't have been anything too impressive if she had just pushed it out of her memory.

Shaking her head, she got back to the matter at hand, where they soon they reached the entrance to the store and stepped inside. Well, slithered for Octavia, obviously.

Where as they entered they were greeted by a bell chiming at the door, and the smiling face of the shopkeeper standing behind her counter.

But as they walked into the building, one thought dominated all others in Octavia's head as she looked at the shopkeeper.

'She looks so familiar. Have I seen her before?"