Smart Boy

She shook her head, "Nope, I'm not. I came from a different village, quite a distance away from here."

Caster nodded, stroking his moustache. "Could you recount the details of what happened yesterday?"

She nodded, "Well, Lycster the boy, he decided to run off after a small fight we had. I ran after him and could not find him. I noticed there were tracks on the ground so I gave chase. I knew I could not have caught up with it but I still wanted to try."

To make it seem more realistic, Vy paused for a few moments in thought, as if she was recalling the details before she continued speaking.

"I was using a spell of light to light my way and had my dagger in my other hand as I followed the tracks closely. But by the time I found the carriage, it had gone off the tracks and I could not find anyone," Vy continued to tell the story.

Caster listened intently, and asked, "So you made a guess, and went with your instincts. What happened next?"

"Since I could not find anyone, I made my way back to the town. But I also heard the howl of a wolf, deafening howl. I was surprised and I didn't know what I should do so I made a run for the town, and thought for a while it might be good to hide out in the bushes. Eventually, I made my way back to town and found Lycster. That was when I found out about the other children as well."

Caster simply nodded as he listened to Vyrena speak. In his mind, he wondered if he could believe her words. After being alerted by his subordinates about what had happened, he sent messages out to all his informants in the town to gather as much information as he could.

The children that had been rescued, apart from Lycster, have all been taken in by the Council and are currently under protection. When they tried to speak to them, none of them said a single word. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that all of them had been cursed so that they could not speak.

However, they were able to match the children to several missing people reports. They turned out to be children who had been missing over the past few months. One of the children had been missing for over two years. When the children were being questioned, they simply nodded or shook their heads to answer.

Until a mage could be found to lift the curse, there was no way of knowing for certain what had happened.

Upon finding out about Vyrena, Caster made sure all details about her could be found. Her background was the most mysterious because there was no record of her. This was her first time in Timbretune, hence very little was known about her. His informants were hard at work, gathering what information they could.

But from his interactions with her, Vyrena Blackfire seemed normal enough.

"Did you see anything odd? While you were in the forest," he asked.

Vy shook her head, "No. The howl was loud and that was really unusual, but other than that, no. Is something wrong?"

"No no, nothing is wrong. What about the carriage? Did you see anyone else near the carriage when you saw it?"

Vy thought for a while before she answered, "No, I thought that was odd too. When I was there, the carriage was turned to the side and there was no one around. No horses either."

Just then, there was a knock on the door and a man in uniform walked in. He saluted to Caster and bent down to whisper in his ear. Vy used her enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on what the man whispered to Caster.

"We have finished taking the statement from the boy, sir. Nothing out of the ordinary except," the man paused, "the boy said they were rescued by a giant wolf."

Caster raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

The man continued to speak, "We confirmed it with the other children, they all agreed with the boy's statement as well."

Vyrena let out a breath of air.

-Good job, Lycster. You smart boy.-