"Miasma? I saw a report about the devils from children's stories showing up on the battlefield, but I didn't think they were true. Yet you're telling me there might have been an actual devil in the city. Have they already made it this far?" Jeffery rubbed his forehead frustrated at how much extra work this was going to cause.
"I don't think the devils have made it this far yet. It looked like he was being affected by some kind of spell or drug instead. It's much more likely that some criminal organization has developed a method of using miasma to drive others insane while giving them great strength." Gregory advised.
"Or that such a method is being spread by certain people." Chronos added.
A single mad researcher was all it would take to start spreading it to other criminals.
"Do you think the five-fingers are involved in its development?" Jeffery asked.
Chronos shook his head. "Unlikely, Fat Man was too surprised to have been faking it. Unless whoever handles drugs or magic never told him about this experiment."
"That might be possible. From what I've heard each finger runs their own crime syndicate and they only meet every so often to discuss what comes next. They aren't a monolithic organization." Jeffery informed them.
"Now if that was all I'll move onto the ladies next." Both of them turned to face Lyla and Sariah who were playing a game of ladders while waiting.
Lyla looked back at them for a moment before speaking, "We weren't that involved in what was going on and don't have much to add."
"Anything you say could help deal with the criminals more easily and would be appreciated."
"Alright. We were in the city enjoying shopping when we noticed that we were being followed. It was just after visiting a clothing store selling precious silks, we were buying some dresses for when we meet with nobles later on. The people following us were from the second paladin order, but when we entered bakery street they left.
After that I didn't notice anybody else for a little while then some men dressed in poorer clothing entered a high-end pastry shop nearby and I realized they were the new tail. Instead of going back the two of us decided to go on a tour of all the shops in bakery street instead."
"And they just followed you? They didn't try to interfere?" Jeffery interrupted her.
"They did try to get ahead of us occasionally, but Sariah kept throwing [Flicker Mark] at them, causing them to see illusions of us going different directions. Besides they couldn't kidnap us as there were too many people watching but not enough to disappear into the crowd." Lyla said.
"At one point we had to stop for tea while they caught up to us again." Sariah chimed in.
That must have been when Chronos found them, but he had decided to go after Gregory instead of joining them.
"After tea we took a leisurely tour of the rest of bakery street until we reached the end of the street. At that time one of them rushed forward and attempted to stuff Sariah into a sack but they weren't quite fast enough."
"Nimsy cursed them with a nightmare." Sariah proudly declared.
Lyla nodded as she continued, "When they hit the ground unconscious the rest of them abandoned secrecy and tried to capture us. The thugs don't have very high resistance so most of them fell to Sariah's curses before the guard paladins arrived. I thought they were going to help us, but they immediately tried to tie us up, so I beat them until they stopped moving."
"You didn't think to explain what was going on?" Jeffery raised an eyebrow at her.
"I tried but one of them shouted 'You're clearly in the wrong! Shut up and come with us!' with a really creepy grin on his face. I knew that they were working together when I heard that."
"How could you know for certain? He might have just thought you had started the fight and was moving to arrest you."
"I'm a priestess of the Goddess of order, one of the three Goddesses of the Tri-Goddess church. I always know when someone has betrayed order, especially after they took an oath to uphold it." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Right." Jeffery tiredly said. "Now I just need to find evidence of their betrayal."
Finding out that a part of his men were traitors along with some of those in the second order had been a big blow to him. And thinking about how he might dig out any other traitors was giving him a headache.
The leader of the second order definitely wouldn't listen to him without solid evidence so he would have to be very careful with how he approached this problem.
Seeing him rubbing his forehead once more Chronos decided to offer him some support.
"If you'd like I could write a letter of introduction to the Matriarch or the commander of the first order. I'm certain they would be happy to help you find the traitors as fast as possible. Dealing with the devil drug seems like a more serious issue."
"If you could do that for me, I would be indebted to you. Thank you. Unfortunately, I do still have to put you in a cell until someone comes to get you or we can confirm your story, city rules and all." He apologized as he stood up and held the door open for them.
Nodding Chronos said, "Alright, do you have enough cells for us or are we being put in the same cell?"
"If the ladies don't mind, I'll put all of you in one cell. I need the space for others today."
Agreeing they filed out, they were led to a hallway with metal bars lining both sides. They were heckled by prisoners in other cells as they walked down the hallway, but ignored them as long as they didn't go too far. But Jeffery wasn't so forgiving.
Bang! He struck the bars. "Keep your hands in the cells! These people aren't prisoners, their witnesses!" He shouted at them. "Sorry about this unpleasantness. I'd put you in a private room, but all of our secure rooms are currently being used to contain the traitors Miss Lyla beat up."
"No problem, we'll deal with them if they get out of hand." Chronos replied, aware that Gregory was already secretly spreading his threads to all of the nearby cells in case he had to kill them.
Jeffery led them to the very end and opened a medium sized cell for them.
"I'll see about confirming your story as fast as possible." He said as he passed a paper and quill to Chronos so he could write a letter of introduction.
Before he walked away Chronos said, "If you could send someone to inform Micheal in the loading area he'll come get us soon enough."
"Got it."
As he left the other prisoners heckling became worse while the guards at the entrance pretended not to see anything. As long as they didn't try to break out of their cells it wasn't their problem to deal with.
"Hello ladies, why don't you come over to our cell, and we'll show you a good time. Hehehe." One of them called out to raucous agreement.
Chronos mockingly glanced at them while writing. "If you want your little brother to stay attached to your body, I suggest you leave the ladies alone."
"What? You going to cut it off? A brat like you doesn't even know how to hold a knife properly." They laughed at him.
"The ladies don't need my help; they can kick your butt on their own. The half a dozen guards that tried to kidnap them found that out the hard way." Chronos gave them one last warning.
That quieted them down for a moment before loudly laughing. As tough as they liked to pretend to be, they couldn't beat one guard yet two women had beaten 6 of them? Not a single one of them believed that story and started spewing more vulgarities at them.
As they became more vulgar one of the stronger, more arrogant prisoners in the cell next to theirs tried to reach out and touch them through the bars.
Bang! Bam! Crack! Aaaahh!
"Next time you try that I'll let Sariah curse you!" Lyla yelled after slamming him into the bars and breaking his arm.
That shut them up. No one else was brave enough to try anything again. After writing the letter Chronos took out a pan of lasagna and some dishes he had stored before.
"Do you guys want a slice?"
"Sure, how did you make a pan of lasagna while onboard the ship? We didn't have any pasta, did we?" Sariah said.
"The apprentice archivists were going to throw out all of the food that was about to go bad and load up with fresh food here, so I offered to take it instead. They gave me anything they weren't using and with Chronos's storage we can keep the meals fresh for a week or more." Lyla informed her.