“What is a… Wiki? And how did they escape?” Andovar was unhappy with news that his strange prisoners had just disappeared. “I don’t know, but that’s what they were talking about when I last checked on them – something about how none of this was in the Wiki, and how they were lost here forever. There was some panic and frustration in their heated conversation, and some spoke using words we did not understand. But they all seemed to know each other, and kept talking to each other as if they were discussing a play.”
Sergeant Andovar was having a very hard time explaining the events of the day. Several groups of foreigners had mysteriously appeared on the Tradesway. Some were of races that were very unusual to this area, but that in and of itself is not what concerned him. Most of them did not know anything about Arladon, or even the Red Venom Plains. But still, that did not concern him. Most of them vanished after a while – and that is what concerned him.
He would find hints of travels – abandoned campsites, corpses of both predators and would-be muggers, even treasures abandoned, as if the strange travelers were teleported away without their consent. None of them had thus far been a problem, but it was his job to keep the Tradesway safe for merchants and laborers, and a plague of strange foreigners that did not know the local laws was a concern.
Kadrin, one of his aides, broke his chain of thought. “Sergeant, what if they are teleporting? Is there a portal we don’t know about?” Andovar could not imagine such a thing, or the implications that would have. The Portals connect all the major cities, and predate the banishment of the gods. And he was very certain that there wasn’t one in his wagon.
Andovar didn’t want to be involved in anything he couldn’t understand. He tried to stay away from the Elves of Far’Telor, even when they traveled his road with goods too big to travel through the portals. He stopped lawbreakers and tax evaders and those whowould flee the mercy of the Crown.
But disappearing Sand Elves, traveling with Deep Dwarves and Hill Sprites? Andovar could not explain this, nor would he. Turning to Kardin, he summoned his most authoritative voice. “We will not mention them to anyone. Perhaps they were a magic spell cast on us, or a fey charm. We are not ready to handle disappearing prisoners like that. And reporting this to the Lords would cast doubt on real threats.” Kardin looked confused, but nodded his head in agreement.
They continued their patrol, heading back to Arladon with an empty prison cart. Before long they saw a group of Humans sitting on the side of the road, looking confused. And then they spoke to each other using a weird secret phrase…
WASSSSSSUPPPPP!??
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