[Inquire, Location]
I sat in the library drinking a cup of Jasmine tea, I still felt a little groggy. I’d created my first magical field and I was out for twenty four hours. I was proud, I was stupid, I’d basically created a ball of magic that you couldn’t do anything with except maybe magically protect a toad stool.
So I'd created something useless, my first short story, about Mr Frog and how he saved the princess. I think I was seven, it was useless, but I was still proud because I’d created something that didn’t exist before in the universe. If you don’t believe in heaven and hell and gods and demons. You have to decide why you’re here, why you exist at all and what you plan to do with the finite amount of time you have to live.
So I’d chosen to create, first text, now magic. Opal’s choice is art, Lu’s song, Lily’s baking and on and on. Wow twenty four hours of sleep really mess with your head, I guess it’s time to get dressed and go for a walk.
“Rose, are you here, Sparky said you had the day off. We have a problem.”
Paula walked in with Councilman Underhill.
“Sorry I just got up a little while ago.”
“I’ll speak to Lu she shouldn’t be keeping you up that late, Rose, it’s not good for your health.”
“You’re not going to tease me, if you need my help, with something.”
“Fine Rose you win, Councilman Underhill do you want to explain the problem to her?”
“Yes Paula, Rose we’d finished the theater and had just started on the foundation and corner posts for the actor’s retirement home. Yesterday when we came in to begin the exterior walls, we found two of the corner posts ripped out and the other two had been knocked out of alignment.”
“So you’d been vandalized you think?”
“Yes. so the entire team spent all of yesterday resetting the foundation and the posts. When we arrived this morning, it was even worse, instead of knocking over or ripping out the posts, they’d been sawed off flat with the ground. It’ll take at least two days to repair the damage and obtain new posts.”
“So it’s not a case of some troubled kids taking out their aggressions, rather someone or ones actively trying to sabotage the project. Did anything like this happen with the theater construction?”
“No, not really. We had a few construction supplies disappear from the site, nothing very costly and not enough to slow down construction. Gnome Construction Company has a reputation for on time or earlier than promised completion of work. This sabotage is putting our reputation in jeopardy.”
“I understand, let’s go talk to the Burgomaster and see about getting some protection. What do we owe you so far for the theater?”
“Cost, just the cost.”
“Could you give us some idea what that is, so we can gather the funds, please, we’ve been concerned about this, you’ve done such a beautiful job, we’d like to pay for the theater now.”
“You’re not firing us are you?”
“No Councilman Underhill, not at all, we are so very happy with the speed and the quality of your work. It is unmatched. We just want to give what is owed and perhaps a deposit for the retirement home.”
“I understand, I think it’s around twenty gold pieces, possibly one or two more.”
“Councilman Underhill, that can’t possibly be right.”
“It is correct I have the invoices for the materials we had to purchase, I’ll prove it to you. I’m not trying to cheat you.”
“No sir we’re not trying to accuse you of cheating us, rather the other way around, it can't possibly be such a low amount. The material alone must be five times that figure or more, sir.”
“No the wood is free, we have a gnome crew working in the woods, harvesting the trees. We have to pay for nails and cement. We could make the cement thus eliminating the cost, but would slow construction considerably. If that’s what you want for the retirement home, we’ll do that.”
“No, not at all. Please buy the cement. But what about the labor, the salary for the gnomes.”
“Salary is free, gnomes have donated their time. This is a civic project. This town took in the whole gnome colony when other towns and cities would not. Gnomes always work for free on civic projects. Besides, Gnomes altered the theater plans and added a section of box seats just for the gnomes so that they can come and watch their children perform in plays.”
“Well that is very generous of them, and you. Do Gnomes happen to like pizza?”
“Yes very much.”
“Let’s go see the Burgomaster.”
I quickly got dressed, then Paula pulled out a portal muffin, the little blue demon ate it and opened a portal for us to town hall. The Burgomaster was in and would see us immediately. We were ushered into his office, he jumped up, came around the desk and shook each of our hands.
“I heard the theater had been completed but didn’t expect you all to show up to tell me about it. Great job Orin, I walked by it yesterday it looks perfect just like that picture of the Globe Theater you based the plans upon. My daughter Ilina is looking forward to the acting lessons.”
I began. ”That’s why we are here, Burgomaster, the site of the Actor’s Retirement home has been struck twice. By either vandals or saboteurs, two nights in a row, we’re hoping that you’d be able to send some guard to the site and catch the culprits if they come back for a third night in a row.”
“I see, this is very troubling indeed. I’ll send Dogberry and a few of his fellow guards. What time do the gnomes leave Orin?”
“They leave at ten O’clock and return at four.”
“Okay, good we’ll guard it from nine thirty till four. Whoever is doing this is when you are off site right?”
“Yes, both times were after the gnome had left for the day.”
“We’ll put a stop to it tonight.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
***
They didn’t. The new holes that were dug for the new posts, had been filled in with cement. Which meant another day lost, at least. Dogberry was waiting for me when I arrived at the book store.
“Rose ma’am, we let you down ma’am. Five or six suspects snuck onto the site and were by one of the post holes. Before they could cause any harm one of the guards alerted the others and we moved in to capture them. But they saw us coming and ran off, we gave chase, in hopes of capturing them. We lost them somewhere close to the library where they all split up in different directions. Then we went back to the site to find the destruction. This was entirely my fault ma’am, we should have sent one or two guards in pursuit and the rest should have remained on guard.”
“No Dogberry this isn’t your fault, this is some kind of plot. There must be at least ten or twelve people actively trying to sabotage this project. But it just doesn’t make any sense why it’s being done. I’ll come tonight to keep watch with you and I’m sure Paula will accompany me. Lu would but unfortunately she has an obligation once a month she just can’t get out of and it’s tonight, of all nights.”
“We’re coming too, Rose.”
McCracken had heard about the sabotage from Paula the night before as he and Gigi had been putting final touches on the theater in anticipation of the other actors' arrival.
“Okay but make sure Draco doesn’t hear about this, he’s still recovering from creating that massive magical field. We can handle it. Meanwhile, if the theater is ready, let's bring the other actors over and put them in the tower until the retirement home is completed. I know that is too far for some of the actors to walk on a daily basis, so we’ll use portal muffins to transport them from the tower to the theater and vice versa.”
Next I went to tell Paula the bad news and to ask if she wanted to help out, she already knew that Lu was indisposed, this being the night of the full moon. Lu would need to remain in the tower. Next I went back to the tower to ask Daisy if she'd like to help, as expected she and Doug were both in. Doug couldn’t do much but he could be Daisy’s voice.
Just after dark, I went to the watch house to make a plan with Dogberry, then headed to the construction site to begin a long night of surveillance.
***
I went over the plan with everyone, then we the non guard guards went to sit in the shadows of the theater. The first group of vandals arrived a little after midnight. As planned, Dogberry and company gave chase. Also we stayed in the shadows but stood so we were ready to move.
A few minutes later around ten black shadows came into view, I waited until they were close enough then asked Daisy to levitate the closest hooded shadow, while I blew the whistle. Dogberry and company came jogging back into view while the nine shadows not levitated fled, a couple of Dogberry’s men gave pursuit. Daisy gently lowered the hooded vandal into the arms of the guard.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
No reply.
“If you don’t explain what is going on here, we will press charges against you, you’ll likely go to jail for crimes against your community.”
No reply.
“Guardsman Dogberry, we’d like to press charges, if the vandal wishes to speak, you know where to find me.
Two more guards came back with another of the vandals between them. The guards were Nora and Bob. I said hello to them both, and asked if their prisoner had talked. Both shook their heads negatively.
“Look you don’t want to go to jail do you, just tell us why this is being done. You can’t possibly have anything against these people, they aren’t even here yet.”
He still refused to reply.
We decided to stay until four when the gnomes reported for work. We had wasted a lot of people guarding and only caught the two silent suspects. But our ace in the hole would be with us tomorrow night.
***
The two vandals were still locked up and neither of them had said a word. It was very frustrating but at least the gnome's work hadn’t been ruined. It was also troubling that at least twenty Wyldwood residents would be trying to stop our project before it ever got a chance to even start.
How could five old actors from Earth cause such animosity I wondered? When I filled Lu in on the previous night’s activities she agreed to help, her strength and tracking skills were sorely needed. We decided to stick to the same plan. The guardspeople guarded while all our friends hid in the shadows. The first feint arrived, Dogberry and company pursued. We stood up and prepared for the real attack.
They came in slower tonight, and it looked like they were carrying clubs. Paula pulled out her stun pistol and handed it to me while picking up a piece of scrap wood from the ground as did McCracken, Gigi and Lu.
“Wait, let me try something else first. Someone will get seriously hurt if we all use clubs on each other, and Daisy will protect me.”
I put my hands up and walked slowly toward the approaching group.
“I only want to talk, I’m no threat. I have no weapons.”
Well I did have that stun thing but I’d put it in my pocket. I could see they were talking amongst themselves.
“Why are you doing this? Talk to me Please maybe we can work something out.”
I kept talking and walking, until two of them grabbed me and I jumped to Tranquility Two or as Sparky had dubbed it Prison World. As soon as we were there I had my Bibliomancer powers and just froze the two who’d grabbed me. Pried myself free and jumped back to where I stood moments before. I reached out and touched two more and jumped back to prison world, froze these two and jumped back, by now the rest of the vandals were scared and started running away.
I’m not much of a runner but did manage to reach out and touch another of the vandals and jumped again freezing them. I jumped back to see that Lu and the rest of my friends had begun to pursue the remaining five. So I had five on ice but remained here with Gigi, I didn’t want to leave her here alone in case the vandals circled back.
“Gigi, I haven’t seen you around at all. I heard you’re working in the theater. What are you doing?”
“I’ve just been helping out with stage crew jobs, eventually Nathan says the jobs will be taken over by the kids, but for now they need me so I’m happy to help out.”
“That’s really nice of you, you like him don’t you?”
She stammered a little. “What are you talking about?”
“You two had such good chemistry together in that story, it makes sense that you’d have it in real life too.”
“I do like him, but he has a history with Paula and I’m not sure he’s over her.”
“Well she’s over him. From what she told me she wasn’t that into him to start with, so just give him time.”
The guardsmen had caught two tonight but they were as silent as their previously captured vandals had been. I told Dogberry that I had five more held securely in another world. He asked me to keep them there as their cells were close to capacity. Wyldwood had very little crime, that’s what made this so perplexing.
Lu came back dragging another one giving him to Dogberry, he too refused to talk. Lu came over and told me he knew exactly where all of them had met before coming as a group to the construction site.
“Dogberry, could you please come to the tower around noon? We have a lead, thanks to Lu and we could probably catch them all at once.”
“Certainly Rose, ma’am.”
