Friends in a Foreign Land

Eric sent Mira and Alexis to the left, Regina and Ramiro to the right while he took the center aisle. They all walked slowly, searching for their prey. Eric found a drop of blood and then another. After determining the direction, he whistled for the others. Once together, he pointed to the blood droplets on the floor and continued to follow them, leaving the area with all the captives and heading down a hallway where they eventually found the man they were hunting. Sitting against the wall with a makeshift tourniquet partially applied above Ramiro’s dagger, the man was unconscious. Regina knelt down next to him and put two fingers on his neck. “The pulse is weak, but it’s still there. Check these doors; we’re going to need a room.”

A few minutes later, they’re in a room a ways down the hall. The unknown man was securely tied to a chair and had been healed but had yet to regain consciousness. The room appeared to have been a break room of sorts. One side had a kitchen area complete with a table and chairs, while the other had couches.

“Mom, what are you going to do with him?” Alexis asked hesitantly.

“Get information. From the number of people he has in cages, he has to be trafficking people. Killing one person isn’t going to fix things. We need to know where he’s getting the people and who he’s selling them to. And they mentioned other organizations. Are they traffickers too? If so, we take them out as well. We were wondering what was next, how to go about helping. It seems we found it.”

“We killed so many,” Mira said from the couch she was sitting on. “We’re murderers.”

“No,” Ramiro said as he laid a hand on his wife's shoulder. “That was self-defense. What we’re going to do next is murder. Maybe you should wait somewhere else and let Regina and me handle this part.”

“Did you see the people in those cages? The fear in their eyes as we walked through there," Mira said, heat rising in her voice. "They were so scared they didn’t even cry out or say anything. Their eyes. They looked hopeless. Ramiro, you have to do it. I can’t kill someone but… if stopping people from being treated like that requires murder, maybe it’s worth it.”

“Yeah,” Alexis added. “If I have to be a murderer to stop people like this, so be it.”

“Glad we’re on the same page. But when this guy wakes up, it may get rough. If any of you decide you don't want to stay in here and watch, I understand.” Regina warned.

Everyone just nodded, but no one stood to leave. It was about fifteen minutes before the man started to stir. Several members of the group had been thinking up questions they wanted answered and were eager to get started.

Regina grabbed a chair and slid it in front of the man, and sat down. She then started to cast a spell. A translucent dome appears over them, but it didn't seem to block sound.

“That feels different.” She muttered before continuing, “I just cast a spell called [Dome of Truth]. Supposedly, we’re unable to lie when inside this dome. Let’s see if it’s going to work. I am not going to,” and Regina started to choke. Barely a moment passed and she was starting to turn blue. She tried to stand and fell from her chair. Eric ran to her and pulled her out of the dome. After exiting the dome, Regina was able to take a breath finally. After a few more, she got up and walked back into the dome, and sat down in front of her captive. “I was trying to lie about killing you. Couldn’t do it. Truth is, you’re going to die today. How long that takes and how much pain you want to experience first is up to you. What was it you told me earlier? You can talk now, or we can torture you, and then you can talk. Up to you. Question 1. Who are you?”

Over the next couple of hours, the team wrung answers from the man like water from a sponge. His name was Ngoc Van Nam, but he also used several aliases. He owned the inn they had stayed in and used it as a front for his other businesses. Some of the captives had been paying customers, or their parents had been. Others were homeless children. And still, others were kidnapped from the outlying towns and sold to him. The man was shocked when they asked him for the name of the city they were in before responding, “You really were sent here by the gods?”

The answer to that question left the man in tears for over an hour. Eventually, they were able to get back on track and learned that some members of the government were aware of the crimes being committed and had been paid off or blackmailed to stay out of it. The Council was another criminal enterprise not affiliated with the city council as they first thought. They participated in a number of illicit activities as well, including loan sharking, forgery, and counterfeiting, and served as a fence for many of the city’s thieves.

"Sounds like this 'Council' is similar to the mafia in the way they operate," Eric said as they stood in the hallway outside the room to discuss things.

"Yeah, let's leave them be for now. Focus on bringing down one criminal organization at a time." Mira responded.

"We need to know more about his business. What's the name of his organization? Who does he answer to? Who answered to him?" Alexis rattled off. "Something doesn't sit right. He may not have lied, but I think he's withholding something."

"That's a favorite trick of your dad's, telling only a fraction of the truth so that he can still claim he didn’t lie," Regina replied.

"That just means I have experience when someone's doing it," Alexis replied with a smirk.

“The oaths,” Eric said, “What were the oaths he broke, Regina? I bet something in there will help us find out what he’s hiding.”

Regina nodded her head in agreement and thought, “There were so many, when Calore showed them all to me I was overwhelmed. I remember there being one about not breaking the laws of the city, quite a few made during business deals, but those were the biggest. He broke an oath to a god.”

“Oh damn,” Ramiro said, “that’s not good. Do you know which god or what the oath was?”

“No…” Regina said trying to recall that information. “I don’t think I was told that part. But maybe he’ll enlighten us.”

Several hours were spent going through all of Nam's business dealings, going as far as to retrieve paperwork from both the above-ground office in his inn and the hidden office underground. The party also had Nam sign over ownership of the inn as well as other properties he owned both in Onakadi and in other towns. The team felt they had a good handle on everything. It was then that Nam started bargaining for his life. “I know everyone in the game, I can help you clean up this city. Hell, I can help you clean up all of Rodon! Give me a chance to redeem myself before you kill me, please.

“Okay, let’s start with a full confession. What were the oaths you broke. I want the oath and the name of the person you swore the oath to.”

In next half hour was nothing but a list of people that Nam had done business with and whom he took advantage of after swearing an oath that he was dealing honestly with them.

“Okay, enough of this little stuff. We know you broke an oath to a god. Who was it and what was the oath?” Ramiro demanded.

Nam looked confused, “I’ve only ever sworn one oath to anyone that might be considered a god and it has a death penalty attached to it should I break it.”

“We’re missing something and you’re not being completely honest. Calore said you broke oath with a god,” Regina stated

Mira stepped closer, “When you swear an oath, who do you swear by?”

Recognition flashed in Nam’s eyes, “No, that can’t be it!”

“Why not?” snapped Regina

“Because nearly all the oaths I swore was by the same person and nothing ever happened. Why would something happen now, after all these years?”

“You swore these oaths on a god? These oaths that you broke?”

“Yeah… I swore nearly all of them on Ashduin, the god of the elves. But nothing ever happened! The gods never cared about this! Why now‽”

“I can’t answer that. Just know that you’re only the first that I’ll be passing judgment on. I’ve been told there are far more oath breakers out there waiting for me.

It was then Mira walked up to Nam for the first time. “Tell us how exactly what your buyers use these people for.”

The man licked his lips nervously, "Buyer’s? I didn’t sell these people. Okay, well, I maybe sold one here or there to be slaves. But I gather these for… someone else."

"Then what were they for?" Mira pressed

"I umm… I… can't say."

"Son of bitch," Regina whispered. "Alexis was right."

"You admitted to slavery but now your hesitating? What’s worse? Sex Slaves?" Ramiro questioned.

"Yes… umm… I'm sure that happens," The man said, relief in his voice, almost as if he was given a way out.

"We're still missing something," Eric added.

"No," Alexis squeaked out as tears ran down her cheeks, a look of horror on her face. Turning to the others, "They're sacrificing them." Looking back at Nam Alexis demanded, “Who are you sacrificing them to?”

"How?" the man muttered before he started yanking on his bonds and screaming at the ceiling. "I didn't tell them, lord! I didn't say anything! Please! Mercy! I kept my…" the body of the man started to convulse and suddenly the sound of bones breaking could be heard before Nam’s body fell limp.

Regina ran to her captive and checked for a pulse and then turned to the others with a look of shock, "He's dead."

"That was creepy," Mira stated flatly.

"Yeah. Evidently, whoever he worked for isn't just another criminal," added Eric.

"Shit. We need more information on who we're dealing with," complained Regina.

Ramiro just shook his head, “It was that one oath. He said that the only oath he swore to anyone who could be considered a god had a death penalty attached.”

“We’re going up against someone who ‘could be considered a god’,” Eric said with air quotes. “How are we supposed to hang with that? We just got here.”