Finding out what happened to Himari

Duncan was pacing the entrance to his castle when Cedric entered. He looked at Duncan’s worried face and his smile fell. Cedric said “What is wrong? Why are you looking so worried?” Duncan said Iris and Himari were supposed to be back ages ago and they haven’t returned. I’ve asked my staff and no one has seen them since they left this morning, Have you seen them?” Cedric frowned and said “I saw them earlier today at the bakery that is why I am here. Himari invited me to dinner. She said we were going to celebrate the adoption of Iris. It is also why I have a present. Why don’t you use your connection to find her? Doesn’t your connection work that way?” Joan walked over to the men and said “Why do you two look so stressed?” She tried joking “What did Himari do now?” The men didn’t respond to her joke. Cedric whispered to Joan that Iris and Himari were missing. She asked “Why don’t you use your connection to Himari to find them?” Still pacing Duncan stopped and ran his fingers through his hair and said exasperated “I have tried a thousand times. For some reason I can’t reach her. It is like our connection is blocked. Himari and Iris aren’t in town, or at the library, or at the training grounds, or at our meadow. I even checked the docks. I cannot find them anywhere. I am afraid that someone took them, but I don’t know where to even start looking for them. I am not even sure who took them or even if someone took them. All I know is I can’t use mine and Himari’s connection to find them and that they are not in Nuktala. I know Himari and I know that if they were taken that for them to have taken her without a fight that someone had to have been in danger and more than likely that someone was Iris.” Cedric said “It is strange you can’t find her. Can you still feel her emotions at all?” Duncan closed his eyes and concentrated on his connection and came up against a wall. Duncan opened his eyes and looked at Cedric and said “There feels like there’s a wall blocking me from our connection.” Duncan was absentmindedly caressing his chest feeling lost without his and Himari’s connection when Cedric said “It sound like someone is blocking your connection to Himari. I mean they had to have started blocking it before they took her so as to not alert you. They probably even did it before making contact with her. Who all knows about you and Himari’s connection?” Duncan frowned thinking and said “You, Joan, and the people who work in the castle and they have all been made sign papers that forbid them from speaking about it outside the castle. Himari had written them up and called the NDA’s remember you, Himari, and I decided to do that so that no one tried to use our connection against us.” When what he said dawned on him, his face darkened in anger. He looked at Cedric and said “You think one of my employees leaked it purposefully to our enemies?” Cedric nodded “It makes since. They may have thought they could get away with it for a little extra money or such.” Joan’s said furiously “We need to interrogate every single one of them including the guards. I would like to think my men wouldn’t do something so awful, but we have to check every avenue.” Duncan had Jameson gather all the staff in the hall. Cedric and Joan were off to the side watching everyone as Duncan told them what happened. Cedric and Joan were looking for any signs that anyone was deceiving them. Joan noticed the two maids who she knew Himari considered friends, were fidgeting with their hands and looking at the floor. She signaled them out to Duncan and Cedric. Duncan waked up to them and all but growled “What did you do? “ He waited watching them intensely. Ann was the one to finally break. She told them she went home to find her daughter gone and a man in her house who told her if she wanted to see her daughter again that she would tell him about Duncan and Himari and that she would let her know when Himari would be out without Duncan. Beth told the same thing had happened to her. She said in a broken voice with tears streaming down her face “They have our babies. What were we supposed to do?” Beth covered her face with her hands and sobbed into them. Duncan questioned the women about the strangers and only received descriptions of them and no names. Duncan tried calling himself. He started pacing and said “These men couldn’t get into our town to get them without help from soldiers or someone else sneaking them in.” Cedric then turned to study the men standing before them and pointed at two and said “I saw you two with Lady Himari and Iris today. Care to explain why you two are here and Lady Himari and Iris are not?” One of the men stepped forward and said “We are the two dads of the girls that got taken. We helped them get in the town undetected and gave them the signal to attack as we were headed to the library. We don’t want the Lady or child hurt. We just want our babies back.” The man choked back a sob. Duncan looked at the men furiously and said “You do realize they lied about giving you your children back? Men who sink so low never keep their promises and keeping them means you will keep working for them in the future. If you had come to Himari and me when they did this we could have figured out a way to save them. Now Himari and Iris are in danger and because your wives decided to tell them about our connection I don’t know how to find them to save them. The only reason they didn’t kill you two when they took my girls is because they think you still might be of use. If any of them are still in town and they even think you snitched they will kill you before you can blink. You better start telling what these men look liked and how many you let in my city and anything else you told them or did. Detain them men.” Beth dropped to her knees sobbing saying she was sorry repeatedly. Cedric questioned the men and found out that they had let 20 humans into the city and any distinguishing features. They told them everything they could remember. Cedric, Joan, and Duncan went into Duncan’s study. Cedric said “Okay I found out the girls that taken name are Lena and Karen. They were taken about two days into our trip to Dausland Auseis, so we can assume they knew this and had someone watching us and chose this moment. They seemed to want to know about Himari’s movement and yours and hers weaknesses. They seemed especially interested in Himari’s movements alone. The two maids had listened into our conversations and knew that you, I and Joan would be busy today and wouldn’t be with Himari like one of us usually is. The women also knew where and what Himari was doing today since she had went to both mothers and invited them. “Joan said “The two soldiers admitting to one of them alerting the men to the plans while Himari and Iris shopped. Then when they were getting close to where the men were one started humming to let the men know. So the men who were taking them didn’t know what Himari looked like. This means they were hired for the job, so mercenaries. Both sets of couples denied telling the men about Iris and her adoption by you and Himari. They also swore they didn’t tell them about Himari’s magic abilities or her ability to use magic without incantation. If they are telling the truth then hopefully we can use this to our advantage.” Duncan said “Now we need to think like Himari. Knowing her if she gets the chance she will try and let us know where she is and she will try and rescue herself and the girls. We need to think like Himari so we can find her. I need both your help since you both know her so well. If it was one of us and she didn’t have any way of knowing where we were, what would she do?” They all stood there thinking. Joan said “Man if only we could do all those spells she does. If it was one of us abducted she’d probably do like she did with that hydra and find us in no time.” Joan blinked and looked and Cedric before slapping him excitedly on the back “That’s it! Himari taught you how to use that search magic, so you can cast that spell and lead us straight to her. “She turned and looked at Duncan with a triumphed grin and said “If it is close to somewhere boss man has been we can teleport there and fly the rest of the way and save my best friend and by proxy niece.” Duncan grinned widely at Joan and said “Have I ever told you how brilliant you are Joan? That is the best way to get them back soon.” Joan grinned and said “You can tell me that again once Himari and Iris are home safe. Let’s go catch the swine that took them and find out who put them up to it and why?” Duncan agreed wholeheartedly. He turned to Cedric and asked “You can do the search spell, right?” Cedric said “I sure can. Himari made sure it was easy for me to grasp and she was right it doesn’t use a lot of mana at all so I can cast and recast it for long periods of time without even making a dent in my mana.” They started shaping their plan.