Chapter 308
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As the duo enter the hallway Reima casts Invisibility over himself and walks a few steps ahead of Ciri, with the dim lighting he's the only one who can actually see most of what he's doing. They don't dare illuminate the hallway as it might attract attention to themselves, instead Reima continues to follow the sounds of crying through the almost maze like building. There are many stairs and cross sections that shouldn't really be possible due to many of them overlapping with others, maybe magic is involved?
They continue to slowly walk through the dimly lit halls and eventually start hearing what sounds like a large crowd? Almost at a stadium-like volume. With the noises coming from above and a staircase standing next to them it could be surmised that whatever the "Auction" is, it appears to be up those steps. Reima goes past it and continues forward, the sound of high-pitched crying only getting louder the closer he gets.
It's only at this point where he decides that they may need a disguise, depending on how populated this place is and who's inside, inattentive action could lead to disaster. He retrieves the shadow set which he'd found in Dark Souls and looks suspiciously like a ninja outfit along with Marvellous Chesters mask and clothes along with his trench coat. He holds both out to Ciri and let's her pick which one she'd prefer to wear.
She ends up taking the Ninja outfit, much to Reima's "Pleasure" as the tight fitting clothing would certainly accentuate her figure. She doesn't both removing her already tight fitting pants and simply wears it over them, while she does this Reima quickly changes into Marvellous Chesters outfit the mask reminding him of that movie "V for Vendetta", or more traditionally known as the "Guy Fawkes Mask"
Reima "I think we're good" he whispers while looking Ciri up and down to make sure every identifiable characteristic is covered, the face mask not being able to hide her vibrant green eyes. Though there is one thing that might catch them out, he takes her staff and shurgs, "No point using a staff if we're under cover, plus I think it's now pretty recognisable since it was featured in the news.
"Actually, I think there's one thing missing" he says while pointing his finger at "Snuffles" and casting "Colovaria" the spell causing the black rabbit to turn blue, although it's crimson eyes remain the same.
Ciri "That everything?" she asks still confused at why they need to take so many preventative measures.
He nods and they continue their journey down the suspiciously large complex yet again.
Finally they reach a large wooden double door, there doesn't appear to be a keyhole so instead he opens it slightly and peeks inside, what he sees disgusts and confuses him at the same time. The crying that he'd originally thought belonged to human children seems to be coming from these small, grey skinned, long eared creatures with bulbous eyes. The area itself looks almost like a farmstead that'd been built inside of a cave, were it not for sentient creatures being caged and bred like animals...
He sees numerous black robed people moving back and forth with cages of what seems to be the children of these things.
"M-master! Please let keep child!" one grey skinned female cries out as a man backhands it and grabs the smaller one. "Shut up and do as your told." he grunts out as he stuffs it in a tiny cage.
Finally, Reima recognises these creatures for what they really are... House elves? Is this how they're bred?... This can't be legal, let alone humane. Despite wizards literally having cleaning spells, the living space of the creatures is absolutely filthy, the only time they seem to be cleaned is when one of the workers stuffs a male in with a female.
Ciri "What do you see?" she asks from behind him.
Reima "You won't like it..." he says, mentally preparing for her angry explosion and the subsequent mission impossible like escape.
Ciri "Just tell me, I'll find out as soon as we step inside."
Reima "It looks like some sort of breeding factory for House Elves?"
Ciri "House Elves?" she asks confused.
Reima "A race that wizards enslaved to do all of their menial tasks, they will die if they lack a master for a prolonged period of time it seems."
...
"Ciri?" he asks as the silence is unnerving him.
Ciri "So, how are we going to free them?" she asks with a sense of determination.
Reima shrugs, he's not sure if they should free them. What would they do with hundreds of House Elves afterall? Then again, they would probably be useful when he eventually returns to Kaer Morhen, they could probably fix up the castle in a matter of hours... "I'm not sure... If there's an Auction going on upstairs then this must be connected somehow, maybe these House Elves are the "Products"." he says grimly.
Ciri appears to have heard enough and moves next to him to peek inside, it isn't surprising that she immediately slips inside the large underground room... Reima just follows and they both eventually hide behind a pile of some sort of discarded metal.
Reima surveys the area for a couple minutes to count how many people are present, it's lucky that he'd patiently waited as the thirty workers had around ten more working inside some sort of stone building that looks like it contains all of the tools. He can see beside him that Ciri's itching to go, and he felt the same.
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As the duo enter the hallway Reima casts Invisibility over himself and walks a few steps ahead of Ciri, with the dim lighting he's the only one who can actually see most of what he's doing. They don't dare illuminate the hallway as it might attract attention to themselves, instead Reima continues to follow the sounds of crying through the almost maze like building. There are many stairs and cross sections that shouldn't really be possible due to many of them overlapping with others, maybe magic is involved?
They continue to slowly walk through the dimly lit halls and eventually start hearing what sounds like a large crowd? Almost at a stadium-like volume. With the noises coming from above and a staircase standing next to them it could be surmised that whatever the "Auction" is, it appears to be up those steps. Reima goes past it and continues forward, the sound of high-pitched crying only getting louder the closer he gets.
It's only at this point where he decides that they may need a disguise, depending on how populated this place is and who's inside, inattentive action could lead to disaster. He retrieves the shadow set which he'd found in Dark Souls and looks suspiciously like a ninja outfit along with Marvellous Chesters mask and clothes along with his trench coat. He holds both out to Ciri and let's her pick which one she'd prefer to wear.
She ends up taking the Ninja outfit, much to Reima's "Pleasure" as the tight fitting clothing would certainly accentuate her figure. She doesn't both removing her already tight fitting pants and simply wears it over them, while she does this Reima quickly changes into Marvellous Chesters outfit the mask reminding him of that movie "V for Vendetta", or more traditionally known as the "Guy Fawkes Mask"
Reima "I think we're good" he whispers while looking Ciri up and down to make sure every identifiable characteristic is covered, the face mask not being able to hide her vibrant green eyes. Though there is one thing that might catch them out, he takes her staff and shurgs, "No point using a staff if we're under cover, plus I think it's now pretty recognisable since it was featured in the news.
"Actually, I think there's one thing missing" he says while pointing his finger at "Snuffles" and casting "Colovaria" the spell causing the black rabbit to turn blue, although it's crimson eyes remain the same.
Ciri "That everything?" she asks still confused at why they need to take so many preventative measures.
He nods and they continue their journey down the suspiciously large complex yet again.
Finally they reach a large wooden double door, there doesn't appear to be a keyhole so instead he opens it slightly and peeks inside, what he sees disgusts and confuses him at the same time. The crying that he'd originally thought belonged to human children seems to be coming from these small, grey skinned, long eared creatures with bulbous eyes. The area itself looks almost like a farmstead that'd been built inside of a cave, were it not for sentient creatures being caged and bred like animals...
He sees numerous black robed people moving back and forth with cages of what seems to be the children of these things.
"M-master! Please let keep child!" one grey skinned female cries out as a man backhands it and grabs the smaller one. "Shut up and do as your told." he grunts out as he stuffs it in a tiny cage.
Finally, Reima recognises these creatures for what they really are... House elves? Is this how they're bred?... This can't be legal, let alone humane. Despite wizards literally having cleaning spells, the living space of the creatures is absolutely filthy, the only time they seem to be cleaned is when one of the workers stuffs a male in with a female.
Ciri "What do you see?" she asks from behind him.
Reima "You won't like it..." he says, mentally preparing for her angry explosion and the subsequent mission impossible like escape.
Ciri "Just tell me, I'll find out as soon as we step inside."
Reima "It looks like some sort of breeding factory for House Elves?"
Ciri "House Elves?" she asks confused.
Reima "A race that wizards enslaved to do all of their menial tasks, they will die if they lack a master for a prolonged period of time it seems."
...
"Ciri?" he asks as the silence is unnerving him.
Ciri "So, how are we going to free them?" she asks with a sense of determination.
Reima shrugs, he's not sure if they should free them. What would they do with hundreds of House Elves afterall? Then again, they would probably be useful when he eventually returns to Kaer Morhen, they could probably fix up the castle in a matter of hours... "I'm not sure... If there's an Auction going on upstairs then this must be connected somehow, maybe these House Elves are the "Products"." he says grimly.
Ciri appears to have heard enough and moves next to him to peek inside, it isn't surprising that she immediately slips inside the large underground room... Reima just follows and they both eventually hide behind a pile of some sort of discarded metal.
Reima surveys the area for a couple minutes to count how many people are present, it's lucky that he'd patiently waited as the thirty workers had around ten more working inside some sort of stone building that looks like it contains all of the tools. He can see beside him that Ciri's itching to go, and he felt the same.
As the duo enter the hallway Reima casts Invisibility over himself and walks a few steps ahead of Ciri, with the dim lighting he's the only one who can actually see most of what he's doing. They don't dare illuminate the hallway as it might attract attention to themselves, instead Reima continues to follow the sounds of crying through the almost maze like building. There are many stairs and cross sections that shouldn't really be possible due to many of them overlapping with others, maybe magic is involved?They continue to slowly walk through the dimly lit halls and eventually start hearing what sounds like a large crowd? Almost at a stadium-like volume. With the noises coming from above and a staircase standing next to them it could be surmised that whatever the "Auction" is, it appears to be up those steps. Reima goes past it and continues forward, the sound of high-pitched crying only getting louder the closer he gets.It's only at this point where he decides that they may need a disguise, depending on how populated this place is and who's inside, inattentive action could lead to disaster. He retrieves the shadow set which he'd found in Dark Souls and looks suspiciously like a ninja outfit along with Marvellous Chesters mask and clothes along with his trench coat. He holds both out to Ciri and let's her pick which one she'd prefer to wear.She ends up taking the Ninja outfit, much to Reima's "Pleasure" as the tight fitting clothing would certainly accentuate her figure. She doesn't both removing her already tight fitting pants and simply wears it over them, while she does this Reima quickly changes into Marvellous Chesters outfit the mask reminding him of that movie "V for Vendetta", or more traditionally known as the "Guy Fawkes Mask"Reima "I think we're good" he whispers while looking Ciri up and down to make sure every identifiable characteristic is covered, the face mask not being able to hide her vibrant green eyes. Though there is one thing that might catch them out, he takes her staff and shurgs, "No point using a staff if we're under cover, plus I think it's now pretty recognisable since it was featured in the news."Actually, I think there's one thing missing" he says while pointing his finger at "Snuffles" and casting "Colovaria" the spell causing the black rabbit to turn blue, although it's crimson eyes remain the same.Ciri "That everything?" she asks still confused at why they need to take so many preventative measures.He nods and they continue their journey down the suspiciously large complex yet again.Finally they reach a large wooden double door, there doesn't appear to be a keyhole so instead he opens it slightly and peeks inside, what he sees disgusts and confuses him at the same time. The crying that he'd originally thought belonged to human children seems to be coming from these small, grey skinned, long eared creatures with bulbous eyes. The area itself looks almost like a farmstead that'd been built inside of a cave, were it not for sentient creatures being caged and bred like animals... He sees numerous black robed people moving back and forth with cages of what seems to be the children of these things."M-master! Please let keep child!" one grey skinned female cries out as a man backhands it and grabs the smaller one. "Shut up and do as your told." he grunts out as he stuffs it in a tiny cage.Finally, Reima recognises these creatures for what they really are... House elves? Is this how they're bred?... This can't be legal, let alone humane. Despite wizards literally having cleaning spells, the living space of the creatures is absolutely filthy, the only time they seem to be cleaned is when one of the workers stuffs a male in with a female.Ciri "What do you see?" she asks from behind him.Reima "You won't like it..." he says, mentally preparing for her angry explosion and the subsequent mission impossible like escape.Ciri "Just tell me, I'll find out as soon as we step inside." Reima "It looks like some sort of breeding factory for House Elves?"Ciri "House Elves?" she asks confused.Reima "A race that wizards enslaved to do all of their menial tasks, they will die if they lack a master for a prolonged period of time it seems."..."Ciri?" he asks as the silence is unnerving him.Ciri "So, how are we going to free them?" she asks with a sense of determination.Reima shrugs, he's not sure if they should free them. What would they do with hundreds of House Elves afterall? Then again, they would probably be useful when he eventually returns to Kaer Morhen, they could probably fix up the castle in a matter of hours... "I'm not sure... If there's an Auction going on upstairs then this must be connected somehow, maybe these House Elves are the "Products"." he says grimly.Ciri appears to have heard enough and moves next to him to peek inside, it isn't surprising that she immediately slips inside the large underground room... Reima just follows and they both eventually hide behind a pile of some sort of discarded metal.Reima surveys the area for a couple minutes to count how many people are present, it's lucky that he'd patiently waited as the thirty workers had around ten more working inside some sort of stone building that looks like it contains all of the tools. He can see beside him that Ciri's itching to go, and he felt the same.
