I heard people screaming and panicking through the loud ringing in my ears. I looked around, trying to find a place to run to or hide. Gina was with the children, and it looked like Alyna conjured a wall of thorns to protect them from the blast. I ran over to them. I promised Lady Trudgeon I would keep the kids safe, so I couldn't leave them alone, right?
Lady Trudgeon came over and we tried to calm the kids down. Or rather she and Alyna did, my heart was running so fast I was barely able to speak. They decided to take the kids to their rooms, and Aggma told me from the other side of the room to see if anyone got badly injured. Fortunately, it looked like the explosion knocked everyone down so much that almost no one was hurt by the flying debris. That's good. Harris had a lot of blood on his arm, but Aggma was working on bandaging it.
Aggma said that she and the others were going after the thieves, and told me to come too, for some reason. Ratyn tracked them through the town, and we managed to catch up to three thieves in a small square. I tried to talk to the thieves, even to use a bit of magic to make them friendlier, but they attacked us.
One of them shot Christopher and hurt him badly, the other just barely missed my leg. I threw up a cloud of fog to stop them from shooting at us, and suggested that we run away. The others didn't like that idea, and they charged in. I don't remember a lot of what happened, partially because I hid in a small alley for most of the fight, but as I ran away I looked back and saw one of the thieves lying on the ground and bleeding, and Sett stood over him, then stuck his sword in the man.
The others fought for a while longer, and when they were done, Christopher and I walked over to the thief Sett had stabbed. Christopher confirmed that he was dead, and that he didn't have the stolen money.
I didn't know what to do. This person was alive just a moment ago, living his life like everyone else. And then all of a sudden he was killed. Because of some money.
Ratyn and Aggma dragged one of the other thieves into the square, tied up and badly injured, then started questioning him. I don't know what happened to the third, probably ran away. Just this one died.
Would it have been so hard to tie him up too? Why did he have to die? Was it punishment for trying to gain money in the wrong way? Was it because he hurt people in the orphanage? He didn't kill anyone, heck he didn't try to hurt anyone until we chased after them - they even clearly set up the explosion in the orphanage to minimize the harm done to people. So why did this person deserve to die?
Christopher probably saw that I was distraught, and tried to reassure me that he and I didn't do anything wrong. That at least we're still alive. I'm not really sure if I believe him on that yet.
The rest came over, and Aggma said that they have a lead, that the thieves are working for someone by the swamps outiside town. Ratyn knows the way, so we followed her lead.
We followed Ratyn out of town, and found what was looked like the thieves' leader and two others trying to sort something out in their cart. We decided that there isn't really a chance of avoiding a fight, so we might as well take the first shot. Ratyn took out one of the men with a single arrow, and the leader and remaining thief climbed onto the back of the cart, then shot back at us. Christopher ran forward and used his magic to pull the leader down to him, but she just shot him point-blank and he fell unconscious.
The fight continued for a while longer, and at one point the thieves got back on the cart and started driving away, so I charmed one of the horses pulling the cart and asked him to stop running. I hoped the other horse would stop too.
The cart kept going, crushing the horse's hind legs under it, and he fell to the ground squealing in pain as the cart flipped over to the side. The thief leader jumped off the cart and shot me twice, then Ratyn and the others managed to take out the other thief and made her surrender.
So here I am now, covered in mud, blood, and guilt. Three people died, a horse is dying, both Christopher and Sett almost died, and all because Lady Trudgeon wanted to make a fundraiser to get some money.