The Disciple Of Aoide

It was quite obviously they were looking at the mother of the missing child. The grief she was in was so thick that it felt wrong to intrude into her space. However, they needed to keep the quest going so Felicia coughed to get the woman's attention and she introduced herself, "Ma'am, we're from the adventurer's guild. We have accepted your quest so would you please tell us a little bit more about your missing child?"

The mother lifted her head from her hands and the tears were still wet on her face. The first word out of her lips when she saw Felicia and Arthur was, "You have to help me save my Mason! You have to!"

Arthur was uncomfortable dealing with such frantic emotions but thankfully, Felicia's friendly nature made her quite a people person. She walked into the small house and planted herself beside the grieving mother. She grabbed the mother's hand to give her some semblance of physical support and then Felicia asked in a soothing voice, "Of course, we will help you find Mason."

At this point, the mother nodded like she believed by nodding, the statement by Felicia could be willed into reality.

Felicia continued, "But for us to do that, we need to gather as many information as we can around Mason's disappearance. Do you mind telling us what has happened on the day of the boy's disappearance? Was he out playing? Did he have any company with him at the time? When did you find out Mason has gone missing?"

The mother uttered through her tears, "He wasn't even out playing. I just woke up one morning and he was gone! I remember putting him into bed but somehow he disappeared in the night and when the sun rose, he was already gone."

Felicia frowned with she heard this. She suspected the boy had been kidnapped when he was outside but if he was taken away when he was at home, then the chance of this being an inside job was quite high.

Felicia did not think the mother would create this whole drama for no reason so after moving her out of the equation, what other suspect could there be?

This was why Felicia asked the following question, "Ma'am, do you mind telling me who shares this place with you? What other occupants are residing here?"

"Only myself, Mason and his father."

In that case, the weight of the suspicion naturally fell on the father. Felicia looked around the room and she could not spot the sign of the father anywhere. Felicia decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt and thought that perhaps he was out looking for his missing son. She hated to think that the boy's own father could be responsible for the boy's disappearance.

In any case, it was her responsibility to ask about the father's location to make sure all the stones were turned. However, before she could get that question out of her lips, the door was kicked open and a man stumbled into the room.

As he made his appearance, the small room was instantly filled with the smell of ale. The first word out of his lips was, "Woman, stop crying! You're killing my buzz!"

The mother stood up from the chair and she yelled at the man through the curtain of her tears, "You're out drinking again?! I thought you said you were going to go search for Mason!"

"I did and I couldn't find him! How do you expect me to organize a search team when the whole damn village refused to act due to that damn rumour!"

At the point, Felicia shared a look with Arthur. They both caught the word that the man used, and the question communicated through their eyes said in unison, 'What rumour?'

The mother seemed to have turned her disappointment and sadness into anger as she shouted accusingly at the man, "That is because you have not tried hard enough! If you really love Mason, you would have gone to the end of the world for him. Just admit it that you do not love him!

"You always come back in this state trying to start an argument!"

Felicia would not have thought the woman that appeared so fragile just moments ago had this in her. She basically tore into the man, however, the man did not hold back either. He shouted back at her, "Yes, I might not have loved him as you do but that doesn't mean I love Mason less. All you do is forbid him to leave the house, because apparently the world is too dangerous for him. I've already told you that is not the way to raise a proper man! All you've done is to stunt his growth and to prevent him from becoming an independent and powerful man!

"Now, who is there to blame when the child is taken from home?! If you have allowed him to rough it out with the other boys instead of cuckolding him, perhaps he might have been able to defend himself from the threat and he would still be with us today!"

From the smoothness with which the insults and arguments were thrown back and forth, Felicia and Arthur realized yelling and arguing seemed to be a familiar method of communication for this couple.

They were not there to judge other people's relationship but the argument was slowly moving them away from the real reason they were there so Felicia quickly chimed in with a question, "I'm sorry but what is this rumour that you have mentioned earlier?"

The father stopped and turned to look at Felicia. Then he slurred, "It's the damn rumour about the Blood Mother!"

The mother gave a soft gasp and she tried to shush the man. However, the man was too inebriated to stop his lips from moving, "There's this rumour going around the village that the Blood Mother will come and steal your children away from you if you have anything bad to say about her."

The woman pulled on the man's sleeve to get him to stop talking but the man turned and grumbled, "Let me go, woman! At this juncture, what do we have to lose from talking about it?! Do you have another son to lose?!"

The woman's lips were stretched to a thin line, and she stopped protesting. As much as she was afraid of the village taboo, she had to agree with her husband on this one.

The man continued, "All these children gone missing and they refused to do anything! We're doomed, I say!"

Arthur raised his brow at that proclamation. "There have been other children who have gone missing?"

The man burped before answering, "Yes, there are rumours of children from other villagers who were smuggled away in the middle of the night. Hell, you can ask the family next door, their youngest daughter too has disappeared not too long ago."

The man then crumbled to the straw bed and seemed to lose his consciousness. Without the man to argue with, the wind seemed to get knocked out from the woman. She collapsed to the chair and in a weak voice, she pleaded with Felicia, "If... if it is really the Blood Mother who has taken Mason, you have to bring him back from her."

Felicia gave the mother her promise before leaving the place with Arthur.