Swept

Rachel looked at Shain. She needed to stop speaking with her brother. His plan was becoming clearer and clearer and she needed, no, she wanted deniability.

"Allons I need to speak to someone about those privileges."

Allons nodded with an intense smile on his face. "Of course you do Milana. We have to go to the main facility."

She had no intention of speaking to someone about Shain. She actually doubted that someone would speak honestly about anything she asked. She just wanted to get inside the main prison of Small Color.

The main prison was on a large island in the norther part of the continent. It was a grand dark walled city with many inner and outer buildings. The outer buildings set in two clusters at on either corner at the front of the city. Most of the inner buildings lined the side and back walls.

In the center of the fortress were five imposing buildings. Most thought this was the prison.

The truth was these were mainly the administrative buildings and the prison, that housed the most horrid offenders was underground in a deep labyrinthine network of tunnels, caves, and vast caverns that ran the entire length and breadth of the island.

The five central buildings were surrounded by a wide plaza that encircled the buildings and housed guards with families, two small markets, and restaurants and bars for the guards and their families. This was surrounded by a wall and all was surrounded by a vast deep moat of constantly churning black liquid.

Shain was lead to his rooms and allowed to sleep. The others were given rooms to rest, bathe, and eat - not necessarily in that order - and would be leaving for the main prison soon.

"So is this prison for the extremely rich?"

"Couldn't be. My family is not extremely rich."

Smral and Ambruce watched the banter between Rachel and Rebecca as if they were watching a tennis match.

"I mean your fam is pretty rich Rachel."

"How so?"

Rebecca smiled. "You have an abundance of property, an abundance of money, a multitude of people work for you. What else is there? Your Family is the very definition of extreme wealth."

Rachel paused and looked up as if in thought. She suddenly shrugged. "Then I guess it is."

Rebecca sat in stunned silence before bursting into raucous laughter. "Since when did you give in so easily?!? Oh I know. Since Allons arrived."

Both Smral and Ambruce snapped their eyes back to Rachel. Smral was smiling.

Rachel pretended not to hear and stood. "Let's get ready to go. Teleportation is not allowed on the continent so we're walking again." She stretched and there was a knock on the door. Allons walked in like it was his home.

Rachel looked at Rebecca. "Is a person entering without an invitation the mark of a prison for a person of low economic standing."

Rebecca's laughter was even more boisterous. When she spoke Rachel could only understand the words "low economic standing." She looked to Allons. "Is our escort ready?"

"Yes. Are you ready?"

"We are."

Walking across volcanic rock is a bit more difficult than a person may think. For this reason Rebecca was very annoyed.

"Rebecca I taught you how to walk just about the ground. It does not take much power to do that."

"Can we just teleport?"

"No. So stop whining." Allons said it with a smile and a bit of a spring in his step.

Rachel began thinking that this trip was going to be annoyingly long.

By the time they made it to the main prison Rachel's nerves were beyond frazzled. She want to slap someone very hard. Not punch, just a nice frustration relieving slap.

Once inside the gates they teleported to the main buildings at the center of the city. Rachel wanted to kneel on the ground and give thanks to the realm, but she knew it was not over yet.

"Milana I need to speak with you before you leave Small Color."

Rachel paused in thought then nodded. "Will you be here or are you returning to the West?"

"I will be here." Allons bowed on his final word and turned and walked away.

"Milana!" A tall Kefs bowed before them and smiled to Rachel. "We are honored to have you. I have been authorized to answer all of your questions. Would you like to rest first?"

He spoke so quickly Rachel looked twice to make sure he was a Kefs. It's not that Kefs are not fast talkers but they were usually pretty calm and calculating. Often times they paused for long periods reading knowledge magic to fully understand the situation.

Usually the young, ambitious, or corrupt were the fast talkers.

"Thank you sir…?" Rachel paused waiting for his name. When he gave none she continued. "We will rest first. Can we please have a tour of the facilities in two to three hours?"

"Good. Good. I will take you to your rooms. Would you like any food or other items?"

"Just the rooms. We have our own supplies. I would like to stay five days."

When Rachel stated that she wanted to stay five days the Kefs' eyes dilated and his mouth dried. Rachel made note of it all.

"Of course Milana. Three days. I will lead you to your rooms."

'Something odd is going on here Milana. I have observed many Kefs and our guide is not of the norm.'

Rachel looked at Ambruce. 'You have observed Kefs? Hmm… you're right. He is a bit odd. Kefs are not easily flustered. But it may be a lack of respect and we were given a young untrained Kefs.'

'Possibly. Either way Ambruce is right. Something is off.'

Rebecca shrugged. 'Life is odd. Are you feeling like one of us will die? We always have feelings about the people around us and the things we do but it can not stop us from doing what we need to do. But if you feel we are in danger that is different.'

She smiled at Ambruce and she smiled back. Rachel wanted to roll her eyes. When had Rebecca started her nurturing phase.

The tour was of administrative offices and conference rooms. By the end of it Rachel was mildly amused. They returned to their rooms and sat in silence for a long moment.

Rachel shrugged. "Guess I'll be looking around myself. Please keep guard, give me two hours. If I am not back by then call me back with a tether."

Her three Antrunie nodded in unison.

Rachel sat on the floor and crossed her legs. Her arms resting on her knees, her pointers and thumbs together palms side up.

Rebecca set behind her with Smral and Ambruce sat in front of her.

Rachel cleared her mind. Her breathing calmed and she allowed her focused mind to sway and expand outward. Her spirit body stood and sat in front of her physical body in the same position. She focused her soul like she focused her mind. It reached out to the realm and connected with the origin well.

Branches flowed from the well and she instinctively entered the one leading to Small Color and the main buildings she wanted to investigate.

The stream took her to below the administrative buildings first. She saw the labyrinth and the people housed within it. There were one hundred and twenty-eight people. They were Surprisingly in good condition. All of them were dressed well, well fed, and active. Some were doing experiments, others worked on different projects for the prison. None were behaving maliciously, or at least not overtly so.

The labyrinth was brightly lit and the tunnels were well maintained. Several large caverns opened up off the tunnels as well as large caves. There was a large meadow in the center of the labyrinth with a large lake and rivers that flowed throughout the labyrinth.

She moved upstairs. Listening to conversations, feeling emotions and intent, and understanding the goings on of the facility.

She heard something interesting. Something that drew her in. It was about the Trannisa Conglomerate.

She knew the government had offices here on the continent and she never really had a second thought about it.

She entered the room and listened from an upper corner.

"Why does she want to stay for five days?"

"Why do you keep asking that?"

"He keeps asking because her being here is dangerous."

"There is no danger. She is a child. What will she do?"

"To you she is a child Edgar. To others she is the Milana."

"We need to focus. We are here to discuss the realm's finances. "

"There is nothing to discuss Samuel. You Kefs are always taking a bit off the top. This time you took too much. The Kefs need to replace the missing funds."

"You speak so casually when you accuse an entire people of thievery Edgar."

"I only speak in facts."

"That is not the first matter we need to address. Both the White and Black are out of control. If we can not rein them in there won't be money for any of us."

Rachel continued listening. She understood that the corruption was tied to different entities wanting more and more money, but now it seemed there were problems within the hierarchy.

The Trannisa Conglomerate had controlled Trannisa for centuries. The realm was run as a business and many moved to the realm to make their fortunes. The White and Black were the presidents of the conglomerate and controlled different branches of the realm from foodstuffs to different minerals to magics used and sold within the realm and to other realms. They decided what was important to the realm at any given time. The people below them saw to the profits and managed different aspects of the realm's profitable products.

Because every one was always concerned with corruption judges were outside of the conglomerate and the different groups usually judged their own people.

Most ethic groups used the Trannisa realm as a business venture and considered their native realms home, even if they lived in Trannisa full time and never returned to their home realm.

"Look I know what they did seemed a bit reckless, but we need to trust our leaders. Business inherently comes with a bit of risk."

"Spoken like a true Kefs. The bottom line is we do not know what their goal is. Why are you so sure it is about profit? What if they want to change the system entirely."

"Samuel is right. We all know that The Black has been fighting to eliminate The White's position for years."

"This is true. And this is why I believe that terms should be shortened and limited."

"We know. We know. But we can not get that voted through. They have too much influence."

"And when will we talk about The White's activities here on Small Color? We all know the Milana would shut everything done if she finds that."

"And that is why her tour has been limited to administrative rooms."

"She is no fool. We should have shown her a bit more than that."

"She is no fool but she is not all powerful either. She will not find out what is occurring on the seventh floor."

"Would you shut up! Why would you even mention that?!"

"Calm down Samuel no one can listen in on our meetings."

"Listen. We all hope the Milana is an immature child but the truth is she is the most powerful being in this realm, second only to the realm itself. And for all we know she may be more powerful than the realm."

"Okay. Okay. No more talking about that for now. It is not even on the agenda for this meeting. Let us get back on track..."

Rachel listened for a bit longer. After listening for thirty minutes her spirit body stepped out of her physical body and stood like in bridge to between her soul body and her physical body.

With her spirit body tethered and fortified by her soul body she went looking for the White's experiments.

She searched the seventh floor of the two buildings that had seventh floors. On one of these she found rooms of people in medical beds. In the center of the floor was a laboratory with three large tanks and two vats filled with different potions. The tanks had people floating or sitting in them and the potions were slowly flowing into them. She could see the potions entering the Bodies of the people with her spirit vision.

She watched for a long while and made an assumption she would regret later.