I’ve arrived, and thanks to Patchy loaning me some gold, I can stay at the bar for a bit. This town is not too much different than the one I left. It’s bigger, and there are more people here, but it’s basically the same. Most outsiders are here at the bar, and there’s an inner town that mostly stays to itself. Keeps itself to itself.

Maybe it’s because I still haven’t bound to anything yet, but most people seem to think I’m a local kid. I could ask around and see if anything was happening like Patchy said, and it only gets me a few weird looks, mostly from adults. But the other kids don’t care, they’ll talk about whatever. A lot of it is boring, but I did get some of what their parents talk about. Maybe this is what Patchy was saying was interesting.

About two years ago, someone went missing. It’s not all that unusual, especially with older folks. They’ll walk off in the wilderness if they think they’re being a burden. Die instead of wasting food. But this someone was younger, not anywhere near dying, and still had a lot of good work coming through. They never found him.

Then, sure as clockwork, someone went missing every half-year. Each time it was younger and younger. Don’t know if that first one was related or not, cause so far three of the other four showed up again. They were weird statues, all stiffened up with some kind of resin and malformed into not even humans anymore. One of them was even stuck together with their dog to make some kind of weird attempt at a monster.

I guess the resin was maybe someone’s aspect? Does anyone in town have that kind of aspect? It might be worth asking around. Surely someone else has already asked around?

All of them were pried apart and cremated, returning them back to the Maker. I think they were already with the Maker, body doesn’t matter all that much once you’re dead. But that’s what all the old folks say. I think they think the Maker’s an actual person, the way they talk about them and all.

Each time, the person was younger than the last. The most recent disappearance was someone in their early adulthood, just turned a few years ago. And they went missing about five days ago. Based on what the kids said, it takes about ten days for them to show up again. The dog-monster took a whole twenty.

I wish someone’d looked to see how long they were dead for. Was it right after they went missing, or was it closer to when they showed back up? Is the person who got kidnapped still alive, or are they already dead?

It doesn’t seem like a lot of people care all that much, other than being angry whenever the statues show up again. Does the kidnapper go after people no one really cares about? Or maybe their aspect makes it so someone doesn’t care about them?

I wish I had an aspect to help me look around, or know. Papa always said they show up whenever you need them most, so maybe… if I care a lot, it’ll show up? It also sounds kind of fake, like what Papa would say so I don’t worry too much about it.

Well, I can try at least. Being able to find someone would probably be a useful aspect, right? Might be able to become a bounty hunter or something, and be able to leave small towns and go back to the Capital!