Forgotten by the Realms

Chapter 2: Secrets

Clumps of weeds surrounded the once graceful and elegant temple. It was falling into ruin. Sasi grabbed a handful and yanked hard pulling them up by the root, and falling over. They groaned profusely and slumped over the meditation shrine they fell on.
"Báye, help me up."
He hurried over quickly trying his hardest not to snicker, clearly not hiding it well. He hoisted Sasi up and handed them the weeds they had manhandled.
"Your trophy Your Majesty!"
Sasi grinned behind their mask as they graciously accepted the dirty weeds.
"Thank you kind sir, shall we continue our journey?"
"Nothing would delight me more!" He joked.
Báyedolune was young, no more then 13, but he was already forced to grow up. His hair was a honey brown not white like his siblings, so often people thought that he and the twins weren't related. His misty blue eyes and boyish grin were enough to get him all the girls, even though he never wanted too. Fitting in with society was hard enough. Báye was constantly on edge, it took a lot for Odë and Sasi to get him to go out into public. This trip to the temple was good for him, but Sasi could see he was stressed. Odë had gone to the market not long after they had started off, apparently crab soup was on sale.
Nevertheless, Sasi and Báye, after discarding the weeds, joined the stream of people pouring into the cooling shade of the temple.
It's monoliths and alters were austere, a beautiful weathering giving them a mossy look. Large holes in the ceiling acted as Skylights and enhanced the glowing candles which were set with care. Sasi strolled up to a vendor and tapped them on the shoulder. The man spun around, holding a clipboard and glared peevishly at the siblings.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"Yes, we do, we are here to fill out the census paperwork." Sasi said, trying not to retch at the mans horrible breath.
He groaned, and lazily pointed to an old man at the back of the room, ferociously scribbling information at his desk.
"The head recorder will help you, here take this form."
Sasi stumbled backwards at the thick padded papers roughly shoved into their arms, they had trouble seeing over the stack as they meandered towards the desk.  The Recorder frowned as they slid the paper onto his ridiculously high table, and scrutinized it with utmost frugality. He irately whipped off his glasses as he slammed his fist down on top of it.
"This is not a legal form, you are not an adult. Don't waste my time kid, come back with your parents."
Sasi stood stock still, hiding the pain behind their mask as they listened to the now deafeningly quiet room. Everyone had turned their head towards them, and the silence echoed loudly, if silence could even be loud. They gathered their wits which had scattered like a herd of mantas, as they answered in a sickeningly sweet voice,
"I don't have any parents."
The Recorder huffed, as he puffed out his chest, and scrutinized the Aryonwyn siblings.
"WhY NoT? Are you in the foster care? Or just wild vagabonds with no place to go. This census is made so we can keep track of and get rid of the riff raff, How old are you two?" He seethed out of his teeth, letting drops of spittle fly onto Báye's mask. Báye in visible disgust, wiped them off, and glared silently at him. A white hot anger flared up, causing Sasi's face to turn bright red. Luckily they were wearing a mask.
Sasi and Ode were both 16 and Báye was almost 14, but Sasi had a feeling telling the Recorder this, wasn't a good idea.
"My age doesn't matter, and we are not riff raff." Sasi muttered, cautiously shifting their staff as they noticed a few assistants coming closer, they  tightened their grip on Báye's cloak as they looked for potential escapes. The Recorder slowly slid out of his seat with a devilish look on his face. He strode over casually towards Sasi and Báye.
"Look, children. I'm here to help, we need to get you relocated so you can have a better future. Now please don't put up a fight, or we might have to separate you."
As he reached forward to grab Sasi's shoulder, a shout erupted from the other end of the temple. A young woman in a long black cloak came storming down the hall, and pushed through the assistants like they were stalks of wheat. Her brown hair fell in waves loosely behind her, as her intimidating dark brown eyes glared under her mask. Arms akimbo she glowered at Sasi and Báye, and started telling off the Recorder.
"Excuse me, I don't care who you are Mister high and mighty, don't you dare lay your crabby fingers on my kids! I asked them to get some work done for me but CLEARLY that's too much of a problem. Let's go kids." She ordered, grabbing them by the nape of their cloaks and whisking them in front of her. The Recorder stood confused momentarily as the words rattled in his brain, but seeing how young the women was he grew suspicious.
"That's impossible, they must be at least as old as you. Who do you think you are trying to fool?"
The Woman smirked as she countered him again, pulling out an ID from her cloak pockets.
"Will this suffice?"
The Recorder squinted down at the small print information, frowning at some smears on the side.
"Name: Imma Idiot, resident from Valley of the Ducks, occupation: Traveling performer, professional trickster, primary consultant on Krill Riding and How to not Fail? What kind of ID is this? The information is all weird! This is considered a breach of legal registry, and I am not an IDIOT! WHAT IS YOUR NAME MAM!"
The brown eyes sparkled with life, and the women smirked, as thick corded ropes slid down from holes in the temple roof.
"OPPS silly me, I should have properly introduced myself, my name is Freya, Freya Terati."
She jumped onto the closest rope, flinging Báye up above her with surprisingly powerful limbs. He gripped onto the top of the rope for dear life before supple arms reached down and hoisted him up. Sasi grabbed on and started climbing as quick as possible yanking their cloak out of the grasp of the infuriated assistants. They finally scrambled up through the hole and squinted at the sudden light. A cheerful and narcissistic man stood beaming proudly, as he pushed the remaining end of the rope down on top of the Recorder and assistants.
"Freya, are you aware that you've been followed? Or are these our new hostages?" The man laughed, dodging a threatening blow from the offended party.
"Alright, off your high horse haughty pants! They're with me." She turned towards the kids and grinned at them showing off her dangerously sharp teeth.
Sasi pushed Báye behind them, whipping out their staff and pointed it at the duo. These were the notorious Krill Bandits, ruthless thief's and assassins from The Valley of Triumph. Freya and Leif Terati were on wanted signs across the seven realms, but somehow they always alluded the officials. Sasi didn't know why they saved them, but they knew that it was too dangerous to stay there any longer.
Freya's eyes gleamed in amusement as several cloaked figures appeared behind the siblings and flipped the staff away.
"Slow down Macho Sauce. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead. The quints are quicker then anything, you wouldn't have a chance to fight us off. Be happy you are up here and not down there with officer cranky pants. I'm Freya, these are my partners in crime, Leif, Kaiori, Coco, and the quintuplets. Don't worry we won't hold you for ransom, we already got our treasure." She casually tossed a temple bag full of gold and silver coins to Leif. Seeing the riches inside, the tall gangly man flipped gracefully backwards landing on top of a pillar.
"Oh JOY and EXHALATION! Freya, love of my life, you are truely the greatest sneak of sneaks. I wouldn't have guessed it! You are so unassuming..."
Freya slapped a hand over his chattering mouth as she surveyed Sasi and Báye.
"You're Aryonwyns right? We knew your parents. It's a shame to hear that they passed on to the great orbit. They were close friends."
Sasi's eyes widened, they had never met this comical duo in their life, and their parents were never the sort of people to associate with bandits. Unless the Terati's were lying, apparently there were many things that their parents didn't tell them.
"I'm Sasithorn, and this is my brother Báyedolune. Our parents died three years ago, when we were traveling to the Vault, but I don't ever remember meeting you two."
Leif winked at them, while pensively stroking his chin.
"Well, maybe you weren't looking hard enough. I most certainly remember meeting you, little crab! Of course, you were a lot shorter then, your parents had spiffing snacks, and we didn't have this devilishly handsome little troop tagging along! Kids! Say hi, these are friends not enemies!"
They pulled down their hoods to reveal a group of grinning kids no older than ten. Leif seemed very pleased with them, as he patted their heads.
"Kaiori and Coco are a bit older then the Quintuplets: Sashimi, Clementine, Boba, Mochi, and Avocado. The Quints were professional sneak thieves in Wasteland and we adopted them to help us out. Unfortunately, we haven't been to visit you lot in 14 years, but we owed a lot to your parents, they got us out of some pretty sticky situations!"
Leif wrapped up the loot they stole, as Freya handed a small medallion to Sasi.
"This used to be your dads, it was a running joke that we would pickpocket it off each other. I just keep it around my neck for good luck. You deserve it more. See you around Aryonwyns!" She whistled to the seven kids who disappeared into the brush, and jumped off the roof into the trees beyond, closely followed by Leif.
Báye gently touched the medallion and looked expectantly where they disappeared.
"That... was... AWESOME! They snatched half a years worth of earnings in half an hour! And they managed to make that disrespectful recorder look like a douche bag! How come our parents never talked about them!!?"
Sasi sighed, as they stared into the distance.
The Terati's were certainly much kinder in person, but what Freya said about knowing their parents worried them.
"I don't know, maybe it was for the best..."
Sasi looked down at the small medallion in their palm. It was a pretty thing, and it had a familiar running pattern around the rim surrounding a shimmering ruby. They could've sworn they had seen their father wearing it on occasion. They shoved it quickly into their pocket and looked up at where Báye was now standing at the edge of the roof.
"Umm... Sasi? How do we get down?"