Child Control

Sweets Solve Everything

Raynett's POV:

It was a busy day today like it always was. I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city. The air smells like a combination of all the various food and other goods stalls around me but the majority of what I could smell was the bread and sugary pastries wafting up from our display in front of me.

"That will be five-dollars miss," I yelled to be heard over the voices of everyone else to the woman who just bought a homemade slice of pecan pie from me. She handed me the crisp cash and I waited for the next person in line. As I worked, I let my mind wander. A lot has happened since I first came here 6 months ago with Torana.

I immediately started working here because I love sweets and wanted to learn how to make them, not to mention the boss was a kind elderly man. He seemed to know Annita and I got roped into being one of the eyes and ears for the spy and assassin guild like all of my coworkers before I knew it. Not that I minded, it was a relatively simple job. Anything that seemed off or suspicious I just reported to them.

We had cool codes we used which made me feel very professional. Even after all this time, it was surreal. Just then Fia came to the counter.

"Hey what's up?" I asked. People from the guild never came here just to buy sweets.

"Can I have a slice of apple pie?" She asked and I nodded and yelled to the back "apple pie!" before turning back to her.

"It will be ready in just a moment," I said and she smiled, nodded, and disappeared into the crowd. Apple pie was code for I need to tell you something and we always let them in the backdoor to talk. I worked for about ten more minutes to seem unsuspicious before trading places with my coworker under the pretense of a break and headed to the back.

Fia was sitting in the back waiting for me with my boss. They were talking and laughing like they were old friends but once they saw me they both immediately sobered up.

"We need to talk." She said and I nodded. My boss stood and led us to a door that was labeled 'employee bathroom only'. We had a second bathroom that was supposedly for customers but in the time I'd worked here we had never let a customer come to the back. The employees used that bathroom.

He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Inside the empty room smelled less like flour and sugar. He shut the door and locked it behind us.

"What is it?" He asked Fia. "This room is completely soundproof so you don't have to worry about anyone hearing what you say."

"Thank you." She said and looked between us. "We are looking for someone on the Rescue Team. We had reason to believe that the Rescue Team is corrupt and that in fact, Numinore is run by Child Control."

"What?" I asked, stunned. "Numinore isn't controlled by Child Control! Why do you think that?" My heart was racing, how could they be controlling this place? They don't even know it exists!

She held up her hands in a placating motion. "You know the less you know the better, but our information comes from a very reputable place. We need you guys to be on the lookout for anyone you even suspect might be on the Recuse Team and as them where the team meets." I took a deep breath and filed the information she told us away for later, right now I had to focus on the task at hand.

"Ok. Do you have anyone, in particular, you are looking for?"

"No, just anyone on the rescue team who would know where they hold their meetings. The sooner you have the information the better."

"What should we bring?" I asked. Whenever we got information and had to relay it to them we delivered sweets.

"Um... A red velvet cake!" She said and licked her lips.