Of Master and Apprentice (Book 3)

Chapter 18

On the next morning, Luna woke up and headed downstairs to the first floor. The ladies were kind enough to offer her breakfast. They poured her some milk and offered her bread. Eating it brought back the memories of when she used to work at the bakery, earning for Europa and the girls. When she's done, she had a change of clothes and headed out to find Miranda. She found her walking along the edges of the canal, which wasn't very hard to find.

"So where do we train today?" Luna asked.

"In the forest," Miranda answered. "Outside the city."

They stopped by at a local bakery to buy some food before venturing out into woods. They had to walk up the slope, which Luna considered warmup. Their main focus for that day was still on magic. With a little struggle, Luna would perfect her telekinetic skills to levitate a rock and other objects. They stopped for lunch before picking up where they left off. They trained all day and when the sun started setting, they went back into the city. Miranda paid for their dinner at the tavern and told Luna to get a good rest.

Luna went back to the brothel and felt the disgust as she passed one of the prostitutes pleasuring a customer. She went back up to her room which she found to be surprisingly clean. Quite ironic, she thought her room would actually be used by someone with a paying customer. With all the exhaustion of the day, Luna quickly fell asleep.

The murmuring of the prostitutes downstairs woke her up the day after that. She got out of bed and headed down to investigate what was going on. She saw the prostitutes gathering around a weeping woman. She took a closer look and saw that it was the pregnant woman who brought her and the other rebels there. Except, she wasn't pregnant anymore. If she had given birth, then where was her baby? Something's not right.

"What happened?" Luna asked.

"Her baby's gone," one of the prostitutes answered.

"How? Babies don't just vanish like that," Luna inquired.

"There have been rumors of unborn children disappearing like this round the city recently," the prostitute answered.

Luna turned her sights to a girl younger than herself. Her face displayed an expression of worry as her hand rubbed her pregnant belly. She looked to the other pregnant prostitutes and saw that some of them displayed the same anxiety, while the rest didn't seem to care.

Luna went back to her room and gathered her gear, thanking the girls in the brothel for their hospitality before heading out to find Miranda. She walked through the city keeping her eyes open for any sign of her master. At last, she found her reading something on the notice board.

"Miranda..." Luna called.

"Luna," she interrupted. "I've heard rumors about unborn babies disappearing into thin air in this city."

"I was just about to say that," Luna continued. "One of the women in the brothel was a victim."

"You spent the night in the brothel?" Miranda asked. "Didn't you have anywhere else to sleep?"

Luna was silenced. What would she say? Would Miranda believe her if she actually said that there was literally no other place to stay and that she reluctantly spent the night there.

"You know what?" Miranda continued. "We can talk about it later. Right now, we're going to find the demon who did this, and put an end to it."

"You really think a demon did this?" Luna asked, making sure her suspicion was correct.

Miranda said nothing, she only looked at her apprentice. But that look was enough to convince Luna that her suspicions had been confirmed.

*************************

What kind of demon could do this? Will they be able to slay it? Stay tuned. As always, don't forget to leave comments and vote I really appreciate those.

I dedicate this chapter to Bermiliza who binge read and voted on Of Angels and Demons. Hope you enjoy the story. Here's to you!

-Zyrofern