Amber scampered through the forest, having an easy time making her way back to town. She felt good about what she had done, 'Mr. Rifin was nice. Mom just needs to give him a chance...'

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt when she was suddenly lifted into the air by a pair of strong arms, "And just where are you off to young lady?" Asked a male voice.

Amber squirmed around and managed to get a look at the person holding her. It was a member of the C.W.G. she recognized the armor and the Human shape. The officer cradled Amber in one arm and pulled back the visor on the helmet. Amber sighed in relief as she recognized the Human's face, "Oh Officer Hord, you scared me... heh... um, funny I should run into you out here..."

"Yes, that IS strange isn't it. It's almost as if I followed you the entire way." Darryl said sardonically, "Why were you out here Amber Eyes?" He already knew the answer, as he had watched and listened in on the exchange. He wanted to see if she would tell the truth.

Amber smiled sheepishly, "I was... um... heh..." her smile wilted along with her ears, "I was visiting Mr. Rifin." she confessed, "I heard about him and I felt sorry for him. I brought him some of our old blankets that we never use and some food. Please don't tell my parents."

Darryl grinned thinly, "I won't but you need to. I'll give you a pass this time, but you need to tell them." He set her down on the ground, "Come on, I'll walk you home." He clicked on his mic and spoke into it, "Hord to H.Q.,"

"H.Q. here, go for Hord." Came the response.

"The situation is under control, stand down all officers. Amber is returning home. Will escort to ensure safe return. Will inform if other situations develop. Over." Darryl finished.

Amber sighed in relief and trotted alongside Darryl back to the house.

* * *

Artex, Razor Wit, and Oriana had their folding tables all set up in Town Hall the next morning. The second round of interviews were due to begin as soon as they opened the doors. There was a line of Humans stretching from the doors and around Town Hall, wrapping around the entirety of the building almost three times. Razor and Oriana were grumpy about the numbers of Humans to be interviewed. Artex' own mood ranged closer to amused than annoyed or grumpy. He already knew that most of the people outside didn't qualify to even be interviewed and he was almost looking forward to turning people away.

"I didn't think there were so many couples in New Humansville. This is going to take all day at least." Razor groused moodily.

"Most of them won't qualify." Artex said with a grin, "They just want to whine about it." He looked around at the six Sorcerers standing inside Town Hall two on either side of the front doors, two off to either side of the tables, and two behind he, Razor, and Oriana, supplemented by six officers of the C.W.G. standing with them, half Kavim and half Human, "I don't see anybody causing undue trouble with our friends here."

Oriana turned and examined the officers in their armor. They stood silently, stoic in their steadiness and patience. The Zebra mare was surprised to see that one of the Kavim officers was an Earth Pony mare. Mares had yet to be fully implemented into the E.P.U. Guard, but apparently in New Humansville they were readily accepted. Oriana pitied anybody who ended up on the receiving end of the mare's ire. The parts of her coat that shone through the small gaps in the armor were mint green, though Oriana had no idea what color her mane and tail were since they were concealed within the armor. The upper portion of her face was obscured by the visor of her helmet, but her unusually solid jaw spoke of a hearty build. Her whole body was slathered with corded muscle which bulged even through the armor. If Oriana had to guess, she would say that the mare probably weighed double what most other Earth Ponies weighed. She was tall too, standing taller than the vast majority of stallions.

Oriana turned back around and sighed, "Let us begin this mess then. Shall I open the doors?"

"We will take care of that miss." The Earth Pony mare said loudly, "Today you three determine who we escort out and who we let in. Just tell us what you want us to do and it will happen Mr. Emissary."

Artex smiled at the mare, "Thank you..." he trailed off hoping the mare would fill in the blank.

"Rose Thorn, Mr. Emissary. It's our pleasure." She walked forward from behind the three interviewers and approached the doors. Reaching forward with her right forehoof, she opened the door, "The first family may enter." She ordered.

The first to enter were a young man and woman of African American ethnicity. Artex recognized them as some of the people he had arrived with. He folded his hands on the table in front of him and nodded to the pair as they sat down on the cushions in front of the three tables.

Artex nodded respectfully to the pair, "Good morning," he greeted the pair in a congenial tone, "Before we take your names, we have to make sure you qualify for the interview. Are the two of you an established couple?"

The young man and woman exchanged a confused look, then the young man spoke up, "Uh, sure." He sounded anything but sure.

Artex pursed his lips and nodded, "How long have the two of you been together?"

The young woman spoke up next, "Why does that matter?"

Artex sat his elbows on the table and gestured to the two with his hands as he spoke, "For one, if you two became a couple only to have a chance to adopt this baby, you will be disqualified. Something like that is a completely unacceptable reason to become a couple and you wouldn't last very long as a couple once the responsibilities really hit you. Two, it's both disrespectful and manipulative in the most petty way. Am I correct in guessing that you chose to do this just to keep a Kavim couple from the adoption?"

The man shook his head in denial, "No, we..." he was cut off by the woman next to him.

"So what if we did?" She asked aggressively, "They don't deserve to have one of OUR babies..."

Artex shook his head and spoke over her, "That's not for you to decide ma'am. You do not qualify. Next."

The woman stood up and planted her hands on Artex' table, leaning into his face, "Hey CRACKER, just because you care for THEM more than your own people, doesn't give you the right to decide..."

She was cut off as the young man attempted to pull her away by her right shoulder, "Leave it alone..."

The woman swung her arm back and slapped the young man in the stomach, "Shut it! I'm talking to..."

"Not anymore." A feminine voice called from behind her.

Before the woman could turn around, an armored foreleg wrapped around her middle and almost casually lifted her off her feet, "Time to go ma'am, before you do something that gets you into trouble."

The woman kicked out and grunted as she was calmly carried away by Rose Thorn. The young man shot the three interviewers a sheepish grin and followed Rose Thorn out the front doors. The Sorcerers closed the doors behind them. Artex finally let out the laughter he had been holding. Oriana shot him a confused look, "What was so funny about that?"

"She... hehehehe... she called me a... heheheheh... a CRACKER! Psh, bwahahahahahaha! Ooh, I haven't been called THAT in a long time!" He laughed until he started coughing, which seemed to make him only laugh even harder.

Razor and Oriana shared a long suffering look and rolled their eyes, it was going to be a long day.

* * *

Oriana closed the cap on her ink vial, "So we actually have two possibilities... sort of."

Razor Wit rinsed out her quill in the little vial of water, "They only want the baby if there isn't anybody else who is capable of taking care of it."

Artex smiled at the topic, "Kaneesha and Andrew for one, and Mike and Rachel for the other. I'll be honest, I was surprised by that second one. Andrew and Kaneesha though... yeah, I kind of saw that coming. Those two are rock solid."

The Sorcerers and the C.W.G. officers had gotten a bit of a workout, Rose Thorn especially. She had been on point the entire time and had been involved in almost every altercation. At one point, a flailing foot had given her a bloody snoot for her trouble, but once the young man realized what he had done he had apologized profusely. Rose Thorn had waved it off even as her muzzle stained red from her own blood. She had been the very model of patient professional and Artex was sure that Captain Joyner was glad to have her.

"Are we finished for the day Mr. Emissary?" Full Spectrum asked. She had been one of the ones to relieve the first group of Sorcerers during the lunch break.

Artex nodded, "Yep. We're good. Thank you everybody, you did a great job, especially you Rose Thorn. I'll be sure to mention your performance to Captain Joyner." The stout mare had stayed all day. She had eaten lunch in Town Hall and just gone back to work afterwards like it was nothing.

The mint mare smiled a burly, but warm smile from beneath her visor, "It was our pleasure Mr. Emissary. Mind if a couple of us walk you and your staff back to your rooms? Some of the people we escorted out today might have a bit of mayhem on their minds."

Artex chuckled and shook his head, "We appreciate the offer, but we can handle ourselves. You've all worked hard. Go home and relax. Who knows, maybe we'll see some of you this evening at The Melting Pot." Artex missed the look shared between Oriana and Razor Wit.

Rose Thorn opened her mouth to reply but thought better of it and bowed her head, "Thank you Mr. Emissary."

Artex waved his hand dismissively, "Oh stop with that. Just call me Artex."

Rose Thorn smiled again and spoke to the other officers, "Come on everybody!" She waved with her left forehoof, "First round is on me tonight!" Her invitation was met with loud cheers from the officers and polite refusals from the Sorcerers.

As everybody filled out of Town Hall, Artex stopped Brandon Elstwere a.k.a. Night Flare, as he had changed his name to, "Why aren't you guys joining the C.W.G. officers? You worked hard too."

Night Flare shook his head, "Nope, we swore an oath of sobriety. See, the C.W.G. has enough members to always have somebody on-call and they only use their bodies for the most part. Us Sorcerers use our magic mostly and there aren't all that many of us. Besides, we can't risk our magic getting out of control if we're plastered. The Arch Magister has taken steps to teach us some of the combat spells that the Unicorn E.P.U. Guard know and license each one of us to use them if necessary. Granted we have yet to use even one of them, but our potential for disaster if we misuse our power is much, much greater than that of the C.W.G. officers. So thanks, but no thanks sir. We need to get back to our 'tower grounds'..."

"Tower grounds?" Artex asked.

Night Flare nodded, "Yeah. We pooled our money and purchased a small plot of land not far from the edge of the forest to the South. We're going to build a training ground there for Humans who want to learn our types of magic and for potential and current Sorcerers to practice their craft safely. We already have a silver circle embedded into the stone foundation where the tower is going to be built. Right now we're sleeping under a spell weaved canopy dome. It keeps the air comfortable and the rain off us. Oh and it keeps out bugs and wild animals. It's a multi-layered ward. It took seven of us, all casting at the same time to pull it off. Arch Magister Catalyst said it should have been impossible for us to do so without training for 'linked casting' but apparently we figured it out on our own." Night Flare shrugged, "Meh, we figured it out and we can do it safely, that's all that really matters, right? This one Pegasus mare stopped Full Spectrum when she was out on watch one night a couple of weeks ago and mentioned we should try adding a drop of our blood to the silver circle. Said it would strengthen the ward and if we wanted 'real power' that she could help us. We decided that we shouldn't do it though. If Catalyst didn't recommend it then we'd generally prefer to err on the side of caution..."

One of the Human C.W.G. officers walking with them suddenly stopped and turned to Night Flare urgently, "She said to use a drop of blood to fortify the ward?"

Artex managed not to blink at the intensity of the question, and Night Flare looked concerned, "That's right, is something wrong?"

The officer who spoke was a man, but one that Artex couldn't put a name to. The concerned officer spoke into his mic, "H.Q. this is Henderson, I need the Captain to meet myself and fourteen others in the secured briefing room A.S.A.P. This is of Priority One importance. Over." Without waiting for a response, he spoke to the group, "I'm sorry to do this, but I need all of you to come speak to Captain Joyner right now. This is urgent and cannot wait. Corporal Rose Thorn, have you been briefed about the 'recent concern'?"

Rose Thorn clenched her jaw, "I have. Who mentioned something about it? I must have missed it."

Henderson pointed to Night Flare, "Apparently somepony tried to tell Night Flare to fortify a ward using the kinds of techniques we were warned about. He didn't do so, but he might be able to tell us something."

Rose Thorn nodded, "I apologize everybody, but this absolutely cannot wait." She turned to the other C.W.G. officers, "Form up! Protective circle around everybody. Follow my lead, move."

Everybody shared a confused loom at the sudden intensity and mood change that had come over the officers. As far as Artex was aware, the C.W.G. hadn't begun their training yet, but they suddenly formed up and gave and obeyed orders like a military group. He was also confused as to why the officers became so tense at the mention of using blood to strengthen a ward. Everybody knew that magic flowed through their blood so it did kind of make sense. He wondered why it was so important.

The typos need to be escorted to the C.W.G. H.Q. A.S.A.P. Please remember to Like if you like the story.