Denice is in speech therapy. Today is pretty much like any other day. She repeats random syllables back to the therapist, as usual.
And, her datahook is already equipped to be a scrying tool. She works.
To start - the place the arrival comes from, what it is? Nothing inside, nothing private that would bounce her out or within the bounds that is likely warded, but - if she was traveling and got as close as one could get that way to it, what would she see/perceive?
A large three-story building, painted a nondescript white and studded with windows, with a wire fence surrounding it at a bit of a distance, and light forest surrounding that. It could be a prison, except for the fact that, aside from a few apparently-guards, all the people visible through the large window at the front of the building are children of various ages.
Many of the children are thin, similarly to their visitor; one has his hands attached to a belt at his waist by short ropes, significantly limiting his range of motion. Most of them seem vacant, possibly drugged, possibly just the hopelessness that comes of being trapped someplace horrible.
Well, it's not that they're surprised that there's more. But.
(She relays to Heria).
(She is somewhat surprised that she can see through the windows.)
And - public information about the location? Is it publicly known as something, is it mentioned somewhere, would it be marked on a map, would it be written about, would there be news stories about it...
There isn't much public information, but there's some. It's marked on maps as White Willow Youth Asylum - it's not close to anything else, but there's a road nearby and a large town a few days' foot travel away. There's a pamphlet about it, all bright and glossy, assuring parents that the best care and treatment will be given to children sent there, decorated with pictures of smiling children hugging each other and sitting attentively in a classroom, and a web site, similarly arranged.
...
(Reading under the translation spell seems to go smoother than talking did, which she notices and notes.)
(She relays to Heria.)
...blessed earth.
...I wish I could be optimistic that this would mean all we would have to do is report them...
She agrees with the sentiment. And the lack of optimism.
...do the pamphlets or website say why parents might think to send children there? Is it something like a state home? Something like a boarding school? (Is an admission price of some sort mentioned?)
Neither the pamphlet nor the website states that openly; they seem to assume that anyone reading them would already know why they might be considering it. But a list of what seems to be mental health diagnoses on the web site is suggestive, at least. And neither of them mentions an admission price, but both assure the reader that they accept something health-related which in context seems to be about funding.
She relays that to Heria also.
(With only one young and likely isolated person to work from, it is not surprising there are words and concepts the translation is not giving her. She saves their appearance in the arrival's language, for later searching.)
And, information about this - 'Asylum' seems rather important. She scries again. Public history? Establishment, any events that would have been noted...
Again, not much. There was a minor newspaper article about it when it opened, several decades ago, and it's mentioned a few more times in articles calling for it and a couple other local ones to be closed down, a few decades after that. There's also an obituary that mentions it: a fifteen-year-old boy died there about a year and a half ago; the cause of death isn't mentioned.
(Decades).
What did the article say? The articles? 'A couple other local ones'? What else does the obituary say?
(At this point this is rather a hard energy drain. She barely notices.)
The article about the facility's opening is short, without much detail, but enthusiastic about the new, scientific treatments it was expected to offer. The articles calling for its closure (and the closures of two others, Spring Forest State Hospital and West Pine Therapeutic Home) are longer, describing a conflict between activists who claim that confining people to institutions is inherently inhumane and family and workers who are concerned that the institutionalized people won't get the care they need in any other setting.
The obituary is short and generic, without much detail: The boy's name was Robert Greene; he was living at White Willow when he died; his parents were alive at the time, as were a younger brother and an older sister.
This does not make it look very probable that the problem can be improved by reporting.
('Inherently inhumane' is certainly important, but it seems fairly negligent to entirely leave out details such as 'starving their charges').
She says the brief form of the prayer for the dead.
She squeezes Shen's hand again. I think that's enough hard scrying for now.
Yeah.
She feeds the alphabet into the datahook, looking for what language this is, and some available books.
She's still curled up, and watching the TV again.
The datahook continues not to be able to find anything.
That's rather bizarre. And not even something she can guess L might have done. Maybe it's some kind of technological difficulty. She'll try again from the information center, later.
And, less high-intensity but important scrying:
...it's a long shot, but if she ended up considered some kind of second class citizen, maybe they weren't protecting her records properly. Anything about the arrival? Public records, identify documents...
...well, she's not impressed with the relevant government, but it isn't as though she was before.
The date format is not familiar. She feeds that into the datahook, looking for where uses those dates.