"You won't be arrested for not answering."

"In that case I don't really want to tell you anything, am I free to go, officers?"

"Yes, but how many rings would it take to change your mind about that?"

No amount of rings would be worth being the woman who ratted somebody out to the imperial police - well. It depends on what he did. "Ugh. What do you want him for, anyway?"

"His child seems to have been involved in assault and attempting to keep people out of public places."

"Oh, Christian's in trouble? Yeah, someone should-" Ohhhh. "-No I want nothing to do with this I just want to go find something to eat, okay? You should probably talk to Lady Katherine or Captain Edwards or something."

"How many rings do you want for telling us where to find one of them?"

Can she be done with this already please???

"Someone at Town Hall would probably know. I'm... Going to, uh, leave now, okay?"

"Okay."

Not long later one of them shows up at Town Hall to ask about Lady Katherine and Captain Edwards.

The receptionist says Lady Katherine is on her way here right now, she's just gotten a message from her on the computer asking about the imperial police and how she wants to talk to them. Captain Edwards is probably in his home, but she could call him?

"Which of them will be here faster?"

"Almost certainly Lady Katherine, sirs. She apparently hired a force mage and is proceeding here directly. Five minutes."

Then they'll wait for her.

And here is Lady Katherine, slightly out of breath. "Hello, officers. I'm the one they're calling Lady Katherine - Katherine Cromwell, or just Katherine, if you prefer. I have every hope I can get all eight of the people you want and resolve all this as best as we can."

"You want to round them up yourself? Or would you like our help?"

"If I round them up myself it's much less likely to spook them into doing something unfortunate. Maybe hand them off to you one at a time? I can bring you along if you prefer, however."

"We'll leave you to it if you think that would be best."

"Yes, I think that would be best. I did try to impress the implications of imperial law on everyone, but old habits die hard. Leaving your children alone is not at all unusual where we come from, so I can see how this ended up happening. All I ask is that you please keep in mind that this is the first exposure to imperial law enforcement for - I think all eight parents."

"Of course. Just let us know if there's anything we do for you."

"I think what will work best is if you - force mage, yes? - fly me to where I think they are, are on hand to watch them once I collect them, and wait until I collect everyone and then take them away all at once."

They have a couple more details to work out and then they can help her go find everyone.

She talks her way into two apartment buildings and two houses. In each case, she comes out a few minutes later with a sulking, anxious couple. They whisper at each other a bit and mostly don't talk to the officers, but are compliant.

Well that's a lot of people. And off they go back to Riuhiu.

Katherine is getting kind of tired of this sudden running around and has cancelled several appointments over it, but will come along if nobody objects.

They certainly don't object.

Once they get there one of the officers wants to know if she'd be willing to answer some questions? For a few rings, of course.