Welcome to Hell {Prinxiety}

Chapter 16

Logan's POV 

"Good morning madam Avery," I greet.

"How many times have I told you to drop the title?" She asks, not looking up from the crate she was currently tying down.

I think for a minute, "Counting today's use of the request, one hundred and forty-seven times."

She smiles, "Still having problems detecting sarcasm, eh?" I decide not to correct her grammar and instead sit stiffly on a crate, "What brings you here today Logan?"

"Well, my housemates and I were going to work with the royal guard to figuratively 'take down' a known criminal," I explain, knowing that I could say complete nonsense and she would understand.

"Housemates as in Patton and Virgil right?" She asks for clarification, raising her eyebrow suspiciously, "How are they? Have you finally admitted your feelings for Patton to yourself?"

"My what?" I inquire quickly, almost choking on my coffee. What have I ever done to make her think that I have feelings for Patton, or anyone for that matter?

She laughs, "That whole 'I don't have emotions thing' is bullish!t, I see the way your eyes light up when you talk about him," She smiles again, and I can't decipher the emotion behind it.

"FALSEHOOD!!" I yell, ignoring the heat rising to my cheeks.

"Mm, I don't think so," She says smugly, "I know you Logan, you could easily support yourself so the fact that you're willingly living with someone means they're special. Virgil is an exception since I know Patton must have used his puppy eyes against you."

I'm starting to get concerned for Avery's mental health, with her advanced age she's much more likely to become cognitively impaired. She is only fifty-seven, which she would argue is 'still young' so I choose not to mention this fact. Instead I take notice of my strangely quick heartbeat, it appears that I am flustered. But why does Avery's mocking of my supposed 'crush' bother me so much?

"Don't pop a blood vessel," She warns me with a smirk, "Did you seriously not realize? Anyone with working eyes can see that you care about him."

"How would you know, you've never actually met Patton," I argue, holding my cup a little too tightly. My voice was at an unnaturally high pitch and my speech was quicker than usual.

She shrugs, "I don't need to, you've already told me so much about him," No I ha- well I have told her about Patton's job, love of animals and cooking, his kind nature, and his tendency to 'adopt' everyone he sees, "Just take a minute, free of bias, to consider what you feel about Patton. How those feelings differ from those you are also close to."

Despite my immediate doubts, I know that in some ways Avery is smarter than me so I attempt to do as she says. Patton has been living in the same house as me for two and a half years now, and I would consider us to be close, figuratively seeing as I'm halfway across town from him at the moment. When I think about it though, living without Patton would certainly be much quieter and...lonelier. I've grown quite attached to the baker, that much is certain.

Then there's Virgil, who showed up three months, twelve days, and five hours ago who Patton loves like a son. I can respect him for having common sense, even if he tends to ignore logic due to his anxiety. Though, I would consider us friends and nothing more seeing the immense frustration he brings when discussing clearly incorrect 'conspiracy theories' with me.

Finally, I consider my relationship with Avery. Out of the three, I have known her for the longest, since I was fourteen. She has become a mentor to me, who seems to see right through me and often 'calls me out' on my 'crap.' She always allows me to talk when I need, and sometimes we sit comfortably as she tells a story from one of her travels. Oftentimes the stories are a bit fantastical for my tastes but she makes them enjoyable enough with her large vocabulary and  vocal range.

Out of the three, I guess that I enjoy my time with Patton the most, interesting. He is the only one of the three who's cooking I enjoy, then again I've never had Avery's cooking. While his puns are insufferable, I do 'soften up' around Patton in a way that I haven't with anyone else. Maybe, just maybe, Avery is right on this one.

I will have to look into this issue further, but I've already admitted to being wrong once today. For now I need to focus on the task at hand, "Are you going to help me work out the details of my plan or not?"

"Of course," She confirms, sitting on a crate, "What's the plan?"

"With the help of some royal guard members and loyal friends, Patton and I were planning to attack the Castillo Mines and arrest Ryan Castillo. Virgil was an unwilling slave there, which warrants an arrest. All we need to do is find the place, which Virgil marked on a map," I explain.

"But how do you plan to actually get inside this place? Surely there's some kind of aboveground entrance, every mine has one, so you'd probably want to attack there," She points out.

It may have been a mistake to only recruit her now, "What do you suggest?" As much as I dislike the idea of needing help, Avery will not judge me (out loud) and she offers great advice.

She leans back in thought, staring up at the sky. The position looks uncomfortable, but she's obviously used to it by now, "You and a couple of the people should watch the area for a bit, determine the best time to attack or sneak in, depending on how well guarded it is. Everyone going should be well armed since this place is being run by a criminal, it's safe to assume that his accomplices will be armed as well."

"That is why we recruited members of the royal guard, we would also need their access to horses. Patton has already arranged a time for us to meet with our associates to better explain and work through the plan. The main concern would be that we have no idea how many enemies we will have in the mine," I reason.

She hums, "Do you have any idea how many slaves are there? With that number I'm sure we could make an educated guess, especially since I've seen the Corinthian protests first hand."

"Let's see...Virgil said each 'generation' had around forty kids, he was part of the omega generation. There are twelve Endrean symbols so that means twelve generations total, plus one in the event that a new generation was brought in the time since Virgil left. So four hundred and eighty, give or take," I determine, thankful to have the simple math distract me from thoughts of Patton.

"They've probably gotten rid of or recruited each kid that's older than eighteen so we can discount them. How old are the kids when they're taken?" She questions.

"Around seven," According to Virgil's own experience.

"So the first three generations are definitely out. Which leaves three hundred and sixty, plus the possible forty of a new generation in the time that Virgil hasn't been there," She summarizes.

I nod, "That doesn't include the number of children that could have died from the conditions of the mine. From what I gathered they were underground all day, and poorly fed going off of the way Virgil appeared at first," I point out.

"True, some I'm gonna take off another hundred-fifty for that since hard labor and starvation do not work well together," One thing I respect about Avery is that she's not afraid to talk about unconventional topics such as child trafficking.

"So between two hundred and ten, to two hundred and fifty," I clarify, no matter how unnecessary.

"Which means there'll be around thirty armed guards," She reasons, not bothering to explain, "So when am I getting grandkids from you and Patton?"

"Good talk!"

A/N: First of all; I had wayy too much fun writing this Second: I know there are twenty-four Greek letters but in this just pretend it's a made-up language with twelve letters. Otherwise there'd be like 900 kids in Hell. Anyway I hoped you enjoyed 1000 words worth of Logan being a gay disaster.