Swamped

"Just to be sure, how many children are on this ship? I know of the two I brought up here earlier, and now Suzy? Any others?"

"Three more who are that young," Bertha replies. "We've got a few teenagers as well, but they're old enough to actually help out with the ship. No heavy labor, mind, mostly just cleaning and the like."

"And what, you can't have them watching the younger kids?" you ask, a little skeptically.

"That would make things easier, if any of them were the sort to be trusted with child care," she replies. "Sadly, that's not how it is."

"So you don't think they'd go around reading children's books and making magic symbols because of them?"

"None of them can read, and immature as they are, I can't imagine them drawing something just because they see a picture of it in a book. Even then, they'd have to get this book from me. Pretty sure there aren't any other copies on board, since this book's not exactly common."

"What do you mean?"

"It was originally made in Kandria. And as you might guess, they banned it rather promptly, what with the whole thing about a forgotten god. Only a few copies made it out of the country, I heard. But I make a bit of a hobby out of collecting books banned in Kandria."

"Right," you mumble. "So just to be thorough, who are these other three children?"

"Two of 'em are twins," she replies. "Boy and a girl. About eight years old. They don't like to talk to anyone besides each other, though. Which isn't to say they're above causing trouble, mostly little pranks. Not that hard to deal with on the whole, though."

"And the third?"

She lets out a deep breath.

"That one's going to take a bit of explanation."