Like a Thief in the Night

Before you read this, I think you should know that I was a lot younger when I wrote it, it was never properly proofread, or editted or had a plot. And while I don't consider it a total abomination, I can't think of a good way to finish this sentence. Anyways, enjoy!

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five
• Part Six
• [Part Seven coming... maybe]

Jail isn't the worst of places, especially when you go to one of the better ones. This wasn't one of those though. This was one of your run of the mill, rotting, decaying prisons wherein you could be left for days on end before the guards got around to feeding you. Oh, and did I mention the rats? The rats that would steal whatever food you had stowed away, that would attack you if you were weak enough. This was a prison for men who wouldn't be seeing the outside world again. Obviously, I wasn't going to stick around too long if I didn't have to.

It was dusk, or so I assumed, seeing as how the entire compound had no windows to the outside world, when one of the newer guards patroled down the walkway past my cell. Show time. I leapt down from the top bunk of the cell and grabbed my cell mate for the last few days by the collar of his rags. I almost felt sorry for him as I began, almost.

"What did you just say to me!?" He was still in shock as to what was going on. "You lying bastard!"

I struck him across the face for emphasis and drove my knee into his stomach. Which brought a loud groan from him. "I'll tear your apart! I'll leave you're liver and lights for the rats to eat you son of a whore!" I screamed as loud as I could without my voice cracking, as I continued the string of profanities accompanied by an occasional swat across the face.

I smiled darkly into his trembling face as I heard the cell door creak open from behind me, "You there! Get away from him!"

I turned around and let loose the handful of dirt I had ready just for the guard. He coughed once and rubbed at his eyes, while I moved forward quickly and brought my fist across the back of his head. I turned back towards my cell mate and he was quickly unconscious as well. Now, many of you may think this was a cowardly tactic, and, it was. But I'm a thief, what did you expect?

I snickered quietly as I retrieved the ring of keys from the guard's belt and his billy club from his still clutching hand. Closing the door behind me and locking it, idly, I wondered what the two inside were going to do once they collected their wits and realized what I had just done. Then I was running lightly down the walkway, ducking below the viewports of the cell doors I passed. I suppose it wasn't nessecary since their was little or no lighting in the place to begin with, but I wasn't going to take any more chances. I paused once, listening to footsteps above me on the walkway above, most likely, the little transipiration in my cell hadn't caught too much attention. Once I had reached the end of the walkway I slipped over the railing and hopped down to the lower level, pausing in the doorway leading to the admitance room to listen for activity. I heard two guards arguing adamandtly about who the better ladies man was. I checked the lock on the door, found the key that would fit it and took a place off to the side in the shadows untouched by the torchlight. Taking off a few cell keys off the ring, I began to throw them, one by one into the open area between the walls of cells. Eventually the debate in the next room stopped, I heard a distinct click as one of the guards opened the heavy door and stepped out, then locked the door behind himself.

"Guards! ... Guards! Get down here! What is that racket?" he shouted at the top of his lungs, hoping he wouldn't have to go looking for them. He didn't have to, because I struck him across the back of his neck with my liberated billyclub, causing him to lose conciousness. With a little croak he crumpled to the ground in a heap, luckily enough he wasn't wearing anything that might have clattered when he hit. Quickly relieving him of his weapons and keys as the guards that were patroling that section were begining to make their way down the stairs to the lower levels, I pulled him out into the middle of the area between the cells. I then unlocked the metal door and pushed it open, stepping back quickly. In my best impression of an exasperated guard, I called out, "Sir! Come quick, something has happened!" and stepped back into the shadows.

The man looked out through the doorway, spying the officer I had just struck down, then running over to kneel by him, he didn't notice the hand that snaked his keyring off of his belt as he ran past. I casually walked into the next room, closing the door behind me. I locked it from the inside, pulling its metal bolt across the width along with a few other lockng mechanisms that could only be unlocked from that side while in the process. I heard the officer begin to bang on the metal door, demanding answers as I stepped into the armory, which was easily accessible with all of the newly acquired keys I had. Taking up a bow and quiver full of arrows, I snatched up a black cloak and a pair of boots. Unwrapping the rags from my feet that I had been using in substitution of real shoes the last few days, I slipped the boots on and laced them up, reveling in the feel of real boots again. After throwing the cloak over my shoulders and covering my head with the cowl, I extinguished the torches in the room, along the admitance office's and prepared for the last part of my escape.

The door leading out into the courtyard opened quietly as I slipped outside and closed it behind me, avoiding the ever watchful eyes of the guards. Once I had myself set up in a shadowed alcove I leaned around the corner, notched an arrow and picked off a guard watching the gate which would lead to me eventual freedom. I notched another arrow and set another guard in my sights, and he moved, causing it to plant it in his chest, giving him just enough time to gasp, "help..." loud enough that two other guards came to his aid. Damn, I thought to myself, that will make this alot more interesting.

One of the guards ventured out into the moonlight to see if he could find the source of the arrow, while the other attempted to pull the arrow from the wounded guard's chest without causing him more harm, as of then, they hadn't noticed the crumpled form of the guard by the gate with an arrow through his throat. I unsheathed the shortsword I had picked up from the officer and set it in the ground. Then, I ran to the other side of the courtyard, as quietly as I could, to the opposite wall. I searched the fallen guard's body for keys to the outer gate, I didn't find any though. Then, hiding behind the part of the wall that came outwards from the gate I notched an arrow and let it fly, directly into the sword that jutted up from the ground, causing a resounding ring. The guard in the middle of the courtyard ran towards it, swinging his sword high overhead to deliver a death blow to a non-existent escapee.

The guard who was looking over a fallen comrad actually called me by name of the guard who had set out to find whomever had shot the other. I made short work of him with the club. It turned out he had a set of keys to the gate, which I found to be a delightful turn of fate. I used the largest key on the lock which kept lever that raised the gate in place. It moved, I suspect it was the first time in a long while as a boulder that acted as a counter-weight lowerd to the floor beside me, I ran back to the fallen guard and carried him back the the alcove where I had hidden at first and waited. The door to the admittance room burst open just as another guard approached. An angry officer poured forth, screaming orders at men to go after the escaped prisoner while he rubbed at the back of his head. A group of guards slipped out into the outlying forest, lighting lanterns as they went.

I watched as more search parties were formed and dispatched into the forest. The wall above was nearly deserted, two lone guards left to watch the entire area. The officer remained in the middle of the courtyard, barking order at guards scrambling about. From what I heard, he was Archlin, the warden of the prison, I made special note to visit him on my way out.

By the time all of the teams had been dispatched, the courtyard was nearly deserted, a few guards wandering back and forth from various doorways. The warden had seated himself not too far from me, which would make the commute from him to the gate that much easier.

When the time came, I slipped from the shadows and stepped up behind the warden, he tilted his head to the side when he heard me approach then turned around to look directly into my eyes.

"Its not that I didn't enjoy my stay, I just have other things to attend to."

He looked as if he was about to burst from the redness that crept up into his face, so I brought my new club down across his temple and he fell into a blissful sleep, well, not that blissful. I ran over to the gate while the guards on the wall were looking outwards on the progress of the search parties, then sent an arrow into the metal door, listened to it clink as it hit the door and clatter as it hit the ground, waited a few moments, then rushed out into the tree line and into the night.

The next step was to find who had set me up.

It was a fairly routine job, no reason to suspect someone wanted me out of their hair, though, I'll admit there were alot of people who did. Of course, nothing is as simple as that, I had been set up for something I hadn't done.

I was to break into Lord Darian's Manor, swipe his beloved wand, and give it to some anonymous benefactor. Simple enough. After having scoped the place out for a week or so, I snuck in through a ground floor window in the east wing, made my way through the patrols of guards and got up to the second floor. I had to knock a few heads together to get there, but nothing serious. I rounded my way about the private rooms of the house, lifting a couple of necklaces and other pieces of jewelry. Acutally, Darian had quite a few books in his private library I hadn't been able to get my hands on. They were a little heavy, but I figured while I was there I might as well. So, I found a route I would be taking to get out if someone sounded the alarm suddenly and stashed my bag of loot near the exit. I then backtracked to Darian's trophy room, knocked a few more heads and slipped inside.

The wand I was to "liberate" as Naman put it, was on display in the middle of the room, I could almost smell the magic that eminated from around it: magical alarms. It wasn't easy, but I managed to cut a hole into the side of the platform that it resided on, then cut another into the bottom of the rack it was displayed upon, and eased the wand away on its wooden tray. I ditched the pieces of wood and put the wand in my belt.

I cautiously walked back out into the corridor and started away when I saw the first guard approach from directly in front of me, he called out, "Halt! Intruder! You've no where to go!"

Of course, I didn't beleive him and ran in the opposite direction, or, at least I tried to, more guards poured in from all around, shouting and hollaring until I was ringed in. There were more than twenty guards about me. Now, I'm smart, I'm agile and I'm quick. But I'm not that quick, or agile and I think I pointed out I wasn't stupid. So, I dropped my weapons and surrendered. I was pummeled into a dazed stupor, but, I suppose it could have been worse. I drifted in and out of the waking world. On the way downstairs, I passed by the trophy room, a few of the guards were huddled around something, and at the time I thought they were admiring my handiwork, I smiled at the thought before I passed back into unconciousness. Later, I was to find out I was very wrong in that assumption.

I woke sometime mid-day the next day. Three guards came in with a stout looking fellow wearing richly designed clothing. He looked at me with what could've been bordem bordering on fatigue. He cleared his throat before he spoke, "you're very bold in your workings, aren't you assassin? To think that we might beleive you were nothing more than a thief who happened to be here while an assassin snuck in and killed the lord and a knight of the Grand Emporer. Don't worry about it though, you'll either be rotting in a prison cell or dead by tomorrow morning, justice comes swiftly for those who do not abide by the law."

"And you consider yourself law abiding?" He frowned at me. It was a well known fact that the wealthy of the city were the most corrupt people there.

With that he swept from the room in a pompous fashion while the guards did another round on me at his bidding. And, he was right, not completely right, but, I was in prison the very next day, awaiting my execution in the next month or so. But, I'm not an assassin, I hadn't killed anyone on that job. Which told me I had been set up to take the fall for someone elses' doings. The gears in my mind got to working and eventually came to the conclusion that Naman and my anonymous benefactor had been in on it as well.

Naman was first on my list of people to visit.

Naman is my employer, of sorts. Most of the time, though, I have to go out and look for "work" myself. But when he does tell me of an opportunity, you can bet it will pay well. I met him way back when I was still a lad lurking about the streets of Martal. Martal was a dirty, grimy coastal town south of Fallas, my current residence. It was a dirty, rathole of a town, the only reason I'd stuck around was because I didn't have anywhere else to go, or anywhere else in mind, at least. I never really remembered who my parents were, or who I was with before I was adopted into a band of ruffians, who were killed by a squardren of soldiers when they were caught looting someone's barn. Naman found me and took me under his wing, so to speak. He taught me pretty much everything I know, but I'd be damned if I was going to let that stop me from beating the living daylights out of him for the crap he put me through.

But, that waited for the moment, and I went to get patched up and get a good night's rest before I confronted him on the matter.

Alexandria is a wonderful gal I met during the first week of my stay at Fallas. Of course, we were only of some many years back then, but she hates it when I reffer to her as a child, even if it was in the past. Something happened to her before that, which she doesn't like to talk about, so, I didn't ask. Back when I had first come to the city, Naman took me to the Boiling Water Inn, he chuckled when I asked how it got its name, but didn't answer. I stayed in his room for a while, while he taught me how to pick various sorts and types of doorlocks with a variety of tools. He also showed me how to avoid spots of the floor that would make noise if I put pressure on them, learned to walk on the points where nails had been driven into the wood to hold it down to a beam underneath, of how to avoid warped boards that may or may not make noise if I stepped on them. Five days into my stay, I was able to get into and out of every room of that inn, undetected, which is how I met her.

It was nearing dawn as I slipped down the stairs, through the common room and into the larder. I wasn't alone. At first when I saw her, I thought an animal had somehow gotten into the inn somehow and was mucking about for food, but then I let my eyes adjust to the darkness for a moment before realizing it was another child like myself. I moved up behind her and slamped my hand over her mouth, she struggled for a moment, then went still, I turned her around slightly and brough a finger to my lips in a shushing gesture. She moved back from me and I was able to see her dark red hair as it spilled across her shoulders and other little details of her appearance. I whipped out my newly acquired pickset and in a few moments I had the bin open and we sat across from each other eating loaves of bread with a bit of cheese shared between us.

"My name is Ker, what is yours?" I asked, the only thing I could think of to say.

"Alex." Came her curt reply.

I looked around as the shadows began to retreat and the sun to show through the windows more sharply, defining the darker spots of the room I was unable to see before. I turned back to see Alex getting up, unconsciously I grabbed her ankle before she could move away, "you're not going to tell anyone, are you?" She shook her head no and smiled innocently, then yanked her foot from my grasp, closed the lid to the bin and secured the lock back in place with a loud 'click.'

"You'd better not let Helga catch you down here though, she gets awfully mad." Helga being the owner of the inn, who had been known to throw men out on their asses if they got too rowdy. I nodded and got to my feet, profering the rest of my loaf of bread to her, which she gratefully accepted and stowed underneath the sheets of a pallet off to the side. She then went back into the kitchen, put some water on to boil and a few other chores in the morning routine. I took that as my initiative to leave, so, I went back upstairs, where Naman questioned me where I had been and smiled when I answered.

I gained access to the city easily enough, going through one of the smaller gates manned by two drunken guards. They actually offered me a swig of wine, which I hastily turned down, not knowing if they were making a bet of whether or not they could get the next person through the gate to drink the other's urine.

I strolled down the streets, avoiding the muckier areas where the raw sewage floated about. Sewers could only be found in the more wealthy areas of the city, seeing as how they were the only ones who could afford them.

The residences became less and less shabby as I moved forward, to a more middle class residential area. I walked through a cluttered alleyway and out into a large market square. I walked past the vendors hawking their ware, ignoring them, most of them anywho, I bought a flower from a little girl with the pocket change I had swiped from the guards at the gate; what? You didn't think I was going to turn up the opportunity, did you?

Daisy in hand I walked up to the doorstep of the inn and smelt the baking goodies on the air. I opened the door quietly and stepped through, moving aside for a large fellow to step past and onto the street. A serving girl spotted me and rushed into the kitchen, much to the disappointment of the people sitting at a table she was just about to serve when I entered.

They didn't do much more than grumble, seeing as how the tall, dark, menacing man who just entered was eyeing them openly. Yes, that would be me. I don't mean to be menacing, but thats the vibe I give off. The daisy in my left hand must've confused them though, which amused me to no ends.

A hand wrapped about my arm and I instinctivly moved to grasp the wrist and pull out and to the side, when I noticed the slim, delicate fingers that were wrapped about my bicep. I let go of Alex's wrist and turned about into a warm embrace. Oh, it had been too long.

When she stepped back to look at me she brought up a hand to sweep away some hair from her face and placed it behind her ear. She paused for a moment before saying, "You creep! How could you just leave like that!" I ushered her into the kitchen and away from the mid-day crowd that was watching us. Once we had gotten out of earshot of any busy bodies, I explained to her that I had been captured by the guards at Darian's manor and had been locked away in jail. I also explained to her how I had been framed for the murder of Darian and his rent-a-knight, Dermyth or something or other. However, I didn't tell her about my harrowing escape (well, now that I think about it, it wasn't all that harrowing), and that I had killed a few guards on the way out. She still gave me the perfunctionatory slap across the face for getting caught, though. She was aware of my line of work, didn't mind it, only as long as I wasn't caught, was how she put it.

She told me to go up to the room she always had reserved for me and stay there until she was able to take a break so that she could come up there to clean up a few scratches I had gotten, along with bringing me up a clean set of clothes (mine were kept in the chest of her own room, with all the thieves and vagabonds about, they just wouldn't be safe in mine). A quote from somewhere came to mind as she told me to do so: "hell hath no fury like the scorn of a woman" and at that moment, it couldn't have been more true.

So, like a good troop I went up to my room, and plunckered down onto my bed, dozing lightly. A few minutes later or so, I heard the lock on the door click open, I woke from my stupor and lay there a moment, expecting Alex to come through the door with clothes and bandages. I saw a glint of polished metal and rolled off of the bed while something flashed by me and sunk into the down pillow my head had been resting on a few moments ago.

I grabbed the nearby nightstand by the leg and flung it at my attacker. It slammed into his torso and a leg hit him on his nose while I got to my feet and charged him before he could regain himself. I shoved him square in the shoulders, causing him to fall back and lash out with his knife at the same time, I managed to jump back in time, but my tunic had been slashed. His head hit the wall and he slumped to the ground. I panted for a moment and wiped a bit of blood from my lip and listened. I grabbed the mirror off of the dresser and ducked to the floor level and placed it beneath the door. Two more ruffians waited and clutched the handles of their concealed weapons. I quietly moved back, then to the window. I heard one of them call out, and begin to fiddle with the lock on the door which I had quietly locked while I checked for how many more men there were. I stepped onto the shingle roof outside and closed the window behind me. I slid down partway, then leapt to the flat roof of a nearby smithy. I moved to the side of the building and hung from the edge of the roof before dropping into an alleyway. I moved out and behind the inn, and peeked around the corner to see a troop of Emperial officers dragging Alex and half of her kitchen staff out and into a waiting pen wagon. I saw one of my would-be assassins confer with the officer for a moment then turn away and blend in with the crowd behind them.

From a safe distance, I watched the cart move away from the building and down the street. Everyone inside of the establishment was forcibly removed from it by officers and harsh treatment. The entire place was then boarded up and locked tight before they left. I trailed the wagon to the Emperial enforcement agency building and watched as they were imprisoned.

Someone was going to pay for this.

Later that night I returned to the streets about the inn and was about to climb up a building via a stack of crates, but stopped and watched as a shadow came about the roof of the inn and began to pry loose one of the boards keeping the windows shut. I proceeded up the crates and hopped across to the roof of the in myself, slipping in the same window and sticking to the shadows, I made my way up a flight of stairs and watched as the form crouched before Alex's door, picking the lock. Of course, they wouldn't be able to, I had bought and tested the lock myself. The form sat there for about three minutes before I heard a disgusted grunt of frustration. Oh, it was Thea.

Thea was an amature thief. I think she looked up to me in a sense, but when we meet up, she is the most viscious person I've ever had the pleasure of making aquaintences with. She was from a rich family, she didn't need to steal, but I think she got her kicks from her father not knowing where she was in the middle of the night. I pulled a coin from my boot cuff and tossed it to the other end of the hallway, causing Thea perk her head up and away from me. I silently walked up behind her and patted her on her head. She jumped backwards and managed to sprawl herself across the floor of the hall.

"So what're you doing here at this hour, we closed up a long time ago. She collected herself and lunged at me, her fingernails gouging for my eyes, I stepped back and watched her trip over her cloak, she didn't know you were supposed to tie the end in a tail so you wouldn't do just that.

I shook my head and put a little space between us, crossing my arms over my chest and inclined my head a bit, and sighed while rolling my eyes. She stood up and composed herself before replying, "Same thing you are; after that stockpile of loot you've got stashed up there."

I shook as I laughed out loud and had to bend over to catch my breath as a wiped a tear from my eye, "You're kidding, right?"

She looked incredulous.

"Fine. See for yourself, oh, and if you pull that dagger on me, you'll regret it." Her hand moved away from the concealed weapon in her belt as I got the key from my pocket and unlocked the door. I opened it and casually strolled into the room. I leant back against a wall and motioned her inside, pointing to the chest, "theres my stash, you're welcome to it."

She raised an eyebrow in my direction, but quickly moved over to the chest, she actually managed to pick the lock on it and opened it. Tossing a few of my shirts outand rummaging about inside, I walked up behind her and watched her inspect my belongings. "This is junk." she said, tossing a few more items of clothing out of the chest.

"Were you expecting to find the inventory of Emporer's vault?"

"Well, something, I mean, you're the best thief in Fallas... aside from me," she added hastily, once more regaining the cold and viscious demeanor.

"If you stole Rayus' crown, would you keep it in your bedroom?"

"No... I don't suppose so..."

"Did you think of that before you came here tonight?"

"No... I didn't..." She looked on the verge of tears at not having disovered the infamous thief of Fallas' stash. "But... Rayus has his crown again, doesn't he?"

That was news to me.

Rayus is a rich, pompus, stuck-up, son of a whore. Simply put.

He has had it in for me since that fateful night I raided his family vault for all it was worth. Now, normally I don't this, except that he had just tripled the rent on an appartment in the lower west side of town that I'd had a prospective eye on. Of course, after he raised the price, I couldn't afford it unless I hit a place every other day, and that was risk I was not willing to take.

One of the items I had grabbed from his precious vault was his precious crown. Supposedly, he was a distant relative of the emporer, and thus, he wore a crown to remind everyone that he was supposedly better than them. So, supposedly, when I stole it, he became very angry.

I was only able to sell a few items from that heist, but they were worth enough to live off of for a while. I kept his crown and everything else in an area only accessable through the sewers, which would make it that much harder to find. So you can understand my surprise when I had heard that Rayus had found his goddamn crown.

Some of you may think; well, mabey he just had another one made. Not possible, that crown is probably worth ten times all of his other assets, its value given away by the three Imralis crystals set in it's fore. For those of you who don't spend your lives learning about various valuble stones and metals, Imralis crystals are something special, something that I had only heard stories of until I set eyes on that crown, you see, Imralis crystals give off their own light, a blinding light in fact. Some professors and historians claim that the crystals are magic, somehow frozen into the shape of a crystal. Whatever they were, they were worth more than any person could ever, or would ever need.

So what am I to do with this crown you may ask? Sell it? Well you must raving derelect that happens to be joking, I would be dead before I saw the money promised for them. The only other known cystals were set in the crown of the emprorer, sixteen of them, and I'm sure he'd love to get his greedy paws on the other three, fat chance I would survive such an encounter.

So I hid the crown, there wasn't much other choice. I could have just given it to someone, and they would have been dead within the hour, which would actually have been an easy way to off someone I didn't happen to like, but then the emporer or some other pompous asshole would get their hands on it.

Now, the only other person who knew where I had hidden the crown was Naman.

I entered through the hatch on the roof and made my way down the flight of stairs into the darkened house. Usually, Naman would be up at this hour, going over assignments for other freelances or counting his money, except that all of the lights had been put out and it looked as if there had been a struggle. I wandered about for a bit, then heard a knocking on the front door, which was still barred and secured in place, its a big door, no less than a battering ram was going to open it by force. Anywho, it was a familiar knocking, Naman had a system so that he could tell who everyone was and what business they wanted by the type of knock they gave. Apparently, it was one of the new freelances I didn't recognize with goods from a burglary. After a while, he gave up and moved along. I frowned that Naman hadn't gotten the door, and realized something must be wrong if he didn't; nothing meant more to him than his money.

I entered the lounge area and noted the study door was shut and locked from the outside. Opening the door I held my nose as I breathed through my mouth. A horrible stench eminated from inside and I knew what it could only be. I closed the door so I wouldn't have to look at the corpse.

To be continued...

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