"This is never going to work."
Faye rolled her eyes at the burly young man sat across from her, putting down his tankard of ale heavily on the table.
"Come on Marik, it'll be fine. It's a foolproof plan, what could go wrong?"
"That's what you said about the Harsburgh job, and look how that turned out. I got shot!" Marik pointed to his left shoulder, where the arrow had hit him. Faye sighed, rolling her eyes again.
"That was one time! Trust me, this one'll be different, I promise. Have I ever let you down before?"
Marik again pointed to his shoulder.
"Ok yes, fine, whatever." Faye took a deep swig of her own ale. It tasted awful, but no-one came to the
Cloak and Stagger
for the beer. All around her, the scum and villainy of the city of Windcliffe cheered and laughed, drinking and gambling and generally not doing much to make themselves look in any way respectable or trustworthy. She fit in perfectly.
"Just one last chance, that's all I'm asking, ok? Just trust me one last time, and I promise when we're done you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Cross my heart"
To demonstrate, Faye drew a cross in the air over her chest with her free hand. Her partner sighed, tilting his head up to the heavens in frustration. Looking back down at her, he raised a finger in a gesture of irritation. "Alright, fine. One more time, but if this goes tits up, that's it. I'm done working with you. You can rot in prison for all I care."
Faye smiled and held up her tankard. "That's the spirit! Cheers!"
With a half-hearted smile, Marik raised his own drink, and the two knocked them together. Settling back into their chairs, Marik asked again. "So, what's the plan?"
----------
Later that evening, Faye stood outside the iron gates of the Fitzwalter estate, her face wrapped in a black cloth. Crouching down behind the bushes, her eyes scanned the street for any passers-by, and saw none. Everything was quiet. Looking over to the gate, she saw two guards, dressed in chainmail and tabards, with spears in their hands and swords on their hips. Emblazoned on their chests, the roaring lion's head sigil of the Fitzwalter estate looked considerably less fearsome in the dark. As the two chatted quietly to each other, occasionally laughing, she smirked to herself.
Checking to make sure they were looking away, Faye unslung her grappling hook from her belt and with a deft throw launched it over the fence. Climbing quickly up it, she leapt from the top down onto the lawn, executing a perfect forwards roll as she landed. Crouched on the ground, she made sure to look around again, before springing to her feet and darting back behind cover.
Peering out from around a hedge, she scanned the outside of the building for any more guards. Her eyes caught sight of another pair, outside the front doors of the manor, as well as a third sat on the roof, holding a crossbow as he smoked a faintly glowing pipe. Most of the windows were dark now, but a few still had light coming through their curtains. Faye made a mental note of which ones they were. To her luck, she saw one still open towards the back of the house, with no light inside. Good, that was close to the treasury.
Looking down, she checked her black leather clothes for any scrapes or tears from the fall, and when she was satisfied, she began to creep out from her hiding spot. Darting between protective foliage, she made her way towards the building, flattening herself against the wall as she arrived. Looking up, she could see the steady puffs of smoke coming from the guard on the roof, coming over the edge above her. She smiled.
Shuffling sideways towards the open window, she made sure to watch the ground for anything that might snap and give her away. Soon, she found herself directly below the open window. With one last look around to make sure the coast was clear, she stepped away from the wall, swung her grappling hook again, and launched it up and through the opening, into the room beyond.
Giving the rope a quick tug to make sure it was secure, Faye began to climb, her body moving lithely as she pulled herself up, one hand over the other. When she got to the window ledge, she propped herself up on it with an arm, while with her other hand she shuffled the window open further. With enough space to crawl through, the thief rolled herself forward, slipping into the house without a sound.
Crouching on the carpeted floor, her eyes quickly darted around the room, adjusting to the pitch blackness of the manor's interior. It appeared to be a study, with tall bookshelves lining the walls and a solid oaken desk in the centre, covered with papers. The door was shut, and when she was confident that the coast was clear, Faye stood up, brushing herself down as she pulled her black hood back up and over her head. Reaching behind her, she unhooked her grappling hook from the windowsill where it had found purchase and wrapped it back up around her belt.
Moving around the room, she inspected the books lining the walls, all covered in dust and bound in ancient leather. They clearly hadn't been picked up any in a while. Moving to the desk, she quickly scanned the documents, looking for anything important. The only thing that caught her eye was a letter, opened and discarded, addressed to Lord Fitzwalter and written by the Chancellor of the Astral Academy.
My dear Sir.
It has come to our attention that you have in your possession an item of great value and importance. Not only is the gemstone of incredible academic and geological significance, being as it is one of the largest specimens ever observed, but we believe it also holds a number of extremely interesting arcane properties that demand additional study. As such, we would be very grateful for the opportunity to study it here at the academy.
We would, of course, be more than happy to compensate you for your trouble; a sum of fifteen thousand gold pieces has been set aside for this very reason, but we also hope that with your own sense of natural scientific curiosity, if not moral obligation to the pursuit of knowledge, you will understand the importance of this discovery, and send us the object at your earliest convenience.
I eagerly await your reply,
Chancellor Mordecai Sondheim
Faye chuckled quietly under her breath. The letter was dated more than a year ago.
Stepping away from the desk, she made her way towards the door. At least she was sure this was the right house. Not that she'd ever doubted that, of course. The man who'd tipped her off about the diamond very rarely brought her false information, and the floorplan he'd sold her had been extremely detailed as well. She just hoped it was accurate.
Pressing her ear to the door, the young woman held her breath as she listened for any activity in the hallway. For a long, silent moment she waited, and when she was confident that there was no one on the other side, she quietly opened the door.
Peering out, she was relieved to see she'd been right. Stepping silently through the doorway, she closed the door behind her and made her way towards the treasury at the back of the house. The corridor was dark, and she thanked the gods that no-one seemed to be around. Even with her impressive skills, one creaky floorboard could give her whole game away. Tiptoeing around the corner, she paused again to listen for any sounds. Hearing nothing, she pressed on.
A few turns later, and Faye was outside the treasury. Crouching down by the locked door, she gently ran her fingers across the lock. Fishing out her lockpicking tools from inside the leather pouch on her hip, she deftly slid the metal instruments into the hole and began to twiddle them purposefully, listening intently for the telltale click of each tumbler sliding into place.
After a few tense minutes, Faye's efforts were finally rewarded, and as the young thief stood back up, she gave the door a gentle nudge and watched as it slowly swung open. She felt herself break into a broad smile as she saw her prize waiting for her, standing on a plinth in the centre of the room.
With her heart pounding in her ears, the thief slipped into the treasury room, closing the door and pulling the hood off of her head. The diamond was huge, almost the size of her fist, and as she got closer she realised it was giving off a faint, bluish-white light that illuminated the room ever so slightly. She reached out her hand to touch it, before stopping, only a few inches short.
Looking down, she saw the pressure plate the gem sat on and smirked to herself. Nice try, Fitzwalter, but that wasn't going to stop her. Pulling out the small iron weight she had in her pocket, specifically chosen for this very task, she held it over the gem. Slowly, painfully slowly, she took hold of the diamond, and in a flash, swapped the objects. With her hand still on the weight, she froze, waiting to see if anything happened, but as the seconds ticked by, she relaxed.
Standing back up straight, she felt a wave of relief flood through her. Looking at the diamond in her hand, she couldn't help but chuckle quietly to herself. Just like she'd planned it.
But before she could slip the gemstone into her pocket and make her escape, she heard a loud creak as the door behind her swung open, and as she turned in surprise, she saw two guards standing in the now brightly-lit hallway. One was tall, with a close-cut mop of dark brown hair on his head, while the other was slightly shorter, but broader, with a thick beard on his chin, and a smile on his lips.
"Gotcha!"
Slowly, Faye raised her hands into the air, dropping the diamond onto the ground with a dull thud, smiling at the guards as they hefted their crossbows at her. "Good evening, gentlemen."
The bearded guard took a step forward into the room. "And what do we have here? A thief, trying to steal his lordship's private property?" With his crossbow, he motioned for Faye to move away from the gemstone.
"Did you think it'd be that easy? That we wouldn't notice you jumping over the fence and scaling the walls?"
With her arms still in the air, Faye gave the men a warm grin. "Gentlemen, please, this is all a misunderstanding. I am simply... a maid, here to... clean his Lordship's treasury room, nothing more."
It was the taller guards turn to speak now. "Really? In the middle of the night, wearing all black?"
