The Heroes of Fannen-Dar, Chapter 26
The boat bucked and jumped as it flew down the underground river, Anzo and the guard barely keeping it straight with the oars. They had quickly lost the rhythm of rowing and instead were just reacting to each split second of unpredictable currents to maintain their course. Robin clutched the side of the boat, sitting down on the floor next to Hudtan, trying to hold in the contents of her stomach. As the river turned a corner, they could see a light ahead.
“Looks like we’re going to make it outside, team!” Anzo said, putting his foot up on the side of the boat in a triumphant pose. He reminded Robin of a captain refusing to abandon his sinking ship.
“I can see the sky!” Gwynt cheered.
“So can I,” the guard said. “Nothing but sky. It’s a waterfall!"
The two with the paddles started trying to slow the boat down. They steered towards the side of the tunnel, trying to wedge it against the rocks so that they could safely disembark. Instead, the boat slammed into the wall. Shards of wood splashed out from the point of impact, and the rowboat spun around, moving only faster down the sloping river towards its exit point. Robin had no idea where they would come out. Was it a small drop into a river just outside the town wall, or had they traveled miles away from Fannen-Dar to plummet fifty feet onto sharp rocks?
The goblins roared with glee as they started to catch up to Bedlam.
Hudtan grabbed the oar out of the guard’s hands. “Do not attempt to decelerate! We must gain speed."
“You want to fall to your death?!” he shouted back.
“There is no way to stop! If we go too slow, we will hit the rocks at the base of the waterfall. We want to maximize our chances of landing in a deeper part of the outlet."
“But it might just be a river. We might fall out onto shore and break every bone in our bodies!” said the guard. The goblins finally noticed the cavern mouth up ahead and were scrambling around on their boat.
“Maybe!” Hudtan said, throwing her hands in the air. “But the rocks are guaranteed! You can hear the water splashing on them up ahead!” Indeed, Robin could make out the loud roar of the waterfall hitting stone as they approached the opening. It would only be a few more seconds before they emerged.
“Fine, then let’s row!” the guard shouted. Gwynt and Hudtan paddled furiously while the goblins fell farther back behind them, trying to stop their inevitable descent.
Robin ducked down under the lip of the boat as they rushed past a stalactite overhead. Someone might have shouted, “Hold on!” (she was already holding on for dear life, her knuckles as white as bone), but it was hard to hear over the tumult of the waterfall and the four other screaming voices in their vessel. The boat emerged from the rapids, and lifted out of the water entirely.
It was a very sudden shift. Without the walls of the cave around them, their voices didn’t seem as loud. Robin stopped screaming for a moment and took quick stock of their new surroundings. The sun was shining, the clouds were lazily drifting through the sky, and the five of them were falling to their deaths towards a flat sheet of rock.
“Not fast enough!” Gwynt said.
“Then jump!” Hudtan shouted.
They all kicked off from the boat, pushing it back towards the fall. It was only three seconds from emerging to when they landed. They splashed down, and Robin got a nose-full of pond water, but she had managed to avoid the rocks. She started paddling back up to the surface, tapping Anzo on the shoulder as she passed, as he was upside-down and disoriented. He saw where she was swimming and followed.
They broke the surface, coughing out the water that had flooded their mouths and noses from the quick impact. Gwynt was already on the shore of the pond the waterfall deposited into, bent over and examining his leg. Hudtan was helping the guard, who was struggling to stay afloat.
“Thanks,” he said when she brought him to shore. “I’ve never learned how to swim."
Anzo set his feet into a combat stance as soon as he reached land. “Where are the goblins?” he said, looking around. Robin searched as well, but could only see the wreckage of both boats on the rocks. Then a small, rust-colored body rose out of the pond, floating face-down.
“Looks like we made it,” Gwynt said, flashing a grin.
Robin let out a sigh of relief, then finally started taking in the surroundings. The waterfall emerged from a large hill, casting a looming shadow on them in the afternoon sun. The waterfall deposited into a small pond, from which the river continued into the Thundertop Hills. True to their name, dark clouds were lingering at each summit, but the sky above the pond was clear. There was a small copse nearby, where Robin heard birds chirping. Colorful birds were unheard of in this region; they were all brown and black, the better to disguise themselves from the ubiquitous foxes and falcons. It was easier for them to keep their heads down and wings at their sides.
Anzo climbed a boulder and raised a hand up to his forehead. “We must be miles outside of town. I can just make out the smoke above the horizon."
“Let’s start to make our way back, then,” the guard said. “The elves should scout forward to the left and right to make sure we aren’t ambushed by any surviving goblins, or whatever lives in the Thundertops-"
“Cease your commands!” Hudtan whipped out her remaining dagger and held it up to the guard’s throat. Standing in front of him, she was still a few inches shorter, but he leaned backwards and raised his hands half up in front of himself in a display of pacifism. Hudtan’s dagger did not touch his skin, but it would only require a flick of her wrist for it to sink under his chin. Hudtan glared at him, her white eyes flaring with an icy chill. “We do not accede to anyone but our guildmaster.” Chester sighed, but nodded without another word.
Anzo walked over to put a hand on Hudtan’s shoulder, which she took as a signal to lower her blade. He then looked over at Chester. A smile broke out on the half-ogre’s face.
“You really helped us out of a bind there, friend,” he said. He held out his hand. “Not many in Fannen-Dar would go out of their way for a group of strangers like that. Much less risk their lives against a horde of goblins!” Chester, trapped by the conventions of cordiality, held his hand up for Anzo to jostle up and down. “May we know your name?"
The guard’s mouth seemed to try to smile, although it came across as more of a grimace. “You can call me Chester. And there’s no need to thank me, I was really just doing my...trying to help."
“Oh, I hadn’t thanked you.” Anzo’s smile was still wide across his face, but there was a glint in his eye. “I have a question first. What was a town guard doing in the caverns underneath the town, with no armor or uniform to be seen?"
Chester stammered for a moment, then said, “Well, I saw you climbing down into the well, and I thought I should probably follow, in case…"
“In case you could turn us over to your boss?” Anzo was still shaking his hand.
Chester chuckled without smiling. “No, that certainly was not my plan."
Anzo suddenly yanked his arm back, still holding on to Chester’s hand. Chester yelped and fell forward to be stopped by Anzo’s other mitt clamping down on his right shoulder. There faces were an inch apart, with Anzo bending down over the guard. “An undercover agent, then?” Anzo said, his voice now lacking its usual jovial tone, instead rumbling with resentment and buried memories. “Which gang do you work for? I know the watch has agents within it. You may have saved us, but I will not allow you to report back with information about us!"
“I’m not working for them!” Chester yelled. “I’m trying to stop them! All right?! I followed you because I recognized her,” he pointed at Robin, “from the orphanage! I was doing my duty to the town, not anyone else!"
Anzo blinked and straightened his back, letting go of and standing tall over Chester, who continued to rant. “I was trying to protect you from a dangerous situation in the warehouse that you were trying to escape through, but no, you had to punch me instead. Then I thought, why would they be trying to escape? Unless they were criminals too. And then the explosion didn’t even happen…"
“Wait, you know about the powder trail in the alchemical warehouse?” Robin asked.
“Yes, why do you think I was evacuating the orphanage?!"
Anzo held up his hands again. “Chester! Chester. I was wrong about you.” He placed a hand on his chest, his warm smile returned to its usual resting place. “You have my most humble apology, from all of us. And! Our thanks for coming to the rescue in both dire situations."
Chester looked up at the half-ogre and opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Well, there’s no shortage of dire situations in Fannen-Dar, it seems. Maybe you could help me back into town in return?"
Anzo turned to the others. “What do you think, Bedlam? Shall we accompany our new friend back to the gate?"
Hudtan walked back up to him, looked down at his boots, and panned her gaze back up to his eyes. “If Anzo will place his trust in you, then I will too. But I’m keeping my eye on you. And my dagger is only ever a fraction of a second away from arriving in my hand.” Chester laughed with only a slight crack in his voice. She looked back at Anzo. “Let’s go, boss."
Anzo laughed as if his underling had not just threatened someone’s life, then started walking towards the thin trails of smoke in the distance that signified Fannen-Dar’s location. Hudtan fell in step right behind him, with Gwynt, Chester, and Robin close behind. There was no path or trail to follow, so the hikers had to weave through the hills to make the trek easier. The sound of rumbling thunder followed them wherever they went, although the air was dry and the skies, while not clear, held no portents of a storm. After almost an hour of walking, there was a loud crack as lightning struck the top of a nearby hill.
Gwynt nearly stumbled over a rock as he craned his neck to look at the sky. “The weather here really does not want to make up its mind."
“This is how is always is in the Thudertop Hills,” Anzo said. “The shape of the hills creates some sort of pressure tunnels that lead to small storms directly above each of them. Always stick to the base of the hills here!"
“I’ve never come out this far north from Fannen-Dar,” Gwynt added as he lightly skipped across the rough, bouldered terrain.
Chester, breathing heavily, climbed over a boulder blocking their path, bringing up the rear of the group. “Not many people do. It’s not exactly safe."
“Are you afraid of a little lightning?” Hudtan asked, flashing him a sly smile.
“I’m more worried about the trolls and giants that are rumored to live here,” he replied. Hudtan’s smile flickered and vanished. Chester seemed to notice her nervousness at that, and added, “But as long as we get back before dark, we should be fine."
“Then we might not be fine,” Robin said. She had climbed a boulder to get a better vantage to view their trail. The town of Fannen-Dar was glowing in the distance, lanterns already being lit for the evening. The sun was setting in the west, already behind the highest hills, casting their shadow over the valley where Fannen-Dar sat, at least eight miles away. It would be dark long before they arrived.
Chester climbed up next to Robin to get a look, nudging her to the side. He sighed and said, “We’ll have to make camp here, then. Gods, that must have been a fast river…” Robin interrupted him by pushing him back so she had more space on the rock.
They began searching for a convenient spot among the hills to make their camp. Hudtan found a cave that she thought would provide shelter, but rainwater had pooled at the bottom, making it a damp and squishy option that the rest of the group quickly vetoed. As they were climbing out of the cave after their examination of it, Robin spotted a light coming from the side of another rise several hundred yards away. The sun had fully set, making the firelight stand out in the darkness.
She ushered the rest of the group over, and with Anzo in the lead, they slowly approached what soon became apparent as a small campsite. Someone had erected short walls of fur and cloth to block view of the site, but the glow from the campfire within was still visible. From the size, Robin guessed that there was only enough room for one person to lie down.
Anzo approached the barrier, which he stood taller than, allowing him to look directly down into the enclosure. Robin stood behind him, higher up on the hill’s slope so she could peek over his shoulder. At the center of the space, next to a small fire pit that looked like it had been made by an expert, sat a small bedroll with a lumpy shape bundled up inside. Anzo cleared his throat and the bundle started thrashing as the person inside tried to find the exit. Finally, a dwarf with dark brown skin, a small tuft of a black beard, and wide hazel eyes popped out and held up a small book as if he were getting ready to chuck it.
“Greetings, traveler,” Anzo said, standing unflinchingly next to the canvas.
“Pleasedon’thurtmeIdon’thaveanythingofvalueit’sreallyallworthlessyou’vegottobelievemepleasespareme-he-hee!” the dwarf sputtered.
Anzo waited for him to calm down before starting over. “Peaceful greetings, traveler,” Anzo said. “We are not here to harm you, but simply were checking to make sure you would not harm us. We need to camp here for the evening."
The dwarf lowered his book. He emerged more from the bedroll, and Robin saw that he wore a stained tunic with singed sleeves and wooden clasps. “Does it need to be here?” he said.
Anzo blinked. “Well, we’re very tired and it would be a shame to have to keep walking…"
“Of course, yes, I understand how it is,” the dwarf said, his voice cracking. He stood up out of the bedroll and started picking up his belongings. “I’ll be on my way, then."
“Well, you’re welcome to stay too, of course!"
“It’s all right, I understand how bandits claim territory, I wouldn’t want to be in the way."
“We’re not bandits. Please, we’d love for you to join us!"
“Oh, yes, of course!” the dwarf said, his knees shaking. “I stay for dinner, I wake up in a tree with all my belongings stripped, no, no, it’s all right, I know how it works, just make it quick-"
Chester stepped forward. “Sir, we really aren’t going to hurt you. We’re on our way back to Fannen-Dar after escaping a horde of goblins."
“And you led them right to me?!"
“They’re dead!” Chester shouted. He then unclenched his fists and looked down at his feet, his cheeks turning red.
The dwarf stopped stammering and looked around at the five faces peeking over the wall’s of his campsite. His hands went instinctively to a book that hung from a harness at his waist like a warrior would wear a sword. He undid a latch that kept the leather binding fastened around the pages, opening it to reveal pristine paper. The page to which he had opened was filled with tiny, compact handwriting up until the end of the last sentence, where it was completely blank. He took a quill out of a gap in the book’s binding and held it to the page where he had last left off. “You’re saying you managed to defeat a horde of goblins?” he said, all trace of worry gone from his voice.
Fifteen minutes later, the four members of Bedlam, Chester, and the dwarf sat around the now slightly larger campfire (thanks to Anzo’s insisting on helping gather more firewood). The barriers had been pushed out, leaving some room between them but providing more space within their borders. The dwarf, Linus, was asking a series of questions that everyone except Chester was enthusiastically answering, and growing increasingly more impressed.
“And you managed to sneak in unnoticed?” Linus said, his voice filled with awe.
“Scaled the side of the building and entered through the uppermost window,” Hudtan said, as if it were routine. She brushed her fingernails on her leather jerkin, then blew on them as she relaxed back with her other hand behind her head.
Linus’s eyes shone. “That must have been very scary,” he said.
Chester scoffed. “It was an orphanage! They were taking advantage of children! How is that scary?!"
Linus looked over to Chester, who was scrunched up away from the rest of the group with his chin on his knees, as if he had just noticed him. “Did you not join them? Was it too scary for you?” Chester grumbled as if he was about to respond, but Gwynt interrupted.
“That’s Chester. He was the guard who tried to catch us that night! But we haven’t even told you the best part, what Robin did to deter him. Go on, Robin, you tell it!"
Robin looked from Gwynt’s grin to Linus’s enraptured expression, and then to Chester’s scowl. “Well,” she said, “I don’t think it was anything particularly special. I mean, he was doing his job…"
“She punched him right in the face!” Anzo said, and he and the two elves erupted with laughter. Linus joined in with a high-pitched, halting laugh. Chester rolled his eyes.
Anzo was the last to come down from his laughing fit, trying to talk in between chuckles. “Then, and then, we...ha!...We ended up in a warehouse next door, where there was a spark that traveled along the floor! Robin put that out too."
He started laughing again, but now Linus had turned quiet. He interrupted Anzo’s guffaws. “Wait, a warehouse next to the orphanage? Was it Alchemical Warehouse 2G?"
“Uh.” Anzo looked at his employees. “Was it?” Robin, Hudtan, and Gwynt shrugged.
“It was,” Chester said. Robin noticed he was now looking at her with...suspicion? Or was it admiration?
Linus, however, had turned wide-eyed again. “That was where I received my last shipment. The shipment that convinced me to leave Fannen-Dar."
“I meant to ask about that,” Hudtan said. “We ended up out here by sheer happenstance. What brought you to such a distant interval from the city?"
Linus gulped. “I think someone’s going to…” He looked around, over his shoulder, at the darkness beyond his campsite. All that could be heard was the low rumble of thunder. He looked down to his book and flipped to a previous page, then cleared his throat. “23rd of Shieldstand, 9 and 15 after noon. I have put enough distance that I think it is finally safe to rest, and scribe the events of this evening. I had been brewing a routine healing potion, which would have sold for enough to make my month’s rent, when I noticed something odd. The tint of the elixir’s color was off, and after a short test I realized it had been contaminated with a small amount of concentrated rubinia passindicia."
Gwynt leaned forward. “Black hornet? That’s incredibly toxic, and rare. I haven’t ever seen someone selling it in town.” Robin gave him a nervous look, to which he shrugged. “I don’t grow most of my poisons myself, so I’m familiar with the local distributors,” he added.
Linus nodded, and continued from memory now that his nerves had subsided. “I checked the package, the one my supplies for this potion had come in. It was from Alchemical Warehouse 2G. The box had traces of the poison as well. Some must have fallen into my potion, or one of the ingredients I used. So, I packed up the bare necessities and skedaddled."
“What? Why?” Robin said. Gwynt looked at her with a serious expression, but the others looked confused too. “You seem like you got away unharmed. Did that tiny amount contaminate your house? Why not just move somewhere else?"
Chester laughed. “He can’t just pick a new place to live! Surely, you must understand how expensive that is."
Robin blinked and turned pink. “My last home was a literal dumpster. I guess I’m a bit distanced from home ownership.” Chester’s sneer fell from his face and he furrowed his brow.
“It’s not an issue with contamination, anyway,” Linus continued. “The amount on my shipment was too small to hurt me, though I’m glad I didn’t get sick."
“Black hornet can get into the system through the skin,” Gwynt interrupted. “You dodged a quick arrow there."
Linus held his hands to the side of his head and shook. “Don’t remind me!” Gwynt apologized and Linus took a moment to compose himself again. “But I think it’s more than chance. I think, if there’s loose poison of that magnitude on one box, there must have been even more on another. And that doesn’t happen unintentionally. I doubt it was a warehouse accident, black hornet containers would always be securely contained and covered in warnings. Even if someone managed to spill it, they would know how big of a deal it was and make sure it got cleaned up by a cleric with poison removal spells.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “That must mean it was an assassination attempt. And targeting who? Who buys alchemical components? A wizard, like me. And if someone was trying to assassinate a wizard, it might only be a matter of time until they came after me!"
“All right, all right,” Anzo said, putting a hand on Linus’s shoulder. “You’re safe, friend dwarf. No one is trying to kill you."
“But what if they are?! That’s why I decided to live here, where I never need to talk to anyone ever again. No one will want to look for me here."
Chester walked over and joined the circle next to Robin and Linus. He sat gingerly, with his legs crossed and his hands on his knees. He thought for a moment, then said, “Anzo...you said there was a spark on the floor of the warehouse?"
“Yes, briefly. Robin saw it and chased it around before she caught up with it."
Chester turned to Robin. “Can you describe it to me exactly.” Robin had the distinct impression that she was not being asked, but rather that Chester had slipped into interrogation mode.
“It was moving in between the cracks in the floorboards. There was some sort of string it was following, towards a stack of boxes filled with black powder."
Chester let a sigh huff out. “Thank goodness you stopped it. I’m sure that would have resulted in an explosion that would have not only killed you, but threatened the children next door.” He let himself smile briefly, then turned stern again. “Not that you shouldn’t feel bad for threatening and stealing from them yourselves."
“Well…” Robin said. “First of all, let’s not dwell on that. Water under the bridge. I, myself, didn’t even steal anything...But second, I didn’t stop it."
Chester blinked. “What?"
“I couldn’t get to the spark in time. It was out of my reach when it just...stopped."
“On its own?” Chester said with squinted eyes. “That seems very...unlikely."
Robin shrugged. “That’s just what happened. I did find this on the floor right next to where it stopped, though.” She fished around in one of her pockets for a moment, then searched another, and finally pulled out the broken lockpick. She held up the flame symbol to show everyone. Chester was silent, his mind trying to put together the new clues and reassemble the old ones into something that still made sense. He looked like he was having some difficulty with it.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “Maybe it was just chance."
“Well, I’ll raise my glass to chance!” Anzo said. “If I had a glass. I could really go for an ale and a cut of ham right now. Or maybe just a piece of bread. And water.” He held his hand to his stomach. “I was, uh, not prepared to be away from the hideout this long."
Linus perked up. “You have a hideout? Oh, I could really use one of those."
“You’re welcome to join ours!” Anzo said. Gwynt lit up with a smile, and even Hudtan nodded her approval. Linus smiled with relief, but Chester turned to him urgently.
“Linus, weren’t you listening to their story?” he said. “These people are criminals!"
“The best around!” Gwynt said. Chester gestured to him, as if showing evidence at a trial.
Linus tapped his fingers together. “Well, you’re a town guard aren’t you? That’s what they said."
“Yes!” Chester said. “Exactly. Who are you going to trust, gangsters or guards?"
“Well, from my experience,” Linus said, “the gangs tend to be very true to their word. If they say they’re going to beat you up if you don’t pay their fine, you can certainly trust that they will. But when a guard is telling you not to worry, that’s usually a sign that there is lots of reason to worry, and they’re hiding it from you. Not to mention all the corruption among the ranks of the guards."
Chester, with a finger pointed towards Linus and about to offer a rebuttal, put down his hands. “Yeah, that’s true."
Linus looked back to Bedlam. “You’re the first gang that I haven’t been scared of for more than a couple minutes! If you’ll let me use your hideout, then I’m on board!"
Gwynt and Anzo cheered, while Hudtan nodded her approval. Anzo stood up and held his arms out as if he were about to hug the entire group. “We’d love to have you! You’ll have to undergo the Sewers Course before you can become a full-fledged member, of course, but I’m sure you’ll do fine! Consider yourself a member of Bedlam!"
Linus’s smile faltered briefly. “You mean like the city where everybody killed each other one night?"
After reassuring Linus that they weren’t wanton murderers (although they did specify that carefully planned murder constructive towards the guild’s goals was not off the table, and had indeed occurred in the past, to which Linus said, “As long as it’s not me,” and Anzo assured that guild members were granted immunity to any such plots), they went through introductions. To Robin’s surprise, Linus wasn’t terrified to learn that Gwynt used poisons for his assassinations, but rather it began an informative and long discussion about how to best brew herbs into useful potions and toxins, during which Anzo’s head lolled back and he fell asleep with his back across a large rock.
As Gwynt was asking Linus about his opinions on deathvine, Hudtan scooched over to sit across from Robin. “Linus will have to undergo the Sewers Course if he is to join,” she said. “I think you should deliver the Test of Intelligence. After all, you bested even myself. Any newcomer should be pitted against our smartest and strongest."
“I don’t think it will matter either way,” Robin said, hearing Linus use the word ‘valetudinarian’ in conversation. “Besides, I think it was just chance that you picked a riddle I knew. You would have beat me if it were anything else."
“I do have a genius mind, this is true,” Hudtan said. “However, I am inclined to overthinking, which results in my riddle-solving shortcomings. Once I begin to ponder one solution, I continuously revisit that idea instead of branching into new ones, until my own brain is convinced that it can be the only answer."
Robin rubbed her cheek as she listened. “That doesn’t mean you have to step down. We can give him the test together."
“Two brilliant minds against one? No one will ever be able to defeat us."
“Well...Maybe,” Robin said with a laugh. “Maybe we can change the test to only requiring us to provide riddles, and not have to answer them."
As they continued to talk, Robin noticed Chester sitting quietly, listening in on both conversations. She guessed he was probably still uncomfortable about being surrounded by criminals that he couldn’t arrest, after saving their lives too. She had noticed his comment about the town guards being corrupt. Was he really trying to fight against that on his own? It really seemed like the kind of goal that would require a gang at your back. Maybe he realized that Bedlam wasn’t that kind of gang. They were more likely to run from the coppers than try to beat their corruption out of them.
When Hudtan, stifling a yawn, said that it was time for her to go to sleep, and Gwynt and Linus’s conversation had become mostly staring sleepily at the dying fire, Robin scooched over towards Chester. He looked up inquisitively.
“Uh,” she said, “I just wanted to...Well, I don’t know if we really thanked you enough. We can’t. Thank you enough, that is. I mean...Thank you."
Chester blinked. “You would’ve been fine,” he said, and lay down in a patch of grass. He turned away from Robin.
She cleared her throat. “Maybe. Gwynt seems to always be able to escape his binds and Hudtan thinks quick on her feet. Anzo’s always confident we’ll succeed.” Robin pulled up some grass and tore it into smaller pieces. “But we might’ve not. You gave us a chance, even though you recognized us as criminals. I think we should give you a chance too, even though we know you’re a guard."
Chester sighed, sounding annoyed and tired. “You just say that like it’s no big deal."
“Huh?” Robin said.
Chester turned to look at her over his shoulder. “You’re criminals. You know you are. I caught you stealing from innocent kids. I listened to your friends less than an hour ago talk nonchalantly about how they have murdered, and will murder again to further their goals. How can you acknowledge that and not feel any remorse?"
“I...uh…” Robin held her legs close to her chest where she sat. She took a deep breath. “I am going to be the greatest thief in the world,” she said. “But I’m not evil."
“That’s what every villain says, isn’t it?” He turned back on the cold ground.
“And doesn’t every hero say they’re good?” Robin replied.
Chester was silent, so Robin found a somewhat comfortable spot on the ground where she could also get some sleep. Tomorrow they would return to town, and have to once again face the fact that three gangs want them dead, another has sinister plans for her, and now the guards might be on to them. Her momentary confidence in her own future quickly waned again. The greatest thief in the world...as if she had any chance.
<< Prologue, Heroes
<< Chapter 25, Rapids
The boat bucked and jumped as it flew down the underground river, Anzo and the guard barely keeping it straight with the oars. They had quickly lost the rhythm of rowing and instead were just reacting to each split second of unpredictable currents to maintain their course. Robin clutched the side of the boat, sitting down on the floor next to Hudtan, trying to hold in the contents of her stomach. As the river turned a corner, they could see a light ahead.
“Looks like we’re going to make it outside, team!” Anzo said, putting his foot up on the side of the boat in a triumphant pose. He reminded Robin of a captain refusing to abandon his sinking ship.
“I can see the sky!” Gwynt cheered.
“So can I,” the guard said. “Nothing but sky. It’s a waterfall!"
The two with the paddles started trying to slow the boat down. They steered towards the side of the tunnel, trying to wedge it against the rocks so that they could safely disembark. Instead, the boat slammed into the wall. Shards of wood splashed out from the point of impact, and the rowboat spun around, moving only faster down the sloping river towards its exit point. Robin had no idea where they would come out. Was it a small drop into a river just outside the town wall, or had they traveled miles away from Fannen-Dar to plummet fifty feet onto sharp rocks?
The goblins roared with glee as they started to catch up to Bedlam.
Hudtan grabbed the oar out of the guard’s hands. “Do not attempt to decelerate! We must gain speed."
“You want to fall to your death?!” he shouted back.
“There is no way to stop! If we go too slow, we will hit the rocks at the base of the waterfall. We want to maximize our chances of landing in a deeper part of the outlet."
“But it might just be a river. We might fall out onto shore and break every bone in our bodies!” said the guard. The goblins finally noticed the cavern mouth up ahead and were scrambling around on their boat.
“Maybe!” Hudtan said, throwing her hands in the air. “But the rocks are guaranteed! You can hear the water splashing on them up ahead!” Indeed, Robin could make out the loud roar of the waterfall hitting stone as they approached the opening. It would only be a few more seconds before they emerged.
“Fine, then let’s row!” the guard shouted. Gwynt and Hudtan paddled furiously while the goblins fell farther back behind them, trying to stop their inevitable descent.
Robin ducked down under the lip of the boat as they rushed past a stalactite overhead. Someone might have shouted, “Hold on!” (she was already holding on for dear life, her knuckles as white as bone), but it was hard to hear over the tumult of the waterfall and the four other screaming voices in their vessel. The boat emerged from the rapids, and lifted out of the water entirely.
It was a very sudden shift. Without the walls of the cave around them, their voices didn’t seem as loud. Robin stopped screaming for a moment and took quick stock of their new surroundings. The sun was shining, the clouds were lazily drifting through the sky, and the five of them were falling to their deaths towards a flat sheet of rock.
“Not fast enough!” Gwynt said.
“Then jump!” Hudtan shouted.
They all kicked off from the boat, pushing it back towards the fall. It was only three seconds from emerging to when they landed. They splashed down, and Robin got a nose-full of pond water, but she had managed to avoid the rocks. She started paddling back up to the surface, tapping Anzo on the shoulder as she passed, as he was upside-down and disoriented. He saw where she was swimming and followed.
They broke the surface, coughing out the water that had flooded their mouths and noses from the quick impact. Gwynt was already on the shore of the pond the waterfall deposited into, bent over and examining his leg. Hudtan was helping the guard, who was struggling to stay afloat.
“Thanks,” he said when she brought him to shore. “I’ve never learned how to swim."
Anzo set his feet into a combat stance as soon as he reached land. “Where are the goblins?” he said, looking around. Robin searched as well, but could only see the wreckage of both boats on the rocks. Then a small, rust-colored body rose out of the pond, floating face-down.
“Looks like we made it,” Gwynt said, flashing a grin.
Robin let out a sigh of relief, then finally started taking in the surroundings. The waterfall emerged from a large hill, casting a looming shadow on them in the afternoon sun. The waterfall deposited into a small pond, from which the river continued into the Thundertop Hills. True to their name, dark clouds were lingering at each summit, but the sky above the pond was clear. There was a small copse nearby, where Robin heard birds chirping. Colorful birds were unheard of in this region; they were all brown and black, the better to disguise themselves from the ubiquitous foxes and falcons. It was easier for them to keep their heads down and wings at their sides.
Anzo climbed a boulder and raised a hand up to his forehead. “We must be miles outside of town. I can just make out the smoke above the horizon."
“Let’s start to make our way back, then,” the guard said. “The elves should scout forward to the left and right to make sure we aren’t ambushed by any surviving goblins, or whatever lives in the Thundertops-"
“Cease your commands!” Hudtan whipped out her remaining dagger and held it up to the guard’s throat. Standing in front of him, she was still a few inches shorter, but he leaned backwards and raised his hands half up in front of himself in a display of pacifism. Hudtan’s dagger did not touch his skin, but it would only require a flick of her wrist for it to sink under his chin. Hudtan glared at him, her white eyes flaring with an icy chill. “We do not accede to anyone but our guildmaster.” Chester sighed, but nodded without another word.
Anzo walked over to put a hand on Hudtan’s shoulder, which she took as a signal to lower her blade. He then looked over at Chester. A smile broke out on the half-ogre’s face.
“You really helped us out of a bind there, friend,” he said. He held out his hand. “Not many in Fannen-Dar would go out of their way for a group of strangers like that. Much less risk their lives against a horde of goblins!” Chester, trapped by the conventions of cordiality, held his hand up for Anzo to jostle up and down. “May we know your name?"
The guard’s mouth seemed to try to smile, although it came across as more of a grimace. “You can call me Chester. And there’s no need to thank me, I was really just doing my...trying to help."
“Oh, I hadn’t thanked you.” Anzo’s smile was still wide across his face, but there was a glint in his eye. “I have a question first. What was a town guard doing in the caverns underneath the town, with no armor or uniform to be seen?"
Chester stammered for a moment, then said, “Well, I saw you climbing down into the well, and I thought I should probably follow, in case…"
“In case you could turn us over to your boss?” Anzo was still shaking his hand.
Chester chuckled without smiling. “No, that certainly was not my plan."
Anzo suddenly yanked his arm back, still holding on to Chester’s hand. Chester yelped and fell forward to be stopped by Anzo’s other mitt clamping down on his right shoulder. There faces were an inch apart, with Anzo bending down over the guard. “An undercover agent, then?” Anzo said, his voice now lacking its usual jovial tone, instead rumbling with resentment and buried memories. “Which gang do you work for? I know the watch has agents within it. You may have saved us, but I will not allow you to report back with information about us!"
“I’m not working for them!” Chester yelled. “I’m trying to stop them! All right?! I followed you because I recognized her,” he pointed at Robin, “from the orphanage! I was doing my duty to the town, not anyone else!"
Anzo blinked and straightened his back, letting go of and standing tall over Chester, who continued to rant. “I was trying to protect you from a dangerous situation in the warehouse that you were trying to escape through, but no, you had to punch me instead. Then I thought, why would they be trying to escape? Unless they were criminals too. And then the explosion didn’t even happen…"
“Wait, you know about the powder trail in the alchemical warehouse?” Robin asked.
“Yes, why do you think I was evacuating the orphanage?!"
Anzo held up his hands again. “Chester! Chester. I was wrong about you.” He placed a hand on his chest, his warm smile returned to its usual resting place. “You have my most humble apology, from all of us. And! Our thanks for coming to the rescue in both dire situations."
Chester looked up at the half-ogre and opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Well, there’s no shortage of dire situations in Fannen-Dar, it seems. Maybe you could help me back into town in return?"
Anzo turned to the others. “What do you think, Bedlam? Shall we accompany our new friend back to the gate?"
Hudtan walked back up to him, looked down at his boots, and panned her gaze back up to his eyes. “If Anzo will place his trust in you, then I will too. But I’m keeping my eye on you. And my dagger is only ever a fraction of a second away from arriving in my hand.” Chester laughed with only a slight crack in his voice. She looked back at Anzo. “Let’s go, boss."
Anzo laughed as if his underling had not just threatened someone’s life, then started walking towards the thin trails of smoke in the distance that signified Fannen-Dar’s location. Hudtan fell in step right behind him, with Gwynt, Chester, and Robin close behind. There was no path or trail to follow, so the hikers had to weave through the hills to make the trek easier. The sound of rumbling thunder followed them wherever they went, although the air was dry and the skies, while not clear, held no portents of a storm. After almost an hour of walking, there was a loud crack as lightning struck the top of a nearby hill.
Gwynt nearly stumbled over a rock as he craned his neck to look at the sky. “The weather here really does not want to make up its mind."
“This is how is always is in the Thudertop Hills,” Anzo said. “The shape of the hills creates some sort of pressure tunnels that lead to small storms directly above each of them. Always stick to the base of the hills here!"
“I’ve never come out this far north from Fannen-Dar,” Gwynt added as he lightly skipped across the rough, bouldered terrain.
Chester, breathing heavily, climbed over a boulder blocking their path, bringing up the rear of the group. “Not many people do. It’s not exactly safe."
“Are you afraid of a little lightning?” Hudtan asked, flashing him a sly smile.
“I’m more worried about the trolls and giants that are rumored to live here,” he replied. Hudtan’s smile flickered and vanished. Chester seemed to notice her nervousness at that, and added, “But as long as we get back before dark, we should be fine."
“Then we might not be fine,” Robin said. She had climbed a boulder to get a better vantage to view their trail. The town of Fannen-Dar was glowing in the distance, lanterns already being lit for the evening. The sun was setting in the west, already behind the highest hills, casting their shadow over the valley where Fannen-Dar sat, at least eight miles away. It would be dark long before they arrived.
Chester climbed up next to Robin to get a look, nudging her to the side. He sighed and said, “We’ll have to make camp here, then. Gods, that must have been a fast river…” Robin interrupted him by pushing him back so she had more space on the rock.
They began searching for a convenient spot among the hills to make their camp. Hudtan found a cave that she thought would provide shelter, but rainwater had pooled at the bottom, making it a damp and squishy option that the rest of the group quickly vetoed. As they were climbing out of the cave after their examination of it, Robin spotted a light coming from the side of another rise several hundred yards away. The sun had fully set, making the firelight stand out in the darkness.
She ushered the rest of the group over, and with Anzo in the lead, they slowly approached what soon became apparent as a small campsite. Someone had erected short walls of fur and cloth to block view of the site, but the glow from the campfire within was still visible. From the size, Robin guessed that there was only enough room for one person to lie down.
Anzo approached the barrier, which he stood taller than, allowing him to look directly down into the enclosure. Robin stood behind him, higher up on the hill’s slope so she could peek over his shoulder. At the center of the space, next to a small fire pit that looked like it had been made by an expert, sat a small bedroll with a lumpy shape bundled up inside. Anzo cleared his throat and the bundle started thrashing as the person inside tried to find the exit. Finally, a dwarf with dark brown skin, a small tuft of a black beard, and wide hazel eyes popped out and held up a small book as if he were getting ready to chuck it.
“Greetings, traveler,” Anzo said, standing unflinchingly next to the canvas.
“Pleasedon’thurtmeIdon’thaveanythingofvalueit’sreallyallworthlessyou’vegottobelievemepleasespareme-he-hee!” the dwarf sputtered.
Anzo waited for him to calm down before starting over. “Peaceful greetings, traveler,” Anzo said. “We are not here to harm you, but simply were checking to make sure you would not harm us. We need to camp here for the evening."
The dwarf lowered his book. He emerged more from the bedroll, and Robin saw that he wore a stained tunic with singed sleeves and wooden clasps. “Does it need to be here?” he said.
Anzo blinked. “Well, we’re very tired and it would be a shame to have to keep walking…"
“Of course, yes, I understand how it is,” the dwarf said, his voice cracking. He stood up out of the bedroll and started picking up his belongings. “I’ll be on my way, then."
“Well, you’re welcome to stay too, of course!"
“It’s all right, I understand how bandits claim territory, I wouldn’t want to be in the way."
“We’re not bandits. Please, we’d love for you to join us!"
“Oh, yes, of course!” the dwarf said, his knees shaking. “I stay for dinner, I wake up in a tree with all my belongings stripped, no, no, it’s all right, I know how it works, just make it quick-"
Chester stepped forward. “Sir, we really aren’t going to hurt you. We’re on our way back to Fannen-Dar after escaping a horde of goblins."
“And you led them right to me?!"
“They’re dead!” Chester shouted. He then unclenched his fists and looked down at his feet, his cheeks turning red.
The dwarf stopped stammering and looked around at the five faces peeking over the wall’s of his campsite. His hands went instinctively to a book that hung from a harness at his waist like a warrior would wear a sword. He undid a latch that kept the leather binding fastened around the pages, opening it to reveal pristine paper. The page to which he had opened was filled with tiny, compact handwriting up until the end of the last sentence, where it was completely blank. He took a quill out of a gap in the book’s binding and held it to the page where he had last left off. “You’re saying you managed to defeat a horde of goblins?” he said, all trace of worry gone from his voice.
Fifteen minutes later, the four members of Bedlam, Chester, and the dwarf sat around the now slightly larger campfire (thanks to Anzo’s insisting on helping gather more firewood). The barriers had been pushed out, leaving some room between them but providing more space within their borders. The dwarf, Linus, was asking a series of questions that everyone except Chester was enthusiastically answering, and growing increasingly more impressed.
“And you managed to sneak in unnoticed?” Linus said, his voice filled with awe.
“Scaled the side of the building and entered through the uppermost window,” Hudtan said, as if it were routine. She brushed her fingernails on her leather jerkin, then blew on them as she relaxed back with her other hand behind her head.
Linus’s eyes shone. “That must have been very scary,” he said.
Chester scoffed. “It was an orphanage! They were taking advantage of children! How is that scary?!"
Linus looked over to Chester, who was scrunched up away from the rest of the group with his chin on his knees, as if he had just noticed him. “Did you not join them? Was it too scary for you?” Chester grumbled as if he was about to respond, but Gwynt interrupted.
“That’s Chester. He was the guard who tried to catch us that night! But we haven’t even told you the best part, what Robin did to deter him. Go on, Robin, you tell it!"
Robin looked from Gwynt’s grin to Linus’s enraptured expression, and then to Chester’s scowl. “Well,” she said, “I don’t think it was anything particularly special. I mean, he was doing his job…"
“She punched him right in the face!” Anzo said, and he and the two elves erupted with laughter. Linus joined in with a high-pitched, halting laugh. Chester rolled his eyes.
Anzo was the last to come down from his laughing fit, trying to talk in between chuckles. “Then, and then, we...ha!...We ended up in a warehouse next door, where there was a spark that traveled along the floor! Robin put that out too."
He started laughing again, but now Linus had turned quiet. He interrupted Anzo’s guffaws. “Wait, a warehouse next to the orphanage? Was it Alchemical Warehouse 2G?"
“Uh.” Anzo looked at his employees. “Was it?” Robin, Hudtan, and Gwynt shrugged.
“It was,” Chester said. Robin noticed he was now looking at her with...suspicion? Or was it admiration?
Linus, however, had turned wide-eyed again. “That was where I received my last shipment. The shipment that convinced me to leave Fannen-Dar."
“I meant to ask about that,” Hudtan said. “We ended up out here by sheer happenstance. What brought you to such a distant interval from the city?"
Linus gulped. “I think someone’s going to…” He looked around, over his shoulder, at the darkness beyond his campsite. All that could be heard was the low rumble of thunder. He looked down to his book and flipped to a previous page, then cleared his throat. “23rd of Shieldstand, 9 and 15 after noon. I have put enough distance that I think it is finally safe to rest, and scribe the events of this evening. I had been brewing a routine healing potion, which would have sold for enough to make my month’s rent, when I noticed something odd. The tint of the elixir’s color was off, and after a short test I realized it had been contaminated with a small amount of concentrated rubinia passindicia."
Gwynt leaned forward. “Black hornet? That’s incredibly toxic, and rare. I haven’t ever seen someone selling it in town.” Robin gave him a nervous look, to which he shrugged. “I don’t grow most of my poisons myself, so I’m familiar with the local distributors,” he added.
Linus nodded, and continued from memory now that his nerves had subsided. “I checked the package, the one my supplies for this potion had come in. It was from Alchemical Warehouse 2G. The box had traces of the poison as well. Some must have fallen into my potion, or one of the ingredients I used. So, I packed up the bare necessities and skedaddled."
“What? Why?” Robin said. Gwynt looked at her with a serious expression, but the others looked confused too. “You seem like you got away unharmed. Did that tiny amount contaminate your house? Why not just move somewhere else?"
Chester laughed. “He can’t just pick a new place to live! Surely, you must understand how expensive that is."
Robin blinked and turned pink. “My last home was a literal dumpster. I guess I’m a bit distanced from home ownership.” Chester’s sneer fell from his face and he furrowed his brow.
“It’s not an issue with contamination, anyway,” Linus continued. “The amount on my shipment was too small to hurt me, though I’m glad I didn’t get sick."
“Black hornet can get into the system through the skin,” Gwynt interrupted. “You dodged a quick arrow there."
Linus held his hands to the side of his head and shook. “Don’t remind me!” Gwynt apologized and Linus took a moment to compose himself again. “But I think it’s more than chance. I think, if there’s loose poison of that magnitude on one box, there must have been even more on another. And that doesn’t happen unintentionally. I doubt it was a warehouse accident, black hornet containers would always be securely contained and covered in warnings. Even if someone managed to spill it, they would know how big of a deal it was and make sure it got cleaned up by a cleric with poison removal spells.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “That must mean it was an assassination attempt. And targeting who? Who buys alchemical components? A wizard, like me. And if someone was trying to assassinate a wizard, it might only be a matter of time until they came after me!"
“All right, all right,” Anzo said, putting a hand on Linus’s shoulder. “You’re safe, friend dwarf. No one is trying to kill you."
“But what if they are?! That’s why I decided to live here, where I never need to talk to anyone ever again. No one will want to look for me here."
Chester walked over and joined the circle next to Robin and Linus. He sat gingerly, with his legs crossed and his hands on his knees. He thought for a moment, then said, “Anzo...you said there was a spark on the floor of the warehouse?"
“Yes, briefly. Robin saw it and chased it around before she caught up with it."
Chester turned to Robin. “Can you describe it to me exactly.” Robin had the distinct impression that she was not being asked, but rather that Chester had slipped into interrogation mode.
“It was moving in between the cracks in the floorboards. There was some sort of string it was following, towards a stack of boxes filled with black powder."
Chester let a sigh huff out. “Thank goodness you stopped it. I’m sure that would have resulted in an explosion that would have not only killed you, but threatened the children next door.” He let himself smile briefly, then turned stern again. “Not that you shouldn’t feel bad for threatening and stealing from them yourselves."
“Well…” Robin said. “First of all, let’s not dwell on that. Water under the bridge. I, myself, didn’t even steal anything...But second, I didn’t stop it."
Chester blinked. “What?"
“I couldn’t get to the spark in time. It was out of my reach when it just...stopped."
“On its own?” Chester said with squinted eyes. “That seems very...unlikely."
Robin shrugged. “That’s just what happened. I did find this on the floor right next to where it stopped, though.” She fished around in one of her pockets for a moment, then searched another, and finally pulled out the broken lockpick. She held up the flame symbol to show everyone. Chester was silent, his mind trying to put together the new clues and reassemble the old ones into something that still made sense. He looked like he was having some difficulty with it.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “Maybe it was just chance."
“Well, I’ll raise my glass to chance!” Anzo said. “If I had a glass. I could really go for an ale and a cut of ham right now. Or maybe just a piece of bread. And water.” He held his hand to his stomach. “I was, uh, not prepared to be away from the hideout this long."
Linus perked up. “You have a hideout? Oh, I could really use one of those."
“You’re welcome to join ours!” Anzo said. Gwynt lit up with a smile, and even Hudtan nodded her approval. Linus smiled with relief, but Chester turned to him urgently.
“Linus, weren’t you listening to their story?” he said. “These people are criminals!"
“The best around!” Gwynt said. Chester gestured to him, as if showing evidence at a trial.
Linus tapped his fingers together. “Well, you’re a town guard aren’t you? That’s what they said."
“Yes!” Chester said. “Exactly. Who are you going to trust, gangsters or guards?"
“Well, from my experience,” Linus said, “the gangs tend to be very true to their word. If they say they’re going to beat you up if you don’t pay their fine, you can certainly trust that they will. But when a guard is telling you not to worry, that’s usually a sign that there is lots of reason to worry, and they’re hiding it from you. Not to mention all the corruption among the ranks of the guards."
Chester, with a finger pointed towards Linus and about to offer a rebuttal, put down his hands. “Yeah, that’s true."
Linus looked back to Bedlam. “You’re the first gang that I haven’t been scared of for more than a couple minutes! If you’ll let me use your hideout, then I’m on board!"
Gwynt and Anzo cheered, while Hudtan nodded her approval. Anzo stood up and held his arms out as if he were about to hug the entire group. “We’d love to have you! You’ll have to undergo the Sewers Course before you can become a full-fledged member, of course, but I’m sure you’ll do fine! Consider yourself a member of Bedlam!"
Linus’s smile faltered briefly. “You mean like the city where everybody killed each other one night?"
After reassuring Linus that they weren’t wanton murderers (although they did specify that carefully planned murder constructive towards the guild’s goals was not off the table, and had indeed occurred in the past, to which Linus said, “As long as it’s not me,” and Anzo assured that guild members were granted immunity to any such plots), they went through introductions. To Robin’s surprise, Linus wasn’t terrified to learn that Gwynt used poisons for his assassinations, but rather it began an informative and long discussion about how to best brew herbs into useful potions and toxins, during which Anzo’s head lolled back and he fell asleep with his back across a large rock.
As Gwynt was asking Linus about his opinions on deathvine, Hudtan scooched over to sit across from Robin. “Linus will have to undergo the Sewers Course if he is to join,” she said. “I think you should deliver the Test of Intelligence. After all, you bested even myself. Any newcomer should be pitted against our smartest and strongest."
“I don’t think it will matter either way,” Robin said, hearing Linus use the word ‘valetudinarian’ in conversation. “Besides, I think it was just chance that you picked a riddle I knew. You would have beat me if it were anything else."
“I do have a genius mind, this is true,” Hudtan said. “However, I am inclined to overthinking, which results in my riddle-solving shortcomings. Once I begin to ponder one solution, I continuously revisit that idea instead of branching into new ones, until my own brain is convinced that it can be the only answer."
Robin rubbed her cheek as she listened. “That doesn’t mean you have to step down. We can give him the test together."
“Two brilliant minds against one? No one will ever be able to defeat us."
“Well...Maybe,” Robin said with a laugh. “Maybe we can change the test to only requiring us to provide riddles, and not have to answer them."
As they continued to talk, Robin noticed Chester sitting quietly, listening in on both conversations. She guessed he was probably still uncomfortable about being surrounded by criminals that he couldn’t arrest, after saving their lives too. She had noticed his comment about the town guards being corrupt. Was he really trying to fight against that on his own? It really seemed like the kind of goal that would require a gang at your back. Maybe he realized that Bedlam wasn’t that kind of gang. They were more likely to run from the coppers than try to beat their corruption out of them.
When Hudtan, stifling a yawn, said that it was time for her to go to sleep, and Gwynt and Linus’s conversation had become mostly staring sleepily at the dying fire, Robin scooched over towards Chester. He looked up inquisitively.
“Uh,” she said, “I just wanted to...Well, I don’t know if we really thanked you enough. We can’t. Thank you enough, that is. I mean...Thank you."
Chester blinked. “You would’ve been fine,” he said, and lay down in a patch of grass. He turned away from Robin.
She cleared her throat. “Maybe. Gwynt seems to always be able to escape his binds and Hudtan thinks quick on her feet. Anzo’s always confident we’ll succeed.” Robin pulled up some grass and tore it into smaller pieces. “But we might’ve not. You gave us a chance, even though you recognized us as criminals. I think we should give you a chance too, even though we know you’re a guard."
Chester sighed, sounding annoyed and tired. “You just say that like it’s no big deal."
“Huh?” Robin said.
Chester turned to look at her over his shoulder. “You’re criminals. You know you are. I caught you stealing from innocent kids. I listened to your friends less than an hour ago talk nonchalantly about how they have murdered, and will murder again to further their goals. How can you acknowledge that and not feel any remorse?"
“I...uh…” Robin held her legs close to her chest where she sat. She took a deep breath. “I am going to be the greatest thief in the world,” she said. “But I’m not evil."
“That’s what every villain says, isn’t it?” He turned back on the cold ground.
“And doesn’t every hero say they’re good?” Robin replied.
Chester was silent, so Robin found a somewhat comfortable spot on the ground where she could also get some sleep. Tomorrow they would return to town, and have to once again face the fact that three gangs want them dead, another has sinister plans for her, and now the guards might be on to them. Her momentary confidence in her own future quickly waned again. The greatest thief in the world...as if she had any chance.
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