Well, I have to say that Seth did have a positive effect on the other delinquents. They beefed up their plan a bit. Not enough in my mind, but a bit.
The most successful thief was an unseen thief. And the best heist was one that wasn't noticed right away. The longer the time between execution and discovery, the better your getaway.
Duvessa wanted to steal information. The biggest problem with this was that she had no idea if what she wanted even existed, so she needed to take everything. Her idea of the copy spell to copy it all wasn't bad, but that was going to take time. A lot of it.
They were so gonna get caught.
Seth was working on a plan, but I doubted it could rescue this shipwreck. I hadn't seen Seth since early that morning, so he was still working on it.
It was afternoon when the three blind mice went their separate ways. Of the three, I decided to follow Booth. No particular reason. Yup, none.
He spotted me while I was in the school courtyard and he was leaving the school. I don't think he saw me again after that. He didn't try to ditch me again anyway.
He went to the east side of town, the poorest side. This was a sad place. There was garbage everywhere, the buildings were run down, and the homeless - especially children - abounded. He greeted several of these homeless children by name, and no one accosted him or tried to peddle anything to him.
The place he went to looked like it was once a very expensive home a century or two ago. Although it was no longer in its glory days, it was still better maintained than its neighbor houses.
Booth knocked and waited for the doorman.
I couldn't hear the conversation from my hiding spot, but the guy at the door was boisterous and friendly. Not at all what I expected out of what I had thought was a street gang or mafia organization. Honestly, the guy reminded me of a pirate. He wore a black bandana with a skull on it, he had long blond hair, and a flowy white shirt.
Maybe criminals here were just friendly pirates?
Nah. People were people, wherever they were from. If a guy who makes his money from shanking and stealing is being friendly, it's because you have something he wants that he can't just stab you for. So what did Booth have to offer? An inside into the school seemed most likely.
Come to think of it, a few of the people around here were wearing black with skulls. Was Booth a member of this gang?
Welp, the kid went inside, and I wasn't privy to Booth's activity anymore. Unless, of course, I went to peek in a window? Hmm. Yup, that upper story looks promising.
All the fancy detailing on this old house made for easy perches. With a little climbing and a strategic leap, I was sitting on a second story windowsill just out of sight of anyone inside. And I guessed it right! This window was right behind a guy at a big fancy desk. I knew it. I'm awesome.
I pointed my fantastic cat ears at the window and listened.
And I couldn't hear a thing. Shit.
I didn't want to be seen, so I couldn't just plaster myself to the window and watch everybody, but I could get glimpses here and there.
The big guy had Booth brought in after waiting for a while. Honestly, their conversation was pretty brief. Booth was not invited to sit down and fidgeted quite a bit. It ended with the big guy pointing angrily at Booth, and Booth being dragged out a bit unkindly.
So much for friendly pirates.
Once tossed outside, Booth walked dejectedly down the street. Around the corner he stopped and pulled out a ring and studied it. He slipped it onto his finger and took off running.
Guy was acting. He got whatever he came for, and I bet they didn't mean to give it to him. And damn, the kid was pretty good. I never saw him take it. Only way I could figure that was if he took it from someone else and not the big guy.
Oh Booth. That's not going to go over well.
That was okay by me though. Because if that was that skeleton key thing? Booth wasn't going to be keeping it either. I followed him.
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It was just before midnight. The kids had left the school grounds just a bit ago, and I beat them here. So, the guard at the gate wasn't even slightly surprised at a pack of students wandering out in the middle of the night. The guard didn't even look at them as she waved them through. Cultural differences I guess. Kids were allowed to manage themselves here.
I climbed up to perch on a nearby roof and watched the three blind mice. I was expecting entertainment from this fiasco. I could see the three blind mice hiding in the shadows and pointed both of my ears in their direction.
"What about opening the magical locks?" Owen asked as they scanned the market. "You said you got something for it Booth, what is it?"
Booth showed them a bone ring with a skull carved into it. "This is a skull key ring. It's part of a set the Skull Gang have. This one is just a copy I got from the lieutenant, and will only work for a couple days. They have a bunch of them and they power them up from the master ring. They shouldn't miss it."
Well, fuck. I tried to curb my overwhelming disappointment that my door issue was not going to be solved.
They talked some more about the plan. I thought it weird that they didn't have the details already memorized.
"We all need to be sure about this," Booth said. "This is dangerous. If we're caught, we will be expelled from school, and likely will be tried as thieves, even if we haven't taken anything."
"Fshh. There is no way my family will allow that to happen to us," Duvessa said, and waved a hand dismissing Booth's concerns. "We aren't stealing anything, and we have a worthy cause. This will work out fine."
"I dunno," Owen started.
"We're fine," Duvessa insisted, and rested a hand on Owen's arm. "You just stick with me and it'll all work out."
Booth stared at Duvessa, far more calculating than Owen. "You're sure your family can definitely protect you. Are you sure they will protect us too? We are strangers to your family."
"You're not strangers to me, and all I have to do is insist. We've got this, it'll be fine."
Owen looked a bit queasy so Booth gave him an encouraging pat on the back. Still, Owen followed them.
Before entering the square they stopped and watched.
"That guard over there," Booth said softly. "How often does he leave on patrol?"
"I watched the inside of the shop, not the outside," Duvessa whispered back. "Why is the shop guarded?" Duvessa asked softly.
Duvessa, I love you, but you are never planning anything ever again.
"It's late at night. It's normal for there to be guards," Booth said. "If you never watched the outside, then you have no idea how many guards there even are."
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"What do we do if he doesn't leave?" Duvessa whispered, distressed. "The plan will be ruined!"
"Be patient. If he's a guard, he should do rounds," Booth answered, also keeping his voice down. "Send your shadows around and find out if there are any other guards in the area. Check out at least two blocks in every direction."
"Right." Duvessa sent nigh invisible sparrows winging into the night.
The kids waited. Owen was the calmest and stillest of the three. Duvessa was so antsy I thought for sure she'd just blurt something out loud and alert the guard, but she never did. After twenty minutes the last of her sparrows returned and Duvessa quietly declared this guard as the only one.
"Should we activate the muffler?" Owen asked.
This was an interesting item and the biggest addition to the plan. It's something Duvessa paid an upperclassman to make for them. It created a field that muffled all sound within it from the outside. She expected this little device to prevent the shopkeeper, who lived on the upper floor, from hearing them. It had a range of about ten feet. It would be tricky for me to stay inside that bubble if I had to stay outside the building, but I figured I could manage it.
"We'll wait until we need it. It'll only last about two hours. I don't want to burn it up waiting for that guy," Booth said.
And then it was another half hour or so before the guard finally wandered off down an alley. Duvessa quickly summoned a shadow sparrow and sent it winging after the guard.
"My sparrow will let me know if he comes back. Let's go now," Duvessa darted out and across the square to the door of the crafting shop.
Booth muttered something under his breath before he took off after Duvessa. It wasn't anything polite.
Duvessa was waiting at the door with one hand on her hip and waved at the door as if the fact it was still locked offended her.
The sparrow that was watching the approaching guard plonked down in her outstretched hand. Duvessa inhaled sharply and looked down the street. "Oh, no," she whispered.
Booth pushed the door open, the skull ring activating automatically, and snaked his hand around quickly to silence the bells hanging inside. The three of them piled quickly inside and shut the door, still holding the bells.
I leapt across the roofs to the shop next door, and then dropped to the ground. I found a window on the side of the building that was in deep shadow and I hid on the sill. I wasn't sure if the muffler would extend past walls, but it did. I could press my ear to the window and very faintly could hear the kids as I watched them. I needed a spell that would let me listen better through walls. I needed to learn how to fucking do magic at all.
Using a claw, I pricked my paw sharply twice. It caused stabs of pain, so Seth should feel that through the familiar link. It was the signal that they'd gone inside.
I could see Owen and Duvessa were both peeking out the same small window in the door. "Move over," Duvessa whispered sharply.
"Shush," Booth hissed. "Hold still, what's wrong with both of you?" His voice was quieter than a whisper, but sounded like normal speech.
"The guard is right outside," Owen whispered. His whispers were more breathy and hissing sounding. "He's not walking a route."
Duvessa turned around and scanned the shop, so I did too. It was dimly lit by the moonlight through the barred windows, the bars casting ominous shadows. I figured the kids might have trouble seeing in those shadows, but I didn't. There were displays along the walls, and chests at the base of them. The displays were mostly empty. The side opposite me had a seating area next to a fireplace. A place to shmooze important guests, I imagine. There was a wall along the back, and I could glimpse a staircase going up and more rooms beyond. Probably a workshop and an office. The kitchen might be on this floor too, instead of upstairs. I wasn't familiar enough with the architecture of this place to know for sure how the rooms were likely to be laid out.
But the main thing I saw in this space? Criss crossing lines, throughout the space. Almost like laser beams, but not red. These were lit by the moonlight.
"Wow, it's dirty in here. Look at all these cobwebs," Duvessa whispered. She reached out to touch one of the moonlit strands.
Booth snatched her arm and pulled both Duvessa and Owen back against the door before they could step fully into the room. "Those aren't webs, they're an alarm spell."
We'll have to have a talk later about why Duvessa's shadows couldn't detect the alarm. If I ever wanted to use them for reconnaissance, I'd need to understand their limitations. Assuming Duvessa's grandmother would be successful in rescuing the kids.
There was a thump from upstairs, like someone had dropped something. Duvessa looked sharply at Booth. He calmly held a finger to his lips and kept a hand on her shoulder. Owen shook his head as he scanned the shop, clearly questioning his life decisions.
Heh. Shoulda thought this through a little better bucko.
Booth examined the doorway and the space around it. Since they hadn't set off the alarm yet, he was probably looking for a way to disarm it from the door. Whatever the method was, he couldn't find it. He did notice that the webs radiated out from a location across the room, I followed his gaze and spotted a crystal spider perched on the counter display case. He carefully pointed to it.
"Oh no," Duvessa moaned softly. "Not a spider. I hate spiders!"
"Owen, you're best at dodging. You think you can move through the web without touching any strands and catch the spider?" Booth asked.
"I guess. I reckon taking the muffler with me to shush my landings would be good?"
"All right. That means no more talking, Duvessa, not even whispers," Booth whispered.
That's not happening.
"Wait, I have an idea. We should slow the spider down or pin it or something," Duvessa whispered.
"Can your shadows do something?" Owen asked, his voice the quietest of all of them.
"I'll make a fat toad that can hop through the strands and sit on the spider."
"A toad," Booth said.
"Of course. Toads are adorable."
"What is a toad sitting on the spider going to do?" Booth asked.
"Pin it of course," Duvessa whispered. "Toads are heavy."
"No they ain't," Owen said. "What's a shadow weigh, anyway? Can shadows even have weight?"
"Toads look fat and heavy, so they are. How am I supposed to know how heavy a shadow can be?"
"Because it's your power, Duvessa. Can you actually make a heavy toad?" Booth asked.
"Humph. I'm feeling attacked here. My toad will totally be very heavy."
"Fine, Duvessa, send the toad and give Owen the muffler. Then neither you nor I can say anything, not even a whisper, until we are back in its range. Silence. Got that?"
"Of course." Duvessa handed over a ball of wool with string wrapped around it. Then she stretched her arm out past the first strands of the alarm web and summoned her toad. It was a wide and squat thing, completely black, and didn't look anything like any toad I had seen before.
This made me pause for a moment. I couldn't remember ever having seen a toad. Yet I knew by looking at that thing, I'd never seen anything like it and it didn't look like a normal toad. My memory loss was somehow selective.
But I didn't have time to ponder this right now. The toad immediately started making its way towards the spider, mostly crawling under the strands, but occasionally hopping over them.
"Is there some kind of light I can use?" Owen whispered. "I'm not sure I'll be able to see all the strands to avoid them."
Booth pulled out a small rock from his pocket and held it a moment. "Here, this is now a light stone. It won't last long, but should be enough to get you across."
Owen held the stone up and gauged the best path through the web. He started out heading more towards the seating area with the fireplace than directly at the counter where the spider sat, now with a shadow toad covering it. The seating area had the fewest webs in general, so would be the best place to move through.
Owen moved carefully, stepping over and ducking under the strands of web. Until he got to a section of the web that he couldn't easily move through. This spot had a gap at waist height that was about two feet in diameter, with webs both above and below.
The only way forward was to dive through the gap, but not go too far or he'd land in the strands after the gap.
He'd made leaps and ducked through hurtling manaballs when playing with the wussticks. He'd done very similar things before, so this should be well within his ability. Owen took a deep breath, carefully lined up, and made the leap.
He managed to tangle in every single strand nearby. His arms too low, his feet too wide, his butt too high. He landed both awkwardly and heavily, the thud was fortunately muffled by the muffler, but he tangled in all the strands with his off-balance landing.
Duvessa and Booth saw the toad on the spider's back rise up as the spider started to move. It was hard to tell if the toad was having any effect as the spider still moved quite quickly.
Duvessa reacted the fastest, leaping through the strands in front of her and grabbing the toad covered spider. Her hand sunk through the shadow toad and it hopped off, leaving her pressing the crystal spider to the floor where she had caught it.
She opened her mouth to announce her success but was stopped by Booth covering her mouth. She glared at him and he let go. They both turned to the spider on the floor.
It was breaking. Apparently it was super frail and she had shattered it. The legs had fallen off and now the body was cracking and falling into pieces. Booth jumped back and grabbed a blue bowl on the display table behind them.
The shadow toad's tongue flicked out at one of the small crystal pieces and the toad swallowed the crystal shard.
Duvessa quickly scooped the remaining crystal shards into a pile and then froze staring at her hands. Booth slammed the bowl over the pile of broken crystal shards. But it was too late.
The broken shards of the large spider had transformed into dozens of tiny spiders. Many of which were now crawling on Duvessa.
She screamed.