For not the first time, Dylan wondered why he had ever let Almira talk him into it.

He stood next to Krill outside the door to the dining room waiting to be called upon if the family needed anything. Inside he was panicking. No one said anything about this! It was just supposed to be easy gold. Pick up the gaudy ring if I had an opportunity and pass it to Joby the next time I was in town.

He looked up at his friend Krill, who while at 15 was two years younger than him, already stood 3 inches taller. Sprouting like a weed and without all the problems a girlfriend brings. I just hope he finds someone decent when he starts dating. He’s still so naïve. An inadvertent chuckle escaped him as he thought about his own situation, leading Krill to give him a glance and a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry Krill. Just remembered a joke.” Krill smiled and went back to waiting to be called while Dylan reviewed his past actions.

As a third son of a smith, he was fairly strong for his age and familiar with working hard. But his older brother Albers was set to inherit the smithy when Da decided to step back from the day to day running of it. While his brothers Johan and Gino showed some skill in working iron, Dylan didn’t. But what he did have was an agile mind and desire for learning.

Ma persuaded Da to apprentice him out to one of the local merchants, saying that it would be a good opportunity. Da agreed, figuring that at worst Dylan would end up getting a free education and if he had a head for it, possibly become a merchant or the like.

His first job two years ago had been with Kern, the whiskey seller, which was where he met Almira. A beautiful girl with blond hair and green eyes, she had been helping at the counter serving customers. He was immediately smitten.

Initially he worked in the back room lugging casks of ale and bottles of wine up and down the stairs from the basement. When Kern learned Dylan could read, write, and do basic math, he instructed Almira to show him how to handle money and work at the counter as well. Pretty soon they were an item and taking time off together to go to the local dances.

After one such dance, they sat together holding hands at a local pub they frequented.

Dylan looked down at her face, cute with the sweat of the last few hours of dancing. “Almira, would you please be my girlfriend?” A sudden bout of nervousness hit when she didn’t immediately answer. Oh, you’ve gone and done it now! I thought she was ready. What am I going to do if she says no?

Then she looked up at him and smiled and all his worries melted away. “Of course, silly. I love you too and was wondering what was taking you so long to ask.” The next few hours passed in a blur as they made plans and talked about the future. But a few weeks later the reality of their current fiscal prospects hit home.

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“How can I court you properly and marry you when I am barely getting by on what little Kern pays us?” Dylan grumbled to Almira as they sat at their usual table. “I need to find a better job, but how?”

Almira was unusually quiet and then looking up at him said. “I might know a way. Do you remember Joby, the jeweler on Bratton Street?”

“Yeah, but he’s too high priced for me to buy you anything there.”

She smiled shyly at the thought, then taking a breath continued. “Well, he’s related to my uncle and knows lots of wealthy clients, some of whom he can get us temporary servant jobs with. It’s not a lot more than what we make now, but there is the option to pick up some extra money once every month or two, which would more than make up for it.”

Dylan frowned. “I can understand being a servant to nobles would pay more and give us more contacts. But what side jobs would pay enough to make a difference?” He stared at her, a sudden suspicion entering his mind and glanced around to make sure nobody nearby was listening. He lowered his voice. “You don’t mean something illegal, do you? I’m not a thief and would probably be caught immediately if I tried anything!”

She looked down. “But we need the money. And it’s because we aren’t thieves that it would work as no one would suspect us. Besides, Joby’s actually trying to, what did he say, Oh, recover assets that were not paid for. So, it’s more like we’d be doing something good by getting back items that people stole from him by not paying.”

“How? I don’t know the first thing about such and I’m sure my face would show my guilt if I was caught.”

“That’s the thing,” She continued in a brighter voice. “We would only recover at most one item per job and only if there is an opportunity where we could just pick it up when no one was looking, no special skills needed. He would tell us all the details and give us pouches and the like to slip the items into so they can’t be detected by magic. Then we just drop them off after our shift with him and don’t have to worry about anything else. Even if someone suspects and checks the staff, the item will be hidden in a way that they can’t detect it. In fact, he told me most people wouldn’t notice the recovered items were missing until our temporary positions there were over so we won’t have to worry about being questioned.”

We were so naïve and eager for money. But then after the first four jobs went off without a hitch it was easy to lie to ourselves and say we were performing a valuable service. He snorted drawing another look from Krill. We’ve almost got enough money in the bank to get married. This job should have enabled us to refuse Joby’s occasional side jobs for a year or more. After all, we’ve refused some jobs in the past when they looked too dangerous, and he never complained. In fact, he said it was better we didn’t take those if we weren’t sure. He doesn’t want to be found out any more than we do.

A sudden thought entered his mind. I hope those detectives can’t find the special compartment the ring is in! He glanced down at his left boot heel where the ring seemed to be burning a hole in his foot due to his nerves. Then he glanced back up to a surprising sight.

A tiny elven figure, no more than a foot and half tall, was suddenly in front of him and Krill. Where did he come from? And what’s that? He thought, staring at the small disk of bronze the tiny elf was holding. A second later his question was answered as invisible forces grabbed him, spun him around as a rope was wound about him and then deposited him on the ground all tied up. Staring up at Krill, who was watching with a dumbfounded look, he had just enough time to realize his situation when the doors to the dining room opened and the big half orc stepped out, followed by the rest.

Giving a nod to the miniature elf, he then looked down at Dylan and spoke.

“You are under arrest for the attempted theft of the Topaz Star ring!”