The door opened silently. It oughta, Sal had a bottle of oil on a little table right next to it. Everything about this room was designed to fulfill a purpose and any noise that peaked above the background noise drifting through the peepholes would undermine that purpose.
The figure who stepped through looked just like any of a thousand day laborers that you could see in any corner of the city. That was how you could tell he was a good rogue, or at least had some potential. There were plenty of men under Sal’s command who stumbled on that balance. Whether they hesitated or over committed the result was the same, a beggar who didn’t quite fit. Just a little too clean, bereft of honest mud, or simply too filthy, for even beggars endeavored to clean up as best as they were able.
Krovi was aiming at a different balance than him, but he still walked that balance with a skill Sal wouldn’t be disappointed to see in his own ranks.
“Back already?”
Krovi scowled back at him. “I lost him.”
That much had been obvious, but Sal couldn’t resist needling the other man a hair. “He use any interesting skills to do it?”
Krovi pursed his lips, somehow looking even less happy than before. “No. He just… wasn’t there.”
“Oh?” Now that was interesting. “Why would you say that was?”
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Krovi took a deep breath. He might not be happy about his stint with Sal’s branch of the organization but he’d worked with the man long enough to know a test when he heard it.
“He’d need some sort of powerful stealth or speed skill. As soon as he broke eye contact with the lookouts he was just… gone.”
“My glasses.”
Krovi handed over the artifact without complaint. You didn’t quibble with one of the Boss’s lieutenants about something of this value, whatever your disagreements.
Krovi had even stored the deceptively delicate pair of opera glasses in a protective leather case. Sal appreciated that kind of forethought, he’d be sure to mention it to the Boss in his report on the boy.
Sal held up the opera glasses and looked through them, eyes entering a state of strange half focus. “Hmm.”
Sal nodded to himself as he lowered the glasses. “If its a Skill its a good one. More likely he just knew we’d tail him.”
“Knew? Isn’t it more likely he just popped invisibility after turning the corner?”
“And why the hell would he if he didn’t know he was being followed? Most people don’t have the mana or the Skills to pop invisibility whenever they feel like it.”
Krovi quirked his mouth as he tried to think of a retort but thought better of it. “What did the glasses see?”
“Nothing. Like I said, he didn’t use any Skills. Even sitting next to him I couldn’t pick up anything but passives.” Sal unfolded the scrap of parchment on his desk and added a handful of extra lines to the indecipherable scrawl already on it.
Sal blew on the ink to dry it before he passed it to Krovi. The boy glanced at note before tucking it into his sleeve. “Note for the Boss?”
“Yup. New rogue in town, moderate level, looking into multi-classing for alleged ‘soul problem’. Low threat.”
Krovi took the note and memorized the words. “Boss isn’t going to like this.”
Sal snorted. “The Boss doesn’t like anything new, but I think this is something we can work with. I gave him some free help, so once he needs more he’ll come to me and we can get more out of him. Rogues of that level don’t grow on trees, I’m sure the Boss can think of something worthy of his skills. ‘Sides, if he really becomes a problem we can pull the ‘ol sewer trick.”
“That’ll work?”
“On some Iabian transplant? Like a charm.”