Jasper's lips turned in a soft smile as he watched Cerana's slow, rhythmic breathing as she slept, bundled underneath the covers. It was five o'clock in the morning, so he hadn't expected her to be awake, but he knew Artie would be here soon, as he was every morning, and Jasper wanted to be gone before he got here. He set the plate he'd brought from the dining hall on her nightstand and began to back away as quietly as possible.

Just before he was going to turn, Cerana's eyes flickered open, locking onto him first, and then the cinnamon roll by her bed. She smiled and struggled to pull herself to a sitting position. Jasper straightened now that he was caught and stepped closer.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to disturb you," he whispered, so as not to bother the other patients in the infirmary.

"You didn't," she whispered back. "I smelled it."

"Yeah, it's fresh and warm. I hope you enjoy it." He waved and made to walk away, but she gestured for him to come back. Looking at the clock on the wall, he reckoned he had ten or fifteen minutes until Artie arrived. He pulled a chair up close to her bed and sat, leaning in close so they could talk low.

"Have you been okay?" Cerana asked.

"Of course. Why?" Jasper knew why. He'd been busy planning and training with Rogue John for the past week and hadn't visited her but for a couple of times.

"I've hardly seen you."

"Yeah, sorry. I've been studying a lot recently." He knew it was a terrible lie as soon as he said it.

Cerana scowled at him. "Jasper Hemlock, if you're going to lie to me, at least have the decency to make it believable, will you?"

"Big test coming up soon," Jasper said, sporting a huge grin to go with the lie.

"If there was a big test, Artie would have mentioned it - you know, from having to study for you and him both?"

"Maybe I've decided to treat my studies more responsibly."

"Artie said he's hardly seen you, either. It's not healthy, Jasper. I know you're upset about my situation and that there's nothing to be done for it, but you can't just shut everyone out. Artie's going to need you when I'm gone."

Jasper's grin vanished. "Don't talk like that, Cerana."

"I'll either be dead or expelled from the college. Either way, I'll be gone. Artie will need you more than ever, and you may not think you need anyone, but you do. Don't shut him out."

"It's not intentional." When had he become such a liar?

"He told me that you called him a coward, but he's not, Jasper. At least he has the courage to come visit me while I'm awake. Now, where have you been?" Cerana glared at him like a mother scolding a young child for staying out after dark.

Jasper stared at her, trying to think of a suitable lie, but none came to him. For that, he was glad. He cleared his throat, stood, and moved his chair back into place. "I can't tell you, Cerana. It's for your own good."

"Are you doing something dangerous? Something illegal?"

"I can't tell you." He pulled his cloak tight around him.

Cerana shut her eyes as tears began to form, and hung her head. Jasper took a few steps, but stopped when Cerana said, "Come back and visit me soon, Jasper."

"I intend to." With that, he left.

----------------------------------------

Jasper stepped outside the giant doors of the wizarding college to find a steady downpour of rain was falling. Fat grey clouds for as far as the eye could see, and he knew it would be one of those days that saw no end to the rain. He pulled up the hood of his cloak and stepped into the street, and that was when he heard his name be called.

Following behind him was Artie, also donning his cloak as a defense against the rain. Unlike usual, he did not have a smile on his face.

"Artie, what are you doing?" Jasper asked. "Shouldn't you be getting to class soon?"

"How the hell would you know? You haven't been here all week. I figured you must've forgotten our schedule."

Jasper was in no mood to argue. "You should be going to see Cerana, then." Dejection seeped from his words.

"That's a real laugh - lecturing me! You should go see her."

"I just came from there."

"So then it's just me you're avoiding? What'd I do to you?"

"You didn't do anything, Artie." The rain came down heavier and Jasper had to raise his voice. "I can't tell you what's happening. It's for your own good."

"Oh, sod off! You're pushing us away! We need you, Jasper! I may be losing both of my friends, and..." Artie began to cry. Even in the rain, Jasper could see it.

"You're not losing me, Art, I just-"

"Cerana loves you!"

"What?" Jasper squinted and leaned in, thinking he misheard.

"She told me a couple days ago," Artie said, shoulders slumped. He wiped his eyes and sniffled, and then jabbed a finger in Jasper's chest. "She loves you and you're abandoning her! She needs you! This could be her last days and all she wants is to spend them with you!"

Jasper swallowed hard. For a long while, he couldn't move and he couldn't rein in his thoughts. He kept hearing Artie's words echo in his mind.

Cerana loves you!

"Go back inside, Artie," Jasper said, turning his back on his friend.

"When did you become such a selfish bastard?" Artie screamed.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Go visit Cerana. She'll be expecting you."

"Why don't you go visit her? Did you not hear what I said?"

"I heard."

Artie shook his head in disbelief before turning and walking inside. Jasper heard the boom of the great doors slamming shut.

----------------------------------------

When Jasper arrived at Slade's tavern, Vesper was wiping down the bar. "You're late, aren't you?" she asked.

The girl hadn't warmed up to him much over the past week, but she hadn't pulled anymore knives on him, and she seemed to like Slade so he didn't think much of it. "Are they back there?" he asked, taking off his sopping wet cloak and hanging it on a peg near the fireplace.

"Waiting on you."

"Thanks," he said, pushing open the door to the little backroom they had turned into their staging area.

Slade and Rogue John sat sharing a drink at a table in the middle of the room. Pasted on the walls all around them were maps of the city, maps of the sewers running beneath it, and maps and diagrams of the church - both outside and inside, at least inside as far as anyone had ever gotten. John's contacts had all exhibited a healthy skepticism whenever he had asked them what they knew about the Church of Rhore. Some had helped as best they could, and others refused to help at all. Only the clergy had seen certain parts, and so they would be going in blind.

"How's it looking?" Jasper asked as he pulled up a chair to leaf through some scrolls and books on the table.

"Same as yesterday," John said. "No new information. No secret passages coming to light, no portals you can put to operation."

"You two'll be going in blind," Slade said.

"You've been saying that all week," Jasper said.

"Doesn't make it any less true. You need to really think about this."

"Now you sound like Artie. We could spend the rest of our lives thinking about it. Now is the time for action."

"Do you think John and I survived all the things we did by action alone? No, we had to think, strategize our every move."

"Well..." Rogue John shrugged. "Sometimes you just react. Don't try to fool the boy otherwise."

"I get what you're saying, Slade," Jasper interjected before the man could retort, "but we've done our due diligence. We've studied this place as best we can, so until someone comes up with a better idea, this is what we're running with. I'm not scared."

Slade studied him for a minute while John poured himself another drink. The former mercenary said, "Udai was right about you. You have a courageous heart."

Jasper nodded curtly and averted his eyes, thinking of Artie and Cerana and his interactions with them this morning. "All right, John, tell me again how many are in the church?"

"Roughly forty, best as we can tell, though when we hit 'em there should be a little less than half that number inside the building. The rest of them will be out preaching in the streets or doing charity work."

"Praise Rhore," Jasper quipped, looking at a layout of the outer grounds that was pinned to the wall.

"I think our best bet is still to grapple up to the tops of the tower in the cathedral and work our way down from there. We can probably pry a window open, or climb down through the bell tower."

"Scaling the church in broad daylight is gonna be risky at best," Slade said.

"It will, but to mitigate that we're going to climb up the west side. Early morning sun will bathe that in shadow."

"We're going to have to wait another day," Jasper said.

"Why?"

"Have you looked outside? It's pouring."

"Damn. It'll be nigh impossible to climb, even if we had the best gear."

"Yeah, and fewer of the monks and the clergy will be out. Gonna be difficult enough working our way from the very top down without running into people when it's half-occupied." Jasper chewed the inside of his lip while he thought. He gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm ready for this to be over with."

"Don't be too eager. This might be our last day of freedom." Rogue John gave a dry chuckle.

The three men stood in silence while they studied the drawings on the walls. Occasionally, the sound of sipping mingled with their thoughts as John nursed his drink. In Jasper's mind, he was doing his best to convince himself one day wasn't going to matter. Only maybe it would? Maybe Cerana couldn't afford to lose a day? No, he couldn't think like that. Would he still be courageous tomorrow? Or would the extra day give him ample time to admit that this was a suicide mission, and get cold feet?

The sound of muffled arguing caught Slade and John's attention before his. Vesper was bickering with someone. The two men were already walking toward the door when a voice said, "I know he's back there."

The door was pushed open and there stood Artie, dripping wet, with a stern look on his face. He ignored Slade and John, glaring at Jasper. Jasper furrowed his brow and took a step toward him. "Artie, what are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing," Artie replied.

Vesper appeared behind him and cracked him over the head with a wooden tankard. Artie fell to his knees before slamming face-first into the floor. He rubbed his head and rolled up into a sitting position. He looked at Vesper with wide eyes and said, "Slade, what kind of people are you hiring these days?"

Jasper and Slade hooked Artie under the arms and hoisted him to his feet. His short black hair was tousled and a lump was already forming underneath. "Sorry about that, Artie, her customer service skills aren't so polished, yet," Slade said. "Vesper, he's fine. Go back to tending the bar."

"Sorry, boss," Vesper replied, though she didn't sound too remorseful. John shut the door behind her.

"You all right, Artie?" Jasper asked.

"I've been hit harder," he grumbled as he looked around the room. "What's all this?" As Jasper stammered to find the right words, Artie looked closer at the diagrams, maps, and layouts of the church. "What is all this?" he asked again, looking Jasper in the eye.

"You should leave, Artie. You don't want any part of this."

"You don't get to tell me what I want, Jasper." He studied some more and then a thought struck him. "Oh... Look, I know you're fed up with the church and how they haven't been able to help Cerana, but going in and vandalizing the place isn't going to help anyone. It'll just pull their attention away and then they'll be even less effective!"

"I'm not going to vandalize the church!" Jasper felt oddly insulted until he remembered what he was really planning.

"Then what?"

"Enough hiding, Jasper," Slade said. "He's your friend. He's gone along with everything so far. I'd say he has a right to know."

Jasper considered this for a moment, looking from Slade, to Artie, and then to Rogue John, who shrugged. Artie had never declined to help him, no matter where Jasper dragged him or what he had them do. Whether he had done it for him or Cerana, it didn't matter - he had always been there.

"Artie, I'm going to rob the church."

Artie's jaw dropped. "Jasper, that's worse than vandalism!"

"I'm aware of that. Now you're free to leave, just do me a favor and don't tell anyone - especially Cerana."

"I'm not telling anyone! You've practically made me an accomplice by telling me!"

"You wanted to know!"

"Why are you doing this?"

"For Cerana. It's her last chance. There's either something in there that can heal her, or we'll walk out with so much money it'll be impossible not to find something or someone who can."

"Are you insane?"

"A little, probably. But Slade and Rogue John are helping me work out the details."

"Rogue John?" Artie's face pinched and he strained as if he hadn't heard Jasper correctly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, I'm not telling you anything else. If this goes sideways, I don't want you knowing any more details."

"How are you even going to get in? These drawings don't even show most of the building."

"I'm not telling you, Artie. Go back to the college."

Rogue John interrupted: "We're gonna scale the building and work our way in from the top down." Jasper shot a glare at the halfling, who shrugged. "All this bickerin's makin' me thirsty, and my pitcher's empty."

"It's time for you to go, Artie. Please," Jasper said.

Artie ignored him. "Have you looked into the well at the almshouse next to the church?"

"What?" John asked, perking up.

"The church built the almshouse a century ago for the homeless. The well there isn't used any more, and there are rumors that it never was. Some texts say it was actually a secret passage so monks could escape out of the church during wartime."

"And there hasn't been a war in ages, so it might've been forgotten," Slade said.

"At least by most," Artie said.

"How do you know all this?" Rogue John asked.

Artie beamed with pride and looked at Jasper. "I was cross-referencing some resources I found for our "History of Magic" test."

Jasper couldn't help but chuckle. "Who would've thought?"

"See - you should try studying every once in a while."

"Thank you, Artie. Truly. And again, please don't tell Cerana about what I'm doing."

"Oh, I won't. Because I'm going with you."