Excitement was my companion as I raced to our scheduled meeting point.

That wasn’t to say I ran, though. This was to be a more secretive mission. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I could even make it all the way there without collapsing if I ran, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say my mind raced instead.

Regardless of my excitement however, the allures of the city, while dimmed in the settling mists of the night, still worked their magicks over me as I travelled. I had been right in my assessment on the boat ride on the first day, the thousands of glyphs engraved in the buildings were magnificent to behold in the night, glowing as if a billion blue stars were encrusted instead. I’d seen it before from my window of course, but that view was but trifles in the majesty of being in their midst. I was sure they’d get even more brilliant in the hours to follow, once the mists and inky carpets of night had fully arrived.

But this sight was not my goal, and the plaza was not a far vista from the manor, so no sooner than my feet began to tire of the cobbles than I’d spotted a duo of cloaked individuals shadily talking just out of the lantern light of the plaza’s hanging red-fire lamps.

Their cloaks were well tailored and warm, and their sword scabbards polished leather. They stood against the backdrop of mist and stone like a trio of shaded gemstones too brilliant to be covered with a simple drape. I knew more than to disparage their resolve or prowess after the incident in the cave, but it was painfully obvious to me now that they were rich, and they carried themselves with an already familiar noble haughtiness.

I immediately felt a part of my excitement die at the observation.

I wasn’t just joining a bunch of fancy rich people on some escapade, had I? They were strong, yes, but they almost had the look of being on a safari about them. Hopefully that feeling would fade as we got on with it.

Noting their distraction as they talked amongst themselves, an opportunity popped into my mind. I darted into a nearby alley, trying to limit all the noise I made.

What are you…

I quieted him with a finger.

Fredrick might’ve gotten the first spook, so wasn’t it pretty overdue to pay him back for it?

I crept down the dark alley, stepping past wicker bins filled with waste and well-secured goods. At the end, I peeked around the corner, only to find that only Andril and Breale continued talking as they gazed off towards the stairs. Looking around, I found that Fredrick was nowhere to be found.

Goddamn it. Had he heard me? Fredrick didn’t seem like the kind of person to do it on purpose, but if he was I had no doubt that he was now lurking behind the corner of the building waiting for me.

I frowned. Fredrick wouldn’t do that, would he? He seemed to me like the serious type. Not really the type to lurk around corners for a laugh.

Seriously, what are you doing?

I contemplated for over half a minute before I decided to just scare the other two instead. It was unfortunate that Fredrick had left for whatever reason, but there was no point in wasting something like this. I approached them from behind, passing the confines of the alley into the actual street, glancing quickly towards the left.

“Sorry I’m…”

“Late? You’re a little early actually.”

I started as Fredrick spoke up from behind the corner of the right wall, and I jumped away from the fiend.

I glared at the little bastard as he leaned on that corner, his expression never changing from the calculating one he’d worn thus far. He didn’t smirk or chuckle though, which put doubts in my mind that he actually intended to do that at all. Perhaps he just naturally skulked like this, like a goddamn gremlin?

No matter. This was on now.

“Oh you’re here, Saphry?” Andril nodded curtly while Breale smiled and waved. “Then we better get started.”

We exchanged muted greetings and some light strategy for the coming break in, but there wasn’t much more to say. The three would get in and look around, hopefully not running into anybody, while I would stand by the door and wait. It wasn’t the flashiest job, and I almost resented getting shafted like I did only to remind myself that wasn’t the point of it all.

For me, the point was gaining Andril’s friendship, and getting some magic lessons from him. For that end all I had to do was stay around and look pretty until something happened that gave me an impetus for learning. And I was very good at finding reasons to use magic.

We were quick to move out after that, Andril leading us forward into the lower layers of the city silently. The layers themselves weren’t too horribly far from each other thankfully, with each only only separated by a couple minutes of stairs or canal locks, depending on your method. Still, even that small number of stairs tired me out as we moved down to the third layer below the manor, and I had to struggle to control my breathing in my worry that they might just throw me back upon hearing it.

The lower levels of the city were not as fantastic as the top, as one might imagine, but I found that I didn’t really mind. Yes, the walls might only hold a couple glowing glyphs instead of the thousands up above, but the walls themselves were still solidly built. Yes, the canals might look a little green and the boats in disrepair, but they still reflected the same moons as those above, that celestial light being the skies gift to all in the world. Even as we went further to the west, into the more commercial districts, the scent of mountain air didn’t dilute, nor did the mists subside for smoke or pollutants. In a pre-industrial world such as this, only the smell of wood burning chimneys, forges, and cooking fires could serve to foul the air, and for some reason this city had the flavour of none of them hanging about.

Even in the night and dim blue light of the scattered glyphs and lanterns, Verol was an ideal I hadn’t known existed.

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All in all, the trip to the rows of warehouses inhabiting the third layer (from the top) took only about half an hour, which I thought was a pretty good time for what served as a major city in the kingdom. In the late hour of the sixteenth bell, which had rung while we walked, workers and foremen had long ago quit the streets to make way for vagabonds and cutthroats.

Or more realistically the homeless, late night wanderers, and rich kids playing detective.

Andril took little time at all to locate our quarry, Fanborne Warehouse Four, and soon enough we had gathered next to a workman’s door on the side alley.

It was a simple building, nondescript and straight in construction. Despite its purpose, the walls were stout wood and stone brick in the same style as the city, and the doors were banded in iron. Even the side door held an ornate feel about it, as if the Veroline had decided as a whole to build everything as if for royalty.

“Fredrick, you and Breale will be first, but don’t draw your swords if you can help it.” Andril dictated to the other two besides the door. I stood off to the side in case, delaying my post in case he had any more to say to me. “If we do fight, try to incapacitate and capture. I don’t want any casualties if we can help it.”

“Do I look like a killer?” Breale grinned. I could almost see her bouncing with excitement, like a kid in a candy store.

“Understood.” Fredrick on the other hand, was as calm as fox, and I had to wonder if he’d done this before as well.

“Good, then let's get this done. Alert us if anyone comes Saphry.” Andril turned to the door and turned he handle, standing to the side to let the others through.

I turned and started down the alley towards the street again, already spying a cool spot to wall lean until they were done, which with any speed wouldn’t be more than a few minutes.

“Err, can either of you two pick a lock?”

I stopped mid stride, glancing back incredulously. There was no way I just heard that, right? They’d been more prepared than that, right?

“I have picks.” Breale caused me to sigh in relief, until she continued. “Though I’ve never used them.”

This was their plan? I shook my head silently at the childishness of it all. Surely they hadn’t thought to just walk on in, had they? Even I’d thought of this when I did my first break-in! If I let a complete novice work on the lock, we could be here for half an hour or more, if we ever got in at all. That wouldn’t do at all.

I performed a heel turn and slid up to the door, swiftly grabbing the two lengths of metal out of Breale’s hands and motioning her out of the way. She yielded, though she bristled at the interruption.

I only barely glanced at the tools before smiling when they turned out to be the very same type as I used back on Earth, and when I inserted them into the door even the tumblers were familiar, though the shapes were slightly different. It seemed some things were effective no matter what world you were on.

It took less than a minute to defeat the lock, which didn’t surprise me. Locks with a lot of tumblers took a lot of engineering and delicacy to create, and Verol didn’t strike me as having the necessary material science for the metals and methods that required. So this lock had about the same strength to me as a Master Lock.

“...and a click on two, we’re in.”

I handed the tools back to Breale, who took them like a viking being given Mjolnir. The other two looked almost as shocked.

“That was almost frightening.” Fredrick said after a second.

“Where did you learn that?” Andril asked.

“Doesn’t matter.” I motioned towards the door, suppressing a smirk. “You have a warehouse to raid.”

It wasn’t too often that I got to flex after all. Especially without magic.

I thought you levelled mage. Gideon thought as I returned to the street. Not rogue.

“Hero’s a bit of a jack of all trades.” I commented as I fixed my gaze upon the street beyond. “You have to know a little bit of everything when you’re working by yourself. Batman’s curse, if you will.”

Nobody actually like Batman compares themselves to Batman, you know. Gideon commented.

“I’ve always liked Spiderman a little more anyway.” I leaned my head against the bricks behind me, pulling my coat tighter.

You haven’t suffered nearly enough for that one.

I frowned. “Is there one who doesn’t suffer? I’d like to be that one.”

Nope. Gideon chuckled. Suffering makes for a good narrative after all.

“Well hopefully God is less sadistic than Hollywood writers.”

I walked up to the street corner and settled against the wall to watch the street. Behind me, I could hear the others very faintly talking inside.

It did kinda suck to be the one left out, but I understood the need for a lookout. Many a time I’d wished for one myself, not least of all on my very last raid. Nobody would probably come anyway, so I just needed to… wait, was that door open?

I affixed my gaze upon the front door of the warehouse, noticing for the first time that the door was ever so slightly ajar, a blank darkness within. I stared at it for a few moments more, a sudden urge rising inside me.

“You know…” I murmured, stirring the drake above. “Standing out in the street’s a little suspicious…”

Gideon looked between me and the door.

What.

“I could just listen from the inside anyway…”

Ryder please.

After giving a quick glance up and down the road, I casually shuffled over to the door, finding it easy to push open further.

Inside, I could see a small mudroom illuminated by the dual moons. A set of doors were cut into the wall, the fancier of the two flanked by a desk. From my experiences, I figured that was the way to the office, if the warehouse had one.

The place where the records would be held.

I fiddled with the magic lantern I’d brought with me, the radiant light of the glyphstone casting the entry hall into a pale blue. Carefully I shut the door behind me, leaving me and Gideon alone.

I strolled towards the office door pointedly, keeping an ear open for anything fishy.

Who was going to come back to a warehouse in the middle of the night anyway? It wasn’t like we’d been too obvious about our entry, so it stood to reason that we could do without a lookout for a few minutes.

Especially if I managed to find something that linked this warehouse to the Orthungs…

What if someone comes? Gideon asked, an edge to his thoughts. You said you’d stay safe!

I waved him off as I pressed an ear to the door, hearing nothing inside.

“I’d be in more danger out there anyway.” I scoffed. “Girl standing abandoned at the corner of a dark empty alley? That’s asking for something bad to happen.”

Still…

“Shush.” I put a finger in front of my lips as I opened the door. “It’s detective time.”

I strode into the room, nodding as my lamp illuminated stacks of papers, drawers, and desks haphazardly spread across the planked hall. It wasn’t very large, only around ten metres in height and length, but that space was utilised to its fullest with every scrap of elbow room sacrificed to the dark gods of organised storage.

“Dear god…”

I’d always been one of those people who did their best organisation by not doing any, and I was perfectly fine with leaving everything in one big pile. It was one of the reasons I found clue finding easy to do, an artefact of hours of practice of searching for exam papers and applications I had ‘just set down’. It helped that villains almost always had the same kind of mindset.

So when faced with such an efficient filing system, I didn’t recognize for a moment what I was actually looking at, mistaking it for some kind of paper operated computer or maybe a dark ritual site used for summoning bureaucrats.

It’s beautiful. Gideon said in awe.

His little head flicked back and forth across the cabinets, boxes, drawers, and shelves, each one marked with its own little label in thin black script. To a clean freak like Gideon it probably looked like heaven.

“Maybe this’ll be a little easier than I thought.” I walked by a cabinet marked with ‘Outgoing Receipts’ on its label. “Could you get Andril real quick? I’m not too sure what exactly we’re looking for, myself.”

Gideon agreed and flew out of the room into the main warehouse, and I heard a small shout of alarm rise up. They probably thought he was warning them of an intruder after all.

I turned my attention back to the papers and cracked my knuckles, happy to finally be doing something familiar.