The halls went from natural light to just pure candlelight. Knights returned and 2 were stationed at each end of the stairs.
The basement wasn’t large, only a single short corridor leading to a massive wall of iron. The tint of silver showed the door to be at least 10 inches think. It was circular, which confused Malum.
He had heard of the circular door but seeing was believing and now that he looked at it he realised what a colossal task Florence had in front him.
He was supposed to pick that?
Malum only wished him luck.
The corridor wasn’t made of iron, neither was it made of marble. It was like the clay mix used upstairs but Malum guessed they had put more of the dense material inside of this one. Its seemed darker and gave off less sound as he stepped against it.
He intuition felt rather strange as he walked across the short corridor, it was like danger but even as he stood past it nothing dangerous happened. He noted it down and moved on. At the end of the corridor was something like a hatch on the roof, Malum notes the strange feeling his Intuition got, neither opportunity nor danger and left such information recorded for later.
They found another two Knights sat inside of the vault. The clean iron surface where they stood reflected several rows of metallic boxes, these were what the Nobles paid for.
Some kept jewels inside, others kept deeds to land. There were many reasons why a house might need a safe place to store wealth and this was where they did it.
Davidson was continuously talking about the vaults history, past users and the sort. Malum zoned him out and instead focused on what was around him.
The seemed to be two sections, split off by a pillar in the middle of the vault. The first section was for single boxes used by Nobles, and the second was the storage of the city itself. Gold lined the floors and Malum couldn’t help but stare in greed.
However something attracted him slightly more and it started with a question.
Why did a heavy iron box need a pillar?
Malum hadn’t a clue as to the answer but his Intuition gave him an idea.
The room for him was not just shiny from the tint of Iron. Instead the whole room was practically glowing in the opportunity and the brightest in the room was clearly coming from the pillar.
Jameson distracted David as they opened up his box and whilst they were doing that Malum wandered slightly as if he was in awe.
In reality, not only was he looking at the security around the vault but also at the pillar. From where he was standing the pillar looked perfectly normal. It was made of iron, and it seemed to have etched into several details of the vault. He read a line, “Roosevelt founded the bank” and stopped their as the rest seemed like a repetition of the books he had already read.
Malum looked away and focused back onto the security. For as much as he felt the glow from the pillar, and from the room in general, Malum felt danger radiating from each one.
He walked calmly back and rejoined Jameson who had finished looking at what he had inside his box. Davidson was calmy explaining,
“These boxes were created by the expert smith and creator Alvert Blake. Each had a secure set of numbers that opens its locking mechanism, those numbers are known only to the upper staff of the bank. Not only does it require a 4-digit code it also requires a key, again which each upper staff has access to.
The bank of Roosevelt is truly ahead of it’s time and you can be assured that everything you keep here is best looked after.”
Jameson was nodding along, and Malum peeked over his shoulder to see the box inside of David’s hands. He was showing of the lock at the front but both of their eyes were looking at the key.
If they could remember it’s shape they could potentially help out Florence with his lockpicking! They scanned it with their eyes and then focused in on the number part of the locks.
“So these numbers, are they different for each one. Their design truly confuses me.” Jameson said.
David smiled, “They are quite simple really, you twist each rotating side to match the right combination of letters and that allows a pin to open up the second stage of the lock. Here’s yours, I’ve scrambled it into a random set of 4, the real combination is 1250 try it yourself.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Jameson certainly didn’t deny and so once he got ahold of the lock he quickly turned each number so that the correct one lined up with the small arrow on the side.
Once 1250 was showing, he heard a click and like that the lock was open.
“Impressive,” Jameson said, “But is it really necessary in such a secure vault?”
Davidson nodded, “Your right, I do think they are a bit much but you can never be too secure.”
Jameson nodded and handed the lock back. He had already memorised what it looked like, he just hoped Florence would have an answer as to how he was going to break through it.
To be fair, Jameson looked closer at the lock as Davidson put it back on the box, he then then looked at his own sword.
He reckoned his heirloom would be good enough if Florence couldn’t find a good solution.
Malum noticed Jamesons eyes and agreed with him in his head. He had seen the strength of the man’s sword and he reckoned no normal metal would be able to hold against it.
They thanked Davidson before they escorted towards the door. They heard many other praises and more useless history. After one more roam through the corridors they arrived back at the entrance where they came in.
“It was a pleasure meeting you Baron Smith, the Bank of Roosevelt always accepts its patrons with open arms.”
He bowed and Jameson gave him a handshake as they left. Just as a gift, he slipped the golden chained man a gold coin as he indirectly helped them steal thousands of them.
“It has been a pleasure.” He said, and Malum and Jameson walked out the door.
They had now finished scoping out the bank. Now they needed to adopt to the new information and they until nightfall to get all finished.
They rushed back with haste to remember the key and padlock designs that they had tried to remember perfectly. Jameson sent a runner for Florence as they headed back so he would soon return to get a better idea of how to pick them.
They also noted down each of the Knights they saw as they ventured through. 6 were how many they saw with 2 at the entrance, 2 at the bottom of the basement stairs and 2 just inside of the vault.
Malum noted down the few sets of particularly dangerous areas in the vault, as well as any other interesting pieces of information he had manage to glean from his Intuition ability.
He wanted to learn more about the pillar and what could be inside of it. The Roosevelt family history was likely where he was going to get such information so he left Jameson to his drawing and went to the library.
He picked up several books before he went to a desk and sat down. The window provided enough light so with that he got to reading.
The Roosevelt family had a fairly boring history. No wars were needed for them to rise and perhaps the only interesting war they were in was when they were conquered by the Kingdom.
They were good at making weapons and selling weapons but they weren’t good at using them. That made Roosevelt city so wealthy but no special events had occurred which gave the idea of a treasure being collected.
Perhaps if a strong Beast had laid warfare on the city and it’s eggs were inside the pillar, but nothing even close had occurred. A wandered cultivator could have provided them a manual but Malum reckoned his own one he had currently would be better, perhaps he was mistaken.
Or it could simply be a large chunk of spiritual ore, it was the most boring answer there was but Malum wanted a better sword anyway so for him it was still a massive gain.
It wasn’t like they were going to parade around the fact they had a priceless treasure so Malum closed his books and returned back to the war room.
Outside the sun was had long begun to fall now only an hour or two remained until the party begun.
Florence was inside the room talking to Jameson, Malum came in listening to their conversation.
“It’s unlikely I’ll be able to find a weakness in such an innovative design, I’ve failed you.”
“Have you ordered those key’s I gave you?” Jameson asked, it seemed pressure was getting to them both.
“Of course, under a fake name we will get them in an hour.”
“Good job, it seems my blade will do the picking for us.” He looked slightly and saw Malum come in from the corner of his eye, “Malum good of our to join us. Everything is ready apart from the final stages of planning. So, as we are all here I reckon we do a complete rundown of ahead of us.”
Malum nodded at the idea a so did Florence, so as the sun slowly fell Jameson begun to explain the plan.
Under the cover of the night sky Malum and Florence roamed the streets near to the bank.
Malum felt inside his dirty trousers, in his pocket lay the feeling wool and tinder.
He looked towards the end of the street with anxiety in his eyes. Then at the cart standing nearby to the bank’s entrance.
His eyes wandered back down to the pavement, then he continued to roam.
Jameson was dressed to impress, with the one for the best suits money could buy along with a perfectly crafted top-hat he walked into the party with a smile on his face.
Usually at these events, his smile would never be real but tonight, it couldn’t get more real.
Revenge was today, but before that he had some people to greet.
Baron Axeton and Count Iron-Borne were both people who greatly effected the way his house fell. He greeted them with smiles and they did the same.
They had made his house bleed, now he was going to make the whole city bleed.
His eyes had never been so clear, his mind only focused on a single task.
He greeted, and greeted, and greeted untill nobody in the party had yet to see his face. Even the four Knights at the doorway had learned of his name. He tracked such information and with his task complete he spilled a drink of his suit and went to the back to get himself cleared up.
From the bathroom he spent little time clearing himself up before he walked back out and went out the front door. If anybody had asked, he was going to get himself a new outfit and it wasn’t a lie.
Down the street and taking a left he walked into a darker path where he got out a sack of clothes. He got undressed and changed into his new outfit, but instead of another fancy suit it was the clothes of the common worker.
With no intentions of returning to the party he walked towards the bank and once he was down a nearby street he met up with Malum and Florence and that set the next part of the plan in motion.