Blood and I arrived at the address from the flyer in no time at all. I had finally given up on learning the raven step[39] from Blood (Partially because of the way my tutor fell over with laughter every time I face planted into the pavement) so we’d had to avoid the Grand Canal but we’d made up time using a loading crane that had been left unattended.
We landed on the rooftops of the gem chalice district not far from the mansion and dashed across the shadowed rooftops until we could see the building in the distance. This wasn't very hard as the building in question was extremely impressive[40], a late Prasian golden age villa made from marble which shone brightly even without a sister in the sky. It was girded with tall walls, lush gardens, ornamental ponds and... a queue.
It was the strangest sight I had ever seen in my life (up until that point at least since then I’ve seen a whole lot more) tens maybe hundreds of rich powerful nobles each as proud as a cat and as vicious as a tiger queuing with good order along a deserted street. Most looked like they were half trying to hide in the shadows of doorways or overhangs next to the Lanin front door but at the same time they still wanted people to see their outfits. So they strode from shadow to shadow over exaggerating every motion and loudly hushing one another when their outfits rustled or rattled.
I found myself laughing a silent yet shoulder shaking laugh at the sheer pageantry of it all as strutting figures tried to skulk, briefly I entertained the thought that we might have stumbled into some theatre company’s comedic farce being performed on the street by a group of overdressed and under skilled actors.
It was as I stood doubled over laughing that I remembered the invitation I had tucked into my pocket, between silent gasps and dealing with the lung ache I managed to ask Blood (rather breathlessly) if we should try to sneak in.
“You see their clothes?” She asked, pointing. “They’d spot us a mile off in our thieving outfits. We’re far too understated to be nobles.” She was right of course but I was so used to being a noble that it didn't occur to me that they wouldn't think of me as one. Yes I know I'm wearing a mask and sitting on a rooftop at night with a mace and my crazy all in red dressed friend. Don’t judge me! It's an involuntary thing you know?
Anyway whilst I was worrying about how to get in without blowing our cover I heard Blood mutter “oh slet this.” next to me followed by a deep base thump as she leapt off the rooftop, clearing the twenty metre wide road easily even from a standing start, and landed on one of the villa's wide balconies. She rolled as she landed and came up swinging, punching the flimsy door clean off its hinges accompanied by the creaking, cracking cacophony of breaking wood.
As far as Blood was concerned there were two main schools of thought on making noise during heists, there was Blood who thought it was totally fine and there was everyone else who disagreed.
I looked down hurriedly but the sound hadn't carried far even in the still air thanks mainly to the susurration from below. The nobles continued to preen, pose and gossip in the shadows below and, even as I watched, another burst of murmuring erupted thanks to the actions of a smaller than average noble woman half hidden in the folds of a huge black coat and hood who actually bowled over an older nobleman as she pushed her way through the queue towards the door[41].
Sighing at the rudeness of my fellow nobles I stepped back away from the edge. As Blood waved at me I took a deep steadying breath, made sure my footing was good then, cursing internally, I charged forwards towards the ten story drop. Hurtling across the rooftop with all my might I pushed my legs to the limit and feeling them burn as I ran faster, faster, faster then, as my foot hit the lip of the building, I jumped and levelled my mace at a gargoyle on the villa roof.
I won’t bore you with the details but within seconds I was standing next to Blood[42] and looking into one of the huge sea-glass windows next to the ruined doorway. The view it offered was slightly warped but I could still see the bright lanterns dotting the ceiling and the swirling masked figures dancing on the coloured tiles beneath them.
Blood and I darted through the shattered door side by side and found ourselves in a narrow gallery far above the dance floor. We both quickly realised how exposed we were and darted forwards as one into the lee of the marble balustrade that ran around the edge of the gallery. Pressing ourselves flat against its reassuring bulk we both peered over the carved top and looked down at the seething mass of nobles far below.
The hall was filled with both people and sound but whilst loud it was all oddly indistinct, it was the sound of thousands of different people all trying to make themselves heard over one another but instead becoming a single wordless susurration that seemed to hang in the lilac scented air.
Next to me Blood was scanning the moving ocean of people, her head twitching left and right like a cat on a fence watching birds swoop by. Then she went perfectly still and pointed.
“There he is!” She whispered the excitement actually breaking her voice, sometimes it was easy to forget how young she was.
I followed her gaze and saw at the far end of the ballroom a hugely tall but stick thin noble wearing an outfit of ridiculous golden rings draped with bolts of gold cloth and a hugely oversized jade mask. Even as we watched the noble, bowing and waving to his admirers, left the room via a half hidden staircase in the back left hand corner of the ballroom. He was followed closely by a short black clad figure that had nearly been lost in the chaos of the ball room, the girl from the street I was sure. I stared at her hard wondering just who she was and what she was doing here... then without warning Blood tackled me and bore me to the ground.
I lay there gasping for a moment as the shock of the sudden impact ebbed away. After my breath returned I glared at Blood (a useless gesture through a mask I know) and went to sit up but the younger girl had laid an arm across my chest. She wasn’t actually pushing down on me but I still found I couldn't move an inch, like someone had dropped a steel beam on me.
“Good instincts that one.” Murmured Blood approvingly, confused I squirmed on my back for a second and looked down between the wide stone struts of the bannister to see the tiny black dressed figure was half turned towards us. Her head was hidden by her hood but nevertheless she seemed to be looking right up at us. For a moment my heart pounded in my ears and my hand edged towards my mace... then she turned back to the stairs and followed the oversized jade mask wearing man up.
“Very good,” continued Blood letting me up at last. “We need to be a little bit careful.”
“Wha...” I spluttered, scrabbling upright at last then quickly realising what a monumentally stupid thing to do that was and having to throw myself back down again. “What do you mean and how did she know we were up here?”
Blood sighed indulgently at my inexperience as we started to slowly creep around the edge of the room. “You looked at her.”
“Of course I...”
“Don't look directly at people you’re tailing, always look to their sides. People can tell when they’re being looked at, they can feel it on their skin.”
“I can't!” I warbled as we stopped moving.
Blood shook her head and muttered something that I swear sounded like “monkeys!” Then she turned and looked speculatively at a door next to us (which was directly above the exit from the room jade mask and black cloak had taken). One quick shoulder charge later and we were both finally out of the light and smoke and noise of the ballroom.
“I’ll teach you” she said running down the new corridor “It's really fun, I get to spend hours staring at you from various angles whilst you get stared at from various angles.”
“How do you know all this stuff?” I gasped drawing my mace again as we sprinted towards the distant light of a stairwell.
“Butler’s don't just serve tea." Answered Blood entirely to my bewilderment then she drew her rapiers with a silvery flourish as she hit the staircase. Blood was being over dramatic as it turned out because it took us five more minutes and a lot of scouting to find the actual staircase that jade mask and black cloak had used and we only found it in the end because I caught sight of the ballroom at the bottom.
Of course by this point jade mask and black cloak weren’t anywhere to be seen neither on the stairs nor on the landing at the top but there was only one door they could have gone through.
I walked over to it as slowly and stealthily as I could and reached for the handle but before my fingers even touched it Blood caught my hand. I turned to look at her as she cocked her head to one side.
“What’s the matter?” I hissed looking around.
“I just heard someone fall over in there,” she whispered back, “someone else is still moving, I can hear boots on carpet and...” She stopped and cocked her head. “I think they can hear me?”
“What?”
“Well they’ve stopped moving!” She huffed and then with her normal impetuousness she kicked the door open.
It was a proper nobles study I could see that right away, Father had one rather like it on the top floor of our mansion but his was far more tastefully decorated, this place looked like an abattoir had crashed into a pawnshop and then been filled with the prizes of a beer hall raffle.
In the centre of the room was a small but neat desk covered in tacky ornaments and squared papers. The walls were lined with... you guessed it... book shelves covered in leather bound tomes, ninety percent of which would doubtless turn out to be family stew recipes, religious pamphlets, bundles of invoices and copies of Who’s Whom[43] from twenty eons ago.
Of course I only really saw all this later (when the fighting had stopped incidentally), what I noticed at the time was the body. The man in gold from before (minus his mask which revealed that he had dirty blond hair, thin slash like lips and an overly large chin that made him look like an amateurish water painting) was lying sprawled across the floor just inside the room next to a roaring fireplace. Spittle mixed with blood leaked from his mouth whilst a growing purple and black bruise sat on his temple like a rather tasteless cap.
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I rushed over to the man to check on him (yes in retrospect I remembered he was the one we were here to rob and who had ordered a whole slum burned to a ground but that didn't occur to me at the time![44]) but as I did so I saw Blood freeze in my peripheral vision. Stopping, I began to turn to look at her when, entirely without warning, a heavy brass plated almanack spun out of the shadows like a discus and slammed into my head (leaving me both stunned and thanking Koth for my mask). I stumbled backwards and sat down heavily on the floor rubbing my face and moaning in pain as I heard the sudden scream of metal on metal. When I managed to clamber back to my feet I was in the middle of a dual.
Across the room a figure had appeared from the shadows, the girl from before I was sure. If it was she had shed her cloak and in its place wore a heavy black outfit of leather breeches and a tunic, a chainmail hauberk and a mask. Unlike my mask however which was amateurish or Bloods which was beautiful this girl wore a heavy utilitarian mask made from glittering black iron in the shape of a leering skull. Both it and she looked professional, an impression reinforced seconds later when the girl produced a two handed single edged sabre apparently from thin air and aimed it at Blood even as the crimson girl levelled her own rapiers at the skull mask wearer, for a long moment the two women stood there silently, weighing the odds.
Blood moved first, she didn't have much patience and her speed meant that few people could react to her telltales before she could pound them into the ground. Skull mask it turned out was one of those people.
As I watched awestruck Blood's lightning fast thrust was slammed aside by a beautiful parry that left Blood swearing over an impaled shelf of books and the skull masked girl free to advance. Skull mask didn't charge in like Blood would have, instead she closed under Blood's guard and aimed a single heavy slash directly at her stomach. That should have been the end but Blood has reflexes like a gryshk on a hot metal deck and as well as her rapier she also had her shortsword. The second blade swung and met the sabre locking it in place. A swift kick to the girl's stomach sent Skull Mask tumbling backwards and let Blood turn her full ire on the bookcase she still had transfixed on her sword. Smashing eight volumes of The Encyclopaedia Prasian off her rapier she pirouetted gracefully and brought both blades to bear on the black clad girl. Darting in close and weaving around her taller opponent like a seagull mobbing an eagle, Blood seemed almost to be dancing but her opponent knew the steps as well. Even as Blood sped up Skull matched her moment to moment moving just as gracefully. Somehow, with only one blade, she blunted Blood's frenzied assault and even pushed her back across the room. The two warriors almost seemed to synchronise as they fought, becoming a single red and black blur filled with the sound of clashing steel and the flickering light of flying sparks[45].
I scurried backwards hurriedly scrambling out of the centre of the room and away from the fighting until I was stood in the doorway.
You might think this was cowardly and you might be right but I have always had a strong sense of my own strengths and weaknesses. I knew these two fighters were both way out of my league. If I got involved it would only slow Blood down and possibly give Skull Mask a chance to stab either her or me. So considering all my options I decided to wedge the door shut again (necessitating me pulling it back onto its hinges) whilst staying out of the way until there was something obvious I could do to help Blood. This had the side benefit of letting me witness some of the finest swordplay I had ever seen in my life.
Blood finished her berserk flurry and (seemingly inexhaustible) chained it instantly into a rising upper-slash that Skull only narrowly dodged, losing a chunk of her silken sleeve in the process. Skull riposted with an overhead blow that chewed the wood where Blood had been standing a second before, coupled with a kick that knocked the red girl over. Rising up Blood delivered a punishing combination attack with her rapiers *crash* *crash* step *crash* each lightning fast strike slamming into Skull Masks guard making her arms tremble. But the girl had drawn her in I think[46] and parried the attacks one after the other then caught Bloods rapiers on her sabres cross guard and, with a single flicking motion, disarmed the girl neatly.
As Blood looked down in horror Skull stepped in under her guard and brought a knee up into her masked face, there was a resounding crack as bone struck porcelain and the smaller girl was sent staggering backwards as Skull flourished her sabre with a smug air.
Stood on shaky legs Blood raised a hand to her mask for a moment as if in disbelief then she turned to stare at Skull with a palpable aura of menace. The girl looked at her rapiers, looked at Skull then seemed to shrug and charged.
As I said Blood doesn't have much skill, what she does have is ability instead. There are a few noticeable differences and one of these is in the way you react to things. Any normal fighter wouldn't have charged an armed opponent whilst unarmed, they’d have thought it was suicide to do so... and because Skull thought that Blood caught her completely off guard[47].
Blood's shoulder took the taller girl in the stomach, knocking the air from her lungs and lifting her off the floor and carrying the taller girl as if she weighed less than a feather. Blood twisted her shoulder in her belly and hurled skull mask backwards across the study. She slammed into the opposite wall with a dull boom and tumbled down to the ground.
Blood was on her in seconds, her retrieved rapiers in hand she brought the two tarnished silver blades up and then jabbed them straight down... into the wood where the skull masked girl had been.
Blood turned, grabbed her rapier from the floor and leapt towards the black clad girl and before Skull Mask could even begin clambering to her feet Blood was above her weapons raised. Skull mask stared at her as Blood brought her rapiers stabbing down.... and into the floor. Instead of being stabbed in both shoulders (Blood always makes sure to aim for extremities) skull mask was suddenly standing on the opposite side of the room. Now I knew she was fast but nobody was that fast... And I could feel my skin prickling.
“Well well well,” crowed Blood sounding like one of her ravens. “A mage... How fun!”
Skull obviously disagreed because she came at Blood hard. She darted in and then feinted to the left bringing her blade up and hacking at Bloods legs as she did so. Blood responded by jumping the blade and riposting with a rapier strike that left a glowing red line in the air and ended in a flaming hissing crater in the floor.
Skull looked at the red hot rapier that was juddering an inch from her face then up at Blood who waved with her other hand. “Heya,” she said companionably. “My trapping is fire by the by, what's yours? Some sort of teleporting right?”
Skull nodded seemingly despite herself then she rapidly shook her head and struck at Bloods neck with a furious sabre stroke. Unluckily for her however Blood had mastered the art of using magic to aid swordplay. Blood sent a burst of flame running down both her swords, one exploded out of the ground where it had been lodged and slammed skulls sabre away the other struck out creating a blast like a clockwork grenade that hurled the girl backwards. As the taller girl reeled, Blood raised both her glowing rapiers, twirled them in the air causing a shower of sparks, then hammered them down into skull masks chest... or again where her chest would have been a second ago because she was just gone.
Blood barely had time to turn before she was forced to parry another flurry of blows. They’re three blades locked again in a great shower of sparks[48] as the two women strained but Blood's strength is superhuman. With a twist and flick Blood threw skull backwards and into a bookcase, the tall girl stumbled shaking her head muzzily as Blood darted in, she barely managed to raise her sabre before one of Blood’s rapiers slammed it aside and the other lodged in the girls chest... or that's what should have happened because the heartbeat before the blow could land the girl was again stood on the opposite side of the room.
Blood was getting angry now I could practically feel the rage dripping off her. Having an opponent she couldn't just overwhelm was bad enough but one that wouldn't play fair? That was infuriating.
Letting out a howl of rage that sounded barely human Blood charged skull again, a thrust turned a bookcase into charcoal and slash took the head off a bust but neither came within a metre of skull as she bobbed and weaved away across the room. Blood chases her, completely enraged now. She moved like a windmill in a storm that had somehow caught fire, a freewheeling blur of steel and heat that cut apart or burned to ash anything between her and her target. And In that spinning, hacking, stabbing rage I finally saw skull's strategy. She wasn't striking back not even when presented with a huge opening, not even when Blood overreached on a wild swing or stab and nearly toppled over. Instead she had taken a solid defensive stance and she simply teleported away each time Blood found a way around it.
I knew who was going to win at this rate. Blood had strength and her magic was inherently deadly but remember that it burned her actual blood away to use it. It wouldn't be long before she couldn't stand let alone fight.
Blood may be impetuous, rude and easily angered but she is no fool. She knew precisely what Skull Mask was trying to do and she knew how to stop her. Blood planted her boot hard on the ground, spun her swords in a figure of eight and then drove them down into the planked floor. As they slammed into the wood they released a wave of deep crimson flame all around her. For a moment skull mask wavered, staring at the onrushing wall of flame then she vanished... and appeared in the centre of the flaming room desperately stamping at the smouldering ground.
Blood didn't give her a moment’s respite, as the girl reappeared she was already in motion, crossing the floor like a red lightning bolt thrown by a particularly peeved deity. Skull assumed her defensive stance again but Blood didn't raise her rapiers. Instead with a metres clearance between them she leapt flying through the air and hurtling over Skull Mask.
Skull only managed to look up in time to see Blood's red silk shoes skim her head then the tiny girl was on the floor again and still running without break or pause. Skull seemed to relax for a moment almost like she thought Blood had been scared off but then she noticed where the crimson girl was running, it took her a moment to put it together then... it’s not possible for a human being to go from a dead stop to a full sprint but she nearly managed it. Skull sprinted after Blood with true panic written across her form and giving flight to her limbs but Blood hadn't stopped or stumbled even after her jump. She ran like a lightning bolt forking from a blood red sky, her eyes fixed on her target.
“You’re not a teleporter!” yelled Blood stopping by the wall and drawing back her rapier, “you’re only able to move to one spot...” Skull stumbled and staggered after her sabre swinging wildly without any of its normal poise. “...the mirror!” Blood slammed her rapier into her own reflection.
The glass shivered for a moment and seemed to ripple then, it exploded. Fragments of mirrored glass flew across the room as tiny chunks fell to the floor.
That's when Skull finally caught up, staring at the devastated mirror she nevertheless managed to bring her sword around in a flat sweep which impacted with Blood's hastily raised guard. Normally she might have been able to deflect it but Blood had thrown her form off in the mad dash to smash the mirror and Skull hadn't. The black clad girl skipped her blade over Bloods, knocked them from her hands, kicked her in the ribs and then drove her to the floor with the aid of a sabre handle to the throat.
Pausing over the gasping defenceless Blood skull mask spun her long silver sabre in a dramatic figure of eight, raised it high[49] and... I smacked her in the back of the head with my mace. She went over like a tree.
I looked around the wrecked and very much on fire room, down at the two unconscious girls and finally across at the still comatosed Baron. Then I sighed and began to pump up my grappling hook.
I’ll hand you back to Skull for the next bit. Enjoy!
You can imagine my surprise I am sure, to ever wake up again after the fight I had just endured. I mean as far as I was concerned a pair of oddly dressed guards had wandered in right when I was going through my cousin’s mail (after knocking the prat unconscious of course). One had turned out to be an incredible swordswomen and had fought me to a standstill which caused me to use my magic thanks to sheer panic. She had then overwhelmed my magic with her own magic and then, the second I thought I’d beaten her, her friend had hit me in the head and knocked me out.
I expected to... well wake up dead[50] but instead I woke up in the cold night air on a chilly but reasonably comfortable shale rooftop still fully armoured and with my mask on (don't worry we didn't peak). As I craned my neck to look around I looked down at myself and saw, lying on my chest, a large manila envelope, I thought it looked like it had come from my cousins stationery set a thought that quickly lead me to deduce exactly what the large warm and strangely soft lump I was sitting on was.
I got off my cousin and pulled out a boot knife then cut off the letters wax seal, inside was a crudely drawn map and a single line of writing that read simply, “Aren’t you lonely?”
And well... the rest as they say is history.