Chapter 2A:

The palace’s garden was lush with many different flowers: roses, lilies, daisies, and many more, each in its own unique section. Above them, and scattered around, were tall cypress trees, their narrow forms reaching toward the sky, while numerous glowing orbs were carefully woven around each of them with a dark rope, providing light to the garden.

Many marble benches and stone paths, surrounded by trimmed hedges, were positioned throughout the garden. The smaller paths seemed to connect the different areas of the garden, such as the flower sections and the beautiful gazebo in the center, where the princess and her maids would usually drink tea in the afternoons and wave to the crowd that gathered just to catch a glimpse of their monarch. The larger paths, on the other hand, seemed to be more direct, surrounding the garden and leading straight back to the palace.

Elandor led the way to the palace as we followed behind, slowly but closely. All the while, I kept thinking about how sloppy this switching routine was. Sure, the palace’s fences were extremely tall, protected by magic, and not exactly climbable, so getting inside wasn’t going to be easy for someone without a tourmaline or a similar mineral, but still, it all felt a bit too negligent and unbelievable.

Once we reached a back door, Elandor stopped. “Will - you’re up.” he called out.

Will nodded, reached for his trousers’ pocket, and pulled out his brown topaz ring. Nicknamed the ‘Stone of Thieves’, topaz was probably the most practical stone a thief could possess, as its magical effect was creating an area of pure silence. With a radius of up to three meters of complete and utter quietness, and the flexibility to control the placement of the area, the stone proved to be the obvious go-to for any thief lucky enough to get his hands on one.

He slipped the topaz ring onto his middle finger and concentrated for a short second before speaking. “It’s up.”

“Great.” Elandor smiled. “Now it’s your turn, Frenkie.”

Frenkie smiled ecstatically and proceeded to the front. He pulled out a purple crystal ring from his pocket and slid it on his index finger.

I recognized the ring as Frenkie used it in some of our previous heists as well. It was made of fluorite. The magical mineral that was used for the enhancement of the seven human senses.

Everyone in the group had a unique mineral ring - except for me. As the lockpicker, I didn’t really need any magical abilities to enhance my skills. Besides, in our era, magical stones had become incredibly rare. There were significantly more of them in the past, but now, even those that remained were controlled solely by the Ministry of Magic. Outside of kingdom-supported adventurers guilds, which were very strict with giving adventurers licences, only a handful of businesses, like healing institutions and those requiring heavy labor, were granted the unique stones they needed. Black market sellers still took risks, attempting to sell whatever they got their hands on, but even then, everyone knew that both selling and possessing minerals was illegal and punishable by imprisonment, and sometimes even death.

Elandor and Joven each had three minerals of their own, at least from what I’d seen over the years. Four for Elandor, if I count the black tourmaline he just showed us for the first time.

Frenkie closed his eyes and concentrated. “The corridor behind the door is clear.” He said with his eyes closed. “But the first room on the right has two people inside. Based on their heavy breathing, I would assume they’re a muscular bunch. So…both guards, I assume?”

“Good.” Elandor nodded. “Can you tell what they’re doing and how close they’re to the room’s door?”

Frenkie seemed to concentrate even harder.

“I don’t want to press, but we’re running out of time here.” Joven said, but Elandor hand-gestured for him to stay quiet, so he rolled his eyes and turned away, remaining on lookout.

“They’re a few steps away from the door, but they’re not sleeping on duty, if that’s what you were hoping for.” Frenkie replied.

Elandor grinned. “Oh, I wasn’t hoping for anything like that. Would be foolish to build an entire plan on the incompetence of guards.” He shot a quick glance at Joven, who was standing a bit further away with his back to us, before reaching into one of his coat’s pockets and pulling out the master key he had stolen from the Head Guard.

He reached for the doors, placed the key inside, turned it around, and the doors yielded, opening up slowly.

“Remember to stay close to me. More than three steps, and you’ll be out of the area of silence.” Will reminded us right before we entered.

Everyone nodded. It wasn’t the first time he used this stone on a job.

“And don’t forget: We’re not invisible. We’re just silent.” Elandor pointed out before turning to Frenkie. “I need you to keep your senses heightened. Alert us if anyone gets close to us.”

Frenkie nodded, seemingly adjusting his senses, before we all followed Elandor inside the palace.

The doors of the room on the right were closed, but we could hear the two guards Frenkie mentioned, speaking to each other inside. We quickly passed them and continued forward in the corridor. Not long after that, we reached the end of the corridor which had now split into two opposite directions.

“Ren?” Elandor called out.

“Definitely a left here.” Ren answered confidently.

I assumed her part in all of this was to learn the palace’s plans, and I wondered where she could have gotten this information. If Elandor had managed to get his hands on such classified plans, then maybe I was wrong, and we were better than I thought.

We took a left like she ordered and kept following Elandor closely.

“Guards coming our way.” Frenkie immediately alerted us. “Room on the left is empty.”

Elandor quickly used the master key to open the room to our left. We rushed inside and closed the door behind us, while Will’s topaz kept every action we made completely silent to ears outside the area of silence. After a couple of seconds, we heard three guards pass the door outside and continue in the same direction we had just come from. When it became quiet again, Frenkie gave us the okay, and we ventured back into the corridor.

We continued with the same routine for the next ten minutes or so: Ren guided us in the labyrinths of the palace, while Frenkie kept alerting us whenever he heard guards coming our way. Meanwhile, Will kept us silent to the outside.

The air within the corridors hung heavy with a mixture of polished wood, wool and linen, and the subtle fragrance of burning candles. Marble pillars, adorned with circular golden patterns at their bases and tops, rose from the mosaic patterned floor, which was covered by luxurious red and gold carpets. While the beige colored walls were full of different tapestries and paintings, some uglier than others, which I could only guess the worth of.

The ceilings towered above us with great crystal chandeliers suspended overhead casting a warm glow, illuminating the corridors and many different rooms and chambers we found ourselves in.

“So, I’ve heard you’re making moves on my sister?” Will suddenly whispered to me, his tone a bit judgmental.

Will was probably the closest person to me in the crew after Elandor, and my conversations with him usually ended up being very humoristic, as his sense of humor was…unique.

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I was surprised by the question, especially since I don’t remember making any moves on Ren…Was he referring to the cheese sandwich incident? Because if he was, that wasn’t even my move on her – it was actually the other way around. Or at least that’s what I hoped.

“What gave you that idea?” I whispered back, playing ignorant.

“Frenkie told me you wanted to give her a sandwich. Is it codename for something…sexual? Please tell me it’s not.” He whispered, a mix of concern and curiosity in his voice.

He caught me so off guard, I almost burst out laughing. I knew he was just playing around, but I didn’t expect such a question at such a tense moment.

“No.” I managed to whisper. “Of course not.”

“Phew. Great.” He whispered back, seemingly relieved. “But you didn’t deny making moves on my sister, though.”

I rubbed my forehead. He was wrong, but…not entirely? I mean, I wish I had the self-confidence to make moves on Ren.

“I think she’s making moves on me, man.” I admitted, playing along with the joke.

“It’s about time, really.” He said to my surprise.

“Wait, what?” I whispered, puzzled. Wasn’t all this a joke?

“What?” he whispered back.

“It’s about time?”

“Oh, yeah.” He nodded. “I mean, there’s obviously something in the air there.”

“Really?” I wondered.

The only ‘something’ he could be referring to were the butterflies that fluttered in my stomach each time she was in my vicinity.

“Sure.” He whispered. “And I’m gonna be honest, I’ll gladly have you as my brother-in-law.”

“Brother-in-law?” I asked, a bit surprised, even though I assumed it was still part of the ongoing joke. “Aren’t you skipping a few steps there?”

“What?” he asked, grinning. “Can’t a man dream? Life already dealt me a miserable hand with this good-for-nothing sister. I might as well get something out of it.” He said the second part loudly intentionally so Ren would hear.

“I can hear you.” She said, her voice laced with annoyance, as she turned to face us.

“Great. That was the point.” Will laughed, while I just awkwardly averted my gaze to the wall, too embarrassed to meet hers. Wow, such beautiful tapestries.

“You’re exaggerating.” I said after noticing Ren had turned away from us.

“No way.” He whispered. “I’ll finally have someone to lock pick the base’s door whenever I lose my key.”

I stared at him dumbfoundedly. “Or we can just use my key, you know, since I’m already there with you.”

He snapped his fingers as if a realization had just hit him. “You’re right! That’s even better.”

Our short chat was interrupted by Ren’s voice. “We’re here.” She suddenly said, before her expression became confused. “That’s weird…There should be a door here leading underground.”

“I don’t see a door.” Will stated the obvious. We were standing in front of an empty wall.

“I can definitely hear wind underneath us.” Frenkie said as he ducked and pressed his hand against the ground. “There seems to be a lot of space down there as well.”

“Of course there’s space down there. I studied the palace’s plans religiously.” Ren said, her voice carrying a hint of anxiousness. “The treasury is underground. They must’ve hidden the door somehow.”

“Perhaps there’s a hidden lever or something around here?” Joven suggested.

Elandor grinned, nodding at the suggestion. “Frenkie – enhance your sight and touch. Try to find anything unusual around here. A lever or switch of some kind. Will – keep on keeping us silent. The rest – keep watch. Frenkie won’t be focusing on approaching guards anymore, so keeping watch is extra crucial right now.”

Frenkie nodded and approached the wall to search for irregularities, with Elandor backing him up. Meanwhile, the rest of us turned in different directions to cover all possible angles. We didn’t have Frenkie’s fluorite-enhanced hearing, but it was better than nothing.

After a short minute which felt like forever, Frenkie happily exclaimed. “Got it!”

He touched the base of one of the adjacent marble pillars, pressing the golden pattern hard. Then, suddenly, the floor to my left began to level down gradually, creating a staircase that led down into darkness.

Elandor looked ecstatic. “Down we go.”

***

Once we took the staircase down, we saw the secret hatch close behind us.

“There’s probably a switch on this side as well.” Frenkie said, unsure. “I hope.”

“We won’t need it.” Elandor said as he pointed to his black tourmaline ring. “I’ll teleport us home once we’re done.”

Ren put on her moonstone ring and brought forth a radiating light from the palm of her hand to guide us in the darkness. She moved her hand in a circular motion, and the light had detached from her hand and became an orb, which flew above our heads, slightly in front of us. It revealed a long and wide corridor, with an extremely high ceiling, which continued forward.

“I’m not sure from here on out.” Ren admitted nervously, before turning to Elandor. “The plans you gave me didn’t reveal the lower levels.”

“It’s fine.” Elandor said, trying to calm her. “We’ll just continue forward for now.”

“It’s not like there are many options here.” Will pointed out.

He was right. And so, we continued forward until we reached an intersection in the path. Elandor then turned to Joven, his voice almost teasing. “Which way should we take, partner?”

Joven raised an eyebrow at him. “How would I know?”

Elandor shrugged. “I didn’t say you knew, was just hoping for your seasoned veteran intuition to kick in.”

Initially, Joven seemed surprised, but then he turned thoughtful before eventually speaking out. “Well, I would’ve gone right out of superstition. They always say – when in doubt, pick right.”

“They do say that.” Elandor chuckled before turning serious. “Let’s go left, then.”

Joven seemed annoyed. “Why would you ask for my opinion, and then do the opposite?”

Elandor grinned, and raised his hand in a calming gesture. “Relax, my dear friend. Has my gut feeling ever betrayed us?”

Joven scanned Elandor with a careful eye before speaking. “Then lead the way.”

Their entire exchange seemed to channel some invisible tension, and I wondered if the others noticed that as well, or was I looking too much into it?

“Frenkie - scan the surroundings with your hearing.” Elandor commanded.

Frenkie complied and seemed to concentrate again. “That’s weird.” He said. “I can hear people above us, but no one on this level, Elandor.”

Elandor looked thoughtful. “It does sound weird…” he paused, and when he spoke again there seemed to be a tinge of sarcasm in his voice. “it’s probably just our lucky day, and the guards just decided to leave the treasury unguarded.”

“Perhaps they are changing their shifts here as well.” Joven suggested suddenly.

“These changing routines…” Elandor smiled at his words, then shrugged. “Either way, we’re already here. Might as well see it through, right, Joven?”

Joven nodded in agreement. “Right.”

“Splendid.” Elandor said as he led the way. “Now follow me.” He turned to the left corridor, and we all followed him.

“You can stop enhancing your senses for now, Frenkie.” Joven said along the way. “Same for you, Will. Reserve your mana.”

Frenkie and Will nodded and were about to comply, but Elandor stopped them. “Don’t you dare.” he said sharply, a hint of anger in his voice. “Keep your minerals running. We don’t want any surprises.”

Frenkie and Will unsurprisingly chose to side with Elandor on this.

Joven, who was trailing behind us, sighed heavily. “I really don’t understand you tonight, Elandor.”

Elandor chuckled. “What do you mean, my dear friend?”

It was the third time he called him that today - and only the third time in the three years I’ve been part of the group. Something was definitely going on.

“First, your actions in the tavern. We could’ve been busted right then and there.” Joven started and it made me wonder what happened there.

Elandor kept his cool. “Everything was calculated, and I was always the only one at risk.”

Joven continued. “Then we learn you had a black tourmaline with you all this time. Such a rare magical stone, and you hid it from us for so long.”

“My personal possessions are hardly anyone’s business.” Elandor replied calmly. “Especially not yours, Joven.”

Joven sighed. “And then you make the kids run their mana down when there’s really no need.”

“It’s really not a problem.” Will intervened. “It doesn’t require too much mana.”

“Same.” Frenkie agreed with him.

“You heard them.” Elandor grinned. “It’s no trouble.”

Joven shrugged. “Well, I was just worried about the kids.”

“Sure you were.” Elandor whispered coldly, but I think we all heard him.

Those three words made me certain that something was going on between Joven and Elandor. I wanted to talk about it with the others, to see if they knew anything, but since we were all walking so close to each other – there was no point. Joven would definitely hear me regardless of the volume of my speech. I hoped I would get a chance to ask Elandor about it once we reached the treasury.

As we walked down the dark corridor, I was thankful for Ren’s moonstone. If not for it, we would be walking in complete darkness right now. The moonstone was probably the most common mineral out there and wasn’t as heavily regulated by the Ministry of Magic as all the other minerals. Its only use was as a guiding light, and since there was no perceived danger in that, it was one of the only stones to be distributed with very little restrictions.

I also began to question how easy it had been for us to reach this deep inside the palace. Sure, we managed to slip past most of the guards spread outside the palace thanks to Elandor’s tourmaline ring, but other than that, we had only stumbled upon small patrols, which we easily evaded by just hiding in empty rooms. And these shifting routines? Down here as well? It sounded way too convenient. If the kingdom’s treasury was this poorly secured, and easily accessible, then how did no one attempt to steal from it in the past? My instincts were telling me something was off, but seeing Elandor’s confidence, I tossed them aside.

Each time I looked back, it seemed like Joven was slowing down more and more, but whenever our eyes met, he sped up and caught up, and I wondered if he wasn’t feeling well. One time after such instance, I caught Elandor looking back at me and smiling. Or maybe the smile wasn’t even directed at me, but at Joven? I couldn’t tell.

“We’re close, Luca.” Elandor called out to me. “Get your lock picking kit ready.”