The next morning, Edward woke up surprisingly comfortable, aside from a jagged rock sticking into him. ‘Right, the first task is to steal some comfortable bedding.’ He thought to himself as he carefully stretched to avoid his cramped bones and muscles protesting. He washed his face in the clean pool and thought about where he could ethically source bedding. The only place he could think of was one of the government houses where the guards slept.

“Well, nothing wrong with a life of luxury now I've had everything taken from me, right?” He could probably also find some nice clothes and weapons there. ‘I also need to find someone to help me. I'm already starting to talk to myself.'

Edward stopped dead at the entrance to the city, after seeing a wanted poster with his face on it, and a bounty of 500 gold pieces. ‘Nice to know I'm worth more to the government than most people earn in a year.’ He chortled. ‘Right, I guess I can't use the conventional entrances and such now.’ He made his way around to the rough point on the wall where his target house would be on the other side and began climbing. He fell straight through the thatched roof as soon as he lowered himself onto it, providing a convenient escape route. Seeing as it was daytime, he had a little less time before someone would spot the rope, but the guard would be on duty, and wouldn't be sleeping on the bedding, so it worked out better really. Looking around the wooden house, Edward quickly found a knapsack and packed up the soft bedding, fancy clothes – which were an attractive shade of blue, with military design – and spare weaponry into it. He used a knife to carve an ‘e’ into the table and took the bag of coins that was lying on it, before climbing back up over the wall and escaping to his cave. After setting up his bedding, he took his new clothes and searched for a different cave with clean water that he could use to bathe in. There was one not too far up the small, snowy pass, and he marked it on a makeshift map that showed only the cave systems, not to scale, in a way that one could only use it by counting the number of caves on one side. The cave he found had a third, smaller pool, perfect for washing clothes, and both had good filtration such that the pools would be clean again whenever he needed to use them. Looking at his long black hair and goatee beard in his reflection, he decided that once he was clean and wore nice clothes, he would look like a noble – very different from his likeness on the posters, so he would be safe to just walk in once they had had enough time to recover from today's incident. Obviously though, if they'd just suffered a robbery and an unfamiliar man walked in with nice clothes and a lot of money, people would get suspicious. Edward's mind wandered off, and he realised that he hadn't picked up any helpers. ‘Oh well, once I can walk inconspicuously in the streets, I'll be able to meet people and convince them to join.’ He got out of the pool, got dressed into his newly acquired clothes, and washed his old ones. He decided that for the moment at least, he would wear his nicer clothes during the daytime, and his old ones at night. He also decided that he would try and obtain a mask so that he could create a new criminal identity and have it wipe the focus away from his old one. Having made these plans, and having nothing to occupy his time with otherwise, he went to sleep.

As he had gone to sleep during the day, Edward woke up at night. He had an idea that if he could steal a musical instrument, he could pass the time more easily. Luckily, the Empire had installed their own theatres in each city, which they used to indoctrinate people with their convenient faith. Edward had enjoyed watching the plays at the weekend with his father, but the Empire had not become as extreme as it was now, and characters who would now be depicted as absolute evil were at the time merely lovable antagonists. Edward’s favourite character had been one such, Cuinus, the charming god of mischief from the Old Times, who hindered the heroes’ progress out of love for his family. He was characterised by swirling trails of plant life twisting around his mask and in the end, was able to force the heroes to pay their respects at graves from his time, and coexist with his family peacefully. It would be interesting to see how his story had changed.

Edward changed into his old clothes, which were darker and easier to move in, and set out for the city's theatre. He climbed over the wall so that he didn't have to deal with night shift gate guards, but was able to walk casually straight into the theatre, since there was no one around, and very few people were suspicious anyway. A poor man walking into the theatre at night was not an uncommon sight in the city.

Once inside, Edward made his way into the upstairs galleries to get a better view of where he needed to get to. Looking around at the intricately carved stonework and regal red and gold walls, he was able to pick out an entrance to the backstage area that was easily accessible from above. He waited until the last volunteer had left, and jumped through the entrance, breaking his fall with a roll which brought him to a silent halt next to an open locker. Hearing the janitor arriving to lock up, he quickly hid inside it. It was a little more cramped than it had seemed, and he was made very uncomfortable, but he managed to hold his breath until the janitor was out of earshot, at which point, he fell out, with a relatively large weight pushing him to the floor. As he tried to get up, he realised that it was a human being that he had previously been sharing the locker with.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“That was a fairly comfortable hiding spot until you came along! Don't you know not to take another thief's spot?” Said a female voice from right behind his ear.

“I'm sorry, I'm new to this, and I needed a spot quickly. That locker door just happened to be open and right next to me. Besides, isn't leaving the door open like that a bad idea?” He tried to explain. The woman relaxed slightly but then got even more volatile.

“I left it how I found it so that it would look more natural. Then you went and ruined it even further by closing the door! If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to sabotage me.”

“Well, it still worked didn't it? He didn't notice either of us, and we can go ahead and accomplish each of our goals.” Edward again tried to reason with her.

“Hmm, I guess if you don't even know the basics, you must be new... I know, let's make this into a challenge. If you're able to obtain both of our targets on your own, I'll teach you more about thievery, but if I get them first, I'll give you what you deserve for ruining my spot. How does that sound?”

“It sounds a little unfair,” Complained Edward, “but I'm up for it anyway.” She helped him up and shook his hand.

“You're a good sport then. On three. One... Two...” She darted off through the doorway, shouting back, “Three!” Edward calmly made his way over to the props and costumes. The woman hadn't told him what her target was, but then she hadn't asked him what his was either, and since it was a little unusual, he figured he probably had the advantage there. He managed to pick out the mask for Cuinus, by looking at the script –as he had suspected, the character had completely changed into an outright evil one. The plant life that twisted around his mask had become darker and sharper, while the eye sockets had been made more diamond-shaped. The script reflected this change with lines such as ‘I will see the end of this world.’ Edward also grabbed a set of Pan Pipes, then, he wandered off in the direction the woman had gone, hoping to somehow get her target from her. He found her at the entrance to the treasury. She dropped down from the ceiling to confront him.

“I thought you might be coming here. I've already stolen everything of value here, so there's no point in you looking for your target, and, of course, I've already got mine, too. Are you ready for your punishment?” Edward smiled to himself, now knowing he'd already won.

“Actually, I was wondering if you might give me your target. I've already got mine, and the only way to break this stalemate is for you to give me yours.” The confident smile on her face dropped to a dangerous frown.

“And why couldn't you give me yours? I have plenty of wealth here to pay for it, while you have nothing worthy of mine.”

“My target is something you can't obtain. I was looking for three things: a mask, a musical instrument, and a person willing and able to help me in fighting the government.” At this, her face changed to one of surprise. “A mask and a musical instrument would indeed be easy for you to find, but the only potential comrade around here is you. Since I am the leader, I cannot join again, and if you were to carry on pursuing my target, then I would have already fulfilled my conditions. In other words, from the start, you had no chance of winning, while I had a slim chance. So, are you gonna let me win, or is it a draw?” Edward caught his breath after his long monologue while she was thinking.

“Oh, fine. It's no fun if no one wins, and it's quite obvious that you outsmarted me. Here's my target. I was literally only after the money.” She handed a large sack of coins to him, before continuing. “I will also join your cause, I think it's noble enough, and because that means you fulfil the winning conditions, I'll give you thievery lessons too.” Edward smiled at her.

“Thanks. One more thing, do you have anywhere to live? It would be nice to have someone living on the inside, but if you'd prefer, we have a bit of an HQ out in the caves.” Her eyes lit up for a moment, but then she sank back into a dejected stance.

“That's nice of you to offer, but it's best not to show your base to people you don't trust.” Edward smiled and chuckled a little to himself.

“That reaction is more than enough to prove I can trust you. If you can get us out of here, I'll show you the way.” She laughed also.

“How were you going to get out if you didn't have me?”

“The same way I always have so far, through a hole in the roof.”

She coughed amusingly.

“Well, at least you had a plan, I suppose. Come on, I'll show you the real way out.” She said, winking. “My name's Ella, by the way.”

“Edward. Although pretty soon I'll probably be changing it. Maybe something like Cuinus to piss off those Imperial zealots.” Ella finished picking a lock and opened the door.

“They both suit you. I think I'll call you ‘Little Apprentice' though. At least until you become slightly more proficient.” She motioned him out and followed him to the cave system.