The Perfect Job
In a small alleyway, Briston went over the plan one more time. It was the thousandth time everyone had heard it, but everyone was focused and ready to go. Even if Briston wasn’t talking, Hayden could recite the plan verbatim in his head. They had spent the entire winter planning and preparing for this heist. After he finished going over the plan, everyone double-checked their satchels to make sure they had everything ready to go.
Hayden rubbed his calloused, yet nimble hands together to keep them warm in the crisp evening air. Out of everyone there, he was the most worried. He tried to keep his mind clear and remind himself that this was just like any of the other jobs he and Briston had done before. Despite doing his best, every passing second seemed to drag on as he stood there in anticipation.
After a little time passed, Briston checked his watch one last time before giving the thumbs up and beginning to move. Jack and Mags followed him, with Hayden walking behind them. Normally, Briston and Hayden worked as a duo, but for this job, extra hands were needed. They moved through the alleys and back streets of Krutsten at a casual pace.
Once Hayden's body was up and moving, his mind began to relax. Every time before doing something risky or difficult, he was always a nervous wreck, but once in motion and in the thick of it, his anxiety would melt away. Briston always teased him by saying that Hayden could only think when his body was still because he was too stupid to do both at once.
By the time they made their way out of the lower city, Hayden wasn't nervous at all. Once they got to mid-city, they slowly drifted apart but still maintained eye contact. By the time they made it into the upper district, the sun had fallen below the horizon.
The streets were well-lit and more often patrolled by the city guard, so many residents were still walking the streets going about their day. To stay inconspicuous, Briston made sure that each of them got fitted for nice clothes, so as not to stand out. Guards don't tend to stop people with expensive clothes unless there's a good reason for it. Hayden even went out of his way to find a cologne he liked so he could smell like he belonged in the upper district.
Soon, they reached the target for the evening: the Fruden Manor. They were one of the city's up-and-coming families. Their newest leader had recently become a tier five warrior, and as such, the family was able to flourish. Normally, it would be impossible to rob a noble family's residence, but there were a couple of key factors that allowed Briston to come up with this plan.
First, the manor was empty tonight. It was the eldest son Logan's 16th birthday, and the Frudens were at the city's biggest theater hosting a grand party. Normally, this kind of event would be held at the family's manor, but now that the family head had broken through to the next level, there were more people interested in attending and forming a good relationship with the up-and-coming force in the city. As such, their modest manor couldn't accommodate everyone.
Second, due to the party at the theater, most of the Fruden's normal guards and awakened were providing security there. Only a skeleton crew of people was left in the manor, preparing for the more private afterparty that would occur after the main celebration at the theater. As such, there was roughly a 3-4 hour window during which the manor was practically empty. At most, there would be a handful of support staff and guards remaining.
The third and most crucial reason was that Briston had managed to charm one of the maids in the manor. She drew out the manor's floor plan and confirmed the positions of the guards. That's how this all began in the first place. It was pure happenstance that Briston met Edith at one of his regular pubs, and they hit it off quite well.
Like most employees seeking the comfort of booze, Edith had her fair share of grudges towards her employers. After a while of them ‘hanging out together,’ Briston pitched her the idea of striking it rich. After a bit of convincing her and promising her that she wouldn’t have to work ever again, she was onboard.
As we walked towards the side of the manor, a candle in the highest window shined in sharp contrast to the dark of the night. That was the sign from Edith that everything was normal and that we were good to go.
Hayden dropped his bag on the ground next to the manor wall. It was around twelve feet tall and tapered off into a wedge at the top. The rest of the group was getting in their positions as well. Briston was standing next to him and gave him a thumbs up.
Hayden unlatched his bag and pulled out the grappling hook inside. Taking the bundle in his left hand, Hayden swung the hooked end a couple of times to gain some momentum before letting it fly. The hook glided through the air and went over the top of the fence. It made a soft clanging noise that was muffled by blankets wrapped around the hook’s prongs.
After pulling on the rope and getting it lodged at the top of the wall, he began to pull harder and harder to ensure that it was secure. Hayden began to climb up the wall making as little sound as possible. Once he pulled himself over the top, he straddled the wall's wedge and shuffled over a bit to make room for Briston who was climbing up as well.
This side of the courtyard was empty and would be for at least another five minutes. Once both were on top of the wall, Briston dislodged the hook. He quietly tossed it back down to Jack, who quickly packed it away.
Hayden reached over and grabbed Briston’s hands before slowly sliding down the other side of the wall. Once his arms were fully extended and he let go of Briston’s hand, he fell to the ground and let his legs fall to the side as he relaced his muscles. It was painful and jarring, but it would only leave him with a couple of bruises.
He quickly clambered to his feet and got himself ready to help Briston with his fall as well. He was already hanging from the wall with his hands and dropped. Hayden helped cushion the fall. After another tumble to the ground, both got up and scrambled towards the manor's main building.
While they approached the building, they kept low and used some of the manor’s shrubbery to obscure their profile. There was a glint of torchlight towards the front of the house, and Hayden could barely make out the figure of a guard on his rounds. In a couple of minutes, he would be making his way over towards them.
Once they got to the house, they made their way towards the third window. It was slightly ajar, having been unlocked by Edith earlier. Most of the openings to the house were enchanted, so if they were forced open from the outside, an alarm would be triggered. Since Edith opened it from the inside, that removed that threat from the table.
Hayden peaked his head in and saw that the storage room on the other side was empty. Slowly he pushed the window open further until he was able to climb in. Briston came in afterwards and closed the window behind him.
“So far so good,” Briston whispered as Hayden made his way past the shelves and barrels full of food towards the room’s door. When he looked back, he saw that Briston was digging through a box.
“What the hell are you doing?” Hayden whispered, turning back to look at his friend.
“It’s merky,” Briston said with a mischievous grin. He pulled out his hand and was holding a pouch of monster meat jerky.
Before Hayden could even chide his friend, Briston had already put a strip of jerky into his mouth.
“Here,” Briston said while tossing the bag over to him.
Hayden, surprised and tense due to the situation, struggled to snatch the bag out of the air. It fell to the ground with a light thud. As it did, Hayden turned towards the door, alert in case anyone heard the commotion. After a moment, to ensure that everything was okay, he flipped off Briston, who was struggling not to laugh.
After calming down, Briston made his way to the door and picked up the bag of jerky.
“No seriously, you need to try this,” Briston said while taking a piece out and pushing it in Hayden’s face.
To keep the idiot quiet and honestly curious to see how it tasted, Hayden took the piece of monster jerky and put it in his mouth and bit down. Monster meat was a high-end luxury item that no one in the slums even dreamed of tasting.
It felt like he swallowed a red-hot coal straight out of the fireplace, except the heat didn’t burn him. Instead, it began to spread throughout his body. He trembled slightly as he felt his entire body shudder. The sensation was so strong he wasn’t even able to taste the jerky itself; instead, he could only feel the energy surging into him. By the time he swallowed the piece, he felt rejuvenated. His limbs were primed and ready to move; even the pain from the fall earlier faded away, leaving him feeling fresh.
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“See what did I tell you,” Briston said while going back to the box and grabbing two more small bags that Hayden assumed contained more merky. He stuffed them into his bag.
“Okay fine, but let's keep it going,” Hayden responded.
Both checked on their fancy clothes and helped brush off any dirt or wrinkles from the tumble off the wall. For this next part of the plan, they would have to make it to the cleaning supply closet two hallways away.
The idea was to just walk through the halls; most staff wouldn’t stop two ‘nobles’ for just walking. After all, the only way they get caught here is by failing to act the part. Hayden wasn’t as good at improvising, so his job was to play a drunk that his friend Briston took away from the theater for being a mess.
Hayden shoved a finger into his throat to make himself gag, doing this caused his body to heave and his eyes begin to water. Now that he was in the right mindset and made himself look sick, they made their way out of the storeroom. Hayden walked sluggishly while leaning on Briston who began to guide him through the first hallway, which was empty.
So far so good as they made their way towards the building's cross-section they turned right. On the other side of the hallway, a maid was making her way towards them. Hayden’s heart began to beat harder and harder as they made their way closer towards the maid. He slipped his right hand behind his back reaching for the dagger he had concealed there.
As they began to pass the maid she paused for a moment before stopping. At this point, Hayden’s hand was fully grasped round his hilt ready to spring forth.
“Does he need a pitcher of water?” the maid asked with a concerned voice as she looked at Hayden.
“Ah no he is just a fool who can’t pace his drinking. I’m trying to get him some rest here, so he won’t miss the young master's after party. Logan would kill him if he missed it.” Briston said without missing a beat.
“Very well, please ring your room's bell if there is anything you need.” The maid said before giving a polite curtsy and walking passed them.
As she walked by Hayden exhaled letting out the breath he was holding in. They walked down the rest of the hallway slowly waiting for the maid to turn a corner before they ducked into the linen closet.
Once inside they got to work quickly. Briston grabbed a bin of clothes and propped it up against the door to keep it closed. On the other hand, Hayden carefully took out a wooden box out of his bag and undid the latch on it. He pulled out a glass bottle containing a viscous yellow liquid that was wrapped in cotton fabric. He carefully set the potion back in the wood box before helping Briston clear the linen closet's floor.
There wasn’t much room in the closet to move stuff around, but they eventually got most of the floor in the middle empty. Briston handed him a band of cloth wetted by some water and Hayden wrapped it around his mouth and nose. Briston was also securing his own wet cloth and once both were situated, Briston picked the glass vial and opened the stopper.
Almost immediately a sharp acidic smell assaulted both of their noses. Very carefully, Hayden began to pour the vile yellow substance in a circle on the floor. When the liquid made contact with the stone floor, it began to fizzle and burrow into the stone. He left two spots in the circle unconnected. This vial of acid from a rank two maneater plant cost most of the two’s combined savings, but it was doing its job properly.
Soon, the acid penetrated through the entire floor, and there was a visible gap in the floor. Now there was essentially a circle of stone barely being held up by the two remaining spots of stone.
Briston splashed some water around the circle, helping neutralize most of the remaining acid on the stone before putting on extremely thick leather gloves and reaching down, grabbing the entire circle of stone. Hayden then poured the remaining acid onto the two remaining spots before quickly putting on his own gloves and reaching down into the gap as well. After a couple of moments, the stone keeping the circle in place broke apart, and Briston and Hayden were left holding up the thick circle of stone. Both strained under the weight, but after a quick countdown and a moment of exertion, they lifted it up and slid it away. Both took off their gloves, and Briston pulled out another rope, tying it around his waist.
"Alright, good luck, bud," Briston said while throwing the rest of the rope through the hole and handing his bag over to Hayden. Hayden shouldered both bags and grabbed onto the rope. He began to climb down, and soon his feet touched the floor underneath him, and he let go of the rope.
The room he landed in was about the same size as the linen closet, but it was much more well-lit and grand. Inside the room, there wasn’t much, but in the end, they had reached their goal: the vault entryway. On one side of the room, there was a heavy black steel door locked, and on the other, the entire wall was a vault door made of the same material. The vault door was engraved with a silver alloy that gave off a slight glow. Both doors would be impossible for their crew to break through. Luckily, Hayden’s goal wasn’t in the vault; it was in the entryway with him. Even luckier was that the roof and walls of the entryway weren’t enchanted, so their acid was able to chew through it.
As secure as the vault is, it is equally inconvenient to open normally. Only those with the direct bloodline of the clan’s head could open it. As such, the clan kept a certain amount of their wealth inside a cabinet in the vault for everyday expenditures and for staff to use with permission. Hayden quickly walked over to the cabinet, which wasn’t even locked. Upon opening it up, he was met with the sight of four cases full of golden plates, a case of platinum coins, and two velvet boxes on a tray.
Giving each case a quick look, he found out that each case contained a hundred of each of their respective coins. So that would be in total: 400 golden plates valued at 10 gold coins each, and a hundred platinum coins, which are worth 100 gold coins each. This was the tidy sum of 14 thousand gold pieces. While this was most likely only around five percent of the clan’s total wealth, it was still a huge amount for the two, even after splitting it with the whole group.
To put it in perspective, it only cost them around 200 gold to get prepared and buy the equipment for the heist. Hayden began to stow away each case in his bags. By the time that he put all five away, he heard a loud bang on the other side of the black steel door. Panic and adrenaline instantly began to pump throughout Hayden’s body. He quickly grabbed the two velvet boxes in the cabinet and shoved them into one of the bags as well.
Whatever was in them had to be valuable, so he made sure to grab them before securing both bags around his shoulders. It only took a moment to get the rope and begin to climb, but by the time he did, a sizzling sound began to emanate from the black steel door. He climbed up the rope as quickly as he could while Briston did his best to help pull him back up into the linen closet. Right before his head went through the hole, he took one last look at the black steel door, which was now glowing red and slightly buckling. Soon, Hayden made his way all the way through the hole and quickly tossed one bag to Briston.
"We've got to go quick, switch to code yellow," Hayden said as both got their bags situated and began to clear the barricaded door. Code Yellow meant to get out as quickly as possible without leaving as much of a trace as possible. By the time they got it clear, a large bang and rush of hot air blasted from the hole in the floor. Hayden was knocked off balance.
“I think you mean code red,” Briston said while pulling Hayden to his feet and beginning to run through the hall. Code red was essentially saying, "Forget it, scram." The goal was just to get out as fast as possible. Whatever was going on beneath them was enough to set off the alarms, and soon awakened guards would be swarming the manor. The pair of thieves sprinted down the hallway and made the turn to go back to the window to make their getaway.
When they turned the corner, a charred corpse was left unmoving, leaned up against one of the walls. The sight of this made the pair sprint even harder, and Briston slammed the door of the pantry room wide open. After climbing out the window, they both did a very quick scan for the patrolling guards but didn’t see any. As such, they began to sprint towards the wall where they scrambled up it as quickly as possible.
Neither of the two wasted any time and clung to the wall before dropping down on the other side where Jack and Mags should be waiting for them in the alley. Hayden was about to keep running and make it into the alley, but Briston put out his arm to stop him.
"Code Black," Briston whispered without a single ounce of emotion. After being startled, Hayden looked up and saw why Briston stopped.
In front of them stood a woman dressed in all black with silvery hair tied up tight in a ponytail, holding a sword made of glowing ice. Mags stood next to her frozen and encased in a layer of frost. Next to her lay Jack, who was missing an arm and had a spike of ice piercing his chest. Blood was still trickling out of Jack's body, so they must have been killed recently.
“Perfect, I was getting bored!” The unknown woman said cheerfully, waving her sword in the air with a flourish. Her smile quickly faded. She let out a sigh of disappointment. “I was hoping that one of you were going to be awakened. Looks like I don’t even get into a real fight today. Fucking had to get perimeter and miss out on all the fun.”
Suddenly, her face lit up as she was struck with inspiration. “I know why both don’t fight each other! Winner gets to live and be my new pet!” As she exclaimed. While this was all happening, Briston and Hayden both reached back. Hayden was reaching for his dagger and began to lower his center of gravity, getting ready to move. What Briston pulled out was a small metal tube, the key to code black.
“Come on, get to it,” the woman said, her voice hardening as she flicked her wrists, causing two spears of ice to manifest above her shoulders. Hayden and Briston both made eye contact before they both closed their eyes. Briston swung his hand back and slammed the metal tube into the wall behind him. There was a loud bang and an extremely bright light.
Hayden immediately threw himself into a sprint along the wall. An ice spear flew past him as freezing cold air brushed his arm. The woman in the alley was covering her eyes in pain. Code black meant split up, get out, whatever means necessary. They would regroup at their safe house in the slums. Hayden didn’t think, he didn’t look back, he just kept on running. He stumbled into a nearby alley as something impacted his arm.
That didn’t matter anymore though. The only thing on Hayden’s mind was putting one foot in front of the other. Dark alleys blurred by as Hayden sprinted, taking a twist or turn every once in a while. He jumped over or ran around any obstacle in his way. The bag, weighed down by their spoils, bounced against his back and weighed him down. His lungs spasmed as he continued to force himself to breathe. Soon the edges of his vision began to darken, and he was forced to slow down to jog.
By the time he did, he realized he had already made his way into the slums. His head was spinning, and his ears were sharply ringing from the flash rock. He stumbled his way towards his and Briston’s safe house. He made his way into a collapsed hovel and began to move rubble and rubbish off a wooden hatch. Soon the hatch was able to be opened wide enough to let him slink in. Once he closed the hatch, he began to walk down the short flight of stone stairs.
His fatigued and battered legs buckled, and he slid down to the bottom and collapsed. His vision began to darken as his mind let his body relax. He was safe.