By the time Caldor reached Redreach, his legs ached so much he couldn't feel the bite mark, how sore he was in general, or anything else for that matter. His whole body was begging him to stop and rest, which would be the smart thing to do before attempting to sneak inside a large city without anyone seeing him, but Caldor didn't even pause. He was too anxious to rest, anyhow. All he gave himself were a few minutes to catch his breath, crouching behind some bushes.

His only option of getting inside of Redreach was to go through the sewer system, whose entrance—an unofficial one, anyway—he was looking at right now.

There was not a guard in sight, and it was very dark, both from it being around midnight now and also due to the heavy, dark clouds blotting out the moonlight. But even with all of that, Caldor still felt on edge simply from not having his cloak with him. He'd always used its hood to hide his face, but he'd left it somewhere in Idri's fort. He supposed he'd have to do with what he had, but he still didn't like it.

Cal looked around once more just to make sure he was alone, even though it was likely not needed. The trapdoor leading to the sewer was relatively far away from the city wall, presumably so that when whoever had originally dug it wouldn't have been discovered by guards. It was still sort of mindboggling to Caldor that someone had dug a tunnel connecting to the sewer system like this, but he was grateful for it. It had come in handy a few times before.

Having confirmed that there was no one in sight, Caldor quickly made his way over to the square, wooden trapdoor in the ground as quietly as possible, pushing the tall grass that was covering it up out of the way. He proceeded to heave the trapdoor up with a grunt of effort at its weight.

Peering down into the darkness below and doing his best to ignore the foul stench coming from it, he could only see the ladder leading down into the sewer and not much else. He should have thought of making some kind of makeshift torch before he'd gotten this far, but it was too late now.

Thankfully, Cal had been here before, and he knew there were a few low lives living down here somewhere, hiding from the law. Which he supposed was exactly why Caldor himself was coming down here, but he chose to ignore that fact. The point was that he would be able to use whatever fires they had to light his way.

Taking a deep breath, Caldor began climbing down the ladder, pulling the trapdoor closed behind him and casting himself into darkness.

He blinked rapidly as he reached the dirt floor of the tunnel. He simply followed the awful stench of the sewer to navigate it, keeping his hand on one of the rough walls until he set foot on one of the sewer's walkways.

At this point, the smell got too intense for him to handle, and so he made an effort to breathe through his mouth only. And to not look at the liquid a few feet away from him. It was very dark, but the longer he stared out into the darkness, the more easily he could manage to recognize shapes in it.

Through some slight source of light from above—probably a storm drain—he could at least see the walls of the sewers, which should be enough for him to hopefully get close to where Augerill's palace was. Caldor knew the city well, and so he should be able to hopefully accurately estimate where he was at any given time. He was confident in that.

Caldor walked in silence, listening carefully to any little sound that reached his ears to make sure there was no one behind or in front of him. For all he knew Augerill had stationed his guards here as well. Though it was unlikely, Cal wouldn't have even been surprised if that were the case.

The longer he went without coming across anyone, though, the more on edge he felt. From personal experience, too much silence was always bad, no matter the situation. Still, he pressed on, ignoring the bad feeling he had about this. He had been doing that since he'd marched over to Redreach anyway. Trying to steal this spellbook was not a good idea in any way, but that didn't mean Cal wasn't going to do it, so why stop there?

But then, a moment later, something did stop him in his tracks. The sound of crackling fire up ahead. And the smell of smoke, when Caldor dared to breathe any of the air in. So there was someone close. Probably not a threat, but Cal wasn't going to take any chances.

He crept along the wall, making sure his steps were as silent as possible as he slowly began to approach the place the fire was. He couldn't yet see it, but the light was so intense it could be seen far ahead in the incredibly dark sewers.

Slowly, as a small campfire—a few logs really— came into view, Caldor spotted a thin figure sitting by it. At first, Cal didn't think anything of them, but then he noticed the bright colors the person was wearing. She had on a dark purple dress which would be strange by itself, seeing as purple fabric was one of the most expensive money could buy, but Caldor's eyes were currently widening for a different reason. Because he had definitely seen someone he knew wearing the exact same outfit.

"Geris?" he said, his voice barely louder than a whisper, but in the silent, closed-off space, it was loud. The woman sprung up, raising her arms defensively before she froze, looking shocked. And so was Caldor.

Geris had been one of the thieves' guild informants. Not a very pleasant one, or the most useful one, but she had helped them out at times. This was about the last place he'd thought she would be.

"And here I thought all of you were gone," she replied, lowering her arms, though she still seemed a little distrustful of him. Caldor wouldn't take that personally, though—he had never fully trusted Geris either. And the sarcastic tone she'd used to talk about his fellow thieves was certainly not helping. This was his family of sorts, and they were dead.

"Not quite," Caldor replied drily, immediately getting angry. He managed to not give in, however, and to keep his cool. For now, at least. "What are you doing here?"

Geris snorted, shaking her head. "I'm not here by choice."

Caldor wished he could feel relieved by running into a familiar face. But this familiar face was doing quite the opposite, unfortunately. He just wanted to leave and continue on his insane quest, but she might know something useful, and he could afford to spend a moment here.

"After your guild was burned down I knew the guards would be at my doorstep soon," Geris said, folding her arms over her chest. "So I am staying here until my transport arrives."

"You're leaving Redreach?" Cal couldn't say it was surprising that Augerill had also managed to find out who the guild's informants had been, though he was starting to suspect the worst when it came to how Augerill had found all of this information out.

Cal didn't want to believe anyone would betray them, but it would be the easiest and most straightforward explanation for what had happened. The only ones who knew anything were the members of the thieves' guild itself, which was the only reason Caldor was trying to discount a betrayal, but he couldn't fool himself into thinking it was impossible.

"So, you're leaving Redreach."

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"Correct," she replied, narrowing her eyes at him. "And I'm never coming back."

Idri's very similar words to him echoed through Caldor's mind, sending a sharp stabbing pain through his heart. And he'd been managing not thinking about the dragon so well until now. Damn it.

"The real question is why are you still here?"

Caldor blinked, taken aback by the question even though it was perfectly sensible. But Geris also didn't need to know any of it. "I need to set some things right."

"Well, if you want to do that with your colleagues, I'm afraid they'd already left, as far as I heard," Geris said, making Cal's eyes widen in shock.

"Wait, they're alive?"

"A few, supposedly," Geris replied. Caldor certainly hoped that she wasn't being vague on purpose because if she was.... "There are many rumors floating about, but nothing concrete, I'm afraid." She took a step towards him, tilting her head a little in curiosity. "Also some rumors about you doing something for Augerill."

Cal sighed. He wasn't surprised that was a rumor already. A lot of people must have seen him be dragged out of the city instead of to the gallows, so it likely hadn't been difficult to guess what had happened. Still, Caldor couldn't help but feel like his honor and reputation had been severely damaged by this, which was ridiculous, especially given his line of work.

"That's why I came here," Caldor replied, not even sure why he was telling her this. "I stole something for him, and I need to get it back."

Geris raised an eyebrow, intrigued. But Cal didn't feel like explaining the details, even though some part of him desperately wanted to talk about everything that had happened during the last few days. But he wouldn't, knowing he would at the very least get emotional, and at worst start crying, and that was not the kind of image he wanted to project. Least of all to Geris.

"Well, I did think your friends' deaths would affect your mental state, but I didn't think it would be this severe," Geris commented, looking Caldor up and down, as if trying to diagnose what was wrong with him. Cal agreed that there was probably a lot wrong with him, but he also didn't really care right now. "But I suppose if you want to break into the palace, it's a good time for it. Augerill left the city a few days ago with his entire personal guard, so there are fewer patrols."

Once again Caldor was stunned into momentary silence. That almost sounded too good to be true until he thought about it for more than a second. Augerill had left a few days ago, eh? So perhaps not long after Cal had brought him the spellbook?

"Where did he go?"

Geris studied him for a moment before answering. "I assume his castle. That is only a guess, though. And I don't know why he left, either, before you ask."

Caldor was fairly certain he knew where that was. The castle was close to the coastline, a few hours from Redreach by horse. He'd never actually been there, but he'd heard about it from some of his fellow thieves who had.

It seemed he now had a choice to make. Either Caldor would assume the book was still here, break into the palace, and try to get it without being captured now that there were supposedly fewer guards, or he could make his way over to the castle and try his luck there.

He did know that the castle was likely to be easier to get inside of than the palace, and there would be fewer guards in general since it was smaller. It also didn't serve as anyone's permanent housing aside from a few servants who kept the place in an acceptable condition, and there were also apparently very few items worth stealing. At least that was how it had been described to Caldor, but he was certainly more confident of his abilities when it came to sneaking inside a relatively small castle as opposed to a palace as massive as Augerill's was.

Besides, his gut told him the book was in the castle. He had no way to prove that, but it made sense to him on every level. Why would Augerill leave right after getting that book, otherwise? The bastard was secretive, and trying to use literal magic would definitely be something he would want to hide from the common folk serving under him.

Caldor felt a shiver run down his spine at the idea of Augerill possessing magic, but he quickly reminded himself of what Idri had said about the subject. Humans couldn't use magic, so there was nothing to worry about in that department. Hopefully.

"I need to go," Caldor told Geris who now stared at him with confusion. Cal didn't pay her any mind, however, as he turned around, his desire to get going as soon as possible overruling any sense of politeness he had.

"Ah, good, you came to your senses. Glad I could help," he heard Geris say as he rushed around the corner.

Stumbling blindly in the dark, Caldor quickly made his way back to the sewer exit he'd gotten here through in the first place. He would need to get a horse if he was to get to the castle in any sort of reasonable time. There were only a few hours of darkness left by his estimate, and he was determined to get there before the sun came up, if only because it would make getting close unnoticed easier. He didn't think he would have time to go inside, but he was willing to keep an open mind.

His hands shaking with both excitement and anxiousness, Caldor grasped the ladder as soon as he reached it, climbing up and out of the sewer. He only took a quick glance around before shutting the trapdoor and running away from the city walls. He didn't give himself even a moment to properly breathe in the fresh, midnight air before he was already making his way towards the stables in front of the city. Normally Caldor wouldn't even think to attempt to steal a horse from such an obvious place, but he had the darkness of the night on his side, and that would have to be good enough.

He made sure to put some distance between him and the city walls, knowing that if he walked too close, a patrolling guard might stop him, but there were just enough trees growing in small clusters around Redreach that Caldor could very easily hide behind them and in the shadows they cast.

He could already see the stables in the distance—a long, wooden building with one side of it open, letting him see all of the stabled horses. Cal waited for a patrolling guard to pass by it before silently making his way over to a few trees right behind the stable, studying his surroundings closely.

Besides the patrol, there were also two guards standing at the city gate, which was close to the stable, and they would manage to catch Caldor quickly if he called attention to himself somehow. But at least the horses moved or snorted every so often, which created enough noise to cover his footsteps.

Caldor crept along one of the walls of the stable, staying mostly hidden as he looked around the corner. The animal standing closest to him, a black, large horse, immediately turned its eyes on him as it chewed on its hay. The horse looked incredibly bored, which Caldor hoped meant that it wouldn't complain when he put a saddle on its back.

Knowing that it was only a matter of time before that patrol passed by again, Caldor snuck inside the stable, immediately grabbing the saddle that had been thrown over the wooden beam separating the horse stall from the one next to it.

Caldor didn't even risk a look behind him to see where the patrolling guard was as he put the saddle on the horse's back, tightening the straps as fast as he could. He flinched as the horse snorted, but as it continued munching on its hay, Cal immediately continued working on the straps. He had no time to lose.

Next, he picked up the bridle that was hanging off a nail hammered into one of the vertical beams of the stall. He prayed to all of their gods as he guided the bridle onto the horse's head and around its snout, wishing he'd had more practice with this. But having lived his entire life in the city as a criminal, it hadn't been exactly practical to ride horses around, or stable them anywhere.

Thankfully the horse let him do this without much argument aside from shaking its head once, and with a few last straps tightened, everything was ready. Now to just somehow mount the horse while in the stable still. There was no way he would be able to get in the saddle if he led the horse out by its reins. The guards would immediately see that, and they would know there was something suspicious going on.

Squeezing himself between the horse and the stall, Caldor dragged himself up onto the saddle, scraping his back against the rough, wooden wall of the stable. The horse snorted again, shifting its weight. Cal hoped it was going to listen to him.

Breathing in deeply, he tightened his grasp on the reins. Now or never.

Pushing the horse to move, Caldor steered it to the left before using the reins to make it gallop as fast as possible, the loud noise of its hoofs on the stone road be dammed. Hearing the guards yell after him, Caldor made the horse run even faster, quickly leaving the road and heading for the nearby forest.

The safety of the trees would be far away on foot, but on horseback at this speed, it would only take a moment to get there. Throwing a look behind him, he grinned as he saw the guards' torches in the distance. It seemed some of them had mounted horses as well, but Cal was already far enough that he had no doubts he was practically invisible with how dark it was.

Still, he continued avoiding the road, not slowing down until he reached the forest, just in case. Once he did, he breathed out, patting the horse's side as it grunted in displeasure.

Now Caldor just needed to get to the castle before the sun came up. He certainly hoped he would be able to find it.