Dali was currently freaking out.

Part if it was because it was dark. He normally wouldn’t mind this, and if it wasn’t for where he was, he wouldn’t have noticed it.

He was on a roof. This was part of it as well.

The other part was that he was stealing. He had no stomach for criminal activities of any kind.

He did not want to be there.

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“You’re a thief? As in a robber? A larcenist? “A person who steals another person’s property, especially by stealth and without-” He stopped himself, realising he was babbling.

“Yes. I am a thief, as in a robber and a larcenist, and you are my apprentice.”

“I’m not a thief. I’m going to be a knight.” He said automatically.

“Are you now?” She had started grinning. “Let’s make a deal. You accompany me on one hiest. At the end, if you don’t want to be a thief, I won’t make you. But if you choose to join me, you give up on being a knight.”

“No way.”

“Please, you have to try it just once. I guarantee you’ll like it. I’ve always wanted an apprentice.”

“Fine. But just the once, you understand.”

“Of course,” she smiled.

They climbed onto the rooftops wearing suits of a soft, dark blue fabric.

They walked along the rooftops as quietly as possible. She had insisted that he turn off notifications before they left.

“Don’t want you falling off a roof because you got better at balancing.”

First they ignored the houses, and paid attention to the guards.

“If you don’t know where not to be, then you don’t know where to be.”

“Avoid the guards, duh.” He was unimpressed.

“Avoid? Dali, you should seek out the guards.”

Seeing his look of confusion, she continued.

“They have to be guarding something, don’t they?”

“Especially private guards. If they’re rich enough to hire guards, chances are they have something worth having.”

She taught him how to recognise different types of roofs, and which ones were easiest to balance on.

She taught him how judge distances accurately, even in the dark.

“Just think to yourself ‘If I get this wrong, I will die or get thrown in jail.’ It works wonders.”

“If you fall or make noise, I will leave you to die.”

“If the guards are after us, we split up. You’ll probably get caught.”

They reached their destination.

It was the house of a wealthy nobleman.

“You stay here. I’ll go loot. After all, you wouldn’t want to do anything illegal, as a future knight.

’I can’t go inside? Ripoff.’

Not, of course, that he wanted to steal, he just wanted to know if he could, see what it’s like.

Selana went to the other side of the roof, and double checked the alley.

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It was empty, except for a pile of trash and thrown out furniture.

She turned around and ran.

The yard was immense, with only a single tree, halfway between the house and the wall.

They had put it there to prevent thieves. If it was too close to the edge, they could climb down it into the yard, and if it was too close to the house, they could use it to enter the house itself.

They could also then do the same thing on the way out.

She smiled as she jumped off the ledge.

’Idiots’

She soared over the yard. She couldn’t jump over the entire thing at once, but she didn’t have to.

Her foot found one of the branches of the tree, and pushed off again.

She couldn’t do it in one jump, but she could do it in two.

She reached the wall, and grabbed on.

She picked the lock on the window with one hand, and swung inside.

She looked around, and got to work.

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Selana couldn’t do the jump on the way back.

She would be weighed down by loot, and couldn’t get a running start.

She fastened the sacks to her clothes. She had designed them for that purpose exclusively.

She climbed down, locking the window behind her, and made it to the front wall.

She had taken more than usual, but she had a partner today.

She threw the first bag over the wall, and lowered it to the ground.

Dali watched in horror.

Guards!

Something had affected their schedule, and they were late.

They should have already passed by here.

Selana had assumed that they had already passed by.

They were going to run across her, at the worst possible time. They would see her in about ten seconds, and there was nothing he could do.

He looked over his abilities, hoping to find something he could use.

Jump, no. Run, no. Sprint, no. Climb, no.

None of his skills could help him.

He couldn’t do anything to help her.

Then he saw something.

’Oh no’

He could help.

He could help, but…

’This will make everything so much worse.’

He had a bad feeling that he was never going to be a knight.

He didn’t think he could make it as a mage or priest either.

This was not going to help his prospects in anything really.

He sighed, and put his plan into action.

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