Connor finished his bath, but there was still time until sunset.

He busied himself by cleaning his knives until finally, on Adelia’s insistence, he went to bed and tried to catch a few hours of sleep.

He lay there, tossing and turning. Unable to quiet his racing mind. Where could his uncle be if they were keeping him? What could be happening to him?

What if he was already dead?

Eventually, he fell asleep, but he awoke with a start from a nightmare of losing everyone close to him, and he felt even more exhausted than before.

It was with relief that he saw the sun had finally dipped below the horizon.

He donned a fresh set of clothes and his leather armor once more. He couldn’t help feeling like he would be wearing armor for a very long time to come.

“How’d you sleep?” Adelia asked.

“Great,” Connor said.

“For someone who was raised by a spymaster, you’re a terrible liar,” Adelia said, “we’ll get him back. You can do this. You don’t have to push yourself so hard.”

“I hope so,” he said, “are you ready?”

“Always,” Adelia said.

The Stars of Night guild hall was a large, old building made of wood and stone. Most just assumed it was a warehouse of sorts, but a trained eye would see otherwise.

The men that leaned against it kept a sharp eye on their surroundings. Too attentive for ordinary citizens, and everyone who entered or left carried weapons.

Not exactly typical behavior for a warehouse, but subtle enough that average people would never know it was the main hub for one of two thieves guilds in the city.

Connor and Adelia approached the front door where two large men stood on either side.

The guild guards rested their hands on the hilt of their swords and gave the two of them a hard look that’d have most men turn around and run the other way.

Adelia snorted.

Connor walked right up to them and pulled back his hood just enough to show his face.

The men stepped aside without a word and went back to glaring at the empty street.

Adelia and Connor stepped inside. The thieves didn’t know who he was, or that Victor was their true leader, but he’d been here enough times that anyone with half a brain knew to get out of his way.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Or else.

The ground floor of the guild hall was filled with men and women of all different backgrounds and professions. Some wore rags, and others wore expensive leather armor much like Adelia and himself.

They talked, laughed, cleaned their weapons, or plotted various dealings. It was a lot like any other guild really. Just more dangerous.

Everyone in the room noticed them right away. Some were just better at hiding it than others.

This was normal. Half of them were thieves and assassins after all, and you didn’t survive long in the shadowy world if you didn’t pay attention to your surroundings.

However, Connor was more alert than usual.

The Syndicate had infiltrated the palace, and he wasn’t going to discount the possibility that they’d infiltrated the thieves guild too.

He had to be careful. Everything rested on his shoulders now. One mistake and it could very well be over for him, for Victor, and for his friends.

For all he knew, Korvac would set the guild on them at any moment… at least he had Adelia at his side.

Some off-duty thieves and a beggar played cards in one corner of the room, near the stairway heading up. The beggar was taking them for everything.

Apparently, they hadn’t noticed he was cheating.

Connor suppressed a chuckle, and they kept on their way up.

A guard stood outside the door to Korvac’s office. Connor lowered his hood and showed his face, but the man made no show of moving.

“The Guild Master is busy,” he said, “you’ll have to come back later.”

“Just tell Korvac that Connor is here to see him,” Connor said.

The man glared at Connor. “I said he’s busy, and he’s not to be disturbed. So piss off,” he growled.

Connor sighed. He was tired, and he had much bigger problems on his mind than a guard to the figurehead guild master’s office.

He grabbed the man and threw him over his shoulder in one smooth motion. The fool of a guard slammed onto the ground with all the grace of a splattered tomato.

The man groaned and started to get up, but Adelia bent over him and pressed a dagger against his neck.

“You really should have done what he said,” she said, “he gets ratty when he doesn’t get his way.”

The office door swung open and a heavy-set man towered above Connor, filling up the entire doorway like a brick wall.

“What in the blazes is going on out here!” shouted the mountain of a man.

“Hello Korvac,” Connor said, “may I come in? We have important things to discuss.”

“Ah, Connor,” Korvac said, “might’ve known it was you.” He looked at the man Adelia was still terrorizing and his eyes narrowed.

“For gods sakes, Raki,” Korvac said with an exasperated sigh, “how many times have I told you that if someone wants to see me urgently, you should at least check with me. You have no idea how lucky you are to be alive.”

He looked over his shoulder. “We’ll have to continue this another time, Maya,” Korvac said.

A well-dressed woman rose out of her chair. Her features were foreign, and not a single line of emotion showed on her porcelain skin.

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said. She looked down at Raki on her way out but didn’t so much as twitch. She simply walked away with a confident, graceful stride.

Korvac turned back to Connor. “Please, come in,” he said, “and… could you let him go?”

Adelia whispered something into Raki’s ear and tapped the side of his face with the flat of her dagger.

Raki’s eyes went wide, and a wet stain ran down his trousers. He scrambled to his feet and ran down the hall. Either to clean himself up, or get as far away from Adelia as he could.

Possibly both.

“That woman scares me,” Korvac said.

“You have no idea,” Connor said.

Korvac’s office was neat, bordering on obsessive and eerily similar to Victor’s. It even had a large wooden desk of the same color.

It always struck Connor as being a little odd… like Korvac was trying to emulate everything Victor did.

Whether this was a good sign or a bad one he couldn’t say.

He’d already taken a sense-heightening potion when they’d set out, and he planned to watch Korvac’s reactions very, very closely.

It was time to see if he’d grown tired of being just a figurehead.