They climbed one set of stairs, and then another until they were on the second floor and standing in front of the door to Bvorn’s office with nobody in sight.

“I still think it's weird he doesn’t have anyone guarding his office,” Connor said.

“What for?” Vadik asked, “only you are freaky enough to get through enchanted locks so easily.”

Connor dug in his bottomless bag and pulled out a vial of Minor Potion of Magic Sight.

“Let’s hope this works,” he muttered, “bottoms up.”

He drank the potion and waited for the effects to kick in.

A thief walked past, with a casual nod at Vadik.

Once the man was out of sight, Connor knelt down at the lock and Vadik casually leaned against the wall beside him.

Connor focused on the lock, and it lit up in a brilliant array of color.

It was far less complex and intense than the magic in his codex, and he pulled down his own magic into his lockpicks.

He could see now how he shaped his magic, and as he brought his picks to the lock, he saw how the magic repelled them.

Being able to see the magic made it much easier to get his own magic to click into place with the magic in the lock.

Once that was done, the mechanical aspect of the lock proved no challenge at all.

In less than a minute, the lock opened with a satisfying click.

“Good luck,” Vadik whispered.

Connor slipped inside Bvorn’s office and closed the door behind him. He left it unlocked so he could get out faster when he was done.

Bookcases covered the walls, each filled with books, files, and loose papers. A desk rested in the center of the room with more papers piled like towers on top.

“What a mess,” Connor muttered.

It would take forever to go through everything here, and he didn’t even know what he was looking for!

There just wasn’t time to be discrete about this…

He picked up stack after stack of papers and stuffed them into his bottomless bag, clearing out whole shelves at a time.

Once they got out of here, they could go over everything as much as they wanted. Bvorn would know he’d been burgled the second he saw the room, but what choice did Connor have?

At least this way, there was a hope of finding a clue that might lead them to Victor…

Connor moved swiftly, yet quietly and in minutes he’d taken everything off the shelves and the desk. Anything that might be even remotely useful.

A faint flicker of light on the wall caught his eye.

He looked closer. Something glowed softly beneath a painting mounted on the wall. He lifted the painting up and off, revealing a hidden safe.

He smirked. Simple, but effective.

He’d nearly missed it in his frantic search. Ironically, the enchantments meant to make it more secure had been the thing to give it away.

He focused more on the safe, and it lit up in a pattern of swirling lights more complex than the magic in the door.

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From what he could see, the magic in the safe was all woven together. It looked like getting through the lock would disable the other enchantments.

He couldn’t tell what the enchantments were, but whatever they did, he didn’t want to set them off.

He pulled his magic down into his picks once again and held them slightly away from the lock. He focused and molded his magic to fit the lock.

Even with being more careful, it only took him a few minutes to have his magic synch with the lock.

His picks slid into place, and he picked the mechanical aspect of the lock in seconds.

It clicked, and he opened the safe door a millimeter at a time. He got it open a few centimeters and froze. A hair-thin wire connected the safe door to a device in the back that contained yet another trace of magic.

Likely a spell that would be released when the trap was triggered…

Whatever it was Bvorn had inside this safe, he really didn’t want anyone to get it.

There had to be an easy, secret way to disable the trap otherwise Bvorn would never be able to get it open himself.

Unfortunately, Connor didn’t know what it was, and he didn’t like the idea of fiddling around with the safe, and risking activating it to find out.

Better to disable the trap the way he knew how. The way Victor had taught him.

He took out his tools and got to work.

Thanks to his heightened senses, he could control his fingers better, and he got a feel for the trap with far more delicate motions.

He took his time studying it. There was no telling what the trap would do if he set it off. He’d be no good to anyone dead.

He quickly decided against tampering with the device at the back of the safe. It was harder to reach, and he had no idea what the spell inside would do if he started fiddling with the components near it.

The mechanism attached to the safe door seemed to be the best way to disarm it.

He slowly removed the top panel of the mechanism, lifting it up with steady hands. Something glimmered. He stopped moving. An interconnected web of wires attached to the top panel.

He held back a sigh. How many tripwires did this damned thing have?

He disabled them one by one, still keeping the panel steady. The main problem was the time it took, but he couldn’t do anything about that.

He was already moving as fast as he dared.

With the tripwires connected to the top panel disabled, he removed the top panel entirely. The wire connecting the front panel to the device at the back of the safe linked into a complex arrangement of gears and more wires.

The mechanism on the front had two settings, one armed and the other disarmed. Currently, it was in the armed position.

The trigger to change the modes was integrated into the handle and the safe door. It seemed that opening the safe a specific way would disarm the trap.

But, he still couldn’t see how to do that exactly. The wrong motion could trigger it. It would still be faster and safer to simply dismantle it as he was doing.

He couldn’t just move the wire into the disarmed position either as it was connected to more triggers and tripwires designed to prevent him from doing precisely that. It was like a spider’s web with strands spun around the main wire and all the surrounding components.

Some of the wires and triggers were actually extra tricky in that removing them would activate the trap, and the only way to disarm the trap was to leave them be.

The trick was figuring out which ones to remove, and which ones to leave alone…

Just looking at it gave him a headache. How much did Bvorn pay for this thing? The craftsmanship was incredible.

He traced each line one by one and got a feel for which ones to cut and which to leave. He slipped his tools into the web of wires and triggers with steady hands.

One twitch in the wrong direction and the trap would spring.

He disarmed the first trigger…

“Vadik?” said a voice outside, “what are you doing here?”

Connor disarmed the second trigger and an anti-tampering tripwire. A drop of sweat ran down his temple, but he didn’t dare move any faster. What in the twelve hells was Bvorn doing back so soon?

“Waiting for you,” Vadik said, “I have some interesting news.”

“Very well,” said Bvorn, “let’s talk in my office.”

Connor gritted his teeth. Stall him! Stall him! He mentally chanted the words. He couldn’t move, or he’d set the thing off!

The key slid into the lock.

“Uh… wait,” Vadik said, “I also have a very lucrative contract for a bounty.”

“Excellent,” Bvorn said. He fiddled with the key in the door. “That’s odd…” he said, “I think it’s already open…”

The door swung open with a creak. The hairs on the back of Connor’s neck prickled.

“What the—? Thief!” Bvorn yelled.

Someone rushed Connor from behind. He leapt to the side with a roll. He hadn’t finished disarming the trap yet, and it activated.

A gout of flame roared out of the safe and into the face of the man who’d rushed him.

The man screamed and pawed helplessly at his burning face. The fire spread onto his hands and raced across his entire body until it engulfed him entirely.

He ran toward Bvorn, flailing his arms. “Help me!” he screamed.

Bvorn whipped his shortsword through the man’s neck, parting his head from his shoulders. The man collapsed, silent apart from the sound of sizzling flesh.

Connor rushed back to the safe, slammed it shut, and spun around to face the rest of the room as he drew his rapier in a fluid motion.

Two men flanked Bvorn, with the third dead at Bvorn’s feet and Vadik standing just behind them.

Bvorn looked down at the charred corpse and shook his head. “You’ve cost me a good man,” he said, “get him.”