“I still think it’s crap that we get stuck on guard duty. Did you hear how much Gretchen’s group made on that last delivery?” said one of the guards.

“Oh not this again,” said another guard.

“No, I’m serious,” said the first guard, “We spend all night walking around in circles, and for what? Do you know how much we could make if they gave us a real job like they give to some of the others?”

“I’m much happier guarding a place that never gets attacked. So what if the pay is lower? Can’t spend coin if you’re dead,” said a third guard.

They continued talking as they sauntered by. When they were far enough, Connor let out a breath and continued his climb.

He paused under the open window and listened.

The guards on the factory grounds had been easy to spot, but no matter how good his eyesight was, he couldn’t see through stone. He had no idea what could be lying in wait inside.

It was best to be cautious.

He closed his eyes and focused his full awareness on hearing what awaited him. With his attention on it, his hearing expanded. He heard the patrols all around the courtyard, but nothing from inside the factory.

Only the gentle groan of old metal and the whisper of a night breeze streaming through the open window.

The next patrol was already on the way, and he didn’t want to chance not being seen here a second time, so he climbed up and through the open window.

He dropped down from the window and landed with a soft clang on a catwalk above the factory floor.

Moonlight streamed in around him, and he instinctively crept away from it and into the darkness.

Although he’d heard nothing to suggest there were any guards inside, he still took a moment to study the factory with his keen vision.

A layer of glistening white dust exactly like the powder on the documents from Bvorn’s safe covered everything in the factory. Not even the rafters were spared.

It burned his sensitive nostrils with every breath, and he suppressed a sneeze.

Endless rows of workbenches covered the factory floor with items of all kinds in various stages of the enchantment process. Tools for engraving runes lay beside them, and the air practically vibrated with magic.

The factory floor was massive, and doors of all shapes and sizes led off in every direction.

He held back a sigh. It was going to be a long night.

He combined the directions the doors led in with what he’d seen of the factory outside and noted possible escape routes.

He still didn’t see any guards, but that could change.

He slunk down the stairs and stepped onto the factory floor. A cloud of dust rose up, and he coughed.

His throat itched and his nose burned with every breath. He pulled his cloth mask up tighter over the bottom half of his face.

No wonder that dust was on the documents Bvorn had. It got everywhere. How did the people who worked here deal with it all the time?

He couldn’t imagine anyone getting used to this stuff.

He decided to try out the doors leading deeper into the factory first. If this was a front, then it made sense to have the entrance as far away from where people might stumble upon it as possible.

Of all the cities in Lestria, Vigil was perhaps the harshest on slavery. They’d be fools to run the risk of a stray city guard or an ignorant worker coming across it.

Most of the doors he tried were locked, but that presented no challenge.

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He searched through several rooms that led further into the factory but found nothing that stood out as abnormal.

He stood in the darkness after searching yet another room and finding nothing. If he had to scour every corner for hidden rooms and secret passageways, he’d spend days here.

Each time they returned, the odds of them being caught increased. The sooner they found what they were looking for, the better.

If I had a bunch of slaves that I didn't want anyone to know about, where would I hide them? He wondered.

They’d need a way of getting them through to wherever they were keeping them. They couldn't just walk in through the front door.

It was simply too sloppy for a group that had concealed itself completely until they struck, and still left almost nothing for him to go on.

No, they had to have a better way of doing it.

His mind turned to the delivery he’d seen earlier. A nighttime delivery was unusual, but not suspicious enough for the city guards to investigate, or even take note of.

It would be the perfect way of sneaking in slaves.

After all, the container was massive and pulled by a whole team of horses. They could easily fit plenty of people inside.

Where could they drive a wagon inside the building and out of sight?

The storeroom.

He hadn't found the storeroom yet, but after seeing the delivery earlier, he had a vague sense of where it might be and headed in that direction.

He soon came across a door that led in the direction he thought the storeroom should be. He crouched down and put his ear to the door.

There’d been no sign of guards inside the factory so far, but that didn't mean there weren’t any at all. And guards weren’t the only things that could deter would-be intruders…

He closed his eyes and focused only on hearing lay on the other side of the door.

It was silent.

He waited several minutes longer but still heard nothing. Hopefully, that meant nobody was there… He reached into his bottomless bag and pulled out his lock picks.

The lock was simple, and it only took a few seconds before it unlocked with a satisfying click.

He eased open the door, revealing a dark storeroom.

He let out the breath he’d been holding. His heightened hearing hadn’t failed him. There was nobody else here.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him just in case a patrol came by.

Closing the door darkened the room significantly, even for his heightened vision.

The only light streamed in from far on the other side, but only a trickle made it through the endless stacks of crates and shelves that reached up to the rafters.

The result was almost total darkness, but he could still see enough to get by. It was just as well. He dared not take out any kind of light in here. He suspected that what little light there was, came in through the delivery entrance which meant it was probably visible from outside.

If he started wandering around with a candle in hand, even human eyes might pick up on it.

Especially if he took too long.

His pride at finding the storage room quickly faded as the sheer scale of the place dawned on him.

It could easily take him the entire night just to look it over, and there was no guarantee he’d find anything. If there was even anything to find.

He groaned internally. He might have to come back again anyway…

At least his nose didn’t burn as much as before. The dust still covered the floor, but there wasn’t nearly as much as in the previous rooms.

What little dust there was glistened softly in the low light. The main aisles had long swathes where groups had shuffled through, and only a few glistening footsteps showed the lower traffic areas.

He smiled.

The previous rooms had been so full of crystal dust that he hadn’t noticed before, but here it was like looking back through time. The dust must’ve stuck to their shoes, and the end result was he could see where people walked, and where they didn’t.

They’d likely never noticed it themselves. The stuff was almost impossible to see with human vision when there was so little of it.

Regardless… it should make things much easier.

He stayed away from the higher traffic areas and followed the less traveled paths through the storeroom as that seemed like the best place to start.

He walked around the storage room for an hour as he investigated several of the low traffic paths. Many of them went in circles, but finally, he found a glistening trail that lead straight up to a wall.

He smiled. This had to be it.

Just to make sure, he put his ear to the wall and tapped softly. He moved along the wall, tapping and listening, and quickly found that one part was thinner than the rest, with a hollow space behind it.

Having made certain that there was something there, he looked for a way to open the wall. He felt along the wall for a hidden latch, pressed on the bricks individually and in combinations, and even checked the floor for switches, but found nothing.

He leaned closer and strained his eyes in the darkness. There was a faint outline on the wall, further reinforcing his thoughts that this was a secret door.

Surely nobody would go to so much trouble unless they had something to hide?

Frustration gnawed at him. He was so close, but he couldn’t see how to open it.

He took a deep breath. He didn’t deserve to be frustrated. His alchemy had already made it much easier to find than it should’ve been.

He still had time. He needed to stop expecting everything to be so easy.

Still, he was baffled. How in the twelve did they open it?

He began to wonder if it was just an old room they had walled up. Yet, every time he thought that he just looked down at the trail of glimmering dust that led right up to the wall.

Somebody had come this way. They’d come right up to this wall. Several in fact.

There had to be something here.

Footsteps snapped him out of his thoughts. They were already close, and coming his way.

He mentally cursed his inattention, slipped away and hid next to a crate, behind some shelves.