A thief was not a good thief if he hesitated when a prime opportunity presented itself.
Hesitating didn't put food in your belly, it didn't put logs on your fire, and it most certainly didn't make you feel 'good' about yourself for not stealing in the first place. Only a person who had never had to steal to survive would think hesitating before pinching a bag was a good thing. Yet Jace did hesitate before snatching the satchel that was propped up against a pretty girls leg outside of one of the restaurants in Alliria. There was something about it that filled him with dread as though the bag - or whatever was in it - would bite his hand off for touching it without permission.
Perhaps if he had listened to that instinct the events over the next few weeks wouldn't have happened.
But Jace was young and more importantly, he was an idiot.
So on a bright sunny spring day he did what any good thief would do and squashed down that tiny voice that would have spared him days of pain, and instead artfully switched the brown, unassuming satchel with an identical one filled with nothing but trash he had poured into it in order to give it that 'full' look. Once the switch was done Jace just kept walking. Easy, he thought smugly to himself. Once he was out of sight of the girl whom still sat unknowingly robbed, he ducked into an alley and peered into the bag.
"No, no, no - fuck!" he groaned. He had sworn he had seen her put gold into it but a rummage and then tipping the whole thing out confirmed his fears. Inside was just a stuffy old, tattered looking book. It didn't even have those golden pages or the nice leather he saw in those fancy libraries. No. This looked fit for the tip. Varo would never let him live this down especially after the fiasco with the spell scrolls.
"What happened to diamonds being a girls best friend?" the poor lad sighed.
Hesitating didn't put food in your belly, it didn't put logs on your fire, and it most certainly didn't make you feel 'good' about yourself for not stealing in the first place. Only a person who had never had to steal to survive would think hesitating before pinching a bag was a good thing. Yet Jace did hesitate before snatching the satchel that was propped up against a pretty girls leg outside of one of the restaurants in Alliria. There was something about it that filled him with dread as though the bag - or whatever was in it - would bite his hand off for touching it without permission.
Perhaps if he had listened to that instinct the events over the next few weeks wouldn't have happened.
But Jace was young and more importantly, he was an idiot.
So on a bright sunny spring day he did what any good thief would do and squashed down that tiny voice that would have spared him days of pain, and instead artfully switched the brown, unassuming satchel with an identical one filled with nothing but trash he had poured into it in order to give it that 'full' look. Once the switch was done Jace just kept walking. Easy, he thought smugly to himself. Once he was out of sight of the girl whom still sat unknowingly robbed, he ducked into an alley and peered into the bag.
"No, no, no - fuck!" he groaned. He had sworn he had seen her put gold into it but a rummage and then tipping the whole thing out confirmed his fears. Inside was just a stuffy old, tattered looking book. It didn't even have those golden pages or the nice leather he saw in those fancy libraries. No. This looked fit for the tip. Varo would never let him live this down especially after the fiasco with the spell scrolls.
"What happened to diamonds being a girls best friend?" the poor lad sighed.