Private Tales Thieves in the Night

[Amelia]

It was always hard to imagine this was where she had been born. Elbion was a place that Amelia’s mother frequented more than Amelia herself did. Sometimes it was to visit the mages, and other times it was simply for social calls. After all, even a renowned physician needed her breaks, as few and distant as they were. This time it was the lesser known physician’s turn to make this trip. Amelia would most likely always live in her mother’s shadow in that regard.

The streets were busy that day. The sun shone above their heads and offered the rooftops a few more moments of warmth before it set beyond the horizon. Amelia had managed to arrive in town a day early and made way for her paid for room. Taking a shortcut through the marketplace she would get a chance to see what the locals had on display, and in truth it all looked rather good. After purchasing a small piece of pastry she would continue down the road when a man walked into her.

“Sorry!” He exclaimed and hurried into the crowd.

“No worr-” But something didn’t feel right. Amelia’s shoulder seemed lighter.

Her satchel was gone.

“SON OF A-” She screamed and proceeded to push through the crowd. “Stop! Come back, that was my satchel!”

 

[Eren Damar]

There was an unseasonable chill in the air for this time of the year. A bitter wind was blowing in from the west, cutting through the normal fading heat haze of the twilight hours with the first pangs of winter. There would be a light frost come the morning light. Coating the mercantile city with a beautiful, if somewhat thin veneer of glossy white ice. Beautiful to some, treacherous to others - especially those in Eren Damar’s line of informal branch of work. Elbion’s all too frequently crumbling masonry was already enough of a challenge at the best of times.

But that was tomorrow’s concern.

For now, the young thief found herself preoccupied with something a touch more pressing. Her lips puckering with clear disapproval as she watched from a distance as a man, perhaps a handful of seasons older than she was, all but fumble a bump and run on a tourist. His distinct lack of skill a dead giveaway that he wasn’t one of the licensed thieves the guild allowed to operate within the marketplace. It seemed that the first icy grasp of winter wasn’t the only thing the westerly winds had brought with it tonight.

More fool him. With the scars of the thievish civil war that had plagued the alleyways and streets of Elbion only years before still fresh in the mind of many, the Guild had become decidedly more ruthless and brutal in dealing with such interlopers. Especially those that risked breaking the informal peace that had been brokered with the guard by engaging in theft so brazenly open in one of the city’s various thoroughfares.

Worse still, with her position within the Guild as tenuous and as thin the ice that would be forming overnight, she was obligated to rectify the situation before it got out of hand.

“Bloody asses of the six divines.” She intoned softly as she tracked his intended escape path, already placing herself on a course that would allow her to intercept the idiot before he vanished entirely. Pausing only to flip a bent copper half-piece and snatch a glossy red apple from a vendor as she passed. Bouncing it with an almost hypnotic rhythm in time with her step as she sought to quicken her pace, navigating through the dwindling crowds and vendors with deceptive ease. Seeming to predict and flow into the gaps between them almost as quickly as they formed, relying on both her inherited grace and a lifetime of experience watching the ebb and flow of such places to guide her feet as she cut a path across the marketplace.

The apple bounced once - thrice - more in her hand before it vanished from view. Coinciding with a muffled yell of surprise from the lip of an alleyway a split-second later as the careless thief found himself being cracked behind the ear by a fruity red blur that sent him tumbling down and scattered across the cobblestones.

"Preserve me from idiots too stupid to know they're out of their depth," the rogue muttered, already reaching for one of the knives she kept hidden about her person for just such an occasion. Settling on the broad-bladed dwarven dagger that left little to the imagination, yet one she used less to wound, more to intimidate. As young as she might have been, Eren had already grown tired seeing the streets stained with unnecessary bloodshed to last several lifetimes.

She gestured with the point of the blade at the victim as she drew near, giving a dismissive shake of those dark locks. "And don't even get me started on you, knife-ear. You're just as much to blame as he is for this."

 

[Amelia]

The crowd was hard to move through. Where the thief moved with a small amount of agility, Amelia became something more reminiscent of a siege engine trying to get from point A to B. That bag was too valuable for her to just go and lose it. From her journal to her work notes to an almost hidden little book about song scales. There was a lot of value in that bag even if it wasn’t monetary in anyway.

Of course, there was money in there but only enough for a weekend’s stay at a moderately comfortable tavern or hotel at best. They were a rich family, but not that rich.

A small crunch in an alleyway.

Amelia approached the corner and glanced over only to realize that the woman that had stopped her ‘friend’ was already aware of her approach. Even called her knife-ear which caused Amelia’s expression to drop into a low glare before she clenched her hands into tiny little balled up fists.

“I want that satchel back.” She said and finally took the remains of her straps from her shoulder. “It’s important to me.”

 

[Eren Damar]

"If it was that important, don't you think you should've done a better job holding on to it?" The thief countered with a sardonic upturn of those scarred lips, her distinctly Kavoshian pale eyes all but dancing with amusement in the dwindling remnants of the sunlight. Country folk were always the same. They never understood - or tried to understand - how this godsforsaken city truly worked, and always acted so indignant when it inevitably chewed them up for their ignorance. "This guy is hardly a master thief in the making, sweets. That bump was embarrassingly sloppy. "

Eren snorted, turning both her attention and the knife on the still dazed and prone form of the would-be thief. Taking a single step forward to step on the man's wrist as he struggled to reclaim the satchel he had dropped in the process, planting her boot heel first and twisting just enough to elicit a muffled moan and make him rethink his current predicament a little more carefully. He was lucky one of the Guild Strix hadn't caught him. They would've taken two fingers from his dominant hand to underline the lesson about encroaching on the market, while Eren was content to simply settle with a bit of pain and berating. "Honestly, I don't know who I pity more. Him for thinking that he could poach on Guild territory, or you for being so careless in the first place."

She crouched carefully, keeping her weight on the man's arm while reaching for the satchel in question, purposefully lifting it from the bottom upwards to send the contents scattering across the weathered cobblestones. Those sharp eyes turning calculative and appraising as they scanned for anything worth of value. Not that she was of a mind to take it for herself, she simply wanted to see what was worth the effort.

Books for the most part, but none of any apparent value. A set of scales, now bent from the impact of the apple-delivered tumble. Not even the coin was really worth the trouble - perhaps enough for a night of debauchery at best.

Pfft.

"I take that back," She murmured, palming the coin purse with her free hand. This was a waste not, want not world after all. "The pity definitely belongs with you."

 

[Amelia]

A sassy bandit. Amelia kept her calm despite the urge not to. Whether or not that bump was sloppy didn’t concern her as much as actually getting the contents of that satchel. Though perhaps to call this woman a bandit was a bit of a oversimplification. By the way she treated the other thief she appeared to be something more of an agent. There was mention of the guild which could only really mean there were thieves in this town who considered themselves above their actual station, tried to glorify the lives they had by subverting their own reality in an attempt to feel better.

She began to dig through Amelia’s satchel and promptly withdrew the coin purse. Amelia gritted her teeth and furrowed her brows. The thieves in this town seemed emboldened.

Amelia was prodded for another response.

“Yeah whatever, can I have my satchel back now?” She seemed more annoyed than anything else. “Thieves run the town, I get it. Can I have my things back now or is the racist farce you’re putting on going to linger?”

“Ha-ha, I get it I have pointed ears and not a lot of coin. Care to hand that back before I report this to the authorities?”