The Unwitting Thief

Chapter 12c - The Talk

The castle was absolutely huge, despite quarter of it had been razed to the ground, so Avelyn insisted that they split up to cover more ground faster. Even so, it was going to take them days to sift through everything.

They all decided to start with the north-east wing, to stay close to the others who couldn't help search the castle, just in case some other supposedly extinct danger decided to make their day.

Thomas was on the second floor, poking his head in through another random door in an endless corridor, when he fell face first onto the rotting boards.

Someone had pushed him in.

He scrambled forwards before spinning around to find himself looking up into the weathered and angry face of Nolan.

Nolan closed the door behind him, brandishing a long blade in the other hand, "Get up, thief!"

Thomas stumbled to his feet, almost falling over more than once as he retreated until the backs of his thighs made contact with a wooden table, sending whatever had been precariously placed there crashing to the floor.

"Nolan, put down the weapon. Nolan, please, look, I'm unarmed!" Thomas raised his hands over his head in surrender, his eyes darting to the door behind Nolan, wondering if he could outrun the older man. Maybe he could make it to the door and hightail it down the corridor, screaming for the others.

"Don't even think about running. I'm must faster than I look."

"Nolan..." The next words died in Thomas's throat as Nolan took two long strides forward in the blink of an eye, reaching Thomas and grabbing his wrist.

"Who are you? What do you want from us?"

Thomas had flinched so violently at Nolan's sudden movements, that he was now sitting on the table, struggling to breathe for the fear and panic that was consuming him.

"I said, who are you!"

"I.. I'm Thomas..."

Nolan growled, and with his teeth exposed, eyes narrowed, and sword arm raised up high, Thomas found himself actually whimpering.

"Don't play stupid with me! You may have fooled the others, but I know a Permuto mark when I see one!" Nolan shookThomas's arm and threw it back at him.

Thomas grasped his own forearm, feeling the blood rush back into the spots where Nolan's fingers had cut off the circulation. He stared at Nolan for a moment, confused.

"A what mark?" Thomas took his eyes off the angry armed man, and looked down at his own arm, at the mark he had only just noticed the day before.

It was small, just a patch of raised skin that didn't seem to be much more than a regular scar, until you looked closer and saw that it was actually a symbol. A symbol that didn't seem to be much different to those he had seen in the stack of books he had found in the chest down in the slums of Roimar.

Thomas looked back up at Nolan, to find him staring at the mark as well. His face was twisted into a look of disgust, but Thomas thought he could see a hint of confusion.

"Nolan, please, you have to believe me, I have no idea what this is! I only noticed it last night when I saw you looking at it."

Nolan scoffed, the blade twitching in his grasp, and Thomas got desperate.

"Look," Thomas made a move to lift his shirt, but only managed to get it partially up over his abdomen.

Nolan must have thought he was reaching for a weapon, because suddenly Thomas was pinned down, his back on the table, and the blade at his throat.