Thieves Guild

Thieves Guild - Chapter 3

Note from the author:

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A single bird called as it traveled north over Talibut. Ryker opened his eyes up to watch it gliding majestically across the sky, it's body temporarily blotting out the sun. It had come from the keepers tower, he noticed. An urgent communication judging by the bird. The keeper wouldn't be using this one, his fastest documented by the Thieves Guild, unless it was of utmost importance. 

The others had also stirred at the sound of the bird. They had been waiting in the attic room of the bakery since early in the morning, not daring to sleep in case they had been followed somehow. The only connection to the outside world they had was a small sky facing window. The beams of sunlight streaming through it caught  in the multitude of dust particles swirling in the humid room.

They had arrived at this safe house in the dark of the night, entering through the back door after giving the agreed knock. The baker was sympathetic towards the Thieves, but he was uneasy with housing such wanted fugitives in his abode, as it would spell certain death should his help be discovered. After explaining to him what had happened to the guild, the man led them upstairs, instructing them to keep quiet and that he had sent for a Guild member to come for them.

The other thieves had stirred at the sound of the bird, and now they sat up, easing themselves out of the cramped positions they had been in for hours, their cloaks falling off them from where they had been used to keep off the cold of the night. 

They each looked around the group, eyes downcast from the grief they were all feeling, recognizing the pain in each of the other four they were looking at. 

'I can't believe it's gone' Lux started dully. Their nerves and senses had been working overtime for hours, exhausting them all. This was the first time they had spoken since the night before.

'What can we do' Danil continued, 'I want justice, but the Guild is burned and whatever members are left have probably gone in to deep cover by now. I want to know why the keeper attacked, and then I want him dead.'

Ryker nodded in agreement

'Yeah' he said; 'The keeper needs to die. We need to contact Elspeth and find out what she knows. She's our best bet at finding out what's going on'

Brill grunted, and Eloise gave a small nod of agreement.

Lux interjected, 'But how do we know Elspeth is even alive? We didn't see if anyone got out, let alone her. She's probably dead by now. Everyone's probably dead by now' she said, with a sad shake of her head. 

She buried her face in her hands and they stared at her. She had taken the death of Jack harshly, as had Eloise judging by her red eyes. They'd all been friends since they were children.

There was a sudden thump at the door and they all flew upwards, each drawing their knife from the scabbard at the bottom of their back and falling into a fighting stance, balanced on the balls of their feet and weapons held clasped in their hands, pointing down in a Thief grip. There was collective tense up from the group as the door started to open, and then they relaxed as a woman entered. A woman they all recognized. 

'Vita!' Ryker exclaimed, grinning. Seeing her instilled all of them with confidence. He sheathed his knife quickly, and the others followed suit. The senior thief stepped into the room and smiled grimly at the expectant faces mooning up at her from the shadowy room. She had been a big part of all their training in the past year, and she was a familiar face amongst the experienced Thieves.

'Hope I didn't startle you' she began. 

'A little' Ryker admitted. The room had been a bucket filled to the brim with tension.

She grinned and grasped the forearms of each of them in turn, a Thief greeting.  Then her familiar attitude faded as she got down to business. 

'It's good that you got out. Not many of us did. I suppose you're looking for an explanation, and I owe you one, so sit down and I'll get to it'

The trainees hurriedly seated themselves on the boxes around the room, and vita pulled one up for herself, the dust from the floor flying into the air like snowflakes.

'I'll start from the very beginning' she told them. 'Sixteen years ago, the former master of the thieves guild, Lorcan, his second in command, Elspeth, and myself and my twin Vaughan--'

'Did Vaughan get out?' Ryker interjected suddenly

Vita smiled and looked at him. 'Yes; he got out. He's helping to round up the other members as we speak, but as I was saying...' 

He sheepishly gestured for her to continue, berating himself for the interruption.

'--Broke into the keepers tower. Our mission was to find a set of documents of utmost importance we'd discovered by bribing one of the keepers secretaries. The secretary didn't know what was in them, only that the Keeper wouldn't let anyone else handle them but himself, and that they were kept under lock and key in his study at all times.'

She stopped and fixed her gaze on Ryker.

'That was the night we found you' 

He nodded. He'd known the details of his past from an early age.

Vita continued; 'We lost Lorcan in the infiltration. When we got back to base and tried to read the documents, we found they were encoded. We gave them to the guild scribe to attempt to decode, but he had no luck. The code could only be broken via a machine that was available exclusively to the keeper, and because of the nature of the code, another trustee that he had given a machine to.'

The group looked at each other, puzzled. They had never heard of such complex machines.

Vita noticed their puzzlement. 

'That's exactly how we felt. We'd never come across something like this before. For sixteen years, the information on those documents remained out of reach. Until recently. 

They all started at this news.

'Recently?' Lux exclaimed 'So you know what was in the documents?'

Vita addressed her gravely. 'Yes, we knew what was in the documents. The scribe managed to build one of these machines with specifications stolen from an Italiona artisan. He worked on breaking it. It was of the worst fortune that the day he deciphered the code, he was killed by a special ops team of the keepers' guard who had tracked him to his safe house. He managed to send a communication to us via a messenger bird before he died, however. The documents were a letter. A letter to all the enemies of Misteria. Or rather, a call to arms. The keeper knew as long as the Thieves' guild was around, and we knew about his schemes, we would never let him get away with what he was planning. So he exterminated us.' 

She gave a small smile 

'Well. Not all of us. He underestimated us. A grave mistake on his part, and I'll see him die for it. For now though, we need to focus at the problems at hand.' 

She looked at each of them.

'Elspeth was captured last night, helping other trainees out of the guild complex. They wanted to take her alive. Elspeth knows everything about the Thieves guild. Who we deal with, our safe houses, codes, training methods, associates. They've taken her to be questioned. We need to get her back, and quickly. The Keeper has plans, and if we don't stop him from carrying them out, the whole of Talibut is doomed, and so is Misteria. Our first move is getting Elspeth back. I know how much she means to you Ryker, so you're coming with me. Lux, you and him were in the same training group, so you know how each other fight. You're coming too.'

Lux nodded stoically. 

'That means Danil, Brill and Eloise are going to be handling things here in the city. I'll let you three in on the details later on.'

'Vita, what exactly is happening?' Lux asked as the other three acknowledged .

'The Keeper is a sleeper spy from the northern country.' Vita replied. 'The documents we stole detailed an invasion plan. They're going to invade Misteria, and last night kick started it all.'