To Catch a King

8.

Andreas hated being stuck in that little hiding place. He was not terrified of enclosed spaces, not by a long shot. He couldn’t be, or he’d be an inefficient hunter and not able to provide food for his family. But he hated the little hiding place. Andreas was used to staying in one position for long amounts of time—he was in the military, for goodness’ sake.

He heard Stephen in the office, muttering something about files, trading and the like. It held no interest for him, but the muttering was comforting, which was probably why Stephen was doing it. He knew that the Enforcer that was assigned to stay at the Sansdora household was in the office because of the fact that every few minutes, there was a sigh that were not consistent with the ones that Stephen constantly gave.

Closing his eyes, he tried to think of something else. He’d think of the mission that he was supposed to be on, instead of being stuck inside a too tiny room with an aristocrat in the same office and an Enforcer accompanying him.

The mission: he was searching for Prince Victor, who had been kidnapped in the night by unknown assailants. He was to return Victor to Hena so that the boy could take on the crown. Why he was on the mission: King Janus was dead. Janus was a power-hungry monster—no. No opinions on the king of his home country. King Janus was dead and it was ill to speak of the deceased. Anyway, Prince Victor was crowned Prince Regent, so that meant that since Janus was dead, Victor had to assume the throne. But he couldn’t. Because he was missing. How he was going to accomplish the mission: he and Jask Victoire—his partner, a beautiful woman that was a thief—were to travel across Ferilis and follow an imaginary trail that their boss, Lukas, had given them. After leaving Challus, they were going to go off of the map and follow their own trail.

Was there anything else? He wracked his brain for anything that could help. There was nothing, just miscellaneous things like Jask and how she was actually the daughter of a king. Well, former king. And Achak wasn’t really a king. He was a chieftan of a culmination clans in Suecha that he had conquered and put together. Either way, Jask was his daughter. That meant that she was a princess. And that she should be in Suecha. Wearing ceremonial clothes and being wedded off to some Suechi warrior.

He inwardly sighed. Thinking about his mission and about Jask wasn’t really helping him. All if was doing was further convincing him that he was not the man for the job, that he was in way over his head, and that Lukas should have given the job to a more experienced soldier, one who had actually been in battle.

Suddenly, Andreas could hear the door open. There was some rustling of paper and clothing, as if Stephen had hurriedly put some papers away and the Enforcer stood up.

“What was that?” the Enforcer snarled. The man sounded young, haughty, and inexperienced. This meant that he was probably one of those Enforcers that were born into a family of Imposers, someone who got lucky. “Why are the lights out?”

“I don’t know,” Stephen answered, sounding confused. “These are the best lights—a new invention by some person in Hena. They’re supposed to last longer than this.”

“Well, they’re useless,” the Enforcer said. From his tone, the Enforcer definitely sounded like some aristocrat who absolutely had no idea what he was doing. Hopefully, if Andreas got out anytime soon and had to encounter the Enforcer, the man wouldn’t be good at fighting and Andreas could get safely away. “It’s pitch black in here.”

There was a muffled noise and then a thud. Andreas heard Stephen’s gasp, and then his sigh.

“Jask!” Stephen hissed. The door to the hiding place was really thin. “What are you doing?” Jask was there? Was she the cause of the thud? There was no answer, and then the door to the hidden room opened up. All Andreas saw was some kind of glowing material. It must have been Jask—her nickname was Ghost. A bout of fresh air surrounded him and he took a deep breath, glad to be free of the musty room.

“Hey,” she whispered. Her whisper sounded muffled, as if there was something covering her mouth. Andreas grinned.

“Hey,” he answered. The Enforcer groaned and there was more shuffling.

“The two of you need to leave,” Stephen whispered. “Jask—get to your room or something. Take Andreas with you.” There was another groan and then Jask jerked. The groaning stopped. “I’ll distract him. You two both need to leave. I’ll still support you in your search, but you can’t stay here. If Darius asks, I’ll tell her that you weren’t comfortable with an Enforcer here and that you went to an inn. Go!”

Walking on the street in the middle of the night was nothing new for Jask. Out of habit, she stayed out of the way of the lit lamps, sticking to the shadows. Several times she had to pull Andreas, because the idiot was crazy enough to walk in the light, alerting to other nightcrawlers such as her that there was a Native walking freely in Challus.

The two both walked briskly down the empty streets, occasionally passing a drunk Enforcer. Thankfully, usually the officers were drunk enough not to notice a woman in all white and a Native walking down the streets like they were thieves and guilty of some crime.

Finally, Jask recognized a road that was safe to go through. There was this old lady that she had stayed with when Aligan was alive, and the woman said that anytime Jask needed anything, all she needed to do was ask. As far as she knew, the old woman was Aligan’s mother. Sadly, Jask couldn’t remember the woman’s name, or if she even had one. They soon appeared in front of the house. It wasn’t much to look at: it was kind of shabby and falling apart. There was no fencing and there were cobblestones leading up to the front door, with a patch of dead on either side.

Jask knocked on the door and hoped that the woman was awake. Or alive. Both would be rather nice.

It didn’t take long for the door to open. Jask smiled as she recognized the old, crinkly face of the woman who had taken care of her when Aligan brought her down for two weeks. She pulled off her hood and pulled down the mask, leaning in to give the woman a hug.

“Jask!” the lady exclaimed. “It’s been so long! And who is this?” The woman looked outside, making sure that there was no one waiting to pop out of the shadows. “Come in, come in.”

Jask walked in and was pleased to see that nothing had changed. The woman still had antiques all around the house, and a clock right beside the door. The door opened into a hallway with three doors.

“What brings you back to Challus?” the woman asked. She led them to a kitchen, which was surprisingly neat given how rundown the home was. “I know Aligan’s dead—I told the coot that he wouldn’t last past thirty-five, and that you’d visit me soon after.” She sat down at a rickety table and gestured for the two to sit. “I doubt you’d remember everything you learned about me, Jask. So, I’ll reintroduce myself for the sake of your friend here.” The old woman sat up straight at gazed evenly between the two of them.

“My name is Alice and I am the former leader of the Thieve’s Guild of Hena.” At Andreas’ shocked expression, she smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, young man.”

The dawning of a new day had Andreas sleeping in a spare bed at Alice’s house. The house was pretty small, and Jask had taken the spare bedroom when they had finished talking. Apparently, since Alice was the last Guild Master of Jask’s Thieve’s Guild, she couldn’t appear anymore in the capital city, even to visit Jask. This led to the two of them becoming estranged, since Jask rarely left the capital.

He sat up and groaned. He was sore from crouching in Stephen’s hiding place. Though he hadn’t been hiding long, he was really affected by that short time. He stretched his limbs and then looked for the kitchen, since he was awoken by a delicious aroma.

Alice noticed him walk in and smiled. “Hello, dear. Did you have a nice rest?”

He nodded. “I’m just a bit sore. I had to hide from Enforcer’s last night.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And now I feel the need to bathe.”

Alice chuckled and shoved him a plate full of food. “Eat first. You’re thin as a stick and your provisions went bad.” She gestured to the tiny table in the middle of the kitchen. “Speaking of provisions, Jask went out to get some more. Well, not food, since it would be better to go get that before you leave.” The old woman went on and kept mumbling about random things while Andreas dug into his food.

Today—or tonight, whichever Jask preferred as this was her special line of work—the both of them would go searching for information on Victor and her whereabouts. Still eating, he leaned on one of his arms and thought about what they had to do. Stephen had no idea or even inkling of where Victor may be, and the Enforcers would be essentially useless, since they wanted to arrest him. It would be best to go to the mayor of Challus.

He stood up, done with his food, and washed out his plate before heading to Alice’s miniscule bathroom. There, he freshened up and changed into some clean clothes—basically a dark blue shirt and some trousers. He had to look somewhat presentable if he was going to try to see the mayor later.

When he finished, he looked around for something to do. There was nothing that he could see, so he went to look for Alice, finding her in her small backyard.

“Why, don’t you look ravishing!” she exclaimed. “Jask is extremely lucky, you’re a handsome young man.”

“Jask and I aren’t—”

“Oh, I know! But if you two happened to come together and fall in love, I give you my blessing. That girl needs a lawman.”

Andreas was turning red in the face and it made Alice laugh. She loved making the boy nervous, and she could really see how Jask and Andreas would make a lovely couple. They were both stable people with good upbringings—Jask wasn’t that bad of a thief and she didn’t steal to keep things for herself and didn’t keep trophies—and Alice knew that Jask had had no one special in her life. Andreas was a bit uptight, but was becoming looser. The two of them together were perfect.

“Is there anything you need for me to do?” Andreas asked, his complexion going back to normal. He tried not to think about him and Jask being together, even if his heart did thump a bit at the mere mention of her. “I don’t want to feel useless.”

Alice waved her hand. “There’s nothing really. You can’t run errands for me, so I sent Jask out for that. Hm. You can clean the kitchen! Some of the dishes are dirty, and it’s rather disorganized. If you’d like, you can reorganize for me.”

Andreas smiled. He hadn’t done anything useful in a kitchen besides eat for years. And back when he was a kid, he was in the kitchen more than a usual male was. His mother taught him the importance of having a clean kitchen and that even if a mother lives forever, she wouldn’t cook for him forever.

He headed to the kitchen. True to Alice’s words, the kitchen wasn’t organized at all. There was no set area to put all the dishes, so there was no telling what was clean and what was dirty. Rolling up his sleeves, he went to work.

Jask, however, was frustrated. She’d done all of Alice’s errands and got all the supplies that she needed, but there was no gossip or information on Victor at all. She’d gone to all three of the Thieve’s Guilds before she ran Alice’s errands, and the Guild Masters hadn’t heard anything, either.

She shuddered. Going to each of the guilds made her uncomfortable. Though she was used to the leers and catcalls she got when at a guild such as that, she still didn’t like the slimy feeling of men—old and young alike—mentally undressing her. For a while, she wished that Andreas was beside her, especially when she was speaking to a Guild Master and he had the audacity to put his hand on her thigh. She fought not to cut the hand off with her dagger so as not to offend the man or the guild.

She wished she had, though. She knew that the feeling would be nice.

An Enforcer passed by, looked at her once, and kept going. For the moment, she looked like a regular citizen who had nothing to hide. The only thing was that she was wearing trousers when women usually wore dresses, skirts, and the like. Thankfully, women wearing trousers was a new trend that was becoming more and more popular, so she didn’t stand out much. If the Enforcer had stopped her, she would’ve been in trouble—or he would have flirted.

Jask shook her head and continued on to the markets to get her a snack. She left before Andreas had woken up and consequently didn’t have breakfast. It was now noon and she needed something in her stomach. When she arrived at the market, she wasn’t surprised to see it bustling with activity. Noon was the busiest time of the market day, and she was silly enough not to get something before the market got too warm and too crowded. Just walking among the crushing and warm bodies, she was paying for it now. Resisting the urge to groan, she went to a fruit stand and bought a couple of apples.

Afterwards, she explored the city and procrastinated going back to Alice’s home. She had forgotten how clean the city was in comparison to Hena, and how closed up the citizens were. She remembered that the one time she came here, she was to steal something, but couldn’t prevail because of the privacy and security of the citizens. Shaking her head, she wondered how the citizens of Challus survived here.

A shadow covered her and she looked up. Before her stood a foreigner—she could tell because his skin was pale, nothing like the skin of everyone else that she had seen in Challus, Hena, or Daemis. He smiled down at her.

“Mind if I sit?” His voice was silky and sent a shiver down her spine. The man’s voice made her think of a snake, and people with the most snake-like voices tended to be in higher power. Grudgingly, she scooted over and allowed the man to sit beside her.

“Thank you,” he said. “My name is Seras. Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand and Jask looked at it warily. She was resting, not intending to actually speak to other people. In fact, she could feel the stares of the people of Challus as they watched the two of them speak. She took Seras’s hand.

“I’m Jacqueline,” she fake smiled. “Please to meet you.” Her stomach churned and she gratefully let go of the man’s hand. She decided, rather quickly, to give the man her real name since she didn’t really answer to it. Jask was preferred and she didn’t care for the name her non-existent parents had given her.

“Why, a beautiful name for a beautiful lady,” the foreigner, Seras, said. Inwardly, Jask grimaced. Along with his voice being silky, it also felt rather slimy. Disgusting. And why was she still speaking to him? She never spoke to strange people. Never. It wasn’t in her rule book and she wondered why she was doing it now.

“I’m flattered,” she replied demurely. She felt a nasty taste in her mouth. This man gave her bad vibes and she couldn’t wait to leave. Seras smiled.

“Anyway, what is an Elite soldier from Hena—a female Elite at that—doing here in Challus? Does it have to do with the missing prince?”

Jask froze, then her face hardened. What did this man know about Victor? He looked over at her and smiled, his once cheerful grin suddenly menacing. Seras moved closer to her, and she fought not to squirm. Where was her thieving confidence when she needed it? Where was the confidence of an Elite Soldier as well?

“What do you know?” she muttered darkly. Seras sat back and continued to smile.

“I know a lot,” he said. “Much more than a pretty girl like you should.”

“You know where he’s being hid,” she accused. She stood up angrily.

Seras tsked. “Jackie—may I call you that?”

“No.”

Seras ignored her. “Jackie, it’s much better not to talk about private affairs in public. Didn’t your elders teach you better?” He stood up, joining her. “I have valuable information that you need. May I meet you and your partner tonight?”

Jask was still annoyed at the nickname that Seras had given her, but she thought about it. He knew about Andreas. He knew about Prince Victor’s whereabouts. And this entire meeting may be a trap that required more than just her and Andreas. They may need Alice and her horde of thieves that she had rounded up and left with when she retired. If she had help, then maybe the meeting could be a success.

“Fine,” she said. She knew that she’d regret this later. “Where would you like to meet?”

Seras grabbed her hand and kissed it. Jask had to remind herself to wash her hands later, when she returned to Alice’s and told everyone what had happened.

“Right here,” the man answered. “We’ll meet here and then head to a more…secure location.”

“Are you going to be alone?” she asked. She had to make sure. Seras winked.

“About as alone as you and your partner are going to be. I know about your alliance with thieves, since you are one yourself, no?”

Jask fought not to slice the man’s throat then and there. While she had qualms against killing, his death wouldn’t matter to her if not for the fact that he had information that she and Andreas sorely needed.

Smiling as if he knew something she didn’t - which he did- Seras turned and walked away. She stood there for a moment, sighed, and then headed back to Alice’s.

Andreas didn’t want to go meet Seras and neither did Alice. It all seemed too suspicious, the way that Seras had known who exactly Jask was. Andreas really wished that he had been with her when she was running errands, because her whole little ordeal may not have happened if she hadn’t been alone.

But maybe that was what Seras had been counting on. Jask commented that she got bad vibes from him, which made sense because of how cunning and perceptive she had to be as a thief. While Alice didn’t want to meet Seras, she made a good point about how the two of them were in dire need of information if they were going to find Prince Victor in their allotted time period—which ended in less than two weeks, if they didn’t send a message to Lukas extending their search time.

But then what was the point of being an Elite Soldier if they couldn’t get their first mission done in the month that the two of them had been given? That’s what plagued both of the young adults’ minds, and so with that in mind, they made the decision to meet Seras. Alice would accompany them, of course, with her backup of thieves and a few of the allies that she had made while living in Challus. The probability that all of this would be a trap was high, but it was a risk they were willing to take in order to get the information that was needed to find Prince Victor.

When night had fallen, Jask donned her gear and Andreas dressed in as much black as he could find, with his pin in a hidden pocket in his pants and his weapons strapped across his back. There was no such thing as being too careful in a situation such as this. He kind of wished that he could temporarily hide the fact that he was Native, but it was a fleeting wish that had him scolding himself for not being proud of who he was and what he was doing for his people.

They met up with Alice’s allies a block before the designated meeting area, and introductions were made. Surprisingly, Kelim was there, and he seemed excited to be getting some action.

Andreas and Jask made the decision to go to the bench themselves, where Seras was waiting, a catlike smile on his face. All three of them knew that their backup remained behind in the shadows, just in case something happened. With Jask’s experience in secret meetings such as this, things always seemed to happen.

“Hello, my dear!” Seras exclaimed when Jask got near enough. He eyed Andreas, a smile on his face. “I’m glad to see that you made it with your…partner. Are you two in a relationship, perhaps?”

Involuntarily, Jask and Andreas took a step away from each other, noticing how near they had been standing to one another. Andreas’ face turned red and he could hear Alice chuckling from somewhere in the shadows. He fought the urge to scowl.

Seras waved his hand. “Very well, then. Come, let us go to our meeting place.” Andreas didn’t like the man’s voice. It was just as silky yet slimy as Jask had described, and it made him more alert than he normally would be.

Seras led them through alleyways and across streets, leading them through the market place, the shopping areas, the residential areas, and finally to a graveyard.

Andreas didn’t like graveyards; he thought they were creepy and unnecessary. He wondered why Ferilians buried their people in wooden boxes when it was perfectly fine to burn them. Thenagain, it was in his culture to burn the bodies and pray for their safe journey into the Affterlife, with the High Father awaiting them with presents and their rewards for living a fulfilling life.

They stopped in front of a tree and Seras sat on a blanket that had been positioned there, as if someone—probably him—had put it there before everyone arrived.

“Now,” Seras said, clapping. “Now for introductions. Because it’s you two, never minding the backup that you and I have hiding just in case something undesirable happens, I will state my full name and my country. You must do the same—including you, Native boy. I don’t mind if you state the Old Country’s name, too.”

Andreas’ eyes widened. Of course the man knew the history of the Old Country, or what had been the Old Country before Ferilis had been colonized and settled. Either way, he hid his surprise as well as he could and made himself as comfortable as he could be against a tombstone.

“Fine,” Jask huffed. “You go first.”

Seras smiled. “Alright, dearie. And I will refrain from lying. My name is Seras Moonshadow, and I was raised in Esgani but born in Suecha.” Seras eyed Jask and Andreas bit his tongue. He knew about Jask’s heritage. He clenched his fist and hoped that he wouldn’t reveal anything just yet. Andreas wanted to be the one to tell Jask and he wanted to have all the answers that he could before giving her the real information on who she was and where she was born.

“My turn,” Andreas said before Jask could. She shot him a glare and he glared back. “I am Andreas Aijian. And I was raised in Ferilis.”

Both Seras and Jask raised their eyebrows. Seras spoke first.

“You’re not going to…?”

“I was born and raised here in this country,” Andreas snapped. “No need for knowing exactly where I’m from.” Seras sat back, a petulant look on his face, before turning to Jask.

“My name is Jask Victoire and I was raised here in Ferilis. In Hena, to be exact,” she said. “Now, onto business. Seras, you said that you had information for us regarding Victor.”

Seras smiled and clapped his hands together. “Yes, I do!” he exclaimed. “Please, sit on the blanket with me.”

Andreas tested the blanket before sitting down, and Jask did the same. When they were settled, Seras started to tell what he knew. Only, he said it quietly since the knowledge wasn’t common knowledge as of yet.

“First off, here’s what I know: the prince was kidnapped two weeks ago from his room when the king was oh so brutally murdered. Since then, the two of you have been on the search for him.” Seras gazed at their faces. Yes, he knew about the prince. Seras had spies stationed all around Hena, especially in the castle, for his boss. The information that he was about to give to the two soldiers could get him killed if his king knew, but he wanted this kingdom to survive, not get to the war that was brewing all around the continent.

Andreas glared at the man in front of him. That information should be known to no one. Yet it was. And here someone was, the information fully known to a foreigner.

“Continue,” Jask commanded. Seras nodded to her.

“My source, whom I cannot tell you who they are for fear they may be killed, has given me information concerning him. Now, I can’t give you much—”

“You’re skirting around the issue,” Andreas said. “Get to the point.” Seras glared at him, thinking the man was rude.

“Fine,” Seras huffed. “The prince is alive. I don’t know exactly where he is, but I do know that he is in one of the small villages surrounding Talehaven. He may or may not have his memory; the sleeping serum given to him has not been tested on young adults not at their prime yet.”

Jask and Andreas looked at each other. Andreas knew all of the villages surrounding Talehaven; they all traded on a regular basis. Jask didn’t know, but she figured that she’d had a better look at the prince than Andreas did, so she’d recognize him faster. Not to mention she was curious as to what was in the village that was so special, and if there was something to steal. She hadn’t stolen anything since she got recruited for the Elite Soldiers, so her fingers were itching for something to grab.

“Is there anything else?” Jask inquired. She didn’t want Andreas speaking to the man, because the tension between the two of them was palpable. Though she didn’t like Seras, it seemed that Andreas automatically hated him.

“No,” Seras answered. “That is all that my source has given me.” He stood. “Now, I must take my leave.” He bowed toward Jask. “Have a good night, my dear.” He turned to Andreas, his gaze menacing. “Be careful, Native. I have Enforcers at my beck and call should you ever choose to offend me again.”

Andreas hardened his face and tried not to scowl. Being threatened by a foreigner that had control over the policing faction of his country bothered him and he wondered why a foreigner was held in much higher regard. Stiffly, he bowed and he and Jask walked into the shadows.

Jask let out a breath that she didn’t realize that she was holding. The meeting went well, for once, and she was content with the information being given. She suddenly became alert, though, when the tree that Seras had previously been under rustled.

She heard a strangled cry and quickly turned to see Seras lying on his face, gasping for air. She raced to him and saw a needle sticking from his neck. She could see black liquid on it and knew that he’d been poisoned. He gave a few breaths and then died.

“Andreas!” she barked.

Andreas, who’d also noticed, was already scaling the tree for the attacker. The leaves rustled because of the struggle he was going through, but then someone fell from the tree with a thud. Alice came out of the shadows.

She held a dagger in her hand, similar to the one that Jask had. It must have been given to her by Aligan before she left the Guild, since she passed the leadership on to him. The dagger glinted in the moonlight, and Alice moved quicker than Jask had ever seen the old lady move. In a moment, she was holding the dagger to the attacker’s throat and the person was gasping for air.

Andreas ripped off the mask of the attacker and noticed Jask’s intake of breath. She knew the person. The attacker was just a kid, someone that Jask was familiar with by the looks of it. She sank to her knees.

“Nil?” she gasped.

The boy scoffed. “Please, give me away why don’t you.”

Jask’s face hardened and she stood up. When she got close enough to touch him, she smacked him hard. Nil’s face whipped to the side and saliva flew out of his mouth. His face turning red, he turned and gaped at her.

Andreas looked at Jask’s face. It was masked, and it scared him. She was usually focused when it came to her job and training, he had noticed, but the look on her face scared him. Her face was impossibly cold, and her eyes icy. It reminded him of a Suechi warrior if he ever saw one. Nil happened to notice the same thing and he paled considerably.

“Let go of him,” Jask commanded. Andreas did as he was told and backed away. He stood beside Alice, who looked semi-proud of the young woman.

“She’s just like her father,” Alice whispered. Andreas gulped.

They both watched as Jask lifted up the teenager and glared. A breeze wafted through and Andreas had noticed the smell of urine. He fought the urge to both laugh and cry. The boy, Nil, had peed his pants in fear.

Jask pulled back her arm and punched. She punched the boy until he was bloody and passed out, and then dropped him on the ground like he was trash. Then, she kicked him.

“We don’t murder,” she said in a calm voice. It was the kind of calm voice that criminals who knew that they were guilty of unimaginable things had. “That’s the way of the guild.” She squatted down and matched her eyes level to his. “What is our code?”

Nil, who was gasping for air and fighting for consciousness, opened and closed his mouth, looking like a fish. Andreas gulped. He desperately wanted to go and stop Jask, but Alice was holding him back with a strength he never noticed she had.

“Let her do it,” Alice said. “The boy has broken one of the sacred tenants that we thieves live by.”

“What. Is. Our. Code?” Jask slowly repeated. Andreas felt a quake of fear growing in the pit of his stomach. “Answer!”

“’Killing is for cowards, stealing is not,’” the boy ground out.

“What else?” Jask asked. “Continue.”

“We steal for our brethren, we steal for profit. We are not mercenaries.”

“And you killed,” Jask said. “Obviously for money. We are not mercenaries, remember? We don’t kill for the sake of it, we don’t kill for money. We only steal and defend ourselves if need be. As the tenant said, killing is cowardice.”

“But you’ve killed—”

“No I haven’t!” her outburst was loud and sharp, startling Alice, whose grip loosened. Andreas didn’t notice. “I only knock out my enemies. I don’t bring death. I am not a Suechi warrior.”

Nil winced as Jask stepped over him. Andreas finally noticed that she was wearing her thieving suit, and that her gloves were covered in Nil’s blood. As they were connected to her suit, she couldn’t take them off, and it would bring suspicion her way.

She looked down at Alice. “Do what you will with him. I will send a messenger to Furin, telling him of Nil’s defection.” She looked at Andreas and he saw her eyes relax. What she did to Nil was an act. She did obviously feel that way about her tenants because of how tense she was when she stood, but he could see that she didn’t want to beat the poor boy up.

Reaching forward, he hugged her. She leaned into him and he turned her toward the exit of the graveyard.

“I’ll get her back to your place,” he called out to Alice. “We’ll send a messenger in the morning and then leave. We need to speak to the mayor and get to Talehaven as soon as possible.”

Alice nodded and allowed the two to leave.

When they got back to Alice’s, Andreas ran Jask a bath and helped her out of her suit, making sure not to look at her body and realize that she was naked. Once she settled into the tub, he headed to the kitchen to find some kind of solution to get the bloody stain out of Jask’s gloves. While the solution was diluting the blood so that he could wash the outfit, he made Jask and Alice something to eat. He had no idea how long it would take for Alice to get back, so he saved her portion of the food and left Jask’s on the table.

When he went back to check on her, he took with him a loose tunic for her to wear. She sat in the tub until the water was cold, but he lifted her out and wrapped a towel around her. She clung to him as if he was her lifeline, and he put the tunic on her, making sure that she was dry enough not to get sick.

“Are you okay?” he asked, lifting her head up. Jask shook her head and stayed cradled against his chest, even when she sat down.

“I’ve never done that,” she said. “When people broke their vows, I usually ignored them. They knew they had done wrong. What was so different this time?”

Andreas got a bit more comfortable. Then he wrapped his arms around Jask and sighed. “Maybe it’s because you knew him. Maybe it’s because you were so disappointed that he could do something like that. I don’t know.”

They were quiet for a while and soon Andreas felt himself nodding off.

Jask didn’t like the feeling she got after beating up Nil. It felt dark, victorious, and left her craving for more. What she’d done to him was uphold Thieve’s Guild tenants, laws that were still engrained in her two years after she left the guild to become a freelancing thief. She had absolutely no right to uphold laws; she should have sent him to the current guild master, or let Alice take care of him.

Either way, those feelings left her feeling like a pile of dung that had been left on the sidewalk in the summer for days. She felt grateful that Andreas was there. He had taken her back to Alice’s, bathed her—which she found slightly embarrassing—and fed her. Much like a mother would, actually. And she guessed that she needed that. A mother was one of the many things Jask had lacked as she had been growing up. Still, with her and Andreas snuggled up on the sofa, she felt content. Perfectly at peace, which was what she needed after dealing with Nil.

“I’m sorry you saw that,” she said quietly. “That was…”

“I’ve seen worse,” Andreas assured her. “You did what you felt you needed to.” After that, they were quiet. Jask absentmindedly played with Andreas’ hair, which he had left loose.

Before that, she’d only seen his hair in a bun or ponytail, which gave her no idea on how long it actually was. But now, she could tell. His hair fell down his shoulders in waves, inky black, seeming like a night sky. Soft and silky, it made Jask envious.

He obviously didn’t mind what she was doing, as he fell asleep soon after settling on the chair with her. Jask was a little bit sleepy herself, but she wanted to stay awake until Alice got back home. Or at least until dawn, but the comfort of Andreas’ arms, and the warmth of the blanket covering them, and the drooping of her eyes betrayed her. Before long, she was asleep, a lock of Andreas’ hair intertwined within her fingers.

When she woke up next, it was mid-day and she was resting comfortably within a bed. The events of the night caught up with her and she groaned, rolling over. When she did so, she hit someone’s body, who groaned.

“Stop moving.”

It was Andreas, and he rolled over and curled into a ball, his back facing Jask. She felt her face turn red and then a chuckle came from the door. It was Alice.

“He’s quite a nice young man,” she commented. “Though not a morning person. After dumping you in the bed, he grumbled a bit and had no qualms crawling in right beside you. It’s rather adorable, the way he acts.”

There was more grumbling from Andreas, and Jask caught the words “quiet”, “sleep”, and “tired”. She held back a giggle and followed Alice into the kitchen. There, Alice had a plate of food waiting for her female guest.

“I have some news,” Alice announced. Jask realized that the disorganized kitchen was noticeably cleaner than it was when she and Andreas arrived. “After your little episode with Nil and after you two left, Enforcers stormed the place. Of course, my people stayed in the shadows, but Nil and Seras’s body was taken away.” Alice sat down across from the twenty year old and crossed her fingers. “The Enforcers seemed to know Seras, which I found rather curious. I sent a letter to one of my Imposer friends, and this came right before I woke you up.” She held up an envelope.

The way Alice got information was surprisingly quick, Jask noticed.

“Apparently, Seras has been conferring with our Mayor on some imports and other activity. He arrived three weeks ago, when the prince first went missing. It’s been said that he had three of his best Elite come with him, but they were nowhere to be found.

“I’ve scheduled a meeting with the mayor. He’ll meet with you tomorrow morning and then I hope you can be on your way.”