1

"I've got a job for you."

"I'm listening…"

Clearly not thinking, Evelynn reflected with annoyance. If she had been, she wouldn't currently be standing in Redmont Castle, in the dead of night, hiding in a closet. It had been two hours, and every time she moved to leave, she could swear she heard a noise outside the door and she'd stop. It was almost as if she were waiting for the castle itself to move from her hiding spot to allow her to leave. Evelynn had decided that she was either imagining things, the castle was just very noisy at night, or someone had decided to go to sleep right in front of the door. The last option seemed the least likely, but she still had it on her possibilities list. After all, who would fall asleep in front of a closet?

She reflected on how she had even gotten herself into this situation. She had been at a tavern in Wensley, and she was having a conversation with a possible customer. Evelynn was a hired thief, and very good at what she did. She had found out years ago that moving naturally with the shadows on the ground made her less visible, especially if no one expected to see an intruder. She had also found out that Rangers needed to be avoided.

The man sat down next to Evelynn at the tavern bar. She glanced over at him, not moving her head. People seemed to assume you weren't looking at them if you did that. Evelynn wasn't sure why. The man just sat there, and didn't order anything. Perhaps that was because the bartender seemed slightly intimidated by him. Evelynn had been eating dinner, a relative rarity for her once her job propositions had started dwindling. It was the Rangers, she knew that. Everyone was scared to get goods by not totally honest means, and Evelynn had found herself falling into a pit.

"Heard quite a bit about Redmont," the man beside her said. "It's one of the biggest, and by those means, one of the richest."

Evelynn cocked an eyebrow. He seemed to be hinting at something.

"I've also heard quite a bit about your skills in the loop."

Evelynn was thoroughly interested now. She sat up to face the man. He had a full beard, and a hood that concealed the top of his head, ending at his dark brown eyes. He wore a thin leather vest, a stained white tunic underneath, the sleeves rolled up to reveal beefy arms. He wore dark trousers, stained so by mud and caked dirt that Evelynn wasn't entirely sure what the original color had been. He had brown, equally dirt-caked boots on his feet.

"I've got a job for you."

"I'm listening…"

So was far too much of the tavern. Evelynn and the man had the same idea, to go somewhere more private to discuss this proposition of his. So Evelynn finished her food and he led the way out.

"Right, so as I was saying. My name's Fenn Yuman. I've got a job for ya. See that castle up there?" Fenn pointed at Castle Redmont.

"Yep. It's pretty obvious up there, isn't it?"

"Yep. Anyway. We've got a goal up there, and none of us are stealth enough to get past the guards, see? Not to mention the Ranger."

Evelynn nodded. She saw where this was going. She didn't like it, but she still needed to make a living.

"Right. So, there's this thing up there, that we've been needin'. It's got some information about a diplomatic meetin' with the Skandians in it."

"That's nothing new. Araluen has been having meetings with the Skandians since Treaty, and some time before."

Fenn smiled.

"See, there's the thing. This ain't no normal meetin'. Rumor has it that the Queen's goin' on this one, and so's Treaty."

Evelynn eyed Fenn with a level of suspicion. How'd he know so much about this meeting? And why did he need anything in the castle?

"Wait. Hold on. You said 'we', twice now. Who's 'we'?"

"Nothin' of concern."

Evelynn had a distinct feeling that it was of concern, but she didn't question it any farther.

"So, what's up in the castle that you need me to get?"

"A map."

Evelynn wanted to laugh. She was being sent up by a stranger to get a map?

"There are a million maps around Araluen, probably at least a thousand in Wensley alone. What's so special about this particular map?"

"It outlines their course, see. We want ta use the route to travel safely, given the Skandian raiding ships along the connected coasts. We're a tradin' group, see."

Fenn's story seemed to line up alright, so they made the arrangements and once Evelynn had retrieved the map from Castle Redmont, he'd pay her pretty nicely.

Of course, at the time, Evelynn hadn't considered the danger of the task. Just getting enough to last her through the winter, since that was a dangerous time for her, since it's hard to steal food from farmer's crops when there's no farming going on. The castle's hallways were dark and forbidding at night. Though, to those who were there on legitimate business, it might feel downright homely. Evelynn didn't know. Nor did she necessarily need to know, since she was there for one job. Then she could get the hell out of there. She didn't need to accept any more jobs that took her into the castle's walls, and would tell them to find someone else. Of course, then she wouldn't get any more propositions, or at least they'd be few and far between.

Didn't matter. She could think about those things after she was out of the castle's walls and safely back in town, where she could blend with the crowds and avoid the gaze of anyone from the castle or the Rangers. She hadn't seen the local Ranger, Treaty, yet, but she wasn't going to be shocked if she did sometime tonight. Hopefully, not in a face-to-face confrontation. That, likely, would not end well. At least for her. She had no clue how it could end for the Ranger.

Evelynn quickly and quietly made her way up the stairs, watching for attackers the whole way up. A common design for castles was to have them turn up the right side, so that a swordsman would only have to expose his sword side and an attacker would have to show a whole exposed side of his or her body to retaliate. Evelynn had nearly been killed by this design, and had been extremely wary of it since.

Thankfully, no one was in a fighting mood that night, and she met no opposition on the staircase. On the next floor, Evelynn had to pull out her map of the castle's layout as reference. Fenn had given it to her so that she found the right room, rather than walking into some poor person's quarters while they were asleep. Evelynn nodded in confirmation as she realized she was going the right way, and darted down the hall, her padded soft leather boots making as little sound as possible. Soon, she was in front of the forbidding iron door that led to the baron's study.

Why a map regarding a trip between Araluen and Skandia was in Redmont, Evelynn wasn't sure. Surely they would have had Treaty come to Castle Araluen to review it, if he was indeed going on this trip? It seemed quite unlikely that he would rather stay in Redmont. Then again, Evelynn didn't know anything of the way of Rangers. They were strange, that's for sure. Nothing like what Evelynn was used to dealing with in the way of soldiers and guards. She glanced around for a less obtrusive door to enter, and realized that there wasn't one. So, she tested the door, hoping to find it unlocked. No such luck. She sighed, pulling out her lock-pick gear. Hopefully it didn't make enough noise to alert the castle guards to her presence.

She wiggled the thin piece of metal around in the lock until it clicked. With a triumphant smile, she swung the door open. The study was empty, naturally. It would have been rather strange for someone to be working at this hour of night, and there were still papers strewn along the surface of the enormous oak desk. She sighed. It might take a little bit for her to snag the dumb map she had gone to so much trouble to get. Longer than she had been hoping it would take, at any rate. She quietly shut the large iron door and began to shift through the baron's papers.

It took two and a half hours, but Evelynn had finally found the goddamn map she had used so much energy to find and to leave the castle unnoticed. The dumb thing hadn't even been on the desk - it had been in a drawer, which had taken quite a while to search. Then she found herself back to jumping slightly at every single noise that sounded even remotely like a footstep. I need to stop doing this, Evelynn thought. There's gotta be a more honest way to do this. I'm almost fifteen, and most of the people who would be looking for apprentices will be doing so pretty soon. Winter's almost over at any rate.

That resolution in mind, she snuck out of the castle and into the courtyard.

And caught sight of the Ranger.

Damn.

Hi.

This is a new thing I'm trying to do.

I shall try to keep this up.

That is my resolution for 2018, to finish this story.

I'm sorry if this is kind of short. Also, I'm sorry if, in future chapters, if anyone's OOC. Please give me constructive criticism and feedback! That would indeed make my day. And maybe keep me motivated. IDK. I can still use it to improve my writing, in any case. Yay. Uh. Yeah.