This story is supposed to take plce in a country to the far East, past the Spine. When the Immortals came down to the world out of the Realms. It will probably stray from the original story, though. Read & Review!
Chapter One
In Merchant Tanner's shop, the darkness in the room shifted, as the door opened just enough for a slight body to slip silently through. The body was clad all in smoky blacks and grays, for if the outfit was all black, somebody would see how it did not fit among the moving shadows, and that was not the ideal situation for this person. On the belt were two small pouches, and two daggers, all strapped close to the person, so not to move around. Feet were shoved into soft-soled black boots that reached up to the middle of the calf, with the breeches tucked into the tops, and hands were in thin gray gloves, overlapping the ends of a shirt. Both were obviously fitted to the person. A hood was drawn over the head, covering up the long, black hair. Black soot covered up the face, leaving just enough space for two bright blue eyes to peek through. Clinging to the person's back was a small bag, which matched the rest of the outfit so well that you could barely tell it was there in the dim light. Overall, the outfit was skin-tight, so not to move in the wind. It showed a slender female body, just barely matured. Somewhat short and stocky, the build was slender, but muscular at the same time, and the figure moved gracefully into the shop.
Pyro moved through the shop silently, going automatically to the back, were the stairs protruded, leading up to the merchant's living quarters. As she climbed, she slowly pulled the bag off her back, and over her shoulder. When she reached the top of the stairs, a floorboard creaked under her. She winced at the sound, and stood motionless, listening for a sound to suggest that the owners of the place woke up at the noise. To her relief, she heard nothing, and continued on.
At the first door she encounters, she laid her ear against the wood, and heard a faint snore. Skipping that room, she went to the next door, and repeated the procedure. At this entrance, Pyro heard nothing. She quickly slipped a bladder of oil out of her bag, and oiled the hinges. Then, she took out a roll of metal strips from her belt, and picked the lock. It came open in seconds. "Stupid morons," she muttered, in a quiet, but pretty, voice. "They always think they have the best, fool-proof lock against thieves, but each lock is easier to open than the one made before it. They should learn that there is no lock that can stop us." Slowly opening the door a crack, she peaked inside, and saw two desks, a bookcase, and a small window. She opened the door a bit wider; she slipped inside, and closed the door behind her. It would do no good for the merchant to need a midnight snack, and find her in the locked room. Behind the door, was a trunk, right were Pyro expected it. What she wasn't expecting was the trunk to be opened, and sorted through, already. She checked inside the trunk, but only found papers: receipts, stock, and letters to friends. After a quick scan of the rest of the house in the same manner, she decided that someone had beat her to the money. Oh, well, Pyro thought, Thraden will just have to deal without the glimmers for one job.
She decided to check the first room one more time, just to be sure. Still finding nothing, she oiled the hinges on the window, and slid onto the ledge and disappeared into the black night. Standing on the ledge, Pyro reached up to grab the edge of the overhanging roof with both hands. She slowly pulled herself up, and when she reached the top, she went a few steps away from the edge, and lay down. The sky was clear tonight, and the stars shone brightly. After a few minutes, Pyro thought she heard a noise. She laid silent, listening for the clamor of the Guard. She heard nothing, and when she was about to forget about it, she heard a footstep right behind her head. Jumping up, and pulling one of her many hidden daggers, she spun around to stare at the person who was sneaking up on her. At the edge of her dagger was a youth clad in the same garb that Pyro herself was in, although the hood was pulled back, revealing long, dirty blond hair, tied up in a horsetail. A few strands had escaped, though, and draped in front of his deep blue eyes, a shade or two darker than Pyro's own. And he had a huge grin on his face, despite the knife at his neck. It was her best friend and partner, Derek. "What are you trying to do?" she hissed, sliding her dagger back into its sheath on her forearm. "Do you want to get yourself killed? I almost did kill ya, you know. You are just lucky that I am much better at fighting than you, and have much better control. If our places had been reversed, I would have been dead before you noticed that it was me!"
"Are you quite done ranting, yet? And, besides, our places could never be switched, you are not stupid enough to try to sneak up on a thief who can fight." As Derek teased her, he grinned, and ruffled her hair in a friendly manner. Derek was three years older than Pyro's sixteen, and a head taller than her five foot two, and he never let her forget either fact, teasing her, and treating her like a little sister. She got him back for the teasing by beating him at weaponry, which, or so ha claimed, was only because she had been in the thieves guild for four years longer than him. "Kyle is back at the headquarters, waiting for you." Seeing Pyro blush, his grin got even wider. She was a hard girl to show any weaknesses, but if he mentioned the boy she liked, he got the rare enjoyment of seeing her off balance, even if it was normally followed by hard thwack. He was waiting for this to happen, but it never came, this time. After a minute, Derek slung his arm around her shoulders, and together, they roamed over the roofs of Gohtec.
At the end of one street, they climbed down a pile of vines, into a dark alleyway. There, the two turned their breeches inside out, to show the dark blue inside. With their tunics, they wiped the soot off of their faces with the gray side, and put them back on, with a lighter blue than the breeches on the outside. Now, Pyro and Derek looked like any other teenager in Gohtec, and they wandered through the streets, seemingly going nowhere exactly, just enjoying each other's company. Pyro had noticed a figure that started to follow them, once they had left the alley where they had changed. Now, there were six of them, all trailing behind her and Derek. They must have heard Derek when he fell of the vines, and cursed. Rather loudly, I might add. And only a thief would curse with Tasachy's name. She named the goddess of thieves. Unlike most other religions, in the temples in Gotec, and all of Remtlor for that matter, the majority of the deities were female. After about a candlemark of apparently aimless wandering, the two had lost the followers, and they came to an inn, called Picket's Harp. It looked like a fairly respectable tavern, and the two went inside.
"Ah, Derek, and Pyro! I was wonderin' when the two of ya would be back! Ya've been gone quite awhile, and keeping Him waitin', and, ya know, that's not a good idear!" The person teasing them was a short man, but still taller than Pyro. He was around thirty years old, and still had the slim build of teenager, and thick, ebony hair. He was the innkeeper, Tokch.
Derek and Pyro tried to slip past the crowded tables, heading for him, but a hand grabbing Pyro by the arm, preventing her from going anywhere. Turning, she saw a man, around twenty, was her guess. He made Pyro think of a prowling wolf, with his beady eyes, the color of varnished wood and thick, rangy hair, the same color as his eyes. He was obviously very drunk, as he tried to pull Pyro into his lap before Pyro knocked him to the ground, unconscious.
"You know, Tokch, you should really move this mat. It looks all wrong here, much to dirty," Pyro said as she turned around with a smile, kicking the man on the ground. Tokch laughed aloud, his gray eyes dancing before bringing Derek and Pyro drinks.
Derek, noticing that his friend was not behind him, but in the arms of a stranger, slipped his dagger out from its sheath, but by the time it was out, the man was on the ground, and Pyro was smiling. "I would think," he drawled, "after as many people who end up on the floor after touching you, they would know better." He walked up to her, and slung his arm over her shoulders, leading her to Tokch and the drinks. Once the got through the first throng, he whispered in her ear, "But I know of one guy who you would be very happy to have touching you, and not in practice, either."
As Pyro turned bright red, and voice said from behind them, "Really? Who is it?" Derek turned around laughing, with Pyro still under his arm. "Besides this idiot, of course." The teenager who was talking had thin, copper hair that just touched his shoulders, and joyful, hazel eyes. "You know, Derek," Kyle said, "She never turns this red with me. I think you should go away." He clapped Derek on the back, and led them to a small table in the corner as far away from the unconscious man as possible.
"Well, in answer to your fabulous question, Pyro here is madly in love with you," Derek said extravagantly.
"I'll believe that when I see it, Derek." Turning to Pyro, he saw the man by the doorway. He said, "Pyro, I think you broke the record. You didn't even give Derek here enough time to get his dagger out to protect you this time." At this, both Derek and Pyro blushed.
To cover up her uneasiness, Pyro went over to the counter, to get the drinks Tokch had left them, before they had moved with Kyle. When she returned with the mugs, Derek and Kyle were arguing about which one of them had the prettier eyes. Pyro, who did not want to enter this conversation, slid Derek his drink, and went to see which of her other friends had come back from their job yet. When she came back, Kyle grinned at her. "Have you gone mute, Pyro?" he asked. "You have not said a single thing yet."
Derek smirked, and said, "I think that comes from almost killing two people in the last candlemark." Pyro glared at him, and was about to retort when Kyle interrupted.
"Two people? I only saw one…" He left the question hanging in the air, not caring which one of them answered it.
"Yep!" Derek smiled. "She got sick of me real early, and almost put a hole in me, before realizing that it would be a bad idea."
"I don't think that that was how it really happened, Derek," Kyle said, interrupting Pyro's sarcastic retort for a second time. He made up for it by making her smile with his own sarcasm. "Our Pyro has too good a sense that to get blood on her clothes, especially yours. And then she'd have to go and explain what happened to Thraden, and he always know when you are lying."
"Speaking of which," Pyro said, "I should go talk to him now." She stood up with a sigh.
Before she left, she heard Kyle exclaim, "She does talk! It's amazing!" before annoying Derek with questions about why she tried to kill him, which Derek refused to answer, just to annoy him. Pyro walked away, shaking her head.
"Pyro! Wait up!" The two boys caught up with her. Derek was still talking when they reached her. "You might want these when you see him," he said and pulled a bag out of his tunic with a smirk.
Pyro looked at him questioningly as she took the bag. Looking in it, she scowled. "You are so dead when I get back." Inside of the bag was the object of her raid earlier that night, a couple of exotic pieces of glass, each shaped like a mythic animal: a griffon, a dragon, and a phoenix, along with five others that she didn't know. Each was carefully wrapped in cloth, and stored in small clay containers, to keep them from breaking. Merchant Tanner had gotten them for one of the many nobles in the capitol, but the noble thought that it would be quicker and cheaper to ask a contact about a thief getting them for him. The trick of the trade was that the contact only stated his price, not that of the thief. Thraden and Pyro each got a profit, which the noble didn't know about yet. And they would bargain it at a ridiculously high price, slowly taking it down, to see how much they could get for it. If he didn't pay enough, the two thieves would easily find someone else who wanted them at a higher price.
As she climbed up the stairs in the back of the tavern, she wondered why Derek had gotten them when Thraden had asked her to, not him. In fact, how did he even know about her job? It was a question to ponder another time. When she knocked on Thraden's door, a tall, broad shouldered man opened it. He had dancing green eyes, and thick, chestnut hair, close cropped. The man had on loose, brown breeches, and a cream colored shirt that was half opened. The only thing of wealth he had on was a ruby drop on his left ear. He noticed who was at her door and motioned her inside. "How did it go?" Thraden asked kindly. As Pyro relayed what happened, both at the Tanner place, and with Derek, she handed him the bag, and he went through them all. "Hmm… Mannvor only said that the noble wanted three. I wonder about the other five…" He was obviously not talking to Pyro anymore.
"Majesty, is there anything else that you need?" she asked, bowing to the King of Thieves, with a small smirk on her face.
The two had been friends for years, before Thraden even had the slightest notion to become King. She had helped reach his throne, and he insisted that she should be Queen, not him King, besides, she had been in the guild for three more years than he had. She always smiled and said that nobody would listen to a woman, and, if that backfired, that she was too young. Instead, he invented the title The Lady of Thieves, and made it the most important position besides his. She was made Rogue Nobility. "If there is ever a man who has that place, it can change to The Lord of Thieves. But I don't plan on having anyone else in it for as long as I'm here," he told her once, when she got the title. He also hated to be called Majesty, and being treated like a noble of the rock. He always insisted that they never did anything, and he worked for a living.
Thraden smacked her on the head, and told her, "If there is anything I should need, I'll see to it, thank you very much." He tried to look exactly like one of the annoying nobles, always complaining. They boasted that they could do anything, but, in reality, they just had a bunch of very good servants.
"What ever you say, Majesty," Pyro said, this time attempting a curtsy. "Your wish is my command." She stood back up quickly, and dodged his next swing. "Honestly, Thraden, you have a hoard of people under you, all wishing that you would trust them to do something for you. Take my advice, and get it while you can!"
"I have been King for two years now, Pyro. If I still get this attention now, it will be the same later on in life," Thraden pointed out "I want to be able to take care of myself when I give up the throne. I can't just hire servants to help me with every little thing, especially if the four of us still want to go see the world." The two of them, and Derek and Kyle, wanted to roam around the world when they got enough money to live by for many years. Thraden insisted on giving up his throne if he was going to leave it for that long. "Anyways, thanks, Pyro. I don't think that I would have trusted anyone else to do this, but I guess I have to trust the boys sometime soon. And, thanks for not killing him." He said the last part with a grin, which lit up his face.
"Now, you know that it was a close one. And I was planning on doing that right when I got downstairs," Pyro glanced up at him, straight face. Only the glint in her eyes showed that her best friend would still be alive the next day.
"Pyro, I order you to leave Derek alone about this," Thraden said in mock sternness. "Although, I guess that I can't stop you from murdering him for another reason, can I?"
Pyro went to the door. "Of course not, Your Majesty," she said, bowing. When he went over to smack her, the door closed in his face. He heard a soft giggle coming from the other side, then the slight sound of her running feet.
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