Part 1: Business as Usual

For several nights now I've been having a strange, recurring dream: Something was drawing me out of the clock tower. I couldn't see or hear anything unusual but I had the urge to go to the docks. In this dream, I only ever made it to the edge of the clock tower plaza before I'd wake up. I was too wary to move fast enough to take myself further.

This had to be caused by that tourmaline I took from Jordan Sarto. I left it hidden for a while, but I recently felt curious enough to try and study it. On the surface, the stone didn't appear to have any mystical properties at all, but one day I stared deeply into its core. I saw something flicker within it: A flame that was dancing for me alone. When I finally took my eyes away from it, I seemed to have lost several hours of the day. I haven't touched it since then but clearly that was enough to have an impact. I was going to have to figure out a way to stop it from invading my dreams, after I attended to some other tasks I had on my agenda.

Scribe had her baby at the start of the winter season: A girl she named Addi, after her sister who died when they were young. I paid them a visit after she was born, mainly because Six and I had a job together. I also had something that I was sure they could use: A child-sized blanket, made of the finest wool and embroidered with gold thread.

"Oh Garrett, it's beautiful!" Scribe held up the blanket and appraised the stitching. "Is that the Wainscott family crest? Rumor has it their daughter keeps a small cache of her mother's valuables hidden in the basement to feed her 'imaginary' friend, Mister Blue-Eye."

We exchanged knowing looks. "Mister Blue-Eye doesn't want a little girl doing his work for him. It takes the fun out of breaking and entering."

Six joined in on the conversation after he had gotten ready. "I'd take the handout, gladly. No shame in it." He ran his fingers gently across the crown of Addi's head while she suckled. Almost immediately, she reached up and wrapped her five fingers around one of the three on his hand. "Lookit that quick grab, eh? She's a natural fingersmith, just like her old man."

"Hopefully she'll learn to be quieter than her old man."

"Hey, I'm all business when we're on the clock. That's what counts, yah?"

"The element of surprise doesn't begin at the front door," I argued, then turned for the nearest window. "Shall we?"

I didn't mind working with Six-Fingers but he liked to make entirely too much conversation on the way to a job. Now that his daughter was born, I especially didn't want to hear what he had to say.

"She's just the smallest, cutest bundle of possibilities I ever laid eyes on, Garrett. From her perfect little five-fingered hands to her perfect little five-toed feet."

"I will give you half of my take today if you don't talk anymore on the way to Auldale." I knew he wouldn't be able to comply, but I thought I would try anyway.

"Can't help it, mate. Addi's the center of my life now. Every breath and move's for her. You'll understand if you ever decide to settle down."

I had more words for him but I waited until we were both safely across a slick rooftop. Cold rain had fallen the day before and turned a lot of the Thieves' Highway into a treacherous obstacle course.

"Aren't you forgetting the woman who gave birth to her?"

"Oh, I live and breathe for Scribe, too, but that's different. Scribe can take care of herself. Addi needs me. Something about that just makes me care a great deal more, know what I mean?"

I did, but I really wanted this conversation to end. "Let's focus. We're almost there."

We made our way to Auldale and stopped outside of Brushmore's Jewelry Shop. Rumor—or rather, Scribe's macaw—had it that Brushmore received a rare shipment of blue diamonds that were to be fashioned into a necklace for a new bride. Whether they were real or not, Basso already had a buyer for them. All we had to do was deliver.

The diamonds had to be worth something to someone, because Brushmore's shop was heavily guarded: Two on each door and four inside. Each guard traveled in pairs. I wasn't concerned with going in through a door but we had to take out the guards at the back entrance to make it in through the most accessible window.

Six rolled a coin past the guards from around one corner of the shop while I waited around the other. When the guards ducked down to reach for the coin, we rushed in and knocked their heads together. Then we climbed up to the second level and went in through the wash room window. I knew for a fact that Brushmore wasn't going to be home. Careful observation of his habits for a few days told me he would be off bragging and spending his money at the House of Blossoms.

The next pair of guards were stationed in his living quarters on the upper level. It looked like they decided to stop in his pantry and tip themselves with a share of his food. Six and I blocked them both in the food closet, then helped ourselves to the fine silverware and plates in Brushmore's kitchen. We were counting on the noise from the trapped pair of guards to send the third pair running upstairs. They came on cue, and Six took out the first of the two when he stepped into the kitchen. I caught the other with a closet door just outside of the kitchen doorway. We expected the last pair of guards to enter the shop and investigate the noise but when I checked the downstairs windows, they were still talking and staring across the street.

Brushmore dealt primarily in gemstones, which meant we had a lot of expensive items to take that fit neatly in our pockets. The blue diamonds, as it turned out, were mostly blue crystals cut in a diamond shape. The largest was real but we didn't have the time to admire it. The upstairs guards broke out of the pantry and their cries finally caught the attention of the pair at the front door. By the time they gathered in the shop, Six and I had already slipped out the back. None of them had seen us—all they knew was that their commission for keeping the building well-guarded was forfeit.

"These sapphires are rare, mate. Even the facsimiles are top quality." Six held up a pair of earrings to the light of a candle. We brought the whole shop to Basso's office where we were free to admire the collection.

"Yeah, the artistry is top shelf," Basso commented. "Y'know, I can't believe Brushmore thought it would be okay to keep it all in the display cases at night. Ever since he moved that shop to Auldale, his mind's been on everything but a secure business."

I shrugged and paid the least attention. There were too many stones to examine.

"Suppose this is the last job of the season, innit? Snow started dropping on our way back, Bass. Gotta wait 'til that clears up before we can tip on a rooftop again."

"Yeah, well that's why this last job had to be a good one. My bones tell me it might be cold for a while and I need to stock up on a little liquid warmth."

"I'ma hunker down with Scribe and Addi for a few days. Make like one big, happy family. What about you, Garrett? Got plans to keep warm?"

I didn't even look up from my pile of gems to respond. "I'll be around."

Most of The City's professionals didn't pull jobs in the snow and in that way, I wasn't an exception. Not only did it make the rooftops more of a challenge than I liked, it also left too much of a trail when I walked away from a crime scene. I had plans to do more extensive repairs on the clock tower while the winter weather was at its worst. I also found a warmer place to spend some nights: Lorena's attic in Stonemarket.

We had started sleeping together again, mostly for the convenience and trust, but also because some of the colder days were better spent with a warm body. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement; after all, neither one of us was going to turn the other in for the reward money. We also weren't as attached to each other as people might have assumed. There were whole weeks before the winter season when we didn't see each other. I only knew that she was ready for another visit because she had been to the clock tower and replaced one of the Pinned Castinets from my collection with a ferry token: A reminder of the time we spent escaping Moira Asylum.

"You're going to force me to put those in a better place," I told her. We had lain in silence for a while, watching the frost build on the window closest to her bed.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't keep your precious items on display, Garrett. Make me work for it. I was really hoping to have to climb the clockworks a little."

"Careful what you wish for." I had caches hidden all over the clock tower. One in particular was so intermingled with the machinery that anyone who didn't time it just right would lose an arm and a leg trying to retrieve it.

Lorena maneuvered my hand from behind my head to rest on her waist, forcing my arm around her. It wasn't as comfortable for me as it might have been for her but I let it go for now.

She obviously knew I was uncomfortable. "You know, I expected a world-class fingersmith to be a lot better at working a woman's dials."

"Last time I checked, you weren't a wall safe. Though you are almost as heavy as one."

She laughed. "And you are as light as a little girl! But I hear you loud and clear. If you're ready to go again, then you can be on top this time."

I started to make a vague noise that was meant to be a halfhearted rejection but when she reached underneath the blanket and touched me, the objection was lost.

"Well at least one part of you is ready, so why don't we go with that?" Lorena always did get what she wanted, but I didn't mind that when it was something I wanted as well.