"Ye've done it, then? Bless my soul, I'm to be married!" Lytton cheered as he and Rena sat inside his home. "I appreciate this, Rena. Never thought I'd have a church wedding. Here - ye've earned this key."
As Rena took the rusty key and pocketed it, Lytton explained its purpose as he handed her a map of the fort. "It opens a grate in the sewers that'll get ye into the cellar of Fort Basset. The redcoats never go down there - ye shouldn't have any trouble. They'll have the Windstone in the commander's safe inside his office. I can't help ye there, though."
Rena nodded as she brought out a piece of her old jewelry that was still nice. "I understand. Thank you, Lytton, and here: an early wedding present for your bride."
Lytton nodded as he took the simple brooch and shook Rena's hand. "Hey, us thieves have got to stick together."
XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX
Prying open the manhole with her dagger, Rena slipped through the crack and onto the ladder, pulling the circle of metal over her head. As her feet touched the sewer floor, she brought out her flashlight: just a simple hollow cylinder with a few light crystals shining out one end, and she swept its gaze around the area, searching for the grate to Fort Basset.
A few minutes of stumbling about later, she found what she was looking for, and it was marked with a crude drawing of a basset hound. The grate lifted open on its rusty hinges, and putting the cover on her flashlight, Rena crawled inside and up to the basement of Fort Basset.
As she put one toe out from behind a box, Rena was nearly caught by a roving flashlight mounted on the musket of a patrolling redcoat, and she swore silently in her head as she pressed her body against a stack of crates. Uh oh. Looks like this cellar's a lot less deserted than Lytton said it was! I'd better find the commander's office before more redcoats come.
Stealthily making her way across the cellar, she avoided the lights of the redcoats and snuck up to the ground floor, where a lone officer was walking the halls. Rena kept out of his line of sight as she double-checked the map, and when she was finished, she sprinted silently to the office door.
Bringing out her pick and tension wrench, Rena estimated she had about a few minutes before the officer came back to her position for another round, and she tried to strike a balance between stealth and speed as she tried to open the lock.
As she worked her pick inside the lock, Rena instinctively felt the lock's "sweet spot" give way beneath her pick, and with one quick movement from her tension wrench, the door was open and she slipped inside the room.
Locking the door behind her, Rena hurried over to a painting of who she assumed to be the fort's current commanding officer, and on a hunch, she peeked beneath it and grinned as she saw the metal door of the safe.
"Thirteen... forty-nine... seven... and there it is!" Rena whispered to herself as she twisted the knob on the safe, and as she put the yellow crystal into her jacket pocket, she suddenly heard the door open, and she swore at herself for not hearing the door being unlocked in her excitement. "What the deuce? How did you get in here? Guards!"
Rena spun around, throwing her striker as she did so, and the fort commander went down without a fight. Hastily picking up the weighted cylinder lying on the floor next to his head, Rena hurried to make her escape from the fort's basement.
A duo of redcoats aimed their muskets at her, but she leapt off to the side just in time to avoid their fire, and she continued running towards the basement, the guards hot in pursuit.
Slamming the door behind her, she ran down the stairs to the waiting grate, moving quickly past the redcoats stationed in the cellar, who hadn't yet received word of the alarm.
Smirking to herself, Rena shut the grate above her, and it would be an hour before the redcoats finally gave up their search for her.
XOXOX OXOXO Matthew Exeter's Point of View OXOXO XOXOX
While Rena went to retrieve the Windstone by herself, the rest of us were waiting in Gilbert and Sullivan's store, the Savoy Mercantile. As we listened to one of Gilbert's operas, we heard the bell ring as Rena opened the door, and Sullivan asked, "You've already gained the Windstone, haven't you?"
Rena nodded as she brought out the crystal, and I exclaimed to her, "Brilliantly done, Rena! I knew you could do it, girl!"
"Then give three cheers, and one cheer more, for the hardy captain of-" Gilbert began, but Sullivan cut him off. "Oh, do hush! Now, you'll need travel papers to get into Marleybone. I'm afraid we haven't any, and forgeries are out of the question."
"Perhaps Downley in MooShu might be of service." Emmett offered, referring to Marleybone's official ambassador to the Emperor, who had promoted Emmett to the rank of commander.
"Capital idea!" Sullivan exclaimed. "When you get to Marleybone, look up Ned Land at the Admiral Benbow tavern on the Isle of Dogs. He's an old shipmate of Catbeard's."
"With a yo heave ho, for the wind is free. Her anchor's a-trip and her helm's a-lee. Hurrah for the homeward bound!" Gilbert added, and I nodded as I raised my glass of Yum. "Hurrah for the homeward bound!"
