M'Karo slipped off the back of the cart train and faded in to the shadows, waiting as the trained wended its way. Finally the last of the outriders passed and she stepped on to the road and followed it to the crest of the hill. She stopped to look at the valley with the village ash had the commission in and the three holy buildings around it.

She tightened her robe around herself and headed towards the city, guessing it would be about a twenty minute walk.

When she arrived at the city's gates, two men in glistening white armor smiled at her. "Good morning m'lady. Welcome to Meg's Woods."

She smiled back, liking how polite they were. "Thank you, I'm looking for your mayor? He commissioned something from my guild."

"The white stone house with orange roofing tiles."

She nodded in thanks and walked in, resisting the urge to triffle their pockets. Such trusting people made for disappointing targets. People who feared being robbed had things worth stealing and usually had stolen them first.

She took a long path, enjoying the look of the village. Unlike the city she lived in with its dirty stone foundations with mostly wood construction, this city looked as if they scrubbed their stonework weekly.

A little girl smiled at her and said she had beautiful hair then skipped off to join a handful of other girls who were plaiting flowers together.

"You're the thief?"

She turned and smiled at the older woman. "Yes, ma'am. Are you the mayor?"

"Mayor's wife, come this way."

She led M'Karo to their home and settled on to the divan as her husband pushed away a pile of scrolls. "Welcome, Blackguard. Your grandmaster said he was sending his best."

"A bit of nepotism," M'Karo said with some humility. "I'm related to the Grandmaster."

He smiled. "I know the feeling, my daughter is on her own Humbling, a test of a Paladin.

"Anyway, our issue. You can read?" It wasn't an incredibly common skill for most.

"Yes," she told him. "Eladrin, Common, and Tel-Quessir. And enough Dwarven to get into fights."

He laughed at that. "About as much Dwarven as I know. This is everything you need to know then," he said, pushing over one of the scrolls after finding it in the pile. "And a quarter of the pay up front." He had negotiated with the scout, and the man had taken one half for the guild up front with the other half to M'Karo towards her work, a quarter up front and a quarter on completion.

She opened the scroll and read it in front of him twice.

"Where's the statue?"

The mayor led her to the chapel a few streets away from his home and she admired the craftsmanship. At least ten meters tall it stood in the exact center of the largest building, a beautifully carved marble statue of the deity she felt the most affinity to, Corellon Larethian.

M'Karo studied the entrances to the building and saw nineteen different ways to get in, not surprising for a temple. She pulled herself up on the statue and found pry marks where the eyes had been inset and some damage to the statue. Then she saw how it had been made. The eyelids and brow had been glued in to place to hold the eyes.

"The bow was solid gold?" she asked as she looked at the hand that would have held it.

"Yes."

She nodded, a soft metal, easy enough to yank out.

"Do you know who might have done it?" a small voice asked and she saw a young girl had entered to temple.

"Yes. The knife used to pry the eyes free had triple tines. I'll be off immediately."

As she promised the girl she'd find the eyes, the girl took her ribbon out of her hair and held it out to M'Karo. "Here, it's my favorite. You can use it to wrap the eyes."

"I'll do just that," M'Karo promised.

The girl smiled and dashed out, her hair streaming out behind her.

"Go with the gods," the mayor said and watched her go out, admiring her assured stride in someone so young. He'd always found half-elves to be incredibly beautiful.

He went to find his wife so they could start preparing the feast for their daughter's return.

xxxxx

M'Karo was walking towards the road when one of the paladins she had seen at the gates approached her, leading a stallion with a war saddle on it. "The grandmaster of our order wants you to use his charger. We left the armor off him."

She blinked, somewhat shocked as he continued, "He's a paladin's charger so you'll need a whistle to summon him since he spends his free time with our Lady in Her pastures."

The paladin knelt and held his hands out to help her up. Once she was up, he stepped back and brought his fists to his chest. "The Grandmaster says he is yours as long as you need him. When you no longer need his service, give his whistle to any paladin you meet, it'll get back to us."

"Th-thank your grandmaster for me."

He nodded. "You may keep him if you wish though," he added quietly. "The Grandmaster is old and unless our tools to call our horses are with someone else, the horses die with us. 'Think of him as a bonus,' the Grandmaster wanted you to know."

M'Karo nodded and heeled the horse to a walk.

"The Grandmaster called him Fox," he called out to M'Karo as she rode off.

He watched her go then stretched and headed for the Abbey to see how his intended was.

xxxxx

M'Karo patted the neck of the horse. "Fox, huh?" The horse whinnied. "It's a good name," she agreed. She had had a pet fox as a child until some princeling's dog had set on it and killed it. The Blackguards had financially destroyed the family after the prince refused to have his son apologize.

She took the next left on the road and set him to a gallop. There was a waystation less than half a day's ride where she could ask some questions and spread some coin. The only thieves that used tri-tined knives were the Silver Daggers, mercenaries more than thieves and a blight to be destroyed. They were led by a former Blackguard that had betrayed the order and killed one of M'Karo's ancestors.

When she arrived at the waystation, it was starting to get dark.