Chapter Five: Heist

Khali opened an eye as she heard the door open. She had been napping in one of the chairs while Kewlith had gone to work, waiting for nightfall. The Redguard was truly desperate to get his spellbook back, feeding her and giving her a place to rest to make sure she stuck around to do the job.

She wasn't sure if she should feel sorry for the Redguard. Over the course of the day she had learned that he was a general, snatching the spellbook from a prisoner of war a few years back. Kewlith had been studying the magic in secret, his thirst for knowledge overcoming his hatred for the arcane arts. Redguards favored weapons over magic and looked down upon the practice of spellweaving, loudly accusing anyone who hid behind a wall of flames of being a coward and too weak to carry a sword.

"Khajiit!" he called. Kewlith had been insistent on not knowing her name, stating that the less he knew about her, the better. "Jathus just started his shift."

Khali hopped off the chair and walked over to the Redguard, her tail twitching uncomfortably as she still wasn't a fan of stealing, even if the book did belong to Kewlith. "Alright. Do you know if his wife is asleep yet?"

Kewlith shook his head. "No clue. Haven't checked. Just get in there, get the book, and come back. Don't get seen," he added dryly. "And don't use my door. Use that window there." He pointed to an open window across the room, the wooden shutters creaking slightly in the night breeze.

Khali padded over to the window, peeking out to check for any pedestrians that were out tonight, probably coming home from the day shift like Kewlith, but she didn't spot anyone. She leapt out through the window, landing silently on the grass. Keeping her tail up so it didn't drag and make noise, she crept across the street into an alleyway. Using the shadows between the buildings, she quickly made her way to Jathus' house. She looked up as she reached the end of the alley, making sure she was still going the right way.

Spotting the stained glass window just across the street, she quickly trotted over, ears pricked for any guards that might be around. The last thing she needed was a guard yelling at her for breaking curfew and getting thrown in jail yet again. She reached the house and prowled around the walls, looking for an open window. Open windows weren't uncommon here in Hammerfell, due to the warm weather.

Khali spotted an open window on the first floor and peeked inside before dropping down almost immediately from spotting Jathus' wife in the room. From the quick glance she got, it looked like this room was a dining room, with a large table in the center surrounded by maybe four chairs. Pricking her ears, Khali detected the dull clunks of stone plates hitting each other. She was most likely cleaning up from dinner. That gave her some extra time to check the upstairs now that she knew where the only occupant was.

She crept around the side of the house, looking for a spot to climb up. She found some handholds in the weathered masonry that led up to a window on the second story. She mapped her path up the wall quickly before tackling the climb, swiftly and silently crawling up the house. She reached the upstairs window and glanced inside. It was a bedroom, a large king sized bed occupying the middle of the space with deep red covers. An intricate rug featuring a hand embroidered forest covered most of the wood flooring, and dark wardrobes sat neatly next to the walls.

Khali scanned the room, not wanting to jump in before she had an idea of where to look, but also not wanting to be spotted hanging out of the window to someone's house by a pedestrian. She spotted a chest in the corner of the room and slunk inside,stepping carefully to hopefully avoid any creaking floorboards.

Tip-toeing, she slowly made her way to the chest and tried to open it. It was locked, as expected. The Khajiit silently cursed herself for not asking Kewlith for some lockpicks. She had never picked a lock before, but trying to pick the chest lock might've been a better option than searching around for a key. Jathus probably had it on him, which meant there was no easy way of opening the chest at her disposal.

Clinging to the hope that there might be a spare key in the room somewhere, Khali began quietly checking drawers and end tables. She opened a drawer and, seeing only a small assortment of socks, closed it. She was about to turn away when something caught her attention. She opened the drawer again. The inside wasn't as deep as the outside made it seem, the bottom panel preventing access to about half the space.

She flicked an ear. Or is it? She took the socks out of the drawer, wrinkling her nose at the smell of sandy desert feet, and placed them on the floor. Once the drawer was empty she wriggled the tips of her claws between the side and the bottom, gently pulling to lift up the false panel. Once, it slipped out of her grip and made a dull clunk as it fell back into place. Khali swivelled her ears, but Jathus' wife seemed to not have heard, the watery clanking of stone dishes being washed continued on normally.

Making sure to get a better grip, Khali again pulled up the false bottom of the drawer, revealing a moldy green leather bound tome with a detailed gold design around the edges of the cover. She recognized the dark, fiery hand symbol on the front. The symbol of a destruction spellbook. No wonder Jathus wanted this back. Destruction spells were one of the worst things a Redguard could use. She grabbed the thick book and tucked it under her arm before replacing the false bottom and putting the socks back in the drawer, hopefully in the right places as she couldn't remember exactly how they were originally arranged. She shut the drawer, wincing as the wood protested as it slid back into place.

She tiptoed back across the room, ears swiveled to hear Jathus' wife finishing up cleaning, and slipped out of the window, holding the heavy spellbook in her teeth as climbing down wasn't easy with an occupied arm. Once back on the ground she quickly made her way back to Kewlith's house, slipping in through his window.

"You get it?" the Redguard asked immediately. "You being chased?"

Khali handed him the tome, which he snatched swiftly, flipping through the pages as if he couldn't believe he had his precious book back in his hands. "No one saw me," she replied, crossing her arms. "Didn't you say I needed to leave right after getting that back?" she asked impatiently.

"Oh, right," Kewlith replied, shutting the book and storing it in a nearby basket. He walked over to a small end table by the door, picking up an orange pouch and a curved sword tucked snuggly in the belted sheath that held it. He walked back and roughly shoved the items into her arms. "There ya go, kitty. Follow the road southwest for a few days once you get down the cliff. It'll lead you right to Rihad and you can keep chasing Fang Lair. Now, get out!"

Barely giving the Khajiit enough time to strap her new sword and gold purse to her belt, Kewlith shoved her back out the window, slamming the shutters closed a moment after her tail was clear. Biting back an indignant snarl, Khali jumped back into the shadows, making her way to the west side of town and hiding when patrolling guards got too close for comfort. She spotted a place where the ground fell away and a warped wooden fence marked the spot where the cliff was.

Waiting patiently for the nearest guard to round a corner, she snuck over to the fence and looked down. The sheer drop was around twenty or thirty feet, almost at a ninety degree angle, but with plenty of cracks and crevices for hand and footholds. Making sure her new sword and gold purse were securely in place on her belt, she swung a leg over and started climbing down the cliff face, moving slowly and extending her claws as far as they would go to make sure she wouldn't fall.

She wasn't sure how long she spent pressed up against the rock, pausing whenever she heard nearby footsteps or saw torchlight, but she eventually made it to the bottom. Dodging cacti and sharp stones with years of practice, the khajiit swiftly made her way southwest, spotting a road that wound further in that direction, covered in sand and mainly marked with warped wooden pillars or worn stone.

Smiling at the thought of being on familiar turf and confident that her fur would continue to be the perfect camouflage, Khali found herself sprinting across the sand, leaving only kicked up dust billowing in the wind behind her and she raced her way to Rihad.