Intro IV: Eye on the Prize

Aderyn Rhone, House Mercury

What was the point of owning if there was nobody around to steal?

To Aderyn, the answer to that question was rather simple: there was none. As she moved her deft fingers lightly over the coffer, she grazed the metal lock hanging off to the side and let its coldness weigh heavy in her palm. Locating it wasn't the hard part, though. That was one of the first things she'd learned about her craft, even before she'd had any official training. Discovering was easy, breaking entry wasn't.

Extracting two metal picks from the messy bun atop her head, she put one of the lengths between her teeth whilst angling her wrist so she could insert the second into the keyhole. A twirl, some nudging, and it clicked open. She threw the hatch wide without making a sound, peering down into its gloomy interior.

What she saw was disappointing, to say the least. Whereas she'd been hoping to be met with a treasure, the only items of value she could spot were a finial and some rings. With her ingenuity, Aderyn could fasten the finial to one of the hanging rods to make a spear, and the rings were easily enough repurposed into brass knuckles. Whether a buyer would spend money on such wares, however, was highly unlikely.

Either Rook had lost his grip, or this was another one of his tests. The intention of her being sent here obviously wasn't to bring back dusty curtains and old mats. There had to be something else. But what?

Sighing, Aderyn closed the coffer and looked around the room. It had a pretty standard layout for being a vacation home, situated in the forest stretching between Winghaal and Caduceus, surrounded by pines. There was a lavish bed pushed against the far wall, floor-to-ceiling windows making a glass screen to its left. She'd seen at least a hundred copies of this over the last couple of years. The rich enjoyed uniformness.

Still, there were clues in the details. Aderyn made sure to remove the picks and reset the lock before sinking to the floor, searching for lumps in the carpet. Though nobody had been here in months, it wasn't uncommon to leave possessions stored away. And most everyone hid them in the same predictable places.

They might have thought they were being clever when they stashed their jewels beneath floorboards and under cabinets, but nothing got past Aderyn. Not when she bumped into a loose molding, revealing her target.

Jackpot.

The golden armlets atop folded silk would do nicely. Party attire, it seemed, intended for an occasion of high prominence. The matching tiara certainly carried the idea across that whoever had commissioned these pieces thought highly of themselves. Patrician blood, perhaps. A notion that made it all the more compelling to loot. There was nothing that annoyed Aderyn as much as people living in over-indulgence.

Besides, if they had the wealth to spare on something so luxurious they could no doubt afford to put in another order. It wasn't as if they were going to miss it. And if they did, that wasn't Aderyn's problem to deal with.

Her only concern was fitting it all into her pouch.

Getting out of the building didn't take a lot of effort. Pyrgi might have installed ridiculous amounts of security measures to combat the high criminality rate, but Aderyn wasn't averse to jumping a fence.

She'd grown accustomed to sneaking around. It was second nature, by this point. And what she was doing right now, skipping stealthily past tree after tree, wasn't unlike the procedures she'd taken earlier that morning, veiling her every step in an attempt not to wake her parents as she descended the stairwell.

It wasn't as if they could stop her, anyway. Aderyn's mother might have wanted a unified family, but her father had made sure that would never happen. He'd wrapped her siblings around his fingers, turned them against her, made an example of how they would end up if they followed in her dishonest footsteps. Which was ironic, seeing as his profession dealt with stolen goods all the time, regardless of his ignorance.

He was too blinded by self-reverence to see that he was the same monster he proclaimed her to be. A realization that would one day dawn on Finnan and Alis too, when they clocked just how corrupt he was.

Let him go on about honesty. It was overrated, and got you nothing but enemies.

In the meantime, she had better bigger fish to fry. Emerging from the treeline, casting a quick glance over her shoulder, she filed into the glade and the cave entrance it encircled. A hidden sentinel stood guard at its lip, but Aderyn was a prominent enough member of this little group to be easily identified and allowed in.

Torches lit up the winding stone corridor from above, hung at perfectly spaced intervals, giving her only a footfall's darkness before she was illuminated again. In-between each fire were tapestries depicting Mercury in his most glorious moments - aka, his famous robberies and thefts, an impish grin on his face.

The gods might not have been superior to mortals in their hunter's greed, but Mercury inspired this district in a way that was unique to Pyrgi. She held respect for him, even if she didn't partake in worship.

Well, that depended on interpretation. Stealing was devotion in its own right.

"Here's your bounty." Aderyn threw the pouch, smiling to herself as it landed on the spread-out map Rook was bent over. The eighteen-year-old looked up at her, undoing the laces before studying its contents.

A question filled his eyes. "No alterations?" he asked. It was what he'd come to expect from her, some sort of enhancement that made whatever she'd gotten her hands on sell at a higher price on the market.

She shook her head. "Not today. I'm training with the house in an hour."

Rook nodded, gesturing for another of his followers to take the pouch as he went back to studying his map. "I'll see you tonight, then. Best of luck." It was as much of a goodbye as she was going to get. She nodded and turned on her heel. She had a long day ahead of her, she'd bring something impressive back.

The woods were alive with insects by the time Aderyn finally arrived at the boathouse on the beach. She was running a little late, but such was the struggle of someone leading a double life. Triple, if you counted the box-shaped purgatory in which she spent the nocturnal hours. She'd rather not think of that.

Opening the door, she entered the covert base with her trademark greeting: absolute silence. She'd got so good at masking her presence that the three occupants - one trainer, two fellow students - didn't know she was there until she'd poked Alaina in the ribs and ruffled Arcarin's hair. The former jumped a little whilst the second gave her an affable guffaw, pushing her shoulder playfully.

Farid didn't seem as amused. "Look who finally decided to show her face," he said, crossing his wiry arms over a slender chest. He might have been a graduate from House Mercury himself, but he didn't have an impressive physique to show for it. Muscles weren't what Pyrgi put effort into, she supposed, although it would have been very useful in sticky situations. "Where have you been? We started thirty minutes ago."

Aderyn waved her hand dismissively, "Here and there." This was a different persona than the focused, goal-oriented veneer she wore whilst working. During class, she was spirited, devilish and witty. It wasn't a pretense, per see, but it was definitely an eccentric version of the intense passionate girl experienced by Rook and Aisling, her girlfriend. "But that's beside the point. What are we doing? Where are we going?"

"We're finally doing something worthy of our time," Arcarin explained, that cheeky smile of his playing on his lips. "And we get to use the hoverboards. The real ones, not the prototypes we had at Lake Eyrie."

"We're going to Megara," Alaina filled in, fiddling with a bracelet. "Trojan Isle."

The information gave her pause. Trojan Isle was the southernmost landmass in an archipelago just off the military district's coast, where graduates from House Mars went to train after they failed to be selected for the Hunger Games. It was a place of boot camps and rigidness, housing droves of skilled fighters.

She was about to question it when Farid spoke again. "Yes, it's a high-risk operation," he said, "but this is the last chance you get to show what you're made off before we send your credentials to Taryn. Get in, find something of high value, and come back to show it off." He gave Aderyn a pointed look. "Dismissed."

Aderyn followed Alaina outside, losing Arcarin somewhere on the way out.

Arcarin Vescovi, House Mercury

"Vescovi, a word." Arcarin stopped in his tracks as Farid took a firm grip of his shoulder, dropping his professional front the second Aderyn and Alaina had exited the door. "We need to talk about something."

He grimaced. Arcarin prided himself on his ability to get away, even if he often found himself in messy situations because of his greed. Yet, being caught wasn't the worst thing in the world, not if you knew how to talk your way out of it. And on that front Arcarin was an expert. So he spun around, hiding his annoyance with a sickeningly sweet smile. "Farid, my guy." He cocked his head to the side. "What's up?"

Farid gave him a deadpan look in return. They'd known each other since Arcarin's first day training with the house, back when Farid himself has been a promising student. In fact, Farid had been a mentor figure even back then, assigned to help Arcarin get accustomed to their regime, leaving them close friends.

It was only natural that they continued treating each other like contemporaries after Farid's graduation. Farid was too easily irked not to peeve him at every given opportunity, anyway.

"You need to take this seriously," Farid started. "If you truly do want to be considered for the Selection this is your biggest opportunity to make an impression. Don't repeat my mistake. Hold back, you're out."

Arcarin knew what was expected of him. "I always do my best," he said, shrugging a shoulder.

Farid pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jupiter's Wrath, Arc. You need to stop and realize just how much potential you have. You've been here longer than anyone, you've made leaps and bounds other students could only dream of. If you took some time to reflect on your own capabilities, you would be unstoppable. Don't throw everything you have worked on away for the fun of it. You're better than that."

There was an intensity to his words. Arcarin knew Farid was speaking from a place of love, but his speech was laced with a passion Arcarin rarely witnessed. "You're so much more than jests and jokes," he said, "You need to see what I'm seeing."

He knew he was valuable. Aderyn was too focused on keeping up pretenses, Alaina would do anything to be liked - they would struggle without him.

But this situation with Farid wasn't one he was willing to face. Not right now.

"I'll make you proud," he simply said, giving Farid's shoulder a pat. "You won't be disappointed."

With that he escaped the boathouse, letting the bright sunlight rejuvenate his limbs from the stiff tenseness of their conversation. He knew what needed to be done. How to do it, too. Arcarin wouldn't fail.

The Aegean Sea had appeared calm from Pyrgi's eastern shoreline. Rounding the bend of the island and speeding north-west towards Megara, however, broke the illusion of gently lapping waves on alabaster sand. This was the domain of Neptune, and his kingdom was as unpredictable as Aderyn pretended to be.

Arcarin took the lead, the girls on either side of him as they used their hoverboards to surf atop the waves. Though they had trained with prototypes at Lake Eyrie, those were scraps in comparison. The machines they were using currently were agile, and aquired a level of finesse to operate. His feet might have been strapped in, but Arcarin needed to bend his knees at the exact right time and angle in order not to fall off.

But like with everything, he cracked the code quickly enough. By the time Trojan Isle appeared on the horizon, he'd gotten the hang of it perfectly, and knew just how to tilt his body to avoid salt sprays from smacking him in the face. He couldn't say the same for his comrades. Aderyn was keeping it together, her hair only slightly disheveled as they made landfall, whilst Alaina was soaking wet and dripping all over.

"That went swell, all things considered," Arcarin said. He stretched his arms out over his head, a loud crack ringing out as his joints unfolded themselves. Alaina had a gloomy posture beside him. "You okay?"

Brushing a few strands of damp hair from her forehead, she attempted one of her trademark smiles. Only, the sweetness that usually coursed through everything she did was punctured by an exasperation she rarely displayed. "I'll be fine," she said. "We should find somewhere to hide the boards."

Aderyn, who had already disappeared from the scene, peeked up from behind a rocky outcropping some ten feet away. "Already on it," she said. "There's a little nook in the stone that will conceal them from above. And with the storm brewing, I doubt anyone will come looking for hidden riches whilst we're gone." Arcarin cast a glance at the overcast sky; it was about to rain any second now. The perfect cover-up.

That was one of the first tricks Farid had taught him: use nature to your advantage.

Not that he cared about his lessons.

"You've got to remember that we're not in Pyrgi anymore," Arcarin said as he and Alaina went over to store their transportation devices in the alcove Aderyn had found. "Nobody goes looking for riches here—"

Without warning, Alaina ducked, pressing her back against the nearest slab of rock. Aderyn followed the motion hastily, the two of them giving Arcarin a curious glance at he stayed standing where he was. "Guard," Alaina whispered, gesturing with her head towards where the beach was framed by hefty bluffs.

Arcarin looked up at where an armored figure was patrolling, a ranseur held firmly in their grip.

"I see them," Arcarin said, putting his hands on his hips. "You two can go, I'll take care of it." The girls gave him another look, their curiousness intermingled with confusion now, before slipping away silently.

They wouldn't understand. Least of all the smile that split his face as the sentry turned towards him and came to a halt. What they failed to see was the opportunity in being caught, because that was an exercise House Mercury seemed averse to teaching. Arcarin, though, couldn't help but rise to the challenge.

Up close, the armored individual was more menacing than Arcarin had expected. There were details to their attire he'd neglected from afar, like the spikes lining their pauldrons and the rows of curved, serrated blades strapped to the thick belt around their waist. Not to mention the ranseur, of course, which was a pole tipped with not one but three very sharp edges. He'd rather avoid them digging into his flesh. A concept that, in itself, was foreign to him.

In any other scenario, departing from a scenario un-speared would have left him disappointed. But he assumed there was a first for everything, and the feeling that settled in his chest as the sentry lowered the jagged end of their weapon towards him - spreading their legs into an attacker's stance - was fear above anything else. Arcarin knew that Megarans were quick to anger, and even quicker to attack, but not letting him get a word in first? It was a mistake they'd come to regret.

He effectively sidestepped the first blow, maneuvering himself behind the sentry and giving a light push to their back. They fell instantly, sprawled out on the ground as the ranseur slipped from their grip.

Well, that was easy. Too easy? Arcarin didn't let himself ponder the question for too long. Rather, he lunged at the face-down sentry, straddling the small of their back as he pushed down with all of his weight on their shoulder blades. "Very slapdash," he said mockingly, which probably wasn't the best way to approach this new dynamic. But hey, what was the point of life if you couldn't have any fun along the ride?

The sentry growled something under their breath. "What was that?" Arcarin said, leaning forward to add more pressure to his hold, moving his head closer to the headpiece in the process. "Said something?" He was playing a dangerous game, and one he wasn't used to. Arcarin had become accustomed to being gone before weapons got involved. Yet desperate situations called for desperate measures. Very desperate. And, as Farid has told him, this was his last chance to prove himself. It would be worth the risk.

"I don't know what that means," came a voice through gritted teeth. It was a dark baritone, rumbling in a way that Arcarin had to admit was rather disconcerting. Or, would have been, had the roles been reversed.

"Slapdash?" Arcarin asked, his smile growing wider. "Ever heard of improvident? Lackadaisical? Slipshod?" He threw his gaze in a circle as he tried to figure out what to do next, shifting his lap up the sentry's spine as he felt for any pockets to loot. "Means you're a mess. A sloppy one, considering you were beaten in two seconds by someone half your size. I thought Megarans were supposed to be battle-ready."

The sentry let out an exasperated growl, asking a muffled "what do you want?" whilst wriggling under Arcarin's attempt to keep them down. He had to play his cards exactly right if he wanted to get out of this.

Even with that in mind, he couldn't help but lean an inch closer "What are you offering?"

"Fuck you," the sentry spat. They were starting to get more aggressive now, determined to break free from their confinement. Arcarin knew they'd succeed if he didn't counteract. More provocation was a sure way ticket to the afterlife. You're so much more than jests and jokes. "You won't get further than the garrison."

Arcarin jumped up, quick on his feet as he grabbed the discarded ranseur and pointed it towards the sentry. "The garrison, huh?" Sounded prominent enough. Even if that wasn't where Aderyn and Alaina had gone, it would be worth having a look at. The more the merrier, as the saying went. "Show me the way."

Alaina Tartel, House Mercury

The stone fortifications stood out like a sore thumb against the arid vegetation, towering above ironwood and acacia at several feet tall. Alaina had a hard time making out the details of its architecture, her hair still damp as it hung before her eyes, plastered to her forehead by the raindrops pelting her face.

"I hope Arcarin is doing okay," she whispered, more to herself than to Aderyn, whose gaze was blank as it followed a patrol of guards strolling past. They rounded a corner, chattering aimlessly about business neither could pick up on from this far. Alaina didn't like how many of them there were; the moment one unit vanished another appeared. She knew there would be risks to face, but had hoped for something less severe.

Additionally, she had hoped her friends would stay by her side for as long as possible. She accepted that Arcarin liked to pave his own path, she'd expected him to stray eventually. But so soon? And for no apparent reason? She didn't see the point in going on side tangents when so much depended on their visit to Megara proceeding smoothly. If it was a suicide mission she was after, she would have come by herself.

Aderyn got up from her perch in a nearby bush. "Arc is a big boy, he can manage." She peeked out from her hiding spot, taking a few experimental footsteps forwards. "The coast seems clear. Let's get a move on."

With a nod, Alaina stood, and they made their way across the road whilst avoiding the squelch of mud puddles. Finding footholds in the wall was easy, scaling it even easier. Before long, they found themselves pressing against a second-floor window, Aderyn removing twin picks from her shoe to allow them inside. It was dark and lacked other humans, to Alaina's relief, but held enough riches to satisfy an entire syndicate.

An armory of sorts, was her guess. Mannequins stood clustered in the cramped space, wearing different tidbits decorated with elaborate warrior's crests. Several strongboxes were strewn about the floor, opened quickly with a nimble hand.

Trinkets lined their pockets in no time, threatening to spill over.

To Aderyn, of course, it wasn't enough. She had her eyes on the prize, even when it was unattainable. "There has to be more," she said, twisting the doorknob and easing its hinges open. It would not have been uncalled for if Alaina decided to put her foot down in defiance. But that wasn't her style. She realized that Aderyn, much like Arc, had quirks that she would never fully understand. She'd rather support them, she'd rather put a smile on her face in a gesture of encouragement, than to come across as insulting.

What they'd looted thus far, though extravagant, wouldn't impress Taryn anyway.

So Alaina moved out into the hallway, thanking Mercury that no guards were there to greet them, and put a reassuring hand on Aderyn's shoulder. Overcompensating, perhaps, but better than the opposite.

Silence. Pure and utter silence - that was the only thing accompanying them as they crept from room to room, searching for anything more substantial than kegs of ale. Though this was a facility used by trained fighters, there seemed to be as big a focus on alcohol as there was on weaponry. Maybe even more so, as they left another storage behind to enter a new part of the hall, this one with names etched into each door.

"I think we've entered the residential area," Alaina said, aware that she was stating the obvious. Aderyn ignored the observation, as was expected, and tiptoed lightly to the closest archway. Pressing her ear to it, she gave a low hum and leaned some of her frame against it. "Be careful," Alaina whispered. She liked adventure as much as anyone, but as previously stated: this was no time for random acts of recklessness.

Her words fell on deaf ears, however, as Aderyn entered the bedchamber and Alaina heard a moan ring out. "Trystan," it said, low and salacious, dripping in what suggested an aroused starvation. "My Trystan—"

The lurid melody consorting with his name - what Alaina assumed was kissing - stopped suddenly, replaced by a groan. "Rhett, did you hear that?" asked a second voice, this one richer in cadence than the first. There was a creaking noise, followed by metal dragging across floorboards. "Who the fuck are you?"

Alaina dashed into the room, steeling herself when she saw two young men lounging in the bottom half of a bunk bed. The one on top, tanned with black hair, sat with his mouth agape as the blonde lover he straddled cocked his brow in agitation. Aderyn, a few inches away, was holding the blue-and-silver handle of a thick broadsword, twisting it to and fro with both hands. "Sorry boys, but this is mine now," she said.

Then, she turned towards the window and jumped through it. Glass exploded in a cascade of see-through shards, creating a runway for Alaina to fly across. She gave the shirtless partners an apologetic "Sorry" as she passed them, escaping the same way Aderyn had seconds earlier. Alaina was airborne for a moment, her stomach assaulted with a tickling sensation, before she bent her knees and landed on her feet.

A freezing tingle seized her limbs as she tried to catch up with Aderyn, breaking the treeline with the blade still in tow. How she'd managed the jump without hurting herself was a mystery, but Aderyn wasn't anything if not unpredictable. Alaina was filled with too much adrenaline right now to care about either-or.

Rushing through the forest, ferns brushing her thighs, she enjoyed the thump of her heart in her chest. The excitement coursing through her veins made her light and graceful, forcing away any worries about what would happen if someone was chasing them. She couldn't care less. Right now, she felt powerful. Right now, she felt capable. Right now, she felt unstoppable.

This was the Alaina she always wanted to be.

The journey home was turbulent, to say the least. The girls bumped into Arcarin on their way back to the beach, Aderyn running headfirst into the sentry he'd taken hostage and using her new sword to knock them out. Alaina snatched one of the long, serrated blades strapped to their waist, which was a bitch to balance on the hoverboard - an instrument she had plenty of trouble exercising without the extra baggage.

Despite that, she made it to Treasure Cove in one piece, where all three handed over their artillery to one of Farid's associates for examination. Aderyn disappeared into the crowd soon after, meeting up with a shady-looking figure to whom she showed the trinkets stuffed down her pockets. Arcarin stayed a little while longer, making pleasant small talk, but soon left her for one of his merchant friends. He didn't go before patting her head, though, and pulling Alaina into an embrace that left her eyes brimming with tears.

After his departure, she was on her own. Alaina made good time to Winghall, its gates thrown open and shaped like feathered appendages to emulate the span of Mercury's famous sandals. She showed her identification, walking into the city mostly dried, smelling of seawater and sweaty from the day's activities.

When she arrived at the graveyard, the sun was just getting.

"Hi mom, hi dad. Today was quite something." Alaina bent down to brush away some of the leaves that had fallen over their headstones, tracing the crooked lines of their names. They'd been put to rest in a beautiful environment, on a sloping hill next to a towering fortress, overlooking the Aegean Sea. "I went to Trojan Isle, with Aderyn Rhone and Arcarin Vescovi. I've told you about them, right?"

She couldn't remember. In the wake of their deaths, she'd come here multiple days a week, talking about anything and everything. If they could indeed hear her, they would have a dairy's account of her everyday pursuits. They'd been told about how she'd used House Mercury as a coping mechanism as the world crumbled around her, but that even her people-pleasing nature could secure her someone to call a best friend. She was surrounded by the masses, yet felt lonelier than someone confined to a desert island.

In happier news, she knew they'd enjoy hearing that Ceilo was doing well, even if he wasn't as frequent a visitor as his older sister. Speaking of siblings: Alaina scuffled to the right, touching the two smaller stones to her parents' right. "Riveah. Myra." They were cold to the touch, just like their bodies beneath the soil.

She lowered her head, brushing away a tear. "I miss you." It was all she could do not to break apart the way she'd done so many times before. But not now. For them, for the family she had lost, she would be strong.

intotheabysshg . weebly . com

Hello everyone! This is not an April Fool's joke, this is very much real.

I hope you all had a good March. I've had an ok one! I started placement training this past week, which is why today's chapter has taken so long to come out. Who knew teaching could be so draining? (everyone probably).

Speaking of the chapter, there are aspects of this update that I wish could have been better. I was very ambitious when I set out to write these kids, and though I like the concept of all three POVs taking place right after one another, that came with a lot of hardships. Making them all fit together was a puzzle, and I'm unsure whether I succeeded. Hopefully, I didn't confuse you too much. And if I did, please give me some feedback on what I could've done better in a review.

And speaking of reviews. Thank you ladyqueerfoot (ft climate change), fireflyllama and axe smellig god for your lovely words. Your support means everything to me, and I'm excited to hear what you think about these three :)

Also want to give a special shoutout to my collab partner, guildmate and friend Ben (aka my-mental-mind) for finishing his story Picking Up The Pieces yesterday. You did it! We're all very proud. And if you haven't already, don't forget to read his installment in the echoverse: Borrowed Time. It will be worth your time, that I can promise.

And of course, a huge thank you to thewaterofthevoid, jabberjayheart and marie464 for submitting Aderyn, Arcarin and Alaina respectively.

That's all I have for now. Can't wait to introduce you to another trio next time.

Until then,

Remus