The thief's test is remarkably simple all things considered. Especially since Tibar took over and reviewed the increasing difficulty which had been causing ever more apprentices to fail. Kíli is expected to steal the equivalent of seven gold, one for each of the Seven Fathers, and seven thief's tokens. These are small wooden circles which have the symbol of the Thief's Guild carved into both sides. On a test day every thief, except the mentor, is expected to carry theirs as they make their way around town. It is the one day that no thief is permitted to pull a blade if they feel a hand in their pocket. Getting caught is not an automatic failure, unless it happens three times, but the thief who catches the apprentice being tested can take half of what they have already taken that day. At the beginning of the day that is not so much of a problem, but at the end of the day it could end up in the apprentice failing. Some thieves, depending on the time of day, will let the young one go with just enough to scrape a pass. Nori has been known to do so once or twice, especially after Staal's failure.

The day of the test Kíli appears at the Guild just as the dawn bell rings, his hair braided tightly in the manner he always uses as Cadan, his tunic and trousers worn and showing the slight tightness that comes with a dwarf during their final filling out in a poorer family. He hands over his purse and empties his pockets, so that no one can accuse him of cheating and he then is handed a pouch that bears the Guild mark to place in his pocket so that he can put everything that he takes inside to be counted, or confiscated, later. Nori will have to remain either in the building or under guard in her own home. Tibar has promised that he will get a message to her if it seems that Kíli is in trouble, since her friend will be monitoring the test from a distance to ensure that no one meets with the lad to give him the coin he needs, but also to direct members of the Guild in his direction just in case the day is coming to a close and Kíli has not encountered any of them.

Just as there are those in the Guild who are known to not take as much as they should if they catch an apprentice in the act during their test, there are also those who will avoid the apprentices as much as possible. Nori will not deliberately avoid the apprentices, even though she knows that there has never been one who has successfully stolen from her, but she does not seek them out either.

The thief sent to keep an eye on her is Trygve, likely something instigated by Tibar, who catches her in a firm embrace with a happy laugh. Her former apprentice has changed since the last time Nori saw him, although that was ten years from now just as they were preparing to depart for the doomed quest, and he lacks the vicious scar which had run from one cheek to the other over a nose deformed from repeated breaks. Her former apprentice likes to use his head to hit things, it would probably be more effective, and less likely to result in a broken nose, if he would actually wear a helmet. That said, Nori is fairly certain that the scar he will get in a few years will actually be the result of trying to clash heads with someone actually wearing one.

They spend some time catching up, both of them have taken slightly different paths this time around. In her last life after Nori and Karn had parted ways in Bree, she had returned home to Ered Luin to lick her wounds and spent a few years simply wandering around Thorinuldum enjoying herself using whatever coin she managed to steal without any real thought to a direction to take or her future. She had sometimes worked jobs with others, notably with both of her former apprentices, until she had heard that Thorin was looking for someone to track down his missing youngest heir. As far as Nori had been concerned it was quick coin that would get her out of the rut she had fallen into. She had no idea, then, that it would become an audition for a position which would drastically alter her future.

And apparently her past.

This time around she has been so busy that she has hardly had the time to spend with Trygve or Var, who she will also need to look up to see if he wants to take on a role in her little pack. She has seen them off and on, but it has only been for short periods at a time and never privately enough to catch them up on her life. Or her on theirs. Trygve, it turns out, is courting a young lad among the scribes, one he met when he needed something forging. At least, she supposes, the pair are completely honest about their occupations, but her friend confesses that he needs more security than picked pockets if he is going to build a real future with his lover.

"I might even have to take to the mines," he says, examining the bottom of his tankard of beer morosely. "Unless I want to specialise in assassination, which isn't something I like to do all that much, I need to bring in more than I am. Ma's furious," he huffs. "Knew she would be. Six generations of thieves on her side, four on Pa's."

Nori giggles, a sound she will deny making to the end of her days if ever challenged about it.

"I might have a solution for you," she says, "if you think you can stomach working for me, and then for Thorin Oakenshield as a result."

"I'm listening," he looks at her with interest.

"You're looking at the new Wolf of Durin's line," she gestures to herself. "And I need a pack, with a second. Interested?"

"In being in the pack?"

"In being my second," Nori clarifies. "And perhaps my current apprentice's second when he takes my place. It's the only reason that Thorin hired me for it in the first place; to get it up and running."

"Well, this should be an interesting story," Trygve tilts his head and Nori proceeds to tell him a simplified version of the last couple of years. "There's something you aren't telling me," he challenges as she finishes the somewhat shortened tale.

"Bits and pieces," she nods, "none of which you need to know." He pulls a face, then shrugs one shoulder.

"It's not unappealing," he hedges, "but to be forever second?"

"You'll probably end up closer to being in charge than you think," Nori explains. "Once we're set and settled here I'll need to take the lad out of town for a year or so to finish up some parts of his training and complete his final test. If I had my way the boy would have to earn the position no matter who his uncle is. We both know that these things don't work like that."

"Is he at least promising?" Trygve asks. "Will he actually be able to do the job if he has to?"

"I think he might one day be better than either you or I could ever be," Nori admits. "Painful as it is to say that."

"Alright," Trygve frowns. "Why me as your second? Why not Var? Or someone else with more experience?"

"I'm bringing Var in," Nori nods, "once we're settled a little anyway. But he's not focused on the same things you and me are. He's an assassin to his bones, the only reason he had to learn the rest was to help him get the skills he needed to sneak in places he shouldn't be."

"You think we'd need a permanent assassin?"

"That family have a habit of chewing on far too much boot leather," Nori observes, "whether they ever realise it or not. Someone hired Visson to kill Fíli at his coming of age celebration. If I hadn't been teaching the younger one…" she does not need to finish the sentence, Trygve knows what she is implying. "Regardless, the lad was targeted for the mere crime of existing. It's more of a surprise that the need for a Wolf hasn't come up before now."

"How big a pack are you thinking of bringing in?"

"Including you, me and Cadan?" Nori asks. "Ten. It'll give us enough leftover from the budget his royal grumpiness has set to pay informants, travel expenses and anyone we need to take on for short periods. I'll bring Var in permanently, which leaves us with six positions to fill."

"You're assuming I'm going to accept your offer," her former apprentice points out.

"And you're assuming that thirty years since you passed your test is enough time for me to forget how you think," she laughs. "I knew you were in as soon as you started asking questions about Cadan."

"I was in as soon as you asked," he replies. "I just wanted to be sure that it was the right decision. We'll need people we can trust completely."

"I know," Nori nods. "Which is why I want you and Var in permanently. Tibar will be helping on the fringes too."

"Are you sure you can trust him?"

"Trust him more than I trust Mavik or any of the other Gang Leaders," Nori says.

"You know that being Wolf makes you a Gang Leader, don't you?" Trygve points out. "Even if it's only a small one?"

Which is somewhere in that annoying place where her former apprentice is right and yet a little bit off the mark. For the most part within the Guild the Gangs stick together. They work together, form friendships within their group and, should one of them get into trouble, they help each other out of sticky spots while watching each others' backs. All of these will be true of Nori's pack. Perhaps more true since the Gangs tend to be large and her pack will be small, so they will need to rely on one another more.

"Wolf gets no say in the internal Guild politics," Nori shakes her head. "The rules are different." She puts a few sheets of paper on top of her new desk. "You want to help me go through these?"

There are a few names in the list that Nori considers who her former apprentice rejects completely as people he either will not be able to work with, or who he knows are not as trustworthy as Nori would like for their small pack. It makes her regret the distance that she knows has grown between her and her Guild since she started to train Kíli, but with the need for secrecy over his real identity has come a wariness about introducing him to too many of their fellows. Kíli knows those that he needs to know, and has been introduced to a few others to help him build up a small network among them. Nori's plan had been to help him forge enough friendships to allow him to create a pack of his own once Thorin made the lad his Wolf. It did not occur to her that he might decide to have his sister's youngest son come into an established pack rather than organise it all himself.

Truthfully she has no idea why she assumed he would want Kíli to create something he had no experience with.

Ultimately, they end up with a short list of twenty names or so and as his first task Nori gives Trygve half a dozen of them to track and watch for the next few weeks to see if he can work out whether they will be trustworthy enough to bring into the small thing she is creating. Nori has several others, who she will use to help her teach Kíli to watch and trail others unobtrusively as practice for his spy test should he succeed today. The thought makes her nerves rise again, even though she knows that they are mostly unnecessary, and she shakes them off by bringing up a choice for her pack that she knows Trygve will disagree with.

"I'm bringing Galan in," she says.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" He scowls. "He's Guild, I know, but it isn't his calling."

"I know," Nori sighs, and she does. "But he knows what he's doing and I came across something just before last Yule that needs looking into."

"Almost a year?" He raises an eyebrow. "That's a long time to hold something without looking more deeply into it."

"I would have done if it had just been me," she replies, "but I had the lad with me and needed to get him home. Not everyone has parents as pleased as yours were to find out about your calling," she reminds him. "Last I heard Galen had paid his debt with money he earns from the caravans, he still pays his membership in case he falls on hard times, and I'm willing to bet he hears all manner of things on the road."

Galen is one of the thieves she mentioned to Dwalin not too long ago, the young lad or lass who is not called to the trade but falls into it by accident either due to a stupid dare gone wrong or sheer desperation because they do not have a craft that can provide well for them or at all. Galen is craftless and like many who lack a craft he has what could best be described as itchy feet. He travels a lot and while Nori has not given him much thought over the last couple of years simply due to not seeing him, there was a time when the two of them were quite close. She does, after all, have a type. She helped him pass his tests, since they were training at the same time, and as a result in her last life he had made it a habit of passing on anything of interest that he heard during his travels. This time she wants to make it a little bit more official, and she wants to encourage him to head to the Iron Hills and see if he can find any word of Azog for her. She will happily pay his membership debt to the Guild in payment for his services, which will allow him to set aside any gold he gets from the caravan for once rather than losing most of it as soon as he returns to Thorinuldum.

"It's your set up," Trygve says after a moment of thought. "And it would be easier to get someone in the habit of travelling to go than to get some of the others here to do it. A few of the ones on these lists are a bit too fond of their Ma's cooking to leave again and they did the minimum for the caravans."

"That's one of the other reasons you'll mostly run things here," Nori admits. "Cadan and I both like travelling too much to give it up entirely, and there are some things that the two of us will have to do ourselves." She looks out of the window, her house is still outside the mountain, not being part of the wealthy district which is housed beneath the stone. It is dusk, she should hear the results of Kíli's test soon. "Once we've got everything settled and sorted I'll take you to meet Thorin, I'll need you to do my job when I'm away so he'll need to be familiar with you."

She thinks, for a moment, that Trygve will object but before he can the door to her office slams open and Kíli bounds in with a wide grin even as her former apprentice automatically reaches for a throwing knife.

"I passed!" The young prince declares.

A.N:Bonus chapter, my lovelies! Let me know if you need that character list any time. I'll be happy to pop it up.

On a quick and unrelated note: I received two PMs this week (one right after the other) written in the sort of English that implies very passing familiarity as a second language (not throwing shade, I can barely write three numbers in German and the sum total of my ability to comprehend it these days is songs rather than anything useful). It was a repeated offer to publish the 'novels' I have up and a request to contact the sender via facebook. I don't believe for a second that anyone here is daft enough to believe that they would be offered a publishing contract via fanfic, but on the off chance... I am old enough to remember the earlier days when fanfic was hush hush and Ann Rice and several others made their way onto that list in the rules and guidelines that said NO. And why. I remember why disclaimers get plastered over everything and so I know that no one legitimate is going to want to publish anything I have up as (aside from one Pride and Prejudice fic) none of it is in the public domain. Stay safe, lovelies, and as amazing as it would be to achieve such a thing, it sadly feels like a scam. It's a nice dream, but I can't risk everything on that sort of dream.

Happy weekend, see you Monday!