In Time and Space

By Kierseth and Emerald Flame.

Notice: We are posting the same story under similar titles. Any reviews for either of them will be shared with the other author. Thankies!

Disclaimer: We own Rena and Ria and various other characters. Anything you recognize from Mercedes Lackey's books, we DO NOT own.

Thanks to all our reviewers. Sorry for the delay on this chapter. Enjoy!



Thoughts
:Mindspeech:
"Normal Speech"


~*~*~*~

Chapter Two

Rena stopped just around the corner of the building and tweaked her hood farther over her head. The thin light of the moon barely peeked through the clouds, but that was enough to cast a glow on her hair.

Why couldn't I have been born with dark hair? she moaned in her thoughts, tugging at the dark hood once again. Her bright copper hair didn't make for a life of subterfuge. It caught all light and reflected it to great effect. Fine in a courtesan, but not for a thief.

She listened intently to the silence inside the building and crept to the door. She tried the handle: locked. She pulled out her small kit of picks and managed the lock in a few breaths. She slid an oiled rag over the hinges a few times to make for a silent entry. Easing the door open as little as possible, she entered the common room and closed the door. She paused for a moment and looked to the right, at the bedroom door. She sharpened her ears, trying to descern any noise. The only thing that came was the snores of a resting man. She relaxed a bit.

Asper had told her about this particular residence earlier that night. Asper had followed the man who lived here home. The gentleman had sold a rather large bundle of fine wolf pelts and had jingled off with a descent sized bag of coin. Asper had followed him to this building and had watched him through the window before heading home; He was more the tracker type than the snatch-and-run type. At fourteen, he stood head and shoulders above Rena and was solidly built. He was strong as an ox, but not very fast. So he left most of the big runs to the girls. Ria had had a big day, with a near miss that had her spooked, so tonight fell on Rena.

She waited until her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, then tiptoed over to the kitchen corner of the common room. Asper had seen the man fiddling with a small box and told her the whereabouts of it. She reached into the upper right-hand cupboard and feeling around, plucked the box from it's resting place.

Gotcha!

She set it down on the table and inspected the box with her fingers. It was small, a palm's length wide and long and a finger's height. She tried lifting the lid.

Nothing. It was locked. She felt at the lock with her fingers, straining to see in the dim light from the dirty window. It was sophisticated, much to complex for her little picks.

Damn! Now what? she stood still for a minute, racking her brain for ideas. She rubbed her eyes with her fingers and stared at the box. Open! she implored with her thoughts. Nothing. She sighed quietly and dropped her hand to the lid. Her fingers met the wood and she felt it give. She pressed harder at the lid and felt it give more.

What is this? Is the wood rotting? She pressed with all her strength and felt her fingers slide slowly through the wood. It was if the lid had turned to dense clay. There were no hard edges that she could feel, no splinter entered her hand, no sharp spurs of wood to scratch her skin. It took some effort, but her fingers finally broke through into the box. She grabbed one side of the break in the wood with one hand and the other with the other hand and pulled. The gap opened wider, until she could slip her hand into the box. She pulled out a heavy leather purse. It clanked softly as she lifted it, so she swaddled it in a cloth and tucked it into her pocket. Then she turned her attention back to the box.

It looked like someone had turned the lid of the wood to putty. The edges were mounded up: not ragged or square like wood does when it's cut or broken. She put out a finger and pushed at the rounded edge. It gave. She set her hands to the edges of the break and tried to smooth the wood out, as if she were trying to shape clay. It yielded and moved back to cover the gap. She slid her hand along the now-closed lid of the box and felt the bumps smooth out. She peered at it closely in the light from the moon. It looked normal, as if nothing had happened to the lid.

I don't know what's going on here, but thank you! she sent to whatever benevolent being was watching her. She set the box back where she found it, and left the house.

-----

"I pressed down on the wood and it gave!" Rena was back home, Asper, Wyn, Linx and most importantly, Ria were all up listening to her recount her latest swipe. It was a rare occurrence. Rena never talked about her escapades. She just did them and moved on.

"I thought maybe the wood was rotting and I pushed harder. It didn't feel like rotten wood. It was more like clay, or stiff mud. I managed to get the purse out of the box and the lid was still... pliable. I smoothed the wood back over the lid, Ria. I moulded wood like it was putty. That's not normal!" She looked a little confused and as Ria studied her sister, a little scared.

"The wood was probably rotten, Rena. You probably just pushed the rotten bits back in place and it looked whole in the dim light." Ria, ever the practical one, tried to calm her sister. "No one can turn wood to clay." Ria rubbed her forehead with her hands, closing her burning eyes.

"Ria! You aren't listening! The lid was whole. There were no gaps in the wood. I felt it." She leaned forward and pounded the floor with her right fist to make her point. But instead of the dull bang everyone expected, there came a muffled thunk. Rena looked down and gasped to see her fist firmly lodged in the wood of the floor. It was as if that area of floor had become viscous. The boys stared in disbelief.

"Ria?!"

"Wha-" Ria began, dropping her hands to her lap and opening her eyes. "What in the Star-eyed...?" She crawled the few feet to her sister and poked at the wood around Rena's hand. It was solid.

"Can you move your hand?" She asked her sister.

Rena nodded and slowly pulled her hand out of the floor. Her fist left an impression in the wood. She reached back out and poked hard at the indentation. Her finger sank into the floor.

"Try to... close it. Like you did with the box." Ria suggested, poking at the indentation along with Rena. It felt solid to her touch and no amount of pushing would allow her finger to move though it.

Rena set both hands on the floor beside the impression and pushed in and down at the same time. The wood slowly moved to cover the impression. When she straightened, it was if nothing had happened to the floor. It looked normal.

"Well." Wyn said, a little stunned by what had happened. "That's new."

Rena looked at him as if he had gone crazy. "I put my hand in the floor and all you say is 'That's new'?" She stared at the boy in wonder and slowly her face began to change. She bit her lip and started to shake. Ria looked at her in concern. When Rena caught a glimpse of Ria's face, she broke and burst out in hysterical laughter.

One by one the rest joined in, laughing like they hadn't done in years. They all fell asleep on the floor, worn out by their laughter.