Getting Back
Pema and Dorje followed Therese and Oliver back to the same small hotel where they got robbed in the first place. They would have followed the other couple inside through the main gates, but were stopped by a man at the door who demanded an entrance fee.
Therefore, they resorted to sneaking back inside in other ways. They circled the house and soon separated. Pema climbed a tree next to the hotel while Dorje went inside the house. She watched where Oliver stashed the glasses and the choker.
The couple in the room got busy with each other and Pema crawled to the end of the branch, she was hanging by the branches to make them hang lower and reached the window. She sneaked her arm inside and grabbed the leather bag where the jewels were stashed.
Dorje was sneaking around the hotel, but the staff was already awake and on their feet and even some of the guests appeared out from their rooms. It did not take long before he was noticed. He was cornered in the large room and examined in languages he did not understand.
Pema jumped from the branches and landed on the soft grass below. She hid the leather bag below her robes and sneaked her hand inside. She felt for different objects, but then she found the glasses and the choker, pulled them out and hid in a pocket inside her robes.
Dorje was not coming out from the house and she began to worry. It was taking him too much time, he must have gotten caught. He probably went for the rings, something she intended to do later and only if the couple got in deep sleep and they managed to sneak into their room.
Then someone yelled 'robbery', it was not even from the room of the couple, but she took no chances. Pema put the choker back around her neck and transformed into a dragon hero. She walked into the house holding her sword, grabbed Dorje and jumped out from the window.
The staff and a guest or two simply gaped at her and did not even try to question what she was doing there nor what she was. Her sword in one hand combined with her magic suit and the mask on her face was sufficient.
She ran holding Dorje in her arms and looked for a safe spot for them to hide. The city was bustling with life, there were people everywhere and it was really hard to find a place to hide. Everyone who saw her thought she was some kind of a daemon who came there to destroy the city.
She finally found an empty attic where they could hide from the outside world and stopped her wild run. Dorje was quiet and towered over her once she put him on his own two feet, but his head hang low, he felt like he failed.
"I also have the horse miraculous." She detransformed, smiled and took out the glasses. That brought smile back on his face. So she saved both miraculous all on her own, and him, while all he did was that he got caught sneaking around the halls.
"Apparently you also took something from them!" Dorje hugged her fiercely and felt the leather bag under her robes, she blushed and extracted the bag. They opened it and examined the contents together, it mostly contained papers.
"You didn't get the rings?" He sounded disappointed but then he realized what he just said. "Of course, they were wearing the rings I didn't mean for you to … " He blushed and stammered and pulled his head between his shoulders. It should have been him who fought for the rings.
"These documents, they must be worth something." She pondered. "Perhaps we could get our rings back in exchange for these." If she was able to negotiate anything without being subjected to that awful think she consumed last night.
Now she knew that the substance had an effect one her, because she never would have gotten robbed if she wasn't under some kind of influence. She knew how different teas made her feel better, more awake or drowsy, but this was far worse.
"We are not negotiating with them again." Dorje stated clearly. "We negotiated last night and it did not bring us any good." He felt guilty for that too. He let her do the talking, because he couldn't do it himself, and then he fell asleep instead of protecting her.
"What do you suggest we do then?" Pema put her hands on her hips. She could not help but feel slightly hurt by his comment. What if she was so bad at trade? It is not like she did well last night. She never remembered any details.
"Perhaps we should just transform, march in there and take our rings." He crossed his arms. He regretted losing the rings more because they were magical and shared the bond between the two of them than because of their worth in precious metal.
"We are not supposed to use our miraculous for selfish reasons." Pema reminded him. "I only used mine to save you, not to steal this, I did not even have it back then." She touched the miraculous around her neck thoughtfully.
"She is right, using the miraculous for selfish reasons like that is one step towards abusing your powers." Longg warned. "You, my honourable master did well to save your brother in arms, but you should not aim it at stealing or revenge."
"We are their masters." Dorje whispered to Pema as if Kaalki and Longg were not able to hear him anyway. "They have to do what we tell them to. And we would be only taking back our rings, we can even return this bag and not steal anything else."
"But the guardian would know, master Dolma is going to learn about this, eventually, and so is master Tenzin, our teacher." Pema whispered back. "I already feel bad about messing this up so badly, I don't want to make it even worse."
"Okay, we do it your way, we'll go back and negotiate." Dorje frowned. "We left that device and opium in their hotel anyway. Do they have some coins in there that could buy us food? It is not stealing if we left them something in return?"
Apparently it had a vast amount of coins and the two monks took a few and purchased some food and tea from a street vendor and slowly returned to the scene of the crime. They climbed the same tree to spy the hotel room where the couple was when Pema stole the bag.
"You have ruined my daughter." A fat middle aged man with a crooked grey wig and make up wearing a flashy man's clothes was shouting. He was completely red in the face and his fists were clenched while he shook in rage.
"We are married, father." Theresa answered. "We are husband and wife." Her tone and statement was definite, it was done and whatever her father's rage produced right now, she was a married woman and to the man by her side, not the one her father chose for her.
"We are madame and monsieur Graham de Vanily now." Oliver added cheerfully with a huge grin on his face, genuinely happy, blushed because his father in law burst into his room, he held his young wife to his side protectively ready to face the man's wrath.
"You dared to take my name." The man shouted. He was so angry when he learned what happened that he stormed into the young man's room and there was nothing that he would react at with anything short of shouting and yelling.
"It is not like you have a son to continue the line father." Therese shot back. She despised her own father from the moment when she learned what his intentions were, so she hit where it hurt the most and reminded the man that he never fathered a son.
"No, your mother had given me just six useless daughters like you!" The man retaliated. "And you are the youngest and the worst of them all!" The man was livid, his bloodshot eyes stared at her, he spat while he shouted and his fists trembled.
"You asked me to join you on this journey so you would not miss your family at home, premissed me to 'see the world' and waited for us to be almost here before you revealed that you wanted me to marry your old friend Rufus and leave me here." She was quiet but menacing.
The man would have continued to shout, but he was too busy catching his breath, the clothes felt too tight on him, he was hyperventilating and angry and had no control over his own actions, let alone the daughter he wanted under his thumb.
"I'm not doing that. Marlene went to convent not to marry the man you chose for her, I wanted to go to the harbour, jump off the ship and drown in the sea, but Oliver here persuaded me not to." Therese was crying while she spoke, but she was determined to finish her speech.
Pema whispered to Dorje and explained what the trio in the room was talking about. The two monks started to feel sorry for the young woman. But that did not justify the theft, they could have married without stealing the rings, for sure.
The old man took a seat from his shaky legs. His own daughter disobeyed him and caused his rage, but the things she just said, that she would rather die than marry a man he wanted, that shook him to his core.
"Sir, I'm sorry to go behind your back on this. I have nothing but respect for you." Oliver dared to speak. The old man glared back but kept silent. "I married you daughter and I would take her even if she had nothing. I have a job, she will not go hungry."
"Don't say that, he had a deal with Rufus, I'm sure he is more concerned about the deal than me. Oliver is young and clever tradesman, father, he has a business proposal, you should listen to him." Therese spoke. Oliver looked at her in a 'let me speak' kind of way.
"And I waited until we got married, in church, we were there this morning, you can check, and I do have the marriage certificate in my bag." He was well aware that the bag and the marriage certificate were not where he left them.
"Yes father, we did it. Now you can behave as if I was a disgrace to the family, which I wasn't, or we can pretend Oliver and me fell in love and got married, which is true. Which option is better for the family reputation, what do you think?" She demanded.
"It is still early. Why don't you think about this? Perhaps I could help you with whatever the business deal you had with your friend Rufus. We can talk about it later, over dinner." Oliver proposed. Therese glared at him at the mention of her almost future husband.
"You are right, we are going to talk about this over dinner." The old man relented, he released a long breath and then another one and his face slowly reduced back to the unhealthy pale coolour form the red rage, then he got up and walked to the door.
"Thank you father." Therese replied quietly, she trembled from the whole ordeal.
"Thank you sir." Oliver had a huge grin on his face again, he was getting his chance.
Then older man suddenly turned around.
"I guess it is meaningless to be paying for your room in this establishment from now on, move your things over here, I'm cancelling, unless your husband wants to pay for it?" He was back, the tradesman who always thought of his costs and profit.
The young couple instantly recognized that particular reaction as his final acceptance of their marriage so they cheered and hugged each other while the old man slowly let himself out from the room and closed the door behind him.
"Why didn't you discuss the business deal right now?" Therese asked quietly. She felt like they lost a chance while they were on a good track, since her father accepted them.
"My deal was on sheets of paper together with may documents in the leather bag that went missing. I can't find it anywhere. The last time I saw it was when I put those glasses and the choker inside." He frowned.
"Hey." Pema called from the tree in front of the window without thinking about it twice. "We have your bag and we are willing to exchange it for your rings." It looked like a perfect moment to make the exchange and everyone would go their separate ways.
Oliver jumped to the window and saw the two monks who were huddled a tree and slightly hidden by the leaves. His heart was beating quickly, his bag, his documents, the marriage certificate, everything was in that bag held by a monk on a tree.
"You robbed us so it is fair exchange." Pema added. She wanted it done, she expected it to be an easy exchange, his bag for their rings, plain and simple, they were able to do this in a minute, right through that window, only a few moves.
"No, not in this world." Oliver grinned. He looked around for a moment. The streets were full of people, everyone in the house was up an awake and as active as they could be. Pema felt he gut sink, she failed again, but she had no idea what was coming next.
"Thieves!" He shouted. "Thieves!" He turned to the other side to alert as many people as he could. Then he grinned at the tree again. "We can't return the rings now, these are our wedding rings, darling." Oliver whispered to his wife.
Pema and Dorje had to run, there were soldiers in white trousers and red coats everywhere who looked for them. They finally escaped to the relative safety of temporarily unused attic they used to hide the first time. They could see and hear soldiers outside.
"We should wait until they get tired or have someone else to search for." Pema whispered. "That man needs this bag before the dinner tonight, we can try again in a few hours." Dorje was not so certain that their next attempt was going to end up any better.
By that evening, even the soldiers dressed in blue were looking for the two young monks. Dorje could understand them. They waited for the dark to settle. Pema gave the last stash of food she had for Longg, she had to get more and the two monks could not walk around freely.
They sneaked back to the same hotel. Pema knew that Oliver was going to be willing to trade, he wanted that bag with papers as much as they wanted the rings back. They climbed the same tree in the darkness. Pema approached the window and knocked, Dorje remained hidden behind.
Oliver opened the window and they discussed quietly in hushed tones. It looked like they reached a deal and Pema agreed to enter the room. The next second, Therese snatched the bag while Oliver held a knife to Pema's throat.