Gaius pushed aside a rack of Killer Bows and frowned. He had been searching the equipment for more than an hour, but he couldn't find the item he was looking for. Not helping in this endeavor was the fact that Stahl had been on storeroom duty this week. The scatterbrained Shepherd had somehow managed to confuse the entire organization system by putting boxes full of the same items on opposite ends of the room.
The thief popped a bonbon into his mouth, the only useful thing he had found in this misadventure. He cracked open the chocolate coating and let the raspberry center ooze out over his tongue. A blissful smile managed to creep back on to Gaius's face. Still, this wasn't what he was looking for, so he threw up his hands in an acceptance of defeat and headed out to the courtyard where he was scheduled to meet with Henry.
It was 8:45, and Henry was waiting in the courtyard just east of the barracks, near the vegetable garden. He must have gotten bored waiting, because he was making shadow puppets on the barracks wall by the light of an Elfire tome. Gaius whistled to catch his attention.
"Hey-o, Gaius!" Henry shouted. "Want to make shadow puppets with me? Look, here's a Wyvern! Raarr, devour the townspeople!" He let out a disturbingly cheerful giggle.
"Um, that's not exactly my kind of activity. I prefer something with a little less… murderous delusion," Gaius said. He was admittedly a little frightened, but had hung around Henry long enough that he had learned to accept it. "Anyway, I have some bad news. I know you possess natural Thief aptitude, but we're fresh out of Second Seals. Looks like we'll have to train you the old-fashioned way."
"Well, that sounds a lot more fun!" said Henry, an ear-to-ear grin on his face. "What's the first lesson?"
"Good thing I prepared for this," said Gaius. He pulled a small box out of his cloak and opened it, revealing a set of intricate lockpicks. "A thief is worth nothing if he can't crack a lock. Otherwise, you'll never be able to get into all the fun places you aren't allowed to go." He gestured to a small door set into a wall of the barracks. "I locked the door to that storage closet earlier today. Your first task is to pick the lock on it."
"Ooh, sounds tricky! How do you do it?" Henry asked. "I never really lock doors. It makes it harder to escape if any of my Risen experiments go wrong."
"Take these lockpicks and I'll show you," Gaius replied. Henry plucked a pick from his hand and strode over to the door.
"Now, the first thing you'll want to do is insert the torquing wrench into the bottom of the lock. That'll raise the pins so the lockpick can… uh, Henry?"
Gaius looked up to find Henry standing next to the wide-open door. "How did you do that?" he asked incredulously. I haven't even gotten to the second step yet!"
"Nyah hah hah! I just used a basic unlocking spell. It's so much easier!" replied Henry.
Gaius raised an eyebrow. "You think you can just trivialize the whole thieving business with some hocus-pocus? This is hard, rewarding work. And let me get this straight. If you have an unlocking spell, why do I have to unlock every chest and door we come across?"
"Well, I'm usually too busy slaughtering our foes," said Henry.
Gaius sighed. "Whatever it is, you can't just breeze your way through a heist. These kinds of things require patience and dedication. If you aren't willing to work hard, you won't get anything out of it."
"But it would be so much easier…" Henry began.
"No, listen!" interjected Gaius. He was surprised by the passion building in his voice. Normally he tried to remain calm and impassive, but this was a subject he cared deeply for. "I don't think of thieving as just a job, something to make sure you can make ends meet. That's what it started at when my dad was arrested, but it's become so much more. It's almost an art form. It takes real talent to be able to sneak through a three-story mansion with guards and an owner with serious combat training without making a single sound. It takes talent to break open complicated triple-chamber locks in the heat of battle with arrows flying at your head! No amount of hocus-pocus will be able to match that level of dedication." He pulled the lollipop he had been chewing out of his mouth; his teeth had ground it to dust during his rant.
Henry was silent for a moment as the words sank into him. Finally, he spoke, hesitation in his voice. "Now that I think about it, you might be right. I feel the same way about my magic. I normally don't bother with training, but for something like this, it's worth it. How do we get started?"
Gaius, overjoyed, clapped him on the back. "Glad you asked! All you have to do is put the flat pin into the lock to raise the bars, then insert the ridged pin and jiggle it around.
Henry followed these directions, and the lock swung open with little resistance. "Nya ha, that was pretty cool! Did you see how it just swung open like that? Maybe you're right about this after all."
"Great work, Junior!" cried Gaius. "Unfortunately for you, that was the easy part…"
The following weeks brought exasperation, irritation, and bruises to both parties. They couldn't have been happier. Gaius was pleased with Henry's progress, which was growing at a remarkably rapid pace. His work ethic had done a complete 180 from his earlier lack of effort, and he now seemed to absorb any information given to him. Before long, Gaius had taught him everything from sleight of hand to deception of others, which he was especially good at due to his natural bluntness and honesty making any lie he did tell less expected. The one thing he didn't seem to excel at was climbing. Physical exertion wasn't his strong suit, due to his frail mage body, and he spent more time falling out of trees that anything else. Henry didn't seem to mind, though Gaius believed this may have been because he enjoyed the pain. Still, the acrobatic portion was Gaius's part in the heist anyway, so the Thief wasn't particularly concerned.
Mostly, Gaius was just excited to be able to share his skills with someone. The scars of his profession were easily visible, both literally and figuratively, and Gaius was typically reluctant to show either. The gangs he had worked with prior to his recruitment were a shifty lot, and Gaius had quickly learned not to share too much information. Otherwise, your so-called friends might end up with your loot in his hands and his knife in your back. And while his fellow Shepherds might appreciate his humor and household skills, he could sense they still weren't entirely comfortable with his line of work. Gaius tried not to show it, but it stung, especially coming from a certain noble girl. But Henry's blithe spirit and personal troubles made him easy to trust. Despite his natural distrust of others, Gaius couldn't help but love the goofy kid.
That's why Gaius was uncharacteristically ecstatic when he called Henry to meet in his room a month later. The young Mage swept in with his typical dark energy and plopped eagerly down on Gaius's cot. "So what's the lesson today, Gaius? Do I finally get to learn how to sneak attack enemies."
Gaius smirked. "Not today, Junior. I really think you know enough to have graduated from the Unofficial Gaius School of Theft."
Henry looked a little crestfallen, likely do to the lack of stabbing in the curriculum. This was only momentary, and he looked up hopefully. "So what's the next step?"
Gaius leaned forward and lowered his voice conspiratorially. "I think it's finally time to tell you the plan."
Guys, I am so sorry.
This fic hasn't been updated in three months, and I feel like I owe you an explanation as to why. I've been trying to work on it for those three months, but two things have gotten in my way. At first, I thought I wouldn't gain much of an audience. I didn't really think anyone was paying attention to my writing, and that I should just give up. I was able to work through this with help from my Discord family, but then I was very busy with band and had very little time. It's finally done, and I'll try to update more regularly. Please forgive me.
Leave a review if you want to help me improve! I was not able to get this chapter extensively betaread, so any input is great. If you know me from Discord or Reddit, you can also contact me there with your suggested edits. As always, thank you very much for reading!