I probably should have kept this under wraps until I finished the first draft of DC, but I couldn't wait!

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Chapter One
The Pact
(Marja Galiff)

Festival days in Pabra were always the most productive days, no matter what career a person had. Merchants and entertainers peddled their wares and their skills as best they could, even children found ways to get sweets and toys out of normally stingy parents--and those with less honest professions, like my friend Kyube and me, a thief and a con artist, respectively, had no end of easy marks to pick and choose from. But all good days have to end sometime, and as the sun had already taken its leave from the sky a few hours ago, the crowds had dispersed and the merchants were packing up their shops and going home.

I had promised Kyube I'd meet her in a certain alley after I'd finished up, there were only a few notorious misers still in sight, so I found a water barrel and washed the dirt off my face, then went to the alley where I found Kyube waiting for me. Her copper hair was pulled back in its customary ponytail--I had yet to win the battle to get her to wear it loose or braided, but I hadn't lost it yet, either--just looking at it made me subconsciously reach for my own blonde curls.

"How did you do today?"

Grinning broadly in a way that my old dad would have said was inappropriate for a young lady, I reached one by one into the many pockets of my voluminous skirts and produced seven fat purses and drawstring bags. "Better than that parade for the Duke's birthday last month. You?"

Kyube just smiled back at me and emptied her own pockets. How she managed to hide that much silver in her clothes--a form-fitting brown tunic and lighter brown leggings--I'd never know, though I often itched to ask. It would haven be a useful talent, though I rather liked my method of using my poofy skirts.

I picked up one of the purses and whistled, another unladylike action my old dad condemned; it was pretty heavy for a purse, and I wondered if she had put the contents of another bag into it so she'd have less to carry. "Maybe I should forget about being a con artist and take up thievery," I said. It was only a joke, of course, I'd have given up bread before trading in the smooth life of a trickster for the decidedly more dangerous work of a thief. Telling lies was my specialty, and my sleight of hand was something less than impressive.

But instead of ignoring my idle comment, Kyube laughed so hard that she had to hold her sides to stop. "Sorry, Marja, but there's really no way! You couldn't steal from someone if they handed you their purse."

If I'd been a wild dog, my hackles would have risen. She didn't have to be so...up front about it--I had my pride. "That's a little harsh," I said, pouting indignantly. "You wouldn't say that if I were a Prodigy, like you and Knife."

As usual, at the mention of Knife's name, Kyube's eyes grew hard and she stiffened so that she stood as straight as a pole. "Marja, you shouldn't want to have anything in common with Knife. He's hardly something to aspire to."

"I heard that."

Gasping at the sudden intrusion, I looked around frantically, trying to find the source of the voice. After a few tense moments, a figure stepped out of the shadows; it was Knife, a tall, wiry thief whose trademark was his spiked purple hair and a broadsword strapped to his back. He tended to show up sometimes when Kyube and I had some quiet time to spend together, and it made me want to turn him over the Guard. His little 'visits' always left Kyube in a sour mood, and I didn't care much for his sneaky little grand entrances, either.

Kyube folded her arms over her chest and looked away from him, her nose in the air as if she were a noble in the presence of a particularly low servant. "You were meant to," she said, still not looking at him.

Fuming, I marched over to him and locked eyes with him. When I was sure he wouldn't look away, I kicked him in the shin. "Don't sneak around like that!" Then I kicked him again before he could do anything about it. Unlike Kyube's rough leather boots, my little woven sandals couldn't do much damage, but they were his shins, after all, and I took great pride in having powerful legs despite their lack of length.

He grabbed his leg and tried to back away from me, but he overbalanced and landed on his behind; he winced, but managed to dodge my next attack. "Oy, Kyube! Call her off, will you?"

Instead of answering right away, Kyube stepped back to lean against a wall; then she shrugged. "Do it yourself. You're a Prodigy, a 'proud Child of Imber, Spirit Guardian of the Rain,' if I remember my lessons correctly."

"Does it look like Imber's protecting me now? And I can't exactly swim away from this little monster."

My mouth dropped open and my eye started twitching, he had crossed the line; kicking was too good for him. "I'll show you a monster!" When I was working, I didn't usually wear the waist pouch I kept steel darts in, but I had that day, so I decided to use it. But Knife was a skilled thief with a good head for sensing danger, and he was already on his feet and disappearing back into the shadows before I could properly take aim.

Kyube laughed and patted my head proudly. "Anyway, about you being a Prodigy. If you were one, you'd have some mark somewhere--there's not a single Prodigy without one, we're born with them." She indicated the yellow lines on her cheeks running from her eyes like a curved path of tears, and then she raised an eyebrow at me. "Unless you've been hiding something from me and you belong to Durant or Gelidus?"

"I'm not hiding anything," I said, huffing as I put away my darts away again. "I know I'm not a Prodigy, I was just saying..." I trailed off, there was no need to explain myself, she understood. "I wish I was though, a little extra protection would be more than welcome, especially now."

Immediately, her eyes narrowed and she frowned, looking concerned. "What do you mean?"

I bit my lip and mumbled an almost silent 'oops'; I hadn't meant to tell her. Since I didn't have a mother, Kyube had taken it upon herself to worry about me in her place, and just like a daughter, I hated to cause her anxiety. Although she respected my right to choose my profession, she always said I should get honest work, as a waitress or something; I hadn't been born or raised in Pabra, and my features and mannerisms were very different from the natives, although I had lived there for more than two years. Of course, I couldn't help being as adorable as I was, and I also couldn't see any harm in it, but she was right about my hair, almost no one in Pabra was born fair-haired, let alone with natural curls.

Of course, I could have lied and made up some story to calm her worries, but it wouldn't have been right, lies were for other people. So I ducked my head and said, "Well, a lot of us have been picked up by the soldiers lately. We've been trying to get the Boss to break them out, but he's so busy greasing the palms of officials to keep guards from performing raids that he can't worry about a few unlucky con artists."

That did nothing for the frown on her face, she sat down on the ground and poured out the proceeds of the day's work in front of her. Silver coins called lucre, the international form of money, though it was valued differently from country to country, and even a few pieces of jewelry mixed in, all of this made a neat pile that would have would have glittered if the street lights had been of a better quality.

She raised a brooch to look at it in the poor light, then lowered her arm. "Your silly friends have to learn to take care of themselves. What do you think we can do with this?"

Obviously making a plan would be up to me, Kyube knew that money was necessary for most plans, and she was providing what help she could. I pulled at my skirt a bit to make sure it would cover my knees, and then I knelt on the floor and helped her count the lucre and appraise the jewels, adding my own newly acquired money to the pile. Then I stood up again and did some math in my head, testing the numbers against a few options. "We could bribe about four or five of the soldiers guarding the lockup, their pay is absolutely pitiful, and they're willing to do anything around festival time, especially since there's still one day of celebrating left. We'd have to fence the jewels first, of course, they're getting better at tracing them back to the original owners."

"But none of the thieves, right?"

"You have to admit, Kyube, they're not exactly fond of you." Being female in Pabra was, traditionally, right next to being pond scum, as far as the residents were concerned; even the women thought so--at least, most of them seemed to believe it. Only the Family seemed to have an idea of equality between genders, though we didn't receive much of it from people outside the Family, we did get a little more respect than most women, mostly because there were a lot of us. Kyube was the only woman thief in all of Chapima, let alone Pabra, and she was rather infamous; the other thieves wouldn't let her join the Guild and they avoided her as if she were a leper.

She shook her head, looking dispirited, perhaps at the mention of the other thieves. "Five soldiers wouldn't be enough. There are always ten soldiers on guard, and we'd never be able to distract that many by ourselves. We'll need at least one other person; you do the planning, I pick the locks, and he can be a diversion or something."

He? Then I took note of the disgusted scowl on her face and I blanched. "No, Kyube. You be a diversion, I'll go buy a skeleton key or something."

"Only Black Market Dan has skeleton keys, and he won't do business with women, not even those in the Family." She sighed and started putting the lucre and jewelry back into the purses. "He's the only one who'll even talk to me. As much as I hate to ask him for help, at least we can keep our pride intact by paying him. It's just a job, alright?"

It was remarkably easy to find him, and we didn't even have to go to the Thieves' Guild to do it; he was at Joro Nanoell's smithy, getting his sword sharpened. He listened to our proposal, paid Joro and then said, "O...kay. So you two want to hire me?"

We'd put what we deemed a fair amount into a larger sack; Kyube shoved it at him, as if she was irritated at having to be so close to him. I wasn't any happier than she was, asking Knife for help was worse than knowing we needed it. "There's 350 lucre. Standard price for freelance work."

For a moment, Knife just stood there and stared at the sack, then he shook his head and handed it back to Kyube. "I don't want your money."

I clenched my hands into fists, reminding myself that Joro wouldn't appreciate it if I lost control and slapped Knife senseless. "Why? Isn't it good enough for you?" No sane person would tell a con artist--or any other member of the Family--that there was something wrong with a payment one of us had made or was making. If they did, they didn't live long to enjoy their insanity, the Boss made sure of that.

"It's nothing like that."

"Then what--"

Kyube put a hand on my shoulder and shook her head; she'd already put away the sack and looked ready to leave. "Forget about it, Marja. Maybe we can get Uncle to help us." She looked at Joro hopefully, the question in her eyes.

He chuckled and shook his head, then reached over the counter and patted Kyube as if she was still a child. "Sorry, I happen to like being retired. Now get along, I taught you and Knife better than this. Go do your business outside."

As we were shooed out the door, I kicked at the back of Knife's leg, although I only managed to connect with his heel. "If it's not about the money, then what is it?" I was determined to find out just what his problem was, even if it was just that he didn't want to work for us.

He shot a quick glance at Kyube, then said, "I don't need money. If I take this job, then I want a favor in return."

That wasn't what either of us wanted to hear, men's favors ran on the selfish side of things; either he'd ask for something impossible just to spite us, or it'd be something that would benefit him and leave us with a big fat nothing--or worse. Kyube gave him her best poker face, and asked, "What kind of favor?"

"Nothing too big. I just want in on whatever you're planning next."

I stared at him, blinking in confusion. "Why would you want to do that?" Thieves and con artists rarely worked together, not even Kyube and I teamed up unless it was for something like this.

Knife shrugged, smiling like a cat who knew where the mice were sleeping. "I've seen you in action--both of you. You're fearless. And I've got a feeling that the next time the two of you do something together, it'll be something to look forward to." He reached back and drew his sword, then carefully cut his thumb with the tip of the blade, he moved his hand away before the blood could drip onto the sword, then held out his hand. "Is it a deal?"

Neither of us said anything, instead, Kyube took her dagger out if its sheath at her waist and made a cut on her own thumb, I did the same with one of my darts. The three of us touched our thumbs together--it would have been easier if there had been only two people, but we managed--and then we recited the words of the ancient ceremony in a rather broken chorus. "Bonded by blood, let not man nor beast, nor even the Spirit Guardians in the heavens sunder this contract." Our hands were encircled in a small flash of white light, the color of magic that meant no harm, and then disappeared without a sound. The Pact had been sealed, and we could get down to business.

It wasn't long before we were within sight of the lockup, although there were a few arguments that made the walk seem longer. Notwithstanding the fact that it was the home of the lockup, the West District didn't have any less crime than any other part of Pabra, and the area around the lockup was among the most dilapidated places in the entire city, probably because of former prisoners' vandalistic efforts. Unlike all of the other buildings in Pabra--even the palace--which were built from stone or wood, the lockup was comprised of a clever mixture of metal and magic, designed to dishearten even mages; after all, according to the Duke's reasoning, even magic users could break the law. Of course, outside of the palace walls and its luxurious grounds, 'breaking the law' was known as 'doing what you have to so you can eat.'

But no amount of metal or magic could stop a person with sufficient brains--i.e., me. Concealing ourselves behind a dry, cracked fountain that was more intact than some of the buildings, we started to discuss a plan; rather, I started to make a plan and they were paying close attention to me. "Knife, can you make your voice a little rougher, like an old crusty soldier?" He looked up at the sky for a second, then he looked back at me and nodded in a businesslike manner. That made me happy, it meant he was taking this job seriously, maybe it wouldn't be too bad to have to work with him again. "Good. Then here's what we'll do..."

When everyone was clear on what to do, Kyube and I got to our places, and Knife to his, then a silent--and hopefully synchronous--count to ten began. When I'd reached fourteen, I heard Knife call out in a voice unrecognizable as his own, "There's been a disturbance at the East Gate! We need all the men you can spare!" I watched the guards stare at one another until the sound of Knife's swiftly retreating footsteps sent them after him, towards the East Gate on the other side of the city.

We'd gotten lucky, there was only one guard left, and it was my job to distract and disable him; I abandoned my hiding place and started to saunter over to him, patting the sedative-scented handkerchief in one of my pockets, then I stared as he suddenly slumped to the ground. Kyube came running up behind me and then both of us walked carefully to the lockup, waiting for the guard to get up, although it quickly became apparent that he would not; there was a piece of rubble on the ground beside him. I noticed a raven-haired girl leaning against the bars of the cell nearest where the guard had stood, she wore a blue scarf and a broad grin, her eyes were bright blue and deepset in her face, as if she wasn't used to having a good night's sleep, and she was missing her two front teeth. The missing teeth were what made me recognize her, they were part of the story that made her famous; it was Nearly Mad Susan. She was a legend among con artists, and if she'd been caught, then everyone was in trouble.

"Nice job," she said, lisping a bit. "He's got the keys on his belt, but o'course, I can't reach 'em from here. Do us a favor, eh?"

Kyube took the keys from the unconscious guard and opened the lockup door, and then we went inside and opened up all of the occupied cells on the first floor; the second floor was for the really dangerous criminals, murderers and the like. Some of the prisoners tried to stop and thank us, but we hurried them on their way, there was no telling when the other soldiers would figure out the ruse and get back. As soon as we were sure that every cell was empty, we made our own escape.

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Doesn't that kick the pants off the old one? ::biiiiiiiiiiiiiig grin::