Runner
Old Man Boros' Keep
Chores? Chores!? Really? That was how they were supposed to spend their day?
Okay, not all day, but it was so going to feel like it.
Bleh. Whatever. She guessed she did owe the old guy for letting them stay for free. Oh! Maybe this was her chance to redeem herself for all the old people she robbed just to survive. Doubt it would redeem her of the accidental arson. Beggars can't be choosers.
Unless beggars have a knife, she reminded herself. Then they did get to choose, to a small degree.
Runner half-heartedly swiped her hand across a dusty shelf along the upstairs hallway. Ugh. So much dust. She wiped her now-dirty hand across the wall, which was also dusty. She guessed she was just dusty now.
Her other hand fiddled with the key she had swiped from the table. She wasn't sure which door it went to, but she wanted to find out. Perhaps it was the big, bad, scary basement that she wasn't supposed to go down into.
In which case, she shouldn't go down, right? Obviously not. It was like the one thing Boros had asked them to do. Sneaking down there in the middle of the night would be a total breach of trust and morally wrong to do so. Anyone with half a brain could see that. So she shouldn't go down there.
She had told herself that the night prior, as she had stood at the top of the basement stairs. Unlocking the door had been pretty easy. It had been a simple lock, totally not secure. Like, at all. All she had to do was descend the stone steps, and she would have her answer for what the keep was hiding.
If only her stupid conscience had let her. Once again, her impish impulses had been restricted by that silly little thing that tried to tell her what was right and wrong. It was the thing that made her put stuff back and apologize. If only she could grab it with her hands and squeeze its little neck till its-
Woahhhh, where did that come from? Runner must have had some lingering resentment from somewhere, cause those thoughts were weirdly dark for her. Strange.
Somehow, Runner had made her way up into the crossbeams of the hallway, picking her way across them lithely. No clue why she was up there. She could give the excuse to the others, especially Baz, that she was trying to clean from the top to the bottom.
Yeah, she just wanted to slack off. What of it? She had been stressed for the past three weeks. Being around soldiers who would arrest her if they noticed all the things that went missing was a nightmare scenario for her. She wasn't sure how she didn't steal something while in the fancy-flower's tent. Her hands were smart enough not to get her killed, she supposed. That guy gave off scary vibes. Eshah, he would have caught her in a heartbeat.
Thankfully, that was all over now. Soon, she would find the Witch, have her fix her hands, and she would be a free woman. She could work for whoever the hells she wanted because she wouldn't rob them blind. No more running for Runner! Barring situations where she did need to run. Then she would run.
Someone once asked why Runner was so fairy-brained. She didn't have an answer at the time, but she now attributed it to being a very cool person. Cool people don't need to linger on little things for too long. They were too cool for that.
What's this? Runner thought as she reached one end of the hallway, crossbeams. The keep had a tiled roof, not a stone one, meaning there was more space above the rooms than expected. There seemed to be a small alcove in the roof, tucked out of view from anyone not also at this height. It was cleverly concealed in the shadows of the tall hallway, well out of the way as it joined the curve of the tower in the building.
The perfect place to be unseen for a while.
She weaseled her way onto the few boards that made up the floor of her new little hiding spot. Testing their strength, she found them sturdy. With her sight, she could see that this spot was small enough to force her to crawl and had barely enough space for her to turn around, but enough so she could curl up and nap. If only it weren't so damn dusty. Why was everything in this old place dusty!?
If she wanted to get a comfortable nap up here, she would need to clean it. Eh, reasonable concession for a good slacking spot. Plus, she wouldn't have to lie about not cleaning.
Carefully climbing back down, she found that the alcove was next to one of the locked doors upstairs. Tempted to try the key, she paused for a second. Nah, she told herself, nap spot first.
Snatching some of the cloth set aside for cleaning and a small pail of water, she returned upstairs just as the others were coming into the lower hallway. If she wanted her spot to stay hidden, she'd have to be quick.
Scrambling up to the crossbeams with an open container filled with water was not easy. She ended up spilling a bit on the floor, but she managed to keep the rest in. With quick hops, she made her way to the alcove and set the supplies in. A glance down the hallway revealed that the others had begun up the stairs. With a smirk to herself, she declared victory as she snuck into the spot.
Right. Time to clean. The dust in this alcove was some of the worst she had seen. It sat in the corners and on the boarded floor, walls, and in the cobwebs near the back. It took her a good twenty minutes with a damp rag before she could claim any semblance of the word 'clean' to the space. By then, her pail was closer to dirt than water. So much dust had been dumped in it by the rags that it had turned a murky brown and felt grainy in her hands. She had placed it on one of the crossbeams to be disposed of at a later time.
But all that cleaning did some good, as she could now comfortably curl up here, just as soon as she snatched a clean blanket from somewhere. Probably Yule's room. Magic made stuff the cleanest, somehow.
As she turned to leave and see if he had finished spelling his bed clean, something caught her eye. It must have been her lucky day, finding the alcove and a secret compartment in the secret spot.
Attached to the wall of the tower(which was the left wall of her spot), was a small wooden support. Inconspicuous and unnoticeable by anyone who wasn't a woodworker or a nosy thief. That support had hinges. Now, why would a support have hinges? It only meant one thing.
Treasure.
She giddily rubbed her hands together. Boros said nothing about not touching anything in a secret cubby upstairs. That meant anything in this box was free game. If it were some personal mushy stuff, she'd leave it alone, but gold or pearls? Those were finders keepers. No one's been up for at least a long time, so she doubted whatever was inside would be missed.
But how did it open? She had her lockpicks on her like always, but there was no lock to pick. There had to be a way to open it. She looked at it from as many angles as she could, which was more than most could do in the cramped space. It helped being flexible. Thank the gods she didn't skip stretching ever. Still, she wasn't sure how it was supposed to open.
Running her hands along the 'support', she felt nothing other than old wood and the brass of the hinges. Giving a knock on it revealed that it was partially hollow. She dared not yank on it; something inside might break. She shimmied on her stomach, trying to get a better look at the hinges themselves. Just brass with no visible attachment points. No, it seemed that she couldn't see any reveal, which meant it was a really good concealment, except for the hinges.
Her gut feeling was that the release for whatever mechanism was in this alcove or at least the hallway. She turned this way and that, trying to find something she was missing: a button or a wire or a lever. Sadly, nothing revealed itself to her that easily.
Frustrated but certainly not giving up on something this interesting, Runner crawled onto the crossbeams once more. She carefully moved the pail of dirty water to one side so as not to accidentally spill it. The temptation to dump it on Selm's head was there, but she knew she would get in trouble with more than just the dwarf for that. It would be funny, though.
Slowly and carefully, she moved from crossbeam to crossbeam, careful not to alert anyone below her. Thankfully for her, most everyone was engrossed with cleaning. Baz was cleaning downstairs, which was lucky. He was the most likely to spot her. Inaw maybe could see her with her height, but she was usually watching where she was going to not bump into anything. As long as she stayed quiet and slow, she wouldn't be spotted by anyone anytime soon.
The first four crossbeams heralded nothing of note. The fifth, however, had something. On the wall, there were a few odd scratches. She had dismissed them earlier as nothing but age in the walls, but now that she took a closer look, it was a symbol. It looked like the drawing of some sort of cat. Crude and very angular, but a cat nonetheless. And it was holding something under a stick leg. Some sort of ball? A very fat rat?
A button.
It was a button! Hah, that was clever. She pushed it gently at first, then harder when it proved to have more resistance. With a defined mechanical click, the button sank into the stone around it about half an inch. She heard another click, down in her alcove. Success. Amazing!
She hopped quickly from beam to beam. In the alcove, she saw that the false face of the wood had popped open, revealing the hollowed-out section. In it were a few things of note. A couple of letters, a dagger, and a vial of some sort of clear liquid with a green tint.
Okay, not gold, but it was still loot!
She grabbed the letters and inspected them. There may have been some mushy stuff she would leave up here. There were two of them, one addressed to 'My Granddaughter Elinora', and the other to 'Whomever has found this stash'. Well, one of those applied to her. She opened both anyway. The parchment was old, like incredibly old. She had to be gentle with it, or it started crumbling on her. The ink was faint as well, but she could make out the words well enough.
'Whomever has found this stash,
Well done. I assume you are not my granddaughter Elinora, although I dearly hope you are. You have found one of my hidden caches. Hope it gave some sort of challenge, taught some sort of lesson-' Runner snorted. The only challenge she had was the cleaning. And finding the secret drawing. Okay, slight challenge. 'In this cache, there should be a magic dagger-' Now that was interesting! She glanced at the untouched weapon with excitement but kept reading. '-another letter, and a vial of toxins. I ask that if you are not Elinora, please do not read the other letter. Simply burn it. Although if you found this cache, I doubt you are the type to listen to a letter, so do as you will. I am likely long gone and cannot do much to stop you.'
This letter guy was pretty smart, knowing she would have already opened the other letter. Sounded like a crafty person. She read on, seeing that there was still more to the letter.
'Regardless, the spoils of this cache are yours to keep. Finders keepers, yeah? Use them well, as they served me early on in my life. Here is a word of advice: don't drink that toxin and definitely don't get it in your blood.
The one and only,
Mayes Klepthand, Hooded Thief of the Hip Hip Hoorays.'
Hm. This hooded thief guy sounded like someone she would have liked. Or hated. Maybe both. Sounded dead, though, so she wouldn't know. But yay! Free loot! A nice magic dagger and some deadly toxin? Sounds like fun things to play with and stab some bitches. When she had to, of course.
And that name. Where had she seen it before? It was somewhere in the keep, but she couldn't quite recall where. 'Klepthand'. Wait, she also remembered seeing the name 'Hip Hip Hoorays' somewhere. Ugh, that was gonna bug her till she figured it out.
Some writing near the bottom of the page caught her attention.
'P.S. Treat the old man well. He has lost more than anyone in this world and has faced shit you wouldn't believe. Show him some respect.'
Well, she had intended to do that anyway, but that confirms something for her. Boros was old. Older than a human should be. Something fishy was going on with him, but what? The letter said he was someone to respect, yeah, but why? Who was he? Eshah, something was weird about this place. Weird, but cool.
There was some other information in there that she kind of glossed over because she didn't want to linger on the letter for too long. After all, she was a cool person. Heh.
The second letter, she felt slightly guilty about reading now. It was something confirmed to be personal. However, the first letter had said that is couldn't stop her. Hells, it predicted she would read it anyway.
'Dearest Elinora(or whomever was nosy enough to peek),
Let me first say that I am so very proud of you for finding this letter. I hid it away as a true test of your skills in acrobatics and exploration. Finding this letter means you are well on your way to becoming just like your old pop pop. That dullard son of mine, your father, was no good at anything like picking locks or puzzles. Can you believe he wanted to be a farmer? He's the spitting image of my old man. You, however, were different. I could tell the first time I slipped a gold piece into your pocket that you were gonna be one of the best tricksters out there.
I've hidden a few other things here and there around Groville and the keep. Nothing as big as this little gift, but other things to help you get started. Be smart with how you use them, especially around Keldanis. They take themselves seriously around here. If you can, use what I've taught you to mess with the ranch. Think of it as messing with one of my old pals for me. You should probably read the other letter too.
Good luck, kid. The world needs thieves like us to keep good folk on their toes. It especially needs us to fuck with the bad ones. You've got my blood in you. Mess some stuff up.
Your loving grandfather and mentor,
Mayes Klepthand.'
Huh. Well, Elinora never found this stuff. Runner did. She reread both letters, sorting some of the information away for a later date. There were a lot of little details in these letters that were probably important, but she had no real context for them. Thus, they got put into the back of her brain. Maybe, just maybe, she would share her findings with the others. She did need to find out what kind of magic was on the dagger and how to use it. Yule would have to tell her that.
New trinkets? Hells yes. New nap spot? Also, hells yes. All things considered, Runner felt pretty damn productive for the day. And it wasn't even lunch yet.