“I’m sorry, I must’ve misheard you,” Olivia interrupted Allana’s story. “For a second, I thought you said that you made friends with the Noble-damned Guild of Thieves!?”
“‘Friends’ is a strong word,” Allana corrected her. “‘Allies’ is better, I think.”
Olivia rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, crossing her arms to glare at the wraith. The squire had only gotten back to Correntry hours before, and when she found Cadence and Allana talking at the Grime and Glory, the last thing she had expected was Allana telling a story about her new association with a gang of criminals.
Although, really, Olivia didn’t know why she didn’t see that coming.
“Those aren’t the kinds of people you’re supposed to be getting involved with, Allana,” Olivia insisted.
“Oli,” Cadence warned, “remember our talk about being judgemental?”
“This is different, Cadie!”
“And why’s that?” Allana asked challengingly.
Allana and Olivia didn’t fight as much anymore–at the very least, not the way they had when they first met. They had been through a lot together and built up a certain level of mutual respect that made outright animosity hard to maintain. But they still had some fundamental differences on how they saw the world.
“Look, I don’t know how things are in Emeston, and I’m not here to judge how you lived your life there. But I think I’ve gotten to know Correntry pretty well, and when the wardens here put out the mark on a group, it’s for good reason.” Olivia tried to keep her voice calm as she explained. “These people, they’re not just thieves. The wardens have got them on charges of murder, Allana. Extortion, kidnapping, gift crimes, every felony level offense in the city, they’ve done it.”
“No, they haven’t,” Allana said simply.
Olivia groaned, exasperated, and turned towards Cadence with pleading eyes. For whatever reason, the celestial had occasional success in influencing Allana.
“Okay,” Cadence said, exasperated, as she tried to mediate between them. “Want to share why you think that, Allana?”
The rogue shrugged. “I’ve seen these people, Cadence. Spider took me back to their hideout after we left the Silken Web. There’s barely a dozen of them left, and most of them are kids. A handful are our level, but none of them are battle-gifted. They couldn’t have done half the crap Olivia is claiming, even if they wanted to.”
“And what about this Spider person?” Olivia asked.
“They’re just some old celestial trying to do the right thing to help these people out. They’re orphans, Oli. Street rats, urchins, who Spider found and gave an out to.”
“That sounds a little like what Telik did, too,” Caden observed, her voice careful and neutral. Olivia flashed the celestial a gracious glance–if Oli had made the same observation, it probably would’ve resulted in a fight.
“Only they’re genuine,” Allana argued. “I’ve been through that, remember? I know what a Telik looks like, and Spider is different.”
“So they claim,” Olivia insisted.
“So I claim,” Allana corrected her, making the squire wince. “And so do most of the people I’ve talked to. A bunch of the streetborn remember when the Thieves Guild were all they had to rely on. And while a lot of them have heard about these crimes, I couldn’t find a single person who had any real evidence that the Guild was behind them.”
Olivia opened her mouth, another heated reply ready to go, but Cadence put a hand on her arm, pulling her back. “So who is behind it?”
“According to you,” Olivia added in a mumble.
Allana shot her a glare. “It’s the damned merchants,” she explained. “At some point, some of them figured out that they can get away with whatever they want if they just pin it on the Thieves Guild.”
Olivia arched a skeptical eyebrow. She knew that the merchants of Emeston–the Gold Council, as they were called–were far from an ethical bunch, and she couldn’t blame Allana for being distrustful of the rich, but that didn’t mean she was willing to just go along with these claims.
“Do you have any proof?” Olivia asked.
Allana answered with another glare, even more intense than the first. “I’m working on it.”
“Hmm?” Cadence prompted her to continue with a soft sound.
Allana rolled her eyes with frustration. “Apparently, when I was hitting some of these merchants, I drew some attention from one of the big high goldshits, Jacob Avery.”
Cadence and Olivia both nodded.
“I’ve seen the Avery Consortium signs around town,” Cadence said. “I get the idea he’s some sort of big deal.”
“Jacob Avery is one of the richest merchants in Correntry,” Olivia confirmed. Her eyes narrowed as she considered that answer “He doesn’t do much direct trading anymore, but he’s got investments in most of the other major companies in town, with only a couple direct rivals.”
Allana nodded along with her words. “Right. So, apparently I got lucky, and a bunch of the merchants I stole from happened to be in Avery's company. It got bad enough that he sicced his dog on me.”
“The one who chased you the other day?” Cadence asked.
“Yep. Shawe, of the Blackhawk mercenary company. I guess he’s a go-to for Avery to solve a lot of the company’s problems–and Spider’s convinced he’s behind most of the crimes that the wardens have been hunting the Guild for.”
Olivia narrowed her eyes, studying Allana. She knew Allana better than to simply dismiss her claims–but there was a world of difference between the words of this Spider, a hunted outlaw, and the actual truth of the matter.
“I don’t want to say it again, but…”
“Yes, for Rogue’s sake, I know Olivia, I don’t have any proof. I’m working on it, okay?”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Olivia flinched at the outburst, but before she could apologize, Allana was off, storming upstairs to the room she and Tenebres shared.
“I wish you’d stop provoking her like that, Oli,” Cadence observed, breaking the silence left behind by Allana’s departure.
“I know she’s probably right, Cadie, but without proof, I’m just not–”
“Then did you consider offering to help?”
“What?”
“Instead of just pressing her about it, did you ever stop and think, ‘hey, maybe I can help her figure this out?’”
Olivia flushed. “You know how she is, Cadie. She wouldn’t have accepted my help for something like this.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But at least if you had offered, it would've shown you were actually listening to her instead of just dismissing her ideas out of hand. Because no matter what you think, someone trying to chase down and abduct our friend is our problem.”
“I know that…” Olivia tried to say.
“Do you?” Cadence asked. The celestial’s words were more disappointed than anything else, but they hurt all the same. “Because for the record, this is the kind of stuff that has everyone figuring out that you were born noble.”
#
Olivia gritted her teeth and swung wildly at Adeline with her practice sword, venting all of her frustration, all of her anger with herself, all of her guilt, onto Adeline’s waiting blade.
The knight’s silver eyes flashed with momentary surprise as the sudden burst of aggression sent her retreating. Barely able to keep up with blocking the rain of violent blows, Adeline found herself in the rare position of being unable to effectively counter.
Olivia thought of the hurt on Allana’s face, the bitterness in her words, the disappointment in Cadence’s eyes, and she let out a wordless sound of rage–and then, with a snap, her practice sword split in two, unable to withstand the strength her anger had given her.
Adeline flashed back a step and dropped her own sword, her concern obvious. “Olivia? Where did that come from?”
The squire groaned, and she found herself slipping to one knee, more upset with herself than ever. “From my own stupid, judgemental brain,” the eclipsed girl muttered.
Adeline arched a delicate eyebrow. “Would you like to give me a little more context than that?”
Olivia sighed, unable to scrub Cadence’s stare from her face, and sat back on the floor–then she started to explain, starting with Allana’s story earlier that day.
Adeline listened carefully, pouring them both a glass of water while Oli talked. Her bright, metallic eyes stayed blessedly free of judgment, the knight looking more concerned than anything else.
“And now,” Olivia finished, “I just feel like a piece of crap. I was too busy over-thinking her theories to recognize the real problem. She’s too prideful to ask for help, but I should’ve known that was what she wanted, when she came to us to talk in the first place.”
Adeline nodded carefully, her expression obviously thoughtful. “So you do want to help her, though?”
Olivia looked up at the knight, confused. “Of course I do.”
Adeline gave her a mild look. “Why?” she asked simply.
“Are you saying I shouldn’t then?”
“No, of course not. But I want to know why you want to help her, even if, as you said, she has no proof.”
Olivia frowned, her eyes drifting down to the floor as she thought about it. What kind of question was that? Of course she wanted to help Allana, no matter what. They may have argued, fought, and mocked each other, but they were still friends. Or at least, Olivia still thought of the wraith as her friend. But more than that… “Because she’s probably right,” Olivia said.
“Hmm?” Adeline hummed the wordless question.
“Because even if we come from very different places, I know how rich people can get just as well as she does. You and I both know Correntry’s government doesn’t do enough to oversee the merchants. Her claims about all of this… they make a certain sort of sense. And Allana is too smart with this stuff for me to just ignore her.”
Adeline spread her hands in a “there you go” gesture. “Good. For what it’s worth, I agree. Nobles or merchants, aristocrats are aristocrats.”
“So what do we do about it?” Olivia asked.
Adeline gave her an incredulous look. “You said it yourself. We help the person who figured out what’s going on.”
#
When Olivia returned to the Grime and Glory a couple hours later, she was relieved to see Allana was there–far from a guarantee, once the sun had set. Not only that, she was alone, with neither Cadence nor Tenebres sharing her little out of the way table. Instead, she had a collection of random objects, jars and cloth sacks and baskets of odds-and-ends, strewn across her table as she focused on something in her hands.
As Olivia managed to approach, she just barely had the chance to make out a hoop of metal wire, lined with a handful of little decorations, before Allana’s hands smoothly slid the object into one of the cloth bags scattered around the table.
“What do you want, Oli?” Allana asked, not even looking at the eclipsed girl. Instead, she turned to a jar of marbles, poking through it delicately, apparently looking for one in particular..
Olivia cleared her throat. She wasn’t sure of what to say, so she just went right for it. “I wanted to apologize. I should’ve believed you, instead of sticking my foot in my mouth.”
The wraith girl looked up at Oli, her violet eyes intense–and not just with anger. Olivia could see the hurt her words had caused, the way she had broken a trust that had only just begun to form between them. “Yes, you should’ve.”
That said, she turned back to her pile of junk.
Olivia stood in place for another couple moments, shifting from side to side. She knew she had upset Allana, but she still hadn’t expected the girl to be as hurt as she clearly was, and she was left fumbling for words. Allana had always seemed so callous, so solid, Oli hadn’t really thought she even could hurt the streetborn girl like this!
“Why are you still here?” Allana asked. She still didn’t look at Olivia, instead fishing out a polished marble of some dark red stone, thread through with traces of white. She nodded at it approvingly, otherwise disregarding Olivia’s presence.
“I want to help,” Olivia blurted.
“I still don’t have your precious proof,” Allana told her.
“I know. But I do,” Olivia explained. She held out a hardback folio, a collection of reports she had convinced a warden scribe to copy for her.
Allana looked up again, her uncanny eyes suspicious. “What’s that?”
“It’s a copy of every record the Warden's Office has on the Blackhawk mercenary company–including no less than half a dozen investigations into their leader, Shawe, and his apparent conflict with the Thieves Guild.”
Allana blinked, and for a brief moment, the wary hurt that had marred her face disappeared, replaced with pure surprise. “What?”
“I got Adeline to go with me to the warden’s record office, and we called in a favor, after that monster we hunted down earlier this week. This is a list of every illicit activity the wardens have suspected Shawe of–and all of the severe ones document how he managed to ‘prove’ that the Thieves Guild was actually responsible.”
“Are you serious?” Allana snatched the portfolio out of Oli’s hand, looking at it with something like wonder. “This… this could change everything, Oli. This is worth dozens of hours of footwork, even with Spider’s connections.”
“I’m happy it helps,” Oli told her. “I hope it makes up a little for what an ass I was this morning.”
Allana scrutinized the squire closely, and Oli couldn’t help a little shiver as her intense, incandescent eyes seemed to dig into her soul. Finally, she tilted her chin to indicate the free chair. “It’s a start.”
Olivia gave the girl a sheepish smile and took a seat, expecting that she’d want to go over the reports–she knew from Tenebres that Allana wasn’t a big reader. But instead, the rogue pushed a basket of what appeared to be scrap metal towards Olivia. “Do any of these look like silver to you?”
Primevus: Adventurer Academia next Saturday, 4/12! The first 11 chapters will be going up that day, then a new chapter will be released EVERY Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!!
