Chapter Text
Seiria and Lucian are preparing for the night ahead. They discussed earlier with the party, agreeing that they will need the cargo from the boat to pass as half-believable merchants. The task fell on Seiria and Lucian, naturally. Seiria puts on her light leather armour and straps her various knives in hidden sheaths in her clothing. She decides to leave her mask behind. Lucian straps on the guard uniform and then wears a cloak over it. The plan for the night was for Lucian to distract the patrolling guards while Seiria would sneak on the boat, as Lucian was better in deception - higher charisma - and Seiria was more nimble - higher dexterity -. As she was braiding her dyed, jet black hair (her white roots were starting to show, she made a mental note to retouch them as soon as she could) Jason J Jay Jr. bursts into their room.
« Are you sure you don’t want ME to distract them? I can use my banjo! I promise I’m really good at this. » the young halfling said, almost screaming.
« No. » said Seiria and Lucian at the same time.
They leave the guild’s building as the rest of the party wishes them luck, eager to stay behind, after that disastrous afternoon.
The city is quiet, the habitants already in deep slumber. They sneak through the dark alleys and poorly lit streets, slipping in and out of the shadows. Seiria is leading the way and Lucian follows closely behind. She suddenly stops and seems to consider a particular building. She removes her gloves and tucks them in one of her infinite hidden pockets. Lucian wished he had his own rogue gear, the guard uniform being slightly too small and limited his movements. The elf reaches for a jagged edge on the wall and starts climbing. Lucian looks at her. He considers the stone bricks for a few seconds, shrugs and follows. Seiria climbs effortlessly. Halfway up the two story house, Lucian’s hand missed a grip and he almost falls, hanging on by one hand. His heart drops as he sees the dangerously low streets and when he looks back up, Seiria is looking at him, unimpressed.
« I thought you were a rogue. »
« I am. » Lucian retorts.
She raises her eyebrows. « A liar then. »
« We both are. » The tiefling says as he regains his grip.
Seiria stays silent for a few seconds, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. « True. »
She starts climbing again, amusement in her eyes. They both reach the roof soon after.
“ Why did we climb.” Asks Lucian
“ It’s more fun, and we don’t need to be as careful.”
The night breeze ruffles both their hair as they watch the quiet city, the moon high over the waters where the port is. They reach the port swiftly, running over tiles and jumping roof to roof, a little more carelessly, but quicker. Seiria jumps down from a one story building and does a summersault to lighten the impact. Lucian does the same. He then drops his cloak and squares his shoulders. They look at each other and nod. It was now or never. He walks on the moonlit roads, toward the one patrolling guards. She was sitting on some boxes, half asleep, her head in her arms, as she was using her spear as a post. She perks up as soon as she sees Lucian walking towards her.
“My shift is not due to end for at least another hour, what are you doing here?”
Expecting this, Lucian replies nonchalantly.
“I was bored, and I don’t have anything else to do, might as well help my comrade out, we don’t get paid enough for this.” He adds, recalling what the guard Seiria held at knifepoint said earlier, when they first got to the port.
He couldn’t believe he was back here. Again. For the third time in the same day. She relaxes and laughs. If there was one thing that united these workers, it was their low wages and shitty work conditions. Lucian quickly strikes up a conversation and asks about her day.
Seiria, still hiding behind a wall, sees that the guard is engrossed in her conversation with Lucian and silently walks out, hunched and knees bent. She jumps, shadow to shadow, running from various objects and hiding behind them as she goes. She finally reaches the boat and climbs on it nimbly. Once in the lower levels, the elf finally sees the cargo. The party did not discuss how she would sneak out with those heavy boxes. She guessed they did not think Seiria would make it, focusing instead on more escape plans for every possible scenario where they would get spotted. She reprimanded herself for overlooking the most important part of the plan. She cannot disappoint Gwendolyn. She scanned the room quickly, trying to push the panic down. In the corner of the room, Seiria spots a big sack and opens it. The bag was filled with various scraps of wood and metal, which she dumps out trying to make the least noise possible. She then transfers some goods from the boxes, hoping the leftover rust and wood splinters wouldn’t damage the goods too much.
Lucian listens with one ear to what the guard was saying, something about her little brother’s crush. In the corner of his eyes, he sees Seiria carrying a big bag on her back. She is crouched from the weight of the bag, it is almost a comical sight. The guard notices his eyes and starts to turn around.
« Jingle jingle » blurts out Lucian.
« What? »
The guard turns her attention back to Lucian before she could spot Seiria.
« I bought this new bell and it makes this sound, I just suddenly thought of it. »
The guard giggled, not immune to Lucian’s charms.
« You’re so silly. »
He proceeds to ask more about her brother and successfully redirects her attention to him. Further, Seiria dumps out the content between two bushes. She does not know how they will bring it all back. Deciding it was a problem for later, she quickly goes back to the boat and repeats the procedure.
On her third journey back to the bushes, the bag suddenly rips open. Lucian fails to catch the guard’s attention this time.
« Hey! What the… »
Seiria is quick on her feet. She drops the bag and darts toward the various vehicles, boxes and buildings around the port. Lucian takes advantage and does the same, slipping through the shadows.
« Did you see that, I’m in so much trouble… »
She turns back and she’s no one. The guard is left dumbfounded.
« Well that went as well as I thought it’d go. » said Lucian. « Where are all the things you got out? » he continued.
« In those bushes, how are we going to get these back to the party? »
« We’re thieves, we’ll find something. » he smirks.
They manage to steal some bags, and head back to the guild. The party waiting for them in the lobby, Jason J Jay Jr is basically sleeping standing up, leaning on Jim Bob, while the others are discussing quietly. They see the rogues arrive.
« Is that all we got? » asks Fram.
« We never thought of how to get the cargo out, I had to improvise. » Seiria shrugs. She wanted to blame the party for their incompetencies, which they demonstrated plenty of, but she was equally at fault in this situation.
« There’s no way anyone will believe that nine merchants would be travelling to sell this little merchandise. » states Wynne.
« I just know it was Lucian’s fault. » Agnes says snidely. They start bickering and are ignored by the rest of the party.
Fram sighs. « It’s getting late. Let’s rest for tonight and we’ll figure it out tomorrow. We won’t need to buy food for the next few days at least. »
They all head to their respective room and go to sleep. Jim bob is carrying Jason J Jay Jr. who managed to stay asleep during the whole exchange.