Chapter Text
The guards of Aidonia were far too easy. Clanking around the plaza in their silver armor, panting like dogs, they were hardly a challenge. Where was the thrill in a chase like this? The cat-eared thief sighed. If the game was boring, she’d just have to make it interesting herself.
She darted through the cobbled streets, boots tapping light as a heartbeat, letting the fools chase her in circles. Once, twice and by the third lap, she almost pitied them. Almost.
At last, another squad spilled into the plaza, blocking her path. Now this was something. They fanned out, blades raised, they approached her slowly like wolves closing in on their prey.
“Hands up, you thief!” one barked.
Cipher obliged, raising her hands in mock surrender. Sunlight glinted on the chain dangling from her wrist—a golden necklace, catching every eye at once.
“Looks like you’ve got me,” she purred, smirk never faltering.
“Quiet!” snapped another. “Put the necklace down. Slowly.”
She laughed, a sound that made their grips tighten on their swords. “Alright, alright. Easy with the blades. You wouldn’t want to slice up a helpless girl like me, would you?”
A guard scoffed at her comment, not listening to a word she had to say. Cipher shrugged in response.
She carefully knelt down toward the ground, necklace still in hand.
Every step of hers was naught but a performance. The necklace swung lazily around her fingers, her grin wider with each twitch of their blades. She looked as if she was fighting back a laugh. Then, just as the chain touched the stone—she flicked her wrist.
The necklace soared skyward in a flash of gold. “Oopsie.”
The guards reacted instinctively. Every helmeted head tilted up, eyes chasing the glimmer. A golden sparkle floated through the sky, then suddenly in the blink of an eye it had vanished into thin air. In the midst of the chaos, one of the guards called out to the others.
“The girl! She’s vanished!”
At the center of the circle, the bandit was nowhere to be found. The guards glanced around the area looking for any trace of the woman, but she was nowhere to be found. How could she have disappeared so fast?
Staring down at the guards amusingly was the girl. Swinging the necklace around her fingers like a toy, she watched the guards scramble around to see where she could be hiding. They checked behind everything in sight, so certain she couldn’t have gotten far.
The woman couldn’t help but laugh at the sight as she called out to the guards on the ground.
“Up here idiots!”
The guards directed their attention to the sky once more, seeing the criminal standing upon the nearby rooftops.
“What the hell? Get down from there!”
“Thanks for the present, I’ll be sure to cherish it,” she giggled while putting it around her neck.
One of the guards yelled at the rest of the group.
“Someone stop her!”
The thief—watching their poor attempts to climb up the buildings—waved toward the guards.
“See you later!” she said, before she ran out of distance.
—————————————————————-
The bells of Aidonia had long since fallen silent, the old clock tower forgotten by all but pigeons and shadows. Forgotten by everyone—except Cipher.
She slipped through a cracked wooden door at its base, boots quiet on the worn stone steps. The climb was second nature, every turn of the spiral stair marked by her hand brushing against the cold wall. By the time she reached the top chamber, the city stretched out below like a painted canvas, lanterns flickering like captured stars.
Tucked away in the corner of the room was a little chest. It was filled with all sorts of treasures and loot she had stolen in the past. She stashed away the necklace, adding it to her trophies.
Cipher let out a yawn, stretching her arms above her head before collapsing into the heap of cushions and blankets that passed for her bed. For a moment, she simply lay there, listening to the slow groan of rusty gears turning in the walls, the soft tick-tick-tick of the massive hands crawling across the night sky.
The city was quiet beneath her. Aidonia slept, oblivious to the thief perched high above them all. Cipher rolled onto her side, eyes drifting over the scattered trinkets of her life: a silver goblet pilfered from a noble’s banquet, a mask with faded paint she’d stolen off a stage and a pile of gold coins. Pretty trophies, all of them—but shallow ones.
Her tail flicked.
“Too easy,” she muttered to the shadows. “Always too easy.”
She stood again, restless energy driving her to the cracked window. From this height, the whole of Aidonia unfolded beneath her boots: winding alleys, glittering palace domes and something strange. There set apart from the rest of the city was an odd little spire.
It clung to the side of the royal keep but stood strangely isolated, as though the castle itself wanted nothing to do with it. No banners. No torches. No guards pacing the walls. Nothing but one small looking window. A lonely tower, standing tall against the silver moonlight.
She thought of it as nothing more than a boring old building. From the outside, it looked to be an abandoned structure, just like the clock tower she resided in. The tower stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the castle’s architecture. Compared to the lavishly decorated exterior of the palace, the tower looked incredibly plain in comparison. Most would shrug off the place, directing their attention towards the castle instead. But one thing she had learned from her years of thieving was that sometimes the greatest of treasures is hiding in plain sight.
Boring or not, it was obvious the tower was a part of the castle. Whatever was hiding in there must have had some value to it. At least more than that necklace from today. And being inside of the castle grounds, it would be much harder for her to sneak into. It was the perfect level up in difficulty.
So the thief had decided her next target would be the kingdom itself.
———————————————————
The Aidonia palace was grand in size. Even from the faraway clock tower, its giant figure stood tall behind the village. Circling around the castle was a moat and a drawbridge. A fairly common defense for a castle, but it wouldn’t be enough to hinder the skilled thief.
Hiding in the dark, Cipher watched as the long necked creature pulled the wagon. The merchant pulled the reins of the droma, stopping it right in front of the moat. As the bridge lowered in front of the moat, Cipher swiftly made her way out of the shadows and into the carriage.
There she was surrounded by various crates and boxes filled with all sorts of goods. Seeing the weekly shipment laid out in front of her, Cipher was tempted to go digging through their supplies but before she could even think about it, the cart began moving once more.
She peered her head over the wagon. It was the first time Cipher had actually seen the inner castle grounds for herself. You could only see so much from atop the clock tower. The palace was bigger than she had expected. She observed her surroundings, making a mental map of the area. Turning her head back at the tower, she couldn’t help but stare at it.
Seeing it up close only stirred more questions in her head. It was strange for such a building to exist. The tower stood much higher compared to the rest of the castle. Not only that, but it was isolated from everything else. It sat alone toward the back, having only a single entrance at the bottom.
The cart reached the droma stables and came to a stop. From inside the wagon, Cipher heard the familiar clank of metal boots.
“Usual shipment?” a knight called, his voice gruff.
The merchant, now climbing down from the driver’s seat, handed the guard a ledger.
“For the usual spices, herbs, meat, and a couple bags of flour too.”
Cipher’s ears flicked at the sound of footsteps drawing closer. Too close. She pressed a hand flat against the crate beside her, drawing a sharp breath as the air around her began to ripple. Her outline shimmered, light bending and slipping until her skin and clothes dissolved into the shadows of the wagon. The effort prickled down her spine, cold and hot all at once, but she forced herself still.
The knight’s visor gleamed in the lantern light as he leaned into the wagon. Boots thudded against the planks, shaking the space where Cipher crouched, invisible between the stacked crates. His gauntlet scraped wood as he lifted a lid.
Cipher didn’t move. Not even to breathe. The strain of holding her power tightened her chest, every heartbeat loud enough to give her away. She could smell the knight’s armor polish, and hear his breath underneath the helmet he wore. His gaze swept the shadows, passing over the very spot where she crouched unseen.
After a long moment, he closed the box with a dull thump and stepped back out of the wagon.
“Looks good,” the knight muttered. “I’ll fetch some men to help unload. You just take it easy for now.”
Only once his footsteps faded did Cipher release the invisibility. Her body rippled back into view with a faint shiver, as if the wagon itself had exhaled. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, lips curling into a grin.
She peered her head out of the cart once more. Seeing that the coast was clear, she slipped outside of the cart hugging the walls of the castle. Stealthily looping around the castle, she made her way toward the very back of the building.
The tower stood tall in the courtyard, looming over the rest of the castle. She approached the small door at the base of the tower. With a hand wrapped around the metal handle, she tugged on the door. Locked.
She kicked the door repeatedly but it was no use. Taking a step back, she looked back up toward the very top of the building. Her eyes focused on the singular window at the very top. It would be a difficult climb, but not impossible. If there was one thing cats were good at, it was getting stuck in high places.
She dug her fingers into the gaps between stone blocks and began to climb. The wall was slick with evening dew, the wind clawing at her cloak, but Cipher moved with practiced ease, tail flicking against the breeze. Now and then her boot slipped, stone crumbling under her grip, but each time she only laughed softly to herself and climbed higher.
By the time she reached the window, her arms trembled with exertion. She clung to the sill, swung herself up, and pressed against the frame. The latch clicked easily beneath her fingers, and with a gentle push, the shutters opened wide enough to admit her.
The room beyond was dim, steeped in shadows and silvered moonlight. Cipher slid inside, boots landing without a sound.
This wasn’t the treasure trove she’d expected. No jewels glittered on pedestals, no chests brimmed with gold. Instead, the chamber was furnished with care: an ornate bed, carved nightstand, chairs upholstered in pale silk. Everything here reeked of wealth and isolation, not abandonment. All things considered, this was an ideal outcome. Her tail swung in anticipation.
Just as she was about to begin scavenging the room, Cipher’s ears twitched. Someone else was here.
At the heart of the room, a girl stood barefoot on the cold stone floor. Frail, delicate, as though carved from porcelain. Her silk nightgown caught the moonlight, and when she lifted her chin, Cipher saw her face: skin pale as ivory, purple hair spilling down her shoulders, and eyes—deep, impossible amethyst—that locked on her without wavering.
Cipher froze in place at the sight of the girl. She stood in front of the window silently staring—not uttering a single word.
The girl anxiously looked back at the intruder, mustering up the courage to speak. Softly, she spoke to the bandit.
“Who are you?”
————————————-
Cipher didn’t speak at first. The moon behind her cast her as a silhouette—sharp, dark, dangerous—but the girl in the center of the room only saw the outline of a stranger in a place where no stranger ought to be.
The girl’s fingers curled in the fabric of her nightgown as she worked up the courage to talk.
Her voice came out soft, tremulous:
“Who… are you?”
Cipher blinked, taken aback by how delicate she sounded.
The girl swallowed, trying again.
“How did you get in here?”
Cipher paused, glancing around again at the lavish furniture, the carved bed posts, the silk drapes—not at all what she expected in a supposedly “abandoned” tower.
“Is this… your bedroom?” she asked, curiously. A simple question. It was best not to sound threatening. She didn’t want the girl to alert the guards.
“That isn’t important,” the girl quickly replied. “No one is supposed to come in here. So- how did you get in?”
Cipher shrugged, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
“I snuck in, climbed the tower, opened the window. You know, the usual.”
The girl’s brows knit, confusion flickering across her face.
“How is that ‘usual’? Do you typically break into castles?”
“Well castles happen to hold the most treasure,” Cipher grinned, tipping her head. “But usually the treasure is gold or jewels. Not a beautiful lady.”
The girl froze, color rising faintly to her pale cheeks.
“…You should leave,” she murmured, embarrassed, eyes dropping to the floor. “It’s dangerous here.”
Cipher chuckled softly. Strangely the girl seemed more concerned about Cipher than the fact she was being robbed.
“I appreciate the concern, but I am a thief. I’m rather accustomed to danger.”
“This is different.”
“Oh?” Cipher took a slow, curious step forward. “How so?”
The girl met her eyes—just for a moment.
“Because I’m dangerous.”
Cipher raised a brow. She took in the girl’s fragile posture, her trembling hands, her slight frame.
“You?” she said gently. “Dangerous?”
“I’m serious.” The girl backed up a little, arms wrapped around herself. “You should really stay away from me. Take whatever you want from this room—just go before something happens.”
Cipher clicked her tongue.
“Quite the tempting offer… but now I’m even more curious.” She stepped forward again, the wooden floor creaking under her boots.
“If you’re as dangerous as you claim, why are you living inside the royal palace?” Cipher pressed. “Who are you really?”
“That’s not—” The girl’s breath hitched as Cipher approached. She retreated until her back touched the cold stone wall. “You shouldn’t come any closer.”
“What’s the matter?” Cipher laughed quietly, trying to be disarming. “I’m a thief, not a brute.” She took another step, confidence undeterred despite the faint prickle of cold crawling down her spine.
She softened her voice. “I promise I don’t bite.”
“You’re not listening.” Panic rose in the girl’s eyes. “If you get too close, then you’ll—”
But Cipher didn’t stop. She inched closer and closer, the girl unable to stop her approach.
The moment her foot crossed an invisible threshold, her entire body seized.
Her breath hitched.
Her vision whitened.
A sharp, electric pain cut through her skull like a blade of fire.
She stumbled, reaching for anything—air, wall, the girl’s sleeve—but her limbs refused to obey.
The very last thing she saw was the girl’s face inches from hers, eyes wide with fear—not fear of Cipher, but fear for her.
Cipher hit the wood floor hard, consciousness slipping away like sand through fingers.
A single thought crossed her mind as the world went black:
She’s even prettier up close…