Gaius quickly changed into an inconspicuous outfit of tanned leather. He then grabbed his trusty axe and a couple of his better healing potions.

  When he returned to the store proper, he caught Esven and Isabella staring at the floor and ceiling respectively, pretending not to notice one another.

  "Since I have no say in this, I'm in. But your plan sucks," Gaius interrupted that painful silence.

  "You're still coming with us," Esven said.

  "Looks like it," Gaius agreed. "But we're doing this the right way."

  Seeing such initiative coming from Gaius made Isabella perk up.

  "And what do you propose?" Esven asked.

  "Look, in my line of work, it's impossible not to learn a thing or two about thieves." Gaius didn't elaborate any further on that point. "And let me tell you, you'd have to be dealing with a total amateur to catch him with such an obvious trap."

  "It's my idea and we're going with it," Esven insisted.

  "What do you propose?" Isabella asked, ignoring the captain.

  Esven wasn't pleased with this development, but it was perfectly clear who between the two of them had more authority.

  "You were saying the butcher got robbed?" Gaius asked.

  Esven nodded without saying a word.

  "I think I'd like to see the scene for myself," Gaius said.

  As far as thieves went, Gaius wasn't the best, but he wasn't that far behind. He was sure he could glean more from a broken lock than a bunch of rural constables. And from there, he could come up with a course of action that didn't present his store as a juicy target of retribution to all the local crooks.

  The trip to the butcher shop didn't take long as it was right next door.

  Esven stayed behind to sort things out with the plump gentleman Gaius knew as his neighbor without ever bothering to learn his name. This allowed Gaius and Isabella to circle around to the back entrance that, according to Esven, was the point of entry.

  With Isabella breathing down his neck, Gaius went up the three steps leading to a reinforced door that stood between him and what he assumed was a store full of fresh meat.

  A butcher was sure a strange target. With the quick turnaround of merchandise, butchers rarely had a lot of money just sitting around. And stealing raw meat wasn't the smartest of ideas.

  But then, a quick inspection of the lock all but assured Gaius that whoever broke into the place wasn't exactly a criminal mastermind. The lock was all scratched and mangled, like someone tried the delicate approach, failed miserably, and then used a knife to try and force the issue.

  When Esven caught up with them, Gaius greeted the captain with a question.

  "What exactly was stolen here?"

  And that simple question somehow managed to stump Siembra's head constable.

  "Well," Esven said. "It's not so much what was stolen as it's the act of breaking in."

  "What do you mean?" Gaius asked.

  "All these recent break-ins? Nothing went missing. Just a string of unlocked doors and broken locks from what we could gather."

  "Perfect. Just perfect. You dragged me here over a prank."

  "This prank disturbs the public peace. And makes the prominent members of the community feel unsafe. The magistrate's words, not mine," Esven explained. And that made it perfectly clear why the captain was handling this himself.

  Gaius was in no mood to listen to Esven complain about the magistrate and how thankless his job was for the umpteenth time. He went back to inspecting the door.

  A light orb above his head allowed him to spot a glint in the grass underneath the steps.

  It was a broken lockpick. A piece of metal shaped in a way that would allow it to persuade a lock open. It looked very much like something you'd order from a catalog for amateur locksmiths.

  From Gaius' experience, any thief who had at least a slight idea of what he was doing made his own lockpicks. He sure did. And they looked nothing like that. A thief's lockpick was really just a piece of bent wire. It was flexible enough to fit many types of locks, and if you got caught, you could quickly make it look completely innocuous.

  Gaius showed his find to Esven, who examined the lockpick without saying a word, just huffing through his mustache. His men missing the thing would have been shameful enough, but having a knight witness such a blunder was all but unbearable for the Caladonian.

  Not overly concerned with this hit to Esven's image, Gaius jumped straight to the point, "You've been doing this job a while. You must know all the shifty merchants dealing with goods like this in your town. Any of them operate within, let's say, the ten-block radius from here?"

  "Why ten blocks?" Isabella, who previously silently watched Gaius do his thing, asked.

  "Because whoever is stupid enough to actually buy these things, might not know how untrustworthy shady merchants are and how eagerly they cooperate with authorities. Mind you, this isn't me reflecting on our present situation and implying that I am in any way shady for helping the two of you out. And ten blocks must seem like the world's end to a lazy wannabe thief."

  "I know a few guys who sling questionable goods in these parts, yes," Esven blurted out as soon as Isabella turned her attention to him.

  "And what do you propose we do?" Isabella asked Gaius before the captain could come up with a course of action.

  Watching Esven go red in the face while struggling to stay silent, Gaius said, "Well, the two of you could lean on them. You're good at strong-arming merchants, after all. Or I could try to chat them up as a colleague and their new best friend. It's up to you, captain."

  "We go lean on them, then," Esven said.

  Isabella had no objections to that. She allowed Esven to lead the way to a nearby alley all but hidden by a bunch of scaffolding. Muffled noises of merriment were coming from its bowels. Even the dogs lounging by the entrance looked shifty.

  Gaius wished his best to Esven and Isabella as he stayed behind, citing him being a merchant and as such uncomfortable around the criminal element. Especially when accompanied by the constabulary.

  This allowed him to circle around the nearby buildings and spot a perfectly innocent cellar door that didn't have a padlock on the outside.

  Then, it began. The unmistakable sounds of combat. Shuffling feet, clashing steel, pained groans and excited cries. It all stopped when a blinding flash of white light colored the air from deep within the alley. Isabella must have been having fun.

  Moments after the action died down, the cellar door opened, and out came a shaggy individual holding onto a sack of what must have been premier goods.

  A quick hook and a short struggle later, Gaius was pushing the poor sod with his axe pressed to his throat from behind. Before long, he entered the alley and found Esven and Isabella standing over a couple of guys who were clearly out of it.

  "Who did your boss sell lockpicks to, dog?" Esven asked, alternating between trying to keep his guy standing straight and shaking him violently.

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  Spotting Gaius, the captain lowered the pace of his words. "Their leader got away," he said, followed by a quick, "Oh."

  "Yeah, look who I found." Gaius kicked his catch forward, closer to Isabella, who quickly made sure their new guest was getting nowhere thanks to a binding spell that hobbled his legs with a string of light.

  Esven dropped the crook he was working over, walked up to Gaius, and graced him with one of his favorites. A hearty slap on the back.

  "How did you know he'd run?" Esven asked.

  "Guys like this? They always run. I simply predicted the inevitable."

  "You know what I like about you, Guy? How you always stay one step ahead of everyone."

  "It's nothing, really," Gaius said. "You don't have to be a genius to stay ahead. You simply need to never assume you're the smartest guy in the room." He moved closer to Isabella who by then threw the lockpick salesman onto a stack of crates. Her sandaled foot was making sure he stayed there. "Now, let's get this started."

  For Esven this meant sending a quick uppercut to the bound guy's stomach.

  "Why'd you have to run, Donny? You know I know where to find you. We go way back. And you still run. Why do you disrespect me like that?"

  Said Donny did his best to ignore the armored fist counting his ribs and instead focused on staring at Gaius. The stare was supposed to be menacing.

  "I know you," he said. "You're that asshole who muscled out Marco."

  Gaius had to give it to Donny. If he was an ordinary merchant, getting recognized by a criminal would have been rather traumatic.

  Cognizant of the fact that his current company knew him better than that, Gaius felt safe to drop at least a part of his act.

  "Yes, and you're welcome to leave any and all complaints about that with Alejo."

  Donny's silent gulp was a good indication that unlike Esven he knew of Alejo's demise. And having Gaius mention it so casually, swiftly removed him from Donny's list of easy marks.

  The crook tried to look away, only to get another punch from Esven. That one was intercepted by Isabella.

  The knight deflected Esven's arm and said, "Enough. Our new friend will talk now. And if he doesn't, I'll make him. Without any unnecessary violence."

  None of this was directed at Donny, and that made him shrink back and realize in just how much trouble he was.

  "What do you people want? I didn't do anything wrong," he pleaded.

  Gaius produced the broken lockpick and showed it to Donny. "Recognize this?"

  "It's a lockpick," Donny said. "It's not illegal to have them."

  "You let Nova and Mallia worry about what's legal and what isn't." Gaius had no idea if Caladonian faith worked like that, but that didn't stop him from taking a stab. When no one tried to call him out on that, he continued, "You just tell me who's been buying lockpicks from you in the past few days."

  Gaius decided not to give Donny any leeway and suggest that the lockpick may have come from somewhere else.

  "It's not a very popular item," Donny said.

  "You're not answering the question, Donny," Gaius kept pressing.

  "I'm getting there." Now, Donny was only focusing on Isabella. Seeing her boss Esven around was all he needed to recognize her as the real authority. "There were a couple of guys. Scrawny and clumsy. Long hair. Dressed in rags. Poorest excuse for thieves I've ever seen."

  It seemingly was a lot of information to volunteer, but Gaius could see right through this ruse.

  "Do you know who they are?" he asked directly.

  Donny hesitated. Right until the moment he saw Isabella raise her hand to the sky. He didn't wait to find out just how good knights were at extracting confessions.

  "Yes, I've seen them around. That adventurer camp two streets down, they're staying there. They go by Hector and the Rat. Everyone just calls them shitbirds. These clowns are out there trying to make a name for themselves, but they wouldn't be able to break into a pigsty."

  Gaius snapped his fingers to attract Donny's undivided attention before looking the alley over.

  "See? None of this fighting or running around was necessary. Consider that for the future."

  He turned to leave the alley when Esven said, "What do we do with them?" He was addressing Isabella.

  Before she could answer, Gaius shook his head. "You annoyed me, or whatever you call that thing you did, to find you some thieves. That's what we're doing. You leave my less than honest colleagues out of it."

  Hurry things along, score a few points with Siembra's underbelly, express his displeasure with this whole situation, Gaius' statement did all those things.

  And thanks to it, the next thing Gaius knew, he was dodging hawkers and pickpockets while navigating a sea of tents and bedrolls. All while doing his best to ignore the unmistakable adventurer scent that mixed burnt pork with stale sweat and rusty metal.

  Unlike the crooks from the alley, adventurers generally preferred to keep up a law-abiding appearance, at least when they weren't completely broke. The mere sight of Esven and Isabella worked like a silence spell on them. Shut up, look away, and hope the law's eye didn't fall on you specifically.

  Gaius recognized at least several of his shop's regulars among the assorted rabble bundled around numerous firepits. He wondered if seeing him with the two authority figures would make them avoid Vasily's Emporium in the future. That was something for Vasily to worry about, Gaius figured before fully committing to the search.

  In a way, he felt a tinge of guilt for helping Esven. There he was, working with two lawmen on bringing a couple of thieves to justice. That didn't sit right with Gaius until he told himself that no thief who used store-bought lockpicks was a colleague of his. They were an embarrassment to the trade and deserved all that was coming to them.

  Despite Isabella's pleading, Esven's threats, and Gaius' promise of a monetary reward, none of the adventurers seemed to know anything about any Hector. They knew plenty about rats, just of the kind that wasn't capitalized.

  This eventually led to Gaius slipping away from his companions, putting on a sleazy smile, and trying to get somewhere on his own.

  But even with him looking like one of the guys, Gaius was getting nowhere in his search for Hector and his rodent friend. On the verge of giving up, Gaius grabbed an urchin with a hand in Gaius' pocket. Before the kid could kick him in the nethers and disappear, Gaius asked him about the shitbirds and offered to pay for any information.

  The urchin shrugged, pocketed the coin, and after making absolutely certain Gaius wasn't letting him get away, led the way to a small crowd gathered around a dice game.

  Hector and the Rat were there, failing without fail to cheat. They were losing round after round. The other gamblers were all too happy to accommodate the two and their pitiful attempts to swap the dice or throw them funny.

  Despite their terrible luck, the thieves were lost in the game. This gave Gaius enough time to fetch Esven and Isabella and lead them to their prey.

  Esven's arrival put a swift end to the game, leaving only the two hapless thieves behind. Esven grabbed both of them by their collars and dragged them to an open space outside the adventurer encampment.

  "And what now?" Gaius asked, looking at their catch.

  Both thieves were equally grimy. One of them had patchy hair the color of dirt, the other was all pointy, with a nose that seemingly sniffed everything on its own.

  "Now we make sure that these are our guys. A long and boring process." Esven was clearly not looking forward to it.

  "Hey guys, did you break into a bunch of homes lately?" Gaius decided to give the direct approach a go.

  The guy Gaius designated as Hector, the slightly more put-together one, said, "We didn't steal anything."

  Isabella barely contained a laugh, while Esven slapped himself on the forehead and asked, "Why'd you do it, then?"

  The Rat sniffled. "We was polishing our skills. No law against that."

  "There most definitely is," Isabella said.

  Noticing the knight and especially her attire, had a distinct effect on the two wannabe thieves. There were furtive glances, fidgeting, and plenty of salivating. Nothing Isabella wasn't used to. Gaius, on the other hand, had less patience for that nonsense.

  He kicked the Rat's boot. "Focus now."

  "What was we supposed to do?" the Rat replied with a whine. "How do you become a master thief without any practice? You can't get anywhere in this job without experience, and you can't get any experience if no one wants to hire you."

  "It's a victimless crime," Hector added.

  "Still a crime," Esven pointed out. "Get up, you dogs, we're taking you in."

  Seeing this pathetic duo, Gaius couldn't help but think about his own humble beginnings. Even at his lowest he never was quite as useless as these two. That being the case, Gaius still didn't feel right just letting them get thrown into a dungeon for what never really went past a nuisance.

  "Come now, captain," Gaius said. "You're really going to arrest them for breaking a few locks? Isn't that a bit beneath you?"

  A few well-placed cuffs helped Esven line the thieves up. Boxing them in together with Isabella, he started walking. Gaius had no choice but to follow.

  "It's not like I want to arrest these blighters. Mallia knows if I had any say in the matter I wouldn't share a street with them. But they've managed to piss off a number of influential people. Not much I can do now."

  "Hey, we needed to infiltrate those fancy houses." Hector had considerable trouble pronouncing "infiltrate" without stumbling over his tongue halfway through the word.

  "Yeah," the Rat agreed. "Otherwise Shadow wouldn't take us seriously."

  "What's this nonsense you two are talking about? What shadow?" Esven asked.

  "You don't know the Shadow of Mallia?" Gaius asked, not quite sure how something like that could have happened.

  "Why are you bringing Mallia into this now?" Esven said.

  "The Shadow of Mallia, the guy running the artifact trade. How is he not one of your prime targets?"

  "Never heard of the guy," Esven admitted. "But how do you know of him?"

  Gaius didn't expect this thing to be turned around on him. "His people visited me with offers." He wasn't about to tell Esven the truth about his encounter with Shadow.

  "They did? When did this happen?" Isabella asked. "And why didn't you tell me about that?"

  "Because handling the local criminals is an annoying but inescapable part of my job. It's nothing to worry about, really," Gaius said. "I'm simply confused about how he eluded the captain's attention. Just visit any tavern after dark. Everyone at least heard of him."

  Esven's face was already getting red when Gaius slipped up and added, "You're really not very good at this policing thing, are you?"

  That earned him a punch to the shoulder. And this time it wasn't a friendly check. The hit threw Gaius on his ass.

  Isabella helped him up and said, "This temperament doesn't suit someone in your position, captain."

  Esven cursed, stomped his foot, and pushed both his prisoners forward, nearly knocking them over.

  "It's not like I asked for this position," he mumbled as he walked. Gaius, along with Isabella, followed him at a distance. "Well, I did. But someone had to when Lucius decided to become an explorer. A dead explorer. Someone had to keep this town from collapsing in on itself. Might as well be me. Never mind that I'm not cut out for any of this diplomacy or big picture crap. Give me a goal and the tools to reach it, and consider it done. Anything beyond that? Call someone with noble blood. They live for that shit."

  Story Facts - Chapter 21

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