Thief of Time

Claud was having fun with his third bowl of soup when Mister Mellow — the name he'd given to the fellow who had thanked him for the food earlier — waved his hand to grab his attention. The master thief immediately understood what that gesture meant; they were done with the food.

It would seem that Lily’s bowls would live to see another day in her backpack after all.

Stepping out of the thick dome of defences he’d erected, Claud nodded at him.

“Once again, thank you for the food.”

“No problem.” Claud nodded back. “Still, are you really okay with getting food like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Consider this a word of advice, I guess.” Claud lowered his volume. “Demanding food and eating it like that is probably not a very good way of staying alive. Things like poison exist, right?”

Mister Mellow chuckled. “Countermeasures for poison exist. We are very at ease in that regard.”

“Even then, it’s better to avoid scenarios where poison might come into play,” Claud replied. “Alright, my little lecture ends here.”

“It’s okay. Your words were chosen to help us, so I won’t take offense.” He shook his head. “Right, are you also headed towards the Julan Barony?”

“Yes,” Claud replied.

Despite his calm exterior, however, Claud was expectant on the inside. The master thief wanted to confirm who these people were; making guesses — even good ones — were qualitatively inferior to knowing the truth. Furthermore, these four were most likely mana-users, people who had the capability to influence the outcomes of actions on a greater magnitude.

Claud didn’t want the Moons to crash down on his plans.

“You should be careful, then.” Mister Mellow narrowed his eyes somewhat. “We’ve been dispatched to investigate cases of kidnapping and murder in the region, and most of them point at a rogue folder organisation operating out of Julan.”

“If you’re being dispatched to investigate a rogue folder organisation…does that mean that you are mana-users?” Claud asked, putting on an appropriately awed expression.

He grinned, clearly gratified by Claud’s expression. “Naturally. We’re the Dusk Daggers, a team of three one-folders and a bi-folder.”

Claud sucked in a breath. This time, however, it wasn’t an act; he was truly impressed by the fact that there was a bi-folder. To become one such personage, a total of two hundred years’ worth of life force had to be burned. That was a lot of lifestones, no matter how Claud cut it.

“Who’s the bi-folder…oh.” Claud grinned. “It’s…him, right?”

His eyes fell on the blue-haired fellow, and Mister Mellow grinned back. “Yes. He’s Hulid, the Edgeless Night. Leader of our party. We’re all his fans, in case you were wondering.”

Claud didn’t really need to know that last bit, since it was way too obvious.

“What kinds of accomplishments does your party have?” Claud asked. Once again, he wasn’t faking his excitement — the master thief wanted to know if becoming a bi-folder opened up more avenues to gain lifestones. If there were…

“That’s classified.” He paused for a moment or two. “Or you could listen to the bards. I’m sure there’s some songs about us floating around. And after this case, there’s definitely going to be even more songs.”

“I’ll keep an ear out, then.”

“See you around, friendly stranger. Do be careful in Julan.”

Claud collected the four bowls. “You too.”

With that, he returned to his party, and left the area shortly afterwards. It didn’t take long for them to leave his sight, and once they were out of his vision, Claud returned into the makeshift barricade and handed over the wooden bowls.

“Here, they’re back. Safe and sound.”

“Thank you so much.” Lily picked up the bowls and began to clean them with some sort of artefact. “So, who were they?”

“From the sounds of it, mana-users sent by the Folders’ Association to check up on the missing people in Julan,” Claud replied. “They reported their strengths as three one-folders and one bi-folder, but for safety’s sake, we can assume them all to be bi-folders.”

“Mm. Anyone who sounds particularly special?”

“If we go by what Mister Mellow just said, it’ll probably be their leader. The rude guy. His name’s Hulid, goes by some title called Edgeless Night.”

“A Named, then.” Lily began to pack up her bowls. “Ah. I now know why he seems so familiar to me. I’ve seen him before, back in Pletsville.”

Claud narrowed his eyes. “Pletsville?”

“Yes. We were chasing after Tot at that time, and early intelligence said that he was most likely at Pletsville.”

It was good that Lily didn’t know that the so-called Thief of Time was talking to her right now, but he still felt uncomfortable at how her ‘early intelligence’ had pinpointed his location back then.

“What kind of early intelligence was that?” Claud asked, trying to sound as off-handed as possible.

“Came from the Istrel Dukedom,” Lily replied. “I’m also not sure how they knew, though. But we’re taking about a duke here, so…”

“I see, I see.” Forcibly changing the topic, Claud said, “Anyway, the Folders’ Association is apparently thinking that there is a rogue folder organisation in the area. What’s that about?”

“Basically mana-users who are committing very overt crimes,” Lily replied. “But if their attention is on such an organisation, they might cooperate with the Julans.”

“Yes. That’s going to be very troublesome for us, who are trying to take down that family.” Claud smirked a moment later. “However, if we expose their wrongdoings, there might not even be a need for a follow-up investigation — that bunch, the Dusk Daggers, would handle clean-up for us. We’ll need to play it safe, however. Other than just crippling their financial resources, we’ll also need to expose evidence of their…acts.”

“That’s a tall order. But from how you’re looking at me…”

Claud chuckled, and then turned his gaze away. “Well, it’s going to be hard to bring down a Moon in its mountain, right? You’ll just work on that; I’ll go screw with their finances my way.”

“And how are you planning to do that?”

“With highly illegal means that will net me some prison food if I get caught,” Claud replied, “so don’t probe any further. I don’t intend to have an accomplice in this.”

“Are you intending to wage economic warfare?” Lily rubbed her nose. “Is that what time-sensitive high efficiency trading means?”

“I’m not saying anything now,” Claud replied. It was great that she had come up with her own explanation, although he had the feeling that trying to use ‘theft’ as an acronym was a bit too obvious.

“You do know that’s punishable under the Istrel Dukedom by ten years of hard labour, right?”

“Don’t worry about it, Lily.” Claud started to stow away his artefacts, returning them to his body. “I never get caught.”

“As expected of Claud, I guess.” With a wave, Lily shrank the pot into a fist-sized ball, before turning it upside down to drain any water. “It’s really convenient, isn’t it?”

Claud watched water drip out. “Gotta admit that. Where did you get this from?”

“I stole it when I left,” Lily replied. “Besides, no one else was going to use or miss it anyway; other than me, only three more members of the family have left the barony over the last thirty years.”

“Left?” Claud tapped his feet and retrieved his traps, returning the area to normal.

“Yep. I don’t know what happened to them,” Lily replied. “But from how the Julan Barony is still standing, we can assume that they didn’t leak anything about my family’s sins. Or they didn’t know. I’m not sure which is the correct answer here.”

“Makes no difference to me,” Claud replied.

As Lily checked the map, he went off to examine the area the Dusk Daggers had been sitting at, just in case they left some unpleasant surprise behind. Of course, the chances of them doing that was infinitely close to zero, but it was always better to be safe.

“Alright, I’m ready,” Lily called out eventually. Her backpack was now sitting on her back, a reminder to Claud that they had to start walking sooner or later.

“There’s one more Flight skillstrip left,” said Claud. “Do you want me to ride you, or the other way round?”

It was a really odd way to phrase things, but the master thief couldn’t quite think of a milder-sounding alternative.

Lily, to her credit, didn’t add on the embarrassment by pointing it out, and said, “I’ll sit on your back.”

“Okay.”

Claud passed his backpack over to her, somewhat relieved. He had no issues with how Lily was going to secure her position, but he had no way of telling if the reverse was true. Besides, whoever was doing the flying had more security, and Claud had a feeling that she was accommodating for his own proclivities.

“Thank you,” said Claud. He tore up the skillstrip a moment later and stuffed the remains in his pocket. “Get on, then.”

A light weight fell on his back, shifting somewhat as Lily made herself comfortable. “Ready.”

“Taking off,” Claud muttered. “Next stop, some part of the forest!”