Chapter Text
Dear reader, there is little doubt you have at least heard of the grand capital city of the Commonwealth, Orstanspire. However, what you may not know is that the city is not as grand as its rulers would have you think. Lurking outside the wide plazas between the ecclesia's houses and crawling over the tall rooftops of the patrician estates reside insidious clusters of the city’s unsavory underbelly. Few have been to Orstanspire and not had a purse pinched or a friend roughed up for their belongings.
Perhaps this is because of the great disparity between the upperclass citizens surrounding The Elect and those lower rung workers and families that struggle beneath such opulence. Indeed the regions of the city enforced by the garrison are numerous, but no amount of watchmen can prevent resentment and desperation from creeping into those forced into the alleyways and gutters.
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The trick with arcane signet locks was to press as gently as possible with the mana infused wax to get a good impression before hardening it with a pulse from any old mana stone. The locks were only complex if you didn’t use something with a neutral charge, even then they could be circumvented. That said, this particular lock was being fiddly and Colum was already running out of time before the guard that he hadn’t bribed would pass by this room. He needed to be gone by then.
The diminutive form of the dwarven thief’s body crouched over the cabinet’s lock with an intensity that only the spectacular focus he was bringing to bear could account for. His fingers worked in concert with a small lump of wax and two arcanist’s pins. Manipulating the lock with precision, he finally twisted the mechanism in just the right way for it to open. While scooping some of the shinier trinkets from inside, his hand ran into the spine of a small red leather tome. Without bothering to read the cover, he shoved the volume into his pack. Footsteps in the adjacent hall alerted him to the fact he’d run out of time.
Turning to the open window, he ran softly towards his means of egress. Leaping through the curtains and over the sill, his body changed in a mere breath. Colum’s compact dwarf body bloomed into a large barred owl, gliding down to the nearest roof. Before he crashed into the terracotta tiles, his body morphed to a partway form. The wereowl let his taloned feet clack against the roof tiles as he ran away from the now lit window he’d leapt from.
Using his enhanced grip to twist mid step and dash across a different connected roof, dodging the lantern light that now swept across the rooftops. Allowing the feathered form to fade, Colum returned to his fully dwarven shape as he slid down a steep slope and jumped across a gap to end up a dozen roofs away in moments. Unbeknownst to him, a small pale form was following his progress from a distance.
Hopping from ridge to ridge, across a set of less than upperclass houses, only to dash over an inner city wall and slip unseen down a pipe to an even lower set of rooftops. Staying within the district of the titled and well to do was a risk, but he needed to avoid the guards that would inevitably start tracking him, so doubling back and using obscuring tactics was his best option. It had nearly always worked before after all.
After half an hour of scrubbing his trail and quietly crossing sloping tiles, Colum finally came to rest in a narrow obscured crook of a peculiarly constructed shop’s broad roof. Slumping down and setting his pack down beside him, the thief allowed himself to sigh, exhausted from his efforts to both run all that while and conceal his tracks. Before he could relax fully, a small cloaked figure stepped down from the peak of the rooftop, landing several paces away. Colum caught the movement in his peripheral vision and fast as thought had drawn his dagger, putting the point of it between him and the newcomer.
For a tense moment he simply pointed his weapon at the figure. They were a few inches shorter than him and completely shrouded in both cloak and shadows. Panicking slightly, Colum frantically thought of his options. Dwarf? Halfling? Obviously not a guard, so a rival thief? Why reveal themselves now? What-
His thoughts were cut off by the smaller person finally making a move. A pale arm poked out and waved dismissively at him. A quiet but self-assured woman’s voice prodded his fears, “Put that away if you don’t want trouble. You were the one that got to the Fentlas estate before me yah? I just need the book you’ve got there and I’ll be on my way.”
A girl? Does she have a weapon? Trying to sound more confident than he felt Colum replied with, “Why should I give up my score for a greedy little opportunist like you?”
That prompted a laugh from the cloaked figure. A soft dry thing that made Colum’s skin crawl. Something was very wrong with this situation.
“How’d you find me?” he asked. “I covered my-”
“I have no interest in this,” she cut him off. “Just give me the book before either of us does something we’ll regret.”
“I don’t respond well to threats. What can you give me for the book?”
Sighing, the figure slumped forward and stretched. An arc of blood splattering out into the air, coalescing into a skeletal arm that reached for Colum’s bag. Despite not being magically inclined himself, he had spent enough time around mages and arcane objects to know magic when he saw it. Leaping to grab the pack, he rolled, feathers sprouting across his shoulders and head as he partially transformed, bringing his dagger and talons to bear. Turning quickly he dashed towards the interloper in the hopes he might take her out quickly. Wouldn’t be the first time he had to scrap with someone on the rooftops. However, before his blade could reach her, more blood formed into a shield against his strike.
His dagger rebounded off the barrier and his momentum came to a halt. As his strike failed he tried to spin into a sweeping kick to bring his opponent down. Unfortunately for him, she just stepped forward and over the attack, reaching out with her pale hand and pressing its thumb into his forehead. A jolt ran through the dwarf as he crumpled to the tiles, dagger barely still held in his loosening grip.
“Interesting,” the person above him said with some mirth, “I hadn’t expected you to be some kind of hybrid creature or that you’d resist that spell, even if only a little. Nonetheless, I’ll be taking the book now.”
She reached for his bag, but was shocked as he managed to kick feebly at her leg. The unexpected hit made her stumble, the figure’s hood falling to the side. Colum stared up at his assailant.
Her face was mostly covered by lavender bangs, but her small lipped mouth was drawn in a grimace, revealing sharp inhuman teeth. The left side of her face was clearly scarred, long ears with silver gauges, skin so pale it was near translucent. Above it all, the remnants of what must have been horns jutting out above her shorn scalp.
Colum gasped out against the spell, “A fiend? Wha-” His words faltered as she stepped on his sternum, putting as much of her minimal weight into the effort as she could.
“You shouldn’t be able to move, let alone speak. How are you doing that? Nevermind. Stay still and I’ll forgive you this once.” Letting up on the pressure, she again tried to reach for his bag.
Colum felt his long suppressed anger boil up. He had worked so hard, gave up a great deal of gold in bribes, and risked a ton to make this score. He wasn’t about to let this tiny demon thing take it from him. Mustering all his strength he pushed up and stabbed at her again. Surprise plastered her face as she saw him attacking once more, but before she could summon a blood barrier a huge pair of dark claws reached out from thin air and nabbed the knife. It happened so fast that Colum only glimpsed a sliver of air close behind a massive hand withdrawing with his dagger.
“I’m glad my patron sees fit that you survive tonight.” The fiend lifted off of him as she lifted his bag up and away.
Patron? Red book. Fiend. Stolen. Knowledge. Cloaked…
It began to puzzle together in his addled mind. This was some kind of lesser fiend warlock with a powerful patron of blood or something protecting her. He had no chance of preventing her from taking what was likely some kind of fel tome of magics. Collapsing back onto the terracotta roof tiles, he relented.
“Take it. I can’t beat you,” he said quietly, cursing in dwarvish after.
“You’re lucky I don’t hold any grudges against your kind,” the little fiend said. “Otherwise I should be taking everything, including your life. As it is, you can have all the rest of the baubles and such. Besides, you're fairly handsome for one of the Joined Races. It would be a shame to mar that.” Colum saw her shrug casually under her cloak, “I could always pay you a little for it.” Her teasing tone and sudden wicked smile confused the thief.
“Pay me? I thought…” She brushed closer to him and pressed a finger to his lips.
“I’ve got all night now. You’ve done a good job of losing your pursuers and I’ve already shrouded us with an illusion. Might be fun for us to loosen up a little~” she smiled meaningfully, “You seem a tad pent up and I happen to like taking care of that sort of tension.” Her hand strayed to his groin, rubbing his package with cautious flirtation.
His head thunked back and his body went a bit more slack. Throwing a hand over his face he wondered aloud, “This can’t be happening. You’d just turn around and…?” He pushed up and tried to get a read on her scarred face. There was a mischievous grin playing on her lips, her nose was flared (obviously taking in his scent), her eyes still hidden behind those faded purple bangs.
“You want sex? Right here? With someone who tried to kill you?” He nearly scoffed at the idea, but something was unraveling a little in him as they spoke.
“Why not? You know you’re powerless if I tried to actually kill you. You’re cute in a weird kinda way and this,” she patted his sizable bulge, “seems to need a lot of attention. So why not?”
He threw up his hands to relent. “I give up. Nothing about this evening makes any sense and you seem insistent. I’m not that experienced but I’ll roll with you if that’s what you want.”
The fiend smiled in a much more comforting way. “I’m Lilim. What should I call you?”
The thief smiled back tiredly, “Call me Colum.”