Life had resumed as normal for Missendria. She'd get her mark, a letter of what to do and the time frame she had to finish it. There was no ultimatum, but it was implied, and she rather liked her fingers and toes as they were. Strangely enough, she was only asked to pick pockets, or steal items from those who seemed mildly with any wealth or power. Sure, it was still
stealing and breaking the law, but as far as the types of jobs she was assigned, she was pretty lucky.
Picking pockets was easy enough, but there were certain artifacts her 'master' was after. She supposed whatever it was she was retrieving helped with that, and in turn got her just a little bit closer to freedom. In fact the past message even came with an update of her debt...
Which made her all the more soured of things. Supposedly, the debt came with an exorbitant amount of interest. She would be dead before it was ever paid. When she.. inquired about how to make.. more money towards her debt, she was handed a simple envelope with just one verbal instructions - she couldn't go back to pick pocketing once she took this job.
For most of the night she had paced, contemplating opening the letter to see what the job was. Another part of her screamed to return it. If she opened it she knew she was making a deeper deal with the devil....
It was well past midnight when she opened the letter in a rush and read it against dying candle light. As she did so, a hand rested over her lips before she looked away, dropping away her hand as she shook her head.
"You have got to be kidding me."
She crumpled the letter within her hand and was about to burn it when she stopped herself and looked away , the candles flame dancing wildly. The she looked at the paper, reopened it slowly and read it again.
How was she supposed to accomplish
this. She stared over at the darkened window and found herself doing this for another good hour before she sighed and stuffed the crumpled paper into her pocket.
"Oh, Kia's will, I'm already damned!"
She blew out the candle and everything went dark.
The next morning an Essryni merchant princess was being paraded through town. It caused quite the commotion, many people running to the streets to get a chance to look at the exotic entourage and the beautiful merchant princess it held.
Lady Ne'friss'ati Anep'sheht Be'ahnest was everything the stories claimed Essryni wealth and beauty were, painted and decked out in gold and jewels from head to toe, her elaborate menagerie of animals and servants rolled in a fanfare consuming most of the bustling Street.
From the shadows of a nearby building, a dark cloaked figure watched the procession intensely. Although if there was any doubts who her mark was... those doubts were quickly cast out the window.
"And I thought Serenians could be pompous."
As the parade moved past, she slowly began to follow, winding her way through the sea of people and keeping her hood hung tightly over her head. She felt ridiculous in her clothing, a simple, dark pair of trousers and a heavy wool cloak to cover her top. She wasn't exactly still
welcome openly on these streets anymore, but dressed as a man, most would be non the wiser.
As she neared the servant carried 'carriage' of this Lady Ne'friss, she was quick to study her, searching for what was described in the letter. And then she saw it.
Now she just needed her chance.
Missendria hung back, trying to think about her timing. She had to get it before the damn merchant princess got to her manor. And as she began to realize the direction of the processional, she cursed under her breath.
Elricht manor- the merchant princess was almost there!
She had to act fast. Slipped a hand beneath her cloak, she grabbed a.bottle and hesitated briefly before muttering to herself, "Kia, look the other way."
Then she hurled the bottle and it crashed with a shatter and soon purplish smoke filled the streets. Chaos ensued and she took advantage of it. She didn't have time to second guess herself as she slipped through the smoke and slipped past the servants and blindly found her way towards the princess. She used a small charm on her bracelet to fan the smoke away from where she stood, and it revealed the princess was bent over and coughing just before her.
Her heart was in her throat as she wasted no time in throwing herself at the princess and snatched onto the necklace upon her throat and yanked it clean off her neck.
By then, the merchants fan bearers were working diligently to clear the smoke and Lady Ne'friss saw exactly what the cloaked figure had done.
"Shit."
The lady pointed. "Thief!" She exclaimed. "Thief! Theif!"
Thankfully the smoke was still lingering and although the confusion remained, she wasn't free from it as she turned tail to run and had barely gotten off the streets where she ran head long into a city guard.
He drew his blade. Her eyes widened.
"Oh no.."
Whirling around on her heels, she wanted to escape, but a wall of people unfortunately had pressed her way in the chaos and the guard was upon her, roughly pulling her to him as he held a blade to her throat.
"You're not going anywhere, thief."