Breaking Step, Draft 1, CH 53 (Patreon)

Tibs froze as lightning illuminated the city. It only lasted a second, and left him with spots in his sight, but any attentive guard could notice him through on the pale wall through the downpour. Once he could see again, he focused on the locked window. It went beyond a latch and requiring a key. The tumblers had false gates, and with only the frame to hang from as a thief worked, it would be nearly impossible to open it. The only way to make it more secure was to require an enchanted key, like those his rooming house used, on top of the enchantment on the building.

Because he didn’t use picks, but water within the lock, it was simple for Tibs to be done, and then gently push it inward. Thunder accompanied the opening. The window didn’t disturb the weave as it moved; It was part of the building.

The opening in the weave was half that of the opened window. Enough for him to slip in, if he was careful.

Another flash of lightning froze him as he was about to pull himself in. When he saw again, he used Earth to ensure his body was rigid and moved only as he intended it to. Straight as a plank, and twisted to miss the strands not entirely out of the way, he entered the building. Pushed himself away from the wall and wrapped himself in air to deaden any sound his roll made. He chuckled as thunder covered his landing.

Tibs waited to ensure no one came to investigate, then closed the window. He absorbed the water on the floor and in his clothing, then put his ear to the door. He had two goals, according to Archer. One for the archer, and one to stop the attempts on Tibs’s life.

It turned out that stealing the coins wasn’t the entirety of what Tibs needed to do to regain his peace of life. There were too many of them in the Brokerage, spread across too many rooms and floors to cripple the organization. Burning the building down wasn’t an option. There was enough fire essence in the weave permeating the walls, Tibs figured they wouldn’t burn. While corruption might work, there was little of it, or purity in the weave, it was too slow. Even with Tibs pushing it to work faster, they’d have time to get sorcerers to stop the destruction, and they might work out he’d been behind it.

What Tibs had to do was destroy the contracts that outlined how Sebastian had ordered them to use his coins, along with those documenting the assassins already out there, looking for him. When news spread the Brokerage couldn’t prove who they had hired and for how much, every assassin in the realm would be more interested in swindling them than hunting Tibs, and then the Brokerage wouldn’t have the contract from Sebastian, so wouldn’t be able to restart the hunt.

It all sounded too complicated to Tibs, but this time there had been no light accompanying the archer’s words. So he at least believed what he said.

The safes with the contracts were in a room two floors below him. Those with the coins under the building. Coins were too heavy for the floors, he’d explained.

Again, no light with the words, so the archer believed it. Tibs found it dubious. Coins barely weighed anything. He could hold a handful for hours without feeling it.

Two rooms on opposite end of the building.

Like this had been an easy job when all he’d needed was to steal coins.

He let out a breath as quiet fell on the other side of the door, straightened, opened the door and stepped out of the room.

He walked casually.

The Brokerage didn’t have a uniform, but the people working there were of a similar type. Bureaucrats, Archer had told him. Clerks with illusions of grandeurs, he’d explained when Tibs asked. They had money, so dressed better than the clerks Tibs was used to, but that was the work they performed.

So Tibs was dressed better than he liked, and carried papers between leather bindings. He didn’t acknowledge the people he crossed path with, trying to look preoccupied. Even this late, there were a lot of people. The Brokerage never slept, Archer told him.

Tibs had thought he meant they never let their guards down. Now he saw he meant they worked day and night. The handful of people he saw that didn’t look like clerks were guards, and merchants and some truly unsavory types Tibs immediately moved away from on noticing them.

He wasn’t the only one doing so.

Tibs made it to the ground floor and located the door leading further down. The guarded door.

It was in a hallway going from the door in the front of the building to the one in the back and lined with lanterns. There were hardly any shadows, and certainly not any close to the guarded door. No one was allowed through without presenting a paper. Tibs couldn’t see what was written on it.

He’d need trickery to get through.

Tibs could handle that.

The lanterns were normal. A receptacle for the oil, and a burning wick within a glass cylinder to protect it from the wind. That wouldn’t protect the flame from him, but if they just went out, it would make things more suspicious than helpful. They needed a reason to go on. One those witnessing might believe.

Such as wind strong enough to bowl people over. There was a storm going on outside, after all. If he could arrange for both doors to open at the same time, people would think that was how the wind was caused.

He walked the length once, twice, trice. On the fourth time, he decided he couldn’t afford to wait. The front door opened often enough, but no one had even approached the back door. The ground floor was much longer than the rest of the building, and the back opened onto an alley instead of the road.

The bold was metal, as was the lock.

The door he needed to access was closer to the front. The guards could see the back door, but rarely looked left or right. They looked straight ahead unless they were addressing someone seeking entry.

Tibs needed to time everything, so the door was opened, he was near enough to enter it, but not blocked by someone. And no one could notice his eyes in the process.

The last one was simple enough. The rest… well, hopefully everyone would cooperate.

On his sixth walk from one end to the other, a woman approached the guards and presented a paper. Tibs slowed. Saw writing, but couldn’t make out the words. He latched onto the metal in the back door bolt and readied Air. The guard looked the paper over, then reached for the door’s handle.

As soon as he pushed it, Tibs dissolved the bolt and sent the strongest wave of Air he could that wouldn’t hurt anyone. He snuffed the lanterns out even as some fell off the wall. He wrapped himself with Darkness and rushed the door.

He sensed the woman stepped in his way and shoved her. Her complaints were covered by the wind and thunder.

He send wind ahead of him and snuffed a few of the lanterns, then slowed and straightened his shirt. When he stepped into the light, he held onto the wall and looked bewildered.

He shrugged when someone asked a question, going by the tone, since he didn’t understand the words, then proceeded onward.

The doors weren’t guarded. But each room had people in them, and by each safe, he sensed the armor they wore.

That would be a problem.

He found the largest of the safe and it was the only one in that room. It had two guards, and three others, seated at desks. Incapacitating the five of them would be simple. The only thing he couldn’t control was how long any of them could hold their breath. He’d have to keep them in the room. He might have to fight the guards, too.

Would he kill them?

Not unless they gave him no other choice, he decided. He removed the air from the room as he approached the door. He needed them to be suffocating, but he couldn’t give the guard enough time to reach the door. It wouldn’t allow air in, but it would let them sound an alarm.

The door was bolted, but it didn’t stop him.

One guard was a few steps from him as he entered. She paused in surprise, giving him time to close the door and fill the gap with metal to ensure no one else came in. She locked eyes with him and drew her sword. A ball of air sent her flying back. She took a breath in that moment, then she was on her feet.

The three clerks were on the floor, gasping for breath; the other guard was already on the ground, unconscious. The longer she lasted, the less likely anyone else in the room would live.

He blocked her blow with his arm; the shirt was cut, revealing the earth coated bracers underneath. He punched her and the earth empower blow sent her across the room, gasping and then choking on the lack of air.

The other guard’s life essence started to fade, and Tibs made a bubble of air around him.

She closed her mouth and forced herself to her unsteady feet. Tibs shook his head, but she staggered in his direction. He let go of the bubble of air. Hopefully that had been enough to let him deal with her.

Her swing missed him, then she was down on a knee. She forced herself up as Tibs’s fist hit her jaw. She fell to the floor and didn’t move.

Without her to distract him, Tibs noticed how silent the room was. There had been no sound of her hitting the wall, her sword falling to the floor. It was as if Air was what made sounds.

Was this how Alistair had ensured they had privacy back when Tibs had wanted that private conversation with his teacher? There had still been air in the room, but would a wall with none of it keep sound from moving past?

One of the clerk’s life essence was nearly all gone.

Tibs let air back in the room, and that woman’s gasp was loud. She coughed, but then was still. Not that he’d expected to pull this off without being detected, but this meant he had to hurry.

The safe was metal woven through with essence. A lot of metal, earth, and purity. Some air, light, darkness, and others he couldn’t identify. It was self-contained, no thread reached out. The enchantment was probably to reinforce it, maybe sound an alarm.

He removed the air around and within the safe, then ripped the weave apart.

It resisted him. Enough of those he couldn’t identify were woven through the rest they made it difficult, but Tibs had one thing they hadn’t.

He sent corruption through the weave.

Purity fought it, and Tibs smiled as he poured more and more until that essence was overwhelmed and melted away with the rest.

Then the safe sagged and Tibs remembered he needed the content intact.

He pulled the corruption out, then hardened the safe before removing the door.

Tibs looked in awe at the content. Stacks and stacks of coins were held together by fine leather strips. Copper, silver, electrum, gold and others he didn’t know. Along with those were bars of the same metal and stacks of papers.

He shoved everything into the bag, starting with the coins, then the bars and, after hesitating, the papers. With all of them in, the bag only felt slightly heavier as he tied it back to his belt, and barely bulged.

He swallowed his giddiness. This had to be the most coins any one rogue had carried. He exited the room and replaced the metal to keep the occupants from leaving it.

The guards barely looked at him as he pulled the door open and entered the hall. People were cleaning up the mess his wind had caused, and only a few of the lanterns were lit. He spent a few seconds admiring the chaos, then headed up the stairs.

He’d figured out how he’d deal with the contracts. Archer had told him which room, and it had many safes and people in it. He didn’t think he had the time to deal with them, then each safe, since he didn’t know which one contained the one contract that affected him.

So, he was going to burn all of them within the safes.

As he walked up the stairs, he poured fire essence into the safe. The weaves resisted. They had a lot of water in them, but again, he had far more essence than they could handle. A bell sounded around him. Made by essence from within that room. He ignored it and kept on moving and pouring fire into the safes.

He felt it devour the content. As always, it was hungry and ate away as long as he added essence. Something about the inside he couldn’t sense made the fire die out if he left it unattended, so he poured and poured essence and he walked.

Someone yelled something behind him. A woman yelled back. The door to the room opened and clerks rushed out. Tibs felt the heat escape with them. The fire wasn’t spreading outside the safes, but the metal was turning red.

He smiled. Nothing within would survive.

Someone yelled, an angry sound this time, and the man was pointing at Tibs.

Maybe his eyes had just given him away.

That was okay. Fire was useful here too.

He waved his hands, and flames licked around them. He flung fire at the people as he ran and they scattered out of his way. It wouldn’t hurt them, but fire was a terrifying thing for anyone that couldn’t control it.

Guard ran after him, and they weren’t deterred by the fire he threw at them. He didn’t worry; they were behind and his escape ahead.

He made it up the last stairs and found three guards between him and the room he needed.

He formed a blade of fire and wove metal through it. He block the first blow, parried another one, kicked the other guard out of his way, cursed as he felt the cut at his back, but they were behind him too, so no longer a concern.

The door shattered as he shouldered it out of his way, then ran for the window. It exploded under the blast of air and he didn’t slow as he put a foot on the sill and propelled himself out.

He formed a current of air to guide him to the roof on the other side of the street, where he saw the faint lantern light through the rain. Then rolled as he landed and looked up.

Lightning flashed and the explosion of a spire where it struck further within the city was accompanied by thunder that made his ears ring. He laughed. 

He’d done it. He’d gotten in and out with the loot, and the contract destroyed and only a cut on his back he’d deal with in a second.

The sound of metal pulled out of a scabbard drew his attention.

Right, there would be a guard by the lantern.

He turned as another sword was drawn, and another.

Instead of one guard by the lantern, in saw seven of them in its faint light, and they moved to surround him. Each had a sword in hand and of the expression he could make out, they were all angry.

Well, he had just broken out of a building they were supposed to be protecting, so they were justified.

“Metal swords and me without weapons.” He smiled. It wasn’t like he needed weapons. He suffused himself with metal.

It was time to find out what that could do.

The air cracked around Tibs as two of the guards ran at him. Small burst of lightning jumps from his arm to rain drops. He frowned. Metal didn’t make lightning.

Did it?

Tibs exploded with light, and the thunder was so loud it left utter silence in its wake.