BANG!!!
The ghoul had announced his presence with his musket. The music and revelries outside stopped. Men shouted outside.
Albie entered the vault and hid inside the vault room. The young mage heard the old solder guarding the vault stand up. The old mans grumbling moved to the front door of the bank. The door opened and the shouting grew louder before the door closed.
Albie looked at the hoard of gold and silver. Every sun ring in the city must have been tossed into the vault. Bags of trinkets coins and ornaments of precious metals sat in piles. Cats half of the moon charm was in here somewhere. The charm connected him to Cat. As he stepped into the room, he felt the pain in his chest grow. His hand touched the place were the wounds were and felt a dampness on his tunic. He examined his hand expecting to see blood and to his relief it was just sweat. He stepped further into the room, the sweat soaked his shirt and the pain was the worst it had been since he found Cat dead. He could not focus on his search. The young mage fled the force to a corner of the vault. The young mage sat on a pile of gold coins rubbing his tender chest.
Albie heard the shouting of men enter the lobby. Yelling for commanders as they ran up the stairs. A few more footsteps walked into the sleeping rooms were the muskets were stored.
The pain lessened but never gone Albie feared he might be discovered and killed in this room. Shot dead or bayoneted by one of the orange coats who came to check on their loot. He pulled the stolen flint lock out of its holster and armed it to the best of his abilities.
The young man could hear a swarm of boots walking around in the lobby now. His only way out of the bank. It occurred to him that dying on a pile of gold was a little more appealing than in front of his burning hut. The men outside didn't seem interested in checking the state of the vault yet.
Albie looked at the pile of rings underneath him and noticed most had blood stains. The blood blackened on the gold and copper rings. He still had time to search for the moon charm. He also didn't really want to die. Even if he died on this big pile of tainted metal.
He stood up and took a step forward and felt the pain grow worse with every step. His chest boiled with pain. He stepped back to the corner. How could he find it if he couldn't concentrate? He pondered why it hurt so much to walk in this room and developed a theory. Perhaps his connection to the moon charm was causing him pain. Hopefully if he just followed the spikes of pain it would lead him to the source.
The young man stood up again and walked further into the vault. Crawling to avoid eyes catching him from the doorway. It felt like is flesh was boiling. He followed the feeling and it began to feel like the wounds in his chest were liquifying and the flesh itself was molten iron. He crawled more now because his body felt heavy and his legs were shaking. He went to fare and the pain receded to the boiling. He mocked himself imagining this as a very twisted children's game he had played with Cat when they were children. Cat would take his book and hide it telling him warmer or colder depending on how close he was to finding it. Here he was now looking for Cats missing necklace feeling her wounds for were it was.
A shout came from outside the vault, "The lieutenants are dead!"
The hustle of footsteps stopped for a moment before the clatter of feet ran to the stairs. The lobby sounded empty. The young mage had enough presence of mind to know this might be his chance for escape. If he left now, he might make it. The burning pain had spread from his phantom chest wounds into his veins like his blood had been replaced with boiling water. His body was heavy, and he felt horrible, but if he left know he might not get another chance. He would also have to endure this pain again. Assuming the charm wasn't destroyed before he got another chance. He crawled a little more until the heat had spread from his blood to very muscle in his body. He looked at the pile of blood money in front of him. It was small but it was full of ornate silver and gold jewelry. He could tell this was were the pain came from. He reached out and touched the pile. If he couldn't still see his fingers, he would have believed they were melting one layer of skin at a time. Albie touched something for a moment and for that moment he felt the pain relent until the tip of his finger slipped off it. Then the pain returned in full. The desperate mage grabbed the piece of plain silver again. The pain shrunk to the itch of a dry scab.
In his hand was Cats half of their moon charm. He brought it to his neck where is half was and attached it to his with a click the charm was howl again. The pain in his head cleared and he was able to better study the pile of jewelry in front of him. The pile seemed to be made of completed moon charms and sun rings.