Calliope huffs and shrugs on her coat, mumbling in her native tongue. The Ravenhause thief guild lord she's working for, Toran Elser, looks at her sternly, his dark eyebrows scrunching his aged skin.
"Stop complaining, Girl. I'm paying you good money to get those documents from Sola." Calliope rolls her eyes.
"It's your funeral," She mumbles. Everybody in Kiern knows that you don't mess with Sola. They're the most powerful smuggling guild in the city, but she leaves anyway. She doesn't care what happens to Toran. All Calliope wants is the money he promised her.
She sneaks through The Reach through alleys and roofs. She stays out of sight from the townspeople. She's quite infamous for being an intelligence "smuggler" for the thief guilds of Kiern. After three years of thieving and spying, she's become a master of invisibility. The Spider they call her, in and out without a trace. The tavern looms over The Reach as if it were a palace. The symbol of a mockingbird hangs beautifully over the grand white doors. Calliope keeps to the shadows, scaling the building until she finds an open window on the top floor. She climbs the opposite building and vaults into the window like an acrobat, landing silently on her feet. She prowls on the rafters. She spots her mark, the tavern leader's door. Luckily for her, all of the guild members are on the ground floor which leaves the corridor containing the door totally empty. Calliope picks the lock on the door for all of a single minute before it opens with a satisfying click. She locks the door behind her to prevent any suspicion. Calliope begins her search, looking in every drawer, cabinet, nook, and cranny. She finally finds something. It's a large envelope peppered with age spots and yellowing edges.
"This has to be it." She whispers to herself. She feels it immediately. Her hair stands up on the back of her neck and her ears begin to pop. For as long and she can remember, she has always had this strange sixth sense. It's almost like really fast reflexes, like she can sense something bad is going to happen before it even happens. The sound of heavy footsteps and voices nearly make Calliope jump out of her skin. She scans the room looking for a place to hide. She settles for a tall cabinet in the corner of the room. She jumps in at the nick of time, the door unlocks and it opens with a deafening creak. Several sets of footsteps enter the room.
"Hey where does she keep those keys?" A man asks
"I don't know just keep looking!" Another man replies. The sound of shuffling fills the room. They begin to open and close cabinets and drawers. One of them starts to move closer and closer to Calliope's cabinet. She holds her breath and closes her eyes. Her hands rest on her weapon. She's never been caught; she won't be caught today. The door to her cabinet rattles. Her stomach drops to her feet.
"Hey I found them!" The footsteps retreat from her. She doesn't dare move until the door shuts behind them and their chatter is far away. A sigh of relief escapes her chest. With the documents in hand, she goes through the window and gets the hell out of there.
When she arrives back at the Ravenhause tavern, Toran snatches the documents from her hands and reads them intently, not paying attention to Calliope. Through the light, Calliope notices strange etchings on the documents. Runes and patterns are scrawled in a beautiful script. She squints to see if she can read them, but they're in a language she doesn't recognize. When Toran doesn't say anything she clears her throat loudly. He looks over to her vacantly and walks over to his desk. He throws over a satchel of money and continues reading, not paying attention to Calliope.
"I hope it was worth it, Toran. Because tomorrow, Sola will have your head on a pike." Toran dismisses her with his hand. She shrugs and leaves, once again slipping into the night.
Calliope was right. The next morning, Toran Elser's head was on display in the town center. His once dark eyes are now milky and glossed over, his mouth hanging open in a permanent surprised expression. Blood drips down the wooden stake his head was placed upon and runs down the stone street. She shakes her head.
"I told you."
The wind whips through her white blonde hair, bringing the smell of death and blood to her nose. Clementine Lands, the leader of Sola gazes at the concerned crowd starting to form around Toran with a smirk on her face. She's young, only a few years older than Calliope, but she's established herself as a formidable leader not to be trifled with. They've worked together before, but the jobs she makes Calliope complete, leaves her with a bad taste in her mouth. She spots Calliope and glares at her, and Calliope glares back. Clementine weaves through the crowd headed straight for her.
"Fancy seeing you here, Miss Xander." Clementine says in a condescending tone, her Suna accent like warm honey, sweet and smooth. Her eyes however, remind Calliope of a winter's night.
"And you as well, Clementine," Calliope drawls. She nods her head in the direction of Toran. "Looks like you caught him." Clementine shoots an icy glare at her then rolls her eyes.
"I have spies in Ravenhause and they said that he flaunted his steal like a castle lord showing off his land. The loon." Clementine glances back at Toran then to Calliope. Clementine tilts her head to the side and bats her golden brown eyes at Calliope sweetly. Her insides turn. Clementine's demeanor has always given her a feeling of sickness and dread. Clementine continues speaking.
"I wonder who got those documents for him, would you have any idea, Miss Xander?" Calliope's stomach drops and her vision blurs, but her face stays unmoving. You know damn well, Clementine.
"If only I knew." Calliope's voice is flat. Clementine cocks an eyebrow. She tosses her long, black braid over her shoulder and clicks her tongue. Calliope's insides twist even further. Clementine looks down at her fingernails, playing with them absently.
"Tell me, who's side are you on?"
"Nobody's, only mine. I don't care about the petty skirmishes between the smuggling guilds." Out of all the people in Kiern, Clementine should know this fact best.
"I see," Clementine turns on her heels and walks off. "Hopefully we'll meet again, Miss Xander." She disappears into the crowd. Calliope leaves as well, feeling confused and extremely uneasy.