Wendybar

The Trials of a Master Thief

1st Volume-Wendybar



The Empire, 1200 PE (Precedent Epoch) -Day 113/120







Lucien Leblanc closed the door shut with all his anger. It had been twelve years since the death of his parents and his house still looked the same. He was twenty years old now, and still had the guilt of it in his mind always. Maybe it was time for a new job, he thought. He was sick of resorting to burglary in a town where it was so easy and simple to pull off even a blind man could do it. Dirge had practically no security.... and no rich people. He needed a challenge. A house worth stealing from was hard to find these days. He had heard of a town far south of Dirge where the nobles had the finest houses in all The Empire. Wendybar they called it. Nobody knew why they called it that, but that had been the name for hundreds of years. Perhaps he would travel there. He checked his pack for supplies while walking outside of the house. He had enough food for at least the journey there. If he ran out of food it would only be a matter of time before he ‘reclaimed’ some of the nobles supplies. And what if one of the nobles put up a fight. He knew that his short sword wasn't the greatest way to steal, but it still worked as a fear factor for most of the people he stole from. There was one thing left, his famous black cloak. He searched through his pack, took it out and put it on. It had a few holes on it, but it matched his black hair completely. He thought it through his head. "I got some food, my sword, and my cloak" he whispered. "If there are any gods out there, Bring me fortune…"

He was out of the city by nightfall. It wouldn't take him too long to get there as long as he followed the road. A two day journey at most would bring him to his opportune place of business, he thought. He was going to get so much loot from this escapade, it brought back memories to him. A while back he had robbed this one merchant who owned a jewelry store on the edge of town. He had given the merchant the creeps when he pulled out his blade, put on a deathly smile and said: "Your money or your soul!" The merchant was so scared he threw all of his silver coins out onto the ground and nervously said "Go ahead…take it all, just please don't kill me." Yes, that was a night to remember.

It started getting darker as he neared a tavern down the road. A group of two girls suddenly came out of the tavern and started walking south towards Wendybar. Lucien started analyzing them from head to toe. They wore somewhat expensive clothes, very ornate, and at the same time looked to be upper class. Perfect. He started following them very slowly and sharply. Not too slow as to lose track, but slow enough to not arouse their suspicion. Both were talking, reminiscing of past events in their life, not knowing of the shadow that stalked them eagerly. Once they were quite a distance from the tavern, Lucien moved faster. He closed the distance between them and silently drew out his blade.

Before they knew it, Lucien was right behind the blonde-haired girl on the left with his blade right next to her throat. Not even a second after his sword was pressed against her neck, he coldly spoke. "The money...... Now!" Both girls were completely shocked at the fact that this man had been able to get right next to them without them even hearing a sound. The brown haired girl on the right dropped her gold on the ground and quietly said "Take it, and go”. All the while Lucien waited for the other girl to follow but saw no moving on her part. "Now you, gold on the ground... or your entrails on your friend," he threatened. "And what if I refuse," she said bluntly. "Then I will eviscerate you," Lucien calmly promised. "Then you better go do it, cause I'm not giving you one gold coin."

The defiance of this girl annoyed Lucien, though he had to admire her bravery. Lucien waited a second, then gave his final offer. "This is your last chance for your life, give the gold now or I'll decorate your friend with your insides!" Her friend, not wanting a confrontation, tried to console her. "Sue, just give him the money or else we'll both die!" Right after that protest, Sue started pulling her coins out from her pockets. Then with a sudden meticulous action, she threw the coins at Lucien's face and screamed. "Take them." Within that sudden rush of anger and confusion, she elbowed Lucien in the stomach and upper-cut him in the jaw before he could defend himself.

Completely caught off guard, Lucien's blade flew out of his hand while he fell to the ground almost completely out of breath. He hardly expected that to happen. Though he was mainly out of breath and his chin hurt he made it look like he was out cold. There's always a strategy to play even if you've just been knocked down by some whore with fancy clothes, he thought to himself. Her friend stared at the supposedly unconscious robber completely amazed, then looked back at her friend in astonishment. "Damn Sue!....I didn't know you had it in you." "It looks like you knocked him out cold." "Well, I just wasn't going to let that guy push me around,” Sue said confidently.

"Did your father teach you any of those moves, I bet he did." "That's not important right now Claire, what is important is what we're going to do with this bastard."

"Let's take him to the guards," the brown-haired girl shouted. Sue wore a happy smile. "No, it would be much better to leave him here." “The time he wakes up it’ll be morning and then the guards will have taken care of him.” Claire silently said: "Alright..let’s just get back on the trail for now, I've had enough for the night." "Me too", Sue calmly stated. "We'll get to the nearest tavern soon, then tomorrow we can go home." Both the girls walked away confidently, knowing that no harm would come to them tonight. Or so they thought.....

Lucien sensed no one's presence nearby, so he quickly got up and shook off the dirt from the ground which he had collapsed on. He picked up his sword with a new objective in mind. It was time to tie up some loose ends....and that girl was one of them. Not only had that girl foiled his theft……she also refused to pay, and most importantly….she humiliated him. And no one humiliated Lucien! With his sword out, Lucien silently began stalking his prey. It didn't take Lucien more than a few minutes to catch up with them, and before they knew it, he was ten paces behind them. He spotted out the whore who humiliated him and started getting closer……and closer.

"This is great Sue, you'll be known as a hero in Wendybar." "The girl who put the mysterious bandit to shame." Sue laughed at this claim, for this wasn't the first time she stood up for herself. "Or maybe the..."

Before Claire could finish, she turned to see a short blade go straight through Sue's chest. She looked back in horror to see that same cloaked marauder pull his sword out of Sue while she fell lifelessly to the ground. Lucien looked down at the now breathless Sue and coldly said "You should've finished me when you had the chance...whore."

By now, Claire was completely horrified. She had just witnessed her friend get erased from existence, and from that same unknown wraith who they had thought was knocked out cold. The only option left would be to plead for her life and hope that this fiend had some shred of decency inside him to let her go. "Oh please don't kill me," she begged. "I swear I won't tell anyone about this." Lucien thought it through his head for a moment. He couldn't kill her, she gave him no reason to. And she gave him her gold, which was what he asked. More importantly, murdering her would be against the code. After thinking on it for a second, Lucien made his decision.

With a serious face, Lucien looked over to Claire and silently voiced: "I've decided to let you go, but.....first your going to answer some questions for me." Claire looked puzzled as Lucien pointed to her now dead friend. "Who’s she?" With tears in her eyes, Claire hesitantly said: "She was Sue Mitchell." Lucien next pointed to her and said "And you?" "I'm Claire....Claire Dumont." "One more question and I'll let you go," Lucien silently spoke. Claire nodded and listened for his last request with tears in her eyes. "Where are you both from?" "We're from Wendybar, a town not too far south from here." Lucien, seemingly pleased, said: "You can go now, and let’s just hope I don’t see you again." Claire gave him a real quick nod, emptied the rest of her gold on the ground, and then ran off into the night. Lucien quickly pocketed the gold coins from both the now dead Sue, and the ones which Claire dropped. When finished, he resumed his journey on the dirt path to Wendybar all the while wondering if he had made the right choice.

"I swear, I just know this is going to come back to get me," he said to himself. "It'll only take a day or two for the girl to tell the authorities, and I know that she will because I slaughtered her friend." Lucien sighed heavily as he looked out at the starless sky. This will make the break-ins in Wendybar three times harder, he contemplated. "Well, I guess it's time to put my skill to the test yet again", he said to himself. The only thing was though Lucien's skill as a thief wasn't debatable; whether he could steal from a rich area with the authorities on high alert was. And with the present circumstances, Lucien would need to quicken his journey to Wendybar before the authorities found out. Once there, he would need to pick out one or two houses at the most and pilfer and swipe as much stuff as he could. Indeed, these next two days he would remember forever.

Lucien had by now walked throughout most of the night knowing that sooner or later he would need to stop at an inn for rest. After all, even thieves need sleep. Though he would try and get some sleep after the night he just had, he most likely wouldn't get much. After all, it had been a weird night and though people like Lucien weren't good, they did have ‘some morals’. And in his case, the killing of the girl weighed heavily on him. He didn't like killing people. Even though the code was on his side, he still disliked it. No, not killing people, that was an assassin's job and Lucien was no assassin. Only robbing people, now that was what Lucien truly enjoyed. In his eyes it would never get old in his mind.

The nearest inn was now in sight. He could see the inn from a distance, though his eyes were by now considerably weary. From the way it seemed, the inn didn't look like much to brag about. Not really much to brag about at all. Hell, the shingles were nearly coming off the roof. Nevertheless, it would have to do. Lucien knew he couldn't go without sleep, especially since his newest find would make him rich...or it would kill him. But that was a chance he had to take. He walked through the front door of the wasted inn and to his surprise, found the inside to be much more presentable than the outside. It even occurred to him that he might be able to make some money off of this place. But that thought went away quickly. He needed to sleep, and stealing from people in the inn would make sleeping much harder.

Right away Lucien pulled his hood down, so as to not look conspicuous. Luckily there were no guards or soldiers present in the inn. That would make this a much easier stay. He walked up to the proprietor and asked "How much for a room?" "One day, or a week?", the man replied. "Only a day", Lucien responded. "Then it'll be fifteen silver coins, and I'd like to get that from you now", the man responded. Lucien searched through his pockets for some money, and very soon pulled out fifteen silver pieces which he then passed to the proprietor casually. The man then handed Lucien the key and said "it's the 1st room on the left upstairs." Lucien walked up the stairs to his room and while at the point of opening his door saw a familiar face. It was the girl Claire whom he robbed earlier. For Lucien this brought back memories. He thought on it while he studied her for a moment. Her light-brown hair which went a little bit past her shoulders. A face as fair as jade; and a body to kill for. Well, at least that was what he thought.

For Claire, this brought back very unpleasant memories. Memories of a shady man with dark brown eyes; hair as black as the night, and skin which paleness could only echo a wraith. Memories of a man who not only pocketed her coin, but had more importantly… killed her friend and terrified her. Claire, panic-stricken, made her way up to Lucien to try and explain, "I....I..." "Were just leaving", he finished in a tone that spoke for itself. "...Right." And with that said she ran down the stairs and out into the night. Lucien chuckled to himself. "Heh, I have that effect on some people."

Lucien practically collapsed on his bed, knowing that this night's adventure was over. The only problem was though this night's adventure was over, there were many more to come. After some much needed rest, Lucien woke in the early afternoon. He knew right away that today was going to be a pain. Lucien didn't like traveling by day, he was more of a night person. Amazingly though, he had got much more rest than he expected. Lucien first started searching through his belongings, all the while hungry for some food. He pulled out a biscuit and quickly devoured it, still searching for more food. Next he pulled out some venison he had packed, and began chomping on that. After he was finished eating, he washed it all down with some water he had kept in his pouch. When he was finally finished with lunch, Lucien closed his pack and made for the door. He would reach Wendybar tonight, and then his lifestyle would change forever. At least that was what he had hoped...

Lucien walked out the front door of the inn with great haste. He knew that if he was going to do this right, than he would need as much time as possible. While he didn't have to necessarily run, he needed to keep a good pace so that he would reach the town by nightfall. This journey was probably going to take all the skill he had, if the rumors of Wendybar were true. Rumors of it being one of the wealthiest towns in all the empire was what he had heard and wanted to believe. But, what Lucien didn't want to accept was that in wealthy towns there was always one thing that was certain: More security.

By now it was about supper time and Lucien could tell he was making great progress in his journey. In a couple more hours it would be night-time, and he would reach Wendybar with some time to peruse the houses he would be working with. Yes, keeping the pace would be the best thing for him. Lucien thought about how he would enter the houses. The houses in Wendybar would not be a piece of cake, like in Dirge. He would probably have to enter through the windows of the first floor, unlike in Dirge where he would pretty much just kick the door open. His exit might be different as well. Though he didn't want to exit through the second or third floor, he would most likely have to. Lucien couldn't imagine a guy with a black cloak exiting someone's house at night through the front door. It would be suicide. And Lucien would not blow his cover at this town, because who knows how many times he might be able to come back for business. Lucien kept that in mind and continued walking to his goal.

It just started getting dark when he arrived a short distance from the front gate of Wendybar. He knew it was no time to celebrate, since getting into the town was his first task. He could see from a distance, one guard watching the gate. "Shouldn't pose too much of a problem for someone of my skill," he said confidently to himself. He began walking away from Wendybar, so that he could search for some sort of other hidden entrance to the town. While looking at the entrance he could clearly see that the gate was around fifteen feet high. There was a hill on the side entrance of town, but it wasn't possible for anyone to get from the hill to the gate. It was at least a five foot gap. No one could make that. Lucien thought it over in his head for a while. "I might have to go through with my other plan," he said to himself hesitantly. He didn't want to, but the wall wasn’t climbable and he didn't have a choice. Lucien put on a grin, and casually walked towards the front gate.

"Good evening sir, may I ask where I could find the Mitchell's household?" Lucien eloquently said to the sentry. The guard looked at him curiously and then asked "Why, do you know them?" Lucien put on a more serious face. "I came as soon as I could... well after the murder I didn't know who to turn to." The guard's face showed a more serious look almost instantly. "Murder, of who?... What are you talking about?" "I was staying at the inn not too far north of here when a resident of here: Sue Mitchell, was robbed and killed", Lucien eloquently stated. "I was with her when she died....and I felt it would only be right if I give the most grievous news to her family." The guard hesitated a little, looked at Lucien and said "Well... that's too bad." "I know her father personally, he's a good man." "He doted on his daughter almost too much." The guard sighed and then addressed Lucien "Thanks for bringing this to my attention friend, only I would suggest you get to the Mitchell Residence right away." "Marc will be wanting to know about his daughter." The guard pointed Lucien in the right direction, thanked him and sent him on his way.

Lucien walked casually through the gate with a smile thinking his ruse worked completely, but not before the sentry grabbed him by the shoulder. "One more thing my friend, you didn't by any chance catch a glimpse of the killer, did you?" Lucien quickly put on a straight face and said "No......I didn't." The guard laughed to Lucien for a moment. "Well, that's alright my friend." "If I were him, I'd be worried about myself." "Why do you say that?" Lucien gasped. "Maybe you don't know, Marc Mitchell is the most skilled swordsman in all of Wendybar." "The minute he knows the fate of his daughter, he'll hunt down that bastard himself," the guard said confidently. "Interesting," Lucien said while weighing it heavily in his mind. "Very Interesting." While thinking about how he was going to deal with Marc Mitchell; Lucien agreed that it would be better to focus on the present. And in this case, the present was enjoying the beauty that was Wendybar.

Wendybar was in many ways, exactly as he pictured it. Wonderfully decorated and excellently designed houses, elaborately dressed high class nobles, and quite a few guards were the three things that would sum Wendybar up. Lucien knew he would need to survey the town before he got to business. The perfect house to rob might take a little while to find. While walking around the town, Lucien searched to see the type of people he was dealing with. He spotted an elderly couple that had been returning to their home. Lucien figured that by this time of night they would be retiring to their beds. "That might be just the catch I need," he muttered silently to himself. While the couple closed the front door of their estate, Lucien silently trailed around the side of the house. To his delightful surprise, he found a back entrance that most likely led to their basement.

On the door there was a rusty horizontal latch, that from the looks of it had seen many decades. Lucien examined the latch a little closer. After further examination of it, Lucien found that the bolt keeping the latch together was not quite hammered in as it should've been. He surmised that if he could pull hard enough on it, the bolt would come right off with little effort. So, with the utmost care and nimbleness on Lucien's part; he carefully pulled on the bolt from the top. As expected, the bolt came right out of the wall and the latch swung open. As Lucien slid open the now unbarred door, he laughed sneakily to himself and said: "This is almost too easy."

Inside the basement there were stores of food all around. Lucien opened his pack for a second to inspect how his supplies were. Since he had nearly enough food for a day, he pocketed all the food he could get his hands on. When done with that, he slowly went up the stairs and opened the door to the first floor. While upstairs, he noticed a lot of finely made pottery on the table in the main room. That was of little consequence to Lucien however; because unlike other thieves, Lucien mainly stole jewelry and necklaces that he could sell to pawn shops that would take them. A lot of the pawn shops usually wouldn't buy anything from Lucien, mostly because they knew it was stolen. He was however, on good terms with one of the shop owner's. He was in Dirge, and Geraud was his name. Lucien had been selling stolen items to Geraud for about 8 years now. And even though Lucien hadn't come to fully trust him; he had to admit he kind of liked the bastard. But at this time, Geraud was not important. What was important right now, was finding some loot to swipe. And from the looks of the first floor, there was little to get here.

Lucien took the stairs up to the second floor, all the while keeping to his surroundings. He had hoped that the couple was at least half-asleep; because to be honest, he could barely see himself in the darkness. When he got up to the second floor he could hear someone snoring from the room on the left. Lucien entered the couple's bedroom silently. He could clearly see a jewelry box on the dresser to the right of the bed. He inched his way up to the dresser and examined it. Though the downstairs was very dark, there was a lit candle on the dresser and he could see the jewelry box perfectly. It was a magnificent piece, with gems inlaid on the sides of the handles. Lucien eagerly opened up the gorgeously decorated jewelry case to find all sorts of gems, necklaces, and trinkets of most likely exceptional value. He noted there were two emeralds, a pearl necklace, and a golden bracelet; all of which stood out the most compared to the rest of the trinkets. Lucien knew Geraud would buy all this stuff instantly. Who knows, with enough convincing he might even be able to sell him the jewelry case itself since it was so excellently designed. Lucien placed the entire jewelry box in his pack and searched for more things of value.

Though there appeared to be nothing else of value in that room, Lucien started searching the remaining two rooms of the upstairs. The room to the right had nothing of value inside, he figured it was probably a guest room. Instead of leaving, he then crept to the last room of the upstairs. Lucien couldn't quite see what was in the room because of the darkness. But on further examination, he found there to be a dagger of some sort on the shelf. He picked it up and got a closer look. To his surprise, it was a masterfully crafted silver dagger. An item not only amazingly durable, but sharp beyond imagine. Lucien hid the dagger in his boot. "I have a feeling this dagger will be much better off with me," he quietly muttered to himself.

There was nothing else to be found in that last room. As he was searching one last time for anything of value, he managed to overhear someone let out a yawn. Now hearing the floor creak, he instantly realized it was time to go. Lucien trailed down the stairs and back to the basement door slowly and silently. Once in the basement, he made his way to the back door from which he entered. The master thief slowly opened the back entrance and began to make his exit. While making his way past the side of the house, Lucien was unexpectedly greeted by a very angry guard bearing a longsword.

Caught completely off guard, Lucien knew talking would do little here. The guard looked at him contemptuously and roared: "What do you think your doing?" Though completely caught off guard, Lucien wasn't defeated yet. Putting on his most honest and yet shameful face, he stared down at the guard and said "I admit it, I ransacked their entire house....I took all their jewels, their gems, their food, you name it....I stole everything." Half expecting this, the guard didn't know what to say. "Well, I appreciate your honesty, but.....I'm afraid you'll be coming with me." "Put your hands against the ground and drop your weapon," the guard flatly stated. As if not caring at all, Lucien casually dropped his sword on the ground and put both his hands on the ground parallel to his boots. "Please sir, will you try and grant me a light sentence...I don't want to be stooped to this life anymore." After hearing those words leave the cloaked man's mouth, the guard felt a lot more at ease. “I can’t promise anything, let’s go”. The guard then leveled his sword at Lucien and went to transport his newest prisoner to the town barracks. But little did he know that hidden in Lucien's right boot, was an excellently crafted silver dagger.

It all happened in a flash as the guard went to grab Lucien. His hand, in an almost lightning fast movement, snatched the dagger hidden in his boot and let fly at the guard’s head. Caught by surprise, the dagger plunged home. The blade was now protruding from the unfortunate guard's head. As the blood started to slowly trickle down to the ground; the guard still stood there for a moment. Then finally, his body fell heavily to the ground. Lucien retrieved his dagger and snuck it back into his boot, all the while admiring his new blade with a smile.

He now knew he had been destined to come here. Because though the journey may have been a pain; and though he would have more than a few guards on his trail soon. He had gotten more loot in this one journey, than in all his adventures combined. And that was worth far more than the bounty he would soon have on his head. Knowing that, Lucien happily carried his pack while making his exit from Wendybar. Inside, he knew that some day he would be back. As for the journey back, That’s a story for another time…..