An Unforeseen Circumstance

Underfoot, the wooden shingles glistened with rain and threatened to send Nora spiraling down to the muddy ground below. Her fingers gripped the edges of the cobblestones in the wall to keep her footing, and she finally made it to the corner of the manor.

Peering around its edge, she saw something so perfect to continue her ascent that it might as well have been a ladder -- a honeysuckle-covered trellis leaning against the house. It reached all the way up to the roof of the third floor.

'My worries about traps and alarms were baseless since these nobles seem to value appearances more than security. I wonder if my family was like this. I don't recall ever paying attention to it, so they must have been.'

Nora displaced her weight back onto her heels, then forced her body forward and jumped around the corner onto the trellis. Quick fingers dug through the honeysuckle to the wood of the lattice beneath and began to climb up skillfully.

As the flowers tickled her nose and lips, she huffed in annoyance but was still grateful that the Taeguns hadn't planted something with thorns. 'Instead of getting prickled by a thousand thorns, I'm being bathed in the fragrance of honeysuckle. After this, I'll smell like a bouquet!'

In nearly no time, Nora made her way to what she assumed was Lady Myrtle's balcony. It was so close to the trellis that she didn't even need to jump to reach it. Nimbly, she stepped onto the balcony's railing and lowered her feet to the floor.

A large door invited her over. She placed one hand lightly on the door's lever and pushed down with the slightest pressure to silence any noises if it opened.

There was no movement, of course. Nora had expected the door to be locked. Wistfully, she thought, 'Wouldn't it have been nice to have such an easy way in?'

Picking the lock on the door would work, but there was always the chance her pick could break, which meant she'd have to purchase more. That would slowly eat away at her savings, and she absolutely needed those.

Stubbornly frugal, Nora dismissed the idea of lockpicks completely and walked to the nearby window. There were no handles on the outside. Placing her palms flat around the glass pane and leaning into it, she pushed upward slowly so the window would rise. It didn't budge. 'Don't tell me they locked this!'

Studying the window like it was her enemy, Nora noticed that even though it appeared to have a gap at the top where it might slide up, there was also a thin, vertical divet in the glass close to one edge.

'So, that's how it opens.' Nora determined. 'The opening won't be large, so it's good I'm not as tall as my father! I'd make a very conspicuous rogue if I were.'

Placing her nails in the narrow gap between the panes of glass, she steeled herself for the discomfort she would inflict upon herself and used as much strength as her fingertips possessed to start forcing the window open.

Biting her lip as her nails threatened to rip from her fingers, she bore the pain and was rewarded. The glass pulled out toward her. She shifted back, slipped her hands into the tiny gap, and widened it as far as possible.

Fluidly, she slinked through the small opening of the window into Lady Myrtle's room and crept to the left corner to hide in the shadows while she rested a moment.

'It's much warmer here. I was beginning to freeze out there.'

Surrounded by walls, Nora no longer felt chilly from the breeze. It was a welcome change, especially considering her soaked trousers and blouse made the slightest whisper of wind feel like ice.

'I preferred the scent of the honeysuckle and rain to the heavy odor here, though.'

Instead of the mild smell of wet earth she'd experienced outside the house, the room smelled heavily of roses, which must have been from the Lady's perfume. It was so overpowering Nora nearly choked on it.

Her eyes scanned the room until they rested on a mound covered by a thick duvet. 'That mound must be Lady Myrtle.' If it weren't, then she'd picked the wrong room. It was better not to dwell on it since it couldn't be changed.

The room she was in had the decor she assumed an older lady would enjoy, along with that thick scent of rose. It certainly appeared that she was in Lady Myrtle's room, so she trusted her instincts.

'Surely, the Lady would never let that ring leave her possession,' Nora reasoned with herself and silently tip-toed over to the sleeping woman, but before she reached out to bring the cover down, she halted.

If Lady Tageun was woken, everything would be over; she'd have to flee. With that in mind, she covertly searched the drawers of several jewelry boxes sitting on a vanity at the far side of the room.

It was dark in the room. The faint glow of the Taegun's expensive mage lamps leaked underneath the room's closed door. The light provided was dim, but it was just enough to see.

Shimmering in the pale light were plenty of jewels and trinkets in the boxes Nora searched. However, nowhere did she see the enchanted opal ring she'd been hired to fetch.

Moving on from the vanity, Nora dug through the wardrobe and exhausted all other hiding places she could think of until the only option left was to look at Lady Myrtle's fingers.

'Either it's here, or I was wrong,' Nora realized and hesitantly lowered the duvet that wrapped the Lady. Instantly, she saw the ring on Lady Myrtle's right hand and sighed. 'Like I thought. I should've followed instincts.'

Without wasting a second more, Nora started slipping the ring off the Lady's finger. 'Ugh! It's stuck on here!' Her nostrils flared with exasperation.

While Nora struggled with the band, Lady Myrtle made her task even harder by turning over in her sleep. Nora delicately climbed onto the bed and crawled around the sleeping woman until the ring was in sight again.

The war for jewelry began again. Lady Myrtle was adept at her slumbering defense. She moved her hand often, nearly smacking Nora in the face at one point.

The Lady's snores were also distracting. One was so loud Nora had to grit her teeth not to laugh, but finally, Nora won the battle and managed to coax the ring from the finger it had seemed glued to.

After stepping back to the floor, Nora was about to pull the cover back onto Myrtle Taegun when a knock sounded on the door.

"Myrtle, Darling, are you awake?" called Lord Bertelis from outside his wife's door.

To Nora's horror, the sleeping Lady Myrtle hummed in response to her husband's voice, "Hmmmmm."

Immediately, Nora's eyes widened. She snatched the border of the blanket and threw it back over the woman. It settled over Myrtle's head, and the woman wiggled around underneath, obviously uncomfortable under the stuffy cover.

Ignoring the Lady's plight, Nora turned on her heels as fast as her muscles would move and dashed toward the window.

Even running, her steps were no louder than a whisper, thanks to her refusal to wear shoes when taking on burgling jobs and a plush rug in the middle of the large room.

Nobles' rooms were not small. In fact, the Lady's bedroom was more extensive than Nora's entire living space within the guild, and reaching the window wasn't as simple as taking a few strides.

The click of a door unlatching sounded alarm bells in Nora's mind. 'There goes my record of remaining unseen on jobs!' Even with the defeated thought, she tried to make it to the window before the door opened, but fortune wasn't on her side.

"Who the blazes are you?!" The angry voice of Lord Bertelis boomed behind Nora, and thundering steps were heard pounding toward her. He was quickly closing the distance between them as a high-pitched screech from Lady Myrtle pierced the air, overtaking all other sounds.

Having thrown the obstruction off her face, Myrtle noticed the shady character running toward the window.

"Guards!!!" screamed Myrtle. "Help!"

More steps, presumably from the summoned guards, clumsily boomed on the wooden floor outside the room.

Nora's heart pounded loudly in her ears, and her breathing became rapid. The window was near but seemed so far, and that distance appeared to grow when thundering stops overtook the less threatening thuds of Lord Taegun.

Peeking over her shoulder, Nora saw a large man in leather armor pursuing her. 'A guard?! Blazes! I need to get out of these walls before my wrists are trapped in irons.'

Out of the corner of her vision, Nora saw Myrtle bolt into a sitting position. The Lady clutched her blanket as if her life was threatened, even though it was apparent Nora was fleeing. A chuckle almost hummed from Nora's throat. 'I didn't even need my illusions to scare anyone! She's as white as snow.'

Turning her head back to the front, Nora exhaled deeply. She finally reached the window -- her gateway to freedom, and desperately flung a hand to brace herself against the window's frame.

Someone else was nearing Nora's location, and from the thundering boots, she knew it was the guard. Her breathing increased. 'If Myrtle had screamed any earlier, I'd be caught by now, but that shouldn't be possible!'

More desperate than ever, she worked to slip through the gap in the window before it was too late.

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Myrtle's panic-stricken eyes darted around the room and narrowed on muddy footprints on her luxurious rug. Besides the thief's dirty mess, nothing else looked out of place save for a drawer in one of her jewelry boxes not being fully closed.

Realization struck Myrtle like a slap to the face. If the thief was looking for jewelry, she might have had one particular piece in mind. Her eyes shot down to her hands. Precisely what she feared was missing was nowhere to be seen.

Myrtle quickly informed her husband of the missing ring. Lord Taegun passed the information to his guard captain, who hollered that every employed guard's pay and job were forfeited if the thief was not caught.

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By the time Lady Myrtle noticed the missing ring, Nora had smoothly lifted herself through the window's threshold.

She was on the balcony looking for the next path in her escape. Despite curiosity dogging her to turn back to determine how close the pursuing guard was, she didn't glance over her shoulder even once more.

Looking back would slow her down, and others would see the panic in her eyes. The shame of that encouraged resistance to curiosity's temptation.

Even without looking, Nora could tell what was happening using her ears.

Something, a fist or a foot, rattled the window she had slipped through, and there was a low string of curses uttered by a man.

Nora smirked. 'That guard can't get through the window.' It was too narrow, meant to provide ventilation only.

'Even if he can't exit the same way I did, he'll find his way out.' Her worry was quickly proven valid. Boots solidly thudded into the ground again, and she heard the rattle of the door's knob unlocking.

'This balcony is a prison. I need to get off of it.'

Whether or not she had a plan, Nora had to keep running.