Broken Mirrors

Chapter Seven

Misha arrived in Tèarman Sàbhailte before noon. She did not need to be here this early, but the thought of being in the camp with her anxiety-wracked parents, and that horrible woman that calls herself the leader of the guild hanging around made her sick to her stomach. Pemb asked her to meet him closer to midnight, leaving her hours to roam the city. She spent her time window shopping, roaming the forest-city and pondering on how her mission would go. Tonight would truly decide the course of the rest of her parent's life, as well as her own. Could this mission provide her family with the means to escape Astura's guild and create her own, or just enough for them to suffer it for a while longer? Or would she fail, and be put away in prison, and her parents lose everything they have worked for?

She felt herself welling up, her hair beginning to flare again, her eyes beginning to burn brighter. It wasn't a good time for the what-ifs, so she decided to focus on the scenery directly in front of her. The city's economy clearly was booming, but occasionally she saw a shop emptied out, with a repossession notice plastered on the window. It was more prevalent in the parts of the city people lived, as she walked past the occasional repossession notice on behalf of Sahia Estates. Losing one's home and everything else wasn't just an issue for her family, and it made her feel sick. No one should find themselves in these situations, the people in charge are more interested in filling their pockets than helping people live healthy lives.

This was getting exhausting. Misha decided it best to sit down close to her meeting spot with Pemb and eat what she had brought with her from camp. She wasn't much proud of it, but she stole some jerky from one of the other sellers in the camp, she just needed something halfway decent before she did what she was going to do tonight, and besides, if all goes well, she would be able to reimburse the merchant a good few thousand times over, possibly.

Day slowly began to turn into dusk, and the streets of the city began to empty out as everyone went back to their abodes and the shops closed for the day. The anxiety was palpable, but she felt ready. She noticed Pemb had arrived, but had not noticed her yet. As good as a time to test her skills as ever, she supposed.

Pemb nibbled on a bread roll, seemingly not paying attention to his surroundings as Misha crept up as slowly and carefully like a cat hunting it's prey, until she got right up behind him and tapped his shoulder. She was satisfied until Pemb reacted snapped his head around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees.

"Oh, what in the name of the gods am I looking at?" asked Misha, grimacing as she looked at Pemb.

"First of all, Miss Nova, you scared the absolute living daylights out of me, which indeed, it's good to see you have some skills for our mission," said Pemb, squinting his eyes to convey displeasure, "Secondly, I am an owlin, descended from giant owls of the feywild, did you expect me not to do that?"

Misha scoffed and crossed her arms, leaning on a nearby wall, "And am I to assume you eat mice in a horrific fashion?" she asked.

Pemb chuckled, "Are you implying I hork it down, like a savage, like a wild animal? I mean, you're not far off, admittedly. But enough of that, how you feeling about your date with destiny?"

Misha was surprised that Pemb thought to ask such a thing, but she was far from ungrateful, "The pit in my stomach could be filled with most the gold in this city," she said, rubbing the nape of her neck.

Pemb nodded and patted Misha on the shoulder, "This is not something people do every day, if you didn't have the jitters I'd be terrified of you."

"You would?" Misha asked.

"Well, I do prefer not to work with sociopaths, afterall." Pemb replied. He took some parchment out of his bag and unrolled it, allowing Misha to see a drawn-up, overhead view of Sahia's Estate and pointed to a door on the north-east side of the building. He also had brought a map with directions to the mansion from the city.

"Right there is the servants quarters, like I mentioned before. This first part of the plan is very simple, I'm going to let out my highest form of alert as far away as I possibly can from those servants quarters, and you make a beeline for those servants quarters. The servants will all be busy, I'm certain, so use that to your advantage," Pemb continued to explain.

Misha nodded and cleared her throat, "Any advice for what I do once inside the building?" she asked.

Pemb nodded back, and took what looked like to be an ordinary cloak from his bag, "Put this on, and don't take it off for at least an hour. This will help you from inside."

Misha inspected the cloak. It didn't look particularly out of the ordinary, she had seen city folk wearing cloaks like this one just minding their own business. Misha looked to Pemb with a raised eyebrow and asked, "What's a green cloak going to do for me in a building probably made out of gold?"

Pemb laughed, "Oh but indeed this is not a regular cloak, and it has served me well when I've had to do the occasional job myself. When you wear this cloak, with the hood up, it will camouflage you, letting you hide more easily. Just make sure you were it for an hour at least so it attunes to your person."

"Attune...? Also, this is a bit big on me, Pemb." Misha asked, putting the cloak on.

"Most items with magical properties don't work right away, you have to bond with them as such, so that it understands you and you understand it. In about an hour that will shrink to fit you perfectly. All that said, it's not sentient... not this one at least," explained further. 

"What?" Misha asked with a shocked expression.

"I'll maybe tell you about it another time. We need to get moving, I need to meet with the other rangers, one more thing before I need to give you before I go," said Pemb, removing a feather from his head and tucking it into Misha's headband near her ear.

"And what will that do?" asked Misha, feeling Pemb's feather.

"It will make you look nice!" replied Pemb with a smirk in his eyes.

"That's endearing if not a little strange, wouldn't you say?" Misha said with a chuckle.

"I think it makes you look dashing. Now, you need to make your way to the estate. Use that cloak to your advantage and find a good hiding place in the brush north-east of the building. When I call, that's your cue," said Pemb. He handed Misha the maps and began spreading his wings to prepare to take off.

Misha gulped, it really was go time, "Well, I'm counting on you then, I guess."

"And I you, Misha. You get in there, you find those deeds, we get paid and we get the hell out of this city by nightfall tomorrow. Let's meet at the northern gate then, okay?"

Misha gave Pemb a thumbs up, and with that, he took off into the orange sky. Misha stood frozen for a moment, but then shook off her nerves and made her way out of the city, to meet her destiny.