It Happened One Heist

The Legend

Maggie had spent the rest of the day nursing her hangover, locked in her room with the curtains closed.

She didn't reemerge until dusk, after she had plenty of rest and rehydration. She found Daisy waiting for her out in the hall, having previously been curled up in a nap and now chittering and bouncing for joy. As Maggie started walking through the hall the little monkey tugged at her pant leg. She wanted to be carried. So Maggie bent down and let her climb up her arm and safely perch on her shoulder.

She descended the stone stairs into the parlor, where Monty was in his chair reading a thick, tattered leather-bound book by the firelight.

Maggie sighed as another memory swept over her. During that excavation with Monty Fiske so long ago she realized she had found him very attractive, but by then she was already engaged to Jeremy. She remembered how one afternoon while she and Monty were discussing one of their findings she just wanted to lean forward across the table and kiss him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was nothing if not the faithful fiancé.

She looked up to where Monty now sat. In the years to follow she sometimes regretted that she didn't kiss him when she had the chance. But were those feelings for him ever real? Or was it a red flag that she was unhappy in her marriage and she wanted an easy out from Jeremy?

Daisy could tell that Maggie was troubled and leaped down from her shoulder to join her compatriots in the dojo.

Maggie leaned her shoulder against the archway. "Hey, Monty...?"

He momentarily pulled his attention away from his research.

She wanted to say something. Anything. But it felt like the words were trapped within her chest and she couldn't force them through her throat.

Failing to retrieve those words, she instead asked, "Just how did you get turned to stone, anyway?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Just... your friend Bates said something about ancient monkey powers and that you 'flew too close to the sun'...? His words, not mine."

Monty set his reading aside and stood up.

He sighed, his gaze fixated on the fireplace with his hands behind his back. "Some time ago I sought the power of an immortal primate called the Yono. I was only able to find a scant amount of information on him, so nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. He had been slumbering as a stone statue when I found him, and I foolishly didn't take that into account when I agreed to follow in his path."

"I see..." Maggie cautiously stepped closer. "Did you shake on it? Or did you sign a contract in your own blood?"

"In a manner of speaking, you could say both." He turned to her and brushed aside the hairs on the back of his left hand, revealing the circular mark of the Yono burned into his skin.

Maggie held his hand closer in slight disbelief in what she was seeing. "Guess you did get burned, huh?" She looked back up at Monty. "I didn't think you were serious about all of this."

Monty's eyes glazed over as he pulled his hand back. "I have a horde of monkey ninjas whom I've been training for years. What made you think I wasn't serious about this mission?"

"Point taken. So... what was the deal with you being in stone?"

"Best I could do was wait for someone to awaken me as I had done with him," Monty explained as he straightened his sleeve. "As far as I am aware that never happened." He flexed his fingers in frustration. "I can't summon the powers of the Yono, and I did not awaken in the desert where I was left. I found myself here, and I don't know how, when, or even how long it's been..."

"It's maybe been several months, at least," Maggie clarified. She crossed her arms in front of her as she added, "But... You've pretty much escaped death—or limbo, or whatever it was— and now with this whole Monkey King treasure hunt you're just gonna go poking the gorilla gods again?"

"The Yono was only a minor monkey deity," Monty explained. "At least when it comes to any written record of him. There were hardly any documents left of his history and I was not nearly as prepared as I should have been. Sun Wukong, on the other hand..."

He looked over at a scroll that hung on his wall. An ink painting of an armored monkey carrying a staff, accompanied by a monk on horseback, a river ogre and a pig man as they traveled down the side of a mountain. To Maggie the image looked less like a world-changing pilgrimage and more like five companions on a road trip.

"Yes," Monty continued. "My mistake with the Yono was getting involved with something I knew disastrously little about. Not this time. I have found more on Wukong's last remaining treasure and his lair."

"Wait, 'lair'?" Maggie questioned.

"Indeed." Monty's eyes narrowed and the blue flames in his eyes intensified. "I shall not be caught blind again... And I assure you," Monty promised as he looked back at Maggie, "you shall have more than just the Wufu pendant for your trouble..."

Maggie let out a defeated sigh and lightly shook her head. There was no talking him out of it. "All right. Whatever you say, Oh Monkey Master." She reached in her pocket and the glimmer of the Diamond Snare reflected the hearth. "At least I get to keep this, too."

Monty scowled. "Really, Margaret? I specifically asked you not to actually steal anything."

"What, a professional thief in a room full of shiny things and I don't get to keep one souvenir?" She casually tossed the snare like it was a tennis ball as she added, "You got your little size-changing walking stick."

Monty rolled his eyes. "Well, in that case..." He touched the jade pendant still resting on his chest. "... what use do you have of this worthless thing?"

"Hey! It wasn't worthless when we found it!" Maggie protested as she pocketed the snare once more. "And don't you think about going back on our deal! You owe me for getting you out of that museum heist and talking you through that panic attack!"

"I didn't plan to." Monty raised his eyebrow. "I'm just puzzled as to why you would want something of mine that wasn't imbued with any ancient powers and has virtually no monetary value."

"It's got a lot of sentimental value, all right?" She made her way for the dining hall as she added, "At my age it's all we got left..."

"I'm a year older than you," Monty flatly reminded.

She looked back at him. "Have you ever been through a messy divorce? If that doesn't age you by about twenty years..."