The Head Lord and the Rat Thief {Kamisato Ayato FanFiction}

Chapter 8 ~ The Jewel Teller and the Lord's Judgement

Chapter 8 ~ The Jewel Teller and the Lord's Judgement 

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        Two more days passed without Caiome seeing Ayato, and she saw Thoma from time to time, busy with his own tasks, while Caiome was supervised by anyone who could. Not that the eyes of the world had moved away from her, anyway. Especially the guards who seemed to have to protect the house from her, not from other dangers.

        Caiome didn't know what came over her that day, but she quickly cleaned the terraces and rooms, and then the dojo. She didn't even take her well-deserved little break to sit in the garden. Everything was done on autopilot, and even Mizuki was surprised when Caiome joined him in the storage room earlier than usual. Caiome then grabbed a handful of swords and went outside to clean them. She took a deep breath, prepared her solution and cotton balls, and then quietly started cleaning.

        Mizuki joined her a little later with a few pairs of boots.

        "What are you going to do with those?" Caiome asked.

        "I'll do them tonight," was his only response. "Oh, by the way, do you think you could look at these?" he asked, pulling a small black wooden box from his pocket and handing it to her.

        Caiome frowned at the box, took it, and opened it. Inside were a necklace, a ring, and a pair of earrings, all made of something that looked like silver, and each had a dark blue stone on it.

       "What are these?" she asked.

       "My mother received them as a gift from a rich woman who didn't want them anymore, but she doesn't wear jewelry, so she wanted to sell them to a pawnshop. But she doesn't know how much they might be worth, so she doesn't get less money than they deserve."

       "And why are you showing them to me?"

       "You know about jewelry, right?" he said. "Or, at least, about quality things."

       His blue eyes sparkled when he spoke, chuckling slightly.

       "You could go to a jeweler," she suggested. "I'm sure if they're of quality, they would be willing to buy them from you."

       "Again," he said, starting to rub one of the boots, "I don't know how much they might be worth. Every little bit counts."

        "Hmm," she murmured, then took the jewelry out of the box, first the hoop earrings, then the ring, and finally the necklace, which she studied most closely. She put them back in the box a few seconds later.

        She had experience with jewelry, of course. Jewelry was the main thing she stole when she felt like it. Money was just pocket change if she needed a quick meal or a bottle to drink. But the real challenge was jewelry. They were easier to steal than clothes or fabrics from the market, that was true, but they were more attractive and equally valuable.

       In addition, Caiome found incredible satisfaction in looking at precious or semi-precious stones, observing the undulations in the stone and their sparkle in the sunlight. And it was amusing for her to cut them with wind blades, giving them funny shapes like birds or trees or different animals. She wasn't a great artist, but she did what she could. However, sculptures in precious stones were more expensive than the stones themselves, so the satisfaction increased with each sale. And the ones she liked the most, she had them hidden... somewhere no one could find, and she returned there from time to time to check on her hiding place.

       "They are made of silver, true, but these are not sapphires. They are something called lapis lazuli, a blue stone. They come in different shades, and when they are of such a dark blue, they replace sapphires to fool people, or women wear them to deceive others into thinking they have a better financial status than they actually do. They are usually found in Sumeru or Snezhnaya."