Two Cats

Chapter 4

There's a certain feeling that comes with preparing to break into another Lord's keep. There's a myriad of decisions that need to be made before hand, hours worth of advance planning, contingency and emergency backup plans and the appropriate instruments with which to implement them.

I typically wear the exact same outfit every time, already loaded up with small tricks and devices that I've found useful while out in the field. I assume most of them are pretty standard and don't require explanation.

The outfit itself is the most interesting thing, a three-piece affair made entirely of thought-cloth.

A modest sized bolt of the stuff is worth a small fortune, I know, but it's so bloody useful that I couldn't imagine not using it whenever the opportunity arises. The act of simply touching an article of clothing and thinking a color, the garment instantly matching the color of your thoughts, well, how the hell could you not consider that useful?

I have a pair of rather well designed trousers made from it, a shirt with a respectable hood capable of concealing my entire face when I need it to, and a three-quarter cloak that hangs to my mid-calf.

Usually, I keep them different colors so that I blend in with a crowd. If a sudden emergency change of color is required, I can change all three garments at once.

I pondered how grateful I was of my color-changing abilities as I watched one of Greybridge's guards slowly walk away from me.

He'd been literally right beside me a few moments before, causing me to go still and hold my breath for an uncomfortably long period of time. I let the air slowly emerge from my lungs as I watched his retreating form, taking a carefully silent breath of air in celebration.

Truly, that had been a little closer than I liked. If the large potted plant hadn't been sitting in that corner to provide partial cover, I would have stood out rather obviously.

I was near the center hallway inside of Greybridge keep, and my heart was pounding so loudly that it seemed as if a guard would be able to hear it thumping in my chest at thirty paces.

It had taken me well over an hour and a half to get in there quite that deep. My approach was slightly different than usual, because of the relative lack of setup time and preparation. Under the circumstances, it was a much better idea to wait an extra minute or two than to take unnecessary risks for the sake of expediency.

So, all things considered, I was doing pretty well at an hour and a half. The patrols were fairly regular, every ten minutes or so, and were mostly on the ground floor where I had started, thinning out once I got to the second floor. I hadn't yet used any of my specialty tools, or any climbing gear whatsoever actually, preferring to rely on simple elbow grease to climb up the back side where the stables met a nice sheet of wall about twenty feet high, which...

Well, those sorts of details are fairly unnecessary. Suffice it to say that I was now on the third floor inside the keep itself, and had just done a fine impression of the cream colored walls of the hallway from behind a large spiny plant, hiding myself well enough to satisfy a bored looking guard who clearly didn't wish to be awake at this late hour.

It was a few moments later that he disappeared around the corner at the far end of the hallway. I checked for guards in either direction of where I sat, and seeing none got up and bounded lightly towards the door situated near the middle of the hallway the guard had walked down moments before.

Upon arriving at the door, I wasted no time in shoving two skinny pieces of grey metal into the two bolt-lock chambers and sending a mental burst of energy down their length. Unseen to my eye, the metal expanded and took the shape of the space between tumblers inside, forming itself into a passable key of precisely the correct shape. I wouldn't spring them until I was ready to open the door up, as they could trigger some time-sensitive apparatus that I wasn't ready for.