Luck in Lustrous

Chapter Two

"That was... My spoon?"

The thief tilts their head.

"I was eating cereal by the window!"

Fortunate blurts.

The thief turns away and face-palms.

"I can't believe that.... I completely misinterpreted the situation!"

They laugh.

"I must look like a horrible person right now."

Really?

They pull off their cloth to reveal their face. A girl with brown hair and brown eyes. She smiles and a tooth is missing.

"I've been here for quite a while. The houses here may be expensive but easy to buy. They don't ask questions."

She turns around and admires her knife in the moonlight. Fortunate tries to sneak away but she turns back.

"I used to be on top of the world, sipping wine from a crystal glass but now here I am threatening a random girl in a dirty alleyway."

"Wa-why are you here?"

The thief's eyes glint.

"You could say I'm... looking for something and taking other things in the process. When I say that house prices are expensive I mean it. Though you wouldn't know since you live in the temple. When I saw a faint flash I though it was all over. You're probably too poor to afford a camera anyway."

She laughs and steps aside.

"Run along now little girl."

Fortunate decides to run along despite them being the same age. As she turns a corner she hears the thief ranting about something to do with cursed familiars.

She approaches the temple, this time from the front and scans her card to open the rustles gate. It silently swings open and at the front door is the gem bucket. She picks it up and hauls it through the door. Pentii the receptionist is there behind a glass panel reading a year old newspaper. She looks up and sees Fortunate trying to be quiet juggling both her scroll box and a heavy bucket while trying to close the door and raises a finger. Spark-like particles appear on both her finger and the handle. The door slams shut inches from Fortunate's face.

Particle manipulation or as I call it - push and pull. The ability to move anything that you place your particles on... Including me.

She pulls Fortunate towards her.

"I didn't see you leave..."

Pentii narrows her green eyes.

Terrifying. I wish the fire exits were accessible from the outside.

"U-um..."

Pentii opens a drawer while scratching her mop of messy brown hair.

"Here."

She hands fortunate a tiny rocking horse.

"Congratulations on achieving five pillars."

Huh? Wait, how does she know?

"Don't worry I'm the only one here that knows since when you didn't sign out like usual I checked your database."

She taps the gem bucket and sends it up to Fortunate's room.

"I wont touch your pillar box."

She releases Fortunate and goes back to reading.

Fortunate clambers up the stairs to her room. She pulls off her jacket and kicks off her shoes sighing. She hears a jingle from her pocket. The change from the gambling match. She picks them out and counts them. 26 Rame. She drops it into her piggy bank with a satisfying clunk then grabs a book mid walk. She swings into her chair and reads by her desk.