Death At The Opera - 2
“So what’s the score?” asked Milo.
Brian leaned forward in his chair with a smirk upon his face and a wily glint in his eye. “The Heart of the Aedir.”
Milo looked at the others but when no one followed the proclamation up with a clarification he was forced to ask.
“And what’s the ‘Heart of the Aedir? Is it a jewel?”
“It’s a beautiful gem and diamond encrusted necklace that once belonged to Analier, queen of Aelendir.” Answered Sofia.
“Royal elf jewel.” Said Rykard.
“Basically.” Confirmed Brian.
“It’s not just a royal elf” jewel, you ignorant swine.” Sofia continued. “It belonged to the most beloved lorian queen of that region who lived a thousand years. She was also the last queen of Aelendir.”
Rykard shrugged. “Royal high-elf jewel, then.”
“The jewel is on loan from the Museum of Ancient History to be worn by singer Madeline Keen for her performance in Heart of Hearts.” Brian explained. “It’s this big public spectacle for the reopening. The necklace was brought over to the opera house with armed escort and was immediately placed within a safe in the basement. However once there nobody has been anywhere near it. Neither staff nor guard. None.”
Milo stroked his chin as he pondered the details. His long goblinoid ears lowered behind his head in contemplation.
“How do you know all of this?”
“I’ve work there on and off during the renovations, so I know the lay of the land.” Said Brian.
Milo wrinkled his flat nose. “Wouldn’t it be easier to steal it on an off day? Isn’t there going to be a lot of traffic during the reopening?”
“That’s sort of the point.” Said Rykard as he exhaled a puff of smoke. “I thought goblins were supposed to be cunning.”
Milo ignored the cutting remark.
“The Heart is gonna get us all a lot of money.” Said Brian. “At least 1100 crowns each. But the opera house is gonna be filled with imperial nobles from all over the Heartlands. All of them carrying purses, rings and jewels of their own. If we play our cards right we could easily double our regular cut.”
Milo felt that surge of fear and excitement in the pit of his stomach again, a feeling he had not felt in a very long while. He needed 1500 crowns to pay off his debts, but he also intended on leaving Lexingrad with River after that. Any additional funds he could get would help them build a new life elsewhere so the more they could get the better.
“And how do we relieve them of their extremely expensive possessions?” he asked. “Surely they’ll notice if one of us just walks up to them and takes them.”
“That’s where Sofia comes in.” Said Brian.
The lorian woman stepped forward, spoke a strange word and did an elegant little twirl and in the blink of an eye she looked like a completely different person. Milo had seen this kind of magic before, conjured by another thief but it had been sloppily cast. Sofia’s illusion, however, was near perfect.
“Like this I can slip by unnoticed amongst them while carefully picking their pockets.” Said Sofia as she bowed and winked.
“You still sound the same, though.” Barked Rykard.
“Well it’s not shapeshifting, you philistine. It’s just an illusion” Sofia moved her hand over the cloths of her new look and Milo noticed how they seemed to pass right through. Sofia smiled again as she dropped the mirage.
Milo nodded and got up to walk the apartment. “So how do we get in?”
“Easy.” Said Brian. “That’s where you come in. If Mr Howlett sent you our way that must mean he trusts in your ability to pick a lock.”
The miniature goblin tried his hardest to hide how nervous he was. “I have some experience, yeah.”
He leaned out the open back window to sneakily catch his breath as the air in there was stifling. As he poked his head out he was met with the refreshing rain hitting his face. However that refreshment soon faded as he caught a whiff of something foul. As he looked down he saw that this window overlooked the Colton River which divided the Dreadward in two. He saw two little boats tied to the bank but among them he also saw that the river was choked with rubbish. A dip into the Colton would surely require divine magic to cleanse.
“Well we’re gonna need a little more than just ‘some experience’, yeah?” said Rykard as he dropped his cigarette onto the floorboards and put it out with his dirty boot.
Brian gave Rykard an annoyed glance before answering the question. “There’s an entrance behind the opera house. It’s not a staff entrance nor is it meant for guests. It’s where Madeline Keen will enter the building. However by the time we get there she’ll have already arrived so no one should be tending to that entrance.”
“But there’s a catch.” Sofia added.
Brian nodded. “There’s two doors there. One that can be accessed from the outside and the other which needs to be unlocked from the inside. The interior door has a minor flaw that will allow us to access it from the outside. However, it’s a difficult lock. Do you think you can do it?”
Without missing a beat Milo nodded with an expression of determination. In truth he wasn’t sure if he could do it. He simply had no choice.
“Alright, then I suggest everyone prepare. Once we’re in, there’s no going back.”
The four would-be thieves walked quietly through the streets of Lexingrad. Rain still maintained its endless barrage on the cobblestone streets and industrial buildings. The capital of the Duhain Empire was known as a towering maze, and its labyrinthine streets and passageways only solidified that reputation.
They would reach the end of a street only to descend down a flight of stairs and then suddenly cross a bridge between buildings and emerge onto another road, and they were still a few hundred feet above ground. Milo had never gotten accustomed to the city but luckily his three compatriots seemed to know it quite well.
They navigated their way through the Dreadward, past closed up factories and boarded up homes until they emerged out upon a grandiose bridge that took them across the river and into the district of Wolverham. And suddenly, just like that, they were in a completely different city. Wide open roads with beautifully crafted buildings, each surrounded by vast properties. This is where the noble elite of Lexingrad lived. This is where the kaiser and his family held the throne.
In the distance Milo could see the imperial bastion, Castle Meerfestung, resting upon a seaside cliff, looking out upon the roiling ocean. But not too far from it Milo saw the illuminated and luxurious cultural center that was their destination; The Lexingrad Opera House. The sight of it made his stomach turn. There was no going back. But he had to do this. For River.
The closer they got the more infested the streets were with watchers, the city guard, and even a few strategically placed imperial guards, the soldiers. As well as numerous heavily cloaked nobles carrying big umbrellas or simply riding around in horse drawn carriages. At one point Milo saw a carriage that seemed to be moving of its own volition. It seemed the noble elite truly lived in a different world from the rest of them. One with technological marvels and extravagant luxuries.
The streets around the opera house were teeming with life. Aristocrats and imperial celebrities alike all dressed in the latest fashion, having their pictures taken and flaunting their wealth. Milo was certain there was more money condensed on the front steps outside the opera house than he had ever seen in his entire life. It was enough crowns to fund a small community for decades, but instead it was being used to…well, he wasn’t entirely certain what purpose all of this served.
The amount of heat that now patrolled the streets did give Milo a bit of pause. With imperial watchers posted at almost every corner and guarding each and every guest he could see a lot of ways that this could go terribly wrong. However, what made him sigh a bit with relief was that nowhere did he spot any crimson guards. The empire’s elite fighting force was often tasked with protecting important nobles so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to see them at an event such as this. And they definitely did not want to mess with the crimson guard.
“Here.” Said Brian as he led the four of them into a nearby alleyway that ultimately took them behind the grand building.
There was a proper staff entrance where they could see numerous workers congregating with various parked carriages. Luckily they made it past them without arousing any suspicion and once past Brian led them to an unguarded entrance that was closed off by a small fenced off yard.
There was a singular door at the top of a small flight of stairs and as they approached Milo began to understand the enormity of his task. While the outer door was fairly plain and easily unlocked by Brian, it was the inner door that would prove the proper challenge. It was a large, reinforced metal door with a rather complicated lock.
“So, think you can do it?” asked Sofia.
Milo simply stepped forward and pulled out his old tools. They hadn’t been used since before River was born, but he had always taken good care of them. Maybe some part of him always suspected he might return to this life again.
As he began working the tumblers he felt them shift and slide in an unexpected way that immediately made his job much more difficult than he had anticipated. In fact, one of the tumblers somehow managed to hook one of his tools and for a moment he feared he had jammed the lock.
“Oh what’s that?” asked Rykard as he leaned in to sneer. “I thought all goblins were good at this.” The stench of whiskey and cigarettes on his breath was nauseating.
Milo closed his eyes and focused on his work, dislodging his tool and starting over again.
“Better hurry.” Said Brian. “I don’t know how long before a watcher will come by, making the rounds.”
Milo moved the inner mechanisms of the lock around for a bit until he started getting a good idea of what he was up against. “Ah.” He said as he started pushing the tumblers with purpose.
“Oh now he thinks his shit don’t stink.” Whispered Rykard.
“My shit doesn’t stink.” Said Milo as he pulled out his tools and turned the door handle.
And with a low click the large metal door opened. Brian and Sofia smiled but Rykard simply scoffed. The four hoodlums snuck inside and closed the door behind them.
“This staircase should take you down to the basement where the safe is located.” Said Brian, motioning towards a closed door, as he cast off his heavy coat to reveal a staff uniform underneath. “Me and Sofia will work the crowd while the two of you head down to crack open the safe.”
“And it’ll be unguarded?” asked Rykard.
“For the time being, probably.” Answered Brian.
“Probably?” sneered Rykard.
“It should be. We still have over an hour until the performance begins. They won’t fetch the jewel until twenty minutes before I think.”
“That’s a lot of assumptions.” Said Milo.
“I don’t know what to tell you, we’re working off of assumptions.” Said Brian as he and Sofia, now donning their disguises, started walking towards the public section of the opera house. “Just don’t get caught and meet us here by the exit when you’re done.”
As the two vanished Milo had a sinking feeling in his stomach. The tall and gruff hyperian man now lorded over him with a scowl.
“Well, after you, thief.”
Milo offered no reply and instead entered the stairwell.
The basement was an overflowed storage of old props, set pieces, boxes and scary sculptures. And while the space itself was quite vast it felt like a labyrinth to navigate.
“Maybe I should go check the quarters of that singer, Madeline.” Said Rykard in a low tone. “Maybe she has some other jewels we could steal.”
“Wouldn’t be smart, she’s too high profile and she’d easily spot you.” Milo whispered back.
“I can be quiet…”
Milo quickly whipped around and put one finger across his mouth. Rykard, for once, went silent. Somewhere ahead they could hear voices. Two men and a woman having a conversation, casual by the sound of it. Milo motioned for Rykard to follow and the man did.
The two of them snuck through the tangled maze of discarded theater props until they saw three watchers that had created a make-shift lounge out of boxes and fabrics. Resting on one box they could see a couple of bottles of Weathers Brandy along with a scattered deck of playing cards.
“Come on.” Said one of them, a half-elven man with long black hair. “Just tell us.”
His ears were not as long or pointed as Sofia’s were, baring a hint of the man’s partial hyperian lineage.
“Yeah you’ve definitely worked with some weird clients.” Said the woman, a halfling of the dunnvolk with short braids underneath her helmet. Compared to her compatriots she was much shorter with larger feet and brighter eyes.
“Pff, fine.” Said the third, a human man with a box-like face that bore many old scars. “I once worked a detail for Hamish Weiss.”
“The playboy?” asked the woman.
“I’ve heard he knows how to party.” Said the half-elf man.
“Oh yeah. Never seen so much debauchery in one place. There were tits and weens all about.”
The other two laughed.
“Yeah, it was all pretty funny. Until one of the party goers decided to mess with the large automaton Lord Weiss brought with him.”
“A what?”
“An automaton. A golem.”
“Then why didn’t you just say ‘a golem’, you twat.”
“How else would I signal my intellectual superiority over the two of you.”
“What happened?”
“Thing went berserk. Grabbed the poor man, declared that the ‘sinner must be purged’ and then burnt him alive.”
“Fucking Aurandean golems.”
“I know right. But here’s the crazy part. Lord Weiss just laughed and grabbed himself another drink. Didn’t even bother to check on the man.”
“Gods, that’s terrifying.”
Milo felt Rykard nudge him before pointing past the three watchers. There he saw the safe they were looking for. There was a moment where Milo worried that they’d have to deal with the watchers in order to access the safe…but then he noticed something that sent fear and panic surging through his heart.
The safe was open. And empty.
“Where is it?” whispered Rykard.
“Oh no…” said Milo. “It’s with her. It’s with Miss Keen.”
Rykard furrowed his brow. “I’ll get it.”
“No! She’ll see you. I’ll get it. Just make sure you’re not seen getting back to the exit.”
Milo then turned around and with a swift but silent step navigated back towards the stairwell. This was possibly the worst thing that could’ve happened, he thought. Maybe he still had a chance. Maybe she hadn’t put it on her yet. Maybe.
But if she had, that would mean he probably had to knock her out and that would bring a lot of heat on them. This whole operation hinged on them getting in and out without anyone noticing. They should’ve gotten there sooner.
Milo quickly ascended the stairs to find the room of Madeline Keen, not knowing how his fortune was about to turn on him.
