It took hours, but finally Allison declared the fortress safe. Jeremiah breathed a sigh of relief, his muscles finally releasing the tension they`d held since the previous night.

　　Bruno led them out to the courtyard. "We`re not wasting time pilfering pockets for coins. The shipment that came in went somewhere, and it was too big to be stashed away in someone`s room. I`m betting it never left this courtyard. Everyone fan out and start probing the ground. We`re looking for a hatch of some kind. Let me know if you find it—do not attempt to open it."

　　The entrance to the underground storage turned out to be a massive trap door hidden in the dirt in front of the keep. Bruno brushed dirt away from its the entire perimeter, scrutinizing every seam and hinge. With Bruno`s go-ahead, Jeremiah summoned a half dozen zombies to lift the hatch, revealing a ramp descending into the earth.

　　The air was cooler as they lit a torch and descended the ramp. Jeremiah`s anticipation grew with each passing step. Bruno clearly expected a wealth of treasure with this camp—Jeremiah had no idea what they`d find.

　　A pair of large steel doors blocked the bottom of the ramp. The doors were sealed by a complex mechanism, featuring six keyholes in the center of raised interlocking gears. Jeremiah thought the lock looked valuable all on its own.

　　"What do we have, Bruno?" asked Allison. She lit a few more torches around the room, the doors glowing orange with reflected firelight.

　　Bruno cracked his knuckles and shook out his hands, strutting toward the lock like it was a beautiful woman and he was about to risk it all. "We have here a leadership caste lock. Six keys held by the six most trusted members of the organization. The six interconnected gears are an insightful piece of design—a thief only has two hands, of course, so turning all six requires three prideful, impatient thieves working in close proximity, blaming each other when it doesn`t turn." He caressed the lock`s surface, leaning close to absorb the smallest details.

　　"You were built by Atesh Fellspring, or one of her students. So, one of you," he gently traced each of the keyholes, "is actually a cylinder key with a wonderfully sensitive pressure trigger that injects poison if tickled in just the right way." He teased each of the keyholes with the tip of a finger. "Ah! You`re the one."

　　Bruno pulled a small brass device from his belt. He opened it with a flick of his wrist, revealing a wick held before a convex mirror. When he lit the wick, the mirror reflected the light to a single point, which Bruno shined into the trapped keyhole.

　　"Poor Atesh, your students never have your forethought." Bruno next withdrew a long, folded wire. Tiny joints connected each segment like the legs of a bug. He slipped the end of the wire into the trapped keyhole slowly slid it deeper, unfolding new segments as the wire travelled further inside the mechanism. "Now, I`m not certain which student it was, as I`ve only met three. But I`m 75% sure it was Marietta, an elf. Something you learn in this business is that different cultures have certain ways of approaching problems, especially when it comes to mechanics."

　　The wire caught on something. Bruno worked the wire, easing it carefully past the snag, and continued. "Now, take a dwarven lock for example. They love their practicality—heavy bolts, pins under so much pressure they could take a finger off. Blocky, uncuttable, mechanisms rugged as all hell. But finesse isn`t their strong suit. You can tempt and tickle those locks open with enough careful maneuvering. Elven on the other hand is the exact opposite&"

　　Bruno fit a narrow copper sleeve around the wire and began sliding it along the wire into the lock. "Far too exacting, far too delicate. You`re as likely to break the damn thing as you are to unlock it." He braced a foot against the door and strained, pulling the wire as hard as he could. Jeremiah was sure the thin filament would snap.

　　"What an elven locksmith doesn`t expect," he grunted, "is for you to gum up the primary bolt on purpose—" metal ground against metal inside the mechanism— "and just yank the damn thing till it turns!" There was a loud dull thud from inside the lock and the doors parted just a little. Bruno waved his hand in a flourish. "Ta-daaa!"

　　They pulled the metal doors open, revealing a long storeroom stretching back into darkness. Allison lowered her torch to a pair of narrow oil troughs that ran along both walls, filling the room with flickering firelight.

　　They were standing in a thoroughfare that stretched to the far wall. Piled high to either side were stacks of crates, blanketed goods, and wooden chests.

　　"Now don`t get excited," said Delilah. "Odds are most of this is food and trade materials."

　　But her caution was far too late. Bruno skipped down the center aisle. He selected a tarp and tugged, revealing a life-size marble statue of an elven woman in a fluttering dress. Her upward gaze led her slender, reaching arms. The statue was a moment frozen in time, like she could spring back into motion at any second.

　　"Ha!" laughed Bruno. He popped up on one foot and kissed the statue on the lips. "That`s a funny lookin barrel of apples!"

　　Jeremiah, Allison, and Delilah gave into Bruno`s enthusiasm and began investigating the piles. Jeremiah buried his arms in a wide chest filled to the brim with silver coins, scooping them up and letting them rain from his hands with a tinkling clatter. They opened chests and drew back covers, exclaiming at each new discovery. There were very few trade goods.

　　Bruno whooped as he opened a tiny steel chest to reveal three sizable diamonds seated on a plush purple cushion. The gems glinted brilliantly. "These guys pulled the Poselthwait job? This operation was even more organized than I thought."

　　"Ooh!" said Delilah, looking over his shoulder. "Let me take those. I can return them for a favor!"If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it`s taken without the author`s consent. Report it.

　　"I thought we got to keep whatever we found!" said Bruno, holding up one of the gems against the light.

　　"Trust me, a favor from Alistair Poselthwait is worth far more than any precious gem." Delilah closed the chest and tucked it inside her robes.

　　"I have no idea what I`m looking at," Allison said, examining a bolt of green fabric. "Cloth? Is it special?"

　　Bruno joined her and ran his hands over it. "Cotton, decent quality. But that dye job is incredible! Are they all like that?"

　　"We`re taking everything of value," announced Delilah. "I bought extra space at the warehouse for us to store our findings until we can get a broker sell it. But of course, we get first dibs." She looked to Jeremiah, swept her arms out in front of her, like she was revealing it to him for the first time. "If you see something you like, it`s yours!"

　　Jeremiah dug through art objects, jewels, riches he`d never imagined possessing himself. In fact, he could hardly imagine claiming any now—surely they belonged to someone else, someone far more important. He browsed the wares, admiring and appreciating, but nothing more.

　　"This looks pretty," said Delilah. She was examining a half-unsheathed silver longsword in the firelight.

　　Allison took it from her to inspect more closely. "Plated. Weight`s all wrong, cross guard is too short," she shook it a little, "and either the tine is loose or there is none. Shiny, but hardly a real weapon."

　　"Someone probably paid for it, so don`t throw it against a wall just yet," said Delilah, in the nick of time.

　　Bruno held up a thin leather case. "Allison, can you come take a look at these? They look like military blueprints, siege weapons of some kind."

　　Allison peered at the drawings. Then she snapped the case shut, stood ramrod straight, and announced, "By the order of King and Queen Thorisis, in accordance with the Kingdom`s Securities Act, I, Captain Allison Allday, take possession of this item as a matter of Kingdom Security!"

　　From across the room, Delilah also stood at attention. "I, Counselor Delilah Fortune, acknowledge the recipient Allison Allday as custodian of said item. Let all who hear this announcement be aware that tampering with said item is a violation of the Kingdom Securities Act, Section 12, Article 15, and is punishable by law."

　　Bruno and Jeremiah exchanged a look.

　　"Sorry about that," said Allison "but they clearly had no idea what this was. There`s a weird protocol about handling documents of this sort."

　　"I didn`t know you were versed in the Kingdom Securities Act!" said Delilah. She looked positively smitten with Allison.

　　"It all came back at once. That`s training for you."

　　Jeremiah cleared his throat. "Paperwork is very interesting! So interesting, in fact, that I guess no one would want to bother with the enchanted weapon I found."

　　The others rushed over, knocking over boxes in their scramble to reach him first, only to find Jeremiah empty handed. He gave a rakish grin and gestured to the piles beside him. Bruno, Allison, and Delilah began dismantling the pile, inspected every object for signs of magic while Jeremiah was doubled over with laughter at their franticness.

　　He finally relented when Allison beseeched him, her eyes so pathetically pleading they made him want to give her a hundred magic weapons. He reached up to a pedestal supporting a statue of a grizzled hermit, and plucked the walking stick from his silver hands. The rod was four feet long, its ends tapered to sharp points.

　　None of the others seemed to understand what they were looking at. "A javelin?" Allison guessed.

　　In response, Jeremiah separated a thin wire that rested invisibly against the metal rod. He gripped the rod and pulled the wire, and the rod bent in a curve.

　　"A bow?" said Bruno. "That thing is a bow? I`ve never seen anything like it!"

　　Jeremiah grinned. "From what I can tell, the bow itself is solid steel." He demonstrated that he was unable to bend the rod with his hands, then swung the weapon into the lid of a nearby chest. The wood splintered with a resounding crack. "See the magic etchings? From what I can tell, the enchantment allows you to use the wire to bend the bow and for it to return to its shape afterwards."

　　Bruno was holding the bow before Jeremiah had even realized he`d taken it. He nocked an arrow to the wire and drew it. The rod bent into a graceful curve. Bruno released the wire and the rod snapped back to its original shape, hurtling the arrow against the back wall where it exploded into dozens of wooden splinters.

　　"Ooooo!" said four voices in unison.

　　"Dibs," said Bruno, spinning the bow between his fingers like a baton.

　　"What? You`re not the only one that knows how to use a bow!" Allison stamped her foot in outrage.

　　In response Bruno drew a second and third arrow. He loosed the first into a silver plate that lay atop a chest, sending it flipping end over end into the air. The second he shot straight through the flipping plate. The arrow penetrated clean through the center and shattered against the wall. The plate spun on the floor, its metallic hum growing louder and higher until it settled with a cymbal crash. Bruno gave Allison a smug smile. She glowered back.

　　"Allison, you already have a suit of magic armor, and you`re a frontline fighter," said Jeremiah.

　　"Shoulda got the magic sword," Allison grumbled.

　　As exciting as it was, at the end of the day the plundering of the vault was a logistical chore. Treasures, trinkets, and trade goods (the few that there were) were arranged into piles of piles of "sell", "leave", and "maybe". Delilah suggested that all but the most valuable of these would need to be left behind, as the profit from reselling them needed to be worth the effort to transport them and store them in Dramir.

　　"Oho, I am definitely keeping this," said Allison. She withdrew a weapon from a chest she had been sorting through—but it was unlike any weapon Jeremiah had ever seen. About the length of Allison`s forearm, the weapon was a flat plane of blades jutting out at strange angles, as though a blacksmith had been inspired by a bolt of lightning while forging a knife. She grasped the one safe appendage and hefted it. "Aw yeah, this is definitely going on my wall!"

　　"What is it?" asked Delilah as she and Bruno shoved a block of gold-veined marble across the storeroom from "maybe" to "leave".

　　"No idea!" said Allison. She spun the weapon in her palm. "I`ll ask around the guild, but I`ve never seen anything like it."

　　Jeremiah flipped the clasp on a lacquered box and gave an involuntary gasp. Three gold rings set with gemstones were inside.

　　"What?" asked Delilah. "Are these magic too?"

　　"No!" Jeremiah laughed. "No, I just recognize these. My father made them, a long time ago. I`m surprised they`re still in circulation." He picked a ring and held it up to his eye. The gold of the ring flowed around the onyx gem in a firm yet elegant embrace. Sure enough, a capital T and a sharp arc were inscribed on the band. Thomas Thorn.

　　"May I?" Bruno asked. Jeremiah offered the ring to him. Bruno inspected it with a discerning eye, turning it over in his hands. He frowned. "It feels&wrong. The weight is off, it`s too light."

　　"Ah." Jeremiah took the ring back. His now-grown fingers still remembered the particular movement the ring expected. The onyx popped away from its setting to reveal a hollow cavity.

　　Bruno laughed. "Your father made poison rings?"

　　"He made whatever people ordered. Sometimes he would have me mess with them to make sure they held up. I just recognize this design."

　　Bruno slapped his forehead. "Thomas Thorn! Of course! I feel so dumb, I didn`t realize you were his son."

　　"You know him?"

　　"Not personally, but I know his reputation. I once requested one of his ring mechanisms to study. My coin may have graced your table at one point! Funny how that happens."

　　Jeremiah slipped the onyx ring onto his right hand and closed the other two in their box to add to the "sell" pile. The ring jostled on his finger as they continued to work through the storeroom.