Nervous energy brought Raith to the meeting in their strategy room long before anyone else arrived. He spent the time pacing and going over the plan in his head. After agonizing over it for what must have been weeks in his [Library], he knew there was no improving on things without input from the others.

  He paused, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly.

  We’re going to be ok. We can do this.

  He probably believed it about seventy-five percent. Maybe sixty-five.

  Kieran was first to arrive, and Raith felt some of the tension drain out of his shoulders. He’d been in awe of the man since first seeing him on the rooftops all those months ago When Embry told him the infamous shadow burglar had agreed to help, Raith’s faith in the mission’s success skyrocketed.

  Dressed in his fine-crafted black leathers, Kieran gave a short bow, glancing back as the servant shut the door behind him.

  “A pleasure to see you, fellow roof jumper. You’ve brought exciting times to our little Guild, haven’t you?” before Raith could answer, the man continued. “I do so love a challenge, and may even stand to get a level with this operation.”

  The [Thief] walked over to the bar and removed the stopper from several bottles of liquor, giving them a sniff before deciding on the one he wanted and pouring a drink. He quickly knocked it back then poured another, settling into one of the comfortable chairs. Kieran peered at the map laid out on the table.

  “This is the keep I am to infiltrate?”

  “That’s right, we were thinking that this…”

  Raith was interrupted as the door swung open. Thea strode through, leading Hob along with three others. He froze, immediately recognizing Myst. After their last encounter, he wasn’t sure how she would react to seeing him. The Templar paused in the doorway and met his eyes with a scowl and narrowed eyes. Raith’s heart fell into his stomach. Hob punched her lightly in the shoulder.

  “Stop teasing the new guy.”

  Her glare melted away to laughter, and she continued easily into the room.

  “Aww, ruin my fun. It’s good to see you again, Raith. Under less…troublesome circumstances.”

  Thea joined in the laughter at Raith’s expense.

  “You mean embarrassing circumstances. Hob brought a few more volunteers. Raith you know Myst. These other two are Templars Durnam and Relk.”

  Raith recognized Durnam as the Templar from the demo who shot powerful beams of red fire from his eyes, but didn’t know the other man. Relk was built like an ox. Only slightly above average height, but square and solid with massive hands. He didn’t carry any weapons, and evidently didn’t care to elaborate on his introduction. The large man just stepped to the back of the room and stood calmly, staring ahead at nothing in particular. Myst wandered over to the bar, repeating Kieran’s act of smelling the various bottles before choosing one and pouring a drink. He was pretty sure it was the same bottle the [Thief] had selected. She took a sip and turned back to Raith.

  “Thea tells me you intend to use the Thieves Guild to sneak a transport item into the keep. Why didn’t you just ask me?”

  She passed a phased hand through the solid wooden bar to emphasize her meaning.

  “I had no idea asking you was even an opti….”

  “Because you couldn’t sneak up on an earthworm.” Kieran interrupted, and all eyes turned to him. Myst’s easy smile fell away as she noticed the man who had somehow escaped anyone’s notice until now.

  He must have been using a [Skill].

  “Not him,” Myst declared with cold finality.

  Kieran batted his eyes and offered a smile.

  “Hello, love. It’s been a while.”

  Myst slammed her glass down onto the bar, causing some of the liquor to splash out.

  “If he’s in on this, then I’m out.” Without another word she stormed out through the door without bothering to open it.

  Hob grimaced, and moved to follow.

  “I’ll go talk to her. Please just make sure that one is gone before we get back.”

  All eyes returned to Kieran, who smiled back unapologetically.

  “Well that was a bit of unexpected drama, wasn’t it? Why don’t we go over my role in this little adventure and I will take my leave to prepare.”

  Raith nodded in agreement.

  “Embry tells me you have a teleport artifact.”

  The [Thief] frowned at this.

  “I would have preferred you didn’t share that little fact in front of all of these people, but the answer is yes. The number of uses is quite limited, but I can get myself to the Templar’s keep and home again. Inside the walls, however, the fortress is warded against such methods of entry.”

  “Right. So according to this map there is an old service tunnel here, on the western wall. You should be able to sneak in undetected.”

  “Won’t work,” a low voice rumbled.

  Everyone turned to see Relk looking intently at the map.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Why not?” Thea asked.

  That seemed to be all the big man had to offer, and he stared back off into the distance. Durnam stepped in with the answer.

  “That tunnel was filled in decades ago when we upgraded the fortifications.”

  Raith was initially surprised at this depth of knowledge, but mentally slapped his forehead after thinking it over.

  Duh, of course the Templars would all have been to their own keep at some point.

  “What do you suggest?”

  Durnam studied the map for a few moments, tapping his chin before pointing at the southeastern tower.

  “There’s no good approach from this direction. Crummy terrain for miles and they deliberately cultivate a dangerous population of giant bushmen spiders in those woods for security. The guards tend to slack off at that post. It was always a preferred duty, with a lot of card playing and napping. If you can get up that wall and steer clear of the arrow slits, that would be your best bet.”

  Kieran had risen to his feet to study the map better and was nodding along as the Templar spoke.

  “The wall won’t be a problem. Where is the best place near that ingress to place the mirror?”

  Durnam considered for a long time on this one, and Raith found himself thankful to have such competent allies. He was a good planner, especially with his [Skills], but it was nice to pass off some of the load to people who had so much experience.

  “There’s a sublevel to the tower that is used for storage. Mostly pitch barrels, extra arrows, crossbow bolts and such. Things to repel a siege, but have never had a need for. There’s no way to get past the guards in the tower by going through the inside, though. You’d have to sneak back down the wall on the other side into the courtyard and go through the ground level door.”

  Kieran glanced towards Raith and frowned.

  “Well, that’s unfortunate.”

  Raith’s heart sank.

  “You can’t do it.”

  “Of course I can do it. I’m sad it may be so easy I won’t get any weft.” The frown transformed into a smile and he threw Raith a wink. “Now where is this mirror you need me to place?”

  “Tolliver has it. Speaking of which, where’s the rest of the team at?”

  “They were helping Nyhm with a potion or something,” Thea said.

  “Kieran, why don’t you follow me while I go grab them.”

  Raith led the [Thief] up to Nyhm’s lab, where he opened the door to a cloud of golden smoke and a chorus of coughing. He lept back as Zinny zipped out, pulling a trail of smoke behind her before stopping to hack loudly and spit on the floor. Tolliver rushed out shortly behind her, followed a few moments later by Nyhm.

  “What the threaded fuck are you three doing in there?”

  Nyhm stood hunched over with his hands on his knees, and held up a finger for Raith to wait while he finished violently expelling whatever that was from his lungs. When he finally finished he look up at his brother, eyes bloodshot from the smoke and coughing.

  “Zinny had an idea for the gleam honey that might help with the mission.”

  “Did it work?”

  Nyhm glanced back towards his lab, one corner of his mouth turned down.

  “Not sure.”

  Raith just shook his head.

  “Tolliver, I need you to give Kieran the mirror so he can go finish his preparations.”

  The pale [Mage] nodded, wiping snot from his nose with the sleeve of his robe before reaching into his pouch to fetch the mirror. It was considerably smaller than the one in Raith’s room, and even smaller that the Hollow Earl’s. Durnam would have to duck and turn sideways to fit, but he could make it through.

  Kieran examined the item closely before making it disappear into his own satchel. He turned to Raith and gave a bow.

  “Then I shall leave you to your planning. Let me know when to act, and it shall be done.”

  “Thank you, Kieran. It will probably be before the week’s end, but perhaps sooner. Let’s go you three, everyone is waiting for us downstairs.”

  Hob and Myst had returned during his absence, and they were quietly discussing plans with Durnam around the map. Myst spoke up as Raith entered.

  “The path from the tower to where Venton's likely to be holed up will be a slog. There’s no good way to get from there all the way through the keep undetected. Speed will be our ally, and that means rehearsals. We can set up a temporary faux tower with some spare lumber in the courtyard for run-throughs. The four of us can help with the details.”

  Nyhm cleared his throat.

  “Raith, can I talk to you privately for a second?”

  Raith’s brow furrowed in confusion. This wasn’t like his brother at all, but he nodded and stepped out of the the room, shutting the door gently behind them.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that, you said before that you can change the layout of your [Mnemonic Manor], right?”

  “Sure. Why is this something we need to discuss right now?”

  “Because if you can make it look like the inside of the Templar’s fortress for us to practice in, that could really help our chances of success.”

  “Weaver’s tits! Nyhm, you’re a genius. But wait, that would mean…”

  “That would mean you have to show those Templars your secret.”

  Raith hung his head. Gah. Why did he always need to have some desperate secret? It was unbelievably frustrating and exhausting. He couldn’t put a finger on exactly why, but he felt confident he could trust Hob and Myst. The other two, though…they were strangers and he just wasn’t sure. As though following his train of thought, Nyhm chimed in.

  “We’re already putting our lives in their hands by trusting them to help with this mission.”

  That was true, but it didn’t necessarily mean they’d also keep his secret after all this was over. Assuming they even survived. And that they succeeded so Beckhaven survived. Considering the stakes in that light, Raith came to a decision.

  “This mission is too important to not use every advantage at our disposal. If one of them decides to blab, we’ll just have to deal with that problem as it comes.”

  The brothers returned to puzzled expressions from the other Myth Seekers, and decidedly suspicious ones from the Templars. Raith made a come along gesture with his hand.

  “Follow me please. We won’t need to set anything up in the courtyard. Nyhm had a better idea.”

  As he led the party up the stairs towards his room, Thea hurried over and grabbed his elbow.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “It will give us the best shot of success.”

  They arrived at the secret door, and a gasp of surprise emerged from behind him as the panel slid open to reveal the chamber within. Raith disarmed the defenses and stepped in front of the mirror as everyone flied in behind him. He paused for a moment and activated [Life in Staccato], then mentally entered his [Mnemonic Manor].

  Using Thea’s map along with the paintings in books he had seen for reference, Raith spent some time remodeling the building into the best approximation he could manage. There were certain to be a lot of errors, but the Templars could correct those. He was confident the general shape and style were fairly close to the real thing. He couldn't make it nearly as big as the fortress, but they could have a decent section at a time configured for them to train in. After spending a while tinkering with the details, he realized he was stalling. Raith returned to the world and activated his mirror. This time he skipped the library entirely and brought everyone straight into the newly renovated manor.

  No need to reveal all of my secrets.

  He turned and gave a half smile, gesturing broadly to the keep as the others piled through the mirror. The looks on the Templar’s faces were priceless, and Raith couldn’t help but feel a small surge of satisfaction at rendering even these powerful people completely speechless.

  “Welcome to my [Mnemonic Manor].”