#Hudtan

[calemor]

Plinth

The Heroes of Fannen-Dar, Chapter 5

As has been previously mentioned, the population of Fannen-Dar was booming.  Despite the wide diversity the town could boast (if anyone were to listen), more and more children were being born each month.  Of course, this was mostly happening to the commoners, as the nobility could hardly be bothered to listen to the town crier, much less reproduce.  And since the nobility took up a whole quarter of the town, with another half being used for places of business or worship, the living quarters for this exponentially expanding population were somewhat cramped.

It showed the most in the South-East quarter, commonly known as the Columns.  Due to the need for more living space, but because of the limits of the town wall, the peasants built upwards.  Houses were stacked on other houses, held up by support beams interconnecting the stacks like string cheese.  The tips of chimneys protruded from the tops of the Columns, one for each house in the stack, creating a tableau that, if viewed from above, was reminiscent of a bed of needles.  Most of the old Columns had access to the upper buildings by stairways inside, and these were often inhabited by extended families who liked to stay in touch.  As people became more mistrustful of one another, it showed in the architecture; the newer additions had to be reached from the outside by rickety spiraling staircases or, for the really poor, ladders.

As Robin followed Gwynt through the streets of the Columns, she felt the gaze of a hundred unseen urchins giving them the once over to see if they were friend or foe, or possibly rich.  Since nobody jumped out to mug them, Robin figured they struck an appropriately misfortunate impression.

Robin had spent some time in the Columns, but something about the community kept her from sleeping there.  It wasn't that they were all thieves, or unpleasant to be around.  The Columns were for the unsuccessful, and Robin didn't want their bad luck rubbing off on her.  Of course, she had realized a while back that the people who lived in the Columns were still luckier than her.

She had then tried to move into the neighborhood.  She was chased out, since the commoners used her own logic.

Gwynt suddenly stopped walking, and since his stride was more like a spasmodic sneak, Robin stumbled into him.  He caught her in his arms, and Robin felt the tips of pins press against her.  She quickly put five feet between them.  Gwynt smiled to see that she was standing on her own, as if it were a great accomplishment.

He then raised his arms towards the heavens.  Robin realized that he wasn't praying, but indicating the building they had come to.  It was the tallest in the Columns, stretching to the sky for almost a dozen stories.  Sunlight bathed the top floor, where the wood was just a bit less splintered, the windows a bit less dusty, and the chimney smoke a bit less smoggy.

"We have arrived," Gwynt said formally.

"You live all the way up there?" Robin asked in awe.

Gwynt laughed.  "There?" he said.  "No!  This way."  He stepped around the side of the building, away from the foot of the staircase that wound around the stack.  He bent over and opened a trapdoor jutting out from the wall of the Column.  He began climbing down a ladder.

Robin realized that she was about to enter a dark cellar with a stranger whom she had only just met less than an hour ago, and who had already attempted to kill her.  She was very well aware of the advice often given to young women about young men, and especially young alfar (the alfar live for more than three times the length of humans, so alfar in their thirties are mentally only just reaching that special age when their bodies start to change).

However, Robin also knew a lot of gangs in Fannen-Dar.  She had tried to join most of them, after all.  She couldn't name every leader or remember exactly where their territorial boundaries were, but she had come to recognize all their names.  Never in all her life living in this town had she heard of a gang called Bedlam.  The idea of a new, or better yet secret gang made her incredibly curious.

Also, never in all her life had she been invited to join any sort of organization.  She wasn't about to pass up this opportunity just because it might get her killed.  She followed Gwynt through the cellar door, down the ladder shaft.

The room she found herself in was no more than ten feet on a single side.  Wooden beams held back the soil that formed the walls, which were stained with rainwater and pockmarked with rabbit holes.  One corner of the room was taken up by a small cauldron and alchemical supplies, including brass vials and a dusty alembic.  Something green was dripping out of the alembic's spout, leaving a sizzling puddle on the ground.  Gwynt took off his cloak and hung it up on a splinter of wood next to a looking glass in that corner.

The back of the room was dominated by a long table, strewn with tattered scrolls and parchments.  A single quill sat in an iron ink well with streaks of dried ink crusted down its sides.  A chair draped in a large fur pelt sat behind the table, facing away from the entrance.  Gwynt stepped up to the table and waved Robin to join him.

"Anzo," he said, "I've really done it this time.  I've found us a new member."

The chair slid back slowly, and a hulking figure stood up from it.  The first thing Robin saw was his hair.  It was matted and brown, almost like fur, coming out of his head like knots come off the sails of a ship.  There was no mistaking that the man had ogre blood.  He turned around, and the second thing Robin saw was his smile.

It was somehow larger than his face, and lopsided.  It let out an enormous laugh.  Not one of mockery like Robin was used to, though, but one that came from somewhere deep in the half-ogre's belly.

"Welcome to the Plinth!" he boomed.  "Top-secret headquarters of Bedlam!"

"Bottom-secret, really," Gwynt added.  Anzo nodded solemnly.

"A new member, at last!  This is just what we needed," Anzo said to Robin.  He tried to sit back down, but the chair was still facing the wall.  After bumping into its back, he muscled it to face front.  Robin noticed a small footstool behind it before Anzo finished adjusting and sat back down.  "I see you've already met Gwyntmarwolaeth.  My name is Anzo, and I am the founder and leader of Bedlam."

Robin cleared her throat.  "I'm Robin, and it's very great to meet you.  I didn't expect such a warm welcome from a group who're named after the legendary city where people were supposedly slaughtered by the thousands in a single night."

Anzo laughed again.  "Very true," he said.  "We're nothing if not good to our members.  Even prospective members."

"Prospective?" Gwynt said.  "I thought you said I could recruit anyone I could get my hands on?"

"I did say that, Gwyntmarwolaeth, and now you will shut up!"  Anzo turned back to Robin and smiled.  "However, everyone must go through a test before becoming a fully fledged member."

Gwynt gasped.  "Not the Sewers Course?"

"The very same."

"But Anzo!  Not even Hudtan could make it through without...you know..."

"Yes, yes, but the test is necessary."  Anzo looked back at Robin.  "If you are willing to take the risk?"

Robin gulped, but wasn't about to back out.  She wasn't about to be able to hide her nervousness either.  "Yugh."

"Good!  Now, you should probably meet the rest of the gang..."

"Hold on," Robin said after shaking off her shivers.  "You want me to meet the whole gang?  You don't just have some secret pass phrase to help identify each other?"

Anzo stared back at her blankly.  "That..." he said, "...would be so cool!"  He clapped and stood up laughing.  "What a brilliant idea!  Secret pass phrases!  We'd be even more mysterious than we already are.  What do you think of that, Hudtan?"

A person suddenly emerged from a shadowy corner, causing Robin to let out a short shout and take a step backwards.  She was a dark elf, sporting the same pointed ears and thin frame as elves generally had, but with dark gray, almost black skin, solid white eyes, and streaked violet and azure hair.  She had a scowl where her mouth should be.

"I think many things, boss man," she said out of the corner of her mouth.  The room seemed to grow quiet save for her voice, even though no one but her spoke.  "More goes on in my head than you could possibly comprehend.  And each thought is as distinct as a full moon on a haunting night.  My mind is as sharp as the blades with which I cut down my foes."

"Yes, but what do you specifically think about Robin's idea?"

Hudtan's jaw slid sideways.  "What idea?"

Anzo waved his hand.  "We'll do an official briefing later, when I've had time to come up with some ideas."  He then smiled back and forth between Robin and Hudtan.  "Robin, meet Hudtan, the brains behind our best schemes.  Hudtan," he said as she was licking her lips in Robin's direction, "if you hadn't been listening, I'm thinking of allowing Robin here to join up."

"Hm," Hudtan said.  "That leaves many more things to think about."  She raised a finger, which after wandering around the room, found its way onto her cheek as she slunk back into her corner.  The room was quiet for another few moments as Hudtan continued to stare at Robin.

"Yes!" Anzo said, breaking Robin out of a daydream that involved her running like hell.  "That's that!  I'm sure you'd like to know more about the history of our great order..."

"Uh," Robin said, "sorry to interrupt before you get, um, all into that, but, didn't you want me to meet the rest of the gang?"

Anzo nodded.  "I did!  That is what I wanted, and I always get what I want.  I wanted that for you, and you got it.  So, moving on..."

"Bedlam is three people?"

"Three and a half," Gwynt chirped.  "Anzo always counts for extra in case of ties in voting."

"But there's three of you.  There would never be any ties."

"Well.  Just in case we ever had an even number."

"And he said he always gets his way."

"Yes, he does.  Voting is pretty much just a formality."

"We're very keen on formalities here," Anzo said.  "It helps keep things running efficiently, smoothly, and with much butter.  Ah, Gwynt, remind me to go to the market for that tomorrow."

"Absolutely, Anzo."

Anzo took the quill from its place in the ink well and reached for a piece of parchment.  He started talking to Robin while he wrote.  "Make yourself comfortable, young lady.  You've got a big day tomorrow with the Sewer Course and all."

"It's okay if I sleep here?" Robin asked.  "Before I become a member?"

"Yes," Anzo said, and Robin noticed that he was only scribbling random lines across the page in front of him.  "We like to keep things informal around here."

Robin chose not to remind him of his previous comment on formality.  "You're not even worried that I might steal something and just leave in the middle of the night?"

"I would just promote you right then and there, Robin!" Anzo said, with his big, sideways grin.

Robin nodded.  She was surrounded by insanity.  But craziness was better than pneumonia.

"Where should I sleep?" she asked.

Anzo pointed up.  Robin looked and saw three cloth hammocks hanging from the ceiling.  She looked back down at Anzo.  "There's only three," she said.

Anzo's smile wavered slightly.  "I don't think Hudtan would mind sharing.  Isn't that right, Hudtan?"

Robin turned around towards Hudtan's corner to see her licking the flat of a dagger and staring back.  Robin blinked.  Hudtan didn't.  Nor did she stop licking the dagger.  Robin turned back to Anzo.

"I'll just take the floor."

After the others had climbed into their hammocks, which involved Anzo gently lifting them there and then jumping up into his, Robin laid out Gwynt's cloak that he had offered her and made herself as comfortable as she could on the lumpy wooden floorboards.  She tried to ignore the large gaps between each board and the worms which were surely wriggling beneath them.  She kept her thoughts away also from the poisons, knives, and heavy bodies all posed to easily fall over and end her.  She couldn't think about her old home, which was now a pile of rubble, or the complete insanity that her day had included, or the debt she owed to the most powerful man within fifty miles.

All she could think about was that she had her first chance at belonging to a criminal organization.  She would finally be able to call herself a thief.  She went to sleep with a smile plastered to her face.  If Bedlam was insane, it was right where she belonged.

Keep Reading Start from the Beginning

[calemor]

Ladder

(Click here to read from the beginning!)

Robin jogged through the Columns, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth as she panted for breath. No one had bothered to give chase once they realized she hadn't actually stolen anything, but she still wanted to get back to the relative safety of the Plinth as soon as she could.

She pulled open the trapdoor and leapt down into the hideout, scraping her hand on the rough wooden floor as she landed. Hudtan stood up from Anzo's chair, looking at Robin with wide eyes. "You're back! I thought..." She paused. "Well, it's a good thing Anzo was right."

"What happened?" Robin said. "Why are you back here? Why did the trading house open so early?"

Hudtan raised an eyebrow. "I do not know what you are talking about." She and Robin sat on the floor, with Robin trying to catch her breath after her wild dash. "The job did not go well, to say the least. I got ready in my hiding spot, which should have been imperceptible, I might add..."

"It was behind a trash barrel, wasn't it," Robin said. Hudtan scoffed but nodded. "I would've done the same," Robin added.

"Well, the drug dealer had brought along some muscle, and one saw me hiding and grabbed me from behind," Hudtan continued. "Anzo insisted on identifying as Bedlam instead of Bloodroot, so the dealer got suspicious and wanted to cancel the trade. We were both captured, but I remembered that birdfolk (the dealer was birdfolk, by the way) are susceptible to high-pitched noises. It hurts their ears."

"That's...just not true," Robin said. Hudtan glared at Robin with her empty white eyes, and Robin shut her mouth.

"Well, I let out a high whistle, and the dealer turns to me. I suppose maybe he just wanted to see if I was calling backup, but I'm sure it stung his eardrums a little bit. Anzo took it as an opportunity to break free from his captor. Chaos ensued, I got free as well, but Anzo lost his weapon and the gold."

"Did you get the bloodroot? Did you kill the dealer?"

Hudtan shook her head. "We were lucky to escape at all. Gwynt caught up with us, saying that you and he had become separated, and he couldn't find you. This meant that we hadn't gotten any replacement gold either. Anzo and Gwynt went to meet the leaders of the Bloodroots and Night Lotus, respectively. Anzo told me to wait here for you, but I thought..." She trailed off.

"What?" Robin said.

Hudtan sighed. "I thought you had quit. The gang, us, everything. It seemed like it was too much for you. I apologize; I was wrong."

"Well..."

"So now we have to be the ones to tell the leader of the Axe of Justice that we let our target get away."

"Wait," Robin said, "we aren't seriously going to do that, right? Can you imagine what that dwarf will do to us when he finds out we failed? His entire gang, or club, or cult or whatever you want to call it, is based on the idea that criminals should be killed!"

Hudtan smirked. "Are you saying that you are scared?"

"YES!"

"Then stay here," Hudtan said. "You can watch the base while we are gone." She climbed up the ladder but stopped and looked over her shoulder when she was halfway up. "Unless you want to truly abandon us this time."

Robin shook her head, but couldn't come up with a better plan. She hoisted herself up into a hammock after Hudtan closed the trapdoor behind her. As Robin stared at the ceiling of the Plinth, she thought about her escape from the trading house. Had she really been so captivated by the jewel she found that she hadn't noticed two hours pass, or even the sounds of the merchants and workers starting their business? And why hadn't the workers noticed her until the trading house had been busy long enough for everyone to get set up? Something about that crystal was strange, and Robin wanted to find out.

This time, the hours stretched on as she waited for the rest of Bedlam to return. She took a nap, but then started getting bored and rummaged around for something to do. She poked around the remnants of Gwynt's alchemy station, but nothing seemed salvageable. She went through the bits they had stolen from the orphanage, wishing it were something more valuable. She removed the cloth from Anzo's stool to find that he was carving something out of a block of wood, though she couldn't really tell what. She covered it back up with the cloth.

She was hanging from a hammock and trying her best to exercise when Anzo burst down through the door. Robin yelped and slipped from the hammock, bonking her head on the floor. Anzo helped her up, eyes wide with urgency.

"Robin, we must move, now!"

"Urgh," Robin groaned.

"NOW! Negotiations did not go well. Broos Bellinger is incredibly irate, and he's going to come here to finish us off for ruining his plans!"

Robin let Anzo drag her out of the Plinth and they both set off running. They practically trampled Gwynt as he was heading the opposite direction.

"Gwyntmarwolaeth, the Plinth is not safe!" Anzo said.

"I was coming to tell you the same thing," he said as they continued running. "Rivka thinks she ought to try out a new poison on us for failing to follow through with her orders."

"I'll bet Hudtan'll say the same thing about the Axe," Robin said while trying to keep up.

Sure enough, Hudtan was dashing down an alley when she saw them pass, and ran towards them to catch up. "We're in trouble!" she said.

Angry shouts started coming from behind them. Windows on the nearby buildings were shut in response. The people of the Columns were familiar with gang violence erupting in their streets, and they knew that if they shut their doors and locked up, it would all go away eventually. For Bedlam, it meant that they no one would keep them hidden, for fear of bringing the wrath of a gang leader down on their home.

"Anzo, where are you leading us?" Hudtan said. Loud footsteps were echoing from the direction of the Plinth.

Before he could answer, dark shapes suddenly stepped out of the shadows ahead of them. Anzo skidded to a halt, the other three bumping into him. Robin peered around Anzo's waist to see agents of Night Lotus blocking their path. The footsteps behind them caught up, and she looked over her shoulder at the men and women wearing the Axe of Justice insignia on their armor. The two rival gangs saw each other over Bedlam.

"Stay back, Axes!" a Night Lotus assassin declared, pointing his sleek dagger at the head of the pack. "This scum has betrayed Night Lotus and must pay for their actions. We know you, you'd just kill them and be done with it. We have plans to drag out their suffering."

"Betrayed you?!" an Axe of Justice cavalier bellowed. "They were working for us, and they couldn't perform a simple execution!" He turned to Anzo. "You double crossed us?!"

"You were meddling in our affairs?" the assassin shot back.

"We got there first, probably!" the cavalier replied.

Suddenly, there were more shouts from both sides. Members of the Bloodroot gang, combing the Columns after finding the Plinth empty, had found their enemies on both sides and, in typical Bloodroot fashion, had immediately started a fight. The Axe and the Lotus members turned to return the favor, leaving Bedlam stuck in the middle with no way out.

Anzo knocked on the door of the nearest Column, but there was no answer. He looked around at the fighting. "Whoever wins this, it means we're going to be next!" he said. "We've got to find a way out!"

Hudtan moved up to the house and started picking the lock. Robin heard a faint gasp and crying from inside. She felt her stomach sink as she grabbed Hudtan's arm and pulled her away from the door. Hudtan looked at Robin with a furrowed brow and a frown, but Robin shook her head. "We can't do that to whoever's inside. They don't deserve to be dragged into this."

Hudtan blinked, then her shoulders sagged. Gwynt stepped up and started climbing the ladder that was connected to the Column. "If we can't go through it," he said. "Then we'll have to go over it."

Anzo grunted but grappled the ladder and started climbing behind Gwynt. Hudtan followed, shooting up with ease. Robin looked up at the building. The tip was so far up it seemed pointed, and it appeared to be swaying in the wind. Whether that was a result of the faulty architecture or Robin's vertigo from looking straight up, she couldn't tell. She put one foot on the bottom rung, then heard a shout from one of the gangsters behind her. "Hey! Don't let them get away!" Robin started putting rungs below her as fast as she could.

Gwynt swung from the ladder above them, confident he wouldn't fall. He looked around at the layout of the slum. Shorter stacks of houses created longer alleys that the taller columns overlooked. "If we go down the other side, we should be able to lose them!" he shouted down to the others.

Robin looked down to see what he meant, and immediately regretted the decision. They had climbed much higher than she had noticed, and although her grip tightened around the ladder, her vision swayed and her stomach fluttered. They had to be at least seven stories above the ground, much higher than the two-floor drop she risked back at the orphanage. She then noticed that members of the Axe of Justice (or maybe it was the Bloodroots, it was hard to tell when they looked so small) were starting to climb up after them.

"We're expecting company!" she squeaked to her comrades above her. "Maybe you shouldn't shout our plans for them to hear!" She tried to catch up to the others, but couldn't climb as fast as before now that she had seen the lack of ground near her feet. She had to double check with each step that one of her hands was holding on.

Gwynt reached a platform that marked another separate house on the pillar. A window snapped shut by whatever brave soul managed to live at this height. Careful to keep close to the wall, Gwynt began shuffling around the side of the building.

"Gotcha!" a voice shouted, and Robin felt a hand tug on her leg. Her arm wrapped around the side of the ladder, catching on the rung and keeping her secure, but her other foot slipped. She dangled by her arm while the gangster below, a burly wood elf with several missing teeth, tried to pull her down. She yelped and kicked with her free foot, bludgeoning the elf in the nose. His hand flew from her foot to his face, and Robin fled from the ladder to the nearest platform. Hudtan joined the other two on the floor above her while the elf that had grabbed her started fighting with a rival gang member on the ladder below. If she returned to the ladder, they might try to pull her off again, and while Robin loved being on the ground, she didn't want to return to it very quickly.

Suddenly, the window next to her snapped open. “What's all this ruckus?” a voice said.

“Old Man Scruthers!” Robin said. She hadn't noticed which column they had climbed.

His eyes widened as he saw the raggedy woman on his doorstep. “You!” he screeched. “You’ve come to take over my house! I knew it!”

“We’ve got a problem!” Gwynt shouted from above. He had his hand on the ladder as if he were about to proceed down. “They’ve surrounded us.”

Robin instinctively looked down again and wished she had learned her lesson the first time. She took enough of a glance to notice that the gang violence had found its way to the other side of the column. She then steadied herself by grabbing onto the ladder. The others on the next floor up were discussing their plan.

“We can make it to another column in this row, and maybe they’ll be distracted enough with each other that they’ll lose sight of us and we can climb down…” Anzo was saying.

“Assassins are already closing in on us!” Hudtan said. “They’ll catch us in no time. We have to get to another row.”

“That’s twenty feet away!” Gwynt said. “Even I can’t jump that far.”

As if to support Hudtan’s argument, a hand latched onto the platform Robin stood on, and a girthy human started to pull himself up. He then grunted in pain and was flung backwards by a sword from a rival gangster just below him. Robin tried to will herself to keep climbing, but she was frozen to the ladder in fear.

She felt something jab into her side, and turned to see that Old Man Scruthers was reaching his cane out of the window to push her away. She moved to the other side of the ladder so that his cane only thudded harmlessly into the wood. The geezer was stronger than she expected, making the ramshackle ladder lurch and shake with each jab. Robin was horrified to realize that the 25-foot ladder was only secured by being set into grooves in the wooden platform and tied with a single rope two floors above her.

“GIT!” Scruthers howled. “SCRAM! Get off my house!”

Robin looked again at the gangsters climbing up after her, then back at Old Man Scruthers.

“Make me,” she said.

Scruthers shouted incoherently, and Robin summoned her courage to climb the ladder to the top. She passed Anzo, Gwynt, and Hudtan as they tried to figure out what to do. She took out her dagger and cut the rope securing the ladder. Meanwhile, Scruthers was still using his cane to shove the ladder with all his strength. Without the rope, the ladder began to tilt backwards. Robin clutched to the handle for dear life as she fell backwards off the column.

Anzo shouted and reached out, but his fingers fell short of the rung. Robin closed her eyes.

She felt the wind rushing past her suddenly stop as she was jerked to a halt. The ladder bounced, then settled back down. She slowly opened her eyes to see that her insane plan had worked; the ladder was now spanning the gap between the two columns, and she was within arms reach of the platform.

Robin looked back at the other three, who were all staring at her with open mouths. She tried to tell them to cross the ladder and escape, but all that came out was a sound like a goat bleating. Still, they got the message, and once the shock of seeing their newest teammate almost fall to her death wore off, they scrambled down to the base of the ladder. Anzo was the first one down, by way of gripping the ledge and swinging himself onto the lower platform. He kicked an Axe of Justice on the way down, sending him into Old Man Scruthers's wall. Scruthers yelped and snapped his window shut. Gwynt and Hudtan lowered themselves down more slowly as Anzo walked up to the Axe member.

“We’re gonna punish you for-” the Axe started. Anzo punched him in the face.

Gwynt and Hudtan started crawling across the ladder. A small skirmish had broken out between the Bloodroots and the Night Lotuses on the platform below, allowing Anzo to start following when there was room. The three bodies moving across the wooden ladder caused it to buckle and shake, so Robin quickly latched onto the new column and pulled herself up. She crawled over to the other edge and peered over. Nobody was in the street below, and it was inaccessible from the one where the fight raged.

Gwynt was then next to her, urging her to follow him down to the ground. Robin gladly obliged, Hudtan and Anzo right behind her, happy to start getting closer to a nonlethal falling distance.

***

The Night Lotus agent dispatched the filthy Axe of Justice, pushing his limp body off the column. She and her cohort then climbed up to the next platform, where the base of the ladder was still balanced to create a bridge spanning the space above the street.

“Here now, we can still catch them!” the other assassin said, but the first agent put a hand against his chest.

“No, fool! If we go across now, they will reach the other side before we do. Then they will be free to toss the ladder off balance, sending us to our deaths!”

The other assassin blanched. “Of course. Good thinking.”

“Out of the way!” They were shoved aside by two Bloodroot brutes, who started rushing across the ladder towards their targets.

The Night Lotus grinned. “I suppose we could employ the same tactics I just mentioned.”

Her cohort chuckled. “Good thinking.”

***

Robin turned the corner where Anzo had just run and was suddenly grabbed and pulled up against the back alley wall of a small shop. They were out of the Columns, and the sounds of the fighting had given way to the busy din of the town marketplace just around the corner. Robin scrabbled against the grip at first, but then saw that she was being held by Anzo, who was listening for their pursuers. She quieted down, even though her heart was still racing a mile a minute.

“It seems we have lost-” Anzo began, but suddenly ducked as a dagger embedded itself into the wall where his head had just been.

“Consider that a warning shot,” Rivka said, standing up from behind a chimney on the roof above. “The next one won’t kill you either. But you’ll wish it had.”

“We did what the Night Lotus asked of us!” Hudtan said.

Rivka’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. And the Bloodroots. And the Axe of Justice. Both groups our dread rivals, and you dare to assist them in their schemes.”

“But if he hadn’t, they would have killed us!” Gwynt complained.

“That’s the plan!” came the voice of Broos Bellinger. He was standing in the alley in the direction of the Columns, walking quickly towards Bedlam. Rivka jumped down to block his path.

“We got to them first, so back off.”

“Actually…” Hudtan said, but was interrupted by a guttural roar. Robin couldn’t see down the alley it came from, but she knew that Tasgall, the leader of the Axe of Justice, was on his way to kill first and ask questions never. Rivka’s eyes darted to the side when she heard his shout, and Broos took the opportunity to attempt to shove past her towards the four cowering against the wall. Robin was the first to take off in the other direction, and the rest of Bedlam followed towards the town center.

Robin burst out into the marketplace and was immediately shoved aside by the bustle of several people shopping the stalls and looking for deals. Vendors shouted their prices and voices responded asking for better deals. Robin pressed on. She felt someone grab her hand and started until she realized it was Gwynt. He tugged her forward and she quickly followed.

She heard Tasgall yell again, coming from right behind her. Gwynt yanked her off to the right, diving into a group of chatting farmers. They huffed but couldn’t say much before the two were gone again. Gwynt jumped to get a quick vantage of the crowd, then changed direction again. “Rivka and Broos split up and are encircling us!” he said.

They skidded to a halt at the center of the marketplace, where the Well of Luck stood. The smiling statue of the goddess on the roof over the well seemed to be looking down directly at Robin, even though its eyes were closed. It seemed to say, “You’ve run far, but you’ve run out of me.”

Anzo and Hudtan ran in from the opposite direction. Anzo blinked. “Wait! If you’re there, and they were chasing us from behind here, then…”

“We’re surrounded!” Hudtan growled, and pounded her fist on the threshold of the well.

Gwynt looked through the crowd for a way out, spinning around on the spot. Anzo mumbled to himself, trying to think up an escape plan. Robin just stared at the statue, then looked at the bucket hanging over the entrance to the well. The rope hung over a pulley and was attached to a crank so that the bucket could be raised and lowered.

Robin grabbed the crank. “Get in,” she said.

Hudtan peered down the well, listening to the rush of water below. “It’s a long way down. The underground river likely is not that deep.”

“Grab the rope! It will slow our fall,” Robin said.

Anzo nodded. “Sudden impact with rock is preferable to whatever the Night Lotus and others have in store for us.” He held out his hand. “After you."

Gwynt grabbed the rope and nodded to Robin, who turned the crank so that the rope would lower the bucket and make room for Hudtan, then Anzo. By the time Anzo grabbed on, she could barely hold back the crank any longer. She released it, letting the bucket fall the rest of the way. She looked around as she heard shouting; their pursuers were closing in. Stuck threw one foot over the wall of the well, then the other. She gave one last look at the statue, said a little prayer to Luck, and slid down the rope into the darkness.

[calemor]

This looks so much fun! Tagged by @merigreenleaf to answer the following ABC questions for my main character Robin (I guess it’s originally intended to be answered for myself, but that’s boring).

A is for Age: 23, that special age when you have no idea what you’re doing with your life, even in a fantasy world B is for Biggest Fear: Despite constantly running away from everything, Robin isn’t really afraid of everything. She just knows her limits, which are very very low. That said, her biggest fear is bees (especially wasps). C is for Current Time: It’s early summer when we first meet Robin, and so far the events have taken place over the course of only a few days. D is for Drink Last Had: Boiled water. You don’t get much when your last home was a dumpster. E is for Everyday Starts With: A wakeup call from Anzo. F is for Favorite Song: Robin sometimes gets a children’s tune called Follow the Gnome stuck in her head, but doesn’t listen to much music. G is for Ghosts, Are They Real?: Robin would say that she doesn’t know and doesn’t want to find out. H is for Hometown: Fannen-Dar, the melting pot of Calemor that was left on the stovetop for far too long. I is for In Love With: Not dying. Robin has been under a lot of stress lately, and romance is certainly not on the forefront of her mind. J is for Jealous Of: Gwynt’s optimism, Hudtan’s skill, Anzo’s determination, and everyone else’s gold. K is for Killed Someone: No, she hasn’t even managed to steal something yet. L is for Last Time They Cried: Three days ago, after she met King Dom and was thrown into the sewer. It was not a pleasant experience. M is for Middle Name: Middle names are not common in Calemor, and Robin does not have one. N is for Number of Siblings: Spoilers! 4 older sisters. O is for One Wish: Her dream is to become a robber and live off of what she can steal. Otherwise, she’s a nice woman. P is for Person Last Called/Texted: Robin has never even seen a sending stone, but she also doesn’t get the chance to write letters very often. The last time was probably years ago to a distant relative who sent her a gift, and her mother made her write a thank-you letter. Q is for Questions They’re Always Asked: "Were you just trying to steal from me?” after she ends up tripping over herself and falling face-first to the ground. Yes, she was trying, but that’s never good enough. R is for Reasons to Smile: She has finally found a gang that accepted her, and is on the way to regarding them as friends! Of course, they have also endangered her life more in the past three days than she did herself in the past three months, but that’s life in a gang for you. S is for Song Last Sang: She was caught (yet again) trying to steal from a tavern. They threw her up on stage and forced her to sing seven verses of The Apothecary’s Pig. T is for Time They Wake Up: Bright and early, as long as Anzo has anything to say about it! Otherwise she prefers to sleep in until noon. U is for Underwear Color: It used to be off-white. Now it’s very off-white. V is for Vacation Destination: Anywhere that’s not Fannen-Dar. She wants to steal a fortune and use it to get away to a southern mountain lodge, but there are a number of problems with that plan, least of which is the fact that mountain lodges are usually beseiged by mountain monsters. W is for Worst Habit: Robin makes weird noises when she’s nervous, which is most of the time, and she builds up a lot of anxious energy that she releases by tapping things. X is for X-Rays; Ever Broken a Bone?: Oddly, no. She’s been tossed about, kicked around, shoved over, pushed down, but her bones have stayed intact. Her diet has been getting worse lately, though, so her skeleton might be weakening. Y is for Youth: More spoilers! No clues this time... Z is for Zealous: What Are You Passionate About?: Thieving is her passion, but certainly not her talent.

[calemor]

Bedlam’s Resolutions

Thanks to @merigreenleaf for this idea! I asked my characters what their new year’s resolutions were, here are their answers!

Hudtan: Anzo knows what he’s doing, but I need to start making my voice heard more often. I need to take charge when things are looking bleak, because I’m the only one out of the four of us smart enough to make the right decision under pressure. Acting on those decisions will be a bit tougher...

Gwynt: Have more fun! Oh, and I also really want that fancy cloak I saw in a shop window. Do you think we could steal that? And! I should try out new poisons. I wonder what happens when you mix holly and madvash?

Anzo: Well, I resolve to pull off more heists and make Bedlam the best gang in Fannen-Dar! But a resolution should be something I wasn’t already planning on doing. That’ll make it a proper challenge. So, in addition to showing all the other thieves that we mean business, I resolve to plan group activities to build teamwork. Priority one, heists! Priority two, game night!

Chester: Wait, I’m not with them! Fine...My resolution is to stop letting people walk all over me. There’s too much fear in this city. I want to make things safe, and bring the people responsible for all these crimes to justice. No matter what means I have to use.

Linus: I just want to not die! I resolve to sprout wings so I can escape any attempt to kill me. What do you mean, that’s not how it works?!

Robin: I wanted to be a thief ever since I learned what the word meant. Joining a gang is the first step to realizing that dream. Still haven’t successfully stolen anything...But that’s not my resolution. My resolution is to make my team proud of me, and to not be the dead weight. I don’t want to bring anyone down, even if it means giving up on my dream. Man, why can’t I talk this eloquently in real life?

What are your characters’ new years resolutions?

[calemor]

Being a thief is not all hiding and swiping.  You need to know how to talk your way out of trouble, know the art of double-speak, and what kind of thief doesn't know how to hurl a really good insult over their shoulder as they get away?

Hudtan

The Heroes of Fannen-Dar, Chapter 8

[calemor]

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