Chapter 12: The Thief on the Road, Part 3

It was just sitting there, out in the open.

The Shadefall Pavers' office was a squat, wide building on the west side of town. It was made out of smooth stone bricks whose color didn't match anything else in town, with minimal, perfectly smooth mortar. It stood out against the rest of the town like a beacon.

List had never thought a building could look smug before today, but she couldn't think of a better way to describe it. It just looked like it was in desperate need of a punch in the face.

This was the building where the Pavers operated out of—where several of their local number lived, where their deals were conducted, where their operations were planned—and where anything taken as part of a recent score would be held until it could be sold or shipped off somewhere else. The exact frequency the Pavers moved goods was impossible to know, but almost certainly the office stores would currently hold everything they'd stolen in the last few days.

And, most importantly, if Xigbar the Snake was running robberies of people coming into Shadefall, this would almost certainly be where to find him.

"Do you even have a plan?" Valerie asked.

"Walk in, find Xigbar, and beat him with a stick until prizes come out," List stated.

"That's . . . you know that's not a plan," Valerie said.

"He's right there," List protested. "All of the ones who robbed us yesterday. Just sitting there, without a care in the world, like they're untouchable. They're just getting away with it."

"And you can't change that by just barging through the front door," Valerie said. "You've got no idea what you're walking into. You can't go into a fight like that."

"You mean like how you knew what you were walking into when you confronted Darshan?" List countered.

"That—that was different," Valerie said. "I didn't have time to be thorough. And in case you forgot, we both almost died in that fight."

"Speak for yourself," List said, though the fire was rapidly fading from her voice.

The hellborn cast a frustrated glare back at the Pavers' office.

"Look, I get it," Valerie said. "But you're not going to accomplish anything just rushing in blind."

Valerie wasn't just saying things when she said she understood List's need to hit the Pavers' back. She'd been the one at the front of the group when Xigbar had ambushed him. And even though no one else had thrown any blame her way over it, she still felt responsible, and she burned for the chance to redress the balance, make it up to Arden and List somehow. But she'd spent too many years as Arden's student to just rush headlong into a fight without knowing everything she could in advance—at least not without a fire lit under her.

And unlike with Darshan, there weren't any looming life and death stakes to light a fire under her this time. Which felt a bit odd, considering less than twenty four hours ago she'd had a blade at her throat and List had been writhing on the ground from snake venom. But she just couldn't convince herself that Xigbar was actually a threat to anybody's life.

He'd had all of them more or less dead to rights, with the possible exception of Arden, and yet all of them were still breathing. He'd even deliberately left Arden with his holy symbol, knowing he could use it to save List from the snake venom. 

Now, armed robbery always carried a risk of spilling over into actual bloodshed, but they weren't the only people the Pavers had robbed, and though Kiva and the rest of Shadefall had their complaints, people dying was not one of them.

No. The Pavers may have been thieves, and a personal wound in her pride, but she couldn't pretend they were a life or death emergency.

List sighed. "You're right."

Valerie's eyes widened slightly. When List had ran off in the morning, Arden had told Valerie to make sure she didn't do anything foolish, but Valerie had only half believed she could actually stop List from doing anything. But apparently, she underestimated herself.

"Arden managed to work out an arrangement with Egon for us to work to earn another night's stay while we figure out what we should do next." Valerie said. "If, you know, you still . . ."

She trailed off. Technically, List had only agreed to travel with them to the next town, which Shadefall was. 

"Yeah, sure," List said, not really listening. "I'll catch up with you later."

Valerie frowned. "Please tell me you're not going to charge the place as soon as I walk away."

"Promise," List said.

---

Every priest cultivated a different repertoire of prayers according to their own tendencies and the will of their saints, but just about anyone who could call on the powers of the gods could heal injuries and cure minor ailments, which was most of what people needed priests for, day to day. That wasn't Arden's specialty, but until a strange and deadly creature emerged from the ruins and threatened the town, it was all he had to trade on. So he spent the afternoon in the Scaled Maiden essentially running an impromptu hospital at one of the tables.

Meanwhile, Valerie was washing dishes in the back kitchen.

Maybe with two people, the small mountains of plates Kiva kept stacking up for her wouldn't have been so daunting, but List had never shown up to work, leaving Valerie alone and up to her elbows in murky dishwater and half eaten, beer soaked table scraps.

No word had come of any kind of attack on the Pavers, but that just made Valerie wonder even more about where the hellborn had gone. Had something happened to her? Or was she just dodging work and hoping to reap the benefits of Valerie's efforts?

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Her answer came when the kitchen doors opened again. Valerie braced for Kiva to set down another stack of plates. Instead, List threw a wad of clothes at Valerie's face.

"Put those on," List said.

Valerie scrambled to set the clothes aside without getting them too covered in dishwater. "Where have you been?"

"Gathering information," List said, as if it were obvious. "So, front door of the office, obviously, watched and guarded. You were right, I was wrong, soak it in. But. None of the actual Pavers use the front door. Ever. They all use a secret entrance, hidden in one of the wells at the edge of town. And if we can get into that—"

"Slow down," Valerie interrupted. "What happened? How do you know any of this?"

"After you left, I watched the office for a while," List said. "I was trying to figure out how to get a look inside without actually going inside when I got lucky."

---

The errand boy the Pavers sent on a keg run was no older than her, and so carelessly unaware of his surroundings List almost felt bad for preying on him. Almost.

It was too easy it step into his path at just the right time and just the right angle to make it seem like he'd run into her, and when he did, she made an exaggerated show of being flung to the ground, letting out a surprised, helpless little shriek.

The boy froze up in an instant, and immediately stammered out an apology. 

With a timid hunch to her posture, List looked up at him, her head still slightly bowed, and he gasped when he saw her eyes and tail. In the moment that superstitious fear gripped him, List started crying. The boy's first impression of her shattered in an instant, as she went from monster lurking in plain sight to scared, unfortunate girl.

"I'm sorry," the boy repeated. "I didn't mean . . ."

"No, I-I understand," List blubbered. "I know what I look like. . ."

She trailed off into more tears, wringing her tail in her hands as pathetically as she could, as if she were ashamed of it.

"No! Hey." The boy knelt down to her in the street. "I was just surprised, is all. You look fine. Good even."

Well, consider me charmed. List was mentally rolling her eyes at the boy's poor excuse for flattery, but Matilda—she'd decided to name her adopted persona, the better to inhabit the role—had much lower standards.

"You really think so?" she asked. 

"Absolutely," the boy said.

"Matilda" sniffed once, blinking away tears in a way that doubled as batting her eyelashes. Her head was still bowed slightly, years of rejection and heartbreak making it difficult for the poor, innocent girl to accept the praise—and it also let List keep her mouth hidden as she struggled to get her victorious smile under control.

---

". . . and then what, you charmed all the information out of him?" Valerie asked.

"I'll have you know I can be exceptionally charming when I want to be," List said. She took a beat of a pause to be offended at Valerie's insinuation that she couldn't. Then, she went on. "But no, I got him alone and then gave him the full demon-girl act until he wet himself and told me everything."

Valerie opened her mouth, but it took a moment of it just hanging open for her to decide where to start. "What's stopping him from just running back to the Pavers and telling them what happened."

"Oh, I told him I was a demon from the fifth hell, and if he breathed a word to another mortal soul of my presence, his soul and the souls of his descendants of three generations would be forfeit," List said. "I think it worked rather well."

"That . . . he believed you?" Valerie asked.

"I gave him a little spark and sizzle to sell it," List said, waggling her fingers and letting red lightning dance between them. "But that's not the point. We've got a way in. And as long as you're not wearing something that says 'I'm an outsider, please pay attention to me' we can get to the secret entrance without anyone noticing, slip in, and get back everything the Pavers took, plus interest."

"This is what you were doing all day?"

"You said I needed information and a plan."

"I meant as like, something to keep in mind for the future," Valerie said. "I didn't actually mean we should plan out a move on the Pavers right now."

"Well, I did," List said. "So are you in or out?"

Valerie gaped. She opened and shut her mouth multiple times, but when cogent arguments failed her, she fell back on the age-old technique of passing the problem up the chain. 

"We should talk to Arden."

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