The mansion lay silent in the night. No movement could be seen, except for the guards patrolling the area. Then, inside the mansion’s bath, a drainage grate started moving. It lifted up by a few inches and a rat crawled out. It sniffed around for a while, then another rat followed. They sniffed around the room and eventualy came back to the grate. Then a figure lifted the grate up from below and crawled out. It was naked except for a grey cloak that enveloped it. It stood up in the drained pool of the bath and got its bearings. It went down the hallway and a host of rats emerging from the hole followed its step.

It managed to get through the mansion with relative ease. A small pouch was hanging from the figure’s wrist. From it, the figure pulled a number of small metal tools with which it opened all locks that blocked its path.

The figure did not know where exactly to go, except upwards, and so it sent out members of its host to scout the mansion. The rats swarmed through the mansion, like searching fingers, into every room they could enter. If they came to a door they could not open or bypass, they moved on. And so, soon the floorplan of all hallways and some rooms was revealed to the rats and the figure. It kept moving and the rats followed. They were loyal to the figure. It had become one of them when it had lived with them in the sewers. Singing them songs, learning their language, taming their god, and it was this god who had bestowed great powers and cunning upon the figure.

Up the stairs the figure moved and to a large, unlocked door. Behind it was the bedroom of the mansion’s lord, an old, short and thin man, almost scrawny. He slept deeply and well on his giant bed next to his wife. Bookshelves, decorative swords, hunting trophies and many more treasures lined the walls. Right next to the bed’s head end was another door. The figure silently moved towards the second door. Again, the metal tools were inserted into the lock, but this one was more complicated. It had many more pins and with more sophisticated defences, an intricate design for warding off attacks exactly like the ones the figure was trying. The attempt dragged on and the minute scraping of the tools seemed to grow louder and more violent. Until now, the locks were little more than inconvenient door knobs, but this one turned out to be a proper barrier to the figure’s advance.

The figure looked around the room. There was no other way inside except this door. The room on the other side of the door didn’t even have windows that could be opened, only smashed. It sat down on the floor, not far away from the sleeping lord. The rats looked at the figure and awaited its next command.

They swarmed out again, looking harder for any openings they could squeeze themselves through. The figure opened a window and put a few of the rats on the ornamental sandstone that ran along the outer wall under each floor’s windows. One or two were not balanced enough and fell from a great height into bushes and onto grass. They were mostly unharmed and got back up, looking for their way in this new terrain. The figure itself started to rummage through various drawers, hoping to find a key to the lock. When it found nothing, it looked at the lord, who was still sleeping. He didn’t seem to have anything on him. He must keep the key in a very secure location.

The scouts returned and reported that they were not able to find a way inside. The figure had to consider giving up the attempt. But it didn’t give up. There was at least one person who knew how to get to the key. All the figure had to do was get that person to reveal its secret. It went through a drawer by the desk and pulled forth writing implements, ink and paper. Then it got to work.

Lopatinov had slept well until he was awoken by a loud bang, then a mechanical click and then loud rummaging. He suddenly sat straight up in his bed. He looked around the dark room. He saw nothing but a light from under the door to his study. Someone was in there, going through his belongings and papers. He rang the bell to the side of his bed and got his staff from the cabinet. The cabinet had been opened and the staff lay on the floor, but was undamaged. By now, the entire mansion was in uproar and readiness.

His wife was quickly escorted to safety and he prepared to storm the study, where an unknown person was still hastily going through his things. The entire bedroom smelled of sewage and other things better left in the sewers. Three armed guards with halberds, protective vests and wards stood by his side, the head butler arrived with the intricate key that protected his study. The other important keys were on the same ring, like the one to his safe. He was responsible for a lot of business and finances of his wealthy clients in the city. If he lost anything valuable, a lot of powerful people would come for his head.

He prepared himself, loaded an apprehension spell into his crystal ball and held a few other spell papers in his left hand. He gave the key to one of the guards, who opened the door to let the other two storm inside, followed by Lord Lopatinov.

The room was empty and dark. The only light came in through the open door. Lopatinov had stepped on something, but before he could look what it was, he noticed the stench of sewage getting stronger. Then, darkness fell over them, like a tidal wave.

The guards yelled in alert. Something brushed past Lopatinov and he heard the jangling of keys with it. He tried to yell but he lost his balance and fell against one of his guards. He could hear the safe being unlocked, things being taken out hastily and finally a window breaking. “STOP THEM” he yelled to his guards, but they seemed to be tripping over their own feet. Lopatinov felt hundreds of tiny feet and furry bodies flow by him, squeaking in anger and biting his heels and toes. From the outside, He could hear the guards in the yard yell and exclaim something about the intruder fleeing.

The darkness subsided and he could see again. The window was open, the safe had been opened and emptied. The floor was swarming with rats, disgusting dirty, shaggy, of sewage smelling rats, that now started to disperse back out the door, looking for some place to be rather than here. He looked outside the window, where he saw two guards standing next to his study’s chair and shards of glass.

“WHERE ARE THEY?” He yelled at them when he didn’t notice them having apprehended the intruder.

They yelled something up to him and pointed upwards. He could hear faint footsteps on roof tiles. He looked upwards but saw nothing. He turned around and inspected the room. If the intruder could open the door, why did they need the key to the safe?

The guards were searching the room for more clues. One of them called Lopatinov over to the door. He pointed at the floor right behind the door. The ash typical of burnt paper lay directly beyond the threshold. With the stench of sewage gone, he could smell something else. Burnt paper and corporeal flux, typical for spellcasting.

Some puzzle pieces slowly came together in his head. The intruder had pushed several light- and sound-spells with fuses attached under the threshold. While the fuses were still burning, the intruder somehow hid in the bedroom or someplace else nearby and waited for their entrance, then enveloped them in darkness to steal the key in the confusions and make off with whatever they wanted. Now the intruder was running across his mansion’s roof and down some rope or other implement they had prepared no doubt. Lopatinov would later hear from the guards in the yard that the thief had managed to crawl up the mansion’s walls as if they were on solid ground. They described the being as half-human, half-rat with a grey cloak, shadows emanating from beneath the cloak’s hood. He didn’t know how much to believe, but he knew he wouldn’t last very long if he didn’t apprehend someone to blame. And even then, his head might still roll.

Vlatiko sat in the central room of their hideout when he heard a steps coming down one of the corridors. Specifically the one he had led the bjestja girl down to the sewers some time ago. He took the lamp off the table and drew the dagger from his belt to investigate. Slowly, a figure came closer. It was the bjestja girl. She quickly hurried to the central room, concealing something under her cloak. An abominable stench followed her.

“We thought you were dead!” He said to her as she was hurrying down the tunnel to the communal room.

“I was only gone three days, don’t write me off so easily.”

“FOUR days.” Vlatiko insisted.

The girl slammed something on the table and when Vlatiko entered the central room he saw it. A massive ledger book, filled with countless loose pages and added on letters. It was Lopatinov’s ledger. Exactly what they asked for.

Vlatiko took a few moments to process everything. “Wow.” He finally brought forth. He looked at the girl and just now noticed that she stood with hands on her hips, which lifted her cloak just enough to reveal that she was naked and encrusted with various dried liquids. It also let out more of the horrid stench.

“You smell like shit.”

The girl grinned. “I smell of shit, big difference!”

“Anyway, wow, you did it. We thought you were dead.”

“I don’t blame you. The rats are really distrustful of humans, a shame how the animals are treated here.”

“What are you talking about? Put something on!”

“Nevermind either of those. I’ll find a bath. I am not putting on my clothes before I got a good scrubbing and brushing. What’s the nearest bath house?” She got to packing her things up. And came back to the communal room still expecting an answer. “Well? I don’t intend to stay this smelly. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been going without a bath?”

Vlatiko gave her the answer she wanted and she left quickly, wrapped in her dark green cloak. He sat down and looked through the ledger. They would actually have to give her the way to desperation corner now, a small price for what they tried three years to acquire.