For some reason, I had expected to enter a corridor where I would go through rooms one by one until I found the study. What welcomed me instead was a large open space, encompassing two-thirds of the first floor.

Trying to discern what it contained forced me to face an issue I should have planned for: the absence of light. The limited ambient luminosity, allowed in through the open door, still lit up enough of the room for me to see that the back wall featured three doors, confirming that the floor extended beyond this one room.

It was not obvious in such obscurity, but the wooden planks forming the ceiling seemed rather loosely packed. Barring any additional flooring on the second floor, the darkness confirmed that no lights illuminated any of the rooms above. A good indicator that, as Yaelle had said, no one was home. Or, as my anxiety informed me, at least no one awake. Stairs hugged the left wall, providing access to that second floor. However, going further without some torch or other light source would not be wise.

What little the main room contained was tidy and clean. Not an abandoned house, then. It hosted a large table with enough chairs for eight people. There was nothing on it, unfortunately. No candelabra. No candlestick. Did these people use enchanted stones as well? Maybe they did not consider open flames a reasonable hazard when magic could provide alternatives, despite the costs such a replacement would no doubt involve. Then again, the paintings present on most of the walls showed the owner may not regard money as an issue. More relevant to my search, I noted that there were also some cupboards, including a chest of drawers to my left.

I was reluctant to ask for help so soon after starting, but there was no way for me to proceed. It would be very easy for me to miss the letter in this obscurity. Turning back, I was happy to see that Yaelle had not yet gone anywhere. In fact, she seemed to have simply been watching me, instead of making sure no one came to investigate. Maybe her animal would warn her of any incoming threat?

Still looking at me, she waited for until I moved closer before addressing me. A sensible decision. We did not want the neighborhood aware of our nocturnal activities.

“Well? Why aren’t you going in?”

Anxiety had given me this unreasonable fear she would just lash out, but she only seemed confused.

“I cannot find anything that would make any light,” I admitted. “Do you have something that could help?”

Yaelle’s expression changed to genuine surprise.

“Are you...” she started. “Are you joking?” After a slight pause, she sighed, and her voice grew exasperated. “I can’t even tell. It’s infuriating! Just touch the switch, same as you did in your cell.”

The switch? There was no switch in that room, as far as I could see. Which admittedly was not much. But then, there was no switch in my cell either, was there?

Thinking back, I recalled Loann had tried to fix the lighting by putting in hand on the wall multiple times. Oh. That explained things. He had probably been trying to turn on the light. This must have been where the switch was. But there was nothing special about this part of the wall, to my eyes.

“I do not believe I can see switches.” I told Yaelle.

She seemed about to ask me if I was mocking her, but then frowned and thought for a bit.

“Yeah... Actually, that makes sense. Probably can’t even use them, anyway,” she shrugged. “We were hoping you’d be invisible to alarms. Guess there are downsides, too.”

This was news to me. I assumed this was also the reason for the job offer in the first place. No sense in sending a novice alone on a mission otherwise. I had not thought about it from their point of view before, but I felt disappointed at the strictly utilitarian nature of their choice. It should not have surprised me, as it was not like I had become a friend to any of them before the offer came, but it still hurt a bit.

“Alright, let’s see what we can find,” Yaelle said, seemingly unconcerned by my introspection. “I can’t get in. Should be something close to the door we can use. That’s where the lights are, usually.”

I went back inside, but before I could take more than a few steps in, she pointed to the chest of drawers standing right next to the entrance.

“Yeah, that’s it,” she declared. ”Take an enchanted stone from there.”

I complied, opening drawers one by one. As my search went on, I found gloves, scarfs, keys, coins, and, to my surprise, even shoes in the larger bottom drawers. There were indeed stones in a couple of places. I started showing them individually to Yaelle, who shook her head every time to indicate this was not the right type of enchantment.

After about ten tries, I had enough. I took the drawers out and carefully brought them down into the street.

“Yeah, that’ll go faster,” she approved.

It only took a couple of seconds before she chose what pebble to pick up. It lit up immediately. She tossed it to me, but by the time It had reached me, the rock was already dim. I looked at her questioningly.

Yaelle sighed.

“Fine, “ she said. “No easy solution. We’ll get you a brightstone next time.”

She looked at the available rocks, thinking for a few minutes. She finally made her choice and picked up a considerably heavier stone.

The mineral barely changed in luminosity when she held it. This would not be enough for me to use. I was also surprised to see it was glowing blue, unlike all the other enchantments I had seen before.

“This one’s a waymarker,” she explained. “Takes a bit, but once it’s on, it’ll be good for the night.”

Nodding, I put back the drawers while she charged the enchantment. Unfortunately, this did not take enough time for the rock to be ready.

Yaelle was staying quiet as I stood outside with her in the street. After around a minute, I tried starting a conversation, if only to interrupt the awkward silence.

“So, how did you end up deciding to become a thief?” I asked her.

The angry look she gave me made it clear that I had just ensured the unpleasant silence was going to remain.

As time went on, I became lost in thoughts. It occurred to me I could easily disprove my supposed inability to activate enchantments: I had, in fact, activated a certain mind communication sphere back in my cell. However, Yaelle’s furious expression dissuaded me from trying to argue the point. And it was not like it changed the issue at hand, for she was right about these particular pebbles failing to interact with me. I was now a lot less sure that alarms would not detect me, though.

“There. It’s done,” she said, some time after, still sounding angry. “Don’t lose it. Could be traced back to us.”

I thanked her and took the enchanted light source. It was slightly larger than my palm, making it uncomfortable to carry in a single hand. Its glow was enough to see properly, although the blue light corrupted colors. There were no changes in luminosity when it left Yaelle’s hands, confirming that I could indeed use it.

Going back into the house, I closed the main door and took a glance at the paintings. They were portraits of people, with two exceptions showing bare landscapes. Nothing that triggered any memory, to my disappointment. Unlike the statue I had seen before, the people had their skin untouched by the flurry of symbols and colors. Instead, those were drawn in a large circular aura around the head. It hid part of the background, but I still felt this was a more reasonable way of representing what I was increasingly suspecting to be souls. Indeed, I would not be able to recognize the lady of the sculpture even if she was represented here, for the sheer noise of the patterns had ensured her face remained unknown to me.

Deciding to stop wasting time looking at paintings, I opened one of the back doors. It revealed a room containing toilets and a sink. The second one was a closet. In it, I found old coats, brooms, and various other cleaning utensils, but no letters. Finally, the last door opened to a kitchen. I closed it without further exploration. I did not expect to find any letters in that kind of room.

It seemed I would have to venture to the second floor to find my quarry. I felt uneasy about that prospect, as it considerably lowered my chances of escaping, should anyone enter.

The creaking stairs led me to a corridor with three rooms on each side. The path ended with a window that would offer a pleasant view of the street, were it not for the closed blinds. I could not tell what the rooms’ walls were made of, but it was not stone bricks. Too late now, anyway. If anyone was sleeping here, they had surely just heard the noise.

Walking toward the first door to my right, I mused that the usefulness of my supposed invisibility from magical alarms was lessened by the creaking of these wood planks. Even when trying to be careful, it seemed impossible to predict which ones would provide silent passage.

The door opened to reveal I had finally found the room I was looking for. Two long bookshelves occupied its side walls. They were well furnished, which stroke me as somewhat foolhardy, considering the dubious flooring. I faced a large desk, on which laid many pages, books, pens, inkpots, and three organizers. What caught my attention were the valuables. Not only some obvious coin purses, but also about a dozen ingots of gold.

I went in and closed the door behind me. Being on the second floor, hiding became my best option if anyone entered the house. That, and the sight of this not so small fortune made my anxiety scream that I was absolutely about to get caught.

Reaching the desk, I perused the writings. I found notes and financial records, but no letters. Damn. Were they being kept somewhere else?

I smiled as I finally found letters. They were in the organizers, and one of them was addressed to Lord Neventer. I took it, then paused. What was I supposed to do about the gold? Did I just leave it here? We were thieves, were we not? What would the others say if I reported having left such a prize unclaimed? What about the coins? At least these would not be difficult to move.

In fact, was this not an opportunity for me? I could just take it all for myself, cut all ties, and run. Loann had warned me they would track me down, but with that much gold, I could surely hide far away from them.

“Too risky,” I told myself.

And, really, this would mean no longer be able to convince myself I was performing disreputable deeds out of necessity. Stealing this was no petty larceny. I was sure this kind of robbery would see retribution in lives taken. Even if I myself was not caught, that payment in blood might very well befall their current possessor, or whatever guard was supposed to be there, or someone else. No, I was not touching these.

I chose not to take the coins, either. It was perhaps foolish of me, but it helped assuage my conscience.

Leaving the room, letter in hand, I closed the door behind me. Halfway down the stairs, I heard the loud noise of the main door being slammed open.