Cedric’s residence

Only several hours into their plan and Seshwan already had lost track of his mark and a team member had vanished, he could feel his guts writhe and turn with grief, 'We have already had complications, we are only in the beginning stages. Shit!' Seshwan’s thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Xerxes. "where’s Elise?" Xerxes had a look of disdain on his face.

"I’m not sure there was no one here when I broke in," Seshwan spoke as he recognized the look Xerxes was giving him. Seshwan knew this look well; absolute disdain as if the mission was a complete failure for having lost a teammate.

The look in Xerxes' eyes was a similar look that everyone gave Seshwan when he was younger after he had been labeled trash. He was being looked down on by a demon no less, Seshwan’s blood began to boil. Clearing his mind, he put aside the idea of Elise being gone and her possibly being unrecoverable. At all cost, he had to remain calm to have a chance of proceeding with the mission.

"What the fuck, are we going to do now!? Did you think nothing like this might happen!? Isn’t there a contingency plan? I though you’ve been pouring over this plan for days? How could you be losing your cool here?" Xerxes sneered with a mocking smirk. It was clear to him Seshwan was nervous being the team leader. This was the perfect opportunity to test his limits.

Though Xerxes plans to torment Seshwan was quickly curbed, "Shut up!" Seshwan shouted as he grabbed Xerxes by the tunic. He matched Xerxes’ gaze; staring him straight in the eyes. "We’re going to find Elise, she cannot be far. I don’t need your insubordination because one unforeseen outcome. It is going to work out. Now let me think, damn it."

Xerxes broke eye contact as he shook his head. To him, Elise’s life did not matter one bit. Seshwan had confused his previous statements as losing his cool because of the current situation. To Xerxes this was a terrible outcome; Seshwan was in a frantic state of mind he had hoped he could continue to test his limits. That outburst meant he wouldn't be so easily tormented, a shame.

Xerxes took a deep breath in through his nose, "Before you go thinking too hard you do realize the wall behind those casks isn’t load bearing? There are no major supports in it." Xerxes knew from one look where a possible hidden door was. "Not to mention I smell blood and its strongest from over in that direction." Xerxes pointed toward the wall behind the casks

The basement walls were rubble stone stacked and bonded with masons cement and had no vertical supports to the floor above. Clearly, these walls served to hide something. Upon closer inspection, the two found a secret door in the basement wall hidden behind the casks. The walls were completely covered from top to bottom in wool and heavy materials to soundproof the room.

Within the other half of the cellar was a gruesome sight. Dried blood stained the floors and torture equipment was placed along the walls. Cedric was inside; whipping a human looking corpse that was shackled to the furthest wall. His back was to the entrance. With every heavy whip blow a fresh wound was created, deep cuts with crimson pouring out to the floor. At the sight, Seshwan nearly puked. This man was a monster.

A hum started in Seshwan’s ear as Xerxes transmitted his words into his ear. "I’m going to kill that bastard! I know what I was told by the Master, but this man is a disgusting human!"

Seshwan realized Xerxes wasn't upset from the sight rather he was thrown into a frenzy by the sight of a man wasting blood. He felt a cold shiver as he remembered to demon’s fresh human blood is a delicacy that the clan leaders would get to enjoy. Xerxes was viewed as trash among demons and had never tasted it because he was a half-breed. His human half made him resent blood as it would have a negative effect on him though his demon side craved it. Xerxes was raised to revere blood as a sacred elixir. This man before them spilled it purely for his own enjoyment.

Seshwan weighed the options if Cedric died tonight the heist would be ruined as the imperial guard would find him and know that materials were taken out of the vault under his order after he died. Though if there was no proof of murder and it was an ‘accident’ they couldn't tie the instances to one another easily.

"I will let you kill him on one condition. You must make it look like an accident." Seshwan let out a silent sigh after uttering the words.

With that Xerxes nodded and entered the room like a shadow. His steppes silent and motions fluid, he approached the target low and slow from behind. Along the way, he picked up a torture tool from its rack. A moment later he was behind Cedric laying out the tool. This torture tool looked like a sharpened rake of sorts, nine sharpened tines pointed to the ceiling each with a barb at the end nearly three inches in length. Xerxes had positioned everything perfectly to look like the tools had been laid out for use and one had fallen over. Seshwan was unclear how this would look like an accident as he watched Xerxes work. At a glance Xerxes looked as though he would just kindly ask Cedric to fall on that tool, such a silly ploy would never work to cover up a murder. Unfortunately for Cedric, Xerxes was not a kind person in the least! Especially when he was suffering a craving. Taking advantage of the man’s size and weight along with the fresh blood all around his feet Xerxes stood from his crouched position and tapped Cedric on the shoulder. “Excuse me, sir?”

Cedric jolted by the tap from behind; turning around brandishing his whip-like device in one hand. "Who the fuck ar…" Cedric cried, though he was interrupted by a kick to his lower left leg. The forced caused his foot to slide back as he leaned forward Xerxes rotated hooking his right arm in a standing armbar. With a small amount of effort; the weight of Cedric was controlled by Xerxes in a grapple and slammed down onto the rake-like tool. Splitting his throat and jaw open, along with breaking his nose. The large man's face was smashed and bloody, as he lay completely motionless as blood pooled under his head. The sudden shock had knocked him unconscious. He would remain unconscious and drown in his own blood. A brutal way to die, and at a glance, no one would have any idea this was a murder.

"Seshwan, this guy’s going to die before he can wake up." Xerxes walked over to the woman shackled to the wall. Her face was obscured by a cloth bag over her head. Xerxes removed it to find this woman was not Elise. she had died during from the torture before they had arrived. "Disgusting! Let’s find Elise and get the fuck out of here."

"Agreed" Seshwan was beginning to feel sick from what he had just witnessed. Cedric had stopped breathing shortly after being slammed to the floor by Xerxes. 'I should remember that move for the future.' Seshwan thought as he entered the chamber.

Well, the two searched about the room not finding a trace of Elise they discovered some small treasures. Gold and even some custom daggers. “A freshly crafted Herman Gentry dagger set,” Seshwan announced as he picked up the small bundle of knives, Herman Gentry was a master level Holy Smith his weapons were essence-less but could be empowered with a user’s essence to activate unique abilities. Because the ability was unique to the user these weapons were nearly priceless. A truly great find that could not be ignored. Even if the plan failed this set was well worth the trouble to take with them.

"Holy weapons huh. Shit, I was hoping I'd get something nice." Xerxes took the knife set from Seshwan but quickly dropped them. As a demon, he could not touch a blessed weapon without a stinging pain that quickly followed him making contact. Demons have a naturally high resistance to all elements but could not handle long term exposure to Holy essence. Holy essence was poisonous to demons and if left untreated it could kill them.

Seshwan grabbed the knife set and followed after Xerxes down a side passage that led out of the basement.

Moments later they found another secret door, leading to a cell with a dozen or so women within. Elise lay unconscious at the side of the cell.

"Look at her just sleeping there well we do all the work!" Xerxes said while he shook his head.

"Leave the dark humor for another time, let’s get her out and get going to the vault. We have less than an hour before the next guard change." Seshwan knew time was short there was no time for Xerxes joking.

A key hung to the right of the cell the pair opened the lock releasing the women, they cried and pleaded to not hurt them.

"Stay put!" Xerxes ordered as he approached Elise.

“We should let them go,” Seshwan said, expressing his concern for the women.

“And then what? When someone finds Cedric they will wonder what happened in the cell. We can’t let them go, it will hurt us in the future.”

Xerxes was right this would hinder them in the future by drawing attention to them. No matter what they had to leave them here. Seshwan felt grief creeping back into his mind, ‘don't think about it! Don't think about it!’

Placing a hand on Elise’s neck to ensure she was still alive, Xerxes detected a pulse. He then drew a water pouch from one of his utility packs, splashing it on her face she began to come too. Once Xerxes saw a sign of her waking up he coiled up his right hand and released it like a whip; landing with a crisp smack noise on Elise's face.

*Smack* "Ow WHAT THE FUCK!" Elise’s eyes shot open to see Xerxes had slapped her. Heat burst forth from her body the moment she noticed she had been hit by this degenerate. Elise placed a hand on Xerxes' chest and detonated a fireball. The resulting explosion launched Xerxes across the cell.

“What was that for?!”

"Serves you right you piece of shit!" Elise furiously roared; her temper definitely did not match her stunning beauty.

"Could you two cut it out for like five minutes. We still have to rob a vault? Did you forget that?" Seshwan spoke up because time was short and it was clear Elise wasn’t going to thank them for the rescue anytime soon.

“What about these women?” Elise asked concerned for the others who would still be at the mercy of Cedric.

“Xerxes murdered Cedric, but we can't release them or it won't look like an accident.”

Elise thought a moment, “I don't like this but we don't have much of a choice we should report him missing tomorrow, anonymously, I'll need to get my gear.”

Elise kicked the two boys out of the side room and emerged a short time later into the cellar no longer in her silk dress, now dawning a full set of red highlighted leather armor, a red and gold rapier hung at her side.

"Check it out! I found this sword in there on one of the racks. Finders keepers." Elise had calmed down she was smiling now that she had at least found something useful for her time.

With one glance toward the sword, Xerxes looked like he would explode. "Fucking bullshit! I want a new weapon! And we can't keep taking stuff, the guards won’t think this was an accident!" Xerxes was right about taking the items though no one would miss one of two items.

Outside the residence

Colm had arrived and sat silently hidden in a tree; 'They should be here by now'

Next, to the estate, three silhouettes could be seen exiting from the cellar and making their way toward him. Colm withdrew a red crystal from his bag and after injecting his essence the crystal light up. It acted as a signal to those three to say he was nearby. After clearing the wall of Cedric residence the three sprinted for the alleyway. Xerxes entered followed by Seshwan, after training their shadow step technique the two used downspouts and other parturitions from the walls to climb to the rooftops. Elise, however, wasn’t trained for urban climbing like the others, she had to locate another route.

Once atop the building, Colm meet the pair and set to work forging the order for the vault to be opened for the young Master Seshwan of the praetorian hall to pick out his birthday present. Approved by Cedric Locke.

With this forgery, they should be able to enter the vault.

The plan so far had some minor hiccups but nothing that could not be resolved later.

"Colm you should have seen Seshwan losing his shit when we lost Elise! he grabbed me and said some shit about it will all work out well staring me in the eyes." Xerxes had twisted this story slightly for dramatic effect.

"Wow! Seshwan I did not take you for that kind of man! Xerxes, you better be careful I hear guys like him are into so queer stuff with demons and vampires." Colm played right along not missing a beat.

"Damn the both of you! It wasn’t like that and of course, I was on edge, Elise was gone! I might have lost a lot of money on that bet!" Seshwan had no choice but to joke along though he was irritated. He would get these two back eventually.

The boys sat and discussed Xerxes brutal murder of Cedric well they waited for Elise to get there.

"Xerxes remind me not to insult you in the future." Colm said with wide eyes after having heard about the situation in the torture chamber and that 'accident'.

"God I wish Elise would hurry up. I mean come on." Xerxes was becoming impatient but it could not be helped, out of the four-man group Elise was more of a fighter than a thief and possessed no means of urban climbing or techniques to escape easily. Once she engaged she would have to defeat all of her foes.

At the moment she arrived they all stood. "Let’s set off. Elise go wait at the ambush point." Seshwan instructed as the other three departed.

“You three just sat here? This whole time, making me come up here just to say that?!”

“Yes. Now get going!”

Though she had just climbed a two story building and was still groggy from the drugged earlier she could only silently nodded and headed out, the other three left for the vault, Colm was excited and feeling anxious. It was his turn next; he could not wait for his chance to stand out as the most important member of the team.

Scarlet Cove Manufacturing District

Merchant guild Storehouse also known as the “Treasure Vault”

Before arriving Seshwan switched out a few pieces of equipment to more noble items, storing his thief kit in a nearby dead drop location that could be retrieved by a runner from the guild later. Xerxes took up his station overlooking the courtyard that led to the vaults. This vault was enormous. Two stories tall with buttresses and spires all over the exterior, the building itself was only repurposed as a treasure vault after the city was built, the structure was from a prior civilization that had settled along the coast long before the empire was formed. Intricate carvings of two massive dragons dominated the main entrance, one black silver the other white-gold; these were believed to be two ancient gods of the civilization. To the modern empire, they were masterpieces that were beyond the skill of many artisans in modern times.

Colm moved to position and shrouded himself in his realguard mistform cloak, once concealed he took up a post three meters from the entrance waiting patiently for the merchant and Seshwan to arrive and order the massive vault doors to open.

Seshwan met with the merchant who would be escorting him, an older and feeble looking man by the name of Grey Wilk “Young Lord, pleased to meet you I am Grey Wilk, an underling to Master Cedric Locke of the merchant’s guild I received word from your uncle’s steward you’d like to choose from our vaults a gift for your birthday.”

“That’s correct I have a very weak essence cultivation and I would like to see if the vault has some ancient treasure that may help my cultivation. I have an order here permitting me to pick any items.”

Seshwan produced the forged order sealed by Cedric. After a quick inspection, Grey rolled the paper and store it away.

“But of course young lord, please follow me” Grey gestured toward the vault.

As they approached the massive doors a loud clunk noise followed by the turning of gears and other mechanical systems could be heard, a small slit was made as the vault door crept open. These massive steel doors were thick and inscribed to withstand essence assaults, along with the interior of the door an inscription that would prevent items from leaving the vault once they were marked they could not pass this barrier. Only the master of the inscription could remove the brand.

Seshwan entered with eyes wide before him lay mountains of gold, swords, armors etc. mounds and racks of items extended for hundreds of meters the space within the vault were augmented and made larger somehow, though the building was only two stories outside, it appeared vast and expansive. As if it was a completely different realm.

Colm trailed behind about three meters and stopped dead at the sight of this trove. Though they could not steal it all they could defiantly take as much as they liked without being noticed. A thief's dream come true.