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No White Opals, Pt 1

comidacomida copyright 2023

Night time had always been Jiib's friend. Having grown up among the hustle and bustle of the great Metropolis of Maan Ellis, the Werrit was used to the glowing hum of amber-colored tech lights glowing down from high overhead on metal posts placed at regular intervals along the busiest streets. She presumed the other seven great Metropoli were similarly illuminated throughout the night, but one thing she knew for certain was that not all parts of Maan Ellis were the same, and some held more shadows than others.

Her family had been in Maan Ellis for generations, probably almost as long as the Human elite; as the saying went: "Where there were Humans, Werrits would follow.". Jiib never much cared for that saying as it was true of almost every race; since the world's creation, Humans always had a position of prominence. She didn't have anything against specific Humans, per se, but she'd met enough of the haughtiest of them that Jiib didn't mind the rumors that their populations were decreasing from each generation to the next.

One thing she did like about Humans,however, was just how much the richest of them liked their privacy. That simple trait meant that the nicest part of town was about as well lit as the poorest, meaning that, aside from the well-lit boulevards, most side streets and estates were usually not illuminated, unless the owners of said estates were particularly interested in lots of lighting-- few were. Darkness made Jiib's job easier.

The Werrit maintained her place within the shrubs lining the tall garden wall surrounding her most recent target. Jiib had been monitoring the compound for over a fortnight and knew all of the city watch patrols as well as familiarized herself with the guard changes that happened within the manor grounds; only those families with the most to lose bothered having a private guard, and the site known as 'Estate 7' was definitely well defended; Jiib also liked a challenge.

She carefully counted off the paces as the only city patrol for the next hour passed right by her hiding spot. Although the arbor vitae were sparse, Jiib was able to help make up the difference by using her flexible, dexterous tail to hold up a set of spare branches she'd plucked to dress up her hiding space. The guards, fortunately, were less interested in the landscaping than they were keeping an eye on the street. The Werrit remained in her hiding space until a count of 94, at which point the guardsmen would be turning the corner and out of sight. At that point she was ready to proceed.

She turned around toward the wall, placing one paw on it before the other, pausing only long enough for her single piece of jewelry to glimmer in the moonlight. The silver ring with an inset smokey opal had been in her family for generations and had been gifted to her by her mother. All her jobs started with her addressing it. "You'd better not let me down."

Although some more heroic households had certain claims to relics of power or divinely imbued weapons or armor, but Werrit were not known for being the champions of the commoners nor selected by the divine to be their heralds; Jiib, however, was more than happy enough with the generations-old ring-- it allowed her to ply her craft. Even the youngest Werrit pup knew that Opals were powerful talismans when dealing in the less savory professions. The very real karmic backlashes of 'untoward' actions taken against others could easily overpower the good fortune of most skilled Werrits, but Opals could absorb that power, protecting the wearer from kamic payback.

She also knew that no Opal would protect a wearer forever. The Opal ring had been in her family for generations and it had already had lots of black flecks within it when she'd received it two years prior-- her constant activity had since downgraded it to 'smoky'. Jiib was no priest, karma scholar, or Archanist, but she considered herself perceptive and knew that she'd have no more than a few years left of her 'antics' before the Opal turned black-- at that point it would do her no good. If she wanted to put her active years as a burglar to best use then she would need a big score, and she was sure she'd found it.

Jiib's research on 'Estate 7' did little to reveal an owner, or even the lineage of the family that had claimed it; in her experience, that usually implied criminals or other 'bad elements'. She considered that just fine since stealing from bad people didn't hold the same kind of backlash as stealing from the goodly... or temples, for that matter. The Werrit had learned that the hard way.

Pausing in her assessment of sizing up the wall, Jiib took a moment to look at the back of her right paw where a large section of her tan-colored fur was missing; an Opal ring could only absorb so much Karma from a single event, and so she had paid quite the price for the gold statue of Seir Kadan. Still, fencing it had scored her quite an addition to her personal net worth and so she'd convinced herself it had been worth it; the supernatural burn, however, had remained with her ever since.

Realizing she had no time for navel gazing, Jiib shook the thoughts from her mind; Estate 7 had only a single owner-- a Human in his late teens who had lost both of his parents. He supposedly had quite the collection of servants, but most butlers and maids were only perceptive in the ways that related to furniture out of place or dust on horizontal services-- few of them were keen eyed enough to spot a master burglar, and definitely not when she was a Werrit. True, it may have been a stereotype, but Jiib didn't care what people thought...not when she'd be on track to have enough coin to retire after one or two more scores.

Setting herself into position, the Werrit called up a collection of Earth Mana and Air Mana. She was not as skilled a caster as a TRUE sorcerer, but she didn't require any masterfully cast spell... just something to supplement her natural prowess. Feeling the spell settle into her paws, she placed all four against the wall and scampered up it as if she were crawling across flat ground. The climb was scarcely 20 feet and, physically it was no great feet for her, but the mental drain from the constant flow of Mana required to keep the enchantment clinging to herself very nearly made her black out by the time she arrived at the top, then paused just long enough to feel the banging at the back of her head warning her of her magical limits.

From there, it was a simple matter of releasing the Mana and letting herself fall off the wall and onto the other side. Jiib landed noiselessly in a crouch on the opposite side. She was focused on the job, but she was still able to enjoy the feel of the soft, lush grass on her bare foot paws; few places outside the finer city parks in Maan Ellis had a carpet of grass so nice as Estate 7-- she wasn't aware of that when she first chose it as her target, but she was willing to accept it as good fortune.

Jiib ran a finger across her Opal ring as she slid along the edge of the estate, keeping her back to the large cement wall while staying away from the large round-about at the front of the house. She did notice two separate auto-transports parked outside the double doors at the entrance to the manor; few people could ever muster up enough wealth to afford even one of them, and yet Estate 7 had two of the technological marvels-- wagons that could move of their own volition without the need of a horse. They were common enough in a Metropolis that Jiib recognized them immediately but, supposedly, outside of the realm of the Cityfolk, auto transports were rarer than a sinful Le'o.

Smirking silently to herself, Jiib moved forward toward the back door of the manor, whiskers twitching in mirth as she imagined one of the self-absorbed, pious, pomous lion-like Le'o doing something so 'base' as to be playing dice while getting wasted on rotgut grog. It was humorous, despite the fact that Le'o being super righteous was a characterization that held about as much truth as all Werrit being cut-purse sneak-thieves. She smiled again, realizing that some stereotypes were true for a reason. It took her less than thirty seconds to pick the mechanical lock on the back door and her whiskers twitched again as she thought to herself "Way to go, Jiibelle... not exactly breaking the mold, are you?"

Setting aside her own debasement, the Werrit moved to enter, only to find that the door still did not open; she heard an audible 'beep' and a small indicator light on the door knob turned red. She hissed softly aloud in surprise and displeasure "Fuck me... a tech lock too? Who puts THIS much protection on their back door?"

Despite her skills, Jiib knew that there were some things she could not open and her familiarity with tech devices was far to incomplete to risk it. Calling a change to her plans, the Werrit glanced around the back of the house, looking for a better option for entry. Her keen eyes did not take long to spot a window on the third floor open just a crack. She took a few seconds considering her options: there was a trellis with climbing vines she could ascend like a ladder, but it didn't look like it would hold much weight; she could attempt to pull herself up window-by-window, leaping from ledge to ledge but that would exhaust her almost as fast as the magic had in getting over the front wall.

Her eyes ultimately went back to the wall ringing the property. The exterior barrier was twenty feet high and was scarcely six feet from the house. The part of her mind dedicated to spacial awareness and her own physical prowess didn't take long to do the computations and she settled on a plan. Kneeling down, her eyes bounced back and forth from the building to the wall, then back again, cycling several times as she picked out her route. Once she knew her objective she got right to it, springing into action.

Launching upward, Jiib absorbed the force of her slight body against the manor wall, lessening the impact before bouncing back, launching herself in the opposite direction against the estate's outer wall. At that point the Werrit was using one arm and one leg, springing back and forth from wall to wall, increasingly higher each time. Upon her final jump to the 20' high estate wall, Jiib landed squarely with both feet on the tiled top, going into a crouch only to propel herself one more time at the manor with as much force as she could muster, and catapulted back toward the house.

Heading face-first toward the building, she reached out with her paws as high as she could, realizing either she'd feel the impact physically or magically-- the latter would create less noise. Even spontaneous casting took time, but Jiib had perhaps two seconds at most, and had to weave her spell quickly. Her lack of magical skill caught up to her and she felt her body cramp up as some of her life force was pulled from her body to help charge the spell when her messy control of mana flow failed. Fortunately, the effect still took hold and a swirling 'pillow' of air softened her impact against the wall, providing her just long enough to grab hold of her targeted window sill.

Fighting back a groan, Jiib hung there for several seconds as she regained her composure and it stopped feeling like she'd been drained by a Backlash. She shivered just thinking about it, remembering the way her father had convulsed before his death by the random appearance of the creature which had emerged from the wall of the sewer beneath the Metropolis. She'd been back more than twenty feet, but she still remembered the way her body tingled when it had ended her dad's life-- mana burn often brought those memories back, but she didn't have the time to consider it.

Sill holding onto the window sill, the Werrit planted her feet against the wall and hoisted herself up just enough so she could get her tail under the window. From there she strained her muscles, pulling entire body upward until she was doing a paw-stand on the window, which gave her tail more freedom to slide further up into the room. Although it wasn't a perfect science, Jiib had trained herself to work upside down with her tail and it was only a matter of time until she felt the window latch-- the nicer houses had two levels of latch, allowing them to keep their windows open two-fingers width and still lock it into position; she fixed that with another flick of the latch and, a moment later, she was inside.

Jiib wore the darkness like a comforting sweater; her eyes had little trouble making out the details of the room despite the near blackness of it and it took her all of five seconds to case it. Two minutes later and her first bag was full of fine clothes, jewelry, and a few precious metal combs and brushes from a very expensive-looking vanity. She went for the most expensive items, realizing that she would quickly fill all four bags if she grabbed everything that could fetch a modest amount. Having selected the cream of the crop from the first room, she made ready to exit her point of entry, placing her large, round ear against the door she was quite certain would lead out to the hallway.

As expected, her keen hearing took in the sound of movement; she was confident that she heard two guardsmen on patrol. Focusing all of her attention on her supremely trained powers of observation, she realized right away that the patrol was not just any pair of Human mercenaries; neither had the tell-tale sound of boots and one was distinctly heavier than the other-- far too weighty to be a Human. A second later, she threw herself away from the door as a powerful shove from the hallway sent it swinging inward. Going into a roll, Jiib came back to her paws, staring down a pair of Wer-- the one up front was a Werber and, right behind her was a Werulf; both looked very displeased to find her in the manor.

Backpedaling, Jiib got to the window. "I'll just show myself out."

Falling backwards out the aperture, the Werrit realized that she didn't have enough Mana within her to soften her landing; although 30' wasn't out of the question of her acrobatic skill she didn't want to risk spraining an angle, and she she went for plan B: launching her tail out, Jiib also kicked a foot back, slowing herself to a stop as far out the window as she could. Preparing to tumble down to the ground, she'd lessened the distance she'd have to fall by over five foot, which would-- the plan didn't get any further than that as a massive paw caught her leg and tail in a single, vice-like grasp, and she was hauled bodily back into the room as a very deep, matronly voice declared "Come here, thief!"