Thief Collection

3. Reminder

“Damn it Tristan! Hurry up!” You hissed softly from your crouched position, glancing back over your shoulder to the knelt brunette before looking back nervously toward the heavy door. “We only got ten minutes.” Ten minutes before the change of the guards and that was if you were lucky.

“Keep your pants on.” Tristan snapped back, though you knew he didn’t even bother to look at you as he worked at picking the lock of the safe. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

“Go faster.” You replied flatly, as you strained your ears to listen for the sounds of someone in the hallway. But there was an almost unnatural hush over the castle and it had you on edge. Magic. Pegasus wasn’t suppose to be here, he was suppose to be looking over some tribute but he was here alright. And casting some kind of summoning spell only a floor beyond you.

The ambitious entrepreneur and dark sorcerer had a death grip on your country, cutting off trade supplies and intimidating the people who challenged him with creatures of darkness. The only thing that was stopping him from a total take-over was two neighboring leaders and the rebellion group you were in.

You and Tristan was sent as part of a small group to retrieve a spell scroll in hopes that it could be used as a bargaining chip with Pegasus’s enemies or to admit to break Pegasus’s hold. But the information given to your team was wrong. And if Pegasus or his men caught you then there would be hell to pay. Because death was too good for his enemies.

But this wasn’t your only worry. Oh no. There was another complication. One of the papers on the desk you and Tristan hide behind had a very familiar insignia within a summoning diagram. The insignia was for a powerful dark spirit, whose powers reigned over the shadows. And if it was the demon you thought it was, then the rebellion’s problems just got bigger.

“Tristan are you getting anywhere with that? We got to …” You started again before the hairs on your neck rose suddenly as a chill ran down your spine while your heart fell to your feet. As a hush fell over the castle as if the world just held its breath. A summoning spell had bee successfully completed.

You felt more then heard Tristan still as he half-turned. “What the …?”

“Tristan, you better get that scroll now!” You ordered as you leapt from your hiding place to the door.

“But …”

“No time Tristan! Now or not at all!” You replied as he cursed and began work again while you placed both your hands against the door. You were no mage, despite your sensitivity to it, you had no taste for using magic. But you had to do something. *Please let this work.* The spell you cast was simple, it would only hold the door against physical force but at lest it would hold off Pegasus’s goons for a few minutes.

“Tristan!”

“I got it!” Tristan cried as he wrenched open the safe, ignoring the sparks of a spell warning Pegasus of the intrusion, and garbed the sole scroll within.

“Good, let’s go!” You said as Tristan tucked the scroll safely into a pouch on his belt just in time for the door to jar as both of you heard shouts outside.

“Damn, didn’t think they notice that fast.” Tristan cursed as he went to the window while you faced the door. “I can’t seem them!” The original plan had been to escape out the third floor window to a ‘safely net’ below provided by Ryou, mage friend of yours as well as beast-trainer named Yugi. But if they weren’t there it was going to be a very painful, if not fatal, landing.

The door rocked against as something strong slammed into it. “Tristan go! We don’t have time!”

The brown-eyed boy looked over at you before nodding as he took a breath. “Man, I am going kill Joey for skipping out on this.” He muttered under his breath before he stepped off the window ledge and vanished out of sight.

Your stomach clenched as you looked over the window, seeing a faint flash of light after Tristan had disappeared into the darkness. You really hoped that was the safety net as you climbed onto the window.

But suddenly you fell, your left foot tugged sharply backwards, slamming your stomach into the still and effectively knocking the air out of your lungs as you hung half-in and half-out of the window. *What the hell ..* You looked back to see a black tendril of shadow wrapped tightly around your left ankle. *Ah hell.*

That was your last thought before you were forced to duck as the door suddenly busted off it’s hinges, sending the wooden item slamming into the wall by you where it shattered.

“So it is you.”

That comment was made somewhere between a hiss and a purr and sent a cold chill through you. You knew better but you looked up to face the speaker even as your heart slammed painfully in your chest. You knew that voice. And the demon it belonged to.

He was just like you remembered as a terrified girl-child, tall and clad in black with hair spun the same color as the sliver moon. He looked almost like a twin to your best friend Ryou but there was no mistaking this fiend for your friend. His violet eyes were sharp and narrow, holding none of the innocence of your friend’s doe brown eyes. Instead, these were full of wicked amusement.

“So you are the little rebel.” As he stepped further into the room, blotting out the sight of the hall behind him, both his long hair and his ankle-length black coat lashed the air behind him. In the flickering torchlight came the glint of gold from his neck was a golden dream catcher-like item that had a pyramid and Eye of Horus in the center, golden spikes hanging in place of feathers hung on a black leather cord. The Senen Ring, one of seven mystical items and the source of his power.

“Touzoku.” Your mouth had gone dry making the word come out raspy as you managed to climb to your feet, the shadow that had held you bound disappearing though you were under no illusion. If he wanted to stop you from getting out the window he could easily do so.

The male tilted his head at the call of his name. “So you remember.” He seemed pleased with this as he approached you.

You swallowed, leaning back against the window as much as you could. “I do.”

Touzoku wrapped one hand along your upper arm, making you jump at the cool press of his skin to your warmer flesh. “Then you remember our bargain.”

Oh you remembered alright. A bargain made in haste and desperation to save you and your friend. “I remember.”

“Good.” He rumbled against your ear, making you shiver despite your best intentions not to. "Then be free, little birdy. And I'll see you soon." He rumbled, his rough tongue tracing the shell of you ear afterward and only a second before he shoved you backwards out the window.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a week later when you and the rest of the team arrived at the main base and heard the new. The night of your thief, Pegasus had been assassinated. And in a matter of hours the new warlord Touzoku Bakura had taken his place. And you knew this was not going to be the last time you saw that dark spirit.