Clovis held the heavy door open for Balthazar and Suze as they stepped ihe circur underground chamber. The windowless room was a vault. Not only because of its underground nature, shape, or reinforced door, but because of its tents.

  The mert marveled with shiny eyes at the even shinier wonders around him as he walked in. Shelves full of gold statuettes and other pieces of art lihe walls alongside rge paintings. Large hardcover tomes filled a bookshelf by the opposite side of the room, near a gss cube taining a -like helmet. There was even a dispy case with dozens of fwless precious gems sitting on a velvety pillow.

  But despite all those riches and eye-catg treasures, nothing quite widehe crab’s eyes as much as the desk he ter of the room.

  Several ns of golden s sat on the wooden surfaeatly arranged in stacks on one side, and disanized piles oher. Barely visible behind the wall of money, a woman in thick gsses sat at the desk, ting and s them uhe light of a mp.

  As ve as his Bag of Holding Money was, Balthazar missed the pleasure of marveling at his own s out in full view in front of him like he used to back at his pond. Seeing those staoney like that filled his stomach with butterflies and pstered a big smile on his face. They were almost as impressive as his own money hoard. Almost.

  “Woooah…” the young Marquessian girl apanying the crab marveled as she looked around the vault of treasures.

  With her nose nearly toug the gss, Suze eyed a dispy full of delicate neckces and rings, her jaw half-dropped at the sight of how big the jewels on some of the pieces were.

  “Trust me, I uand the temptation,” Clovis said, walking to the girl’s side. “But I really wouldn’t if I were you.”

  He picked up a quill from a nearby table and brushed it lightly against the surface of the gss. A small spark crackled on the feather, setting it abze instantly.

  Suze’s eyebrows jumped at the sudden fme and she gulped loudly.

  “But as with most things, there’s always a trick to it,” the thief said with a smirk as he shook the fme out. “Maybe I’ll teach it to you one day.”

  “Clovis,” the woman sitting behind the stacks of s said as she stood up. “How many times have I asked you to stop burning my quills? And why in the world are ying strangers into our vault?”

  “Ah, this is Penny, our lovely bean ter and professional worry wart,” said the guildmaster, extending an arm toward the woman. “Fret not, my dear. These are Balthazar and… I’m afraid I didn’t catch your , young dy.”

  “No, and I won’t let you steal it either, Mr. Thief,” the child said. “You call me Suze.”

  Clovis chuckled. “I like you! As I was saying, dear Penny, these are Balthazar and Suze, and I’ve cleared them already. I brought them down here so we could discuss business somewhere safe.”

  “Fine. Do as you wish,” the woman replied. “You always do anyway. So long as they don’t interfere with my ting, I’ll just keep w.”

  The atant put her gsses ba as she sat doair of thick spectacles with one side adorned by a smaller magnifying lens attached to the rim—and resumed her ting.

  “Ah, she’s a darling, really. Just a little uptight about her job,” Clovis said as he threw himself onto a throne-like chair. “Let’s talk business now?”

  “Right, let’s do that,” said Balthazar, doing his best to pull his eyes away from the beautiful, shiny s on Penny’s desk. “So why exactly did y us down here?”

  The thief sat with his legs over the chair’s arm and began ting with his fingers.

  “Well, other than to impress you with a sample of what our operation has, and to give you a show of trust by bringing you to one of our secret locations? Maybe it was because you are now wanted by the guards and the bandits and are on the run from both? Perhaps it was also so we could talk privately without the risk of some sneaky cat eavesdropping on our versation.”

  The crab rolled his eyes. “Alright, fine, I get it. Still, why trust me at all and bring me here? You just said so yourself, the bandits have no love for me. Aren’t thieves and bandits basically cut from the same cloth?”

  With a dramatic fir, the guildmaster stood up from his cushioned seat and pced a hand on his chest while expressing wounded pride.

  “Same cloth?! How could you ever think that? Theirs would be dirty burp used as sacks for potatoes, while we would be like smooth satin made to touly the fi of skins.”

  The crab and the girl exged a slightly embarrassed g one another. Words weren’t necessary to express their shared thought: “A bit over-dramatic.”

  Clovis dropped into the chair again. “No, I assure you that we are nothing like bandits, and that we share no love for each other. A bandit will er you in an alley and take your by force. A thief will take your the proper way, by pig it from your pocket in the middle of a busy market without you even notig it. A bandit brute would kick the door doilge a poor farmer’s house for a cabbage and two turnips. A proper thief will sneak into a baron’s mansion like a shadow and work their safe to extract profitable riches. We are not the same.”

  “You’re all still kinda just… criminals,” Balthazar said with a shrug.

  “Certainly,” the rist said with not a hint of shame or offe being called a criminal. “But we set ourselves apart by having morals, and above all else, higher standards. We’re professionals, bandits are just on rabble.” He punctuated his statement with another shiny smile. “Which is why I want to help you.”

  “So you help yourself,” the crab said.

  “You got it!” excimed Clovis. “There is usually a bao these things. Bandits stay in their ne, doiy crimes and being their usual unwashed selves, while we remain at the top of the criminal food , where we belong. Lately, however, someoarted disturbing this natural order.”

  “Her,” Balthazar said with disdain.

  “Bingo, my eight-legged friend! Suddenly bandits were pulling off heists they never did befetting way too bold, and—as much as I hate to admit this—even achievis the Thieves Guild never could. The biggest one being them getting the city guard on their side. We khere was no way on bandits were behind all that.”

  The crab’s eyestalks rose as the versation developed, anticipation growing in him. “So you started looking into who was behind it, like I’ve been doing?”

  “Sure did,” the human said. “It wasn’t easy, and took a lot of digging, but eventually we found the source.”

  “So you found who was behind all this?! Who is she?”

  Clovis’s smile faded slightly and his eyes wandered around to the ceiling as he answered. “That… we don’t know yet.”

  “Oh, e on!” the exasperated crab said, throwing his pincers up.

  “Unfortunately, whoever this mysterious woman is, she’s very good at staying in the shadows, even by our standards. But we did mao find her ir.”

  Some hnited in Balthazar and he quickly reached into his backpack for the map Suze had borrowed from Onion Jake’s pce.

  “We got this from the bandit leader,” the crusta said, showing Clovis the map. “It seems to mark a lot of their secret locations. We’ve checked a few, but so far no sign of the stolen mangoes. Is any of these locations the pce you found?”

  The guildmaster looked at the map with i. “No, but that’s unsurprising.”

  “It is?”

  “Yes. They are not taking the stolen cargo to any of their stashes. Remember, they are all w for someone else. Aernal figure. They are taking the product to her pce.”

  “Oooh,” the crab said with a nod. “But if you already know where that is, why haven’t you done anything?”

  “Like what? Report it to the guards?” the thief said with a sassy smirk. “Or maybe break into the pd steal several tons of mangoes? ly our kind of target. I holy wouldn’t even know who to sell them to, which is one of the things that’s been puzzlihis whole time—who is the stealing of all these mangoes, and what for?”

  “But then why are you telling me all this?” the mert asked. “What do you want from me?”

  Clovis smiled once again. “Isn’t it obvious? We want the bandits ba their ne. You and the mayor want this mango issue resolved. I provide you with the information, you take care of it, we all win.”

  Balthazar pondered for a moment. He wasn’t oo usually trust thieves, but his reasoning was sound. If nothing else, the mert could trust the guildmaster’s self-i.

  I guess the enemy of my enemy is… another t.

  “But wait,” said the crab, “I take care of it? You’re not going to help?”

  “Haha, my friend, we’re thieves, not warriors or meraries. I’m helping by providing vital ihe rest is up to you. I don’t get my hands dirty.”

  The crusta frowned. “What kind of thief doesn’t get his hands dirty?”

  “A very clever ohe guildmaster said with a mischievous smile.

  “You know what? Never mind. Just tell me where the mangoes are, so I be doh this mess a my reward.”

  Clovis pced a finger on the map, pointing at a spot outside the edge of town.

  “Damask Manor. That is where you will find the mangoes. And the one behind their theft.”

  “So that is where we’ll go,” Balthazar said with a nod. “I don’t suppose I vince you to help us at all, I?”

  “If it involves my guys interfering directly? No. But everything else? I’m willing to sider it, if it will help you rid our dear city of this bandit uprising so that we return to the usual way of things.”

  Balthazar eyed a particur dispy sitting at the top of a shelf behind the guildmaster’s chair. It held a pristine piece of rolled-up part that the crab knew all too well. A Scroll of Potential.

  It was the mert’s turn to smirk.

  “There might be something you could do to help…”