It was the stroke of midnight. Most of the citizens were already sleeping in their homes, and those who weren’t were spending their time at the many taverns located throughout the city. City guards were dutifully making their rounds in the districts, relieved to see that their night would seemingly be quiet and uneventful, allowing them to enjoy the warm spring breeze which made working at night much more tolerable.

The city of Morese was built on top of an island that had been separated from the continent by the sea over the course of millennia, and now around three hundred meters of water stood between both lands as a natural barrier. Although this water was navigable, most people usually accessed the city by means of the many bridges that had been erected to facilitate trade. Said bridges stood tall over the sea level in order to allow small ships to sail underneath towards open waters.

Three guards were calmly strolling down the street close to the lord’s keep with their torches in hand.

“Ah, this is life,” said one of them. “Getting paid extra to walk around the city in such a nice weather.”

“Dude, we are not ‘walking around’ the city. We are patrolling!” replied another.

“Yeah, right. As if something really big is going to happen tonight. Like the previous night. Or the night before. Or–, ” said the first man.

“Cut it out, we get it.”

“I’m just saying,” he continued. “The most action we’ve seen lately is a tavern brawl. Although I have to say that little man really packed a punch.”

They continued walking in the direction to their next assigned area whilst discussing the tavern brawl from a few days back. As they walked away, the street dimmed, only lighted by the faint flames of the street lamps distributed along the road. Once the three guards were completely out of sight, three hooded figures emerged from an alleyway and hurriedly crossed the street towards another alleyway. Moving like shadows, they navigated the darkened streets avoiding all the guards stationed throughout the city.

“OK, now comes the easy part,” Nathan said. He was peeking from a corner as he saw another patrol leaving the next street they had to cross.

“You mean crossing half the city without being noticed?” Lysanna replied.

“When you put it that way…,” he turned to look at his companions.

“At least they still haven’t noticed, so they won’t be searching for us,” said Rin. She was looking behind them, worried that someone might have been following them.

“See, Lys? Rin totally gets it. There is nothing to worry about!” Nathan laughed.

At that moment, a loud bell started to repeatedly resound throughout the city.

“You were saying?” Lysanna said. Even though they were all wearing a hood, Nathan knew perfectly well she was rolling her eyes.

“Dammit,” he said. “Let’s hurry.”

Subtlety and stealth were now out of the question, and their only option was to try to reach the port as quickly as possible. The group started running through the alleyways, passing next to guards who couldn’t keep up with their speed and failed to follow them in the labyrinth of dark streets.

Taking advantage of her physical prowess, Lysanna easily caught up to Nathan and ran alongside him.

“Remind me again Nate. Why did you accept such a job?”

“Oh, you know me. I thought it would be fun,” he managed to say whilst panting. At times like these he felt envious of his companion’s stamina. “Maybe even get some stories to share at the tavern with a drink!”

”… If we get out of this city alive, I’m definitely killing you,” Lysanna said, staring into Nathan’s covered face.

“Come on, what is life without a little emotion?” he laughed.

“You are enjoying this way more than you should!” Rin shouted from behind them.

After several close encounters, most of which involved Nathan inadvertently tackling a group of guards when taking a corner and continuing his run, the trio reached the main square of the city. It didn’t seem like the guards had reached that part of the city yet, so Nathan stopped running to try to catch his breath. It had been a market day and many of the stands, albeit empty, could still be found throughout the square, serving as perfect cover.

“We can’t stay here, they’ll catch up in no time,” Rin said. She was panting heavily whilst leaning downwards.

“Right, we are too exposed. Let’s move,” Lysanna replied, whilst lightly kicking Nathan, who was lying on the floor.

They were almost to the port, where the rest of their companions were waiting to make a quick exit. As the three of them were about to start running again towards one of the five exits from the square, they saw that a group of guards wielding their swords formed an impassable barrier at the exit they were going towards. Turning around to check for other exit points, Lysanna saw that every one of them was now being blocked in a similar manner. Even if there was a considerable distance between them and all the different groups of guards, they were definitely trapped.

Without saying a word, the the three hooded figures formed a circle back to back. Nathan raised his fists in front him, and adopted the fighting stance which he had used countless times in the past, with the precision that only years of experience could provide. Lysanna had lowered herself into a crouch, prepared to jump at anyone who dared approach, and in her hand she held one of her daggers in a reverse grip. Rin also took a fighting stance, with her left hand in front of her and her right hand extended behind, and had started to murmur something.

Suddenly, a voice resonated throughout the square.

“Nathan Greycedar. Rin Silversong. Lysanna Darkblade. You are hereby under arrest for the theft of several valuable artifacts from the lord’s vault!” shouted the voice. It appeared to be a high ranked officer that had come forward from one of the guard groups in the direction Nathan was facing.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Nathan whispered to his companions without moving. “Several artifacts? We only took a book! Or… Lys…?”

“What can I say,” Lysanna laughed as she moved her bag around. “Force of habit.”

The officer continued his speech.

“Listen well men! Remember this night well, for the guards of Morese have captured the Crimson Brawler, the Argent Tempest, and the Azure Shade! Tonight you have made the kingdom of Nyth proud!”

Loud cheers could be heard throughout the square, and the townsfolk had started to look out of their windows wondering what the commotion was.

“I will never get tired of hearing those nicknames,” Nathan grinned. He looked at Lysanna and Rin over his shoulder. Rin was still murmuring something under her breath. “Guess I’ll stall for a bit.”

Nathan relaxed his stance and took several steps forward as he slowly clapped. The cheers from the guards slowly stopped until only his clapping could be heard.

“Bravo!” Nathan exclaimed, looking in the general direction of the officer. “An impeccable job indeed! We would love to stay and celebrate, but we are short on time. So how about you let us through and we’ll just be on our way?”

“You are not going anywhere, criminal! You will all be incarcerated and then hanged for all to see!” the officer shouted.

The guards started cheering again. Nathan shrugged, turned around, and started walking back towards his companions.

“At least you tried,” Lysanna said. “We need to escape towards our secondary rendezvous point and signal Tytus about the change of plans. Rin?”

“I’m ready,” she replied. She then started to slowly extend her right hand towards the night sky, her cloak flapping in the wind.

“I think the group with our valiant officer over there is our best bet. They are relaxed, so it will be easy to slip past them,” Nathan said.

Once more, the cheers from the guards started to fade, as they wondered what the three thieves were about to do. They had been caught. They had nowhere to run. So why weren’t they showing signs of concern? Instead, they had dropped their fighting stances and were just standing in the middle of the square, as if they were waiting for something.

“Cover yourselves,” Rin said to her friends. As her right hand reached the summit, small sparks started to appear dancing around it. With an elegant motion, she snapped her fingers and the sparks ascended towards the sky until, all of a sudden, they exploded with a loud bang and covered the area around them in an intense burning white.

Everyone in the square was frozen in shock and blinded by the burst of light. Everyone, except the three hooded figures, who had begun to run towards one of the exits where some guards had fallen over, including the officer, who desperately tried to cover his eyes to no avail. Just as they were passing next to the guards, the bright light vanished, but it would still take some time for the people affected to fully regain their eyesight and continue their chase.

Once the party had left the square, they took a turn. Instead of running towards the port, as was the original plan, their destination was now one of the bridges that connected the city to the rest of the continent.

“Have I ever mentioned how much I love your elemental magic?” Nathan said to Rin.

“You could stand to say it more,” Rin laughed. Even though her spell had allowed them to escape from a sticky situation, it had undoubtedly alerted the rest of the guards patrolling the city. That meant they didn’t have much time until they were found out again.

After what seemed like endless minutes, they had reached the long stone bridge that led towards the continent. As expected, a large group of guards had erected a barrier and blocked the other end of the bridge. Eventually, their pursuers also caught up and also blocked the end from which they had arrived, leaving the trio stranded in the middle of the bridge. The officer from before appeared from behind his troops, displaying a clearly angry face. There was no speech this time. He knew what his enemies were capable of and wouldn’t risk losing them again. Instead, he made a signal with his hand and the guards started slowly marching forward.

“Straight to the point this time, huh? I like it” Lysanna said.

She then jumped on top of the border of the bridge, looking outwards, and closed her eyes. She focused in all the sounds around her: the breathing of her friends, the metallic sound of swords being unsheathed, the steps of countless guards on the stone path. None of those sounds were what she was looking for, so she discarded them. She continued to focus: she could hear the breeze through the holes at either side of the bridge, the rustling of leaves of the nearby forest, some night birds moving closer to observe the scene that was happening on the bridge. Still not what she was looking for. Once again, she focused, but this time she couldn’t hear anything: all that was around her had ceased to exist, and only a void remained.

Lysanna took a deep breath and gently lifted her hood, revealing her short and brilliant brown hair, highlighted by the moonlight. She turned her head to the sides, still with her eyes closed, as if looking for something. And she found it. A new sound had appeared: a light humming that grew closer every second. Lysanna smiled and opened her deep blue eyes.

“Let’s go,” she simply said before she took a step forward and jumped from the bridge.

Nathan and Rin exchanged a brief look and followed her by vaulting over the side of the bridge.

The guards halted. Even if the bridge was only tall enough to allow small ships to pass underneath, no one could survive the fall. Some of them approached the side and started looking down. Even though it was difficult to distinguish the sea surface at night, the moon allowed them to see what had become of the three thieves, leaving them speechless.

A small ship was sailing away from the bridge and towards open sea. What seemed like a net had been set up between the main mast and the back of the ship, and on top of the net, three figures lied down relaxed waving goodbye.

After seeing this, the officer sheathed his sword and, with a grim expression, he started walking towards the city.

Nathan and Rin started climbed down from the net that had stopped their fall and went to join Lysanna on deck, as she talked to the captain of the ship.

“You are late, Tytus. I was starting to believe you hadn’t seen our signal,” she said.

“Oh, I saw it alright,” the main replied. “I just had to take a small detour and visit the docks where the ships of the guard were anchored.”

While approaching, Nathan lifted his hood, showing his reddish hair and short beard. “What did you do?”

“Precautionary measures. Let’s just say that they’ll have a bit of trouble following us for the time being,” Tytus laughed.

“All in all, I think it went well, right?” Rin said. She also had lifted her hood, letting loose her long silver hair. “How is Maria?”

As if to answer her question, the four of them heard some light steps quickly approaching from the cabin underneath them, until a door was slammed open and a small figure ran up the few steps towards the wheel where they were having their conversation. The little girl, who would be ten years old in a couple of weeks, resembled Rin in many aspects, most noticeably in the color of their hair.

“Sis, you’re back!” Maria shouted as she jumped to hug Rin. “I want you to tell me everything, don’t skip any detail!”

“I thought we had agreed that you would be in bed a long time ago,” Rin reprimanded her whilst stroking her head.

“But I wanted to wait for your return and hear about your mission!” Maria replied. “Did Nathan almost make you get caught?”

“Good to see you too, kiddo,” Nathan smiled, patting her shoulder.

“Hey Maria, I got you something. An early birthday present,” Lysanna said. She started rummaging in her bag and produced a small sextant, ornate with golden details. “I hope you like it.”

Maria carefully took it in her hands and marveled at the navigational instrument. She then hugged Lysanna.

“I love it! Thank you, Lys!” she exclaimed, as she went starboard and started looking at stars through the sextant.

The rest of them turned around to look back at Morese, which was slowly disappearing in the horizon. Tytus approached the wheel.

“OK, let’s return home,” he said.