Footsteps of a Thief

Chapter One

Garrett checked over his shoulder as he slipped into the shadows beside his apartment building in South Quarter.  Satisified he hadn’t been followed, he opened the door and made his way up to his rooms.  Closing the door behind him, he leant back against it and sighed, his hand moving down to the money pouch at his belt.  He smiled as he felt the hardness of the coins beneath his fingers.  It had been a good night.  He’d robbed a rich merchant, and Heartless Perry, Garrett’s fence in Black Alley, had given him a good price for a lot of the goods.  Getting some of the larger items back without the Watch seeing him hadn’t been easy though.  As Garrett’s eyes adjustd to the gloom of his rooms, after the bright candle-lit corridors of his apartment block, something caught his eye, lying on his table.  Garrett walked over to it, picked it up, and began to read.  It was a note from Dyan, the leader of the Pagans.   Garrett paused, frowning.

“Looks like I’ll have to increase my security if the Pagans can get in here,” he mused to himself, “but let’s see what they want first...” He turned back to the letter, and read it through quickly, pausing every once in a while to decipher the curious speech that the Pagans used.

Garrett,
Wes bes needings to bes speakingsies to you.  Dyan, she is beings worried about them manfools you callsies the Hammers.  We is beings uncoverings a plotsies againsts us and the Leafy One.  Woodsies bes in trouble.  Garrett, wes bes needings your help.  Meetsies us in our territories at the Dockses tomorrows night.
Larkspur

“Hmm, a plot against the Pagans?  That’s nothing new, the Hammers and the Pagans have been at each others throats for ages.  And I don’t see why I should help either side.  I have no particular love for the Pagans.”  Garrett felt up and touched his mechanical eye.   “Still, I suppose I should see what they have to say.”