For just a moment he stopped breathing.  His heart had found a new perch somewhere up in his throat.  By all rights the sight of a beautiful woman shouldn't have affected him so. Living above Mamma Chesca's there wasn’t a day that had gone by in the last fifteen ceicles that he wasn’t surrounded by the finest courtesans the city had to offer. Yet this... this vision of golden haired beauty, standing atop her carriage step across the crowded way, calling to some unknown lucky chap had stopped Cylus dead in his tracks.
     “You don’t actually think you would have a chance with her?” The familiarly trill, boyish voice came out of the darkened alleyway behind Cylus, causing him to jump.
     “How do you always manage to do that?!”
     “I told you,” the halfling attached to the voice answered as he stepped into view, “you humans are always busy looking about so high.”  With that he held his hand up as high above his head as he could, trying to reach Cylus’ eye level.  “And besides,” he added, “an army of rabid orcs could have crept up on you for all the attention you were giving that noble lass.”
     Cylus looked back in her direction again just in time to see the carriage door closing.  Apparently she had found who she was looking for and was on her way.  Cylus’ expression was a mural of disappointment.
     “Ponto could tell you where she lives…” the halfling goaded, referring to himself in third person as he sometimes did.
     “Yes but what does Ponto want?” Cylus asked, eyes still following the carriage as it parted the crowd, heading for the streets of Aachen’s Upper Ward.
     “Who said I want anything?” It was Ponto’s turn to look injured.
     “Ponto my dear friend…  I have known you for near a dozen ceicles and I can’t recall one time when you gave information away for free.”
     “I am hurt by your accusations,” Ponto stated, his green eyes almost disappearing into his scrunched up expression.  “As sure as the hair on this head is curly, I was willing to offer you this information out of friendship.  But since you have displayed your lack of trust in Ponto, I shall instead be on my way.”
     Ah yes, here was an infamous Ponto trap. Cylus just HAD to know more about the woman who had stolen his heart on first glance though.
     Cylus let out a sigh and called after Ponto who had started back down the alley, “Ponto wait!  I trust you.  I’m sorry –“
     “If you trust me so much then how come you haven’t shared this job with me?”  Ponto interrupted as he stepped back into view, trap sprung, his expression all accusatory now.
     “Job?  Who said anything about a job?” Cylus asked but he knew darn well he was caught.
     Ponto just tilted his head and looked back out of the alley onto the bustling street area between them and the Upper Docks.
     “Cylus skulking about in an alley here.  Cylus who has no friends or places he visits in the Arena Docks let alone the Upper Docks.  The only time Cylus leaves the Lower Ward and her shipyard is when someone is paying for a special service you provide.  And I thought we were partners…”
     Ponto was really pouring it on this time, but he was also right.  Cylus considered his situation for a moment.  Ponto was indeed a friend at times and even someone he’d pull the occasional job with but Cylus only called on him when it was really needed.  In Cylus’ line of work, one didn’t share a job unless it was absolutely necessary. 
     Cylus reached into his pouch and pulled out a small green emerald.  “It was a simple job.  I didn’t want to bother you with it.”
     Looking wide eyed at the gem, (oh how little Ponto loved gems!) Ponto reached out with a pudgy little hand.
     ‘Two could play at this game,’ Cylus thought.
     “Just a second, buddy.” Cylus said smoothly as he pulled the gem in toward his chest.  “This isn’t a keeper.  One of Mama Chesca’s regulars needed this stolen back for him.  He apparently lost it in a card game in which the other chap cheated.” 
     “I’m sure,” was all Ponto replied.
     “Either way, I need to return it and the gentleman is giving a small gold reward.”
     “Mmmm… how small?” Ponto asked, looking suspicious.
     “I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you half of the ten gold he’s giving me if you can tell me about the lady.”
     “Five gold!?  That gem is worth at least forty!  You wouldn’t be lying to –“
     “THERE!  THAT’S HIM!” a voice broke through the crowd out on the street.  Cylus’ “mark” with two armor clad Aachen guards at his side was pointing right at him.
     “Shrikes!” was all Cylus got out as he took off down the alley.
     About twenty quick strides brought Cylus to the back door of the gem owner’s house, which he had just exited not ten minutes before.  Cylus hadn’t been spotted during the pick up so the owner must have seen him holding the gem out before Ponto when he came out looking for who stole it.  Cylus made a mental note to never ignore the advice of the great Ashenbach again who had once told him to never take something from someone without having a cheap replica to replace it with.
     ‘Perhaps if I wasn’t busy explaining myself to Ponto…’ Cylus thought as he tried the door and found it still unlatched.
     “Ponto,” he whispered, looking over his shoulder.  “This way.”
     There was no response though.  Ponto had done what Ponto was best at and became invisible to the world around him.
     Hearing the pounding footsteps of the mailed guards at the far end of the alley, Cylus wasted no time and slipped back into the house.  The back room was empty as it had been before, the slop sinks and fire pit cleaned out and awaiting use.  Cylus glanced at the spickets above the sinks again and marveled anew at the idea of running water.  No one in the Lower Ward had the privilege of feeding off the sky high aqueducts and the fresh water they brought in from the mountains miles to the west.  Cylus didn’t think anyone but the nobles with their red roofed estates perched overlooking the rest of the city from the western foothills had it either but apparently everyone in the Upper Ward got to avoid sharing a well.
     Moving swiftly across the room, Cylus crossed through the swinging doors into the center hall.  He took his first step down the corridor, toward the front door when he heard the deep voice of another city guard approaching the door.
     “Yes Misses Heller, all available men are looking.  Your husband is out by the dock with the lieutenant.”  The door latch was moving.
     Cylus knew the room off to the right at the other end of the hallway was a library.  He had taken the gem off the mantle in that room.  He didn’t have time to get that far though so he took the closer opening a couple steps forward to his left.
     The room was quite dim as it didn’t have any windows but Cylus was used to adjusting his eyes quickly.  In the center of the room was a long table.  Cabinets with dishes and fine glasses lined both the close and far wall.  On the wall facing the front of the house a glimmer of light shone from under a door.
     Cylus knew enough not to stay in one place, especially when it had no exit to the outside.  Quickly he moved to the door and stopped at it, listening to hear where the guard and the lady of the house had moved to.  From the muffled sounds of their voices it seemed like the library.
     ‘Maybe I can slip back to the front door before they come out,’ Cylus mentally encouraged himself.
     Gently he slid the pocket door aside and slipped into the next room.  It was very well lit, with a big bay window at the front of the house and two smaller windows on the wall to Cylus’ left.  The furniture in the room was rather lavish… two yeti skin white sofas, an ornate tea table, various sculptures of animals and yet more yeti skin covering the floor in white rugs.
     ‘Gee, I wonder if they let the kids eat jam in here?” Cylus mused, smiling to himself as he moved forward and… for the second time this day, was stopped dead in his tracks.
     On the wall directly to Cylus’ right, not four feet from where he stood was a large mural depicting a foul, slimy, scaly green snake.  It was coiled up; its head raised just enough for its beady painted eyes to pierce one’s soul while its flickering tongue digested your innards.  To say Cylus had an aversion to snakes would be to say the sea was a bit moist.  It didn’t matter if it was a real snake, a toy snake the foolish kids loved to toss around the bizarre or a giant painting depicting the meanest one Cylus could imagine.
     Forgetting his predicament for a moment, Cylus backed away from the wall, slowly sidestepping across the other end of the room.  All the while he kept his eyes riveted on the mural as if the snake might spring out of it at any moment.
     “AHHHHH!  Who is he?!”  The woman’s voice shrieked from the opening to the hallway.
     ‘Damn it!’ Cylus thought, his attention finally moving off the painting. 
     Going for the front door was no longer an option.  The burly officer standing behind the lady was more than enough to block Cylus from getting to the door that was right behind him.
     Doing the only thing a rational rogue could do in such a situation, Cylus turned and jumped through the side window.  When he hit the dirty cobbles he felt a sharp sting in his right thigh, probably the work of shattering glass.  He knew he was lucky if that was the worst of it, but he didn’t have time to check himself.  Getting up quickly, he darted across the street, dodged between two brick buildings and didn’t look back.
     Cylus took the most random route he could, winding his way out of the Upper Ward, through the Arena Ward and finally got to the rooftops when he came into the closely entwined buildings of the Lower Ward.  It took nearly twenty minutes to cover that much ground and by the time he made it to the roof of Mama Chesca’s he was completely out of breath.
     Huffing he crouched over a moment and had a quick look at his leg.  It had been bleeding pretty badly, his pant leg soaked through all the way down below the knee.
     ‘No time to enjoy the view,’ he lamented as he moved across the flat rooftop toward the door to the “penthouse” apartment that took up about a quarter of the roof’s surface.
     Stopping at the wooden door, he reached up and adroitly undid the trap he always left set, just in case.  All was as it should be and so he entered the cluttered room and closed the door behind him, resetting the trap.
     Inside his room he could smell the vestiges of the wonderful leg of lamb he’d had the previous night.  The plate was still next to his bed, atop one of the many piles of clothing and random trinkets that he’d collected in his fifteen ceicles here.
     Briefly he thought about simply grabbing one of the older blouses and wrapping his leg but then thought better of it, knowing it would be wiser to wash it our properly first.    Weaving his way through his mess, he made his way to the floor hatch and the wooden stairs beyond that led to the back hall of Mama Chesca’s famed guest rooms.  It was a short walk from there to the kitchen.