Flashback The Accomplice

[Kit Rowan]

Day 67, Season of Winter, 502 AV

Kit and the rest of the girls stalked their way through the streets of Alvadas' streets. Shy took their head, stepping forward with hands shoved firmly in her pocket, inconspicuous as you please while Rechail followed behind, one more halfbreed Isur, the peculiarity of her arm made mundane among the many Alvads that mingled around her. Behind them Nim and Kit strode side by side; four children bobbing and weaving through the city, trying to look inconspicuous.

"Why aren't we doing this in the Bizarre?" Kit asked, peering nervously over her shoulder, watching the crowd for suspicious eyes. She found none.

Nim pushed her elbow gently into Kit's rib. "Inconspicuous," she reminded, still smiling, and, chastised, Kit tried to meet her friend in the eye and look like just another child talking with her friend in the street. "We've lifted there too," she said, as in 'lifted from pockets.' One thing Kit had learned quick from prowling with the sisters was the code they used to keep eavesdroppers from realizing what was being said, a little language in a language to throw them off. Kit thought Ionu would approve. "But the score usually vanishes in chimes."

Kit planted a hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes. "Vanishes?"

Nim held her hands out and smiled a crooked smile. "Poof!" Her fingers wriggled in the air. "You ask me, most of the customers there aren't even real. Don't stop at any of the shops, don't buy anything. Just wander around and stare at wares a while, if you tail them."

Kit's mouth tilted into a slanted grin. "Good for practice though."

But when she said it Nim just shook her head and threw her arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "Your fingers aren't keen enough to pick pockets, Kit." She said. "Best stick with swiping fruit till you get the hang of theft."

The younger girl lowered her eyes and kicked her feet against the ground. "I just want to be useful."

"You will be," Nim drew Kit a little closer and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Just do everything Rechail told you, just the way she said, and it'll go fine."

Still Kit muttered under her breath and rolled her eyes. "Okay." She sighed, crossing her arms, looking up and pouting at the sky. "I'll do it."

[Kit Rowan]

Today the street was more or less a street, though her eyes and inner ears told Kit that she was walking up a steep incline, gravity disagreed and held her firm to the spot, encouraging her breakfast to wage civil war inside Kit's belly. Kit held a hand protectively over her face to act as a guard, the streets themselves were arrayed before her as black-and-white alternating tiles, identical and wide as a stride doing little to help her poor stomach steady itself while the people waltzed over the surface.

Heedless of her discomfort, Nim slapped Kit on the back, very nearly sending bile up Kit's throat. "Ionu and Yshul with you, sister." Nim said. Kit returned the smile, too uneasy to open her mouth and trust herself with words, and went marching up the side of the street.

Kit saw Rechail coming down the other end, head thrown back and proud, wearing a scowl like a favorite shirt. She pretended not to notice the half-Isur marching down the busy road, stared down at the tiles as she walked and tried not to think of the conflicting signals that her body was telling her about the street. The two set on a collusion course, and Rechail plowed through Kit like a galley through a dinghy. Kit reeled to the side, staggered and allowed herself to fall back on her rear. She felt a sudden surge of fluid try to climb up from her stomach and barely managed to swallow it back.

"Hey!" Rechail growled down at Kit. "Watch where you're walking, shykestain!" The crowd around them momentarily stilled, turned their eyes toward the little angry halfbreed and the smaller human girl on her haunches. "I—" Kit breathed, remembering her instructions. "I didn't mean—"

"Petch what you meant, vagik!" Rechail hissed. Was this really all acting, Kit wondered? The older girl grabbed hold of Kit and heaved her up, shoved Kit against a wall. Despite herself, despite knowing it was all an act, Kit's eyes went wide. Rechail was strong!

Shy and Nim both stalked away from their hiding places, making their way past the gathering crowd as though there were no distraction at all. While they were distracted and peering at Kit and Rechail, she saw Nim draw a knife and liberate a purse from an unobservant watcher, then another as she shrugged past them. 'You're no real thief,' Rechail had said. 'But you can still draw eyes away so we can do our work.'

"Well?" Rechail grabbed hold of Kit's collar and shook her. "Whatcha got to say?"

But Kit only closed her eyes, felt a surge of nausea roll through her body. "Oh gods," she moaned, vomit rising up too fast for her to slow or stop, spewing out of her mouth all over Rechail.

The streets was momentarily silent, Rechail's eyes suddenly big, all rage gone to make room for utter bewilderment. The audience began to throw back their heads and laugh.

[Kit Rowan]

"I'm sorry." Kit insisted, arms wrapped around herself, leaning up against the side of a building. "I'm sorry . . ."

"And THEN!" Nim said, grinning broader than a human mouth ought allow. "Did you see the look on Boss' face?" She spread her hands out, intoned everything she said with awe. Shy threw her head back and laughed a hideous, voiceless laughter. "I'd tribute everything I ever nicked," Nim said, shaking her head. "Just to see that face again!"

"I'm sorry!" Kit insisted, pushing out of her reverie long enough to step forward, hands held out, palms up in bewilderment. "I didn't mean, I mean, I didn't know . . ."

"We know." Rechail said, but her voice was harsh and Kit couldn't tell if it was her natural intonation of if she was legitimately miffed. Her face was turned away from the three of them, washing the vomit out of her shirt in the Emerald Pond. Where she got the gumption, Kit would never know. "You looked sicker than a landlocked Svefra. Shouldn't have shaked you so bad."

"And we got loot!" Nim's eyes glittered, holding a pile of mizas in her hand, with browns, silver and gold rims. "I ain't seen a haul like this since we caught a crowd staring at a housefire. We oughta do this again!"

"No!" Rechail and Kit chorused, turned and stared at each other. For a moment the half-Isur's face was stone, but then it broke open into something of a smile.

Nim threw up her hands in feigned disgust while Shy stood behind her, shoulders still shaking with mirth. "Very funny!" Boss called out, slipping her shirt back over her. "Now, gotta give the gods their due." The atmosphere sobered. Shy's face went slate blank, while even Nim's lost some of its ever-present joy. Shy and Nim began to compare and count their newfound wealth.

Everyone there knew what Rechail meant. Everyone but Kit. She felt incredibly small, incredibly out of place. "Um," Kit said. "Prayer?"

"We got three gods," Rechail said. Turning around toward the Emerald Pond and peering into its depths. "Ionu, to keep our tricks keen enough to keep the Speakers off our trail." Shy began marching, held out a small handful of coins to Boss. Rechail took it. "Akajia, to keep our steps quiet and our secrets safe." The mute held out a hand toward Kit, and it took a moment before the little redhead realized she meant to give her the coin. She held out her hand, and Shy poured the mizas in with all their glittering rims. "And Yshul, to keep our hand quick and hauls big."

"We give Yshul a tenth." Rechail said. She turned around and dropped the coin into the water of the pond, watched it spiral into nothing. "Each of us a piece, so she'll know it's from all of us." Kit eyed the mizas greedily. At last she sighed, turned toward the pond and let the coins fall out of her hand. One by one the rest of gang did the same, Shy next, then miserly Nim last, watching their tenths vanish away into the depth. This was, Kit realized, its own sort of worship to them. "We give Akajia a secret we've learned, told no one, and tell no one after this." Boss looked toward Kit. "You don't gotta do it now."

"I can." Kit said, shifting uncomfortably where she stood. "I can."

"Mr. Elvin wears his wife's dress and prances before he goes to bed." Nim said.

"The harper who plays in front of the bizarre sometimes is usually a barmaid. She's got Ionu's blessing, so she's

Shy was silent, hands closed over one another, eyes shut. She, Kit was sure, was a special case.

Kit was up now. What could she say? What could she say? "A-auntie invites other men over, sometimes, while uncle is on business in Syliras." She licked her lips and looked around at the other girls. They seemed unmoved. But also unoffended.

"For Ionu," Rechail pulled a silvery apple out of her coat. "We got this little treasure from a food stall. Man in charge said it'd taste like heavy to an honest customer, and then foul to any thief when I nabbed it." Rechail grinned. "But it's not thievery if we give it to you." She dropped it into the water. Nothing happened.

"We give Yshul her due every day, cause she's greedy like that, but the rest we try to do once a season." The boss turned and stuck Kit with a heavy stare. "You're one of us now, so you're part of it till you choose ta' leave. That clear?"

Kit nodded her head once.

"Good." Rechail grimaced. "I said it before, but . . . Welcome to the gang, sister."

Maybe this time, Kit hoped against hope, she meant it.

[Elysium]

Kit Rowan

XP:
Larceny +2
Observation +2
Socialization +3
Rhetoric +1

Lore:
Patrons at the Bizarre - Real or Illusory?
Larceny: Providing a Distraction
Rhetoric: The Calm Before the Hurl
Three Gods of Thievery: Ionu, Akajia and Yshul

Notes: This was adorable. I can't wait to see more from Kit and her exploits with Rechail's gang. If you have any questions, please contact me!

and so, the journey continues...