“Alright, you can stop the carriage, here, kid,” Soykan said as he drew the curtains back.

Magnus did as he was told as he reined in the horses and parked the vehicle in the back alley of their targeted location. The place they were about to strike was a massive stone-built, three stories tall tavern, that was the bona fide hideout of the Jade Vipers gang.

Soykan walked up to Magnus while Bulut stayed back as he double checked his equipment, “You know what your job is, right?” Soykan asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yep, I know exactly what I am supposed to do,” Magnus said with unveiled sarcasm. “Twiddle with my thumbs and do precisely nothing.”

“Magnus,” Soykan said in a dangerously low voice. “You have a very important job here, not only are you going to spring us away from the crime scene, but you will also be shaking off any pursuers we get. Now are you up for the task?”

Magnus knew his insolence would not get him anywhere, but he had to vent his anger and frustration. Nevertheless, somebody had to do the job, and who better than the youngest and most inexperienced.

Sigh

“Alright, I will do as you ask,” Magnus uttered, giving in to the demand of the job and accepting his circumstances.

“Good, if all goes well then we will be back in a few moments.”

Then with that statement, he proceeded on his way as he walked through the back alley entrance that Bulut just lock picked and was gone out of sight as the door closed behind him.

———————————

Magnus rested his head against the carriage’s oaken frame, this was taking way too long, and he did not like it one bit.

The plan was simple, go in, get everything you can, then get out.

However, now they have been gone for what, a full phase of the moon, meaning a good hour.

Then his mind started to churn out dark and bloody thoughts, images of everyone laying dead started to play in his mind. He knew he was being stupid; these guys were the toughest sons of bitches he knew. And that is saying a lot, all his life has been surrounded by hard, hardy folk who takes what comes with a straight faces.

Regardless of it all though he knew something must have gone wrong, he just felt it in his bones. Yet there was nothing he could do about it. His job description was simple and whatever Soykan spewed; it was just stay put, and do nothing!

He wished they had the comforts of modern technology, a comlink would go a long way right now.

Magnus tried to calm himself down by thinking over everything, especially the plan.

———————————

*Flashback*

“This will be a quick and easy job.” Soykan declared as he handed everyone a copy of all the gathered data on their latest job.

“When is it ever quick and easy,” Taylan joked.

Soykan gave him a withering look but added nothing to his commentary. “We will be targeting the Jade Viper gang, a small gang that is barely holding on to a district.”

“Then why are we targeting these small-time bozos?” Taylan asked, interrupting Soykan mid-stride.

“Taylan,” Soykan said as he turned to face the thief. “I swear by the Great Sage, if you open your yapper one more time. I will permanently shut it for you.”

“Heard you loud and clear, boss,” Taylan replied, giving way for Soykan but still keeping up with his antics.

“You would be doing all of us a great service, if you did so right now,” Shui muttered, more than loud enough for everyone around the table to hear.

Bulut hid his laughter with fake coughing, but Magnus, on the other hand, snickered out loud.

Taylan gave Shui a dirty look but said nothing more.

“As tempting as that is,” Soykan stated. “Let’s get back to the meeting on hand,” putting a close to the matter.

“As I was saying, we will be targeting the Jade Viper gang. Their hideout isn’t the tavern on top which is called the Copperhead Bar, that is only a front which they use. Their real hideout is what lays underneath. They have vast tunnels that stretch an entire city block that they call home.”

Soykan took a pause there as he reached into his parchments and took out a single large one among the whole mess. “Thankfully with a few well placed bribes we were able to get the full map of tunnels,” he declared as he held out the well detailed animal skin for all to see.

Then he laid it down in the middle of the table and pointed at an area on the map, “Our target will be this room, here” he stated. Magnus tried to make sense of it but it only looked like an ugly gun to him.

“This here is the treasure room,” Soykan thankfully clarified, parting the clouds of ignorance for Magnus. “It will be our target for the day.”

“Could you pause right there,” Magnus asked.

Soykan nodded his head, and Magnus carried on, “Even though Taylan did not phrase it the best way possible, he still raised a good concern. This is a small gang we are talking about here, even if we hit its treasury, it will only have a few hundred gold lions we will be looking at. I do not know about you, but don’t we usually hit something a bit more lucrative?”

“Excellent observation, chap,” Soykan praised.

“O come on,” Taylan shouted as he raised his hand up in the air.

Soykan ignored him and continued on, “What is in the treasury is not just some measly amount collected by these small-timers, but a tribute!”

“To whom?” Magnus asked as he took a sip of his drink. He was already thinking along the lines that this offering was going to some larger gang for protection and backing.

“The Guild!”

The wine that he swallowed came spewing out from his mouth while some went down the wrong windpipe. Once he was able to control his coughing fit, Magnus asked in a voice near to hysteria, “Are you out of your MIND?”

“No, I think I am perfectly sane,” Soykan replied once he thought over the question... for only the briefest of moments. “Though there is a fine line between genius and insanity.”

“Oi, can it!” Magnus said with a snort.

Then getting back to his major concern which he feared would be the death of them, “This is the GUILDS we are talking about here,” he said as if he was talking to a small child. “You just don’t mess with them, god forbid stealing!”

“We did this plenty of times,” Taykan said with a careless shrug, butting into the conversation.

“Really?” Magnus asked in bated breath as he looked at each corner in turn, looking for shadows.

“Yeah, we robbed from most of the Major and Minor Guilds in the Starry Mountains,” Taykan replied. “Plus you even helped out in perpetrating some.”

“What?” Magnus uttered, a bit slow to the uptake. Then when he repeated it in his mind, he shouted, “WHAT!”

“Taykan, stop messing around with the lad,” Shui said as he gave the man a condescending look. “Plus don’t lie to him, the only Guilders we stole from in this city is Guild members and we all know that they are not really Guilders.”

“What I just couldn’t help it, he was acting so like a fearful, regular, and law abiding citizen. We are the Infamous Menace, we rob from everyone-- though not widows, children, and elderly. Anyways, the Guilds are the juiciest of targets, so why shouldn’t we have them share with us poor fellows.”

Magnus knew he shouldn’t be acting the part of a country bumpkin but he had a bit of trepidation and alarm towards the Guilds. He just started to walk the path of power and already he was above and beyond most normal folk.

He wondered to himself, deep in the middle of the night as his imagination ran wild, how powerful were they. Unlike Earth who just stumbled upon this mysterious phenomenon and made untold advances, this world was on a whole nother level.

They must have had countless years experimenting and forging ahead into the great beyonds. Even with his limited understanding of magic, he can literally envision them in his mind's eye, being walking tanks and nukes.

So Magnus had a good healthy dose of apprehension of these Guilds, therefore it is his policy to avoid them and stay far, far away from them.

Now, these guys are doing the exact opposite of that, they are metaphorically speaking, poking and prodding the sleeping dragon.

Still, with the laid back attitude they presented, Magnus was starting to have second thoughts of his position. Or maybe and most likely in his opinion, they were just idiots driving off into the sunset towards their death.

Be that as it may, there was one thing that bothered him, something that Taykan said off handedly.

“Quick question, if the Guilds are so much more better targets why don’t you go after them more often? You just said, in the three seasons, give or take, you have been in this city, this is the first time you are going after the Guild’s money.”

“Well unless you have us raid their towers, there isn’t a whole lot of opportunity of going after the Guilds,” Soykan replied.

“Yes, Soykan is correct,” Bulut added. “The Guilds approach to commoners is one of disinterest, they couldn’t care less what we get up to. The only times they turn their gazes towards us, is when they come down to collect taxes, raise an army to go fight their wars in far flung worlds, and to fill their numbers with talented children who become their apprentices.”

And that is what worries Magnus the most, the Guilds lack of interest and their total apathy towards, us commoners. The message they are getting across is loud and clear, and it is one of-- you are insects to us and are not worth our time.

“Anyways, getting back to the matter at hand, how do we get in?” Bulut asked. “From what I can make out, we will have to cover a whole lot of ground to get to it. Meaning there is a higher likelihood that we might run into one of those gangsters that are doubtlessly prowling those tunnels. Then that means there is a higher chance we might get and we do not want to obviously get caught. So you can see the problem here.”

“You raise a good concern, Bulut, and as you all know-- it is our motto never to be seen, recognized, or ever caught. So we will be using those,” he stated as he pointed behind himself to two earthenware jars.

“What are they,” Taylan asked, raising the question on everybody’s mind.

“They’re dwarven ash,” Soykan declared as he grinned down at them.

“What!” Shui shouted, losing his cool which was a first. Shui was the embodiment of a wise old monk, he might get irritated with Taylan but who wouldn’t. Nevertheless, he never lost his shit, therefore it was a real shocker to see him do so now.

“There is a reason why that thing is banned nearly all across Pandora and for good reasons as well. It is highly volatile and dangerous to everyone near it.”

“I know, I know,” Soykan quickly said while he made calming gestures towards Shui, “but hear me out.” He brought the map closer to himself and pointed to the upper center room with only caverns and tunnels surrounding it.

“Wait,” Magnus clamored, pausing everyone where they were. “I still do not know what this dwarven ash is,” he stated which was untrue since he was already starting to form ideas what it really was, and there was one, above all else, that echoed endlessly in his mind.

“So, what is it?” he asked, wanting to run his suspicions through them.

This time it was Bulut who answered, “It is a highly deadly powdered mixture that was made by those blasted dwarves and a closely guarded one too.”

‘Dwarves,’ Magnus thought to himself with a shake his head, ‘of course they would invent gunpowder. No surprise there.’ Still, what was a surprise for him was to hear of fantasy races spoken of so frankly, out in the open. It was like they were just a thing, a part of life, which they were he guessed.

Be that as it may, he turned to look at Soykan and gave him the look he reserved for real assholes. “So,” he said as Soykan started to get uncomfortable in his seat. “You let me lug that shit all the way from that contraband dealer?”

“Ignorance is bliss,” he offered with a bashful smile.

Shui turned to face Soykan with a raised eyebrow, “Don’t tell me you actually did that?”

Soykan coughed into his fist, and mumbled hurriedly, “I did tell him to be extra careful.”

“Well then I am sure you could do way with 5% of your cut,” Shui stated, not getting any argument from Soykan.

“All in favor of that judgment,” Shui shouted, calling a quick, informal vote.

Magnus was the first to gleefully raise his hand, followed by Bulut and Taylan.

“Then it is decided!” Shui concluded. “You can carry on explaining your plan, now.”

“Okay,” Soykan said, being a bit cowed.

“This here is the tavern. Thus instead of going down these caverns, then into this room, which is the lounge area, then down this long passageway covering all the sleeping chamber, followed by going into the training room, down the passageway across the loo, and then…”

“We get it!” everybody shouted, getting sick and tired of Soykan's endless tirade.

“Alright, moving on,” Soykan said as he hastily wiped the grin off of his face.

“My plan is much more straightforward and safer. We come down from the tavern from the other entrance, then we simply travel down this cavern ending up behind the treasure room. Then that is were the dwarven ashes come in, we set it against the vent which is represented by the white line, it does its work, then the way towards the treasury is cleared.”

“I am still not sure about it, one miss step and it is into Limbo for all of us,” Shui said, voicing his worry about the dwarven ashes.

“It is going to be alright! We will handle the substance with extra care and attentiveness,” Soykan replied, trying to off put Shui’s worry with an air of carefreeness.

Then not wanting to stay on the topic, he turned to face Magnus, “You have a question, kid?”

"Yea," Magnus replied as he took to the floor. "My inquiry is simple, how are we going to collect all that wealth? All we ever stole were items of great value, never a dragon's hoard.

This must be a princely sum if it is a tribute to the Guild, plus they will obviously use this chance to try to appease and better themselves in the Guild's eyes.

Therefore, unless we make several trips to the treasury, which is impossible in my view, we will never be able to extract al the wealth. At best, we will only escape with a paltry amount we can carry.”

“You raise an excellent issue,” Soykan admitted with a nod of his head in recognition. “And the answer to that is right here,” he said as he grabbed a satchel off the shelf near the stone steps.

“What is it?” Magnus asked, as he looked over the item. It was merely a plain and simple bag, something you would sling over your shoulder and carry a few items with. “Is it a magical bag or something,” he then asked as he wasn’t quite impressed with it.

“You have no idea how correct you are,” Soykan responded with as a mysterious smile played on his lips. “Perhaps a demonstration is in order,” he said as he grabbed a few more items laying around the place.

Magnus watched in amazement as Soykan shoved in one item after another, the satchel must have been an endless gaping maw as it took all of them in.

“What is it?” Magnus asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

“It is called a Bag of Holding,” Shui replied. “You can store up 500 stone inside of it, and it will remain 15 stones, nevertheless.”

“Wow,” Magnus intoned, as he gazed at the small item that could hold so much. Magic what a marvelous thing; it can so easily break numerous laws of physics with reckless abandonment and neglect. This bag that laid right before him on the table had a pocket dimension, an actual 6 by 2 dimension. It is something that was wishful thinking, no, disillusioned, back home, on Earth.

Magnus gave the satchel one final look before he turned his head back to the conversation at hand. In any event though, this world never ceases to amaze him.

“Hmm, besides Shui’s major anxiety, and the question that Magnus had answered. It seems like it is as you said. This plan of yours is much more effortless and trouble free,” Bulut mused out loud.

“Though that does lead back to my concern once more, the probability of getting caught. We might have saved our selves the effort of having to trek through a whole city block to get to the treasury and the high likelihood of running into gangsters in the tunnels. Except, setting off these jars of dwarven ash will undo everything. That explosion will echo all across those tunnels and draw every single gangster towards us.”

“Once more, you have raised a good concern Bulut, and thankfully I have the answer to that. That is where our second half of the plan comes into action, the distraction.”