“Niva, you’ve been dodging our questions all the way here. Why can you not just tell us the details of this job?” Kel asked.

“Oh geez, look at that. We’re already here!” said Niva, pointing to a building just down the street. The Twilight Eye guild hall was a squat building, save for five towers topped with onion domes. Between the towers endlessly swirled a localized storm cloud, sparking with lightning. Only a single hole parted the clouds in the center, admitting a large beam of sunlight onto the roof. “Guess we’ve got no time to go over any of that boring stuff together before the meeting.”

“I’m having second thoughts about this,” Jazathya said.

“You already agreed though!” Niva said.

“I was drunk when I said that,” Jazathya pointed out. “Plus, I’m with her. I don’t understand why you won’t give us more than two or three sentences about this whole affair.”

“I know, I know. The whole plan’s a little hazy right now. You just have to trust me on this,” Niva said.

“I don’t have to trust you. I don’t even know who you are!” Jazathya shot back.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said you were drunk yesterday.” Niva held out her hand to offer a handshake. “I’m Niva.”

“That’s not what I meant!” By now, they were practically to the door, and Niva turned to face the other two.

“Look, I’m doing this either way. Are you two in or out?” she asked. Kel and Jazathya turned to look at each other.

“What do you say?” Jazathya asked.

“I’ve known Niva for years. Her dumb ideas are really dumb…” Kel began.

“Hey!” Niva indignantly interjected.

“...But I have to admit that when she has a clever idea, it’s genuinely pretty clever. This could go either way.”

Jazathya took a deep breath. “To hell with it. My life can’t get any more ruined. Let’s do it.”

“Yes!” Niva exclaimed, excitedly hugging the Irdishani mage. “Just let me do all the talking. I promise you won’t regret this, Zathy.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Together they entered the guild hall. Inside they beheld a diverse crowd of warriors and wizards, sitting around and chatting with one another or else waiting in line at one of the desks situated at the far wall. The guild members had no uniform, but all had the guild’s symbol, a stylized orange design which could have been either a setting sun with rays of light still spreading out from over the horizon or a half-lidded eye with prominent eyelashes, depending on how one looked at it. Some had it emblazoned on their clothing directly, while others had some prominent amulet or ring bearing the design.

The girls were mostly ignored as they waited in line, with the guild members barely sparing them a glance. Soon, they stood before an elderly dwarf, who regarded them with one real eye and an artificial prosthetic in his left socket that glowed a deep orange. “State yer business,” he demanded gruffly.

“Niva Grell and party, here for our appointment with the guild master.”

The dwarf huffed and got up off his chair, leading them out of the main room and down a series of corridors. He eventually brought them to an ornately carved door bearing the Twilight Eye’s symbol. The door was opened from within, not by a human, but by a being composed of dark clouds. The upper half was vaguely humanoid, but the bottom featured a single trail of cloud which thinned and tapered out to nothing as it got further from the torso. The dwarf abandoned them without a word as the cloud creature floated back and beckoned them into the room.

The guild master’s office was very spacious, centering around a giant throne carved of blue crystal faintly glowing from within, its base so high that the occupant’s feet sat on a footrest rather than the ground. All the other furniture was pushed against the walls, leaving the center of the room clear, save for a single desk which was held aloft in front of the throne by two more of the cloud creatures.

Seated on the throne was Harat Sopak. The guild master was a dark skinned man in an orange and gold toga which left his arms and much of his chest bare. Tracing over his skin, even on his bald head, was an intricate system of yellow tattoos. Kel couldn’t be sure, be she thought they moved ever so slightly across his skin every time she blinked.

“Welcome,” he said, not looking up from the desk as the three women approached the throne. “I understand you claim to have some information regarding a theft from my guild.” As they neared him, three cushioned chairs were rapidly flown over by the cloud creatures and offered to the guests. Once they were seated, the chairs were raised into the air and brought directly in front of the guild master’s desk. “Speak.”

“I saw some people in Tide Masters armor dragging a big opal cauldron out of a mostly secret Depths pool,” Niva said. “Then I heard a little gossip that your guild had been hit in the upper Depths. I put two and two together. I remember everything, could pick the guys out of a crowd quicker than you can say ‘gotcha’!”

“Excellent,” he replied. “Describe them.”

“I could tell you what they looked like and take a tiny pittance for this super important new magic treasure,” Niva said. “That’s one option. Orrrrrrrrr…”

Harat finally looked up from his papers at her. “You will be well paid.”

“But not as well paid as if we brought you the cauldron ourselves,” Niva said. “Right?”

“My guild is very thorough Miss Grell,” Harat said as he picked up one of the pages of paper in front of him, waving it. “Their report tells me you have a reputation here in Darazzo. Why would I ever trust you to handle this?”

“A totally fair point,” Niva admitted. “That’s why I brought backup. Let me introduce Dame Keloran Beriss of the Order of Our Lady of Roses, recently returned from heroic service in fighting on the front lines against Krovian aggression. And here we have Duchess, yes Duchess, Jazathya Abdurk, expert war wizard and daughter of the very Lion of Irdishan! Both somewhat recent arrivals with no ties to any guild. Between them and my local connections, we’ll have it back in no time!”

“If you can recover my property on your own,” Harat said. “Why are you wasting my time? Go get it first, then we’ll talk.”

“If we’d done that, you’d have accused me of stealing it myself and trying to sell it back to you. Like you said, I’ve got a reputation.” Harat had to reluctantly grunt an affirmation to that. “No, I want an agreement on a price now, plus a down payment as a show of faith that you aren’t just going to take it back as stolen property and leave us high and dry.”

Harat rubbed his chin, considering the proposition. “100,000 shelat, ten percent now, the rest when I get my cauldron.”

“100 for an item the guild master of the Twilight Eye would personally meet with little old me over?” Niva asked. “We won’t take less than 500.”

“150, then”

“400.”

“200, and you’re lucky you’re getting even that.”

“210 so we can split it evenly.”

“Fine,” Harat agreed. “But I also want you to find out what happened to one of my guild members. Kashin Qadullah was with the team meant to take the cauldron up the final leg of the journey into the city, but his body wasn’t with the rest. I want to know if he’s still alive and whether he’s betrayed the guild. Jorgrund will give you the file on him on your way out.”

“Perfect!” said Niva. “You’ve got a deal. We’ll get out of your way now and get to work.”

“You have one week,” he said. “Don’t make me regret putting my faith in you.”

“If I can ask,” Kel interjected. “What exactly does this cauldron do? If we know what it’s for, we can get a better idea of where they’d have taken it or who they’d want to sell it to.”

“The divinations that alerted us to its existence predicted that it would have the ability to multiply the magical qualities of Depths-based materials prepared in it. It could increase the potency of mixtures, or allow us to stretch ingredients out to produce potions in much larger quantities. I’d imagine the Tide Masters would be using it to give their members better temporary magical enhancements. That’s certainly what I was planning to use it for.”

“If there’s nothing else,” Harat continued. “You may go.” The chairs were slowly lowered to the ground and the girls dismounted. With a bow, they bid farewell and turned to leave. As they stepped out the door, the guild master added. “Remember: one week. Don’t screw me on this.”

“See? What did I tell you? It went fine,” Niva said as she happily jingled the bag of gold the dwarf receptionist had given her on the way out.

“’Went fine’? We haven’t done anything yet!” Kel retorted.

“We just have to track down enough members of the Tide Masters that Niva recognizes one of the thieves, right?” Jazathya said. “Sounds simple.”

“Yeah, except that was all bullshit,” Niva said calmly. The other two stopped dead in their tracks and stared at her.

“WHAT?” Jazathya shouted.

“I didn’t see shit,” Niva admitted. “I heard a rumor about the missing cauldron and made up that story to get my foot in the door with the Twilight Eye.”

“Niva!” Kel said as she grabbed the redhead by her shoulders, panic overtaking her expression. “You just told a fucking guild master, straight to his face, that you knew exactly who stole from him!”

“Yes and by the time anyone thinks to question that, it will be true,” Niva answered non-nonchalantly. “All we have to do is find the real thieves.”

“But what if it isn’t the Tide Masters?” Kel objected. “We can’t just frame them.”

“Relax,” Niva said. “The Tide Masters and the Twilight Eye hate each other. If it isn’t them, and I’d bet it is, then we’ll just say that the real thieves dressed up as Tide Masters to throw any investigation off. What, are they going to go up to Mr. Tattoo-head and confess to stealing the thing without using fake uniforms? Trust me, I’ve thought of every angle on this.”

“What if we can’t find it?” Jazathya pointed out.

“It’s not like any of us have strong ties to the city,” Niva shrugged. “If we don’t have it in five or six days, we can just run. I hear the Wildshield Mountains are nice this time of year.”

“I can’t believe you lied to us like this,” Kel said.

“I only lied because I knew you wouldn’t agree to my awesome plan otherwise.”

“I’d really hoped you’d have grown up more than this since the last time we met.” Kel sighed in frustration. “But what’s done is done. We’ve got no choice but to at least try.”

“That’s the spirit!” Niva said. “You’ve just got to believe in us. We’re awesome. We can find one little missing cauldron like it’s nothing.”

“Alright, but you’ve got to promise me that you’ve told us everything now,” Kel said. “No more lies.”

“Sure, whatever.”

“Niva!” Kel said, raising her voice. “I’m serious.”

“Fiiiiiine,” Niva said. “Look, I know you’re mad. I understand that maybe I shouldn’t have lied to you like that. I promise that I’m being totally upfront now and don’t have any other surprises in store. I just want to find this thing and get paid, same as you.”

Kel buried her head in her hands. “What’s your plan, then?” she asked.

“May as well start with the Tide Masters. We’ll go to a Diver bar and ask around about them, see if anything turns up,” Niva said.

“I second that,” Jazathya said. “If it doesn’t work, I want some beer nearby to help me forget the Diver guild that’s going to murder me over this a week from now.”