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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hbarsquared" data-source="post: 2679333" data-attributes="member: 4550">Chapter Two, Part TwoAbrina had half-expected to find a bandit, complete with scarf covering his face and a deadly sharp knife already drawn, waiting for her on the other side of the curtain.  No such bandit existed, however.  Only a plain anteroom of the lockshop.Black curtains partially obscured a window niche that faced the street.  Ornate locks and complex locking mechanisms were neatly displayed in the niche.The room itself looked tidy, but lived in.  Carpets covered the stone floor, and a broom leaned against the railing of a wooden staircase leading up to a second floor balcony.  Three wooden chests rested in the middle of the floor, their lids bound shut with sturdy iron padlocks.  Small tables, shelves, and benches held various knick-knacks, and a framed portrait of a silver-haired gnome hung next to a tall wooden box with a glass pane revealing its innards at the base of the stairs.  The wooden box contained an intricate array of ticking gears, counterweights, and cylindrical chimes, surmounted by a circular face that bore the numerals 1 through 12 on its circumference."Let me just show you how some of these function," Ghelve said, hurrying to one of his wooden chests and removing a large, heavy key from a hidden pocket.Abrina paused and surveyed the room.  Nothing seemed out of place or out of the ordinary, and she wondered why the gnome had led her to this room.  He ignored her, now, instead fiddling with the padlock on the far chest.  She looked at the staircase, following the stairs up to the landing above, and saw only darkness."What's up there?" she asked, motioning to the staircase and stepping toward it.A sudden whoosh of air, the flapping of a tattered closk, and a figure coalesced from darkness tumbed over her head and landed at her side.  Abrina tried to reach over her shoulder and draw her spear, but the figurehad caught her unawares, was too fast.  The glint of steel  flashed, and she felt a piercing pain in her shoulder.She stumbled backward, but somehow managed to retrieve her weapon.  She held it out in a defensive position that had become second nature after her years of training, and managed to divert the strike from her attacker that followed.A short update, more to come soon, as well as regularly!</blockquote>

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