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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hbarsquared" data-source="post: 3173899" 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 cloak, and a figure coalesced from the darkness, tumbling over her head and landing at her side.  Abrina tried to reach over her shoulder and draw her spear, but the figure had 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.    Ghelve dove behind one of the chests with a yelp, disappearing from view with a clatter as his stilts collapsed beneath him.  Obviously, the gnome would not be of any help.  Sparing a brief glare at the chest he hid behind, Abrina tightened her grip on her spear and eyed the strange creature.    It seemed human, but was completely hairless, with skin that was thick and leathery.  Its skin was a deep, dark brown, but as Abrina watched it slowly shifted in color, growing lighter even as she thrust with her spear time and again.  The two moved toward the center of the room, where gray rays of diffused light shone through the window from the corners of the black curtains.  The creature's skin seemed to change, as the light fell upon it, to match in color.The creature did not flinch as she stabbed it with her spear, snarling only once as she finally embedded her weapon in its abdomen.  Its eyes rolled back, and the creature fell to the floor, sickly gray blood oozing from its wound.Breathing heavy, she called out to Ghelve.  "It's over," she said, but still unsure of what, exactly, had begun.  "You can come out now."Ghelve crawled out from behind the chest, eyes fastened on the dead form of the humanoid creature splayed across the floor.  As the two watched, its skin color slowly shifted to match the wood floor beneath it.  Within moments both could only make out the form of the creature by looking directly at the spot where it fell."What is that thing?" Abrina asked, hefting her spear in one hand and clasping Ghelve’s arm, lifting him up, with the other.Ghelve brought his gaze to the spear, still bloodied.  "I... I don't know.  These tall ones, and some short ones, too, burst into the shop a little over three months ago and threatened me and my... pet.""You mean there are more?"Ghelve nodded and gulped.  "Yes.  Many, many more.”  He averted his eyes, free to speak but still afraid.  “And they have keys to nearly every lock in the city."Abrina stared at the gnome, aghast.  Every lock in the city?  Her wound forgotten for the moment, Abrina leaned against the staircase.  The children were not just an isolated incident, then.  There could be more kidnappings, many more, and for what purpose Abrina could not fathom."Close your shop," she said, weakly.  "We have some things to discuss.""But, the business day is not over, yet!"Abrina raised her spear and leveled it at the gnome.  "Close your shop.""Yes, yes, all right."  Ghelve hurried behind the red separating curtain and from the other room Abrina could hear the series of locks slide and click in the front door.  Ghelve returned and motioned her up the stairs."I need to show you something," he said.  "Another tall one will show up soon, and we don't have much time.”  He paused.  “I don't have much time."Abrina closed her eyes, whispered a prayer to Ninurta and took a deep breath as her patron patched her wounded shoulder.  Abrina kept her spear in a firm grip and followed Ghelve up the stairs.</blockquote>

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