I watched the rain fall, contemplating this huge job that my ganglord had given me. I didn't even know what I was going to steal. All he had told me was that it was valuable and that I would know it when I would saw it. I checked myself in the mirror one last time to make sure my disguise was perfect. My reflection looked back me. My bright green eyes glittered in the dim light, while my coal black hair seemed to take on the darkness. My skin looked dark, but that was just dirt I used to change my appearance.

“You done admiring yourself, Vol?” I heard a voice say.

I looked past my reflection and smiled at Alanne. We have been friends since we were little, watching each others' backs as we pick-pocketed and caused trouble. When we stole from the wrong man though, I thought we were finished. Instead he offered us a spot in his gang. Alanne and I took it, because the alternative was a painful death. It's been years since then, but we have still been a team.

“Only for a moment,” I said.

“Good, because we need to get going. Unless you've decided that you wanna back out, of course,” she said lightly.

“Ha, I like to keep my fingers, thank you,” I retorted. Our ganglord took fingers when you failed, and when you ran out of a handful of fingers, you lost something a bit more significant.

“Well come on then!” she exclaimed as she ran down the street. Alanne was your typical fiery red-head, the same height as me, and thin, which comes from a street life. I shook my head, then grabbed a wide-brimmed hat and headed out into the rain. We didn't have very far to go, our target house belonged to the “good” Lord Iratus, a noble known for his cruelty to the poor and anyone he deemed as of lesser value to him.

As we came upon the house walls, the rain stopped and the skies cleared. The walls didn't surprise me, because we were in the rich district of the city, and walls were like fencing to these people. We went around to the servant's entrance to the house. Dressed in servants livery, a vivid green tunic with dark black breaches, we hoped to enter the house unnoticed. Getting into the house would be the hard part, because Lord Iratus wouldn't hire idiots for guards. These would be trained men, wary and watchful. I trailed behind Alanne, careful to give her time to distract the guard. We'd been through this so many times we could go through it flawlessly.

As I came around the corner of the wall, I saw Alanne flirting with the guard. Careful to stay at his back, I approached the door. I had almost reached it when I hear a voice.

“Halt!”

Well, almost flawlessly, it seemed. I turned around, and looked at the guard who had ordered me to stop. He was taller than me, powerfully built, with battle scars on his face and hands. Some of them, I suspected, were not from battles. The Lord Iratus was a hard man.

“Sir?” I asked politely, suddenly under the guise of proper manservant. This was one of my talents, and the reason I was picked for the job.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” he asked gruffly.

“I'm one of the new menservants here, my good man,” I told him cheerily. If I acted nervous, it could be fatal.

“Is that so?” he asked. “That's odd, because I help train all new servants here, and I don't recognize you.”

My smile froze on my face as I tried to think of an escape plan. My eyes flickered to my partner and back to the guard. I smiled reassuringly.

“I am sure you are sim-” In the middle of my sentence, I swept the guard's feet from under him and locked my arm around his throat. I looked up and saw Alanne taking care of the other guard in a similar manner. The guard I held slacked against me. I waited a moment, then let go. He collapsed against the ground. I quickly checked to make sure he was still breathing. Satisfied that he was, I quickly rolled him into a bush.

Alanne emerged from the darkness.

“So let me get this straight,” I said. “So far, about 3 minutes into this, we've already had our cover blown, and now we have to get this gem or whatever it is and get out of here before these two wake up?”

“Sounds about right.”

“Great,” I muttered as I shook my head and walked onto the grounds. Iratus sure did like his luxury; the entirety of the courtyard was a garden, with exotic tree and plants that I couldn't name. I watched a pair of black peacocks strut past me.

“How come we don't have nice animals?” I complained.

“Because you'd eat them all, Vol,” Alanne said, grinning.

I winced. “Guess I walked into that one,” I said dryly.

She laughed and shoved me.

“Get out of the way, you great lummox.” She ordered.

“Are all women so bossy, or is that just you?”

“Just do it.”

I obliged, and followed her, grinning. We quickly came upon a giant double-door, with intricate designs of wealth and prosperity on it. There were farmers farming a plentiful harvest, workers creating great wonders, and teachers speaking to the masses of people. And at the center of it all was the Lord Iratus' family crest, a griffon with a hawk's head and a tiger's body.

“Well, if there's one thing about 'My Lord' that can be said of him, it's his modesty.”

Alanne laughed and opened the doors into a gigantic chamber, with a high ceiling supported by arches. The ceiling was made of glass and the arches were granite dotted with precious jewels in levels, rubies at the bottom, emeralds somewhere in the middle, and sapphires at the very top. I tapped on of the rubies, about as large as my palm.

“How much do you think one of these is worth?” I asked.

“More than you make in a lifetime, Vol,” she said. “Now come on, we're wasting time.”

I pulled myself from the gem reluctantly. We walked further along, and I noticed something. The walls, and the floor, were all bare. There weren't any tapestries, rugs, carpets, pedestals, or anything to decorate the chamber. Only the occasional torch provided a flickering light that shone on the ceiling, creating a double set of stars.

This effect created a pretty show, but it also meant something else. There were no shadows, at all. If anyone came along, there would be nothing to duck behind or hide under.

“Let's hurry along,” I murmured to Alanne.

She nodded, suddenly tense. She had noticed it, too. We hurried along to another door, this one smaller than the first, and undecorated. This time, I took the lead, and pulled the door open.

It led to a circular chamber, dotted with stones on the walls, with three extremely tall doors, each decorated differently. The one to the left of us was decorated with scenes of prisons, torture, and people screaming. The one directly ahead of us had designs of moons with evil grins and stars that actually glowed, with a menacing red light. There were beds and people sleeping, tormented by horrific nightmares of demons. The one to the right was by far the happiest of the three, with scenes of death and of armies that massacred innocent people.

Alanne turned to me, a worried look on her face.

“Which one do we go through?” she asked.

“I don't know, but I think no matter what we choose, it's gonna be bad,” I said. There was something off about this room, besides the obvious.

I peered at the door to our left, the one devoted to torture. There wasn't a visible handle on it, and I couldn't see any hinges, which meant that the door had to be pushed in, and that there was no escape once you entered. A quick inspection of the other doors showed them to be the same way.

“It seems that whatever choice we make, we'll be trapped.” I said. Something was still not right about this room.

I opened the door I had originally checked, and the sounds of screams hit me in full force, and made me physically stagger. While I was recoiling, the smell hit me next, just as much, if not more, forceful than the sounds. I smelled blood, days old, tinged with decay and excrement. I immediately turned around and would have gagged, had I not lived on the streets for sixteen years. The door shut behind me with a loud boom.

I was still recovering from my glimpse into the room, gasping loudly.

“Whatever we do, let's not go into that room,” I said.

“Agreed.”

Judging by that room, either the horrors from the nightmares lived in the center room, or that room made you experience nightmares. And I could only imagine what the last room held.

“There has to be a way through here without going through those rooms,” I said. “There's no way he'd go through those doors every time he walked into his home.”

I examined the room more closely now, looking for anything that might be a trigger, or a doorway, or a handle. Seeing none, I checked the walls. The gems were all green emeralds, except for one, which was a blue sapphire. I pushed it, but nothing happened. I tried pulling on it instead, and heard a small snick.

The floor shifted, and began collapsing in a spiral, starting with the center first, then going outward. I reacted, running towards Alanne, who stood frozen with fear. I tackled her, and we went tumbling out, back into the long hall. Both of us were sprawled out across the floor, panting.

“Thanks,” Alanne breathed.

“All in a day's work,” I replied.

I got up and examined the chamber. There was now a staircase where the floor was, descending downward into the dark.

“Think it's worth it?” I asked Alanne.

“Well, it's either this, or your head,” she replied.

“I was just joking,” I muttered.

“One day, your joking will get us killed,” she said, mock serious.

I ignored this and descended the stairs. Looking behind me, I saw Alanne close behind. As I turned back to the darkness and followed it down, I immediately saw a problem.

“Alanne, if we keep going, we're going to be in utter darkness,” I called back to her.

Just as I uttered these words, a torch lit up in front of me. About a hundred feet down, another torch lit, and another after that, continuing down for what seemed miles.

“I don't think we have that far to go,” I said with false bravado.

Alanne actually laughed, although it was a feeble laugh. The darkness seemed lifted, for a little while. We continued downward in silence. After what seemed like hours, we arrived at the bottom, panting. We were in a long hallway, with a door at the very end. There didn't look to be anything special about the door, but I knew, I just knew.

This was the end.

“Come on, Vol, it's right there!” Alanne exclaimed. She ran towards the door, almost skipping with excitement. I followed, grinning like a madman. We burst through the door, breathless and excited.

And ran straight into Lord Iratus.

“Who dares disturb my chambers!” he roared.

I quickly tripped him and he went sprawling, hit his head on the floor, and knocked himself out cold.

“You know, I expected more,” I remarked.

“He's a noble, what do you expect?” she replied.

Taking a second to look around the room, I spotted something that caught my eye. It's a multicolored gem, that shines and flickers with the lights. It was the size of my entire hand, and it rested on a silk red pillow atop a pedestal. I walked up to it and stopped, awed.

“Look at it, it's beautiful!” Alanne exclaimed.

I carefully pick it up and examine it, carefully twisting and turning it in the light.

“Well, it certainly is valuable,” I remarked, in my most scholarly voice. “But I'm afraid it's a fake, and no one would want it, certainly not our good ganglord.”

Alanne sighed, exasperated, and gingerly took the gem from me.

“Come on, we can't stay, we have those guards to worry about, remember?” she reminded me.

I nodded, and together, we began to make the ascent back to home. We were at the long chamber, when I stopped. Alanne turned to me, the gem still in her hands.

“What Vol? We need to get out of here,” she said.

“What about those prisoners that we saw?” I said. “We need to get them out of here.”

“Vol, we can't waste any time, those guards will be awake soon.”

“But we can't just leave them,” I insisted.

“This isn't the time to grow a conscience, Vol!” she shouted. “If we don't get back before those guards wake up, the Watch will catch us.”

I set my chin mulishly. “I can't leave them, not while their suffering.”

“Come on Vol, we can't save them and get the gem back in time.”

“I never said 'we', Alanne. You go on, I'll get them out.”

Alanne sighs. “You know I can't leave you, so please, come on.”

“I'm sorry, but I can't.”

At this I turned around and began walking towards the door. I heard steps following as I opened the door. As I walked inside, I saw that the floor had reset itself, once more flat and inconspicuous. Without turning, I said quietly,

“You don't have to do this, Alanne. You can just walk back and get the reward from the ganglord by yourself.”

“Yes, I do have to do this Vol, and no, I can't do that,” she replied, just as quiet.

I smiled, and instead of going towards the gem that will activate the floor, I walked to the door on the left. It was the same as it was before, though I don't know why I thought it would be different.

“Last chance, Alanne,” I said.

Instead of answering, she walked ahead of me and entered the door. Grinning I followed her in. Once again the stench hit me in full force, and I heard the door behind me clang with finality, but after that, the room was quiet. It was eerie, and sent shivers up my spine. We were obviously very lucky, foul as this luck was. They must have just stopped the torturing sessions.

Instead of a room, as I expected, it was a long hallway, with cells on either side extending far down the length. On the wall beside the cell, a cruelty in its own, was a key, just out of reach of the prisoner. Lifting my shirt over my nose, I walked over to a key, and tried it on a cell. The cell door popped open, and the prisoner covered his eyes. He was chained to the wall and was a pitiful sight, covered in blood and so thin that you could count his ribs and the rest of his bones.

“Please no more, you've already tortured us!” he cried.

I was confused, until I remembered that we still wore Iratus' liveries. I crouched down next to the prisoner, who cringed away.

“Worry not, dear friend,” I said, as gently as I could. It was plain I had to handle these people like glass. “We're here to get you out.”

He eyed me, wary. He wasn't sure if he should believe me. As a sign that I'm wasn't playing a cruel joke, I unlock his chains. His eyes widened as he struggled to sit up. I helped him up, it is painfully easy.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Come on,” I said. “We've got people to free.”

We got up and headed out of the cell, me supporting the prisoner, Alanne still cradling the gem. Slowly, almost painfully so, we got all the prisoners out of the cells, except for the ones who were dead, lying in the cells in their own blood. I looked over the crowd of people, some standing, others sitting or laying down. I cupped my hands around my mouth.

“Does any one know what's beyond this hallway?” I asked

“Just the torturing places, sir,” one of the prisoners, a burly man said. He was big, even when he was starving. There were murmurs of assent.

“And beyond that?” there were shaking heads, but no one spoke up.

“Good to know,” I muttered.

I looked at Alanne, and saw she no longer held the gem, instead supporting an elderly woman. I raised an eyebrow. She blushed deeply.

“In for a finger, in for an eye, alright?” she snapped.

I shrugged and grinned. I turned around and shouted.

“Let's get out of here!”

Everyone shouted as we continued down the hallway. We finally came upon a double-door, made of heavy, unadorned wood. I took a deep breath, prepared myself for the worst, and pushed the doors open. I blinked, there wasn't a foul stench, nor were there blood on the walls or guts on the ceiling. What I saw instead was a clean, windowless room with clean instruments of torture gleaming innocently on a table.

On the far side of the room was a small door. I trotted over to it and pulled it open, again preparing for the worst. As the door opened, however, I stumbled out into the back of the main court yard, almost directly opposite of where we entered. The sky was never so beautiful, in my opinion, nor were the stars ever so breathtaking.

The prisoners stumbled out, one by one, gasping and weeping at the sight of sky. As soon as I saw those people, who had gone without hope for years, only being able to look forward to daily tortures, with no way to escape, I knew that I could never go back to stealing for a living. No matter what, I couldn't just let this rest. I had to go out there and free others, and give them some hope. I met Alanne's eyes over the heads of the people, and she smiled.

And I knew that I wouldn't be alone.