Den of Thieves: A Momentary Sighting

"You asked to see me?" Vallista Greycloak eased back from her desk, weighing him with her eyes, and Bassom swallowed. 

He knew he was only still a Greycloak by courtesy, and because he had gone for help when he fled. Derlina and the rest of the crew had been down by then; he'd done the sensible thing. But since the other three -- and Derlina in particular -- had gone down fighting, everybody in the gang thought of them as heroes... and him as a coward. It wasn't right, it wasn't true, but there it was and he was stuck with it.

"Yes, um, Boss. I heard news, and you'll want to hear it to. Bilk Tendal, down on lower city north? He had a group of kids had made a hideout in the back of his shop. Wannabe gang, it sounds like, but still just kids. Anyway, this group came in and helped Bilk bust 'em out: pried 'em out of their hideout, dressed 'em down in the street, then made 'em clean up and marched 'em home to their parents."

Vallista Greycloak leaned forward, studying Bassom closely. He managed not to swallow again, but it took an effort; Vallista was old Anderlin's daughter, likely to take over the gang if her father ever passed. "Why, exactly, did you think I needed to know this?" she asked quietly.

Oh, right, yeah. "'Cause they was the same group as done us," he said. "A dragonborn, a dwarf, an elf, and a couple'a humans. Has to be the same ones, dunnit?"

Vallista leaned back again. "And how long ago was this?"

"Two days ago, maybe three," Bassom admitted. "I came as soon as I heard the word."

"Well," said Vallista Greycloak, "You're the first I've heard it from, so that was wise."

She extended a single finger, tapped it on the arm of her chair. "Very well," she continued after a moment. "Should I call in Derlina? Or do you think you can go down there and ask some questions without attracting attention?"

"They ruined my rep," Bassom said. "I'd rather take care of it myself."

"Hm. Nothing without my permission, though."

"That's why I'm here," Bassom assured her. "I'm loyal -- to the 'Cloaks and to the Guild. Maybe I screwed up, but I want to do this right." There, he'd said it. He wanted to earn his place back -- his real place, not this shunned role out on the edges of everything that mattered to him. 

"As you wish," Vallista told him. "See what you can find out: who they were, who they know, who they're working for. You report directly to me until I say otherwise, and you don't breathe a word of this to anybody else. Until we know who these people are and who they're working for, we move very quietly on this."

"Not a word to anybody else," Bassom told her. "I swear it."