Today was a big day, good for business!

  Something about a treaty with a neighboring duchy, it didn't really matter to Quinn.

  The Bealin’doth Emperor really was lax with their rule, Quinn shook their head.

  The crowds were gathering and jostling, the perfect environment for some valuables to go “missing”.

  Quinn weaved their way through the crowd, all they saw was a child looking for their parents. Maybe a little girl? Maybe a little boy? Quinn could play either role so long as their face was shrouded.

  In truth, Quinn didn't know what they were, they just knew they weren't human.

  Up ahead by the Kardock Palace the guard was arrayed in their ceremonial armor. Bright paper lanterns and streamers reflected off their polished breast plates. The duchess gracefully wafted through the doors onto the balcony arrayed in the most beautiful fabrics. She looked like a proud eagle on display, gravity could not, dared not touch her. The people below cheered as she waved. Quinn drifted a bit closer, a pocket picked, and a purse slashed here and there as they went.

  It's funny how easily people could be distracted by just a little decoration on top of the old exterior.

  It's like people wanted to get fooled.

  Quinn looked up, the duchess up there was a good example. Sure she had pretty clothes on and was loved by the people, but how much was an act?

  Quinn would bet that the duchess had dirty knickers just like everyone else. No one else seemed to care though, or notice anything, just like the man in a black cloak walking up behind the duchess.

  It was weird how no one noticed them, even as they pulled out a blade and. . . Wait a second!

  All of the noise drowned out the captain's cry of alarm. The expression on the duchesses face wilted as she toppled off the balcony, the crowd silenced with surprise.

  The Duchess landed right in front of Quinn. Ohhh this looked bad, don't draw attention! They took on the demeanor of a waif.

  “What's this? She's been stabbed!" the waif cried.

  Quinn noticed the seal on the dagger in her back, the duchess’s corpse now looked more like a small broken fledgling engulfed by the bloodied splendor of the dress. "One of them stabbed her!" The waif yelled pointing at the city guards rushing to the duchesses broken body.

  The role wasn't Quinn, not really. It was best to keep their persona’s separate from their real mind. It worked though

  The citizens screamed and began throwing cobblestones from the street and fruit garnered from the stalls around them, pelting the guardsmen as they approached the body. Quinn vanished in the crowds as two guards tried to apprehend them.

  They barely got out of there in time!

  That escalated strangely quickly though, it was almost like supplies of cobblestones had been prepared beforehand.

  It didn't matter to Quinn though. Whether natural or not, this smelled like an opportunity!

  The mob raged and the streets began to drip red with blood. The guards used their swords on the now violent mob, and the mob grabbed their tools of the trade and turned them to bloodletting.

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  A butcher's knife took off an arm, the guards stabbed and slashed.

  The mob used burning brands to push back the guards as barricades were erected through winding streets. Quinn took advantage of the abandoned buildings, there was good looting to be had here! They thought as they swallowed more “borrowed” trinkets.

  Despite the fierceness of the mob, the guards began to slowly start pushing them back, with force that seemed just a tad excessive.

  Quinn noticed one of the burning brands on a basket of laundry.

  Too bad for them! The owners should have taken it in before the riots got this far if they wanted clothes for the morrow!

  The city would be fine, its stones were built to withstand all sorts of fires. One street tale said it was because of a bad fire after an earthquake, another said it was because of a dragon.

  Quinn didn't really pay attention to them before.

  Hey! Maybe that apartment would be good to loot!

  Quinn saw a dark figure dart across the alley.

  It felt wrong, like the light itself didn't want to touch it in disgust, it was harder to notice this time. Was it the same figure that killed the duchess?

  It started to turn towards Quinn, and Quinn ducked down a different street.

  Quinn trusted these feelings, they always seemed to be about when danger was involved.

  Hopefully it hadn't seen them?

  Perhaps a different apartment, on the other side of the city would be better to loot?

  The day of celebration for the new peace with the neighboring duchy was ruined beyond repair. The next day the citizens whispered.

  They whispered as the mourning bells tolled.

  They whispered at the temple of Allumbra where the duchess’s body lay. They whispered as whole neighborhoods now lay desolate.

  They whispered as new dark clouds rolled over the horizon.

  They whispered, this rebellion failed, but they knew the whispers would only end with their blood or the blood of the murderers of their beloved duchess, the palace guards themselves.

  Quinn however would be profiting from all of it, men in black cloaks or no men in black cloaks.

  That night, the fence looked at all of the loot that Quinn brought in.

  They had had to pull it out of its stomach and put it in sacks, and damnation it was heavy!

  “How did you manage to steal all of this?” The fence asked. inconvenient questions, just great. Quinn frowned.

  “You aren't supposed to ask questions, I can take it all elsewhere.” Quinn, with the persona of the thief answered.

  Sure, Quinn may be a thief, but that didn't have to be their entire personality! It was better to keep that separate. The thief persona was a little too serious for Quinn most of the time.

  The fence looked panicked, “Now now, don't do that. It was just an innocent hypo- hyper. . . It was a question to myself!

  I'll give you a few extra Diums to cover for my indis- inter- my mistake.”

  “A few extra Diums? I don't know, If I tell the others that you ask inconvenient questions, I think it'd cost you Beals, not Diums.”

  The fence looked panicked.

  “Then. . . I'll give you three Dragons for the lot,”

  Quinn stopped.

  Gold Dragons? They were expecting a few Silver Beals, not gold! How did this fence even get Gold Dragons, they were used for trade between Duchies and territories. They weren't coinage for common folk. Just one could have a commoner eating well for. . . Quinn stopped doing math in their head. . . A very very long time! Maybe a lifetime, Quinn wasn't really sure how lifetimes worked, but it sure seemed like a lot!

  Quinn had never even seen a Gold Dragon before.

  “I'll take three and a half Dragons, not a Shield less! Two in gold, the rest in silvers and coppers.”

  The fence looked down at the trinkets in front of them. He knew he was overpaying, but then, the creature in front of him’s silence was more important.

  He saw things, things he'd rather forget behind that hood when it had slipped. An unnatural visage of strange materials and metals that seemed to shift and contort in a mockery of life.

  This thing was unnatural, but oh so profitable.

  “Fine, three and a half Dragons, paid in various coinage.” The fence said. He figured it would pay off in the long run.

  Quinn grinned under their hood. It liked playing with coins, the shinier the better, and what was shinier than gold?

  This was a very profitable persona indeed, maybe it would try becoming a mage next?

  Quinn hummed as it walked away.

  This time, Quinn missed the dark figure watching it before the man in a dark cloak slipped in to see the fence.

  With the current turmoil, the watchmen would find the body in a few weeks, after the stench was exposed.

  It was a pity, but that thing masquerading as human would need to find a different fence in the future. That thing wasn't on the list, but this shadow could make an exception, for mercies sake at least.