Glass Stone by neesboy
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A hand clutched at a windowsill. An unusual sight, one not
found often, especially when the windowsill belonged to the Eliv Thade's castle,
and never in the hours preceding dawn's awakening by several candle marks. Next
to the hand's grasp, its twin held a similar position. It was an identical save
for one difference, apart from being the other's reflection. But it was a difference
unlike any other, for one hand bore a black pentagram, the mark of all who had
consorted with the dark faeries. Even the weighty adjective of black did not do
it justice; it was more like an emptiness, where reality dared not assert its
presence.
Suspended on the two hands hung Calth Merbeck,
a lean brown Zafara. His forehead was slightly damp with perspiration, held
at bay by a deep red band above his eyes, as well as the cool night air. But
what he was known for, what identified him from a common person, and would explain
to anybody why he hung in his awkward position, was held in his belt, and concealed
by a heavy dark grey cloak that was weighted down with lead. They were several
obsidian daggers with hilts carved out of onyx, from which he derived his more
commonly adopted moniker, the Obsidian Dagger.
The Obsidian Dagger was the thorn in the side
of the rich, but no hero of the poor. One person profited from what he did,
and he was the one doing it. The only ones who sympathized with him had a grudge
against his victims and nothing valuable enough to attract his professional
attention.
Calth nimbly pulled himself onto the ledge,
careful not to make any noise. The undead were notoriously protective of their
aging opulence, which was often comprised of copious amounts of gold and rare
gems, with a few enchanted artifacts, and booby traps devised by minds facing
the eons. But Thade's hoard was different. The deranged ghost guarded few material
objects of substantial worth, but the real treasure was knowledge. Knowledge
is power, and all with power know it is readily transposable with wealth.
As he crouched on the protrusion, he tensed
his muscles. He sprang towards his target, a leering gargoyle, and landed lithely
on its scaly back. Over the past week, he'd made careful note of which statues
were real, and which ones were stone Draiks perched on the outcrops. Eliv did
not care for visitors avoiding the puzzles in which he took his fiendish delight.
Carefully scaling the side of the decrepit building,
the burglar settled in front of his selected casement-cum-ingress. The wood
around the pane of glass was rotting, and was separated from the stone with
a good deal of persuasion from one of the larger blades. The larcenist slowly
lowered it into the room, resting it on the floor as he slipped in. If he had
merely wanted to get in, he could have simply walked in through the front door.
But getting in and leaving undetected, hence with sanity and sound mind intact,
was another matter, which necessitated more elaborate measures. Phantasms have
forever in which to plan for guests.
Once in the mansion, he slunk from one flickering
shadow to the next. As he carefully tested the floor ahead of him before stepping
on it, he gave a slight grin. All this for some scratchings of a madman, the
thoughts of a lunatic put down on parchment. A simple tome, with no magic or
mystic properties. But as he turned a corner, the smirk left his countenance.
Leave it to a Kacheek with an acronym for a name to build a maze in his house.
Now, as everybody knows, the way to get through
a maze without getting lost is to put one's left hand on the wall and keep it
there. However, less common techniques are occasionally employed that work just
as effectively, such as the one Calth used. Walking up to the nearest barricade,
he withdrew several sturdy daggers, and jammed them into the wood. He then used
them to climb up onto the top of the wall, and walked along it. The grin returned
as he adroitly balanced, navigating his way to the other side of what once was
a large dining room.
The door leading out of the room, much less
frequently employed, was locked. But a locked door is only as good as the lock
that holds it. With the practiced twist of a thin blade, the rusty dead bolt
admitted the caller into the library. Motes of dust skittered across the floor.
Not from the entry's opening, but from the soft swish of a tail. "Boo. I admire
your ingenuity in proceeding so far. But I prefer not to be the victim of mortal's
silly games. I much prefer it the other way around."
The felon merely nodded his head. "I'm surprised
at you. The hospitality of the house of Thade is somewhat wanting, in many regards.
Your game is riddles, is it not? And that is what I have, a riddle you cannot
solve."
"Ha! Do you, a petty thief, suggest to accomplish
what only one has done?"
"And do you, an alleged mastermind, suggest
that a mere petty thief could make his way through the defenses you both designed
and incorporated in your own dwelling? I am no more a petty thief than you one
who dabbles in puzzles. But I have a riddle, with only one wholly logical answer,
and I do not think you can solve it in ten minutes' time."
Leering with maniacal glee, the apparition queried,
"What of the wagers? I am sure that you did not make your way here simply to
pose an enigma."
"All I want is one book, from your extensive
collection. Your estimable Grimoire of Thade, and of course, no direct interference
on my way out. And if I am misguided in my hazard, than you shall have both
me as your prisoner, and the reputation of being the one to finally sheath the
Obsidian Dagger."
"Tell me, what good is the word of a criminal?"
"And what is that of a madman?"
"I concede. Present what simple conundrum you
have devised."
With a mocking bow, he recited simply, "Nothing
more,
And nothing less
Than what you're
About to guess."
So saying, he took a seat, looking up at the
grandfather clock. "And as I stated, there is but a single answer that meets
logic's strict confines."
Silence settled, held at bay only by the soft
swishing of the tail. As the minute hand neared one sixth of its full orbit
around the face's central point, Eliv Thade spoke up. "The answer. The answer
is the answer, and that is nothing more and nothing less than what I guessed."
"No, the answer is not the answer. Therefore,
it cannot be nothing more or less than what you guessed."
"Then what is the answer, that you insist meets
logic in all aspects?"
"I know the way to hold a madman to his word,
and that is to use what his madness dictates. I'll tell you the answer the minute
I have stepped over the threshold of this abysmal mansion, with the book in
hand."
The poltergeist sighed placidly, and walked
through a bookcase. After a second, the case swung open, showing itself to double
as the metal door of a safe. "It can only be opened from the inside, so that
nobody else could reach the tome without my consent." The larcenist took the
volume, and made his way towards the front door.
Once he stepped onto the miry ground of the
Haunted Woods, Calth turned. "The way to make a thief keep his word is to give
him what he wants." And then he told the phantom the answer to the riddle, the
one thing he would not, through pride, and could not, through psychosis, guess.
"Wrong."
The End
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