Back at the inn, Kael sat cross-legged on his narrow bed, staring at the ceiling beams while his mind churned through everything he'd learned.
The room was small and cramped, with two beds separated by a wooden partition that had seen better decades.
Helga occupied the other bed, methodically sharpening her weapons with the focused intensity of someone who found peace in preparation for violence.
The inn's common room below buzzed with late-night chatter, but Kael barely heard it.
His thoughts were consumed by the puzzle pieces scattered before him, each one more intriguing than the last.
"Alright," he muttered, sitting up and running his hands through his hair. "Let's think about this logically."
Helga paused her sharpening. "Talking to yourself?"
"Sometimes I'm the only one smart enough to keep up," Kael replied absently.
"First piece: the Sky Sword Sect stages a fake recovery of their stolen token. Classic misdirection either to keep the real thief from running while they hunt in secret or to make the real thief run when they want and how they want. "
He began pacing the small space between the beds. "Second piece: Borin the merchant is clearly involved, but he's terrified. Not just nervous, genuinely terrified."
Kael stopped, his eyes narrowing. "Third piece: the village head confirms there are other parties involved. 'Complicated' groups, he said."
"So?" Helga asked, testing the edge of her dagger against her thumb.
"So Borin's fear makes perfect sense now," Kael said, his voice gaining momentum.
"If it was just the Sky Sword Sect, he'd be worried but manageable. They're predictable, honorable to a fault, and they play by rules." He resumed pacing.
"But if there are other groups in play, groups that don't follow the same codes, then Borin isn't just worried about losing face or getting arrested."
Helga looked up. "He's worried about dying."
"Exactly." Kael snapped his fingers. "And here's the brilliant part I missed before. When I confronted him today, he was sweating about the wrong things."
Kael stopped pacing and turned to face Helga directly. "He was afraid when I mentioned the thief, Silas. But he wasn't just afraid of the Sect finding out about the hidden dealings he and the village head were doing."
His eyes lit up with realization. "He was afraid because he's probably been feeding crucial information to multiple parties."
"You think he's playing all sides?"
"I think he's trapped between all sides," Kael corrected. "The Sect needed him to stage their recovery. The village head needed him to keep quiet about whatever bigger secret they're hiding."
He began pacing again, faster now. "But what if there's a third party? What if someone else approached Borin, someone who doesn't care about honor or village politics?"
Helga sheathed her dagger. "Someone dangerous."
"Someone who would kill him for talking to the wrong person," Kael agreed. "Which explains why he was so genuinely terrified today. It wasn't just about getting caught. It was about staying alive."
The pieces were falling into place now, each revelation leading to the next with the satisfying click of a well-made lock.
Kael could feel the familiar rush of a puzzle solving itself, the way patterns emerged from chaos when viewed from the right angle.
"There should be something in his shop or house," Kael said suddenly. "Something he's hiding that connects all these parties together. Documents, correspondence, maybe even evidence of what everyone's really after."
He turned to Helga with a grin that was all teeth and anticipation. "Gear up. Wear black. We're going to pay Borin's shop a visit."
Helga raised an eyebrow. "Breaking and entering? I thought you were trying to be subtle."
"Sometimes the most subtle approach is the one no one expects," Kael replied, already moving toward his pack. "Besides, I know a few things that might come in handy."
…..
The streets of Riverdale at midnight were painted in shades of silver and shadow. A thin layer of mist clung to the cobblestones, muffling their footsteps as Kael and Helga moved through the narrow alleys like wraiths.
The moon hung overhead, providing just enough light to navigate by while keeping them hidden in the deeper shadows.
Borin's shop stood at the corner of two intersecting streets, its windows dark and lifeless.
The ornate sign above the door swayed gently in the night breeze, creaking with a sound like old bones. During the day, the building had seemed merely cluttered and gaudy.
At night, it looked secretive and somehow hungry.
Kael crouched beside the shop's back door, his fingers already working at the lock mechanism.
In his previous life as a gang empire boss, he'd learned that information was the most valuable currency, and sometimes that information was kept behind locked doors.
His fingers moved with practiced precision, feeling for the tiny, complicated mechanisms inside the lock.
"How long?" Helga whispered, keeping watch from the shadows of the adjacent alley.
"Thirty seconds," Kael murmured, his ear pressed against the door as he listened to the tumblers.
"This is a good lock, but not great. Borin's paranoid enough to invest in enchanted security, but not rich enough for the truly expensive stuff."
The lock clicked open with a sound like a satisfied sigh.
"Twenty-eight seconds," Kael said with quiet satisfaction. "I'm getting rusty."
They slipped inside, Kael leading the way through the cluttered back room while Helga remained by the door, her hand resting on the hilt of her dagger.
The shop's interior was a maze of shadows and gleaming objects, each surface reflecting fragments of moonlight that filtered through the front windows.
Kael made his way to what appeared to be Borin's office, a small space partitioned off from the main shop floor.
A simple wooden desk sat against one wall, covered with ledgers, receipts, and what looked like correspondence. He began searching methodically, his movements quick but careful.
Nothing. The ledgers showed normal business transactions. The correspondence was routine merchant's communications. Everything appeared legitimate and boring.
"Too clean," Kael muttered under his breath. "Way too clean for a man as nervous as Borin."
He stepped back from the desk and studied the office with fresh eyes. The walls were lined with shelves holding various curios and artifacts, but something about the arrangement bothered him.
There was a gap, a space where the pattern of objects didn't quite match.
Kael approached the back wall, running his hands along the wooden paneling.
His fingers found what his eyes had missed, a section where the wood grain was slightly different, where the panels didn't quite align perfectly.
A hidden compartment!
His fingers found the mechanism, a small wooden lever disguised as a decorative element. He pressed it, and a section of the wall swung inward with barely a whisper of sound.
Kael smiled in the darkness, the expression sharp and predatory. "Hello, secrets."