Chapter Text
Vespera shuffles around the edge of the roof, her hands laying flat on the brick wall behind her. Sparing one, singular yet utterly terrifying glance downwards shows that she is, in fact, way far away from the ground. Vespera huffs a breath and continues on, much to her dismay.
“Hey, have either of you guys ever been up this tall of a building? Is it just me doing this for the first time ever?” Vespera calls out, where she knows the twins are far ahead of her. The twins don't answer back, much to Vespera's annoyance. They always seem to be either brooding or chuckling darkly under their breath, nothing actually fun or interesting.
The twins are just very dark people, Vespera supposes, even though their appearance says otherwise. They are practically the complete opposite of Vespera, whereas Vespera has pin-straight black hair, amber eyes, and tan skin, the twins have curly blonde hair, green eyes, and olive skin.
The twins, Sion and Seamus, are famous among other criminals for how successful they are in their heists. Every single time they've attempted to steal something, they got away unscathed. Right now, they're on a new heist; steal the Princess’ crown.
The plan is fairly simple. Two people help drop someone through an opening in the roof, snatch the crown from the pedestal it lays on, and make a quiet escape. They brought Vespera along, since even though they have each other, they need someone else to drop down through the roof and snatch the crown.
Also, not to brag, but Vespera is fairly infamous as well when it comes to being wanted for thievery. Of course, everyone thinks little of Vespera because she's a woman, but they seem to think twice when they hear how much money she makes from stealing.
When Vespera finally makes it away from the edge of the roof, she releases a deep breath of utter relief. She reaches into her satchel and brings out the needed rope, and ties it around her waist. She gives a curt nod to the twins, and they grab the end of the rope.
Looking back at the now less terrifying view, Vespera can't help but wonder what it would be like to have this view every single day. “Look at that view. Now I want a castle. My one wish in life is to own a castle all by myself.”
“Yeah, well, when we get what we came here for, you can buy yourself your very own. Now come on,” Answers back Seamus—or Sion, Vespera can barely tell the difference between the two gruff men.
Finally, Vespera is dropped through an opening made from a loose ceiling board. Vespera is dropped all the way down until she is right by the crown. Protecting the crown is the royal army, the Sun Guards, a few feet away in a straight row, facing towards the main entrance to the throne room. The crown itself is in front of the actual thrones on its own little pedestal, on a small midnight blue cushion with gold lining and fucking tassels. Jeez, just how posh can you get?
The crown itself is a beauty of its own. Its made of gold, and the gemstones seem to be a unique mixture of sapphires and rubies. The crown itself is gold, but the clashing of the red and blue is so spectacular by itself that Vespera barely registers the bright green. Picking it up and inspecting it head-on, Vespera realizes the very front and largest gem isn't a clear diamond like usual on a crown, it's green. It's an emerald.
Vespera hears one of the Sun Guards sneeze, and without thinking she blurts out, “Bless you.”
The Guard clears his throat and answers, “Thank you. Wait-”
The Sun Guard turns around just in time to see Vespera being pulled fully into the castle roof again, chuckling, before the roof closes up again.
Vespera and the twins make it down the castle roof by scaling the walls and windows, and quickly make it for the bridge that connects Veneficus to the main island, Furoish. They run through the beginning of the forest, and run themselves into a dead end.
“Okay, how about you two give me a boost and when I get up I'll pull you up?” Vespera asks.
The twins share a look, before one of them answers, “Give us the satchel first.”
“What?” Vespera says, her voice and octave way too high, “Why? Don't you guys trust me by now?”
The twins both raise a brow at him—at the same time too, how creepy, ugh—and Vespera dutifully hands over the satchel to one of them.
Vespera finally gets a boost, and while doing so manages to nick the satchel back. So, when she reaches the top of the dead end, she looks down and fixes a shit-eating grin on her face.
“Sorry boys. Maybe you should pay more attention to your luggage next time.” She hangs the satchel at them tauntingly, and when one of the twins scowls and reaches for it, she brings it out of his reach and starts running into the forest again.
Soon enough, Vespera hears the stomping of hooves and registers that as the Sun Guards slowly catching up with her. Shit, Vespera needs to lose them, and fast. She notices a tree with tall and twisted roots, a perfect way to slow them down.
Vespera turns abruptly to the tree, and jumps through a hole in between some of the roots. Vespera looks back and notices only one Sun Guard following her now. Ah, great. Now the Head Guard is chasing her. Only the hardest to defeat guard for Vespera, since fate seems to want her hanged. Or worse, her head chopped off.
While looking behind her, Vespera doesn't notice the cliff before her before she's falling to her imminent death.
When Vespera finally touches ground again, Vespera finally thanks the universe for being so kind as to drop her in a dense bush, so she didn't break anything from the drop. Vespera quickly realizes the Head Guard might follow her soon, so she quickly finds a large rock to hide behind.
After a bit, Vespera decides to move since she doesn't hear anything, but when she slowly steps back from behind the boulder, she almost trips at the sudden lack of a much larger boulder behind her. Vespera could have sworn there was a larger rock behind the one she was hiding behind. Vespera pushes away some vines, and steps through a small but dark tunnel that seemingly leads to nowhere.
Vespera is turned wrong when she finally comes out to see a beautiful sight before her. The tower is pretty overgrown in vines and not the good part of this area. No, that's the waterfall, the stream, the flowers, the everything in nature that made the spot so beautiful.
Vespera decides she should explore the tower in a split second decision. Vespera first tries looking around the lower parts of the tower, but quickly realizes the only entrance into the tower is from an opening at the top. Vespera takes two daggers from her satchel and starts scaling the wall.
Vespera finally reaches the top of the tower, and climbs inside. Vespera realizes it's eerily dark for some reason, and barely gets to look around for one minute before her vision goes black.