Not good odds, even if there weren’t others hiding invisibly, and I couldn’t be confident of that. My attunement couldn’t break through stronger forms of concealment magic.
Jin spoke up. “Perhaps we can make some sort of arrangement?”
The leader waved a hand. “Afraid not, friend. We have a reputation to maintain.”
I frowned. “And who are you again?”
“My, my.” The leader tapped their mask. “You haven’t heard of us? We’re the famous crew of the bravest of rogues — the Blackstone Bandit!”
My jaw opened for a moment before I regained control of my expression. “The train thief? The one based on a fictional character?”
Another series of laughs from around us.
Fortunately, the leader did not appear offended by my statement. “The very same! But I must assure you, our leader is both quite real, and most proficient at the art of roguery.”
“…Roguery? Is that an actual word?”
I was pretty sure that was not a word. It sounded made-up.
The leader waved a hand. “That’s not important. Either way, I must commend your efforts for making it this far, but your quest is at an end here. Run home, children.”
“Wait.” Jin raised a hand. “What if, hypothetically, we wanted to join the Blackstone Bandits’ crew?”
I shot Jin a look. I don’t know what kind of look it was. I’m not sure there’s a word for a combination of shock, horror, and admiration occurring all at once.
I’m going with shorrorulation. If they can make up words, so can I.
There were a series of whispers from among the hooded figures.
“While we are honored that you wish to join our most prestigious crew, you’ll need to wait a year or two. When you’ve graduated, we’ll find you. There will be tests. You may or may not know when you’ve been tested.”
Well, that was an interesting gamble, but it certainly didn’t get us what we needed right now.
Another question occurred to me. “Does your group have any relationship with the servants of the Tyrant in Gold?”
The group went tense, and I realized I may have made a mistake.
The leader simply folded their arms. “Now, why would you ask something like that?”
“The original Blackstone, the fictional one, had a connection with the Tyrant, yes?”
“Ah,” the leader made a hand signal and the others seemed to relax. “Yes. That’s all purely fictional, I assure you. We have nothing to do with those cultists.”
I nodded.
That was not what their reaction told me.
I’d hit a nerve somehow. That didn’t necessarily imply that they were actually working with the Tyrant, but there was clearly some kind of history there.
I glanced from person to person briefly, but I didn’t see any of the glowing marks on shoulders that Keras had warned me to look for. Just normal attunement marks, in normal locations.
That was good enough information for now. If they’d had the shoulder marks, I might have tried to signal Keras somehow to come in and do something, but for now, I didn’t have enough information to make a move.
And with at least six people, in their own territory, starting a fight without a good reason was a bad idea.
“I don’t suppose you could at least give us a hint about who hired you?” Jin asked.
“A hint?” One of the hooded people behind us said. “I love it. Go ahead, Jade. Give them a hint.”
Ah, so the person in front wasn’t the actual leader, then.
That made sense. It meant the actual leader was able to watch us without being watched in return, and lowered the risk that we’d attack them directly.
“Jade”, the person I’d previously assumed was the leader, raised a hand to their mask, giving a look of consideration.
After a moment, they said, “Someone with great power who may yet be your friend or your enemy, depending on how you play your hand.”
That was absolutely terrible hint.
But I’d take what I can get.
“Thank you. We apologize for intruding on your territory. We will leave you now.” Jin replied.
“We didn’t say you could leave,” Jade replied.
We tensed. I almost reached for my sword.
“Ah, just kidding. Get out of here, kids.” Jade waved a hand. “And walk safe. There are unsavory types about this late at night.”
Jin and I headed back toward the dorms at a rapid pace. We did not want the Blackstone Bandits’ crew to change their minds.
“I’m sorry that we failed to learn the identity of our pursuers.” Jin offered after a time.
I shook my head. “We did. We just didn’t find out who hired them. I’d call that a success.”
“Perhaps.” He shook his head. “But it doesn’t feel that way.”
“It’s progress, at least.”
We slowed down a bit when we got back to the school grounds.
I turned toward Jin. “Any ideas on who that clue might point to?”
He shook his head. “It could be any number of people. The ‘with great power’ is the only true hint, in my mind. That could be political, economic, or magical power — but it still narrows the field to a degree.”
I nodded. “I concur. We can most likely rule out other students, and probably our teachers.”
Leaving powerful nobles as options, independently powerful attuned like Derek, and foreign powers like Keras or the Tyrant.
We stopped before reaching the dorms to talk a bit more.
“What are our next steps?” Jin asked.
I frowned. “I don’t know. I’ll talk to Derek and see if he has any ideas. Maybe he’d have some ideas on who might be connected with the Blackstone Bandit.”
“He doesn’t seem like the type to work with thieves.”
I shrugged. “You never know. It sounds like whoever hired that crew has either lost interest in us, or decided to take a different approach. For the moment, I think we’d best just keep our eyes open, and communicate if either of us learns anything.”
Jin nodded. “I can agree to that.”
“Good.” I hesitated for a moment, then added. “Thank you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “For?”
“Coming to me about someone following us. I appreciate the information.”
“Of course.” He hesitated, looking like he wanted to say something more, then simply concluded with, “You’re welcome.”
“It doesn’t change what you did before,” I added hastily.
Jin shook his head. “I did not expect it to. But I hope that perhaps, over time, you can learn to trust me at least a bit again?”
I drew in a deep breath. “I’d like to. But I don’t know.”
Jin gave me that crooked smile of his. “That’s a better answer than you gave me before, at least.”
“It is.” I acknowledged. “Good night, Jin.”
“Good night, Corin.”
I met with Keras on the way back to the manor.
“So, did you pick up anything I may have missed?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t presume to know what you noticed, but there were a considerable number of additional members of their group still waiting nearby, both inside the building and atop it. That is not a small organization, Corin. And I believe you found one of their bases of operations.”
I frowned. “Or that whole encounter could have been staged. I don’t see why they would have had a monitoring device in that sort of location. It seemed like just an ordinary neighborhood.”
“Operating out of a seemingly ordinary neighborhood seems like a pretty good way of keeping your group of thieves from being obvious,” Keras pointed out. “It’s not like they’re going to have a big building that says ‘Blackstone Land’ on it.”