The Blind Leviathan was the kind of tavern where questions were expensive and silence was bought by the hour. It smelled of stale ale, wet wool, and the sharp tang of cheap lamp oil.
Kaelen slipped through the heavy oak doors, keeping his hood pulled low. His shoulders ached from his near-miss in Blackwater Alley, and the phantom headache from the "glitch" still pulsed faintly behind his eyes. He wove through the crowded, dimly lit tables, ignoring the suspicious glares of smugglers and cutpurses until he reached the bar.
"Oleg," Kaelen muttered to the towering, scarred bartender. "Tell me you have work. The Syndicate wants their coin by midnight, and I'm short. Very short."
Oleg didn't stop wiping down the sticky counter. He just tilted his massive head toward the back of the room. "Booth four. Someone's been waiting for an hour. Specifically asked for the best roof-runner in the Undercity. I told them you were mostly dead, but they insisted on waiting."
Kaelen frowned. He didn't do blind meets, not when his debt to the Syndicate was this hot. But desperation had a way of silencing caution.
He made his way to booth four, swallowed by the deep shadows of the tavern's rear. Sitting at the table was a figure draped in a heavy, charcoal-grey cloak. The fabric was too fine for the Undercity—a subtle weave that seemed to absorb the meager tavern light.
"Sit, Kaelen," a voice rasped from beneath the hood. It was a woman's voice, tight and modulated, masking any discernible accent.
Kaelen slid into the booth, keeping his hands above the table where she could see them. "You have me at a disadvantage. Oleg says you're looking for a runner."
"I am looking for a ghost," the figure corrected. From beneath the cloak, a gloved hand emerged, sliding a heavy velvet pouch across the scarred wood. The distinct, muffled clinking of solid gold marks echoed from within. It was more money than Kaelen had seen in a year. "This is simply for listening."
Kaelen stared at the pouch. It was enough to pay off the Syndicate twice over. "I'm listening."
"Tonight, High Architect Vance is hosting the Solstice Gala at his estate in the Upper Spires," the woman said softly. "The entire estate will be flooded with guests. The city watch will be focused on the perimeter, but Vance's personal vault, located in his private study, will be minimally guarded. I need you to break into it."
Kaelen let out a harsh, bitter laugh and pushed the pouch back across the table. "You're out of your mind. You don't just 'break into' an Architect's vault. The Upper Spires are saturated with the Weave. The floors are illusions, the locks are bound by magic, and the guards are magically tethered to the property. I'd be dead before I cleared the garden wall."
"You are uniquely qualified, Kaelen," the woman countered, pushing the pouch back toward him. "We know about your... condition. Your mind rejects the Weave. You see through the glitches. What others see as a solid marble wall, you will see as the open window it truly is."
Kaelen froze. His blood ran cold. Nobody knew about the glitches. He had never told a living soul, terrified the Architects would haul him away to the asylums if they found out his mind didn't conform to their reality.
"Who are you?" Kaelen demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
"Someone who wants to see the Architects fall just as much as you do," she replied calmly. "Inside the vault is a pocket watch. Gold casing, an emerald face that doesn't tick. It is not a timepiece, and you must not open it under any circumstances. Bring it to me at the old clocktower by dawn, and you will receive five times what is in that pouch."
Five times. It was a king's ransom. It was a ticket out of Aethelgard entirely.
Kaelen looked at the gold, then thought of the bruising on his ribs, the toxic smog of the Undercity, and the Syndicate enforcers hunting him down. It was a suicide mission, but staying in the Undercity tonight was a guaranteed death sentence anyway.
Slowly, Kaelen reached out and pulled the heavy pouch off the table.
"Tell me about the vault," he said.