=-------------------~♛~-------------------=
Rhys Garrick
The Hive District
The timing could not have been any better. Rhys had picked out his next mark: The Delarosa family. They were above the petty squabble due to the money they had earned over the year from their emerald mines just outside of town, and Rhys had been spending the last 2 weeks chatting up Maya Delarosa, the daughter of the family's patriarch, in order to get closer. He had been over at their estate once before as well, and he knew most of the in's and out's of the moderately sized manor. The Delarosa family were not of noble descent, but still held a decent amount of power, and most importantly, valuables, in their name. His plan so far was simple: Rob them blind, then casually stop seeing Maya over the course of the next week. Maya was engaged anyways. An arranged marriage to a man of another powerful family. Fat fella. The kind of man that have never raised a finger to work his entire life. Ladies in Mayas situation often enjoyed one last fling before their fate was sealed, and once Rhys was done with his job, he would casually tell Maya that he felt bad about wooing a soon-to-be married woman. Maybe fake some tears to apear less masculine to her, thus prompting her not to object. She would be happily married, and Rhys would be set for
months.
Normally, Rhys would not do a heist like this in the middle of the day. However, something was going down in the Hive District that caught more or less everyone's attention. There was also the matter of the wannabe vigilante, Fox-Mask guy. Rhys shuddered at the thought. Too many times, they had clashed during his nightly heists. Luckily, he never saw them out during the day. Probably lived a normal everyday life then, which also made this heist so perfect! He would have to be extra cautious though. He was not as invisible in broad daylight as he was at night. However, it mattered little. He had not met any issues in his attempts at infiltrating the manor. The family didn't have maids, nor did they have security guards. Maya's father was a greedy man, wanting to spend all his earnings on himself, his wife and his daughter. Those kind of people made Rhys sick.Not that he was so much better though, as once he had robbed them blind he would likely do the same thing. Food, booze and women. (OR men, he wasn't too picky). At least he knew how to enojy himself, rather than these rich snobbs, who only thought out to dropkick their way into the noblemen's circle.
As expected, nobody was home. Everyone was down at the Hive District for an execution. A witch or something? witches wasn't a common sight around, but every once in a while someone popped up at the executioners block downtown. Luckily that meant many distracted pockets with satchels of gleaming clinkety coins, ripe for the taking. Maya would be there, and her family as well. Her father always did like to suck up to the nobles at public occurrences such as this, which made Rhys' job just
that more easy. The manor was moderately sized, yet not ginormous. They were rich, not royalty. And as expected, there were a few shiny trinkets and decorative items standing around decorating the place. However, the big loot was usually found within a stash somewhere on the upper floors, or under the staircase. Rhys quickly scouted to see if anyone was coming before getting started. He checked the staircase, and besides a rather provocative statue of some old religious figure, there was no stash there.
As he had suspected, the safe was found on the second floor, in what could only be the patriarchs office area. Rhys had never been in there before, as it was restricted from visitors. However, the stash was located in a rather expensive-looking chest next to a bookshelf. "Bingo." Rhys said as he laid eyes upon it. He walked over to it and tried to open it. As expected, it was locked. No problem. He fished out a few lockpicks from his cape, and knelt down beside the chest, listening in as he picked it open with little difficulty. The inside of the chest was a sight for soor (or poor) eyes. Numerous gems, diamonds, jewelry and not to mention: Golden coins. Rhys prepped his backpack, and started filling it up with the essentials first. Nobody could track down golden coins, so those were always his first priority. Then there was the gems. He let the jewelry be, as more often than not, jewlery could be recognized if the previous owner saw it later. However, he did snatch up the generic looking ones, like a few gemmed rings, diamond necklaces etc. He then closed the chest, and placed it where it had been. He was careful not to make a mess, as the longer it took the owners to notice anything was missing, the better. He glanced at the bookshelf and noticed a book titled "The many ways to spot a burglar". He giggled at the irony, and took the book with him. The fact that there were crime around was no secret, however no one had been able to trace anything back to him yet. Books like these were common, and Rhys learned a lot from them. Mainly how to avoid getting caught.
~~~
When his "business" was finished at the Delarosa residence, Rhys hid his backpack under his cape, and ventured home. He was still careful not to be seen, at least when in close proximity to the house. It would be bad if any witnesses saw him getting out of the house when no one was home, and he did not have it in him to silence witnesses, other than to bribe them occasionally. Once he got back to his own place, he left some of the gold there, as he usually his the rest of his stash at more secretive locations within the Warrens. Despite the area, it was the safest place for him to hide. No one breaks into peoples home in the Warrens, and Rhys had a few of the residents on his "payroll", acting like information gatherers for him to see if the authorities had made any authorized raids, or if rivaling gangs were trying to butt in. The Warrens were
His, and everyone knew it. Although not everyone respected it.
~~~
Getting back to the central part of the Hive District, Rhys was surprised to see that the high priest was still going on about.. something. He never bothered with the religious stuff, as he found the church to be awfully pushy. He had found posters everywhere, even in the Warrens.
Everywhere. However, being at the big local event was also a good chance to spot any other potential characters of interest. the name Rhys Garrick held a certain modest amount of power in the Hive District, being a jolly good fellow, a good drinking buddy, and quite the charmer. He could see a few of the regular people he knew present at the preach, among them being the local bartender, Rolof, a courtesan named Barbie (whatever that name meant), the bakers son, Gaius, who gave him a flirtatious wink when he saw him, and Big'Ol lady Haelga, the towns gossip. Haelga wiggled her giant body through the crowd and came over to Rhys.
"Young man where have you been? You are missing out on everything!" she said in a sassy, yet slightly irritated tone. "Don't tell me you were out working again? Who were the poor bastards this time, eh?" she then continued. Haelga was a large lady living at the local inn, and somehow, she knew all about more or less everything. She was very trustworthy and caring, and was one of the select few Rhys had entrusted with his thieving shenanigans. "That is not important.", he answered, quickly brushing off any suspicion Haelga might have brought upon him. "However, look at what I bought for you. Got it shipped out through a contact of mine in the..
Delarosa family." he said with a quirky grin, handing her a jewled necklace in silver. It could sometimes be costly to keep people quiet, however, Rhys was a charitable person by default, and did not mind share his wealth. No one dared to backstab him either, as he had, himself, started the false rumor that he had connections to a guild of assassins living in the Warrens.
"Ohohoho, you naughty man. Forget I asked my dear. My, what a lovely piece, this must have costed a fortune!" Haelga said as she put the necklace on. It looked good on her, despite her... not too pleasant appearance. "You know it Haelga. Now, what are the words around town?", Rhys said. Though he knew the gist of what was happening, he was still very clueless.
"Well, the father have been preaching about the origins of life for hours now, although it seems most of the people gathered have grown tired.". she said. She always sounded so excited when sharing her information, and she had no idea how valuable that sometimes was. "Lord Hainer is standing behind the father, observing everything. Word is, he is very unhappy with him for having spread his posters everywhere without his consent." she continued.
"Yes, I saw those. All the way back in the Warrens.", Rhys said thoughtfully.
"Rumor has it that there is going to be an execution today." she continued, before leanign in towards him, talking lower. "Supposedly, the one to be executed is a witch, can you believe that?". "No, I can't." Rhys said in a nonchalant tone. He wasn't big on this whole magical ordeal. Likely, the prisoner is just someone of opwer that the mayor wants out of the picture.
As the people began to disperse, Rhys saw that Heiner was talking to the father. Heiners dad was the owner of the Hive District Bank, and rhys had been planning on doing a quick sweep of their family home for some time. However, sucking up to a nobleman had proven to be difficult. Especially one that didn't respond well to his flirtatious advances like noblewomen always did. Heiners father was mostly working from home, and the process was going slowly. To the point where Rhys almost reconsidered robbing their home. But still, the
banksman!. Their home just
had to be full of valuables, even more so than the mayors home! Rhys bid farewell to Haelga, and made his way towards the small platform that the father had used.
“Don’t touch me, mongrel.”, Heiner said as Rhys approached. referring to the father, who he had accidentally pushed down. That poor old man. Gods, Rhys hated Heiner. Second reason of why he almost didn't bother with the heist. Rhys ran over to the father. He'd catch up with Heiner in a bit. "Are you okay? I saw what happened, I'm so sorry!" he said. He reached his hand out and helped the father on his legs again. he then politely bowed and excused himself to the father, before darting off after Heiner. He had sucked up to Heiner for some time now. Luckily, he believes Rhys to be of noble descent, due to his clothing, and a few practical lies he have told him. It was no secret that Heiner disliked the people of lower cast than himself, which in turn added to the things Rhys hated about him. Once he had robbed this mans family for everything they had ever had, he would never speak to him again.
"Heey, that wasn't cool." Rhys mockingly said. He knew that sucking up to this weasel was the only way to get close to him, but he absolutely hated it. "I assume the old geezer went ahead to put up all those posters I've seen everywhere? I even saw one on my own front door this very morning! Geez, the nerve of some people.". Heiner didn't reply to him. "I guess you're out to do work for your father again? Lucky for you, I am done with my daily tasks, and hanging out with you is a lot more interesting than hanging out with the Delarosa's.". iies. All lies. But rhys was a damn good actor, and he had perfected his "Snobby noble" act from his time with the Delarosa's. The upside about leeching off from nobles was that other nobles around start hearing things about you, thus inviting you to social gatherings, making mingling and scouting out marks a lot easier. It was a tiering process though, as he hated the way the nobles acted. Once he was done tailing Heiner around, being his lapdog, he would get back to the tavern and have another drink with Gaius or Barbie.
