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again.
    “It wasn’t a trouble at all. When the thief saw me chasing him, he dropped the bag and bolted.”
    “Just a coward after all. Bloody bully,” the dark-haired girl vented.
    “What more would you expect from a thief?” he asked. He flashed a grin, but could not keep all the bitterness from his tone.
    The girl turned and spoke to the blonde, shooting an awkward toothy smile back toward Roen as he watched. “Come on Eloryn, we should be clearing out.”
    Roen walked up to the blonde girl and stood close in front of her. She blushed vividly and looked down. He smiled a little at that. It was nice to feel like the champion sometimes. Except that I’m the villain pretending to be a champion. His smile faded.
    “Eloryn, is it? Here, so you can be on your way. Do be more wary in the future, thieves aren’t always so easily beaten.”
    As he placed the bag down into her open hands, his fingers brushed against hers and she twitched back bashfully. They both apologized and the bag thumped down between them onto the cobblestones. A small object wrapped in fine velvet fell out and rolled around, unwinding itself from the material as if with a will to be free, drawing Roen’s eyes after it. It glittered where it came to a stop. Polished and precious.
    The lump of guilt in his chest began to pound and he looked from the ornate amulet to the girl again. Her mouth just slightly open, she grabbed for the intricate medallion as he picked up her bag. Her effort to remain casual was ruined by her quivering lips. He could see her trying to judge his reaction, if he recognized the heirloom, if he made the connection.
    He did.
    A noise from the marketplace turned his attention the other way. The city guards returned, searching this time in a begrudging manner that made them all the more surly and determined. The vendor had certainly scolded them straight to work. The guards walked right toward the alley he and the girls openly stood in. Any moment now the lawmen would see the girls they were searching for, and him standing with them. Not good.
    Roen broke into movement, kicking in an old door. Grabbing the girls around their small shoulders, he pushed them through, both too surprised to stop him. All three fell down broken stairs into thick, pungent mud. The two girls landed flat on their backs, stunned and winded.
    Roen spun around and pushed the door back into place. Her dress pinned under his knees, Eloryn tried to wriggle free. The other girl swore liberally at him. He turned back and dropped his body down on top of them, hoping the dark shade of his coat would hide them. He slapped a mud covered hand onto the swearing girl’s mouth and gave a vehement shushing gesture to them both, pointing back through the holes in the door at the passing feet of the patrolmen.
    The girls stilled. Thank the fae. Roen breathed out a silent sigh of relief. Another wriggle or scream would mean all sorts of difficult explaining to be done on his part and likely much worse for them.
    The guards poked around in the alley way, making the appearance of a hunt. The dark haired girl glared at Roen. He removed his hand from her mouth and she wiped dirt from it angrily. Despite the buildup of rotting refuse, run off from the markets, this ancient, half-buried basement had been a hiding place for him on more than one occasion. Ignored by most people in the sprawling city, it even held an entrance to the city’s large underground tunnel system through a half crumbled wall.
    After he thought the guards had passed, Roen waited a few moments longer, just to be sure. Only then did he realize he pinned Eloryn’s body down full length with his own. He could feel her pounding heart through the clothes between their chests. She stared at him with worried eyes in a haunting shade of green, probably planning how to get away from him. What a way to make an introduction of this importance.
    Roen rose to his feet with steady movements in an attempt to not panic the