5. With A Chance of Thievery

The chameleon-of-undecided-name was starting to see a pattern. Whatever he tried, no matter how hard he worked, it failed miserably. Accidents out of his control. Unlucky setbacks. What were the chances of meeting the same criminals multiple times?

Thus, obviously, he had to try even HARDER and with more PASSION.

So it was that he worked late into the night, all alone, placing stone after stone onto the city walls. Whenever they asked what he was doing, he claimed he was making the city impenetrable. Before the full moon rises, I’ll have made the entire city wall five times as high, and it will keep out enemies forever!

Now another being walked up to him and the chameleon prepared this response.

But the fox asked something else.

“I have seen you several times now,” he said, a dark hood over his eyes. “Doing useless work, effort that will never be rewarded. Where do you get the energy to do all this? It’s fascinating.”

“And I feel I’ve seen you before too,” said the chameleon. Wasn’t he Feria’s famous alchemist husband? Hadn’t he seen their happy little family inspecting the city walls? The amount of kisses two foxes could give each other in one day had dumbfounded him then.

“Answer the question.”

“I don’t know,” said the chameleon, placing another stone. This part of the wall had surely been raised a tail’s length now. Impenetrable indeed. “Life is so … so … full of COLOR! Of POSSIBILITY! I want to do EVERYTHING! Try EVERYTHING! Never miss a day!”

“My name is Alix,” said the fox. “I was like you … once.”

He suddenly removed the hood and stepped closer. The fur below his chin had turned grey, as had the tip of his ears.

“Now I will be again.”

The fox’ long whiskers seemed to contain thunder then. His purple paws shot forward and his tail wrapped around the chameleon’s ankle.

In response, he yelped and changed color to match the Amor city walls perfectly.

To the eyes of most, the chameleon was gone. Perfectly camouflaged.

Alix narrowed his eyes. He stepped forward to look closer, but retreated when he almost slipped off the wall.

The chameleon briefly came out of camouflage to jump to another section of the wall. Alix graciously followed, but by the time he’d found his footing, his target was well-hidden again.

The fox stalked the walls for at least another hour, but could not find him again. In reality, the chameleon had already abandoned the wall and started a new project that was CERTAIN to SUCCEED and be the BEST THING EVER.

Alix sighed and went back to following the pockets of highest energy in Amor. Back to cold-blooded passion theft, telling himself it was only justified. After the … accident with his son, who had kept his promise to never use that foul magic ever again. Especially with Feria always gone to fight battles, missing her love like he’d never missed something before.

Magic still commenced at the Alchemist’s touch. It wasn’t necessarily good magic anymore.

The collapsed temple had been the peaceful meeting place of believers. Those who still believed in the original gods, those who believed in Amori gods, but certainly all who believed their gods told them they were right and had to win the war whatever means necessary. This made it hard to figure out the reason for the attack. Until only a single logical conclusion remained: the attackers simply wanted the war to end.

Like the diamond, dear reader, it had taken energy to build that temple in the first place. The builders had to erect the pillars, haul the triangular roof into the air, and place it. By now you know that energy is never lost, only converted. In a sense, you could say that energy was now saved inside that building. That’s why you could break it and release a blast of energy—an explosion, a minor earthquake.

In hindsight, thought Wilplink, it would have been the ideal “larger hideout” that Ruby craved. If only they hadn’t destroyed it. Their firebird master still hopped around uneasily in their small space, destroying the bookshelf they’d just repaired.

“It’s Ardex that worries me,” said Boaris. “By far the strongest of the gods, the most destructive. Have never heard a single legend about him showing mercy.”

“We leave Ardex alone,” replied Ruby without pause.

Wilplink frowned, throwing the dice over his shoulder. “… why? You like burning-to-death-or-something?”

“You know what I think?” said Boaris. “I will be the one taking our spoils from now on and making sure they end up at the right place—”

“What are you insinuating?” thundered Ruby’s voice.

“Oh please,” said Mmhmmhmm. “Do you think I’m blind? You’ve switched sides, Ruby. For whatever foolish reason.”

“We were never on any side,” she said, fluttering, and cursing the room’s size again. “Except the side of freedom. Whatever victor it takes.”

“Then I’m out,” said Boaris. He stuffed his spoils from the temple theft—of course, you could pay to remove your sins, as well as to use the toilet, but that first option fattened their treasure chest considerably more—into his bag and stepped away.

He raised his voice. “Not once did my mother care for me, look out for me, ensure I was fed. She fell in love with a Trusk, bore me, and threw me in the gutters of Amor. Only to besiege the city not long after! I will never side with the godchildren.”

“Stop making a fuss,” said Wilplink calmly. “I don’t even know which god is my parent, and you don’t see me whining-or-something.”

“Didn’t ask. Don’t care,” said Boaris as he left.

“Boaris!” yelled Ruby. “You will come back now and we can talk—”

“Oh please, he was always in it for the money, can’t you—”

The door opened.

For a moment, they could hear blasts, wind whipping, explosions and cries as Cosmo—the god shaped like a bird—fought Amor allies overhead. Like fireworks, except the dragons hadn’t invented it yet. One of the birds fell down and crushed another being walking on the street. Just another day in Amor.

The door shut.

“Well,” said Wilplink, “there goes our plan requiring four skilled spies.”

“I don’t mind. I promised you the freedom to walk away. We can do it without him—you take double duty.”

“How many times do I have to say I’m not a wizard-or-something?” Wilplink smashed his mug into the table. It cracked and broke into several pieces of exactly equal size. “I manipulate chance. I can make us a bit more likely to get past the guards. I can make the lock on a door a bit easier to open. If we try the mission with just the three of us—”

“I am not waiting any longer,” said Ruby. She turned around violently, one final time, and blasted the door off its hinges. She finally felt like she could breathe again. “The plan is sound. If we succeed, Amor has no choice but to surrender within a moon cycle.”

“And the elephant?” asked Mmhmmhmm. “He shows up at every site. Too quickly for my taste.”

“You don’t have taste,” grumbled Wilplink.

Ruby’s feathers tapped against the wall. “Let him be. Keep distracting him with meaningless fires elsewhere. We fight for freedom for all, not just for us to do as we please.”

It was this choice, dear reader, that would haunt Ruby for years to come. Because deep in her heart she felt she’d done right, and assassinating an innocent elephant was simply not going to do for her. But everything else that followed could only be described as a waterfall raging against her fire.

“Pretty words, very poetic-or-something,” said Wilplink. He rose to his full height and manipulated the chance of him rolling perfectly through the doorway. “For someone about to starve an entire city to death.”