The Thief and the Harlequin

Chapter 1 - A Helping Hand

Chapter 1 - A Helping Hand

Somehow, before Sana had even gotten her entire body out of the window, they were on top of her, like flies to a pile of garbage. She was surrounded almost immediately; the guards closed in on all sides. There must have been at least twenty of them, fully armed and dressed in the uniform of the city’s colors. Damn. She knew the manor would be secure, but there was no way she could have possibly been seen. She had made sure to go around the back, she had scouted out the entire lay of the land, had even calculated the positions of visible guards and- a sharp jab from a sword at her throat brought her back to reality.

“So what do we have here, boys? A little thief, eh?” He was the fattest and tallest of the guards, but judging by the decorations on his sash, he was also the one in charge. “Thought you could rip off the richest house in town and get away with it, did you?”

Sana gulped and slowly glanced at the sack slung over her shoulder. Feigning fear, she stuttered, “P-please sir, I didn’t meant to, the family is starving, and I just needed to pay for our next meal,” She had been through this all before, lying was nothing but a game to her anymore. False tears welled up in her eyes, and her lower lip began to tremble. “If you’d just let me go, I-“

She was cut off by the sound of jeering. One of the younger guards, with a piggish look about his face, stepped forward. “No, Captain, I don't think so.” He pointed his weapon at her, and Sana stared at him.

Sana had never really felt fear before in her life, but this was different. There was something sinister in the voice of the young man, and the Captain seemed to hear it too. “Aye,” he said, leaning in close, his stale breath making her flinch. “I think this little thief needs to be taught a lesson."

She was in danger. She knew that now. These guards weren’t going to buy some sob story and let her off clean. No, she had heard tales of the others that had been captured by guardsmen, and sometimes, the guards took the law into their own hands. She knew they would either injure her before they took her to prison, or kill her where she stood. She quickly glanced around, from the brown and gold uniforms of the guards to the dark trees behind them, to the stars of the sky above, looking desperately for some form of escape route.

As the guards leered at her, she slipped her hand into her pocket. She had only a small dagger, but she knew she could never keep them all at bay with only that alone. She began to pray, fervently speaking silently to any god that might listen. She had never been particularly devout, but… desperate times for desperate measures, and so forth. “Alacar, Tomanuk the Divine, Avatar of the Harlequin, anyone… please.” She pulled out the dagger, but the guards laughed.

Suddenly, without warning, an explosion rocked the air above her, nearly throwing her to the ground. She looked up and saw a chain of purple lightening arcing between the guards, shocking them with raw, unrelenting power. At first, she thought it just might be some strange trick of the light, but she could feel the heat from the bolts and stared as the guards seized and collapsed, their eyes bulging and rolling back in their sockets. Sana screamed and covered her mouth, ducking in the hope that she too would not be electrocuted. But it seemed she had nothing to worry about; the sparks that did come in contact with her skin merely bounced harmlessly away.

As the lightening began to recede, and the smoke began to clear, something even stranger happened. In the air in front of Sana, something was floating there, drifting on the wind of its own accord. Instinctively, her hand shot out to grab it. She stared at it in her hand, her own eyes widening in wonder and fear rather than from electricity. It was… a playing card? On one side was drawn a few purple squiggles. Lightening, perhaps. And as she flipped it over, there on the other side was a picture of… Him. The Harlequin. Or rather, a jester, but she knew it was Him, who else could it have been?

With the lightening fading completely, her suspicions were confirmed. She turned to escape from this bizarre scene, but instead found herself face to face with the masked deity himself. She gazed up into the lifeless eyes, the pale white pallor, the wide, emotionless smile painted upon the wooden mask. She shook and trembled at the sight, but he did nothing, his beautiful leather coat dancing in the breeze, the diamond pattern rippling across the fabric like water.

“I- I… thank you?” She whispered. She flinched as he raised his hand, but he merely brushed her light brown curls out of her eyes. He bent in closer, almost as if to kiss her, and she was amazed that even at this distance, she could see nothing beyond those slits in the mask. With a flourish of his hand, he pulled a second playing card out of thin air. This one did not have lightening, but instead a picture of a heart, with a dagger pierced through the center.

“Is this for me?” She asked, but once again he did not respond. Instead, he brought a single finger up to his mouth, as if to say, “Shh,” and suddenly vanished, his body evaporating like smoke on a breeze. Dazed, Sana looked around her as if she had just awoken from a dream. The guards were obviously dead, they were neither moving nor breathing. She had to get out of there. Without looking back, she tore off into the night, holding tightly onto the bag of stolen valuables, and the playing card tucked away into her tunic. As she escaped from the scene of the slaughter, a single raven took a moment to watch her before flying away.