𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕹𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖍 𝕭𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖗

𝕱𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐄

Wolf's Bane, even if from a distance, was a rather intimidating place. Elise was glad they would not have to enter it to complete their task.

"All of the North's worst criminals are imprisoned there", explained her Maester Luwin, waving without a specific target at the structure.

The girl stayed quiet for a while before answering, her eyes fixed on the solid and thick walls – by the looks of them, about seven feet – of the prison: "Why, Maester Luwin, I have to disagree on two things on this – or rather, disagree on one, and express my hope for the second".

The Maester, clearly curious, spurred her to continue. "For a start, the use of the adjective 'worse' next to such skilled criminals is an insult to their – although obviously despicable – deeds. Best, rather, as the worst ones wouldn't probably even complete what they had intended to do. Secondly, let us hope that not all the North's best criminals be trapped inside. It would be a shame if this lovely afternoon wouldn't let us catch one".

"You sound very hopeful, my Lady", replied the Maester, "but remember that it's likely that we will come to tonight, and nothing more exciting than some futil fights between merchants will have happened".

Elise didn't reply to that: Luwin was right, obviously, the possibility of their mission failing was there; but she wasn't going to give up before even trying.

At last, the small party came to the city's outer harbour: there, located towards a big gate that formed a perfect entrance for the hopeful merchants coming from the nearby lands, was a fish market. The young Frey had been irremovable about going there first: "Where there is merch, there is criminals. And criminals is what we are looking for", she'd explained to Lord Manderly – and had then added (but in a low tone, almost whispering), "especially the skilled ones" to her Maester.

Stopping abruptly, the girl turned around to face the guards that had followed her and the Maester: they were six in total, three from the garrison that had escorted them from Winterfell and other three from Lord Manderly's personal garrison. "Now is when we part" she told them, counting on the support that Maester Luwin's strong presence was adding to her words. "Blend in with the crowd, look around carefully, don't come too close to one another".

The six guards bowed respectfully, and waited for the duo to part themselves a little before seeing to what they had been ordered to do.

"Now, dear Maester, I want you to keep your eyes open as well" instructed the girl, "I refuse to believe that no criminal has a set goal of stealing some delicious clams for today's dinner" she pointed at a stand filled with the fish, and added nonchalantly: "those do look good, don't they? We should have our cooks come here more often. I'm sure princes Bran and Rickon would also approve".

The Maester, understanding the strategy, nodded in agreement and guided her a bit deeper into the market, pointing at random stands and commenting on the quality of the fish, the smell, the price... they both had very thick and long fur coats to cover their more elegant clothes, and Elise hoped that it would be enough to prevent them from getting overly noticed.

It was not until later in the day that something finally happened: it must've been their tenth of eleventh time walking back and forth around the market, and though they could've sworn that they had never looked more attentively than how they had been observing that day, their eyes still hadn't managed to catch a glimpse of anything 'out of the ordinary'.

The young Frey had sighed, and turned her head towards one of the clams stands they had first encountered: during the course of the afternoon, half of its merch had been sold and now only a few, lonely fish were left. Almost hypnotized, the girl had started to lazily look at the merchant starting to pack a few cans with it already – most likely, to then eat them at dinner. His expert hands were moving fast, and before she knew he had already stuffed away one, two, three cans... or were they three?

Moving her gaze to where the man had seemed to be piling the containers on, she almost grasped: they were not there anymore! Tugging at Luwin's sleeve (the ladder had just been standing next to her, his eyes wandering around aimlessly and secretly enjoying what he judged was a deserved break), she frantically started to look around, and didn't stop until her eyes caught glimpse of a pretty probable target: moving fast and with his head bowed, the man looked exactly like someone would when they wanted to hide something from others.

Without thinking, Elise swiftly removed her arm from the comfortable position she and the Maester had been walking in, and went after the man moving as fast and as nonchalantly as her current state could afford.

That was not an easy task: the man – clearly a seasoned pirate – was so quick and good at blending in with the crowd that Elise often lost sight of him, but fortunately for her she didn't only have her poise to rely on; thinking hard, and paying particular attention to where the man's eyes would land on, and came to the conclusion that there was only one place the robber could possibly be headed to: the icty's inner harbour.

Abruptly changing path, she took what she believed to be the shortest track to reach the dock: her only hope was that, considering the man's route, he would get there after her as to avoid getting noticed (even if normally) by strangers (and most importantly people whom he knew) – a needed precaution, doubtlessly, and that could've favoured the girl if she managed to play it well.

Half-running and half-walking – unlike the man, Elise had no need to hide, – she finally came to her destination: looking around, she understood right away that for any robber, there couldn't have been a better spot to hide in than that one – it was considerably smaller, but it was exactly its reduced size that, by making everything look much more crammed, also allowed the presence of so many secret nooks that some of them, even to the best trained eyes in Westeros, would've gone overlooked.

Anxiously looking around her, Elise finally noticed the silhouette of a man advancing: even from afar, the posture, the outfit and the way of moving; all suggested that he was her man.

The girl didn't have time to reflect: instead, she let her instinct guide her for the end of that complicated task. Walking slowly (hammering a tune she'd heard her sister sing many times before), and looking around as if the presence of an outer person had not even been registered by her, she suddenly shifted her weight and stretched her right leg far enough for it to block one of the man's ankles.

Quickly, she grabbed hold of his wrists before he could process a way of getting away. His was definitely a stronger body, and the girl would've never been able to keep him for much longer, but luckily one of the guards – who had rightfully thought it best to follow her – approached the duo, and blocked the man definitively.

Only then, the young Frey allowed herself to let out a heavy sight she did not even know she had been holding: looking at the poor unfortunate struggling to get away from the guard's hold and spitting curses left and right, she couldn't help smiling: her plan had finally worked, and it looked like she had found a pretty clever one, too!