Amongst Thieves

12.

As much as Maize would have loved to follow-through with her plans for Ress once they returned to her room, a package left on her bed stalled their sexual efforts.

Wrapped not in paper but black silk, the only note with it merely said 'For Tonight.'

Within the box was the most elaborate dress Maize had ever seen, and nothing close to what was offered within Dreduor outside of the castle's walls. And the colors...

"Those are Dreduor's colors," Ress observed, almost in awe.

The black and red of Dreduor was worn by no one but the royal family, their advisors and their closest consorts. Doing so otherwise would be viewed as a sign of sedition and send you to the depths of the same dungeons they passed through, or worse.

But the dress was beautiful.

With its heart-shaped busted corset and sleeves that fell from the shoulders, the embroidered and bejeweled black sheer that overlay the red satin gave it the look of something one could wear to both a funeral pyre and a late-night tryst. Bunched at the waist to accentuate every curse, it flowed to the floor in piles of material that looked like pools of blood.

"It's perfect," Maize whispered.

"You're not seriously going to wear it tonight, are you?" Ress gasped.

"And why not?"

"Other than the fact it could send you to prison?"

"But if I received it as a present, I could feign diplomatic ignorance."

"Or someone is setting you up to fail."

"Or someone is setting me up to succeed."

"What if Forge sent it to you? Maybe this is a test?"

"Why would he send me a dress when his list specifically instructed me to buy my own?"

"Maybe he wanted to give you a reason to waste the money he gave us."

"Or maybe it wasn't from him at all."

Ress continued his protests while Maize stripped from her dress and changed into the ner garment, even as he assisted her in lacing up the bodice in the back. Not only was the dress gorgeous, but it fit Miaze perfectly- without having been to the dress' seamstress, she didn't want to consider how the gift-giver would have so perfectly known her measurements.

"You aren't going to be able to wear a blade tonight?" Ress reminded her as he finished the final lacing.

"And why not?" She spun around to face him.

"Other than you don't have one that matches that dress-"

Maize glared at him.

"- the only ones allowed to be armed tonight are the royal guard, and most definitely not a courtier."

"What if a courtier needs to defend herself from a drunken diplomat?"

"She best find other ways to escape her situation."

She scowled but also knew he was correct in his assumptions. She also hated it when he was right.

They parted ways as Maize sat to style her hair and apply her cosmetics, departing with promises to pick up from where they were intending to leave off by the discovery of the gifted dress. She felt bad, somewhat, for Ress and the part he was forced to play in all of this. But having two different vantage points on a situation would be far more beneficial to their mission in the long run.

She examined herself in the looking glass, taking in the dress' elaborate details one final time.

That is... if someone else wasn't out to get rid of her and put an end to their plans first.