Child (Book 2)

Chapter 1

"Hold on there. You have to pay the visitors tax before you can enter the city." The guard tells me with a heavy accent. His armor is almost identical to Stormcloak armor, except his sash is burgundy instead of dark turquoise blue or gold like the Whiterun guards.
"What's the tax for?" I mumble, crossing my arms.
"The privilege of entering Riften, of course. Now hand it over or walk away!" He grunts, grabbing the handle of his sword threateningly, as if he could ever hope to scare me.
"You're a liar if I ever saw one." I grumble, grabbing my greatsword behind me as well. He flinches a little bit, looking to the other guard, who seems to already be halfway towards the gate.
"Keep your voice down! You think I want anyone to hear you? I'll let you in, just don't go telling anyone." The guard whispers harshly as he moves to unlock the city gate for me. Marcurio must've stretched the truth a bit; I haven't even entered Riften yet and I've encountered a thief.
I push through the large wooden gate, keeping my head down and pulling the hood a little farther down on my face. The very first thing I notice is that I'm being watched. My eyes dart around the tall, wooden houses and buildings before I finally find that I am indeed being watched, by none other than a strange man standing in the shadows of a building next to me. He's dressed in fine, quilted blue robes and boots, and his hair is long and red, accompanied by blue-green eyes and a slight beard. When I glare at him from under my hood I expect his eyes to dart away as many do when caught staring, but he smirks slightly and begins walking toward me instead. I look away from him and widen my gait to walk quickly away from him, but before I can my momentum is forced backward by my shoulder. The strange man is right next to me now, and he has a forceful grip on my shoulder. I know what he's doing. Farkas taught me about this; he's assessing my weight.
I roughly shove his hand backward with my shoulder before I grab the iron dagger on my hip and pull it out of its sheath slightly, just enough to let him see that I'm armed but not enough to alert the guards.
"Woah there lass, no need to slice me to pieces.." The nord says softly when he notices my dagger.
"Did you need something?" I mumble, not looking directly at him. He chuckles.
"Eyes glarin' like that could melt iron..." He chuckles, looking me up and down. "You ain't done an honest day's work for all that coin you carry, have you lass?" He said, his eyes glancing down at my coin purse on my hip. I quickly pull it off of my belt and drop it into my bag behind me. This smooth-talking thief will not get the best of me.
"How is it any of your business? Leave me alone." I growl a little louder, hoping to cause a scene. No one appears to notice, not even the guards.
"Hold on there, just listen. I've got a little scheme in mind, and I'm thinking you're just the person to help me with it. There'll be some coin for you, if you're interested." He mumbles. I weigh my options for a moment.
There's a very good chance that whatever this man has planned is illegal, but I could definitely use the money. The College of Winterhold will certainly want payment for their services, more than I have, but what am I supposed to do if I get arrested doing this?
"What's the plan?" I whisper as I watch the guards around us, making sure they're not listening to our conversation.
"I knew you'd be interested." He says, clearly proud of himself. "Just ahead in the marketplace is a man, an Argonian named Madesi. There's a locked strongbox under his stall, and inside he has a silver ring. There's an elf as well, a Dunmer named Brand-Shei. The issue here lass, is that a contact of mine wants Brand-Shei out of the marketplace and in jail, and my dear friend wants him to stay awhile." He says lowly, sarcasm and charm dripping from his words.
"What do I do?" I whisper.
"I'm going to cause a distraction in the marketplace, and you're going to sneak behind Madesi's stall and break into the strongbox. Hopefully you have some lockpicks on you, if not I'll give you some. Once you have that silver ring, I need it to find its way into Brand-Shei's pocket. Once it's all said and done, I'll mention to one of the guards in idle conversation that I happen to know that Brand-Shei stole the ring, and the evidence is right there in his pocket. Think you can do it, lass?" He explains in hushed tones. I've picked locks before, I'm just not sure if I'm any good at it.
"I'll do it."

~

The strange man appears to be a thief in more ways than one. He has his own stall in the market, selling snake-oil cures, promising they'll work miracles that any knowledgeable person knows aren't achievable by alchemy. To be fair, if he claimed they cured lycanthropy, I might buy one just to make sure it was a scam.
Currently, he holds the attention of everyone in the marketplace as he advertises his latest potion, and I am hunched down behind Madesi's stall, nervously jamming a lockpick and a knife into his strongbox. With a bit of effort the lock clicks in place and it opens. Inside is a rather large coin purse, a gold necklace with a shining ruby in the center, and a silver ring.
I was instructed to take the ring, but if I took the coin purse and the necklace as well, who would know? Once I get the ring in Brand-Shei's pocket, they would all suspect he took the gold and the necklace as well. They would force him to pay back the gold and assume he hid the necklace somewhere or sold it. It felt so wrong to put all of this on Brand-Shei, but despite everything I was telling myself, I emptied the strongbox.
I crawled out from behind the stand and moved carefully to the well at the center of the marketplace.  I peaked over the well at the crowd listening to the thief that put me up to this in the first place. They're all watching him, and no ones noticed me. Brand-Shei is sitting on a crate beside his market stall, listening to the man talking about his miracle potion. If I can just sneak behind the stand, I might be able to get the ring into his pocket.
For people living in a town full of thieves, the people of Riften are very easily distracted. I easily snuck behind the stall unnoticed. The man told me he would watch me carefully while I was working, making sure to give me as much time as I needed to do the job. I stretch my arm and gently slide the ring into Brand-Shei's pocket; the deed is done. I carefully crawl back into the open and stand. Both Brand-Shei and Madesi are blissfully unaware of what has just occurred. I was told to join the crowd listening to the man when I was done, so I nonchalantly walk to the well and lean against the stone wall. The man looks at me as he speaks, and I nod slightly. He winks, finishes his speech, and everyone returns to what they were doing. The strange man begins to walk toward me, but stops when Madesi cries out, looking down at the empty strongbox that I carelessly left open.
"By the nine.. Guards! I've been robbed!" He shouts. Panic floods my senses; I look to the man, but he only smirks slightly and shakes his head, and anger boils up inside of me. I've been set up. I swear I'll kill him if it's the last thing I do. The guards scamper over and assess what's been stolen. They begin to ask questions to everyone in the marketplace, and just as a guard is about to speak to me, the man speaks up.
"'Scuse me lad, I don't want ol' Brand-Shei to hear me sayin' this, but I saw him over behind Madesi's stall while I was tellin' about my new elixir. Might want to check his pockets and his stall." He explains. The guard grunts and walks to Brand-Shei's stall, where another guard is questioning him.
"Please empty your pockets and unlock the cabinet on your stand." The guard grunts to the elf.
"I don't know what this is all about, I didn't steal anything." He says confidently as he digs in his pockets and dumps their contents on the counter of his stand. One of his hands drops a few coins and a small key. Out of the other tumbles the ring and a lock pick; as if just the ring didn't look bad enough. The guard picks up the ring and holds it up to his face.
"Madesi, didn't you say there was a silver ring in that strongbox? Was it this one?" He asks the lizard.
"Why... Yes, it is! Brand-Shei, I thought of us as friends.. How could you do this to me?" He says quietly.
"Madesi, no— I don't know how— please, listen to me!" Brand-Shei begs as the guards escort him away. After a few moments, the man speaks again.
"You did good lass. You got the job done, no strings attached. Name's Brynjolf, and I'm second-in-command to a... certain organization that would be interested in your skills. Meet me in the Ragged Flagon, in the Ratway below the city, if you're interested." He says flirtatiously, placing a small bag of coins in my palm. Yes, I could see this going very badly, very quick.
"Thanks, but no thanks," I reply, and he raises an eyebrow in surprise. "I'm no thief." He smiles.
"They all say that. Come find me when you change your mind, lass." He says, looking me over once again before finally leaving. I only ignore him. He's a thief; built to seduce people so that they don't know what he's taken from them until it's gone.