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[Drayek]

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(OOC note: This happened on Sunday, I haven't been able to get this finished until now.)

Zero sat in the basement of her house pondering, rocking a goblet of blood back and forth in her hand.
"Why is it that only brute force is recognised by institutions? It seems after Horace and Cassandra left the Empire my talents as a rogue have been going ignored." she thought to herself, watching the blood swirl around the goblet. "I need to prove my worth to the Empire. But how?..."
Her mind explored the options and drifted back to the brief period of time where she was in the House of the Gauntlet. Even then her talent was ignored, all she did was go and steal a spellbook from those swamp necromancers. And to top it all off, they never even used the book!
"...That painting must still exist then..!" Zero spoke to herself quietly as it hit her. She thought back to the enchanted painting of Molly, the painting was bound to her so any damage that came to the painting would in turn be done to Molly. Zero's eyes widened as she realized this would be the perfect way to prove herself, to steal a painting with such a high value on it. She imagined the Empress Azin Rosewind scraping a dagger over the painting in the late hours of the night and began laughing. She would serve the Empire well.

The sun covered the road leaving Luna with light, however the forest was dense enough to provide the shade Zero needed to move unnoticed. Eventually she reached Molly's house and quickly opened the front door, slid inside, and carefully shut the door behind her without a sound. She began looking around the room for any curtains or tapestries hanging up that could cover the painting. After not spotting any she moved towards some shelves and looked behind them, and then on the shelves for any lose papers detailing it. Foosteps echoing above her interrupted her search, causing her to quickly find a hiding spot. Molly came down the stairs and headed towards a teleporter, Zero watching her closely after her back was turned. After a few moments had passed, Zero snuck up to the tele-porter, following her. When she appeared on the new floor she quickly ducked behind a nearby waterfall and watched. Molly was shuffling a number of items around; perhaps one of them would be the painting she sought. After a short while Martin Willow came up to the room, both him and Molly taking another tele-porter up to the roof soon after. Zero waited a few moments again, hoping they both would be moved away from the tele-porter, then took the tele-porter to the roof. Quickly, she ducked behind some of the taller plants. Martin looked over curiously for a moment, then turned back to Molly.

"A sudden gust of wind I suppose, anyway, where was I?" Martin said.
"I had just asked if the painting was still hidden, we can't do anything about it until we have the cauldron." Molly replied to him.
"Ah, yes. Don't worry about a thing, the painting is safely hidden away. Not many people know about it either, fortunately. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, my love." Martin reassured her.
"The guild knows about it, Martin. Not all of them are good people." Molly continued, clearly concerned the painting still even existed.
"Everything will be alright as soon as we get the cauldron, we just need to get someone to sneak into that swamp and get it." Martin said; wrapping his arm around Molly's shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Molly then got up and headed down to the meeting room, telling Martin it was about time for a meeting to begin as she did. Naturally, Zero followed, hoping to pick up more information regarding the whereabouts of the painting. The meeting was long and boring, just as she remembered them as being, but one thing came up that caught her interest. The House of the Gauntlet planned to send a caravan to Trinsic! Zero then followed Molly to Trinsic through a moongate and picked up more details about the trade caravan, details she planned to give to her dear friend Dragoona.