and perhaps the loss of your hands. You might be able to escape Lord Arrington, the overseer of Shoal, but your chances of becoming a Master Thief were finished.
The Masters were, naturally, always on guard for any protégés. The point wasn’t to protect their silver pouch per se, it was to observe people and see if they could recognize anyone from their secretive Guild that evening. This was the Test of Concealment, after all. They ordered mugs of ale, which they all watered down to keep their wits about them. They studied the crowd, the barkeep, the serving maids. Anyone could be disguised. No beggar would escape their suspicions on this night, knowing the Test was in effect.
He had heard stories of thieves that passed this part of the Test by dressing up as women, or hiding in shadows unseen, or rich thieves that splurged on an invisibility charm. Trevor couldn’t afford that; all his savings had gone into those shoes, which was a pricey enough spell. He couldn’t fathom what an invisibility charm would cost, and he wasn’t sure that would impress the seven Masters anyhow.
His plan was simpler. After several hours of watered down ale, eventually one of the seven Master Thieves got up from the tavern to relieve himself. He waited for the right one to step outside and head to a nearby waste ditch, and he knocked him out, stripped off his clothes, bound him and gagged him, dragging the body behind a tree. Reaching down, he grabbed the pouch with the coin. That was one.
Disguised as the Master Thief, he returned and hung out right in front of them all night. They never suspected one of them would be the attempting thief that night. So, even though their guard was up, the other six were focused on everyone else around them. It was therefore fairly easy to pick their pockets unobserved throughout the evening. Once he had all seven silver pieces, he excused himself once again to step outside and revealed himself to the Master he had caught unaware, returned to the Guild in the wee hours of the morning, and was unanimously passed to the second portion of his Test. When asked how he had changed his looks so radically —including his height—Trevor only smiled. The Masters didn’t press him; every thief had their own tricks and secrets.
~Veronica~
Veronica finally finished her first glass and reached for a pitcher of water nearby. “The Selectivity Test…what type of test is this?”
Silverfist’s only betrayal of excitement came with the slightest raise of an eyebrow and a modest widening of his almond-shaped, dark brown eyes. “The Selectivity Test is one that pulls together elements of the first two, and calls upon all your skills, including those more common to the Thieves Guild. A Master Assassin frequently receives a contract to execute someone who is often not alone. Heretofore, all of your kills have come about once you’ve isolated the individual. That is the ideal, of course. But on occasion, you must master the art of killing someone who is not alone at the time of the kill. You must selectively kill them, while leaving the others alive. A man might give you a contract to kill his wife, but he doesn’t want his son killed. When you first were invited to join the Black Guild, you had killed three people, but were only truly motivated to kill one of them. A Master Assassin must be more selective. The more killing, the greater the risk of getting caught. But what’s worse—you’re killing for free at that point. A Master, a True Master Assassin , is better than that. She knows who she is targeting. She feels no hesitation, guilt, or remorse over the contract. She employs the perfect technique to fit the situation. And she plucks that person out of whatever crowd they may be hiding within…in order to end that life—and only that life—to collect on her contract without being identified, caught, harmed, or killed. The
The Masters were, naturally, always on guard for any protégés. The point wasn’t to protect their silver pouch per se, it was to observe people and see if they could recognize anyone from their secretive Guild that evening. This was the Test of Concealment, after all. They ordered mugs of ale, which they all watered down to keep their wits about them. They studied the crowd, the barkeep, the serving maids. Anyone could be disguised. No beggar would escape their suspicions on this night, knowing the Test was in effect.
He had heard stories of thieves that passed this part of the Test by dressing up as women, or hiding in shadows unseen, or rich thieves that splurged on an invisibility charm. Trevor couldn’t afford that; all his savings had gone into those shoes, which was a pricey enough spell. He couldn’t fathom what an invisibility charm would cost, and he wasn’t sure that would impress the seven Masters anyhow.
His plan was simpler. After several hours of watered down ale, eventually one of the seven Master Thieves got up from the tavern to relieve himself. He waited for the right one to step outside and head to a nearby waste ditch, and he knocked him out, stripped off his clothes, bound him and gagged him, dragging the body behind a tree. Reaching down, he grabbed the pouch with the coin. That was one.
Disguised as the Master Thief, he returned and hung out right in front of them all night. They never suspected one of them would be the attempting thief that night. So, even though their guard was up, the other six were focused on everyone else around them. It was therefore fairly easy to pick their pockets unobserved throughout the evening. Once he had all seven silver pieces, he excused himself once again to step outside and revealed himself to the Master he had caught unaware, returned to the Guild in the wee hours of the morning, and was unanimously passed to the second portion of his Test. When asked how he had changed his looks so radically —including his height—Trevor only smiled. The Masters didn’t press him; every thief had their own tricks and secrets.
~Veronica~
Veronica finally finished her first glass and reached for a pitcher of water nearby. “The Selectivity Test…what type of test is this?”
Silverfist’s only betrayal of excitement came with the slightest raise of an eyebrow and a modest widening of his almond-shaped, dark brown eyes. “The Selectivity Test is one that pulls together elements of the first two, and calls upon all your skills, including those more common to the Thieves Guild. A Master Assassin frequently receives a contract to execute someone who is often not alone. Heretofore, all of your kills have come about once you’ve isolated the individual. That is the ideal, of course. But on occasion, you must master the art of killing someone who is not alone at the time of the kill. You must selectively kill them, while leaving the others alive. A man might give you a contract to kill his wife, but he doesn’t want his son killed. When you first were invited to join the Black Guild, you had killed three people, but were only truly motivated to kill one of them. A Master Assassin must be more selective. The more killing, the greater the risk of getting caught. But what’s worse—you’re killing for free at that point. A Master, a True Master Assassin , is better than that. She knows who she is targeting. She feels no hesitation, guilt, or remorse over the contract. She employs the perfect technique to fit the situation. And she plucks that person out of whatever crowd they may be hiding within…in order to end that life—and only that life—to collect on her contract without being identified, caught, harmed, or killed. The
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