Phantom Thief

“Why is the hardest part of the heist always climbing?” Jack grumbled as he pulled himself up another few feet, fingers finding the barest of purchase in the seams between the stones that made up the wall he was climbing. He paused, head tilting and then shaking with an exasperated sigh. Another detection field. The TENTH ONE. With little effort, he reached out with one hand and flicked his fingers against the magical threads of the bounded field, his own magical energy seeping seamlessly into the web of detection. Moments later, he passed right through it like a ghost, just like all of the others.

“I knew Merlin Academy was said to be well protected but this is just ridiculous.” He swung himself up to a closed window, high up the tower he’d been scaling. If his intel was right, he just needed to unlock this window, bypass the detection ward, and he’d be just down the hall from his target. Neither the ward or lock gave him much trouble and he was inside a well kept classroom. Stadium seating style with large desks and benches running the length of each level. Nice open space front and center for whatever magic practice they did in this particular class.

Jack gave an impressed whistle as he crossed the room. No wonder Northi mages trained at Merlin were so annoying; they were well trained AND snobby aristocrats. He’d never had a classroom half as good during his studies.

Still shaking his head at it all, he slipped into the hall. Look left, look right, look left again because that always bit him in the ass if he didn’t and he was clear. He took a right from the classroom and was slipping into the target room within a minute. Still no alarms, guards, or inconveniently appearing students. Just him and the manuscript perched oh so nicely on a stand in the middle of the room.

Jack rolled his eyes to the mage hiding under an invisibility spell to his left. “Man, that’s a pretty obvious trap you know?” he told the man. The mage startled in surprise and his spell shattered, motes of magic dripping off him like rain.

“What--how did--” the mage cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders before marching resolutely between Jack and his prize. “You certainly live up to your reputation, Mister Harlequin.”

Jack smiled but obviously the man couldn’t see that through his mask. “Please, call me Diamond. Harlequin makes me feel like my old man.”

The mage scoffed, his little kitty ears flatting with his irritation, and raised his hands, fingers splayed and magic gathering. “It doesn’t matter what you call yourself, you’re not leaving here and you’re certainly not touching that manuscript. The alarm is already sounded, you’ll not be escaping the entirety of Merlin Academy’s staff.”

Jack didn’t have the heart to tell him the alarm had, in fact, not sounded. He was holding the activation thread coiled around his pinky, after all. 

“Look, you don’t have to go through all this trouble. Just let me have that bit of paper and I won’t have to embarrass you. Okay?”

The mage flicked his fingers and in a sharp voice said, “Cyrin!”

An anemic yellow bolt of magic crossed the distance between them in an eyeblink…and splattered against the door behind him ineffectually. With a smirk tugging his lips, he ran his hand through the wake of the spell, gathering the echo of it and reconstructing it in the space of a breath.

“Cyrin!” he echoed mockingly. His copied spell hit the mage dead in the chest and expanded, wrapping around him like magical ropes. It even made a magical blindfold and gag. Nasty spell for a mage to get hit by. Jack gingerly stepped over the bound and struggling mage, hands snagging and redirecting the threads of even more barriers and wards around the manuscript. With a final snipping motion for the sticking ward on the bundle of papers itself, he plucked it from its stand. A brief flip through revealed a dizzying array of mechanical and magical information and the confusing combination of it all to make some sort of armatae.

Exactly like the customer said. Perfect. He was about to make his client in Dacquoise very happy. As he stepped back over the mage, he dropped his marker. At first glance, it looked like a playing card but the white face of it only had a depiction of his mask.

“Well, it was fun, but I won’t be seeing you. But feel free to tell everyone about Diamond Harlequin, would you?”