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TWO WEEKS LATER

All the preparations had now been made. Marcus had found a man who had been robbed by one of their enemies in a tavern located in one of the lower districts. The man had been drowning his sorrows in cheap ale when Marcus entered the seedy establishment. Soon Marcus had the man all fired up about thieves being in the sewer system below the city and that something should be done about it soon. After all, the city guards couldn't be counted on to remove the thieves that infested the city. Rory and Kit had been equally successful in their efforts to incite the populus. Former victims had now turned into vengeful vigilantes. Several of the new thieves had been caught by the vigilantes and turned over to the guards for rewards, while others were killed outright before being brought in. Lynch mobs were becoming very popular. The surviving thieves who got caught, were in turn, being sent to the mines. The city guard, not to be shown-up by simple commoners and peasants, was getting more involved in capturing them as well. Life was becoming much more difficult and much more dangerous for those traitorous berks.

Now it was time for the Guild's true revenge on their former allies.

Once again, she found herself crouched in a narrow alley watching a busy street. This time was different though. This time she was going to be clumsy. This time she was going to be within sight of the city guards. This time she was going to be chased. This time she might get caught. This time she felt a gnawing in her gut that could only be fear. Sure, she had felt fear before, but nothing like this. This time caution and prudence were being thrown to the winds and fickle chance now held rein.

She quickly spotted a well-dressed man browsing a merchants wares and looking rather bored. Swallowing her fear, she quickly stood and walked in his direction. Adrenaline pumped through her veins and made her feel a little light-headed. Her nervousness increased the closer she got and then she was next to him. She pretended to look at the merchants stock as well as she quickly, but clumsily cut his purse. The man noticed and grabbed her hand that held the purse. "THIEF!!!" the man practically screamed in her face. Panicking she sliced his hand with her knife to free herself and he cried out in pain as blood burst from the wound. Then she was off, dashing through the crowd toward the alley.

The city guards who witnessed the incident recognized her and quickly gave chase. They were followed by the man whose purse she had stolen. He howled curses at her as she ran. She could have lost them easily in the narrow twisting alleys but that wasn't the goal of this chase. She leapt over obstacles and ducked down narrow passageways to keep a few steps ahead of her pursuers and to make the chase look good. Her heart pounded in her ears and she let her fear show on her face. She even tripped and fell on the ground a few times to give them added encouragement. She lead them on a merry little chase throughout the city, going slow enough to keep their interest and at the same time gathering a much larger following. When she was sure she had at least half the city guards chasing her, she quickly found a storm drain to enter the sewers.

After climbing down the rusted ladder she went a hundred feet up the passage and nervously waited for her pursers. The guards were hesitant to follow at first, but the jeers from the crowd of peasants and commoners, who had also followed, reaffirmed their resolve to catch her. They quickly found torches and entered the dark smelly sewers. After bumbling about for a few moments one of them finally spotted her at the end of the tunnel and the chase began anew. She lead them through the twisting tunnels of garbage and filth towards the Guild's former sewer headquarters.

She quickly reached the make-shift door that lead to the hideout. Throwing it open the door, she leaned in and yelled, "Hey, you father-raping berks! I've got a surprise for you!" Then she took off down the tunnel.

The thieves inside stood there confused for a moment, then jumped up and ran toward her. That's when the city guards reached the hideout entrance. Fighting immediately broke out between the thieves and the guards. Screams of pain and rage could be heard echoing up and down the tunnels as the guards made short bloody work of the traitor thieves.

Having lost all of her pursers, she quickly climbed a ladder that exited to an alleyway on the surface. And that is where her luck ran out. Apparently in her desire to flee the city guards, she had gotten turned around and was now looking out onto the street that she had entered the sewers from. One of the guards, who had stayed behind for crowd control, spotted her and cried out. She tried to run but was tackled by several peasants who started to beat on her until the guards pulled them off.

"That's her! That's her! She's the one who stole my money!" shouted the man whom she had robbed. Several people in the crowd started crying out for a hanging. "NO! Send her to the mines! Send her to the mines! Make her pay dearly for her evil ways! Make her pay for the rest of her life!" the man started to scream almost hysterically as he waved his arms in the air. The crowd shouted their approval of this and the guards dragged her off to the dungeons as she kicked and struggled. I must have robbed a damn religious zealot, she thought bitterly as she was thrown into a dark cramped cell.

She was told by the guards that she would be brought before the magistrate next week, where she would be tried and sentenced. Her spirit sank into despair as she already new the outcome of her 'trial'. Her friends would not be able to save her form this fate. Rhotbar had another criminal to put to work in the mines. Only she undoubtedly would be doing a different form of work. She briefly thought of killing herself, but abandoned the idea immediately. If there was hope of escape, then she had to go on. There had to be a way and she would find it.

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Next week when they brought her before the magistrate everything went as she had expected it to. The man she had robbed was there shouting obscenities and demanding justice. He refused to shut up when the magistrate ordered him to be quiet, so they removed him from the room and put him in a cell. She took a small degree of comfort in the fact that he would probably get himself thrown into the mines as well. Thrown in the mines for contempt of court, hah, now that is pathetic. He won't last a day, she thought vengefully.

After her sentencing, the guards clapped her in chains and roughly threw her into the back of a prisoner wagon. Another man was in the wagon as well, but she could tell by his expression that he didn't want to talk. After the guards had everything secure in all the supply wagons, they saddled up and left the city. The wagon bumped along the road to the mines and it seemed to take an eternity to get there.

It was midday when they reached the cliff where they threw prisoners in. After loading the lift the guards got her out of the wagon. They removed her chains, but then bound her hands with rope. They weren't even going to give her a fighting chance. After throwing her on the lift they proceeded to lower it into the colony. As she passed through the magical barrier a shiver shook her. It was like having thousands of tiny ants crawling all over her. Then she was through and now a permanent resident of the colony.

She saw that she had a welcoming committee. One of the men leered at her with a yellow gap-toothed smile. "Well, well, look what we have here. It seems Gomez is going to have some new entertainment tonight," he laughed. The others joined in his laughter and then proceeded to unload the supplies that had been sent down. "And what's your name, sweet thing?" the man asked as he grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet.

"My name is Velaya."

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