In the hallway outside, Arden stood alone against the remaining tide of Pavers muscle. He rested both of his hands on his cane, waiting as the enemies rushed forward in the hall. He counted at least six in this group, but the tight space limited how many of them could actually bring weapons on him at once.

With a short prayer, he tapped his cane on the ground, and a shockwave rippled out through the air, blunting the oncoming charge and knocking the two Pavers in the lead onto their backs. Golden light whipped into a frenzy around him for a moment, before, with a gesture of his cane, Arden sent the storm of divine power rushing through the hall. It washed over the thieves in the hall, slicing any weapons they carried in half. When they finally reached him, off balance and largely disarmed, he finally swung his cane itself, cracking one man in the skull before buckling a woman's knees.

For the second to last attack, Arden rested his hand on her forehead, and recited a prayer of pain. The Paver fell back to the floor, muscles spasming and foaming at the mouth.

The last remaining attacker turned and fled.

Arden smoothed out his clothes, and once again rested his cane on the ground, waiting for the next group to come.

Back in the workshop, Valerie and List were in a much more even fight. Xigbar's body moved like a liquid, evading her every attack as his blade harried her with counters. Arthur, by contrast, seemed to take every swing of List's broom straight to the face, but simply refused to just. Stay. Down.

With a feral shout, she swung the broom like a bat, sending Arthur crashing into toolbox that emptied its drawers onto him. He had to be concussed at this point, and yet he was already getting back to his feet, seemingly oblivious to the blood trickling down from the top of his head.

"Oh come on," List said. "This is just getting annoying."

Xigbar used the momentum from a parry to transfer his knife to his other hand, suddenly getting his weapon inside Valerie's guard and immediately holding the point under her chin, pressing just hard enough to draw a drop of blood from her skin.

He shot her a grin. “Gotcha.”

Valerie froze, and her eyes instinctively went to List. The hellborn met her gaze for a split second, then scanned their surroundings. She looked to Xigbar, to Arthur, and then finally to the wristbow resting on a table close to Valerie.

List felt the pieces of the room fit together, and a plan formed in her mind. 

"You two," Arthur growled, "are so fucking dead. No one fucks with the Pavers."

"Is that so?" List asked.

Her tail wrapped around Arthur's ankle and yanked. It wasn't enough to take him to the ground, but his footing became unstable, and List pounced. She slipped the broom handle under his chin, gripped it tight on either side of him, and then flung him over her shoulder—and straight into Xigbar.

The thief dodged his companion, but he had to back off of Valerie to do it, and List immediately swatted the wristbow off the table and over to Valerie.

To her credit, Valerie reacted in time to catch the wristbow. For a startled half second, she had to marvel at the fortune of finding the thing, and in working order again. But then, instinct took over. She slapped the weapon back onto her wrist, loaded a bolt from its built on ammo rack, and loosed it—straight into Arthur's hand, pinning him to the floor. She reloaded in a blur, leveling the weapon at a still recovering Xigbar.

“You were saying?” Valerie challenged.

Suddenly in a two on one fight and staring down a crossbow bolt, Xigbar raised his hands in surrender.

"You stole from us yesterday," Valerie declared. "If you don't mind, we'd like our things back."

"Come on,” Xigbar protested. “What kind of thieves would we be if we just gave back the shit we stole?”

“Yeah,” Arthur grunted from the floor. “You two can fuck off.”

List raised an eyebrow. With a casual stride, she crossed the room to Arthur, and jammed the butt of her broom into the small of the man’s back.

“Tell us where our shit is right now, or so help me I will shove this broom so far up your arse, you’ll have a wooden tongue,” she growled.

“Gah!” Arthur gasped. “Saints! Down the hall, to the left. That’s where we keep the loot.”

“Great backbone there, Arty,” Xigbar said. “You’re an inspiration.”

“Fuck you too, Snake,” Arthur spat. “This shit hurts!”

“Oh, he’s getting his turn, don’t you worry,” List said.

“As appealing as that sounds,” Xigbar said, “I think I’ll pass.”

Valerie blinked, and Xigbar disappeared, his clothes crumpling in a heap where he’d been standing. She stood, baffled, until a blue and silver snake darted out from the pile of clothes, streaking out and into the hall. List swore and tried to swat the snake with her broom, and Valerie tried to shoot it, but it slithered just out of the way of their attacks and into another room.

They followed it, just in time to see the snake transform back into Xigbar—now stark nude—as he opened a trash chute. He grinned back at them, and Valerie instinctively averted her eyes to avoid learning more about anima-human biology than she wanted to.

“See you around, ladies!” he shouted, and dove into the chute.

List’s broom sailed after him like a missile, only to embedded itself a foot into the door of the chute. Xigbar was gone.

“Damn it!” List said, red lightning still racing along her skin. “We had him!”

“In our defense, we didn’t know he could do that,” Valerie said.

“Next time we see him, no talking,” List stated. “Just murder.”

“Excuse me, ladies,” Arden said, poking his head in, “but are you in need of any assistance?”

“Where were you?” List asked.

“Watching our backs.”

For the first time, List noticed the corridor full of dazed, unconscious, and convulsing Pavers, and her fury died out in an instant. She’d thought she’d been cleaning house with her broom, but she hadn’t taken half as many people down as Arden had, and he didn’t seem the slightest bit ruffled by it.

“We’re fine, Dr. Siren,” Valerie said, unperturbed by Arden’s work. “And we know where our things are.”

Mentions of loot got List to stop staring at small mob of subdued enemies, and in short order, they were kicking in the door of the Pavers’ vault.

They found baskets full of clothing, some expensive, some simple. A few cases held a collection of stolen jewelry. A rack on the wall held weapons, ranging from small daggers to a halberd. And of course, there chests on chests of scales. 

Valerie immediately set to work collecting not only their own stolen supplies, but as much of everything else as she could carry, and List followed suit, especially interested in the clothing. Arden went straight for the jewelry, ignoring the other pieces in the collection until after he’d found a simple, plain black ring. He clutched it tight in his hand, breathing a sigh of relief, and stuffed it into his pocket.

When they had as much as they could carry, they made a break for the first window they could find, hurled their loot out of it, and then jumped to follow.

The last one out, List paused to look around at the inside of the Pavers’ office one last time. It still galled her that a den of thieves was just out in the open, as if they thought themselves untouchable. Robbing them felt good, but her gut told her she could do better.

She grabbed a smokeless torch off the wall, and ran a bit of her own power through it as she had the broom. The flame changed from a gentle, constant orange to a wildly crackling red, and now it was producing smoke. The walls of the office might have been stone, but there was plenty flammable material inside. She chucked the empowered torch into the curtains, and dove out the wall.

“What did you do?” Valerie asked when List landed.

List turned to look back at the smoke already trailing out of the window. “Sent the Pavers a message. No one fucks with us.”