“No, no, no!” she silently cursed her impulsiveness as she held her broken lockpicks in her hands. For a moment she debated on leaving the lockpicks behind, but she was too fond of them. This set had accompanied her on so many adventures and seeing how the tops had broken off, beyond repair, made her eyes water.

“You’ve served me well, old friend. May you rest in peace… and pieces.”

Unable to part with the first gift she had ever received, she trailed her fingers over its grooved edges and placed it back in her pocket, before heading towards the door.

After being in the dark library for what felt like an eternity, Renae found the dimly lit hallway to be a welcome change of scenery. While loud singing and chatter of the ongoing feast could be heard outside, save for a tapping noise coming from around the corner, the area itself was quite silent. As she made her way to the end of the hall, Renae carefully pressed herself against the wall, unsheathing her knives. With her heart beating away rapidly in her chest, she turned around the corner and slammed her face into someone’s chest.

Without a second thought, Renae swung her knives towards her armored opponent. He seized her by her wrists, forcing her to drop both of her knives. She attempted to wrestle her way out of his grasp. Unsuccessfully, she failed to free herself and both of her knives hit the ground with large clangs.

“Renae, it’s me!” Andyr whispered loudly as he released her wrists and removed his helmet.

“Oh, God, Andyr you startled me!” she pressed her shaky palms to her eyes, “Aren’t you supposed to be further down the hall? What are you doing here?”

“I was, but you were nowhere to be found, so after a while I figured I’d look for you,” he shrugged, “The guards have been knocked out for a while, so they might get up any minute now.”

“Sorry I was late,” she apologized, picked up her knives and sheathed them.

“No time for that, let’s get going,” he took her by the arm and the two walked down the hall. 

As Andyr led her deeper into the treasury, they passed by unconscious guards who were sleeping soundly on the ground. After moving some of the bodies aside, they reached a grand door with four lifeless men laying down beside it.

“You know what to do,” Andyr gestured towards the door with an open palm.

Renae trailed the large M on the door before dropping to her knees and inspecting the lock.

“Hm.”

Andyr stood next to her with his arms crossed, “Well? Aren’t you going to pick that?”

“I can’t,” she spoke dejectedly, shaking her head slowly.

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“It’ll take hours to pick this.”

“Renae, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“This mechanism’s just too complex for me to pick.” she bit her lip, “Let me think.”

“We don’t have time for this. Those guards could wake up any moment now. We have to move.”

“No, there’s got to be another way.”

She leapt up and walked towards the lifeless guards and began patting their clothing.

“And what are you doing now?” Andyr approached her, “We should be thinking of a way to get out of here alive, not harassing unconscious men.”

She turned as she patted another guard’s pockets, “I’m looking for a key, obviously.”

“What do you mean, ‘looking for a key’? There’s no way they would be dumb enough to actually keep the key to the treasury on one of the guards right in front of—”

“Found it!” Renae waved the key in the air.

Andyr rolled his eyes, “Unbelievable.”