Seira woke up to nothing but mere silence and darkness. Pleasant, she thought when she opened her eyes and found that she could see everything perfectly within her room even though it was dark. Seira had pulled the curtains shut, made sure that they were thick enough to not let any sunlight in at all and slept through most of the day like this. The inn she was staying at was lovely, and fairly quiet. She rarely, basically never heard any of the other customers moving around and as a result she had been able to rest well here. Not many things had happened ever since she came back to Hargeon and even though Seira had been working on several jobs, usually one each day, she didn’t feel exhausted or fatigued even the slightest bit. The workaholic enjoyed having something else to do everyday and even though a little more rest would do her well, the girl wasn’t interested in simply sleeping through the entire day, even though this was basically what she just did. As a vampire Seira made sure to avoid those hours of the day that received the most sunlight and whenever a gloomy day was about to be she could basically stay out during normal times like a normal person. But when the weather reports said that it was going to be sunny that day she stayed up much longer during the night, till the early morning hours and slept through the entire day until afternoon. Today had been one of those days, but also the days before and even though Seira slept a long time she still had no problems with finding a job. The harbour was busy during any time of the day and the people she worked with were probably night owls like herself, although she wouldn’t be surprised if some of them stayed up late and woke up early. Seira climbed out of bed and walked over to the small fridge she had in her room. She opened it and pulled out one of the blood bags that had the human blood type B+ (be positive) in it—it was her favourite. Seira opened it and started drinking right from it. She had never liked the scent of blood, the iron made her feel sick, even more so the taste, but ever since she had become a vampire she could hardly ever get enough of it. It only made sense, so she figured, and in the end it didn’t even weird her out that much anymore. Seira was strangely calm for someone who had just been turned into a vampire two weeks ago and even in spite of all of that, her demeanor rarely changed. She had always been calm and collected, playful at times but that only came out when she was with people she trusted. Considering that she had been alone and without comrades for a long time now, however, the girl had become cold and calm and rarely lashed out at anything.

[502/2000]

She figured she had herself under perfect control and once she managed the blood lust as well there was hardly anything that could get to her. Because of that, Seira made it a habit to drink blood more and more frequently until she could try drinking directly from the vein without killing anyone or leaving traces behind. That, however, was a problem for another time and she finished the blood bag eventually. It was her fourth day in Hargeon and a look into her diary revealed that so far, she had been able to make over 100.000 Jewels—which was a good amount of money, especially if you compared it to the work she actually had to do for it. Seira wasn’t a lazy person but if she had the chance to do something for only a little bit of work she would, of course, take that chance. Furthermore, she had mostly been working with Reagan Hullston, an infamous smuggler who was well known among herself and the likes, people who didn’t really were on the good side and mostly cared about money. He managed to hide himself from all the security that was on the harbour and his ships and illegal wares that he smuggled around the continent always made their ways through them. Naturally, Seira thought that meeting up with Reagan again was a good idea if she wanted to find work and it was what she was going to do naturally. The woman trusted the man when it came to work and most of his jobs had been simple. He wanted her to retrieve something for him or help him retrieve something he was interested in. Rare goods existed almost everywhere but you needed the right people and right ways to get to them. The more often he worked with independent and neutral mages the easier it was for him to get away with the things he did—Seira was well aware of that. In return, it would also be impossible for her to be connected to his crimes in case he ever got caught and as soon as she made sure not to get caught herself hardly anything could go wrong. Of course he was a sneaky bastard, but he was extremely good at what he was doing and Seira respected that. Seira got ready to leave the house and walked through Hargeon, heading towards the outskirts of the docks where she could usually find that man. It took quite some time, as expected, but Seira eventually did find him sitting near the ocean. He was pretending to be a fisherman, and he was fishing which wasn’t a rare sight. Seira began to believe that he actually really enjoyed fishing and since it didn’t look suspicious at all it was also a pretty good cover. The woman approached him from behind and eventually took a seat next to him, not saying anything for a while. After a while the man raised his voice and actually spoke to her. Seira listened carefully.

[1006/2000]

“I suppose the reason you are here is because we are both looking for something today.” She almost laughed at the way he worded it and the man continued to fish without wavering. “I know I am looking for money. And you are probably looking for something that will earn you money in the long run. So do you have anything for me to work with or no?” She asked and he took, again, a while to respond. “I do, actually. I’ve been informed about the existence of a map that contains.. useful information to say the least. Useful if in the right hands of the right people, that is. The map’s stored away in the town’s hall and I am afraid the only way to obtain it is theft.” He turned towards her and gave her a look. “You are small, quick and quiet. This shouldn’t be a problem for you. I plan on putting this map to good use, so I will be generous with your reward. 50.000 Jewels if you can get it for me tonight.” That was indeed quite generous for a little bit of stealing. Perhaps not for a normal person, but someone who could move without making a sound and see in the darkness? That was indeed a simple job and a good amount of money. Seira nodded quickly. “Yes, sure. I’ll get you the map. Seira knew where the town hall was, but decided to wait past nightfall to actually go there. It would be closed by then and the only thing she had to worry about was security. Seira knew her way around those things by now and as soon as the sun was down and it was night time she went on her merry way. To make it all even better she also was dressed completely in black, wore gloves and had her hair up in a bun and hidden under a hood. First and foremost she needed to get into the hall without using force as she didn’t want to cause a commotion. Seira wanted to gain as little attention as possible and before she went in she sneaked around the building a few times first to gather information. There were few windows, most of them very high up, but plenty of vents that probably lead from the inside to the outside. Furthermore, she also spotted a few security guards here and there but most of them were sleepy looking people. Apparently they didn’t expect much to happen which was just fine with her. So instead of choosing to knock one or two guards out, she snuck around until she found a door that wasn’t being guarded. It was quickly opened with the usage of a hairpin and closed carefully behind her back. Now that she was inside things could get started. According to Reagan all he knew about his location was that it was supposed to be in the town halls storage room, which was two floors up from where Seira was.

[1510/2000]

Seira was by no means a monkey so taking the stairs was the only possible way for her. An elevator existed but she wasn’t dumb enough to do that, it would be way too obvious. Surely this would take a while and the woman snuck around until she could make out the exact positions of the security guards. Being able to not produce any sound as well as seeing in the dark came in ever so handy because the place wasn’t illuminated and with the way she dressed it would be quite difficult for them to spot her as well. Seira quickly rushed up the stairs until she arrived on the second floor and immediately went into hiding until she felt like she had the situation under control. No one had spotted her and the only two security guards up here were facing completely other directions and were quite far away from her. Seira walked around until she eventually found the storage rum which was, much to her surprise, unlocked. She figured that no one really got that far usually and besides, upon entering she realized that there probably weren’t any grade things inside her anyways. Seira entered the room and noticed that the door could be locked from the inside. So she did that , but did not turn the lights on since she didn’t need it. Seira then started looking through around to find a way to escape. From the outside she could see that this room was located right next to the wall of the building and she spotted a vent through which she could easily fit through. Seira decided to use said vent to escape the building and opened it up so she could get out easier and even faster in case something was going to happen. Then she started looking for the map. It was relatively easy to find and not even hidden. Seira found it in one of the drawers and made sure that she had the right item before slipping it into her jacket. And that was precisely when she heard the alarm go off. A little shocked at first, Seira didn’t waver long, climbed into the vent and closed it back up from the inside. She quickly crawled through it without making any sound and even though she could hear the guards from afar approaching the storage room they were, fortunately, unable to open it right away. Seira made it outside safely and jumping from the second floor was no problem. She jumped out of the vent hole and quickly fled the scene before anyone could see her. She started looking for Reagan who wasn’t far away from his original spot, sitting on a bench reading the newspaper. Seira took a seat next to him and handed over the map. “This is it, isn’t it?” She asked and Reagan gave it a careful look. “Yes, precisely. Did anyone see you?” She shook her head. “No.” He thanked her and gave her her reward with which Seira would take off into the night.

[2019/2000]