After taking a rest at the local Inn for the night, the City all a buzz from the collapse of the new Mine, Ziann woke up to find another letter underneath his pillow. Was it from Mattoro again? Yawning, and just feeling like going back to sleep, he scanned the page lazily and saw it was from Neal. Neal wanted more help with his grand heist, or something. Dragging his body out of bed, slumping to the floor as he did so, Ziann felt awful today. His brain chemistry had him in a haze, like he couldn't focus on anything or hold down a thought long enough to think it through. He got up, barely brushed his teeth, and barely managed to dress himself sufficiently to his usual standards. His cape sat off his shoulder a little and his headband was crooked. But he didn't care much.

Shuffling off towards the alley where he was to meet Neal, he read over the letter again. He was to mention the secret phrase, which started with h and rhymed with another word for ghost... Specter, Wraith, Poltergeist... Heist! Duh. Proud of himself for figuring it out in his Depressive state, Ziann arrived to the meeting point. Neal was there, with his hat pulled over his head to block his face. "What's the password?" Ziann just blinked a few times and gave a lazy reply. "Heist." Neal shrugged and gestured for the Wind Mage to follow him. That was good enough for Neal, apparently. They soon were at a door to a strange building. Noticing that Ziann was not in the same mental state as the last time they met, as evident by the lack of being slammed into a wall, Neal gingerly explained the situation.

"Now... I'm going to go in here. You let me know if anything weird is going on. Make a mental note of all of your surroundings." Ziann could barely keep his eyes open, but he nodded in confirmation and leaned up against the wall, one foot up on the bricks. As he rubbed his temples, he began to keep a sharp eye on everything around him. Trying to make sure to complete the job to the best of his ability, no matter the mental state he was in. He refused to let the chemistry of his brain dictate what he could and couldn't do. He was in control. As he worked extremely hard to notice everything around him, the first thing that stood out to him was a pattern of people walking by.

There was this one guy with a red hat that kept walking by from one building to an alley every five minutes. And another woman with a frilly pink dress that walked across the street at a specific point every ten minutes. And a third person, of ambiguous gender, who wore this clown mask that kept popping in and out of a side street every few minutes. They always emerged from the same side of the street, like they were walking in a circle repeatedly. That was definitely odd. Ziann was about to alert Neal when he saw some weirder folks standing a little ways down the street, all dressed in black cloaks. They were looking in this direction, without moving, like they were mounted on stakes or something. Ziann gave three short raps on the door and Neal soon exited the building. "Something funny going on?"

Ziann explained the figures in the cloaks and the three people walking in the apparent circles. Neal's face just turned up in a smile and he gave the Mage a good pat on the back. "Good job, you passed my test. I'll keep in touch for when I'm ready for the next stage of the plan..." And with that, a bag of jewels was pressed into Ziann's hand and Neal was gone. Walking back to the Inn was short work, and Ziann soon collapsed into bed, despite it being not even noon yet. This kind of mood sucked, but he knew it would only be temporary...

679/500 WC