Aurora’s World: Ialaera: Mirica: A Thief in the House (part 6)
This entry is part 18 of 32 in the Aurora's World collection
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Part 2
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Part 5
This entry is part 18 of 32 in the Aurora's World collection
The two of them stared at each other. Mirica wished she knew what was going through Nico’s head and she had a horrible feeling that he might know more of what she was thinking that she wanted him to. If he could learn her name from touching her what else could he pick up. Finally, she sighed and shook her head, unable to believe the position she had found herself in. She should have gone for him when she had the chance, but instead she’d done her best to stall him until her brother had arrived, because she didn’t believe that she was capable of fighting him herself. At least if she had of tried, rather than talking to him, she wouldn’t have found herself in the Thieves’ Hideout, of all places, because he’d come to the conclusion that she was interesting.
Nico smiled. “Now that I have you here I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a big enough room for us to share comfortably and I don’t think that’s something you’d even think of as an option, although it isn’t unusual for thieves of opposite genders to share space. Renting one large room is much cheaper than renting two.” He shook his head. “You’re lucky, really, that I can afford to rent two rooms, and that the room I can rent for you is going to be one of the better ones, because I think it’s important that you’re safe when you’re asleep. The last thing I need is for someone to try to steal your magic at a time when I can’t protect you, so I’m going to have to rely on the magic of the hideout.”
“How do you earn any income up here?” Mirica asked, before realised she probably didn’t want to know what the answer was.
“We steal magic, pass it on to the auctioneers, and get paid when it’s sold, because some days the same magic will go for twice what it did the day before. It all depends on who’s at the auction, how many people are bidding on one item, and what sort of magic it is, as some are much rarer than others, some people are much stronger that others, and often magic taken from a female mage will go for more than that from a male mage.”
“My magic is?”
“You don’t want an answer to that question.”
“If I didn’t want an answer I wouldn’t have asked.”
“People ask questions that don’t actually want an answer for all the time. They’re unfortunate enough to find themselves with someone who answers them anyway and makes things much harder than they need to be. I’m not that sort of person, Rica, so I am not going to tell you how well your magic would see at auction.” Nico sighed. “Let’s just say you’re lucky that I found you before someone else did, because they wouldn’t have cared that you were interesting enough to keep, they’d have just taken your magic and made themselves a nice little wad of cash.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.