It was just another day. Nothing really going on. Frankly, I was getting a bit bored. So when I heard from Thorpe that he wants to go hunting for poison and asking if I want to go along, I decided to accept. Lyria also was going along. In retrospect, I suppose that should have been obvious. After all, who better than a healer to identify poisons?

My previous adventure had been fun, but it was time to settle down and make a living. In this case, I was hired to steal a flask. Just that, nothing fancy. Well, maybe a little fancy. It was an iron flask, after all. And the job was for the wizard Angus. Well, I can pretend it's nothing fancy.

So, first, scouting the estate. Going in off the main street is, of course, a bad idea. Fortunately, there's an access road along the back. Spiky iron fences are pretty good for the owner, but lax gardeners are good for thieves. Taking advantage of a tree branch that had been allowed to grow out over the fence, I was up, over, and down. The dog was elsewhere, and I had no intention of waking it. Silently, I crept to the kitchen entrance. A little pick in the lock, a little oil in the hinges, and I was in.

It started out like any ordinary day. I had heard that some noble was getting a shipment of good wine. It doesn't seem like my usual kind of thing, but I figured what the hey, the noble's probably got tons of the stuff. He won't really miss it, and it would probably cheer up some less fortunate people. Or maybe he drinks it like water and would notice, in which case I doubt anyone would pay much attention to his ravings anyway.