Atzi, Kurgi, and Marise worked their way through the parties of the rich district, with Atzi stopping to ask partygoers if they had seen an angry spider woman. They kept pointing her eastward, Scabiel too distinct to not notice. Finally, at a home along the edge of the district, there was a party where everyone seemed to be excessively drinking, Scabiel among them.

  "Hide here," Atzi told Kurgi and Marise, pointing them to the corner of the house. Then she approached the drunken spider woman.

  Scabiel glanced at her briefly, before sliding back into the idle chat of the group she was in.

  "Scabiel, yeah?" Atzi asked.

  "...Yeah? What?" she asked, slightly slurred.

  "You know there's someone fucking with you?"

  Scabiel turned to Atzi fully. The people she was talking with started whispering like there might be juicy gossip.

  "You're talking about Kurgi?" Scabiel rose to her full height, towering over Atzi.

  Atzi shrank a little, since Scabiel was still very scary to stand near. "No, no no no. Someone uh... pretended to be you, earlier today. She thought you'd been horrible to her, so she did that stuff to get back at you. 'Cept it wasn't you, obviously."

  Scabiel silently squinted her six eyes.

  "I'm serious. There's someone else who saw the fake you, if you wanna ask them."

  "Who?"

  "The uh, other girl in Kurgi's room. She was at the same party."

  Scabiel's head jerked towards the corner where Kurgi and Marise were hiding, having somehow spotted them instantly. "Tell them to get over here." Even in her drunken stupor, Scabiel sounded upset.

  Atzi slinked back over to the other two. "Well, she's listening. Just gotta explain what happened." She could have left, then, but she still had a little time before the heist meeting and wanted to see if things worked out. Plus, knowing she'd used her foresight to change the fate of two disasters felt… empowering.

  Kurgi and Marise nervously approached Scabiel.

  "I'm listening," the spider woman said, impatiently.

  "Tell her, Marise!" Kurgi pleaded.

  "Um, ah, uh-" it took a grueling amount of time for her to form words, but eventually Marise managed to repeat the initial meeting from her own perspective. Scabiel listened impassively, swaying slightly.

  When she was done, Kurgi jumped in. "-and I'm sorry I said all that mean stuff to you! I thought- I thought you were a bitch! But no! It's whoever did this to us who's the bitch!"

  Scabiel's eyes finally shifted to concern. "Only two people I know are capable of this level of shapeshifting."

  The Shapeshifter being one. But who's the other?

  "The Shapeshifter themself… or their Prophet." Scabiel looked into the distance. "I know my god wouldn't do this to me. But that one… that one might. I don't know why, though."

  "Maybe cause Kurgi's a daughter of another God?" Atzi suggested.

  "You might be right," Scabiel said. Then she turned towards Kurgi, reaching forward an arm. "Kurgi… I'm sorry for what I said, too."

  Atzi smiled. All's well that ends well.

  Yet, Scabiel continued. "But, I really am not comfortable with you sleeping around all the time. I wouldn't have been as mad about it if it wasn't for the other things, but..."

  Oh this is definitely not the time to jump in. I'm gonna leave them to it. Maybe it'll work out or maybe they kill each other.

  Atzi snuck away, giving one last look to see the two of them having a heated discussion, and Marise sneaking away, too.

  -

  Before heading to the meeting, Atzi used her magic to bless herself once more. She chanted the words the Serpent had taught her. Immediately she felt sharp and crisp, a thousands things to say dancing on her tongue. Something else, too. Like her body got slightly heavier.

  I guess that's what it's like to lose essence?

  "It feels good when you do that," the goddess in her head remarked.

  "It does? You feel it as well?" Atzi asked.

  "Yes. It feels warm. I wish it would stay."

  "If I kept casting it, I'd run out. Sorry, I've gotta pace it for now."

  Finally she arrived at V's mansion. The guards checked her over and let her in, as usual.

  Atzi didn't want to tip anyone off she had foreknowledge, but she also didn't want Cory to steal from her. So she chose to look at her, just as she was creeping up.

  "Oh, you noticed me!" Cory said with a radiant smile.

  Immediately all of Atzi's words and confidence melted away. "Of course I'd notice you. Um... aha, I mean... hi Cory."

  She was beautiful as ever, in Atzi's opinion, with that cocky grin on her face. This woman could never hurt her, Atzi realized. She had to have been mistaken.

  She had to.

  "You… are infused with the blessing of a god?" Came a voice, shaking Atzi from her stupor.

  "Eh?" Atzi turned around to see Aelia standing up, addressing her.

  "I can sense the holy energy inside of you," Aelia continued.

  Ah fuck. Excuse time, excuse time… "I know a Serpent priestess and begged her to gimme a blessing to seem more confident."

  Aelia smirked.

  "Fucking hopeless..." Fence remarked.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Damnit. I didn't realise she could just see that stuff. "Sorry…" Atzi took her seat.

  "Why would you need to be more confident?" Cory asked, as she sat down herself.

  "W-well... I just felt like I wasn't um... that popular..."

  One could cut an icicle with the awkward silence that followed.

  This wasn't how it was supposed to go!

  "If you are all finished, we shall begin important discussions," V commanded.

  The meeting played out as Atzi remembered it, with the same focus on the plan as last time, and another argument about her fault from the botched job those many years ago.

  Yet among the discussions, Atzi did choose to do one thing differently. She made no attempt to take Cory's side - she didn't want her to mention stealing the book. It would be awkward, considering Atzi had already stolen it. Maybe if I just avoid her, she won't pick me for that.

  Atzi waited with anticipation until Cory ended up saying, "I'll take Paulina and Fence."

  "That leaves me with Atzi..." Aelia remarked, sour.

  Atzi gave an awkward laugh.

  -

  Paulina gave Atzi a heavy glare before leaving with Cory and Fence. Atzi stuck behind with Aelia to listen to V expound on the other job, involving gathering codewords the guards use in the bank.

  "This job is no easy feat," V began, pacing. "The guards only use their keywords inside the bank itself, and change them every month. They've already taught them the new words and burned the book for teaching, no doubt. However, that doesn't make this task impossible."

  Atzi listened intently.

  V continued, "The strictness of those in charge does not match those in the rank and file. I'm sure if we looked through every home of these guards, we would find notes they took on the keywords. Hopefully this forms a complete set, but if it does not, I have a backup plan."

  "What's their addresses?" Atzi asked.

  V glared at her. "I will provide a booklet with it when this discussion is over. There are twenty guards, two sets of ten for each shift, and they live in sets of two with different shift-mates so someone is always at the home, all of which are bank-provided as well. The bank is very meticulous in this." They frowned slightly. "The three of us will need to infiltrate at least three homes each and search for the keywords without alerting the occupant before or after."

  "Always trickier when someone's around... um, I can do it, though." Atzi offered.

  "Good. If you fail and are caught, we have no association."

  Atzi nodded, expecting it. It didn't matter much to her, anyway - if she messed up, she had protections in the form of both the Serpent and the loop, though she still wanted to avoid the pain of dying if possible.

  "Do you have cycles on the guards at home? When they go out to buy things?" Aelia asked.

  "Unfortunately I do not have enough resources for such in-depth investigation without potentially tipping my hand. You will need to figure these things out yourself if you want to avoid anyone in the home at all, though I suspect the returning guard purchases them - it's what I'd do." Then they made for the door out of the dining room. "I will return shortly."

  Atzi sat in an awkward silence with Aelia, who didn't even look at her.

  Finally, V returned with a thin book bound in plain brown leather. They set it on the table and opened it, revealing diagrams of houses upon the residential streets, various ones marked. "Atzi, you take these three homes. Aelia, you take these three homes. I'll take these final three. The last home we will leave unless we must go there for complete information."

  Atzi nodded.

  "You have the next day and a half to complete this. We will meet again the afternoon of the thirteenth to ensure the jobs are complete and we are ready to rob the bank that night. If not, we can extend our deadline by at most a day."

  Wait... if V plans to betray us after the robbery... Atzi considered the position she was in. She had just wanted to see if V or Cory would respond to the fact she'd stolen the book, not get caught up in the full bank heist. I need to make it to the sixteenth. She wasn't yet sure if following V's plan would make that easier or harder.

  -

  As Atzi left, Aelia looked at her. "Confidence indeed. You barely trembled as V glared at you."

  Atzi laughed awkwardly rather than responding. Aelia simply walked away.

  At least the blessing was a handy excuse.

  As the morning sun peaked overhead, Atzi went back to the inn. Along the way she overheard a news crier shouting about the war in Cthy.

  Poor guys. Atzi thought. Are we the baddies? Well, not me. I didn't invade them.

  Nobody was there to greet her as she got in, so she just made her way up the stairs and to her room.

  I guess the best way to survive until the sixteenth is to go along with the plan. That way V doesn't hunt me down. And maybe without me to lean on, Cory isn't going to steal the book.

  With that, Atzi fell asleep.

  ===

  Atzi dreamt of Malus diving down from the sky into the mountains, exploding Cthargictha like she'd exploded Sostra.

  She woke up wishing she'd stop having shitty dreams.

  Atzi headed downstairs to eat. Just as she took her first step, the door slammed open.

  In strolled Paulina.

  I'm not dealing with you this time! Atzi scampered back to her room, taking the window as an exit.

  She had no time to deal with someone angry at her for something that wasn't her fault. She wanted to scope out the houses she was assigned and, if there was a good opening, try one of them. After that, she wanted to go steal fire gems before the chicken did.

  She grabbed a snack from a stall, finished it, and made her way to residential streets. Finding and scouting the houses was easy, as they were all uniform. Made of stone, two stories, thin, and packed tight with similar houses, only the narrowest of alleys between them.

  Each home had small stone steps leading to a bronze front door. To the right of the door was a window. The second floor had two windows, and a chimney. All the windows were drawn with curtains.

  Chimney is always a last resort. She knew from experience that it was a trap option. It seems like such a great way in! Unless there's a fire lit, and also you track soot everywhere. She shook her head. Upstairs window is generally good, but I'll need to wait until night for that.

  She staked out one of the houses, ducked low into the alley between it and the next house over. She kept her ear to the walls, listening for any noises and trying to determine if they followed any particular routine. Luckily, the occupant was loud, the thudding of their steps easily heard.

  She staked them out for the entire afternoon, and the thumping never stopped for more than an hour at a time. They must sleep some other time than the afternoon, then.

  Come evening, she saw someone else approaching the house. Another one of the guards from the bank, stomping around in heavy obsidian armor. Atzi quickly slid deeper into her hiding spot, ducking down under garbage.

  Atzi waited to see how long the swap would take. My guess is - they go to sleep not long after the swap, because they'll be tired after working.

  The guard entered the home.

  Then Atzi suddenly remembered - The chicken! The gems! I should get those! It was around that time she heard things had happened from her brilliant information gathering.

  So she ran off.

  -

  She ran and ran until she reached the college. She addressed the guards at the gate, "I have an appointment."

  A guard motioned. "Head straight to the building in the center. Don't enter anywhere else or stray off the path."

  "Gotcha."

  She headed in. Then she headed straight for the north gate, which would lead out the city and to her gem bounty.

  She stepped onto the grass.

  Immediately, a great sense of vertigo struck her, and she lost sight of anyone else. She still saw the buildings, the gate, but everyone was gone. She took another step forward-

  -and was back on the path, seeing the students wandering around again.

  Atzi thrashed her tail. Right. This stupid building. I need a token if I'm going through! Except they won't give me one if I don't have a reason.

  She did, technically, have another option. She could go all the way to the south gate, then wrap around the outside of the city until she made it back to the north entrance. The only problem was how long it would take - far too late to steal the gems.

  Lesson learned for next loop.

  She sighed and headed back to the bank guards' home. It was time to steal some codewords.