I knew he was coming. I knew what he was after and he would not have it. I spent months tracking that gold, and he tries to come along and take it from under my nose. He doesn’t know I can sense him, I can hear him. He can muffle his footsteps, but he can’t muffle his heartbeat. I will let him follow me. I can catch him off guard, ambush him. I can be rid of this pest once and for all. I run through the alleys and I see the dead end coming. I formulate the best way to get up the wall and go for it. He is surprised, his heart rate spikes. I caught him off guard. I reach the top of the wall. He’s standing there. I got up too fast for him to run. He and I exchange looks. His face twitches. He knows he’s been caught in a trap. I take out my daggers and he realizes what I’ve done. It’s fight or flight, and I clipped his wings. He back flips to gain distance, He grabs his crossbow in mid-air and lands with it pointed at my chest. He smiles. He thinks he’s won. He doesn’t realize my powers. The muscles in his arm ripple, sending a wave of energy to the muscles in his fingers. I react. I leap into the air, arching my back. His bolt whistles through the air. It passes under my back, centimeters away. Before it goes too far, I catch it, just to mess with him. I land perfectly with the bolt in my hand. He’s surprised, but only for a second. He knows I have powers. He’s going to try to run. I can’t let him get away. I throw a dagger. It sinks into his leg. I walk toward him. He flips back over the wall. I hear glass shatter and I run towards where he just was. He crashed into the floor below through a window. He surprised me. He’s too far for me to be able to hear him. I have only a moment to curse my stupidity. He won’t be following me anymore. I can continue my plan. The treasure is in the basement of a church. The bishop who died recently promised his wealth to them. It will be collected tomorrow morning. I must steal it tonight. It’s my ticket out of this forsaken city. I start toward the church again. It’s a relatively quiet night. There are some prostitutes I know down below me. I drop a shingle next to them. They look up.

“Stay away from the church tonight”, I say warning them.

“Making trouble Latras?” I flash a smile and continue on. I only stop once to eavesdrop on a visiting emissary. He isn’t giving up anything interesting so I leave. I look at the moon. I have about an hour before sunrise, and the bishops go collect the money. I make it to the church, now comes the hard part. Churches are built like fortresses, they’re meant to stand for centuries. The easiest way to the basement is the catacombs. I leap the gap to the church roof and jump down to the cemetery. The catacomb has a simple lock and is easy to break. I rushed down the stairs and then I was faced by the maze of tunnels. I know where to go; I wrote it on my hand. I finally reach the basement of the church and find it there. The chest is relatively small. I am about to reach it when the windows crash open. It is the man I wounded. He seems to have found a black market healer. He was quick; he also got a strength potion. He quickly throws a series of knives and pins me to the stone. He goes over to the chest and throws it open. He stops. He seems to float then he simply turns to dust. There is nothing left. A man walks over to the dust. I didn’t sense him. He snuck up on me. That was impossible for anything with a heartbeat.

“There was a curse on that chest as you can probably tell.” He seems calm, almost as if a man wasn’t just turned to dust in front of him. “There isn’t one anymore. It’s single use only.”

“And you must be the one who put it on.”

“Good guess, but no. That was a… ‘colleague’ of mine.” He comes over to me and removes the knives from my clothes. As soon as the last one is out I climb up the wall and flip over him, putting myself between him and the chest, as well as a dagger in my hand. He is still calm. “That was a neat move, but there is no need to be so guarded”, he said as if it would ease my nerves. As I slowly back toward the chest I step into the man-ashes.

“So why did you help me?”

“Because, you look for something more in life. You hate being a thief and a murderer, but your philosophy is to simply play the hand you’re dealt. My philosophy, however, is to create your own cards, and your own rules if needed. That is what you do even without noticing it. Every time you kill someone, every jewel you steal, and every step you take alters the timeline of history, and what could be, by massive degrees. This is why I came here. This is why I helped you. Your life is much more important than you can imagine. And history is being directed into a very bad place, by very dark powers. Your path in life as well as the very path of history itself will be determined by the next few years in your life. And it all starts with you taking home that chest.”

“Why? Why me? Why was I chosen to save history? And what does that chest have anything to do with saving the world. And why the hell can’t I hear your heartbeat.” I am getting frustrated. I am getting impatient. I need to calm down. I need to just go home and forget this in copious amounts of sleep.

“All of your questions will be answered, in time. You just need to be patient and know that your time is coming very soon. Now hurry, take this chest and go home. Do not go through the catacombs. There are guards walking through.” He runs up the stairs and I know better than to follow him. I grab the chest and make my way to the den I call home. I fall asleep in a sea of questions, anxious to leave this city.