Lirssa had taken refuge at Mister Lucky's secret place for a week. She only allowed herself a week. It gave her time to plot and plan her next moves. She was not quite sure if she was the cat or the mouse in this game, and that made plotting and planning all the more tricky. While she was there, she employed herself well in mending her motley and being of use around the compound. Whether it was taking care of the animals, climbing up trees in the orchard to get high place fruits, or telling wild stories to entertain the staff, Lirssa made sure she paid for her staying there in some fashion.

But, the week was through, and that meant getting back into town and setting off on her own again. Lirssa fought the tears. She did not even know why she was crying. She felt stupid to be afraid and lonely. It wasn't like she hadn't been that way most of her life. There were always friends, and there were always her dogs.

When she found them scrounging through scraps of an alleyway behind one of their favorite restaurants, the greeting was cheerful on both sides. They nosed at her empty pockets, seemed only briefly disappointed in the lack of food there, then licked hands and her face with adoration. Dank and musty fur could not keep her from hugging them all, petting them so that her palms were dark with dirt and hair. "I gotta go earn my keep, okay' I'll see ya later." She smiled and gave them all pats before she turned to go. A few followed for awhile, but then turned back when she kept going on without further attention.

Earn her keep she certainly had to do. Rinsing her hands off in the fountain, she could not afford to get her hair done, so she did her best to braid it back with ribbons she had kept in her pockets. They were all wrapped up and tangled about the key. Care to draw them out without revealing the key, she began her work.

In spite of a sore back and arms, she performed well enough to garner some coins and an applauding, smiling crowd. All told, the count of the coins was enough for a meal that day and to pay for her lessons with Mister Jolly on the next day. She owed him a big apology. All her books and papers were gone. Well, not exactly gone. No doubt they were still in that brownstone house. Besides Elliott, she would have to get those, too. Some of them were her tutor's personal books.

It was a scrapping mess it was, but there was nothing for it to face her tutor as was their usual schedule. She wondered if he still kept it considering she had missed three of the meetings without word. But, she reckoned Mister Jolly kept to them, finding other things to study. He always did no matter where he went.

"Hey, Lirssa. What's the tale?" Jeb stood with his arms crossed, one hand holding an apple, its fleshy insides showing where he had taken bites. "Ain't see you around. Hear tell some big ruckus went on abouts your place."

"T'ain't my place. All flotsam and jetsam. Whatcha want?" She asked, standing to go make a purchase from one of the vendors of bread and cheese. Jeb walked along side, but his only answer was a shrug.

The two ate as they walked, neither saying anything but they communicated with looks, changes of direction, reading each others warnings of danger from the folks around them with ease. Street kids had that notion, and the two of them had it in spades.

When Jeb was done with his apple, and half of the loaf of bread Lirssa had purchased, he cleared his throat, wiped his mouth with his sleeve and reached into his pocket. "Actually, got this ring here for ya. Been carrying around for some days now. What's it for?"

Lirssa shoved the last bite of cheese in her mouth and clamped her hand about the ring, putting it in her pocket to clink briefly with the key. "None of your business, Jeb." She spoke around the half chewed morsel.

"Caw, say, look at you all high and mighty, but ratty headed." He pointed to his own head while looking at her poorly formed braids. "You do whatcha wanna then. I got things going. Cobble bedding it again these days?"

"Yep," Lirssa nodded.

"Well, ya could stash out with me some days if ya want. Got nice place near a factory. Noisy, but none bugs me."

Lirssa was tempted, but if anyone was looking for her noise wasn't going to keep them away. She needed to be alone and able to leave at a moment's notice. "Nah, thanks though. Gonna take my luck down West End border with the docks. Got my dogs anyway."

They parted, and with some bread and cheese in her stomach, she felt ready to take on the first step in her plan. First thing first, find out if Fitzhugh has Elliott. How to find it out without being found out herself was going to be a trick. If she had that ring working, well, that would have been maybe something. Instead, she had the ring but not figured out how to get it to work.

It would just have to be a late night sneak. She'd take one of the dogs with her as decoy if someone woke up. Most those people slept like the dead anyway. It would do.

Lirssa could not hear his voice in her mind. She could not hear anything at all from the house. The only sound was the panting of the dog next to where she crouched by the back door. The holly bush scratched and pricked at her skin and clothes, but it was the safest place to get a view inside the kitchen.

The lamp was burning low, which was odd for the evening hours. It was not much past when dinner would have been served. Instead of the activity she had expected to need to wait out, listening to the voices, catching the news, there was nothing.

She peered over the sill one hand on the scruffy, gray dog's head to keep him quiet. He licked her hand and then stilled underneath the scritching attention. The door from the kitchen to the hallway was open only a sliver, and beyond revealed nothing more than even deeper darkness. It all was too peculiar indeed.

If she was going to make a sneak about and find her books, books she had promised Mister Jolly that she'd have back yesterday and still had not, then this seemed a good time for it. Only, the oddity of it all set her a bit off. On the other hand, one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth as the saying goes.

As she slid back down into the rough of the bush, its limbs again doing their best to snag and snare, the back door open and she froze. "Who's out here, hm' Show yourself now."

It was Annie. She did not even hold a lamp, relying on the faint light from the moon and the kitchen window to reveal whatever culprit. For just this reason Lirssa had brought along the dog, well that and a promise, and she gave a nod in that direction and a pointed finger that the dog obeyed by scrambling out of the bushes. Strays were a good distraction from any sounds made.

"Ah, I see ya there, little fellow. Well, I'm afraid we have no scraps tonight, no you run along you hear" Go on now, shoo." Annie waved her hands and the dog rushed off across the small courtyard between the two brownstones that backed one to another.

Lirssa heard the door close and looked back up at the house. At least Annie still seemed to be what she had been. Just a sweet mannered housemaid. The root of the trouble was that this place had magical folk. Magical folk that had at one time been interested in her whereabouts.

That had changed obviously with the lack of further threats to her and the general pleasure she had seen on Fitzhugh's face. Still, magic was magic, and there was only one person in that whole building who might do her a good turn. Slipping the ring on her finger for a sense of confidence, she scrambled out of the bushes and gave a soft knock on the back door.

Annie cracked open the door then widened it as she stood aghast. "Ah, Lirssa, what are you doing?" Her voice was a whisper of fright. She glanced over her shoulder and back at Lirssa.

"I need my stuff, Annie, and..I need to know what happened."

"Your stuff, as you put it, has been sent on with Mr. O'Malley. He seemed to find it all very interesting the books you had on histories from other places. What happened is you up and vanished and in your place was a man. They call him Elliott and he stays in the basement. I can't say as to what goes on there. I'm not allowed down there. You had best go, Lirssa. Don't ever come back here."

Annie was a puzzle, and though she certainly spoke the truth, something always confused her. "Why do you stay, Annie?"

"Because Arabella is here. I can't leave my sister. Now go. Go. This isn't a place to be tonight."

The door was swung shut abruptly, and Lirssa turned to walk fast and light along the walls of the buildings until she was a good distance away. She set to thinking on just what O'Malley wanted with those books and with no real determination other than maybe to find something else of power, decided that was bad enough. She had to get them back.

Time to find out just what these folks were up to at large.

The brownstone had been as lively as ever it had been before, and O'Malley had been heard through the crack of an open window. The peculiar stillness of her last visit vanished entirely. Because of this, Lirssa had to divert her plans a little from their course. In retrospect, making sure the ring worked was probably a better first step. Rin wouldn't have outright lied to her, but he might not have known either.

The search for a magical person who could sense she was nearby had proved frustrating and fruitless at the inn that night, though it sure had shown her a thing or two about some people she had been watching. It served to remind her like a smack across the face that danger was everywhere and that inn drew it like a lodestone.

Mister Lucky had provided a possible answer to the problem, and the next day she had gone by to have the ring tested. While Mister Lucky himself couldn't provide the magical ability, he did have an artifact, one he deftly avoided saying how he came by to own it. Lirssa thought there were a lot of people she knew who would like to get their hands on that artifact: Mister Jolly for good reasons and Fitzhugh for all sorts of bad reasons were the firsts to come to mind.

Still, the artifact did its job, proving that the ring did keep her from being sensed magically, and Lirssa concluded it must be dampening her gift as promised. Mister Lucky accepted her explanation of why she wanted to have the ring as a way to keep from being found. It was the truth afterall. That she failed to provide the fact she was going in to the brownstone again was only for expediency sake, she convinced herself. It wasn't like she was going to break the promise. She had a ferret with her she had found near the cliffs. She wouldn't be alone, and it wasn't like she had thoughts of actually attacking anyone. She couldn't anyway. It was all settled in her plots and plans.

All she had to do was wait for night. She sat across from the brownstone with the ferret sleeping in her lap. Night also worked better for her new furry, and somewhat stinky, friend. Lirssa had contemplated bringing one of her pack dogs, but realized it would cause more harm than good. She had been very lucky to find that ferret and that it seemed inclined to be fond of humans instead of strike at her. Must have been someone's lost pet. That was the only way to explain it. It curled up in her lap completely contented to sleep through the wait.

Lirssa wanted to sleep, too. She felt tired. In fact, for the past day, she had that feeling pressing upon her shoulders and fogging her mind constantly. A brisk shake of her head, she shook of the growing fatigue and watched the brownstone as darkness slipped over the sky, stretching its silky darkness and scattering of stars from horizon to horizon.

One by one the lights dimmed then went out entirely. Lirssa wanted to sleep, too. It burned her eyes and slowed her breath. The ferret stretched it slinky body and then scrambled off her lap, prancing and bouncing with vigor. The activity roused her again. Lirssa offered it some food to coax it back to her, and it snatched it, running up to her shoulder to eat.

It was time. Lirssa kept to shadows waiting for the street travelers to provide her a space to dart across the open space. When they did, her sprint was swift and straight as an arrow into the shadows next to the brownstone. She crept around the side of the house to the back, the kitchen lamp again burned low and sent out a soft glow into that small courtyard.

With the ferret curled about her neck, its claws digging lightly into her skin, she climbed up the side wall to where a window was open to the cool night air. It was Annie's room. Hers was the only one that place in the back and that high, the third floor. When Lirssa reached it though, she could not pass through.

There was some ward on it. Something kept her hand from gripping on the other side. Her support hand was sweating, so she switched her grip, clinging like a spider to the side of the building. As much as she wanted to call out to Annie for help, that would only put the one kind and sane person in that household in danger. Lirssa had to find a way in that kept her presence quiet.

Pressing her hand once more against the empty space, there was pressure that suddenly gave way. It almost threw Lirssa completely off balance, but a shift in her weight and she clung to the window, drawing herself inside. She walked soft with her bare feet. The wood floor felt cool compared the stones just outside that still retained some heat from the last rays of the sun.

Looking back to the window, Lirssa frowned and then looked at her hand. It had been the ring hand that had made it through. It must have dampened whatever magic was there allowing her to get through. With a soft smile, Lirssa soft walked across the floor and slipped out into the narrow hallway.

This might be easier than she thought.

Shuffling through the other papers on the desk, not careful to keep them in place. It did not matter if they knew someone had gone through it later. Lirssa had every intention of being long gone by the time they woke. Still, nothing else revealed itself nor were any of the books there.

Drawing the lantern up close, she walked along the shelves, reading spines or drawing out untitled works that had familiar color and shape to them. The ferret clambered down her back, its nails biting a little into her flesh as he went. Like a furry spring it scampered to the door, sniffing at the bottom and then went running about the room with wild abandon.

Lirssa paid the creature no mind for the moment. It was the books she needed to read and quickly. Her heart still jumped from time to time knowing what she carried and where she was pressing on her paranoia. She looked over her shoulder at a sound from the hallway, but did not stop her search. Either she was caught or it was nothing. Wasting time standing stone still was not going to be helpful either way.

Eventually she found two of the books that were hers on the far end shelf held up by a round brass bookend. From beneath the back of her motley, she pulled out a small bag. It would not carry them all, but these two she snatched from the shelf and slid inside the bag. Settling the straps over both shoulders, she settled the bag against her chest.

A strange light, blue as moonlight, cast over the bag and she looked up for the source. The bookend began to glow a soft pulse that with each moment grew. Lirssa panicked, grabbing at the globe and the ring clinked against its brass sphere. The light vanished.

With a slow breath, Lirssa set the bookend back on the shelf and sighed at the ferret happily shredding the center of one of the chairs as if preparing a cushy nest. That was close, she thought, not daring to speak. But the experience had given her a clue, and she looked at each of the shelves near the bookends, finding more of her books until the bag was full. Each time, she set the ring on her hand against the brass globes, keeping them silenced against the books' removal.

With a grin and a full bag, she scooped up the ferret to set upon her shoulders. Wouldn't Mister Lucky be surprised when she told him that she had gotten the books back" Well, maybe a bit angry, too, but it was her mess to clean up. No one else's trouble. She was growing up, time to take responsibility.

And there was one more responsibility to set right. Slipping out into the hallway once more, she crept up the railing of the stairs to avoid two of the creaky boards from the steps. Sounding them once was one thing. Sounding them again was just asking for the whole house to wake. At the landing for the second floor, she dropped into a soft crouch upon the hallway rug.

Without a pause she went to the door hinting blue light from beneath. The ring had proven useful more than she could imagine. She owed Locke one, that's for sure. She owed him a lot. If she could just use the ring to break Elliott free, then she could go home and feel pretty sure that things would be okay. The ring would keep her hidden. Life could be normal.

The doorknob turned easily beneath her hand, and she snuck inside, closing the door behind her. When she turned to look at the bed where she expected Elliott to be, prone, near lifeless, unable to even call out to her in warning as he had that week before, she found the bed empty. The blue candles burned low, the window and its curtains and shutters closed, but the bed was completely made.

Lirssa froze, not sure what to do and knew that moment, it was a trap. She turned to get out of that room as quick as a wink, but beyond the door stood O'Malley and Fitzhugh, looking as pleased as they could be, smiles like full stomached lions. "Welcome home, Lirssa." Fitzhugh simpered as he stepped forward forcing Lirssa back into the room again. "There is nothing so predictable as a street urchin with a sense of honor. Though, I must say, I did not expect you to get this far without us sensing you. Learned a new trick, have you?"

Lirssa hid the ringed hand underneath the bookbag. Ferret hissed from her shoulder, little clawed paws pattering and digging into her shoulder. O'Malley flicked a hand and the lamp upon the bedside table flared to life, the blue candles snuffed. He inhaled and chuckled. "She has a token on her, Fitzhugh. I can smell it. It is starting to sing, too. I almost missed it. Quite delicate work, but it is..." paused and tilted his head as if listening to something only he could hear, "Oh, dear, it is getting a little tired, not prepared for such strong use."

Not inclined to give them any answers, Lirssa asked one of her own. "Where'd you put Elliott' I know you have him."

Fitzhugh did not hesitate, smiled as if he found himself quite clever. "Basements are good for storing so many things, vegetables, herbs, bodies. He really should have just joined us. So much better alive than dead, wouldn't you say?"

"Come along now, Lirssa. You still have some work to do. The ring may hide you, but you have only magnified its power. It has not taken yours away." O'Malley motioned. "I found some very interesting references to artifacts of power in those books. I should like your help in finding them."

Lirssa's mind went blank. All the plotting and planning had included her getting captured, but some silly selfish part of her had thought it wouldn't happen. So much for being grown up and taking responsibility. Now, things were worse.