Asora at night should have been dull and diluted. With the shadows, danger and wariness were supposed to come. Jongho was mightily annoyed by the fact that Asora was beautiful even in the unknown hours of the night.

Contrary to his expectations, Asora was less busy than he predicted, maybe even less engaged than Zey during the night. In Zey, some people always disregarded the curfew to do their shady work. They had to dodge the automatons whenever they did that, but they were intelligent enough to sidestep most lethal encounters. Asora had no rules to stay at home as far as Jongho knew, but the streets were empty anyway as all people had withdrawn into their warm homes.

Jongho would bet his dad's medicine that they did not have to fear a flood whenever it started to rain.

As he followed Mingi through the dimly lit and orderly alleys of Asora, Jongho could not help but agree with the ugly bitterness that spread in his chest. Not a single piece of trash was littering the ground, and no building had shattered windows or shabby walls. They all stood neatly and picturesque as if they tried to win a prize for their facades. It had Jongho sneer at them in contempt. If his dad lived here, he probably would have been healthy by now. Or even better, he would never have fallen sick.

Maybe Jongho's mother would still be alive if fate had not been so cruel as to banish them to Zey.

The need to kick one of the white walls nearly overwhelmed Jongho, but he was thankfully distracted enough by Mingi in front of him that he fought it down. Together, they darted through the sleeping city.

Mingi knew exactly where to go. He had most likely been to Asora often by now for jobs of all kinds, so he had memorised the path to the palace well.

Jongho noticed the suspicious lack of automatons. He didn't see or hear even a single of the murderous machines on their way. At first, he had found it worrisome, but after some thinking, it made sense. Asora's inhabitants didn't have any need to fear each other. The people here were living good and stable lives that didn't require acts of stealing or killing each other. Of course, they didn't need brutal bots to kill them on sight. They felt safe in their surroundings.

Jongho hated them. Them, and everything that related to Asora.

By the time they reached the palace, Jongho was drenched in sweat despite their benign journey. He expected something to jump out at them at any given time, and when nothing came, he tensed even more.

At Mingi's signal to halt, he nearly took a break to sit for a few moments before they could continue.

"We'll go in through the backdoor. Don't worry about the guards. They are human and don't expect anyone to break in."

Jongho wordlessly shook his head. He couldn't believe them.

He snuck behind Mingi as they approached the east wing of the grand castle. The towers of the main building loomed into the night sky like a piece of very fancy scrap. Their seemingly endless marble walls intimidated Jongho with their height, and he was glad that they would infiltrate the smaller building at the side.

Mingi halted near the ornate fence that wrapped around the whole compound, including the gardens prettily. He climbed it with practised ease, and Jongho followed him with even fewer effort since his gadgets helped him. Piecing those together had been one of his best ideas.

They dropped onto the lawn behind the obstacle soundlessly. Jongho allowed himself to run his fingers through the countless stalks for a short moment. He marvelled at the softness of real grass. Of course, they also had meadows and forests outside of Zey's industrially dark slums, but Jongho seldomly went there due to the lack of time and enjoyment it brought. The moments of happiness nature blessed him with were fleeting and weighed on his mind since he couldn't share them with his father.

Jongho shook the thought off and resumed his hunt after Mingi's tall figure. The stars - and Jongho could even spot a few here where the sky wasn't cloaked entirely by a layer of smoke - supervised their heist detachedly.

Mingi led Jongho around the corner of the discrete annexe. They had to wait for a couple of guards that chatted excitedly about airships to pass them before they hurried over to the door that servants probably used for entrance. Jongho watched their surroundings with flighty eyes while his companion unlocked the door.

When it opened with a soft click, Mingi audibly let go of a breath. Jongho and his still sweaty and clammy skin could relate.

They snuck in quietly and closed the door behind them. Everything was calm.

"Are there guards inside?" Jongho purposefully lowered his voice as he mumbled into his scarf. Mingi shook his head.

"Not here, no. But there are some people around to work at any times of the day. Maybe you're lucky enough to meet prince Seonghwa around the library, but I suggest you don't stay to stare for too long," Mingi said with an amused chuckle. Jongho rolled his eyes at him.

"Meet me around here once you are done. We will leave together." With that, the tall man took off through the halls of white marble.

Jongho was left on his own, and he had little idea where to go. The fuse he was searching for might as well be anywhere, and the grand corridor with the expensive red and brown accents on wall and floor left little clues about where that might be.

He decided to carefully tiptoe through the building for now. A library sounded promising; indeed, Jongho had heard of some that featured historical objects in the same area. Given the floor layout, he would presume that it was on the upper storey.

The lower floor of the building remained unappealing. Many filigree windows pointed out towards the gardens, and Jongho found an expensive double-winged door that seemed to lead to the main building. It was locked firmly with what seemed to be a puzzle of multiple sealing mechanisms that were connected by countless wires and cogs all over the door.

Jongho might have been able to break through, but since his source of interest was here, he refrained from that. All the better if nobody could surprise him from that direction.

Mingi had disappeared into one of the rooms on the lower floor, so Jongho took the dwindling staircase up. Upon stepping at the first step, he startled when a quiet mechanism whirred to life, and the platform beneath him started moving all of a sudden. It carried him up at a slow pace, sparing him the intense difficulty of walking while he still gaped at the machinery around the pillar in the middle. He arrived soon, and marvelled at the quiet technology that was fuelled my nethicite energy rather than steam for a moment.

This was what Asora kept from Zey. The energies to power things with the force of the particular material they found in the earth. Zey's people were the ones mining the nethicite. Asora's people were the only ones that used it ever since the IEI had broken apart during the earthquake.

Jongho considered taking the time to copy the machine's workways so he could utilise them himself, but he tore his eyes away from the devices forcefully. It was not the time or place, and neither would he be able to succeed without the nethicites, too. Automatons heavily guarded the mines.

While the moving staircase came to a standstill behind him once more, Jongho quickly looked left and right. No soul was in sight, so he spontaneously decided to go right. He could overlook the large foyer beneath from the gallery that rounded the whole area.

Here, the large doors looked more promising to lead to something as relevant as old monuments. Jongho pushed open one of the doors gingerly and peeked into the large room.

It seemed as if luck was on his side today. The room displayed several cabinets with different objects inside. The rows of pedestals that held them symmetrically crossed the room for the beholder to circle and look from all sides at.

Jongho hurriedly scanned the room for any possible guards or stray loiterers. When nothing in his line of sight moved, he smoothly slipped inside.

Before he got to work, Jongho checked the whole room for people. He found a few bookshelves and other cupboards that displayed smaller items of different kinds. Many had plates with explanations about the artefact in question prepared next to them. They eased Jongho's job even more.

He found the fuse he had searched for in one of the shelves. Thankfully, they were not specifically protected by thick glass or alarm mechanisms. Jongho could just slip his arm in and grab the fuse. It disappeared into his pocket while he looked around longer.

He doubted that he could find something of estimated value in this place. Historical memories had little use in Zey, and most people would mistake it for junk. If he wanted to pocket a few coins, he needed to search somewhere else.

Jongho crept out of the fancy museum room again to try the next door. This time, he actually found himself in a library. The library was a single high room that was stacked with books around every wall and a seating area in the middle. There was also a seat under the window that had a few cushions and blankets strewn around. Jongho figured that the rich prince would use the place often to educate himself on matters that he was to petty to experience himself.

Jongho pocketed a random book for his father to spend his time reading when he was bored at home. Then, he also snatched an expensive-looking vase from a shelf. Given his background, he had little experience with the worth of some items, but since it came from the palace, some merchants would be able to trade it well.

While Jongho skimmed the book titles for something to gain personal knowledge of, he also snatched some decorative statue of an airship. His bag was getting full already, and while he would have liked to find a lost bag of coins, he doubted that luck would be on his side in that regard.

At once, voices got loud outside. Jongho froze immediately at the two males he could hear outside of the door. The walls here were too thick for him to make out their footsteps, but he figured they might be coming closer.

At the speed of lightning, Jongho raced through the room to the only other door that was hidden between two massive bookshelves. Jongho guessed it might lead to a study or archive that was most likely empty at the moment. Without hesitation, he ran right in.

As soon as he had pushed the heavy wood shut, he stood there with one ear pressed against the material. In case they came in there, he would have to jump through a window and hope for his gadgets to catch him without snapping his ankles.

Jongho's heart erratically beat in his chest as he waited. Every muscle in his body tensed with anxiety when he heard the door to the library open. If they noticed the missing items and alarmed the castle, he and Mingi would be screwed.

"I can help you search if you so desire, Milord." The voice belonged to an older male as Jongho guessed, and by speaking of a lord, Mingi's earlier prediction must have come true.

"Oh no, I will be fine. I left it right by the window." Quick steps sounded that came dangerously close to the door and had Jongho clench his hands to fists nervously. They halted near the window, and then a low hum sounded.

When the steps were abruptly right in front of the door, Jongho moved back even further into the shadows, his breathing flat. He was scared of bumping into an item and exposing himself. His nails dug into his skin hard.

A hand rapped against the door.

"Yeosang, I found the book I told you about earlier. Do you want it today?"

The voice was quiet enough to relieve Jongho of his fear of being exposed, but at the same time his mind reeled at the danger of somebody coming inside.

He startled out of his skin when a small voice behind him answered.

"No, I'm already half asleep. See you tomorrow."

Jongho whipped his head towards the darkness of the room that he had mistaken for a study. His eyes strained to make out the shape of a bed in the room and also found a lump beneath the blankets that were faintly lit by the moon outside the window.

"Alright. Good night."

"Good night, Seonghwa."

With that, the steps retreated. Jongho allowed himself to breathe only when the door to the library had closed. Yet, he stood frozen in place and observed the bed.

The blanket moved back a bit from the person that hid underneath it, and a head of messy blonde curls appeared shyly behind the fabric. From big eyes, the man stared at Jongho who stared back just as confusedly.

He had not been ratted out.