Only the occasional creak and the murmuring of the wind outside break the quiet of the house. But that's only because nobody has seen the shadow drifting through the rooms yet. The house would be decidedly less quiet if they had.

Garrett crouches by the door, peering through the keyhole until he sees the servant walk by again. He waits for two more heartbeats before he opens the door, shuts it behind him. He moves down the hallway in the opposite direction.

"Ohh... What did I do with it?" The servant mutters. He opens and closes the door to the kitchen, retracing his steps. Again. Garrett is tempted to tell him if it wasn't in the kitchen the third time he looked, it's just not in there.

If he understands the poor boy's rambling right, he was supposed to take his mistress's ring, take it to get polished, then bring it back. Apparently he didn't put it back in the bedroom where it belonged after he got back, and now he's too anxious to sleep until he finds it. Luckily for him, Garrett is here tonight to take the troublesome little thing off his hands.

He checks every room along the way; the parlor, the laundry room, the bathroom. He doesn't find what he's looking for, but he does line his pockets along the way.

He stops in the pocket of shadow behind an open door near the stairs to take stock of the second floor.

The second floor is reminiscent of Eastwick's place. He had his suspicions when he first saw the house,  but now he's sure. It has all the trademarks of his work: grand to the point of gaudy and a bit too spacious for the people who actually live here, like the architect just couldn't help himself. He'd be willing to bet it has some secret passages hidden up here somewhere too. Eastwick was known for his love of secrets.

The nobles here, like most others, were some of the first to get the Baron's electric lights installed in their home. Little wall-mounted lamps light the second floor hallway, except for the very corners. Vases, the ones with the flower pattern every noble seems so fond of, are set on little round tables at uneven intervals throughout the hall. He can more or less see all the doors on this floor from here. And all the guards.

There are more guards up here than downstairs. In fact, there were none downstairs. It is a little out of place. Usually guards are split between the first and second floors, with a few scattered outside if the occupants can afford it. Why would they have guards outside and on the second floor, but not on the first? For the same reason that servant is being allowed to wander the house after everyone else is asleep, he realizes. The ring.

If the lady of the house noticed her ring went missing after entrusting it to that boy, she might well be suspicious. The extra guards might be there to discourage the boy from stealing again, or they might be there to catch him in the act. Either way, guards have never discouraged him. But if the lady is looking for proof then she might not have the ring either. He resigns himself to searching the second floor room by room too.

He eyes the lone guard standing outside what must be the master bedroom. The riskiest place but still worth checking. If he doesn't find it anywhere else, he'll check there. But for now it's a last resort.

He starts with the room whose door he's hiding behind: a guest room. Empty of guests, but one of the guards in the hall comes in to check the room every so often. Except, 'check' isn't quite right. Really he just stands in the doorway and scans the room before going back to the hallway. The best security money can buy. Garrett's not complaining.

It does occur to him one of the house guards might have the ring. It's not uncommon in noble houses and businesses around the City. The same ones they pay to keep them safe are the ones they really need to look out for. But it's not like they steal enough to be considered serious competition. Most of them only take the small things; a couple coins here, a piece of jewelry there. Again, you won't hear any complaints from him. A dishonest guard is less likely to report missing items. He'll just have to check their coin purses as he goes.

There aren't many places to search in the guest room, and there's certainly no ring, but it's not a complete waste. On the round table in front of the fireplace is a note for the staff detailing the expectations of a soon-to-be-visiting family member. Namely some very specific and hard-to-get cigars, made even more difficult by the lack of trade coming in and out of the City lately. He takes those from the bedside table, the engraved silver ashtray from the table and the gilded perfume bottle from the adjoining bathroom.

He waits for the guard to turn his back again, intending to return to his hiding spot behind the door. As he leaves the darkness of the guest room, a prickling sensation creeps up the back of his neck. Part of it migrates all the way up behind his right eye. Anxiety pools in his stomach as he tries to blink the feeling away and checks on the guards. They all look bored out of their minds, but not the least bit suspicious. They certainly aren't looking at him. So who is?

He takes a slow breath, in and out, and reels his focus back in, like stringing his bow. Just be careful.

The room across the hall to his left only has one guard standing outside it, but the colorful flowers painted along the trim of the door mean it's likely a child's room.

A woman quietly opens the next door down. A few soft music notes escape before she closes it and exchanges a few quiet words with the guard outside the kid's room. A nanny, he realizes from the black dress and white apron. That's the baby's room.

At least he can cross that side of the hall off his list. That just leaves the master bedroom. And the stairs leading up to the servants' rooms, but he doubts the boy would have brought the ring up there, even accidentally.

He trails the guard moving up and down the hall, keeping his pace almost exactly the same while he checks for the man's coin purse, but he doesn't have one. Hidden safely in the only bit of shadow this far down the hallway--the moving guard's--he nocks a blunt arrow.

As the guard turns away from the bedroom and begins moving back down the hall, he fires at one of the light switches on the wall. The guards start and call out to each other all up and down the hall. The one in front of the master bedroom moves towards it to turn it back on. Garrett moves for the door.

Once he's inside the bedroom, he moves to the corner opposite the door and waits. For the door to burst open, the woman in the bed to bolt up screaming. But the room stays dark and quiet. The only sound is soft, even breathing coming from the bed.

Heart hammering, he creeps back to the door and peeks through the keyhole. The guard is back in position outside the door. He doesn't have a coin purse either. One missing purse is normal. Two is odd. Maybe the lady of the house suspected her guards as well.

He works his way around the room slowly, eyes on his work, listening for any shift in the breathing. He finds a gold pocket watch, a cameo, and another gilded bottle of perfume, all before he even gets to the jewelry box.

Several rings, a couple bracelets and two pairs of earrings. None of them are the one he's looking for. He shuts the box and takes a second look around the room.

The room fades from black to gray as he lets the Primal rush through him. He shudders as that prickling sensation skitters across the back of his neck again. He glances at the nobles still sound asleep in their bed. What is that?

Another look around and his attention catches on the corner of the painting across from the bed. The frame and the adjacent wall space are stamped with ghostly blue handprints--the Primal showing him where to look. He blinks the Primal away, feels it sinking back down, and has a closer look.

The painting itself is nothing worth looking at, but the tiny switches in the small space behind the frame are. He runs his hands over the gilt frame, feels one small bump at the bottom edge. Click. Another on the top edge. Click. He pops the safe open.

It's completely empty.

Well, almost. A note from one of the other servants is inside, shoved towards the back. Apparently she found the ring in the kitchen and put it back before their mistress could find out. She tells the boy who had it to be more careful next time. Too bad there won't be one.

A noise comes from the hall. Metal against metal. He'd know the sound of a sword anywhere. Then shouting. Somewhere the baby starts crying. The nobles in bed are starting to stir. Time to go.

He checks through the keyhole but can't see any guards. He opens the door and darts out into the hall. He runs into a guard almost immediately, but he's the only one in the hall now. He holds his arms out to either side, trying to block his way. He ducks under and keeps going.

"I found another one!" The guard bellows.

Another? The feeling of being watched, the guards' missing purses, the empty safe, it makes sense. But who got in and past him without him or any of the guards noticing?

He runs downstairs and pauses in the small alcove beneath the staircase. More guards go rushing past. The guards don't even glance his way. He takes a flash bomb from his quiver, keeps it ready in his hand as he moves towards the kitchen, and the little tunnel in the cellar. Time to make use of Eastwick's secret passages. Usually he doesn't leave the same way he enters, but something is going on here and he doesn't like it. Leaving as fast as possible is the best option right now. He can figure out what's going on later.

He turns the corner and there, standing in the hallway, is someone else.

Not a guard, at least not one Garrett has ever seen before. No, his mind supplies, if he was a guard he would've called for help. His grip on the flash bomb tightens anyway. Guards aren't the only dangerous ones in the City.

Instead, the other just stares at him. Or, he assumes he's staring. It's hard to tell with the strange mask he has on. It reminds him a bit of Northcrest's automatons: something made to mimic a human but doing a poor job of it. This close, Garrett can see the different sized lenses in one of the mask's eyes, and the wire making up a loose imitation of a mouth.

"The other one," he murmurs. Another thief, maybe. Or an assassin.

He uses the Primal. The hall around them fades to gray but the other man is bright red--danger. Even so, he has a handprint on his hip and the pouch at his side gleams. He has the ring.

The prickling crawls over the back of his neck and quickly turns to pain. It spreads around the right side of his head, coiling right behind his eye. He blinks the Primal away but the pain takes a little longer to pass. He hasn't felt pain while using the Primal in months.

The man flinches and brandishes a sword.

He raises his hands slowly, as if in surrender, and lets the flash bomb drop to the floor.

The stranger looks down at the same moment the flash is triggered. Apparently that fancy mask doesn't make him immune to bright lights. His hands go to the lenses of his mask.

Garrett takes his opportunity and slips past him, hand grazing his waist, and into the kitchen. The servant boy lies unconscious on the floor by the counter. The very same passage Garrett used to get into the house is wide open. He stops only long enough to make sure he's still breathing before he leaves through the window.

The stranger doesn't follow him or make any attempts to as far as he can tell. Surprising since he stole his coin purse. He still doesn't stop until he's sure he's not being followed--no prickling--and he's back at the Crippled Burrick. He tells Basso about it as he hands over the pouch.

"What kinda mask?" He asks as he empties the coin purse onto his desk. Most of the money isn't from the City.

"It looked like one of Northcrest's automatons," he says. He pauses. "Have you ever seen Ector's metal man?"

Basso scoffs as he plucks the ring out of the small pile of coins. Looking at it, it's a wonder it got lost at all. The band is gold and the gem is diamond-shaped, almost glowing blue-white.

"No, and I don't care to." He moves over to the safe, counts out some money and hands it to him. He watches as Garrett counts it out too. "I haven't heard of anyone with a mask like that. You sure it wasn't just one of those automatons?"

He pockets the coins. "I'm sure." None of the automatons looked quite like that man did. Nor did any of them ever have any weapons.

"Do you know what he was there for? What he was doing?"

He thinks of the boy in the kitchen and how the guards were all focused upstairs. "No. I don't want to."

"I'll keep an ear out," he says as he takes his seat behind the desk. "Let you know if I hear anything."

He believes it. If anyone can give him information on a new stranger in the City, it'll be Basso. Hopefully soon. A stranger like that can't mean anything good, especially with a mask like that and the way the Primal reacted to him. But, even Basso needs time to dig, so in the meantime he'll get back to what he does best. Hopefully without any more surprise visits.