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The Thieves Guild,

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by Jake Kerr.

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Episode 23:

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Crossing the Bridge.

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Raylan was unsure what to do. If he continued
toward the bridge, he

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would simply be handing himself over to the
guards, who were slowly moving through the

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crowd toward him.

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Yet, if he fled, he'd have nowhere to go.

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He'd be slowly hunted down in the city.

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He couldn't even race to his parents' home in the
Upper Triangle.

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They had disowned him years earlier.

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Just as he was about to turn his horse away, a
hand grabbed his leg and pulled.

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Raylan slid over, and another hand grabbed him.

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He went to kick at the person who held his leg,
but a mass of hands reached out

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and pushed him to the road.

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Raylan was on his back, looking up at the sky,
when a face leaned over.

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It was an extremely dirty man with matted hair and
a filthy

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Harvest Guild shirt on. "Don't you worry, Guild
Master.

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We'll get you passed." He shoved a folded-up piece
of clothing at Raylan.

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"Here, put this on, and stand behind Willem
there." He pointed to a large man who had

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a face devoid of any emotion. He just kind of
stood there and stared.

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Raylan scrambled to his knees and pulled on the
green shirt.

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It was stained and dirty, and smelled of rancid
fruit.

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"What is it with me and things that stink?" Raylan
thought as he stood up.

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Someone shoved him, and then Raylan was pressed
into a mass of dozens of men, women, and

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children, all wearing the green of the Harvest
Guild.

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He glanced back and someone was leading his horse
away from the bridge and toward the flats.

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Closer to the bridge, the merchant guards were
frantically looking all around, squinting at

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faces and pointing in random directions.

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A few night protectors held their positions,
flanking the bridge.

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The crowd of workers returning home to the old
quarter grew in size, and the

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people all pressed close and moved toward the
bridge.

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The makeshift barrier that the merchant guards had
created worked at first.

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People were stopped, asked a few questions, looked
at closely, and then waved

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through. But this process started to break down as
more and more people

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were pressing forward to the bridge.

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Raylan was near the front, so he clearly saw the
chaos unfold.

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A guard held up his sword and threatened violence
if everyone didn't back up, which led to the

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crowd pushing forward even more violently.

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The guard's eyes went wide, and then he retreated
in the face of the sea of humanity.

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Raylan was borne forward, like a leaf on a river.

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There was nothing he could do but ride the wave
and hope that he would simply be overlooked

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amidst all the other people wearing green.

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And he hoped that when the wave finally hit shore,
that it would be a friendly one.

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The guards were in complete chaos, with them all
separated and attempting to

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push their way through the crowd to join forces.

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Raylan wasn't quite sure what they had in mind,
but even if they joined up

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and created a human barrier, the mass of people,
now numbering in the

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hundreds, would have been impossible for them to
stop.

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He had already passed at least five merchant
guards.

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Their eyes had scanned the crowd, but they
couldn't pick out Raylan from any number of
Harvest

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Guild members, and Raylan passed them without
effort.

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He had just stepped on the bridge when he glanced
over at a merchant guard scanning the

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crowd. They locked eyes, and the guard's eyes went
wide.

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It was Essel, the Merchant Guild gatekeeper.

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"He's here!" Essel screamed, pointing at Raylan.

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A hand shoved Raylan's head down and bodies
squeezed against his while they surged

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forward. "He's in that crowd. I saw him!" Raylan
lost sight of Essel as he was bent

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over and being forcibly pushed onto the bridge,
along with dozens of other people, but he

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could hear him. In short order, Essel's voice
sounded further away.

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His desperate plea for someone to hack through the
crowds continued, even as it was

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going unheeded.

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They had passed one of the bridge towers and were
over the great river.

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Raylan stood up straight and looked around.

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All he could see was a sea of dirty green.

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The Merchant Guild guards were still wading
through the throngs of people that continued to

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surge toward the bridge, but they didn't attempt
to follow anyone toward the old quarter.

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"This bridge can't possibly be this busy, even
with people

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heading home after work," Raylan thought.

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Halfway across the bridge, Raylan realized that he
was safe.

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The Guild guards were nowhere to be found, and the
people who had escorted him across

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made more space for him to breathe, and for them
to chat and ask him

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questions.

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(instrumental music)