(dramatic music plays) The Thieves Guild,
by Jake Care.
Season four.
The Order of the Dragon.
Episode two.
Rebecca's Story.
Raylan still couldn't comprehend that the Pietro of hundreds of years earlier
was the same Pietro that Raylan replaced as the guild master thief.
Rafe didn't have an enormous amount of evidence, but he was absolutely
convinced of it.
He showed Raylan direct evidence, like the signatures and the name
Pietro showing up in margin notes of random books.
And he showed him indirect evidence, which was primarily the history of the
Thieves Guild guild masters, which Rafe was positive was
written entirely by Pietro.
But how?
This is where Rafe became unsure, and his only theory was that it was
magic. Pietro used magic to extend his life.
But if that were the case, Raylan noted, why didn't he use magic to address
all the inequality and suffering within Ness or with the Outlanders?
It was as Rafe and Raylan were discussing this when Felos knocked on the door of the
library. Raylan hadn't even noticed his omnipresent guard had left.
Sir, the Outlander woman has requested your presence.
Rebecca?
Yes.
Raylan was disappointed that Felos couldn't see Rebecca as anything more than
an Outlander.
Thank you, Felos. I'll see her when I'm done here.
She was rather insistent, sir.
Raylan turned to Felos.
Insistent in the "Please see her so she'll stop bothering me" sense
or insistent in the "This is important and may change the future of the guild"
sense?
More of the former.
Raylan stood up, walked over to Felos, and slapped him on the back.
Well, let's not make you suffer that fate for any longer than you need to.
Raylan turned to Rafe.
Can you find more references to Pietro?
Probably not, but there are more books I can examine.
As it is though, there aren't many more left.
We should get you to Gauchtland so you can examine Pietro's study.
It's full of volumes.
Raylan walked out, leaving a stunned Rafe behind.
Rebecca's quarters were tucked into the end of a little-used hallway in the building at the
base of the Thieves Tower. It was a large rectangular building, with the
tower rising up from its center.
More than anything, it reminded Raylan of the merchant tower complex.
The door was simple wood, and Raylan knocked lightly.
Rebecca opened the door and looked at Raylan, and then Felos.
No need for a bodyguard, Raylan. I'm harmless.
She waved her arm in the direction behind her.
Come in.
You can wait outside.
Felos didn't look happy, but Raylan didn't want Rebecca thinking that her
outburst in the earlier meeting had changed his view of her.
It actually did, but he didn't want her to know that.
Raylan was unsure what to expect in terms of this secret living quarters of
Rebecca's, but he did know one thing.
He did not expect what he was now seeing.
It was a smaller room, a single living space with a bed and some nightstands
against the wall to the right, and a small table and chairs in the far-left corner.
Its sparseness was overwhelmed by the view, however.
Two large windows, two of the largest Raylan had ever seen,
covered the far wall to his left and the back wall. They met at the corner.
Beyond the windows was what looked like a truly majestic view of the mountains
that overlooked Ness. If you were sitting, or you were a child, the
view was stunning.
That didn't necessarily surprise Raylan. What did were two things.
One was that the mountain view was irrevocably scarred by the long swath of
ash and dirt that spread far into the distance on all sides.
The room overlooked the ash fields in all their sad and depressing
glory.
Just standing in the room made Raylan depressed.
The other thing was how the room was decorated. The bed was small.
The furniture was small. There was a rug with brightly colored horses
and animals. The wall above the bed had bright colors splashed on
it, as if a child decided to paint, but didn't know how.
This is a child's room.
When I said I had quarters in the tower, I didn't say I was an adult when I lived here.
Raylan hadn't even realized he said the words out loud, but
the effect of the room was shocking. For a child, it was full of color
and wonder. For an adult, it was an oppressive view into the death of
what Ness used to be.
Is this the first time you've been here since you were a child?
Yes.
Rebecca didn't elaborate, but wandered over and sat on the bed.
She patted the space next to her.
Unfortunately, the chairs are too small for me now.
She wore leather breeches and a plain tunic.
It was the kind of practical outfit that guild members sometimes wore around the
house, saving money for guild colors only when they went out in public.
The lack of red or black, indeed, the lack of travel
clothes or an elegant dress, completely changed her appearance.
Maybe it was the room, maybe it was the clothes, but Raylan once
again had the feeling that Rebecca was a lot younger than he initially thought.
"How old are you?" Raylan blurted out the question, and immediately wanted to
kick himself. Why did he keep saying things aloud that he wanted to keep to
himself? Rebecca looked at him and smiled.
"I'm 18. And you are what? 16? 17?
You seem much older than I think you probably are."
Raylan had lost track of his birthday, and he realized he had missed it.
"I'm 16, and you also look older than you are.
These times are aging us. We should be walking through the Golden Triangle, talking
about sunsets and boat rides."
My dear Raylan, you think of us walking along, holding hands and
talking of sunsets? How romantic.
"You know, you don't have to mock me all the time.
I was just trying to state that we are both too distracted to enjoy our youth."
Before Rebecca could reply, and before Raylan said anything stupid again, he
added, "So why do you want to see me?"
We have a mission.
You are to escort me to the tavern, and we are to retrieve the Golden Wand.
Rebecca crossed her arms.
I would like to depart forthwith.
Raylan fully intended on taking Rebecca to the Golden Wand, but he
had so many questions, and with them in a quiet place and no pressing
concerns, he decided to push her as much as he could.
"First, tell me about this room. You were a child.
Did your father and mother bring you here, or was it Pietro?
Were your toddler clothes black or red?"
Rebecca closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
It was Pietro. Always Pietro.
My father and mother died. No one would ever tell me how or
why,
just that Pietro was my only living relative.
"I'm sorry."
I didn't know them. It is more of an emptiness than a
loss.
"What was Pietro like as a parent? I fear you must have been left
alone often."
Rebecca opened her eyes and looked at Raylan.
I was, but there were plenty of people who loved him in Goutland, and
helped raise me.
Chief among them was my beloved nanny. She was my true parent.
She raised me.
Grandfather would just come and tell me stories of his life, and this city.
Rebecca waved her arm across the room, encompassing Ness.
"My mother and father were strangers to me.
I was also raised by a nanny, but she was cruel, and enjoyed making my life
miserable.
I was known as a miscreant, and I've thought about that a lot since I was named
Guildmaster.
I think what I was really doing was trying to get the attention my parents never gave me."
That's horrible, Raylan. I'm so sorry.
She patted his arm gently, and almost intimately.
"My older brother was treated the same, only his response was to be more
cruel and more cold than our nanny and our parents.
I sometimes felt like all he wanted was to control a life that never treated him well,
and in attempting that, created his own sort of cruelty to others."
Raylan looked over at Rebecca, his sad eyes saying more than words
could. "Tell me about Pietro's stories.
I am his predecessor, yet never met him."
They were grand, and all true. He told me he had once traveled to
Callisto, a journey that took him weeks. The people there are dark and full of joy.
They sail on seas on large boats.
"I would love to see Callisto."
And Drak.
"Yes, Drak. Pietro's plan was to open the trade
routes. Perhaps our shared dream comes directly from him.
Yours directly, mine secondhand from Allard and you."
I spent many years learning from Pietro.
His dream was constant and unchanging, bring the cities together, for only together could we
reach our potential. I would ask what he meant, but he shook his head, and would then tell me a
story of how Drak supplied this and Callisto supplied that, and how Ness fed everyone.
"I still don't understand why the mountain was brought down.
Did he ever say?"
No.
In fact, it was the one thing he refused to discuss.
The pain of that horrible event hurt him too deeply.
"And he prepared you for bringing everything together by rebuilding the Magic Guild."
Yes. It was all about magic to Grandfather.
He knew no magic, but he knew so much about it. The wand was key.
The books in his library were key. He said to me again and again,
'Rebecca,
I'm blind. Please help me see. I can only point in a direction.
You are the one who can make the journey.'"
"And that is recovering the wand, the oath, and unlocking all of the
magic knowledge in his library."
Yes.
"And then clearing the mountain and bringing the world together again."
Yes.
Rebecca seemed suddenly quiet, so Raylan decided to ask about better
times, times he was quite curious about.
"Tell me about Pietro in Goutland. I can't believe he was imprisoned.
He was always considered a harmless old man here in Ness."
Rebecca laughed.
He was a harmless old man in Goutland, too.
He was known for telling fantastical stories that no one believed.
It enraged me how he would talk of unlocking secrets between the two cities, and everyone would laugh
at him.
"You believed him?"
Rebecca's face was intense as she stared at Raylan, presumably for
asking such a question.
Of course I believed him. He saw hidden truth where everyone else believed
obvious lies. He saw a future when
everyone else saw a miserable present.
"Was that difficult for you, being the granddaughter of someone everyone thought was an old
man, telling fantastical stories?"
Rebekah paused.
"I was lonely. I felt powerless, more even than
Pietro. I lived vicariously through his stories, and that is a life of shadows,
Raylan,
living a life secondhand and a life that no one takes seriously at that."
"I'm sorry. You deserve more than that.
I see now why you are so passionate about your mission.
You can finally be more than a shadow."
"Yes."
Turning on the bed to face Raylan more directly, Rebekah put all her
attention on Raylan, and all her force into her words.
"You asked why he was imprisoned. He was imprisoned for taking to the streets and telling people the
truth.
They shouldn't raid Ness or attack the city. They should work with Ness.
Vilhelm didn't imprison him. He did what he did to you, locked him in his room so he
wouldn't be a distraction.
They were still friends when Vilhelm released him.
I don't need anyone to be my friend, because I don't intend to be nothing more than a distraction."
"Pietro and Vilhelm were friends?"
"Yes.
Vilhelm once said to me, 'I love Pietro for the same reason the whole city loves him.
He tells tales that no one believes, but they can clearly see that Pietro himself believes
them.'"
Raylan was having trouble tracking Rebekah's story.
Pietro seemed to be in Gautland exactly what he was in Ness, an
old man everyone liked but no one took seriously.
Raylan knew what Pietro did in Ness. He built the Thieves Guild into a
force while keeping them hidden. But what did he do for Gautland?
"Did anyone believe his message?"
Rebekah leaned over and put her palm on Raylan's cheek.
"I believed him, Raylan.
I believed him."
(dramatic music)
A Podcast Alchemy production.