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It's an ordinary, quiet night. The . . . patrons, or whatever they are, of the lab equipment shop downstairs, took off about forty-five minutes ago.
There's silence, mostly. You can only be out at night in Sothis if you have business. But there's some business. Every so often a party passes under Katie's window. Their conversation is mostly what Katie has become accustomed to thinking of as "focused", though occasionally some is just downright tense or revelrous.
Wind. Distant insects. Dogs.
Something shuffles downstairs.
And continues to shuffle.
"Are we good?" The voice is insistent, alto, and right underneath Katie. And it's female.
"Yes, fine". Higher. If Katie knows what female halflings sound like, it sounds like that.
The shuffling moves deeper into the shop. A glass clinks. Laughter starts, whispering at first, then merely hushed.
"Oh my god." A third voice.
"All this stuff is fake, you know. This and this and this used to be one bespoke fixture."
"Fuck."
Whoever it is is going through the merchandise.
Expensive, heavily regulated merchandise. Katie's parent have only been in Ulunat for two weeks, but she's picked up that the proprietors of this place have gone to a moderate effort to secure it against thieves.
God damnit, she's trying to sleep. Can't these morons be quieter about their robbery? Wait, shit, fuck. This is Osirion. She's not totally sure how the law works here but she knows they're crazy strict about it. Could she get in trouble for not doing something about it? She remembers hearing a story once about an adventuring party who got in a situation like that, she doesn't remember where exactly it took place, could it have been here? And she does have Sleep, though that might not work if they have high-circle casters. But then, even if they do, dying to stop a robbery might get her ruled Good, which means a cushy afterlife instead of having to put up with a husband and pregnancy and kids and all that. Though it might also get her ruled Lawful and Heaven sounds a lot later than Nirvana or Elysium. Can you go to Heaven against your will? She hopes not. Fuck it, she's not gonna get another chance at this, better seize the moment. She grabs her component pouch and creeps down the stairs as stealthily as she can manage.
If Katie can see in the dark, she'll see people moving around in the Employees Only restricted merchandise room, the heavy door thrown open. [ Apparently these people can all see just fine in the dark; they haven't lit any lamps or cast any light spells. ]
There's a steady rustling noise; if Katie can see, she'll see that the display soybean plant is growing at a visible rate, across the floor, bigger than soybean plants should.
She'll need slightly less perception to hear and see the person inspecting the shelves behind the counter, inches away from moving their head and getting a clear view of her.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. She tosses off a Sleep spell in their general direction, hoping to hit their co-conspirators as well and also she might get ruled Evil if she kills when she could incapacitate and also she would feel kinda gross about it.
The closest intruder falls over.
Several humanoid figures rush toward Katie.
The soybean plant leaping out of its pot gets to her first.
It binds all her limbs in a not entirely respectful way.
One of the figures kneels and rouses their fallen accomplice.
Several others stand over Katie.
"She isn't --" A low voice, and thoughtful.
"No, she isn't dangerous." Old and wise.
"Well, this is fortunate." Hard, and thin, and almost crackling with dryness.
Even as she's about to die, she resents being belittled. Not dangerous? Tell that to my celestial eagle, bitch.