[Mekatra]

The evening was crisp with the beginnings of a winter chill causing Joane's breath to leave little smokey wisps in the air with each breath. Her lantern creaked slightly with each step as she prowled through the noble district. Rumors of a burglar and a few scattered reports of valuables going missing in the night had lead to the captain of the guard requesting her assistance with patrolling the area. As it neared midnight she was beginning to regret agreeing to help her old friend. Hadn't she found better things to do with her time than slip through alleyways keeping an eye out for what was undoubtedly the imagination of the paranoid.

She was just about ready to give up and return to the guard house to fill her belly with warm food when she saw movement in the shadows of a dark alley. Regardless of if there actually was a thief in the quarter, there was someone moving around that shouldn't have been. "HOLD THERE!" She barked out, her voice booming and echoing in the otherwise silent cobblestone streets. Just as the words left her a claxon of alarm bells started up from several streets over.