Epilogue

"I hate this."

Annika stopped for a moment and looked around the bottom floor of Gerrit's tower, leaning on her broom as she surveyed her work. For the past week the thief had been put to work from dawn until dusk cleaning the tower, and it had taken four days just to try and restore some vague semblance of order to Sanna's personal work shop on the fourth floor. Each day started with a broom in her hands and ended with her collapsing into her bed, exhausted from hours upon hours of sweeping, mopping, polishing, and reordering.

Still, the thief had to admit to herself that it had almost been far, far worse. Gerrit had paid the Urhalian sailors over a hundred gold pieces to begin repairs on their ship, the Narval, restored Bartel to his normal color after forcing him to promise that he would give up any claims of ownership he may have over Annika, and forged an unspoken agreement with Espen that the rod, and Annika, would remain safe from his machinations. Although she was little more than a slave to Gerrit for the time being, he had replaced her shabby clothes with a drab but serviceable gray dress, and had quartered her in a small room on the first floor with a comfortable bed, and had even begun to teach her to read and write when time permitted. Although she vocally complained about the work she was forced to do, Annika had already found herself very thankful that Gerrit had taken her into his tower, even if it was under the auspices of being a slave.

A knock on the door brought the thief out of her reveries. Annika leaned her broom up against the wall and dusted off her hands as she went to the sturdy, iron bound door, quickly unlocking it and opening it up. The bright midmorning sun blinded her for a moment, but the thief's eyes went wide with joy as she finally saw the man standing just outside.

"Zarne!" Annika exclaimed, nearly jumping into the constable's arms as she wrapped him in a tight embrace. The thief kissed him on the cheek, then grabbed his hand and practically dragged him into the tower. "Where have you been for the past week?"

"Trying to fix my nose," Zarne replied, allowing her to pull him into the building. Annika stopped for a moment to examine the constable's nose.

"It looks fine," the thief said, although she could still clearly see the damage that had been inflicted. While a priest must have attended to the injury, Zarne's nose was now crooked and slightly flatter than it had been one week ago. Zarne nodded with skeptical smirk.

"And how are you getting along here?" the constable inquired, looking around the tower.

"He works me all the time," Annika complained. "I mean, I must have moved a thousand books all over this tower, and swept and mopped every floor twice, and reorganized Sanna's workshop, and now he wants me to learn how to cook!"

"Well, it is better than being sold in Duchy Jhaeward," Zarne pointed out. Annika paused for a moment, but finally nodded in agreement. "And I see Gerrit gave you something to replace the rags you were wearing."

"I keep tripping on the hem," Annika said, lifting the skirt slightly to show that it was just a little bit too long for her. "Every time I mop it gets wet, too."

"But other than the fact that you actually have to earn your keep here, everything's okay?" Zarne asked. Annika nodded as her smile returned to her face.

"He's teaching me to read," the thief replied.

"That's good," Zarne said. "At any rate, I just dropped by to let you know the Narval left port this morning, so you don't have to worry about Evgeny and his men any more."

"Thank the gods," Annika said. "They're the reason I didn't try to come out and find you when Gerrit gave me free time. Them and Bartel."

"Bartel practically runs in the opposite direction every time he sees me now," Zarne said with a grin. "I think he's had enough of the two of us for a long time."

"That's good," Annika said with a relieved smile. The thief hesitated a moment, kicking at the ground, before continuing. "Zarne, I… I really want to thank you. For everything you did."

"Don't worry about it," Zarne said with an amused hake of his head. "I needed my nose flattened, anyway. Thought it was just a little too big."

"I'm serious, Zarne," Annika said, ignoring the joke. "And… I really meant what I said in the warehouse."

"Yeah, well, we'll see what happens about that," Zarne said. He smiled again. "But I bet, by the time next spring rolls around, you'll find some handsome, up and coming young mage and forget about old Zarne van Erison."

"I won't forget about you," Annika promised, taking a step closer to the constable. "I'll never forget everything you've done for me."

"Give it some time," Zarne said, keeping the girl at arms' length. Annika looked down at the ground, but nodded nonetheless.

"Okay," she agreed. Then she looked up again. "Gerrit said he'll give me a day off next week. Can you take me to dinner? On Zilveren-straat?"

"I see your tastes have moved up in the last week," Zarne said with a laugh. "We'll see. Now I have to get some things done, but I'll stop by towards week's end, and maybe we can discuss a dinner on Zilveren-straat then. Okay?"

"Okay," Annika agreed, walking Zarne back to the door. "Then I'll see you in a couple of days?"

"Yeah, I'll be back then," Zarne confirmed. Annika embraced the constable one more time, but before she could kiss him Zarne gently pushed her away. "You're persistent, I'll give you that," Zarne commented.

"Well, I guess I'll have to be," Annika said with a bit of a smile.

"Of course," Zarne said. "I'll see you at week's end."

"I'll be here," Annika promised. Zarne nodded, then turned and started into the Magie Vierkant. Annika hesitated a moment at the door, then shut it and turned back to her broom. "And besides," she said to the empty room as she resumed her work, "Annika van Erison has a nice ring to it."

God, that was sappy. But, it needed an ending, and beating my head against the computer screen wasn't knocking anything better out of the cranium. So now that the fluff is done(for the moment, anyway), time to to back to the DM's Guide...