The Brass Thief

Synopsis

At dusk on the Fishmarket Stair in Port Hallow, while the crowd watched the lantern-men light the lamps along the Lantern Coast, nineteen-year-old pickpocket Mira Osk worked the upturned faces for unguarded pockets. Her childhood friend Tobin Reed pointed out a Grey Warden at the top of the stair, an older man carrying something wrapped in oilcloth, and warned her off. Mira robbed him anyway, bumping him on the stair and slipping away.

Behind a net-mender's shed she unwrapped her prize: a heavy compass of old brass with a star-cracked glass, engraved waves instead of an N, and a needle that swung slowly out toward the black water beyond the breakwater and stayed there. Tobin called it a hanging; Mira called it a fortune, though the needle seemed to pull at her.

A hooded woman in a slate-coloured sea-cloak, with a silver ring through her lower lip and a soft northern accent, appeared at the end of the alley. She told Mira to put the compass back in its cloth, because it points at drowned things and, held bare after dark, would eventually point at her. She admitted she had meant to steal it herself, named the man Mira had robbed as Captain Varr Dane, warned that he would close the harbour by morning, and told Mira to be on the salt barge at the Weir landing before the second bell. She tossed Mira a letter sealed in blue wax and vanished.

In their room under the roof, Mira and Tobin read the letter by candlelight: The compass knows the way to Ilith. Do not let the Wardens take it south. It was unsigned, in a backward-slanting hand. Tobin dismissed Ilith as a story his gran told about a greedy city that sank.

Outside, the bell at the Gull Gate began ringing the closing of the harbour hours early. As Mira wrapped the compass, she felt the needle turn through the cloth: it was pointing at the Weir landing.

Featured

Characters

• Mira Osk (POV)
• Seren of Esk
• Tobin Reed
• Varr Dane
• Ada Osk (mentioned)

Locations

• Port Hallow
• Fishmarket Stair
• Ilith (mentioned)
• Gull Gate (mentioned)
• Lantern Coast (mentioned)
• The Weir (mentioned)

Factions & Organizations

• Grey Wardens
• Harbour Council (mentioned)

Items & Artifacts

• Brass compass

Timeline events

• Night 1, dusk — Mira Osk steals the Brass compass from Captain Varr Dane on the Fishmarket Stair.
• Night 1 — A hooded woman gives Mira an unsigned letter about Ilith and tells her to flee on the salt barge.
• Night 1, hours early — The Gull Gate bell rings the closing of Port Hallow harbour.

Threads

• Who wrote the unsigned letter?: The letter, sealed in blue wax, reads: The compass knows the way to Ilith. Do not let the Wardens take it south. The hand slants backward, as if written left-handed and in a hurry.
• Why did the Wardens have the compass, and where were they taking it?: Varr Dane carried it like an unwanted burden; the letter warns not to let the Wardens take it south.
• Will the compass point at its holder?: The hooded woman warns that if held bare after dark, it will eventually point at the holder.
• Is Ilith real?: Tobin calls Ilith a story; the letter claims the compass knows the way there.