An Inside Job

Writers: Leigh M-F.
Date Posted: 14th August 2016

Characters: Nohria
Description: If she can't have one, she'll do the other.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 7, day 12 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Corran, Battan (NPC), Zathris and Benani.

Nohria was not in a good mood for various reasons. (And one of them was _not_ because some tiny part of her actually did miss Corran. Don't even think that.) For one, drudge work was really starting to wear on her because it was beyond tedious. She needed to put in for a day off, or request a change of duties. She would even help care for the elderly aunties and uncles, even temporarily, if it meant a chance to subtly use her healing skills. Ancients, she truly craved the chance to be a healer again in any capacity.

But for now, Nohria would settle for this. She had treated her entire body with an herb oil meant to disguise her scent for four hours, which had taken lots experimenting in her spare time to get right. Then she bound her chest and dressed in her nondescript gray tunic, trousers, and mantle, covering her head and face with the voluminous fabric. Then she gathered various hides and bits of paper that had been delivered to the tavern by her fellow bandit Battan for her to pick up.

There were so many that it had taken creative packing to hide them in her trunk, bed, and a few hidey-holes here and there. And would take several nights to scatter them all, but that was fine: Just when the holders thought they had found every one, more would appear. Thus Nohria would start in the Family Wing, come back to restock, and hit the Serhox Wing. She would have liked to work all night, but she did need sleep.

Leaving her roommates unconscious in their beds, she sneaked away to get to work. No one would recognize any of the handwriting; faithful bandit comrades who had not come from the Hold penned them. Mostly the messages stated things like **Zathris refused to protect his wife; he can't protect you,** **Women aren't broodmares,** **End the craftban,** **Equal craft ranks and pay for women,** **This won't end while Zathris reigns,** and **Acknowledge the contributions of Amethyst Cliff survivors,** but there were other sentiments thrown in. One was a special request from Nohria, in honor of her late grandmother: **Women, be wicked if you wish to be free.**

Messages were left on chairs, jammed into cracks, left in cupboards, balanced above doors, wedged into windows shutters, scattered in storage rooms, common rooms, the creches and bathing areas. She actually covered far less space than she would have liked, but Nohria was working alone under a deadline, and needed to exercise utmost stealth to avoid night guards. Sometimes that meant moving very slowly. On the other hand, it was a good start, and she wasn't caught. Not even her roommates stirred after she sneaked back in, disrobed, and got into bed.

Quite honestly, Nohria was a little frightened by how well it had gone. It made her wonder just how long what luck she had would hold out. Sooner or later, the other boot _would_ fall. It was inevitable.

She just hoped she wasn't still in the Hold when that happened.

Last updated on the August 19th 2016

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An Inside Job