As they watched the shadows flicker, Finn couldn't help but wonder who was foolish enough to break in after seeing that they'd sealed all the other entrances. That should have been a warning to anyone with common sense that someone was onto them.
Unless these were the one group that had been using the main entrance the entire time and they didn't know about any of the others. Or that anyone else would be doing the same thing they were.
That seemed like a stretch, though.
If something was valuable enough for one thief to steal, why wouldn't another one want it for the same reason?
Henri had been intrigued by their plans and given them his full support. He seemed disturbed and more focused on the information about the families that entered the Camelia most often. Finn still wasn't sure why because they all had the same motives.
Maybe he was bothered that the Colfax's were so high on the list. He seemed like a good person, trustworthy, and it was hard to imagine someone related to Marian that would be an enemy of Chenzhou and Eirian.
After several minutes of watching the flickering lights and listening to the subtle sounds of movement, Finn started to get impatient.
It was why he could never succeed as an artist. Aside from the fact that he had no talent for it. He always lost interest before the projects were finished or tried to rush them to completion. The only reason the Vault project had held his interest for so long was because it kept getting interrupted and when it wasn't, twists and turns popped up.
And this was the biggest one so far.
He tried to creep closer to the door, but Emmy grabbed his arm and help him in place. He caught her eye and tried to signal that they needed to catch them, but Emmy wasn't having it and kept shaking her head.
Patrick pushed up behind them trying to see himself and distracted by their silent conversation, neither Emmy nor Finn realized he was going to lean on them for support and his sudden weight against both of them had them stumbling forward and out the door.
Patrick was the only one who made any noise, and even then, he managed to keep it mostly contained. It was just a squeak really but combined with their stumbling footsteps it was enough to give them away.
There was a moment of silence, the thieves alerted to their presence and freezing to listen the same way Emmy, Finn, and Patrick had.
After, Finn wasn't sure who moved first, but he, Emmy, and Patrick had lunged to their feet and took off. It only took seconds to get down the hall and turn the corner. Finn was in the lead, despite Patrick being the better swordsmen and Emmy the better fighter.
He heard the pounding footsteps as they came around the corner and caught sight of several cloaked figures already darting down the hallway ahead of them. All three of them picked up speed, sprinting as fast as they could to catch up.
But they had too much of a head start and in the maze that was the Vault, Finn, Emmy, and Patrick couldn't catch up.
They didn't slow or show any sign of hearing Finn when he shouted at them to stop on order of Lord Ye.
As they chased them through the hallways, Finn realized they were making their way back towards the entrance, but there was no way to alert the guards who were supposed to be there before they arrived.
There were at least five of them that Finn could make out in the unreliable light, but their faces were all hidden by hoods and shadows. They were armed but hadn't stopped to try and fight and maybe keep their presence secret for a bit longer.
Instead, they'd run, so they weren't killers. Hopefully.
Maybe that meant the guards would have a good chance at stopping them, but as the entrance came into view, Finn realized with a sinking stomach that he could see the guards and the lamps were out.
The guards would never let the lamps go out.
"Where the hell are the guards?" Emmy snapped, out of breath.
"We're not going to catch them in time," Patrick gasped. The thieves were already at the door, and they were still a hundred feet behind them.
If they turned the corner before they caught up there were simply too many paths they could take for Finn, Patrick, and Emmy to continue chasing them with any hope of success.
Finn dug deep, pushed himself even harder, but it wasn't enough. His lungs and legs were already burning, and he was gasping for air. It had been a long time since he'd had to sprint full tilt for any reason and running had never been his strong suit anyway.
"Duck!" Patrick suddenly yelled, and only surprise gave Finn and Emmy the speed to do so before he flung his sword through the air just over their heads.
The blade spun through the air with a high whistle and Finn watched in amazed disbelief as it clipped the last thief, catching him in the shoulder and causing him to shriek in surprise and pain and stumble into the doorway.
He managed to stay on his feet as Patrick's sword hit the wall across from the doors and hit the floor with a clang and he was gone with the rest of them before they reached the door.
Patrick cursed, kicking the wall before he picked up his sword.
"Rock's sake." Emmy growled, hands on her knees to catch her breath. "Those bastards were fast."
"They have to be soldiers, right?" Finn said between his own wheezing breathes. "To be able to run that fast?"
"I mean, thieves have a pretty good reason to run fast." Emmy pointed out dryly as Patrick examined his sword with a pout. There was a chip in the blade now, just a few inches from the tip.
"You can get a new one from the quartermaster." Finn patted him on the shoulder.
"But I liked this one," Patrick whined.
"There were five of them, right?" Emmy said, squinting into the darkness that filled the hallway back to the main castle.
"That's what I counted." Finn agreed.
"All male, taller than any of us." Emmy muttered. "Those cloaks weren't standard issue, but not the crazy expensive ones either."
Finn turned back to the doorway and the dark lamps. "Where are the guards?" He pulled a flint from the pouch on his belt and lit one of the lamps as Patrick lit the other. The flicker of light illuminated the footsteps of the thieves they'd been chasing but they ended a few feet into the hall.
A glint of something on the ground caught Finn's eye. It lay right beneath where the thief had hit the door because of Patrick's throw.
Finn crouched and picked it up, eyes widening as the firelight illuminated it.
It was a piece of cloth, torn from the thief's sleeve, where the family crest was attached to most uniform shirts.
"Is that?" Patrick trailed off in surprise, leaning over Finn's shoulder.
Finn brushed the dirt off the crest, revealing the hammer and arrow crest of the Yangs.
~ tbc