The Baron found himself strolling outside a small merchants quarter in Stonegate. He watched as the traders argued, bickered, and smiled...all for the sake of making a crown or two. The Baron, in some very plain clothing to keep his identity hidden, smiled to himself. He missed this.

It had been years since he wore a simple tunic and a pair of dirty boots. Everything lately had been shined, polished, and wrinkle-free. It was all made of the finest silks and made with the most exotic of dyes. He had achieved all that he had ever wanted to accomplish...yet why was it not enough? And why was it too much at the same time?

The Baron glanced over some of the things for sale...mostly trash. There was a thing or two that might actually be worth the price stuck to it, but nothing that he couldn't get himself with a little sleight of hand...

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two men arguing with a woman selling necklaces. The Baron had looked over the jewelry before...he could have made better with some copper and paint. However, he knew instantly just what the men were doing...slowly, but surely, the woman's inventory was being stripped away from her, and she didn't even know it. The Baron had to wonder just who was really being taken here...the woman or the thieves themselves?

Nonetheless, the Baron, underneath his hood, cracked a smile as melodies of the past danced in his head. "Aren't you going to join in?," a voice bellowed at his side.

The Baron turned slightly and glanced at the older figure next to him. His hair was white and he adorned a salt and pepper beard upon his face. The older gentlemen smiled and winked at the Baron. "Funny seeing you here, Vesper. If you were going to play the con, I thought it would be in your own city...at least the merchants in Riverdale actually carry a thing or two worth a damn to steal," the older man quipped.

"Why bother...the crowns wind up in my pocket, anyway. Besides, don't need to contribute to the crime rate and lower property value, do I," the Baron snickered.

The old man nodded slowly and laughed.

"Always thinking, Vesper, always thinking...," the old man said quietly as he slapped Vesper on the back. "It's been too long." "Indeed it has, Benecian...it's a shame it couldn't be longer," the Baron chuckled to himself.

"Why are you still doing this, Vesper...you have what you want, take it all and run..."

"I can't do that, friend...not anymore. I can't run with you or the others who raised me...that's all over for me."

"Horse crap...it's still in you. Otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"Too many people depend on me now."

"And since when has that mattered to you? You've been doing this for years now and look where it's gotten you? You still are filthy rich, the whole place is STILL there for the taking...and now look at you...you're a thief-turned- politician...pssshh...right, not the Lauphel I know. Not the Lauphel who went on a lecturing tour posing as a world-reknowned alchemist he kept tied up in a sewer...not the Lauphel I know who sold "holy scriptures" to clerics that supposedly made little children walk again...not the Lau-"

"ALRIGHT..."

"Sigh...Vesper.."

"Benecian...I just...I can't live like that anymore."

"Yea...the famous Baron Lauphel...Hail the Raven, right?...of course you can't live 'like that' anymore...you are too busy attending your dinners. Holding banquets in your palace...eating and shootin' it with the local nobles you used to rip off. Smiling like a Baron should and kissing babies all to stay in good with the tax paying locals, well let me tell you something MR. LAUPHEL...those boys who raised you...plus my wife and myself...WE made you...and you took the oath. We said we would ALWAYS support each other. That's the way things were done and still are done. But you have forgotten...you've become what we hate..."

"...You're a snob, Vesper. A filthy rich snob who's too good to even give a care to the people who STILL LIVE IN THE SEWERS!"

"It's not like that...lives, Benecian...lives are in my hands, now.."

"Who?? Nobles? Merchants?? Landholders??...look at you...you know who you've become..."

"Benecian, please, it's not like tha-"

"You've become your parents."

"...I...I have not...I'm not like them..."

"Of course YOUR GRACE...let me tell you something, Lauphel...every story has a beginning. And just because you buried your past...doesn't mean it's dead."

The older gentleman walked away abruptly. The Baron took a deep breath but did not turn. He looked down at the ground for a moment, as if the answer to an unknown question might be lying there. But he saw nothing...and in that moment, he looked up, and saw the woman who was selling the necklaces all in a panic...

"THIEF!," she yelled...

...thief...