Somebody was in our room. 

I didn't dare move a muscle. My pulse beat loudly in my ears, but I strained my senses to hear everything I could. I closed my eyes again and concentrated, breathing silently and shallowly.

Creak.

The bedroom floor. The intruder was creeping across the room, to... to where? My mind raced through the contents of our room. The intruder didn't seem to know about our secret stash under the bed. I exhaled a silent sigh of relief. But this was dangerous-- was he just a common robber? Burglar? Even- even a murderer could be possible. But why come all the way up through a second floor window, and sneak in so quietly at that?

A light tapping sound reached my ears. I grit my teeth. Was that-- was that the drawer? 

Whoosh.

That sounded like the drawer opening it, alright. So whoever this was, they were looking for something. Money? Valuables?

In my mind's eye, I opened the drawer myself to see what we had in there. My handkerchief, hair tie ribbons, a few quills, and that one letter from--

I held my breath, trying not to gasp. The letter from Rosa! I racked my brain. What had Rosa said about that letter again?

"It's from Duchess Lavatore," she'd said during lunch, when I had asked her. She had cackled to herself. "She wants to help me. But that's not what's so important about it." She souped up a bit of her stew and opened her mouth, about to explain, but then Ruth had started crying from being forced to eat green beans. Our conversation had halted indefinitely.

I cursed at Rosa in my head. Was something important in this letter that Rosa had failed to tell me about? 

Oh, why did nobody teach me how to read and write? Why did I refuse to learn when I was with Rosa? This was not good. I heard more rustles, very quiet, very unnoticeable; I couldn't tell if the intruder had gotten to the letter or not. Was that really what they'd come for? I cursed some more to myself.

Think, Filian, think! I thought sternly. If I sit up and go "Who's there?", there's a chance that I might be killed. But I couldn't let this person take the letter, especially because I wasn't sure what was in it. Oh, go die somewhere, Rosa, I thought crossly. Now what?

The rustling stopped. They must have found what they wanted! My eyes snapped open again before I shut them back immediately. Thoughts whirled around my head. 

I still had my knife under my pillow. If I could see, I might even be able to take the intruder on myself, should the person be a common criminal. But the dexterity it would have required for someone to crawl through a second-floor window and be so quiet about it made me hesitate. Besides, my back was still recovering. It would be best if I didn't confront the trespasser.

At this point, I was more concerned with making sure both mom and I made it through this night. And if they were here for valuables and not the letter, then they might hurt us if they don't find anything. But that skill-- I really didn't want to outright fight whoever this was.

Then what if I made a diversion so that I let whoever escape without harming either of us?

A plan formed in my head, which was better than nothing but still too risky and downright scary. Cursing out Rosa one last time in my head, I inhaled as deeply and as silently as I could and braced myself. Come on. You can do this. It's our only hope with this short-circuited brain of mine right now.

Filian, the actress. Let's go.

I sat up slowly, making sure to make some groaning, I-just-woke-up sounds. I rubbed my eyes, pretending to look around, though it was pitch black and the intruder was probably as blind as I was in the night. "Mom?" I mumbled. "Is that you?"

The person, I could almost tell, was instantly and very still.

My nerves were set on edge right now, but I couldn't let that show. I made a show of looking over my side to where mom actually was and patting her over the blanket, as if to check that she was there. Inwardly, I thanked her for being a deep sleeper. "Oh, you're here," I mumbled. "I could've sworn..."

I let myself trail off and yawned noisily, though my mind was on high alert. I swung my legs out of the bed, palmed the dagger from behind my pillow, and shuffled towards the bathroom, as slowly and as sleepily as possible. I clicked on the light in the bathroom but didn't look back. My back tingled in anticipation of whoever it was behind me, all my muscles taut in expectation of whoever it was trying to stab me in the back. 

But I closed the door without any interruptions, and I splashed my face with some water, taking a longer time than usual. 

I listened carefully at the door, all my senses on high. What if the intruder was waiting right outside the door, knife in hand and ready to strike me the moment I opened this door? I had my dagger, but I had a feeling that I wouldn't be any good against whoever this intruder was.

I counted to twenty under my breath, silent hisses to myself. Then as slowly as possible, I creaked open the door, my right hand hidden behind my back gripping the dagger. The door opened completely and the bathroom light flooded the room.

Nobody was there.

After a few more tense seconds, I breathed a sigh in relief. After casting a look towards the window and finding it well-closed, I headed to the drawer and opened it up. Everything looked like it would normally, except for one thing.

The letter was gone. 

---

"So you're saying that somehow, someone broke into your room? Using a second-floor window?" Paul repeated. "To steal a letter?"

I sighed and leaned my head back on the wall. We were in the back room, after our afternoon shift had ended a little earlier than normal. My back was hurting me like crazy. "Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?"

Idel looked up from her spot on the nearby table. She'd been waiting there for an hour or so, I'd heard, for Paul to finish. Her large green eyes were filled with concern. "That must have been scary, Filian," she said softly.

I cracked a grin. "Thought I was going to die."

Paul frowned. "How'd he get through a second floor window?" He looked up, as if imagining the room above the ceiling. "And all for a letter?"

"Rosa gave it to me, so it's probably something do with nobles." I raised one shoulder into a lazy shrug. "But who am I to know? I can't even read."

Paul and Idel exchanged glances of worry, and I waved my hand at them. "Oh, enough about that. What are you two going to do today?"

The two of them shared another look, though this one was more subtle and shy. "We're heading off to Ribdus," Idel said slowly, turning to me with a bigger grin.

"Ribdus?" I blinked. "At this time?"

"Yes. Paul will be coming along to greet my parents," she said, blushing. Paul scratched his head and reddened as well.

I chuckled at them. "Then I'm guessing I won't see either of you tomorrow." I pushed myself off the wall and went over to pat both of them on the shoulder. "Glad to see things working out for you. Man, those thugs did you both a favor, didn't they?" I joked.

Paul reddened even more. "Sorry for taking so long," he mumbled.

I slapped him in the back. "Apology accepted."

We were all about to leave through the back door-- me to say goodbye to them, and Paul and Idel with their large bags slung on their shoulders-- when Cook called for us from the kitchen.

"Couldn't help overhearing," he said gruffly, one hand on his hip. He motioned to Idel. "Come." 

Idel sent me a questioning look, but I gently nudged her back towards the kitchen, and she trotted behind the cook to wherever he was leading her.

In the meantime, I looked slyly at Paul. "So, why are you going to visit her parents for, eh?"

His face burst into flames. "W-what do you mean, why?"

"Oh come on." I elbowed him on the side. "Is it to ask for something? Oh, I don't know, a hand?"

"A hand?" he squeaked.

I leaned closer and whispered. "A hand in marriage, of course."

"Eep!" He jumped back, reddening even more (was this possible?!) and I laughed loudly. "W-we're not, I mean, not yet--"

"Okay, okay, I'm just teasing," I assured him. I shook my head. "How were you going to live without being graced by the presence of glorious Idel, huh?"

Paul rubbed his red ears sheepishly. Those two were seriously red 80% of the time they were near each other. "About that," Paul continued. "I don't think I've said this yet, but thank you for protecting Idel. She, well, she isn't any good with things like that, you know."

And neither are you, I wanted to say, but I patted him on the shoulder instead. "No problem. Besides, it's really Rosa who gets all the credit."

"Rosa?"

"Yeah. Idel probably explained to you, but it was Rosa who thought of everything. I was just panicking. And out of the five guys that were chasing after us, Rosa fought the harder ones." I frowned. "Wait. Now that I think about it, the foreigner didn't fight, did he? Since both Rosa and I fought two versus one." Strange.

Paul tilted his head. "There was a foreigner?"

I nodded. Using my fingers, I counted the five men off with my hand. "One Grevinler. He didn't fight. I think he disappeared right after we started fighting." I ticked him off using a finger.

Paul inhaled sharply at the mention of the Grevinler. I gave him a knowing look. What was a Grevinler doing in Minstia? I still didn't know.

I held up my next fingers. "I fought the little one, who looked like a kid-- they called him shrimp, I think. Plus one man. So basically it was 1.5 versus 1 for me. But Rosa, she fought this big guy, who I think they called Dutt? Anyhow, I didn't get to see how she fought him, but Rosa has always been good at fighting with knives. Like, crazy good. Hey, man, are you okay?" I frowned. Paul had been paling more and more as I explained, and now he had that bunny-like wide-eyed expression again.

I scratched my arm. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He must be really good at imagining the scene, if just this explanation was making him this terrorized. Whew.

He shook his head, though, clutching his shoulder bag. "Go on," he said hoarsely.

"Um, there isn't much to go on about. She fought this Dutt guy and one other guy. If I remember correctly, he had--"

"A scar," Paul finished for me. "On his neck."

My eyes snapped to his in surprise. "You know? Did Idel tell you already?" Then why was he scared?

He took a deep, shuddering breath and shook his head. "No, she didn't tell me. She doesn't have that good of a memory, you know."

"Then how--"

He suddenly gripped my shoulders, his eyes wide with fear. "They were the ones, Filian," he said in a low voice.

"What--"

Paul's voice hushed even more to an urgent whisper. "The ones who forced me to leave my house! To make sure Idel didn't see any benefits from me!"

I gaped at him, and it took me some time to find enough energy to speak. "But that was in Midelus! Why would they be here?"

"I don't know," he replied, dropping his hands from my arms. He looked just as lost as I was. "I don't know, but Idel isn't safe here. She'll be--"

"Relax," I said, though I wasn't relaxed myself. "They're all in jail now. I saw to it that Sheriff caught them."

He slowly turned away, his eyes unfocused. His hands wrapped around the strap of his shoulder bag again, his knuckles white. "No," he whispered. "that won't stop them." He looked at Idel, who was now returning cheerfully with a brown lunch bag in her hand. "They serve someone above the law, Filian. They'll be out in no time."

---

A/N: One bad thing about updating everyday without actually writing the entire story first is that you don't get to go back and change stuff. Did you know that I confused myself in previous chapters and said there were four thugs when I wanted to say five? Ahaha I fixed it now in the previous chapters, but clarification! There are five.