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MEMORY #2
Working for the Thiefmaker / Black Whisper at the Elderglass Vine (pages 16-25)
In this memory, a little five-year-old boy is escorted out of a familiar place by a man dressed in a yellow uniform, who picks him up and carries him. After a while, with a crowd of other displaced children, he steps into a line moving away behind an amusing-looking man who paid a lot of coin to the yellow men, and is lead across town and into an abandoned graveyard. There's a network of well-lit and maintained tunnels underneath a mausoleum, and he's mostly concerned with watching silently as they're lead into an open chamber.
His new adoptive parental figure gives a speech about saving them from a life of slavery, but he says they'll have to work. The boy knows this means stealing, and volunteers that information. His new guardian - the Thiefmaker - was trying to break it gently to the other children, and does not entirely appreciate his forthrightness, but agrees, and asks his name.
After hesitating, he gives his name as Locke (after his father) Lamora.
This is not true.
When the Thiefmaker speculates about how to make these children demonstrate their thieving skills, Locke is pleased, makes two purses appear from his sleeves, and hands them over. The Thiefmaker is pleased and surprised, until he learns that Locke got them from the Yellowjackets - the Guard. As Locke says, nodding with enthusiasm, "They picked us up and carried us."
"Oh gods," the Thiefmaker says, suddenly terrified. "You may have just fucked us all superbly."
After leaving them in the care of the older children present here for half an hour, he returns, in somewhat better spirits, and teaches them all their first lesson. They must never steal from the guards, not the Yellowjackets or the Blackjackets.
He illustrates this lesson by pouring ginger oil down Locke's throat.
Time goes by. Locke becomes a "teaser," someone responsible for making artful distractions that make a pickpocket's job easier. His little impromptu bouts of street theater get him in trouble with the Thiefmaker again -- they're too dramatic, too memorable. Fake vomit, 'broken' legs, artful stories - it's better to be forgettable. This lesson is NOT emphasized by ginger oil, but Locke is aware that it could be, and so, he mostly tries to stay more - what's the word the Thiefmaker uses?
Circumspect.
But sometimes opportunities are just too good. With a group of friends hiding nearby, he wanders into a busy, seedy bar moaning about dead parents, made-up with the telltale signs of a plague called the Black Whisper. Locke has a vague sense of unpleasant memories associated with those words, but no details. Anyway, he can use that now! The terrified bar attendants flee -- everyone flees - and Locke and his band of merry miscreants rob the place silly of coin and drink and even the decks of cards on the tables.
Later that night, the Duke's Plague Guard quarantine that entire district of the city. A panicked drunk burns the bar down. If any sign of plague had been found out, that entire district would have been torched and razed to the ground.
And the Thiefmaker finds out. Locke's ingenuity is lost on him. The barkeeper was up on his protection money, paid specifically to avoid accidents like this. If anyone but the Thiefmaker and Locke's cadre knew what he had done, the Thiefmaker's boss would gut them all. As it is, he needs to emphasize the meaning of circumspect again...
This memory ends with more ginger oil.
Effects:
Circumspect, Hell. Locke remembers his penchant for trouble and his flair for the dramatic. The lesson isn't don't pull dramatic and theatrical acts of deception. The lesson is don't let anyone catch you.
Locke is kind of a slow learner.
Also, he now knows he was lying about his name to everyone since the age of five.
In this memory, a little five-year-old boy is escorted out of a familiar place by a man dressed in a yellow uniform, who picks him up and carries him. After a while, with a crowd of other displaced children, he steps into a line moving away behind an amusing-looking man who paid a lot of coin to the yellow men, and is lead across town and into an abandoned graveyard. There's a network of well-lit and maintained tunnels underneath a mausoleum, and he's mostly concerned with watching silently as they're lead into an open chamber.
His new adoptive parental figure gives a speech about saving them from a life of slavery, but he says they'll have to work. The boy knows this means stealing, and volunteers that information. His new guardian - the Thiefmaker - was trying to break it gently to the other children, and does not entirely appreciate his forthrightness, but agrees, and asks his name.
After hesitating, he gives his name as Locke (after his father) Lamora.
This is not true.
When the Thiefmaker speculates about how to make these children demonstrate their thieving skills, Locke is pleased, makes two purses appear from his sleeves, and hands them over. The Thiefmaker is pleased and surprised, until he learns that Locke got them from the Yellowjackets - the Guard. As Locke says, nodding with enthusiasm, "They picked us up and carried us."
"Oh gods," the Thiefmaker says, suddenly terrified. "You may have just fucked us all superbly."
After leaving them in the care of the older children present here for half an hour, he returns, in somewhat better spirits, and teaches them all their first lesson. They must never steal from the guards, not the Yellowjackets or the Blackjackets.
He illustrates this lesson by pouring ginger oil down Locke's throat.
Time goes by. Locke becomes a "teaser," someone responsible for making artful distractions that make a pickpocket's job easier. His little impromptu bouts of street theater get him in trouble with the Thiefmaker again -- they're too dramatic, too memorable. Fake vomit, 'broken' legs, artful stories - it's better to be forgettable. This lesson is NOT emphasized by ginger oil, but Locke is aware that it could be, and so, he mostly tries to stay more - what's the word the Thiefmaker uses?
Circumspect.
But sometimes opportunities are just too good. With a group of friends hiding nearby, he wanders into a busy, seedy bar moaning about dead parents, made-up with the telltale signs of a plague called the Black Whisper. Locke has a vague sense of unpleasant memories associated with those words, but no details. Anyway, he can use that now! The terrified bar attendants flee -- everyone flees - and Locke and his band of merry miscreants rob the place silly of coin and drink and even the decks of cards on the tables.
Later that night, the Duke's Plague Guard quarantine that entire district of the city. A panicked drunk burns the bar down. If any sign of plague had been found out, that entire district would have been torched and razed to the ground.
And the Thiefmaker finds out. Locke's ingenuity is lost on him. The barkeeper was up on his protection money, paid specifically to avoid accidents like this. If anyone but the Thiefmaker and Locke's cadre knew what he had done, the Thiefmaker's boss would gut them all. As it is, he needs to emphasize the meaning of circumspect again...
This memory ends with more ginger oil.
Effects:
Circumspect, Hell. Locke remembers his penchant for trouble and his flair for the dramatic. The lesson isn't don't pull dramatic and theatrical acts of deception. The lesson is don't let anyone catch you.
Locke is kind of a slow learner.
Also, he now knows he was lying about his name to everyone since the age of five.