Stephanie eyed Ian warily as they approached the gate, half certain she had been betrayed and that the man would sell the princess out for money and try to implicate her, at which point her identification for the merchant guild would be checked and the thief would be shown to be a liar. On the other hand, he could legitimately have a way into the city and she wouldn't have to pay an entrance fee. Either way, Stephanie wins. Just how it should be.

Ian ended up flashing the guard a silver coin, but kept it and the man let them through.

"Thieves' cant," she murmured to herself. How odd. She hadn't imagined something so simple would work in so large a town with so many rotations of guards, much less how Ian would have known at what time and place a guard on the take would be. Perhaps he had something like this planned all along? But really. The Silver Fox. Only crappy thieves get so well-known. The best ones take what they want and vanish into the night. No witnesses, and certainly no notoriety.

Arriving at an abandoned noble's manse, the party disembarked. Well, most did she guessed. Stephanie stayed out by her wagon, taking a couple of apples from her cargo and stroking George's head as he calmly chomped at the fruit. She also offered one to the Dullahan's horse, which had traipsed alongside hers all the way to town. Even if commanded by an evil fae, a horse was just a horse after all.

"You put in a hard day's work," she said softly, "you deserve it."

Now to get drunk, which would probably end up being the best part of her day considering how crappy the whole ordeal was.

"Idiot nobility," she hissed under her breath.