Challenge #04633-L249: The Price For the Prize

A conman infiltrates a convent to pilfer the coffers. What could go wrong? When the ladies cloistered inside harbor a dark secret, well, everything... -- Deathshead419

They had to be hiding vast treasures, based solely on the premise that it was expensive to look that plain and simple. It was an accumulation of little signs that pushed Teliff the Slick to investigate finding their treasure trove.

The sisters were well fed and kept fit. They were always so clean and neat. They always had exact change for their purchases. Their black robes were always so well kept. Nobody interfered with them when they ventured into the streets. Even bigger criminals than Teliff would rather walk away than lay a finger on those stark, black robes.

That had to mean big money. And for that, Teliff needed a big plan.

They had a big temple that used to be someone's castle. Gifted to them at some point by some highborn muckety-moo. Which also meant that the whole place had to be riddled with hidden treasures. Everyone knew that the highborn kept an iron grip on anything worth anything, and kept it hidden away from anyone who needed it. Teliff knew that none of the sisters in black had to be sitting on a hoard.

He just needed to get in and find it.

Which meant that he needed a plan. Men could enter the main hall for the usual charity of food or a bed, but they could go no further. The charms and wards forbade outsiders from stepping over the threshhold. You had to be a sister to go beyond that sacred boundary.

He grew his hair long, stole a dress, and worked on pitching his voice to sound feminine. As far as facial hair was concerned, he was lucky that his half-Elven heritage prevented anything resembling a beard or a moustache.

Teliff knew he had it right when a member of the Watch called him ma'am.

That was when he walked right up to the convent and asked to join the sisterhood. He wasn't the first destitute widow to sign up for permanent residence in a convent, and he shared a dorm with five fellows in that same situation. And four young ladies sent there to "sort out their attitude." Otherwise known as keeping them under close guard after they'd tried running off with the wrong kind of swain.

He learned how to scrub and bleach the novitiates' white robes, make the daily soups and gruels, bake the bread they made exclusively out of millet, and weed, weed, weed the gardens.

All the time, he was watching for any place they might hoard the wealth they had to be hiding somewhere.

He called his feminine alter-ego 'Teelie' and the rest came to know him as "Quiet Teelie," because he was listening and watching. Patient. Waiting. Trying desperately to never do anything that would give him away. He even sat in the privy to piss.

His one attempt at singing in the choir resulted in him joining the service chants. His perfected high voice could chant like a champion.

Over the months of meek, quiet service, he found a thousand places where the wealth was not. It was certainly not in the Novitiate dorms. It was not anywhere Teliff was allowed into to clean. Which narrowed down the areas where the wealth could be hidden significantly.

There were only a few areas off limits to him. Places only dedicats or higher ranks could go. If he wanted in, he had to become a dedicat.

How far would he go for the heist of a lifetime?

This far: He learned everything a dedicat needed to know. Showed how willing he was to enter the service. Promised their goddess everything he needed to promise. Including the promise to be what she needed him to be.

Shadows wrapped him from head to toe, obscuring his view of the candles and priestesses. For a moment, he flinched under the judging eyes of ghosts and spectres from the other side.

Then he faced the one goddess that nobody wanted to name.

Thou hast volunteered, she said. Thou hast promised thyself. Thou hast sworn to become a sister of my order, and a sister thou shalt be. Thief who sought to deceive my order and steal treasures that do not exist... know that thou art now and forever in my service.

The shadows faded away, and Teelie rose from the circle. Ready to spend the rest of her life in the service of the Goddess of Death.

[Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash]

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