Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Wee Hours of the Night, Friday [02/15].

A dark, lithe shadow was making its way through the streets of Fandom that night, late enough that the shadow only had to bribe a few squirrels to ensure her passage went unnoticed and unrecorded. And when the shadow reached the boarded-up window and locked-up door to forge, she stopped, crouching down by the door and taking a few moments to pick the locks before slowly opening the door just enough to slip inside.

Once Rosa was inside, she pressed against the door, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the deeper darkness within, and she listened, carefully, for the tell-tale rumble of Blackstone's ridiculous snores...there it was, slow, steady, loud, like she'd taken a chainsaw to bed with her. Even through the floorboards. Perfect. Even easier to hide the sound of footfalls, not that Rosa would be making any as she started forward into the shop.

..at least, she would have moved forward if not for the slightest brush of something against her ankle. Rosa took a step back, kneeling down, confirming her suspicion of a small trip wire stretched across the floor. Curious, she reached out to give it a little tug, making her to keep herself low to the ground, which was good thinking, as a handful of darts shot across the room and thunked into the wood near the space where Rosa would have been.

Oh, Amaya. Don't ever change.

So the better part of the next couple hours were spent carefully making her way around the shop, finding and disassembling traps before they could managed to disassemble her. They were all really sleeping on Blackstone as a devious mastermind, really, some of those traps were brutal and far more clever than they had a right to be. But Rosa eventually made it to the counter, where she slumped down behind it, pulled out one of the big books of sales ledgers that Amaya kept, turned on her flashlight, and started pouring through them in search of what she was looking for.

This last week's sales, should be on this page right here. Rosa flipped back and forth a little, double checking dates, but, yes, these should be it. That's when she leaned in close and noticed the distinct perforations toward the spine of a torn-out page. She narrowed her head, turned her head.

The forge. She'd actually burned her papertrail, destroyed the evidence.

"Who are you protecting, you madwoman?"

Even though she had no doubt that Blackstone had been thorough, Rosa still made it over to the forge itself, rolling (unnecessarily) across the floor, giving a brief glance up the stairs to the apartment above when there was a slight pause in the snores. But they resumes, and Rosa shifted through the ashes int he forge, just to make sure, just in case there was even the slightest hint of a paper from the ledger that had escaped the flames.

No such luck, and Rosa was left sighing a little in her defeat, glancing around the shop, trying to discover any clue she hadn't thought of yet.

Nothing. Fine. It was fine. You won this one, Blackstone, but the war had just begun. This was far from over.

And it was easily some of the most fun she could imagine having on a Friday night.

Also, she should really see about getting that woman a sleep apnea machine or something.

[[ Establishy! NFB, NFI, shop modded with permission, I swear it! ]]