Rumi lay flat on the guardroom roof above the cargo ramps, the rescued porter wheezing beside her with soot-streaked cheeks. Two stone ramps climbed toward Captain Brann Keld’s platform, one loaded and crawling, the other left empty for returning carts.
"That one," the porter whispered, jabbing a knuckle at the slow cradle, "the key’s bolted inside the frame, under the grain sacks."
"Inside a moving box, with an escort," Rumi drawled, ears flattening, "Captain Brann Keld really hates fun."
"Four guards, and every one of them is watching the front of the cradle."
"Course they are, anybody chasing a key would hit the obvious end."
’So I take the end nobody bothers guarding, which is all of the other ones.’
The cradle rolled up its ramp on greased rollers, hauled by a chain that clanked toward the gear house above. Four guards walked beside it with spears, eyes fixed down the ramp toward the court where Nari still stood waiting.
Below, her sister flicked an ear upward and pointed two fingers at the guards, then at her own eyes.
"She says hurry," Rumi translated, smirking down at the court below, "and also that I look stupid lying on a roof."
"She said all that with two fingers?"
"We’re littermates, she can insult me with one."
The porter’s freed cart still sat abandoned at the foot of the return ramp, wheels chocked with a broken plank.
Rumi slid off the roof and padded quietly up the empty return ramp in a low crouch, tail tucked tight. She reached across the low wall and touched a cracked flagstone above the cradle’s leading roller, then slipped back down.
’Cart to flagstone, and only one road gets to carry weight at a time.’
A third endpoint was already waiting, the iron ring she touched beside Nari’s court on her way in.
"Hey, down by the cart," a guard shouted, swinging his spear around, "somebody’s on the return ramp!"
"Wow, sharp eyes, gold star," Rumi called back, waving cheerfully.
Back at the cart, she pressed her palm to its side and kicked the chocking plank loose with one heel. The road yawned open, and the rolling cart dropped through to slam out right under the loaded cradle’s turning rollers.
Wood splintered, the chain screeched, and the cradle shuddered to a crooked halt halfway up the ramp.
"The rollers are fouled, get it clear!"
"Forget the cart, take the cat!"
The escort split around the jammed load, two men heaving at the wreck while two came for her.
The lead guard leapt the low wall onto the higher return ramp, landing above her with his spear already leveled. He was fast and knew it, planting himself across the inner lane where her road would have to open next.
"Nowhere to go, kitten," he sneered, "unless you want to fly off that edge."
"Rift-lynx, and your footwork is ugly," Rumi purred, rolling her daggers in her palms.
’He thinks I’ll run for my road, so I’ll run straight up his nose.’
She charged up the plain stone instead, taking the outer turn right beside the drop he expected her to fear. His spear came in low, and she skipped over the shaft and planted her whole shoulder deep in his ribs.
He stumbled backward off the ramp’s lip and crashed into his partner climbing up behind him.
Both men went down in a clatter of spears, and one spear skittered over the edge into the dark below.
"Ow, you idiot, that was my knee—"
"She hit me, she hit me first!"
"Sorry, boys, the turn looked lonely," Rumi snickered, already sprinting past them toward the cradle.
The two men at the wreck abandoned the splintered cart and ran stumbling down the far side shouting for help. She vaulted onto the stalled frame, shoving grain sacks aside until she found a bolted strongbox beneath the cradle’s boards.
"How does this thing let go?" she yelled down the ramp.
The porter came scrambling up the return ramp, clutching his side, "Brake pin first, the red one, or the whole frame rolls back and flattens you!"
"Rolls back and flattens me, great, love that—"
He jammed the pin through the brake rail with both fists, and the cradle settled with a long, sullen creak. Then he hooked the release lever and hauled, while Rumi kicked the bolt sideways until the box finally popped open.
The key lay inside, an iron bar as long as her forearm with teeth cut along one edge.
’That’s it, that’s the thing he wants to drop the gate with.’
She pushed his hand away from the open box, "Now you go."
"Down the return ramp, through the ordinary stair, and keep running until you find the workers."
"And you?"
"I’m the distraction, it’s my best look."
He hesitated, then nodded and bolted down the empty ramp toward the stair, cart and cradle both behind him.
Rumi waited until the porter reached the stair, then turned to face the ramp behind her.
The lead guard limped up toward her alone, gripping a short blade, "You’ll pay for my knee, you little thief."
"Put it on Captain Brann Keld’s tab, he keeps excellent books."
He lunged hard, and she slipped the thrust along her left dagger and stepped inside his reach before he recovered. Her pommel cracked against his wrist, the blade dropped, and her heel swept his good leg out from under him.
She knelt on his back and twisted his arm until he stopped trying to rise.
"Yield, or I start being mean about your knee."
"Yield, yield, damn you, I yield!"
She bound his wrists with his own belt and dragged him against the cradle where his friends could find him.
Below in the court, Nari stood beside the ring with her arms crossed and her tail lashing, "Are you done showing off?"
"Never," Rumi shouted back, "but I’m done with this part, catch!"
She touched the cracked flagstone again, opened the short road to Nari’s ring, and laid the key inside it alone. Nothing else rode with it, no sack and no blade, just one bar crossing in plain sight of both sisters.
The road spat it out at Nari’s feet, and she scooped it up before it stopped rolling.
"Got it, and it’s heavier than it looks."
"Everything’s heavier than it looks when I’m not carrying it."
Nari turned the key in her hands and looked toward the gate housing where Ferra’s coupling still held.
"When Loccy takes the platform, I lock the gate by hand," she said, sliding the key under her belt, "and nobody upstairs gets a say."
"So Captain Brann Keld can’t drop the gate behind himself and stroll off down the bypass?"
"Not without this, and he’d have to come through me to get it."
Rumi slid down the return ramp and landed beside her sister with a cocky little bow.
"Your duel, my heist, I think we’re even," she chirped, flicking an ear.
"You were showing off for an empty ramp," Nari muttered, though the corner of her mouth twitched.
"There’s never an empty ramp when I’m on it."
[ Rumi | EXP gained: 5,000,000 | 12,500,000 / 37,500,000 toward Wing Five ]
No Wing unfolded and no new road opened, only a stolen key and honest credit for a clean escort fight.
’Hajin owes us both a double ration tonight, and an arm each to purr on.’
Far up the slope, the captain’s platform bell began clanging, too late to call his key back home.