Subtlety was key, especially when trying to maintain the secrecy of the crow and its stolen loot. Grayce would have been more in favour of involving another Magician in the task of retrieving the items had Relic’s gift not been one of them. He’d considered going to Renegard for help after learning that the vintage knife he’d spied inside the nest was the one he was missing. Doing so however, would mean telling him he’d not only opened the gift, but also lost it in the first place. The level of trust and endearment he’d slowly earned from the grisly older Magician, would quickly ebb away with his admission. He’d barely had time to get to know the few other Magicians hanging around the Sanctuary, so the only other person he could ask was Relic.
As the crow and himself had stared off, Grayce had taken a good catalogue of the precious hoard nestled around the crows’ feet inside the nest. Out of all the items, the crow seemed most fond of odd things like buttons and paper clips, less shiny items and more seemly random items that it found interesting. A few of the items like a rubber band and a loop of string the crow had hung on a crooked nail jutting out of the roof. The collection gave him an idea of what kind of item he might be able to use to convince the crow to briefly leave its’ nest. A wrist loop keychain that Relic crocheted.
“Is this a gift for someone?” Relic asked, eyes narrowing. “You’ve not taken any interest in my crochet before…”
“Ahh, yeah.” Grayce muttered, nodding as he looked over the assorted colours of wool Relic had in her basket. The rainbow spool caught his eyes. Surely the crow would find a brightly multicoloured thing attractive. Relic was silent behind him. Technically he wasn’t lying, it was a gift, but he could sense she was suspicious.
“Can I have a rainbow one?” Grayce asked, showing his mentor the spool.
“Of course,” she replied, slowly taking it from him. Grayce forced a smile he hoped appeared less awkward than it felt on his face. Relics’ expression remained sceptical as she dragged the chair from her desk and sat, pulling out a crochet needle from her pocket.
“Give me an hour,” Relic said, winding the thread around her fingers. “I’m sure Renegard will have some training for you.” She gestured him out of the chamber.
Grayce ran a thumb over the soft ribbed wool of the rainbow loop. He’d attached to the keychain part a random assortment of two old keys, a string of paperclips and a few metal nuts and washers.
Clutching the rainbow keychain in his hand, Grayce pulled himself up onto the broken bench in the prayer room and cautiously poked his head through the gap. Through the cobwebs he could make out the black shape of the crow wandering the small space. Careful to not make any sudden noise, he climbed into the small attic space. Whether he’d made any sound or not, the crow was suddenly alerted to his presence in the room and hurried back to its nest, giving a loud squark of indignation as though to scold him for sneaking up on it.
As Grayce knelt within the crawl space, the crow glared at him, black feathers puffed up and wings slightly raised. Fearing an attack, Grayce quickly pulled the exchange item from his pocket. The noise instantly drew the crow’s attention, its head cocking sharply to the side with the full glare of one brown-black eye staring straight at the keychain. Slow and steadily, he moved his hand from the wrist loop, revealing the attached rainbow end. The bird’s eye twitched up and down, looking over the item.
Grayce held the keychain in the air before the crow for a few moments, hoping to allow the bird time to form an attachment of a desire to add this new treasure to its collection, before he suddenly tossed it down the far end of the attic space, opposite them both. The crow followed the motion, staring after the item, before it’s gaze swung back to Grayce. Its expression seemed to show the same one of suspicion Relic had had earlier, as though asking what game are you playing?
“I just want that pendant and knife you stole.” Grayce pleaded. “I’m offering that in exchange.” He pointed at the loot and then at the keychain down the attic space.
The crow blinked at him slowly, turning its head to look in the direction of the keychain before returning to Grayce.
“C’mon, please.” The feathers across its stomach puffed up. “You’ve already got a necklace, and what do you need a knife for anyway?!”
The birds head turned to face both eyes straight at him. If a bird could look offended, this one seemed to.
“Fine, I’ll take it back then.” Grayce tried, shuffling around and pretending to reach out for the keychain.
The crows movement was sudden and fast, one moment it was in the nest and the next thing Grayce saw was it making a b-line for the keychain. As the crow ran past him, Grayce twisted back around and quickly snatched the silver pendant and vintage knife from the nest alongside a handful of feathers. As he hurriedly pocketed the items and shuffled backwards towards the hole, the crow appeared beside the nest, colourful keychain in its’ beak.
Its head cocked downwards, eye tracing over the nest, before it looked straight across at Grayce, paused by the open roof space.
“We good?” Grayce asked, holding up a hand. The crow continued to stare, before it puffed out it’s small body and climbed back into the nest, tossing the rainbow wrist loop over the bent nail above. The collection of junk on the keychain end, bobbed just above it’s head and it settled back down into the nest. The crow then tilted its head to look at him once more, as though to say your still here…?
Grayce took that as his invitation to leave, and quickly.
*
“I thought entrusting you with this over myself meant that it would be in safer hands,” Renegard grumbled, holding up the small bag containing Relic’s present. He scratched at the dirt marks on the canvas surface.
“Sorry,” Grayce grimaced, remembering how dusty it had been under his desk where it’d fallen a week ago.
“Ah well, it’s only the gift bag,” Renegard shrugged, pocketing the present into his apron. “At least nothing happened to the gift itself.” He gave Grayce a sideways look, before he turned and left. Grayce slowly closed the door, before resting his forehead against the wood. He breathed out a long sigh of relief.