The Cloisters were as close to deserted as any place in Altdorf. Once they had been part of a Shallyan nunnery but they had been in a state of ruin since the time of Magnus the Pious. It's claim to fame in these fallen days was that it formed a borderland between the city and the Arcane Colleges. By day they were lively places where activities of questionable legallity, like duels or meetings of outre academics movements, took place. By night they were deserted, even the most desperate homeless unwilling to risk the proximity of so many wizards in the dark.

It had taken considerable time to arrange the buy. If she had been an accredited wizard it might have been easier but as an apprentice anyone who would deal with her could simply go over her head to her master. It had taken a series of decreasingly vauge letters to get the name of an Ameythst Wizard named Ethelbert and another series too arange a price and meeting place. The cloisters were a natrual enough place, and while Emmaline disliked doing it at night she could see that it made sense for everybody.

The appointed cloister was in better repair than most, its ancient fluted colums curled with green ivy and its floor swept almost clean. A statue of a man perhaps a priest or saint stood on a plinth in the middle, a hand up stretched to beesech the heavens. Emmaline opened a small bag and set to work. First she marked several flagstones with a stick of fine chalk, carefully sketching out strange sigils and designs. Once this was done she painstakingly removed all of the wildflowers within ten feet of the statue, plucking of each petal and casting it to a different cardinal point finally she took a bag of coarse salt from her satchel and tugged the drawstrings open, walking backwards and widdershins she spilled out a trail of salt in a circle which passed through each of the runes she had marked. She then drew a second smaller circle that interescted with the first, half on one side of the line and half on the other.

"How do you know it has worked?" Neil asked, looking a little nervous. Emmaline couldn't exactly blame him. Explaining to the Templars what he was doing watching her cast salt and flower petals around in the dead of night might be beyond even his silver tongue. As if in answer to his question the salt suddenly rustled like a snake, forming itself into a perfect inch thick circle which touched the glyphs without covering them.

"You know, I sometimes forget you are actually a wizard," he admitted candidly. Emmaline stuck her tongue out at him and made a beckoning guesture. Neil stepped over the circle rather gingerly and layed the case with the wyrdstone in it down at the base of the statue. Emmaline knelt and chanted for a few seconds in the arcane tongue, her last syllable seeming to hang in the air like the echo of a distant bell.

"And this will stop your death wizard friend from turning us to dust to save a few gelt?" Neil asked. Emmaline cleared her throat awkardly.

"Well, it will make it so noisy to try that he probably wont want to risk anyone from the College investigating," she hedged. Neil's eyebrows lifted but he didn't make any further comment. The hard truth was that Emmaline with her hodgepodge and often interrupted education simply wasn't a match for a full fledged wizard. The best she could hope for was to make the cost of ripping them off too high. Further discussion was interupted by the distinctive 'tap-tap-clack' of someone walking with a cane. Apparently the two thieves were not the only ones arriving early. At least Emmaline hoped it was their buyer, it was going to be pretty awkward if some random passerby found them in a magic circle with proscribed artifacts. That fear faded as a man in a long purple cloak and a pointed conical hat emerged from the gloom. He carried a long crooked staff in his right hand and his face was a mass of twisting shadows, a simple spell to conceal his idenity.

"Good evening," the figure intoned. The accent was Averlander rendering good as 'gutt' and seemed vaguely familiar.

"Good evening master wizard," Emmaline replied politely. The wizard nodded his head and looked to the case, though how Emmaline could tell he was looking there with his face disguised she wasn't quite sure.

"Ju did nickt troost me?" he asked, leaning forward to tap at the salt circle with the butt of his staff. The crystals stubbornly refused to move no matter how much he prodded.

"Zis ist gut vork, your meister must be proud ja?" the wizard continued. Again Emmaline had a sense that she had heard this voice somewhere before. If she could have thought of a way to call this off she would have but she was committed now and had to follow through, the circle trapped her inside as much as it kept the stranger out.

"Fascinating speculation aside, maybe you just hand over the coin and we can both be on our way? she suggested. The wizard cocked his head as though amused.

"And how vill ve do that vith you locked away in your little magik circle hmm?" he asked.

"Let me see the gold," Emmaline demanded, "then I will tell you how will will exchange it." The wizard reached into his robe and produced a heavy purse. He pulled the draw strings open and showed it to her, thick shining crowns rattled over each other, glittering in the moonlight. Emmaline felt her stomach sink.

"What is it?" Neil asked in concern.

"They are fake," she whispered. Emmaline might be a poor wizard, but gold was her element and even at this range she could tell that the gold in the bag was a clever illusion.

"Should I shoot him?" Neil asked. It was a serious question, he had a pistol on him and Emmaline suddenly regretted not having taken the time to ensorcell the ball.

"No, best not to break the circle," she told him.

"Ju are nicht fooled I see," the wizard said, sounding more impressed than irritated. He let the bag drop to the ground, and rather than clank with coins it simply deflated and was suddenly empty.

"Vell ju cannit blame a man for trying," he said philosopically. Shadows exploded from the cloister walls. Corpse light shadow figures that screamed silently with hyper extended jaws. They rushed forward in a wall, crashing against the invisible walls of the circle where they burst in showers of golden sparks. The whole thing was competely silent save for a soft keening which Emmaline eventual realised was her own scream, and the sound of Neil cocking  his pistol and pointing it at the space he had last seen the wizard. Visions of leering sepulcral horror danced on the warding for perhaps half a minute and then, as suddenly as they had appeared, they vanished. The wizard was gone. Emmaline's mouth worked in shock and spun to find that the case had vanished.

"It's gone!" she gasped, the fear of a moment ago being transmuted into anger she kicked the inner side of the warding circle and it collapsed.

"Hurry we have to catch him!" she called to Neil and set off at a run towards the Amythest college. It only took a few minutes before the realised that the cloisters were deserted and the wizard had slipped away by some means beyond their understanding. Emmaline slowed to a jog, then to a walk before coming to a dejected halt. She had carried those damn stones all the way from Nuln and now they were gone.

"What do we do now?" Neil asked, gently easing the cocked pistol to take the pressure off the spring. Emmaline glared at the distant college. The sane and sensible thing would have been to let it go. There were plenty of places to make gold in this city that didn't involve going up against a member of the College.

"Wan't to break into a Wizard's Tower?" she asked.