Page 70 of We Were Eternal Once

“Fine.” The word is out of my mouth before I can stop it. I want to swallow it down, to go back to a time where I did not agree to this.

(“I thought this was a true retelling? Or have you lied to yourself?”)

Fine, I did not wish to swallow the word. Zora was a moment of interest amongst a very long, often dull lifetime. A human that could avoid my coercion was dangerous to our kind. Perhaps at the time it felt academic, a closeness borne to study her. Perhaps it was boredom.

I think it was all of these things.

I also wanted my bracelet back.

“Wonderful. Let us find someone to steal from.”

Zora picked her target well.

The man’s suitcase was open on the ground before him, resting on a dirty blanket. His items glimmer under the lamplight, trinkets meant to catch the eye. Already a small crowd forms, kneeling to examine his wares.

“The most important part of theft is distraction,” Zora says, nodding to the crowd. “Notice who he pays the most attention to—is it the well-dressed man, or is it the lowly creature with worn shoes? Does he cater to the rich man in hopes of selling, or does he focus on the poor to deter theft?”

This was another type of hunt. Zora and I were alike in this, that the thrill of picking a victim was almost better than the thrill of the catch. While I watched humans to see who could be removed from the crowd unseen, she watched for easily distracted targets. Had I a beating heart, I’m sure it would have raced as hers did now.

“What do you see?” she asks.

“His glasses are for show,” I say first.

“His what?” She laughs, squinting into the night. “You can see that from here?”

“He doesn’t need them. When you look into them, there’s no distortion. He wants people to think he’s a rich intellectual,” I continue.

“Good work, we can use that.”

“How?”

“He wants us to believe he’s learned. You can distract him with an engaging discussion about…” She trails off, waving her hand as she thinks. “…whatever you rich, learned people speak about.”

“What makes you think I am rich or learned?” I ask.

“Your jewelry is expensive but understated, as is your clothing. You do not follow the current trends, your style is from…oh, the 1750s? 40s? Despite their age they are well taken care of and fit perfectly to your body. You can afford a tailor. As for learned—I’ve been speaking in Serbian for the last twenty minutes and you understood and answered in it. Your name isn’t French, so I suspect you speak another language as well. Serbian is an uncommon language to know.” Her smile grows as she speaks.

“Well played,” I say in French. She gives a small bow and turns her attention back to our prey.

“Now, there are a few ways we can approach this. One is for you to distract while I steal, the other is for you to steal while I distract. I think the former would be the easiest, and we shall start with that. It is important that we do not approach at the same time, and that you never look at me.”

“How will I know if you’ve succeeded?” I ask.

“I will whistle like this.” She lets out a low whistle that has an uptick in volume and pitch in the end.

I approach the man first, looking over his items. It is an assortment of things: books, trinkets, bits of fabric. He lifts a trinket of an elephant made of smooth material and holds it out to me.

“This is an animal called an elephant,” he says, rocking on his toes as he speaks. He glances over me the same way Zora did, assessing.

“I have seen one before, in my travels,” I tell him.

“Your travels?!” the vendor exclaims, his attention now wholly focused on me.

“Yes—in India.”

“You’ve been? How splendid! Then it is fate that brought you to my stall today, and I suspect no other vendor has an elephant, especially not one made of ivory.” He winks as he nudges it toward me once more.

I take it from him, my fingers tracing along the edges of it. “Ivory, you say? It is so light,” I remark, glancing up at him. He blanches, the implication I’ve made obvious. Selling colored glass paste was not illegal, nor did it deter even the richest buyers. Lying about the material, however, was unacceptable.