'If you read the cover, then you already know my name, and you better remember it, dear friend. However, if you still hold the foolish beliefs about our world, which were put on us by Pope and his subordinates, then I take back my words and ask you to put that book wherever you found it. Why, you may ask? Because what's written on its pages can turn your vision upside down, and it will be hard for narrowminded people to understand what I'm about to tell you.

Since the beginning of civilization we did not realize how vast the world around us is, and that it isn't the only one. We foolishly believed in superstitious ideas someone moronic thought up, without using our brains for its main purpose - thinking. We just saw strange sentient creatures with unique abilities and immediately assumed the rest. Called them 'demons' and started to cower in fear.

But we could do something else and that's one of the main mistakes of humankind. Instead of running away and burning the ones who disagreed with the crowd. That's why I'm sure that I will be 'punished' for writing this book. We could try to speak with them, to learn from them. Imagine how our world would have changed if we abolished our fear and looked straight into truth's eyes.

And I would be able to understand this if we at least created the means to defend ourselves. Swords and arrows just go through them, for heaven's sake! And seriously, everything that had worked so far are Blood Blossoms, the mere scent of which would cause an extracruciating pain and make every inch of their body burn. But they were created by nature itself, not us. Pathetic.

We are lucky, however, that our world is unimportant and unneeded for them, at least for the time being. Which is surprising, if we take one fact into notice. Their whole race is held in an iron fist of one power hungry dynasty. More detailed information about the House of Dark will be presented later'

While Sam was reading the book she found, the last member of the named dynasty was walking through the dirty streets of Rifton. So far he hadn't found a way to get money. And he won't lower himself to steal them. Cheap clothes he got when he just arrived in this place were a different story. He snorted at the irony of the situation. Even in his hardest days he never lacked money.

He was currently standing at the marketplace. It was a circle square filled with different stands with food, clothes, jewelry and other stuff no one in his right mind would buy. This circle was surrounded by river. The whole city was like Venice, standing for the most part in the water. From what he heard, the fishing business was the most profitable in this city, besides stealing, that is. Danny heard some rumors about Guild of Thieves. Actually not rumors, its existence was a fact. But where they were hiding was unknown, and people actually said that the Guild had a hard time lately.

Phantom was leaning on the railing, staring at the muddy water. How fish could live in such conditions was beyond him. He heard a loud cough on the left. He turned and saw a man with red hair and short beard. The man looked like a merchant, but Danny was getting a sneaky vibe from him. The man was smiling mischievously at the half ghost.

"What?" Phantom asked annoyed. He wasn't in the mood, "I'm not going to buy anything," the man continued to smile. Maybe even wider.

"Not to offend, lad, but you don't seem like the type to buy my 'Elixir from crocodiles' blood'," Danny snorted, "you also don't seem like the type who can afford it"

"What are you getting at?" Phantom crossed his hands. The man raised his hands in surrender.

"Relax, lad, I'm merely offering you a good job to raise money. What do you think?"

"Depends on how much I get and what I need to do," Danny answered. The man whistled.

"Straight to business, huh? Very well, see this building?" He pointed towards small one story building. Honestly, if the man hadn't pointed on it, Danny would never noticed that. Phantom nodded.

"You need to get inside and steal the bag with gold," Danny narrowed his eyes at the man.

"I never stole money," he said.

"Even for a good cause?" The man asked with a raised eyebrow, "I know, robbing the orphanage is low..."

"Low? Try disgusting," Phantom interrupted, his voice dripping with venom.

"Hear me out. It's profitable for everyone: you, me and even orphans themselves," now it was Phantom's turn to raise an eyebrow. The man noticed the confusion, "Look, lad, that money don't actually belong to the orphanage. Well, on the papers they do. But everything goes to the pockets of 'Kind Grelod'. You need to search for the more wicked creature than her"

"I still don't get it," Danny commented.

"Understandable, lad, 'cause the plan is perfect. Anyways, you steal the money. We spend them on actual help for orphans. You get a reward," Phantom put a hand on his chin.

"Why do I doubt that you just follow altruistic ideals?" He asked.

"Alright, you caught me. We DO gain something from it. Reputation and respect. And we need it badly," Phantom smirked.

"So you are from the Guild? Should have guessed," he shrugged, "alright, I'm in"

"Good. Good. Now would you tell me your name?"

"Daniel"

"Alright, Daniel, I'm Brinjolf. Now show what you got, Grelod must have a lunch nap right now"

Phantom nodded and came to the building. It sure looked pretty downrun. He walked around it, trying to find a fitting entrance. It would be easier for him to get in and out if Brinjolf's prying eyes weren't watching his every step. Finally he found a place hid from everyone's view and became invisible.

Brinjolf meanwhile thought that that kid will be a very good addition to the Guild. He had never seen someone with such quiet walk, and what confused him was the fact that he wasn't even leaving footsteps on mud. Well, he didn't know how Danny was doing that, but it was still a useful skill to have, guards wouldn't be able to track you down.

Phantom went through the wall. Insides were a bit better than the outside, it was clean at least. He was inside the storeroom, if small piles with vegetables and flour said anything. Still invisible, Danny walked through the door. He was in the dining room with huge table. There still were plates, meaning that the lunch just ended. The detail bothering him was the fact that there wasn't a single crumb. Danny snapped out of his thoughts by horrid voice.

"Now listen to me, you little rats, no one is going to come here to adopt you, no one needs a spare mouth to feed. No one needs you, besides me. So stop pestering me with your questions, understood?"

"Yes, Grelod"

Grelod was an old woman with gray hair, with all her wrinkles pulling the face down. She had a nasty gleam in her brown eyes. This speech of hers was meant for four small kids, the eldest of which looked like he was twelve. Dressed in rags, they all had a downcast look, and all this scene made Phantom's ectoplasm boil. He restrained himself from blasting her into oblivion, taking calming breathes. However, his anger caused the fire in the fireplace to grow threefold. Residents jumped away in fear, before calming down when they saw the fire returning to normal. Grelod shook her head.

"I'm going to sleep, if someone wakes me up, then he will spend the night in shackles," Phantom looked at the doorway she planned to go through and grinned evilly. One swift motion of the hand and heavy beam above the door fell on her head. The kids gasped, but not in fear, it was a happy gasp. The kids came closer to check for signs of life. Looks like the beam was too heavy for her old spine.

Not bothering to look at the woman, Phantom sneaked into Grelod's room and searched for hidden money. Didn't take long, he found a trapdoor under her bed. It was locked, but it was just a nuisance for the ghost teen. He simply phased his hand inside and took out a bag. Sure enough, there was plenty. Phantom made the bag invisible as well, and went outside. He hid it under the tree and became visible unseen to anyone. Brinjolf was waiting for him at the same place. He narrowed his eyes at Danny, surprisingly.

"Well?" He asked, causing Phantom to cross his hands.

"Don't take this tone with me. I got the money and even more," Brinjolf raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Thieves work silently. I don't know what happened there, but everyone heard that"

"What, so loud? It wasn't me, the support beam fell down. Grelod is dead," his eyes widened, before he smirked.

"Finally! And I was wondering when this witch will tilt her hooves. Anyways, where are money?" Danny pointed towards the tree.

"Under it. Can't risk bringing them here," Brinjolf grinned.

"Good job, lad. Here's your reward," he gave Danny a pouch with money, "Not much, but that's all we can offer for now"

"Not much? Well, I guess you can give me something besides money. I need information," Brinjolf waved his hand, signaling for him to go on, "I'm searching for James Faloy, do you know anything?" Brinjolf's eyes widened in surprise.

"And why do you need him?" He asked.

"Let's just say he is looking for the things that he shouldn't," Danny said. Telling the truth will be pointless, 'I'm trying to prevent humans from activating the weapon of apocalypse' is a thing not many would believe in, "I'm not going to kill him or anything, relax. I only need to take what is mine, that's all," Brinjolf hummed in thought, rubbing his chin.

"I think this can be arranged, lad. Come to the pub 'The ragged flagon' in the evening"

"Sure thing"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next thing Danny had done was returning to his apartments. The bartender was still glaring daggers at him, though he still did not understand how Phantom had done that trick. Danny didn't pay attention to him and just walked upstairs. Before entering the apartments, he knocked on the door. There was some rustling behind it.

"Who is that?" She asked.

"Your fairy godmother," Danny laughed.

"Come in," she deadpanned.

Danny opened the door and went inside the room. "So," he said a bit awkward, "whatcha doing?"

"Absolutely nothing," Sam answered maybe too quickly. Suspicious, but Danny is clueless, yet again.

"Well, I got money," he raised a pouch, with ringing coins inside, "How about we go to eat?" Sam nodded eagerly. She was starving.

They went downstairs and what they saw made their heart and core stop. Two men stood near the bartender. They were wearing an identical turtleneck clothes, with black belt and boots.

"Have you seen this girl?" One of them showed Sam's picture, "She is wanted by the Inquisition!" The bartender narrowed his eyes at the picture.

"I swear I saw her somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it"

Danny pushed Sam behind, so the Inquisitors wouldn't see her. He wasn't worried about himself. He fooled the whole kingdom with his fake loyalty, after all. One of the Inquisitors saw him.

"Hey, you, get down here!" He ordered. Phantom didn't protest and came to them.

"Gentlemen," he greeted, making the Inquisitors raise their eyebrows.

"Have you seen her?" Dark skinned one asked, showing the picture. Danny hummed as if being in thought.

"Yeah, I've seen her exiting western gates. There was some strange white bloke following her"

The Inquisitors looked at each other before running away, yelling 'Thank you, citizen!", not noticing Phantom's fanged smirk. He sent them in completely opposite direction. Then his smirk faded when he realized that there will be more of them. He grabbed Sam's hand and pulled her behind hurriedly. She yelped in surprise and stumbled a bit.

"Danny, where are we going?" Sam asked.

"We are getting away from this city as fast as possible," Danny untied Bucefal, earning a happy whine from him.

"But didn't you want to find Faloy?"

"I still do," he said, jumping on the colt's back and helping her up, "I will get what I need this evening. For that we will wait in one place and leave immediately after"

They rode for some time until Phantom realized that he doesn't have a clue where 'The ragged flagon' is. He decided to ask some people about it. His search was mostly fruitless, until one guy told him that the pub is actually underground, or in the case of that city, underwater. In order to get there they needed to go through 'Rats' hole', meaning sewers. Oh, joy.

How stinky the entrance was is hard to imagine, especially for Phantom's enchanted senses. They were lucky, though, they didn't need to crawl like that guy from 'Shoushenk', the way was human sized.

"Danny, I don't see anything," Sam said. She was right, it was too dark there,"can you lit up a torch"

"I'm not crazy," Danny answered, "you don't need to have enchanted smelling to feel that. This is methane, Sam, one spark and everything will blow up. Just hold my hand, I see perfectly fine"

After some searching, wetting shoes and rats' bites, Danny's hearing caught the sounds of loud chatter, looks like they found what they were searching for. Turning around the corner, they saw a doorway with only one candle lighting it. In front of the door was standing a huge man, supposedly a bouncer. He raised his hand in front of him.

"Stop right there, kids," he said.

"What?" Danny asked.

"This place is way too mature for you two," the bouncer snorted. Danny looked at Sam before smirking.

The residents of the pub had seen many things, and they thought they were ready for everything, but it doesn't happen daily when Billy the Bouncer is thrown through the door, instantly breaking it. Danny and Sam came inside right after, the former grabbing Billy like a ragdoll.

"I'm sorry, I believe I haven't heard properly," he said mockingly, "What was that you said?"

"You may pass," Billy said in high voice, before being dropped on the ground.

"There was no need for that, Danny," Sam commented. Danny shrugged.

"I spent the whole night on the horse, of course I'm very irritable"

The pub was very spacy, mostly because there was a huge pond in the center, Danny doubted it was spring water. Tables stood around it, and there was a surprisingly big amount of people, for a pub in the sewers that's for sure. They sat in the place with the biggest privacy. People kept throwing glances at the ghost teen, but abruptly turned around when Phantom glanced back. Once the waitress came to them, Sam asked for apple pie, while Danny ordered roasted fish and mug of beer, complaining about how much he misses 'the glass of good ol' Bourbon'.

Halfway through the food, Phantom saw a familiar redheaded man. Brinjolf came to their table with a smirk on his face. He was now wearing a leather costume, with a lot of bags and pockets different sizes on it. He leaned on their table.

"Well, I'm impressed, lad, you are stronger than you look like"

"I'll take that as a compliment," Danny said, making a gulp from his mug. Sam raised a confused eyebrow.

"Danny, who is that?" She asked, making Brinjolf look at her.

"I can ask the same question, lassie," he then smirked wider, "Daniel, you could at least warn me that you are bringing your date here"

"Why everyone thinks that way?" Danny asked in whinny voice.

"So you aren't a couple? Pity," Brinjolf shrugged, "Anyways, James wants to see you. Follow me"

Danny got up from the barrel, which served as chair. Sam was ready to follow, but Brinjolf raised his hand, "No, no, lassie. He is meeting only with him," he gestured to Danny, who smiled sadly.

"Don't worry, Sam, I'll be quick," she hadn't protested, which was odd, but Danny didn't pay attention to it.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Phantom followed Brinjolf in the back of the pub. It was a dead end, and Danny wanted to ask his companion about it, but Brinjolf opened the doors of the cabinet and knocked three times on the backside of it. The wall moved away, revealing a narrow hallway. Brinjolf gestured for him to come in. After walking through the hallway they went through the wooden door.

"Alright, lad, we need to check for weapons. Protocol," Brinjolf searched him only to find nothing. He didn't know that Danny doesn't need it.

The hall was round and looked a lot like the pub, with the exception of two stone pathes over another pond in the middle, which formed cross. Actually, for a sewers, this place was very homey. Soft beds, a fireplace with a few pots and other objects of furniture. People somehow looked friendly, but they all seemed to be searching for opportunity to get into his pocket. Guild of Thieves, nothing more, nothing less. Brinjolf led Phantom in the center of the room. There was a tall blond man with gray eyes, wearing the same clothes as Brinjolf.

"So you are the one Brinjolf told me about," he said, clearly not happy with being interrupted from whatever he was doing.

"Yes," Danny said curtly.

"Then do it quick, I have more important things to do"

"Let me guess, stealing from Jackson " Phantom asked, causing Faloy's eyes to widen, before glaring at the ghost teen.

"Did he send you?" James put a hand on his dagger, only to find nothing.

"Looking for this?" Danny used the dagger as a toothpick. Its handle was made from red wood, and the blade was from some dark metal.

"How did..."

"I told you he is damn skillful!" Brinjolf laughed. However, he was on guard now.

"Anyways," Danny said, "I'm not interested in causing troubles. Completely opposite, I'm saving your butt," he passed the dagger back to the thief, "You don't know what powers you are messing with," Faloy rolled his eyes.

"Please, if only I got a coin every time I heard that"

"Really? How often do you steal the things created by demons?" Danny asked with crossed hands. Two thieves' eyes widened.

"What?" Brinjolf asked, shocked.

"Yep, Jackson wears demons' artifact on his neck. You don't want to accidentally activate the weapon of Armagedon, do you?"

"And what stops HIM from activating it?" Faloy asked.

"I doubt you want it just because it looks pretty. Who hired you for this?"

"I'm not blabbering out company's secret," James said with narrowed eyes.

"Hey, chef!" They heard a shout.

"What is it, Tucker?" Faloy rubbed his eyes. There was a teen about Danny's age, with dark skin and black hair. Tucker was wearing the Guild's uniform and cheap glasses.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," he said nervously, "The Cardinal is in the city!" Phantom flinched at that news, but others thankfuly hadn't noticed.

"And why should I care?" James asked, annoyed.

"He wears the necklace you are looking for!" Everyone's eyes widened. Only Brinjolf noticed how Phantom was slowly stepping back and grabbed him for clothes.

"No, lad, you are staying here," he said half-seriously half-jokingly. Danny just rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. Faloy didn't like that kid. Not in the slightest, but even enemies admit each other's skills. And Phantom is a way too good thief. He can't just let him get the amulet first, he is paid plenty for it.

"That's what we are going to do," James started, "you against the Guild. Who steals first gets the treat," Danny grinned.

"Agreed"

A.N. Tucker makes an appearance! Briefly, but he will be more important in the future.