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Purloined Shadows
By Waughin Jarth
Chapter One * † 
he candle was lit, and the thief was standing there, blinking, caught. She was young, rather dirty, wearing ragged black clothes that were surely quite smart and expensive weeks ago when she had stolen them from one of the city's best tailors. The look of surprise slipped from her face, and she took on a blank expression as she put the gold back on the table.
"What are you doing here?" the man with the candle asked, stepping from the shadows.
"That's a stupid question," the girl replied, frowning. "I'm obviously robbing you."
"Since nothing I have is missing," the man smiled, glancing at the gold on the table. "I would have to say that you're not robbing me. Attempting to rob me perhaps. The question I have is, why? You know who I am, I assume. You didn't just come in through an unlocked door."
"I've stolen from everyone else. I've taken soul gems from the Mages Guild, I've robbed the treasury of the most secure fortress, I cheated the Archbishop of Julianos ・I even pickpocketed the Emperor Pelagius at his coronation. I thought it was your turn."
"I'm flattered," the man nodded. "Now that your ambition has been thwarted, what will you do? Flee? Perhaps retire?"
"Teach me," the girl replied, a little grin finding its way unconsciously on her face. "I picked all your locks, I slipped past all your wards ・You designed them, you know how difficult that was for someone without training. I didn't come here for six gold pieces. I came here to prove myself. Make me your student."
The Master of Stealth looked at the little girl burglar. "Your skill is not in need of training. Your planning is adequate, but I can help you with that. What is without hope is your ambition. You are past stealing for your livelihood, now you steal for the pleasure of it, for the challenge. That's a personality trait which is incurable, and will lead you to an early grave."
"Haven't you ever wanted to steal that which can't be stolen?" the girl asked. "Something that would make your name known forever?"
The Master did not answer: he only frowned.
"Clearly I was fooled by your reputation," she shrugged, and opened a window. "I thought you might want a willing accomplice on some great act of thievery which would go down in history. Like you said, my skill at planning is only adequate. I didn't have in mind an escape route, but this will have to do."
The burglar slipped down the sheer wall, dashed across the shadowy courtyard, and within a few minutes was back at her room in the run-down tavern. The Master was waiting for her there, in the dark.
"I didn't see you go past me," she gasped.
"You turned on the street when you heard the owl call," he replied. "The most important tool in the thieves' repertoire is distraction, either planned or improvised. I suppose your lessons have begun."
"And what is the final test?" the girl smiled.
When he told her, she could only stare. She had, it seemed, not misunderstood his reputation for daring. Not at all.
Chapter Two * †
For the week leading up to the Eighth of Hearthfire, the skies above Rindale were dark and alive as clouds of crows blotted out the sun. Their guttural squawks and groans deafened all. The peasants wisely bolted their doors and windows, praying to survival that most unholy of days.
On the night of the summoning, the birds fell silent, their black unblinking eyes following the witches' march into the glen. There were no moons to light the way, only the leader's single torch in the gloom. Their white robes appeared as indistinct shapes, like the faintest of ghosts.
A single tall tree stood in the middle of the clearing, every branch thick with crows, watching the procession without moving. The lead witch placed the torch at the base of the tree, and her seventeen followers formed a circle and began their slow, strange, wailing chant.
As they sang, the glow of the torch began to change. It did not diminish at all, but its color became more and more grey, so it seemed a pulsating wave of ash had fallen on the witches. Then it grew darker still, so that for a moment, though the fire yet burned, it was darkest night in the forest. The penumbra continued until the torch was burning with a color without a name, emptiness beyond mere blackness. It cast a glow, but it was an unnatural scintillation falling on the witches. Their robes of white became black. The Dunmer among them had eyes of green, and ivory white flesh. The Nords appeared black as coal. The crows watching overhead were as pure white as the witches' cloaks.
The Daedra Princess Nocturnal stepped out of the pit of uncolor.
She stood in the center of the circle, the tree of pallid crows her throne, aloof, as the witches continued their chanting, dropping their robes to prostrate themselves naked before their great mistress. Wrapping her night cloak around her, she smiled at their song. It spoke of her mystery, of veiled beauty, of eternal shadows and a divine future when the sun burns no more.
Nocturnal let her cloak slide from her shoulders and was naked. Her witches did not raise their head from the ground, but continued their hymn of darkness.
"Now," said the girl to herself.
She had been up in the tree all day, dressed in a ridiculous suit of mock crows. It was uncomfortable, but when the witches had arrived, she forgot all her aches, and concentrated on being perfectly still, like the other crows in the tree. It had taken considerable planning and study between her and the Master of Stealth to find the glen, and to learn what to expect in the summoning of Nocturnal.
Gently, silently, the burglar eased herself down the branches of the tree, coming closer and closer to the Daedra Princess. She let herself break her concentration for just a moment, and wondered where the Master was. He had been confident in the plan. He said that when Nocturnal dropped her cloak, there would be a distraction, and it could be quickly taken in that instant provided the girl was in position at the precise right moment.
The girl climbed along the lowest of the branches, carefully pushing aside the crows that were, as the Master said, transfixed by the Princess in her naked beauty. The girl was now close enough, if she only reached out her arm, to touch Nocturnal's back.
The song was rising to a crescendo, and the girl knew that the ceremony would soon be over. Nocturnal would clothe herself before the witches ended the chant, and the chance to take the cloak would be over. The girl gripped the tree branch tightly as her mind raced. Could it be that the Master was not here at all? Was this, was this conceivably the entire test? Was it only to show that it could be done, not to do it?
The girl was furious. She had done everything perfectly, but the so-called Master of Stealth had proven himself a coward. Perhaps he had taught her a little in the months that it took to plan this, but what was it worth? Only one thing made her smile. On that night when she had stolen into his stronghold, she had kept one single gold piece, and he had never suspected it. It was symbolic, as symbolic as stealing the cloak of Nocturnal in its way, proving that the Master Thief could be robbed.
The girl was so lost on her mind that she thought she imagined it for a moment when a man's voice yelled out from the darkness, "Mistress!"
The next words she knew she didn't imagine: "Mistress! A thief! Behind you!"
The witches raised their heads, and screamed, ruining the sanctity of the ceremony, as they charged forward. The crows awoke and burst from the tree in an explosion of feathers and toad-like cries. Nocturnal herself whirled around, affixing the girl with her black eyes.
"Who art thee who dares profane?" The Princess hissed, as the pitch shadows flew from her body enveloping the girl in their lethal chill.
In the last instant before she was swallowed alive by darkness, the girl looked to the ground and saw that the cloak was gone, and she answered, as she understood, "Oh, who am I? I'm the distraction."
邦題
原題 Purloined Shadows
著者 Waughin Jarth
第一章 * †
蝋燭の火は灯され、盗人はそこに捕らえられ、まばたきをしながら立っていた。彼女は若く、やや汚れていて、 数週間前に彼女にこの街最高峰の仕立て屋から盗まれるまでは高級だったボロボロの服を身に纏っていた。驚きの表情はすぐに薄れ、無感情な顔でテーブルの上に金を戻した。
「ここで何をしている。」と、蝋燭を持った男が暗がりから現れて言った。
「馬鹿な質問ね、」彼女は脅えながらそう答えた、「見てのとおりあなたから盗んでいるのよ。」
「私の持ち物で無くなったものはないから、」男はテーブルの上の金を一瞥し、微笑を浮かべた。「君は私に盗みを働いていたわけではないと言わざるを得ないね。盗むつもりだったのかもしれないが。私の質問は、何故か、ということだ。君は当然私のことを知っているはずだ。君はただ単に鍵のかかっていない扉からここへ入ってきたわけではないしね。」
「私はみんなからいろいろ盗んだわ。Mages Guildからsoul gemを手に入れたし、最も堅牢な砦の宝物庫からも盗んだし、JulianosのArchbishopも騙したわ。戴冠式のときのPelagius帝からさえもスッたのよ。次はあなたの番だって思ったのよ。」
「そいつはどうも、」男は頷いた。「さて、君の野望はこれで打ち砕かれたわけだが、これからどうする。逃げるか、それとも引退でもするのかい。」
"I'm flattered," the man nodded. "Now that your ambition has been thwarted, what will you do? Flee? Perhaps retire?"
「教えてちょうだい、」女は無意識に口を歪め、答えた。「私はここの鍵を全部はずしたし、罠も全部回避したわ。あれは全てあなたが仕掛けたものなんだから、素人にこの芸当は少し難しすぎることはわかるでしょ。私はたった六つの金貨を求めてここに来たわけじゃない。自分がどれだけ凄いかを証明したかったのよ。私をあなたの弟子にして。」
隠密の達人はまだ幼い女のどろぼうを見た。「君の技術なら訓練は必要ないよ。計画を練るのはせいぜい許容範囲内だけど、それくらいなら手伝うこともできる。君に絶望的なのは君の野心だ。君の盗みはすでに生活のためではなく、快楽のため、腕試しのためになってしまっている。そういう個性は治しようが無い上に墓場への近道となってしまう。」
「あなたはいままで一度も盗めないものを盗もうと思ったことがないの。」女の子は尋ねた。「あなたの名前を永遠に刻むために。」
達人は答えなかった。ただ、震えた。
「あなたの名声にちゃっかり騙されていたみたいね。」彼女は肩をすくめ、窓を開けた。「あなたなら歴史に名を残す盗みに参加してくれると思ったのに。あなたの言ったとおり、私の計画能力は並だもの。脱出ルートは考えていなかったけど、これでなんとかするわ。」
盗人は壁をつたい下り、暗がりの中庭を走りぬけ、わずか数分で彼女はくたびれた酒場の自室に戻っていた。そして達人はその暗がりの中で彼女を待っていた。
The burglar slipped down the sheer wall, dashed across the shadowy courtyard, and within a few minutes was back at her room in the run-down tavern. The Master was waiting for her there, in the dark.
「いつ私を追い越したのかしら。」彼女は感嘆した。
"I didn't see you go past me," she gasped.
「君はふくろうの鳴き声を聞いた道で曲がっただろう、」彼は答えた。「盗賊のレパートリーの中で一番大事なものは気を逸らすことだ、計画の一部にしろとっさの判断にしろね。もう君へのレッスンは始まった。」
"You turned on the street when you heard the owl call," he replied. "The most important tool in the thieves' repertoire is distraction, either planned or improvised. I suppose your lessons have begun."
「じゃあ最後の試練は何かしら。」彼女は笑みを浮かべた。
"And what is the final test?" the girl smiled.
彼が内容を教えたとき、彼女はただ目を見張ることしかできなかった。どうやら彼女は、彼がただの火遊び好きな人間として有名なのだと騙されていたようだ。さきほどとは全く逆の方向で。
When he told her, she could only stare. She had, it seemed, not misunderstood his reputation for daring. Not at all.
第二章 * †
Hearthfireの月の八日にいたるまでの一週間、Rindaleの上空は太陽をさえぎるほどのカラスの大群によって暗く生き生きとしていた。彼らの喚き声と唸り声はみなの耳を聞こえなくさせるほどだった。農民は賢く家の扉と窓を補強し、この最も不浄な日々を生きのこれるよう祈り続けた。
For the week leading up to the Eighth of Hearthfire, the skies above Rindale were dark and alive as clouds of crows blotted out the sun. Their guttural squawks and groans deafened all. The peasants wisely bolted their doors and windows, praying to survival that most unholy of days.
召喚の儀の夜、カラス達は一斉に静まり、彼らの黒くまばたき一つしない目は谷間に入る魔女たちの行進を見据えた。月明かりはなく、ただ先頭に立つものが持つ松明の一本だけが道を照らした。彼女らの身につけた白いローブはまるで幽かな霊のように形容しがたい形に見えた。
On the night of the summoning, the birds fell silent, their black unblinking eyes following the witches' march into the glen. There were no moons to light the way, only the leader's single torch in the gloom. Their white robes appeared as indistinct shapes, like the faintest of ghosts.
一本の高い木が森の広場の中央に立ち、その枝一本一本に鴉たちが所狭しととまり、工程を微動だにせずに見下ろしていた。先頭の魔女が松明を木の根元に置き、彼女の十七人の従者達が円を組み、遅く、奇妙で嘆くような歌を歌い始めた。
A single tall tree stood in the middle of the clearing, every branch thick with crows, watching the procession without moving. The lead witch placed the torch at the base of the tree, and her seventeen followers formed a circle and began their slow, strange, wailing chant.
歌い続けるにつれ、松明の明かりに変化が訪れた。その光は消える兆しも見せず、色はじょじょに灰色に近づいていき、それにしたがってまるで魔女たちにどんどん灰がつもっていくように見えた。そして火の色はまだ暗くなっていき、火はまだ燃え盛っていたにもかかわらず、その瞬間は森の中で最も暗い夜となった。半影のような状態は松明の炎が名もなき色に変わり、黒よりも色が無くなるまで続いた。光は炎から照らされていたが、魔女たちを照らしたのはなんとも不自然な光だった。彼女達のローブは白から黒へと変わり。彼女達の中のDunmerは緑色の瞳と象牙のように白い肌を持つように見えた。Nord達は石炭のように真っ黒に見え。儀式を上から見ていた鴉たちは魔女たちのローブのように純白だった。
As they sang, the glow of the torch began to change. It did not diminish at all, but its color became more and more grey, so it seemed a pulsating wave of ash had fallen on the witches. Then it grew darker still, so that for a moment, though the fire yet burned, it was darkest night in the forest. The penumbra continued until the torch was burning with a color without a name, emptiness beyond mere blackness. It cast a glow, but it was an unnatural scintillation falling on the witches. Their robes of white became black. The Dunmer among them had eyes of green, and ivory white flesh. The Nords appeared black as coal. The crows watching overhead were as pure white as the witches' cloaks.
Daedra PrincessのNocturnalが無色の奥底から踏み出してきた。
The Daedra Princess Nocturnal stepped out of the pit of uncolor.
彼女は円の中心に立ち、青白い鴉たちのとまる木はよそよそしくも彼女の王座となり、魔女たちは歌い続け、大いなる貴婦人の前で全裸で地に伏せるためにローブを脱ぎ捨てた。
She stood in the center of the circle, the tree of pallid crows her throne, aloof, as the witches continued their chanting, dropping their robes to prostrate themselves naked before their great mistress. Wrapping her night cloak around her, she smiled at their song. It spoke of her mystery, of veiled beauty, of eternal shadows and a divine future when the sun burns no more.
Nocturnalは自分のローブを肩から下ろし裸となった。彼女の魔女たちは頭を上げることなく闇の聖歌を歌い続けた。
Nocturnal let her cloak slide from her shoulders and was naked. Her witches did not raise their head from the ground, but continued their hymn of darkness.
「今、」若い女はそう自分に言った。
"Now," said the girl to herself.
彼女はふざけたカラスのきぐるみを身につけその木に一日中いた。そこにずっといるのは不快だったが、魔女たちが現れたとき、彼女は体中の痛みを忘れ、まわりのカラスのように完全に沈黙することに専念した。この小径を探し、Nocturnalが召喚されるときには何を想定すべきかを知るために彼女は先生とともに計画を練りに練り、学ぶに学んだのだった。
She had been up in the tree all day, dressed in a ridiculous suit of mock crows. It was uncomfortable, but when the witches had arrived, she forgot all her aches, and concentrated on being perfectly still, like the other crows in the tree. It had taken considerable planning and study between her and the Master of Stealth to find the glen, and to learn what to expect in the summoning of Nocturnal.
ゆっくりと、静かに、泥棒は枝の上をそろそろとつたい下り、Daedra Princessにじょじょに近づいていった。彼女は一瞬だけ集中を解き、達人がどこにいるのかを考えた。彼は計画に絶対の自信を持っていた。彼はNocturnalがクロークを脱いだとき、気を逸らすできごとがあると言い、そしてもし彼女が正しい時間きっかりに正しい場所にいればクロークを手に入れられると続けた。
Gently, silently, the burglar eased herself down the branches of the tree, coming closer and closer to the Daedra Princess. She let herself break her concentration for just a moment, and wondered where the Master was. He had been confident in the plan. He said that when Nocturnal dropped her cloak, there would be a distraction, and it could be quickly taken in that instant provided the girl was in position at the precise right moment.
彼女は最も低い枝を伝い、注意して達人が言ったとおりNocturnalの裸の美に魅了されているカラス達を押しのけていった。彼女は手を伸ばせばNocturnalの背中を叩ける位置にまで降りていた。
The girl climbed along the lowest of the branches, carefully pushing aside the crows that were, as the Master said, transfixed by the Princess in her naked beauty. The girl was now close enough, if she only reached out her arm, to touch Nocturnal's back.
歌はクレッシェンドに近づき、彼女はもうすぐ儀式が終わることに気付いた。Nocturnalは魔女たちが歌い終わるまえにクロークを着直し、それを奪いとる機会は失われるだろう。彼女の枝を持つ手に力が入り、いろいろな思考が脳裏を駆け巡った。マスターはここにはいないのではないか。これはひょっとして全て試験なのだろうか。もしかしてこれはできない、してはならないことがあると教えるためだったのだろうか。
The song was rising to a crescendo, and the girl knew that the ceremony would soon be over. Nocturnal would clothe herself before the witches ended the chant, and the chance to take the cloak would be over. The girl gripped the tree branch tightly as her mind raced. Could it be that the Master was not here at all? Was this, was this conceivably the entire test? Was it only to show that it could be done, not to do it?
彼女は激昂した。彼女は全てを完璧に計画通りに遂行したのに、自称ステルスの達人はただの臆病者だったのだ。彼はたしかにこの計画を実行するにあたって少しずつ彼女に教えを与えたかもしれないが、それになんの価値があるだろうか。たった一つだけ、彼女を喜ばせることがあった。彼の秘密基地に忍び込んださい、彼女はたった一枚の金貨を盗みもっていたのだが、彼は全く気付いていないようだった。これは彼女にとって象徴的なものだった、それこそNocturnalからもクロークを盗めるという自信をつけさせるほどに、たとえ泥棒の達人だろうと盗めないことはないという証明なのだから。
The girl was furious. She had done everything perfectly, but the so-called Master of Stealth had proven himself a coward. Perhaps he had taught her a little in the months that it took to plan this, but what was it worth? Only one thing made her smile. On that night when she had stolen into his stronghold, she had kept one single gold piece, and he had never suspected it. It was symbolic, as symbolic as stealing the cloak of Nocturnal in its way, proving that the Master Thief could be robbed.
彼女は想像に没頭するあまり一瞬男が「婦人！」と叫んだような幻聴が聞こえたような気がした。
The girl was so lost on her mind that she thought she imagined it for a moment when a man's voice yelled out from the darkness, "Mistress!"
しかし、次の言葉でそれが幻聴ではないことに気付いた。
「婦人！泥棒だ！あなたの後ろだ！」
The next words she knew she didn't imagine: "Mistress! A thief! Behind you!"
魔女たちは頭を上げ、叫び、少女に突進し、儀式の高潔さを壊した。カラス達は目を覚まし、爆発するように羽を撒き散らし、ヒキガエルのような鳴き声をあげながら木から飛び散っていった。Nocturnal自身も回りこみ、少女をその黒い瞳でにらみつけた。
The witches raised their heads, and screamed, ruining the sanctity of the ceremony, as they charged forward. The crows awoke and burst from the tree in an explosion of feathers and toad-like cries. Nocturnal herself whirled around, affixing the girl with her black eyes.
「神聖を汚すものよ、汝は何者だ。」Princessはシューと音を立て、死の冷たさを纏った黒い影をその身から少女へと巻きつけた。
"Who art thee who dares profane?" The Princess hissed, as the pitch shadows flew from her body enveloping the girl in their lethal chill.
暗闇に生きたまま飲み込まれるその最後の瞬間、少女はあたりを見回してクロークが無くなっていることに気付き、すべてを理解した彼女はこう答えた。
「私は誰ですって。私は気を逸らすためのものよ。」
In the last instant before she was swallowed alive by darkness, the girl looked to the ground and saw that the cloak was gone, and she answered, as she understood, "Oh, who am I? I'm the distraction."
