Annan had Jailer put Peterson in a cell by himself, then asked with interest, "What's your name?"
"Peterson, Lord Annan."
"What was your crime?"
"I... I'm innocent..."
"Don't lie to me," Annan said softly.
To outsiders, Annan shone so brightly they hardly dared look at him. Peterson lowered his head meekly. "I was a spy for the Viper Thieves' Guild..."
At first, it might have sounded as though Peterson worked for the authorities. In fact, he was a spy the Thieves' Guild had planted in the City Guard—
For organizations operating between towns, intelligence was everything. Even Thieves' Guilds had their own pecking order: city guilds looked down on Town guilds, while guilds with intelligence networks looked down on ordinary city guilds.
At the very top were the nobles' Gray Gloves.
Peterson was more or less a Gray Glove for the Thieves' Guild.
An undercover agent? A double agent?
Annan added the ideas to his list of To-Be-Filmed Magic Films, then turned his attention back to Peterson.
Under the Free City Code, a peripheral member like Peterson, who had not directly participated, should receive around three years of confinement and an equivalent term of compulsory labor. That was already generous.
In any other Town, anyone caught belonging to a Thieves' Guild would be hanged on the spot.
"Was it you who found the loophole?"
"The Codex you issued is flawless, like—"
Annan cut off the flattery and tossed him a copy of the Free City Code. "I'll give you a chance. You've just swindled me out of one hundred gold Narls. Find an excuse to clear yourself within ten minutes."
"You think too highly of me..."
"If you can't find one in ten minutes, you'll be charged with defrauding your lord on top of your original crime."
Peterson shut his