40 Vhalar 716, 01:25
Breaking and entering was not something Lihobri had a lot of experience with. For most of her thieving time, she'd been content with just snatching food from fish traps and the like. Now that she was somewhat acclimated with the bottom rungs of the stuffy human city, it was time to raise the stakes a little bit. She's been staking out this parlor for around a week, and tonight was the time to strike. The proprietor, a middle-aged woman with massive hoop earrings and too much blue eyeshadow, had closed the place and left two breaks ago, just as usual. Considering the wealth level of this area, it was somewhat uncommon to have separate home and business properties, but this lady seemed to be getting by just fine. It was almost like fortune telling wasn't her only means of income... which is what got the Yludih interested.
As far as she could surmise from her observations, the parlor's only security feature were the large padlocks, one on the front door, and one on the back. During the entire week Lihobri's been shadowing the place, the back door hasn't been used a single time, and the rusty and dusty appearance of the backdoor padlock made it seem like it hasn't been opened in a long while. Lihobri wasn't sure if this was good or bad, but since breaking in from the front was out of the question, this was going to be her point of entry. The alley was empty and quiet, so coast looked as clear as it could be.
Lihobri examined the padlock, prodding it with her fingers a few times, and scratched her head in mild confusion. Picking locks was an endeavor way too complex for her. Fortunately, she had another way of getting past locks, even if it wasn't as full of clandestine elegance and finesse. Cupping the lock in her palms, the let her Aberrant sphere form inside of it, its deliberately small size obscured from view by the rusted metal. The lock began vibrating slightly, showing that something was indeed happening inside of it. Lihobri had no idea what, though. That was the annoying part about her powers, she never knew what exactly would happen. Fortunately, she seldom needed to. Her general needs involved messing things up, and the magic could deliver on that quite reliably. The exact ways in which the messing-ups manifested weren't that interesting to her.
After a short while of vibrating indecisively in her hands, the result finally came, though not in the most comfortable way. With a loud crunch, the padlock suddenly crumpled together like a piece of paper, sending torn flakes of rust flying everywhere. The noise sent chills down Lihobri's spine, as she half-expected a contingent of guards jump out of the around the corner and haul her away to the dungeons immediately. She froze, straining her ears to pick up any incoming footsteps. Every second of silence felt excruciatingly long as she pressed herself against the door and didn't dare to move a muscle, but eventually the apprehension subsided. Looks like she got away with that one. It was frustrating, though; her magic had a life of its own, and it cared about her as little as it cared about her opponents. The Harvester's invisible lips let out a short snicker behind her. How amusing, isn't this? Bastard.
In any case, the padlock was damaged enough to be removed from the door, even if not without some effort. The girl was hard-pressed to work the rusted-together metal with her skinny arms, being forced to lean on the contraption with her whole body to make it come off. Holding the scrunched lock gingerly, she lowered it down on the ground carefully to avoid another loud noise. The door was now unlocked, but of course that didn't mean Lihobri could actually enter yet. The iron hinges were as heavily rusted as the padlock and refused to budge no matter how hard the girl pulled the handle. Well, being weak sure was inconvenient. At this rate, she'd have to blast the entire door open to get inside, and that just wasn't feasible. Momentarily stumped, Lihobri idly rubbed her rust-covered hands together as she tried to come up with a way around this unaccounted obstacle.
