By Thorace’s estimates, it was just around midday. The smog had returned, resembling an acrid fog that enveloped the town. The boy pressed a kerchief against his nose as he crouched down to inspect the ground for clues.
"Find anything?” he heard Lector ask from behind him.
Thorace shook his head. “If I hadn’t been inches from it, I’d have thought I dreamed the whole thing.”
“None of the doors look like they had been forced,” Tavar added as he walked towards them from further down the alley where they had encountered the creature the day before. “Are you sure you didn’t incinerate the blasted thing? Accidents happen and there’s no shame in admitting it.”
Violet looked up from the ground and scowled at the dwarf. “Do not confuse me for some birthday party conjurer. I have perfect control over my power.”
“That’s enough, you two,” Lector said sharply before breaking into a fit of coughing.
The old doctor leaned against a pile of boxes for support, but they were empty and fell over from his touch, sending him tumbling to the ground.
“Are you alright?” Violet gasped as she and Tavar rushed to his side.
“I’m fine,” Lector growled and frowned at a grate that had been hidden behind the pile of boxes.
“It’s a drain into the sewer,” Thorace observed.
“Tavar would have a hard time squeezing through that,” Violet remarked. “It’s difficult to imagine how the creature from last night could fit.”
“I don’t see where else it could have gone,” Lector pointed out.
The gnome scrunched her nose with distaste when she caught a whiff of the stench rising from the grate. “You want to go down there?”
Lector looked her in the eye and shrugged. “Do you have any other leads?”
The doctor turned to Thorace and asked. “How extensive are this town’s sewers?”
“They cover the whole town, as far as I know,” the boy replied. “But most of it is in disrepair. I think there have been a few collapses.”
Tavar lifted the grate and peered into the inky blackness below. “This construction looks dwarven…”
“They could well be,” Thorace shrugged. “They’ve been here for as long as anyone can remember. I think they were built when the town was founded.”
“Whoever founded this place was diligent, then,” Tavar said, sounding impressed.
“Well go on then, lead the way,” Violet said sourly.
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist, I’m going,” Tavar shot back.
Once the dwarf disappeared down the hole, Violet gave Lector a look. “Do you think the Captain got himself thrown into a dungeon because he anticipated this?”
Lector gave her a tired smile. “You know, I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Are the rest of you coming?” Tavar’s asked from down in the hole.
“Do you see any sign of the creature?” Violet asked, keeping a good distance from the grate.
“I do, actually,” the dwarf replied.
“Tavar Broadaxe, if this is one of your tricks, I swear to God…” the gnome began.
“It’s no trick, get down here,” Tavar snapped.
Violet sighed before lowering herself down into the grate. She landed in the sewer below with a splash.
“Oh God, I think I’ve stepped in something!” she wailed.
“It’s best not to think about that,” Tavar chuckled. “And I’d keep my mouth shut as much as possible if I were you.”
Lector hovered over the exposed hole and levelled his gaze on Thorace. “After you.”
The boy blinked. “Excuse me?”
“If you want to get paid, you have to do the work, lad,” the old doctor grinned. “Go on, I’ll be right behind you.”
The boy looked down the hole with distaste before reluctantly climbing down. Once inside, he found himself knee deep in the most foul smelling liquid imaginable. Tavar and Violet were standing a good distance away, and the gnome had turned the most interesting shade of green. The dwarf grinned crookedly while beckoning Thorace over. The boy decided to stay where he was and immediately regretted it when Lector dropped himself into the sewer. The doctor landed in the sewer with a splash and Thorace felt something wet and slimy against his cheek.
The sensation combined with the stench broke the boy’s resistance, and the contents of his stomach came rocketing up his throat before he could do anything to prevent it. Violet was quick to follow suit.
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As they both wretched, Lector looked up at the hole and frowned. “You’d need to be tall indeed to replace the grate after coming down.”
“That creature certainly was tall enough,” Tavar remarked. “A shorter person could hold the grate over their head as they jumped in to put it back in place, though.”
“Oh,” Lector said. “I should have thought of that.”
Thorace bent over instinctively as he threw up, which only brought his face closer to the foul smelling liquid, which made him feel more ill. He soon began to feel faint and only remained standing through sheer grit. He moved to brace himself against the wall. It was slimy to the touch, but there were scratches underneath.
“Over here,” he croaked when he was able to. “I’ve found something.”
“See, I told you there were clues down here,” Tavar grinned.
“You son of a…” Violet began before being forced to stop by a sudden wave of nausea.
The dwarf gently pushed the boy’s hand away and touched it without hesitating. He frowned and used his dagger to scrape the mould and slime.
“They look like runes,” he breathed before touching the exposed stonework. “To mar these walls would have been no easy feat.”
“It could have been left by our perpetrator,” Lector offered. “Looking at them fills me with unease.”
“So it isn’t just me,” Tavar murmured. “What on earth are they?”
“What are you talking about?” Thorace asked when he could look up. “They just look like scratches to me... left by some form of animal.”
Lector blinked and looked at the wall again. “So they do…”
Tavar bit his lip. “I could have sworn…”
“Perhaps this stench is doing something to our vision,” Violet suggested. “My eyes are certainly watering.”
“Perhaps…” Lector said dubiously. He looked down the sewer and blinked. “What’s that over there?”
Thorace followed the doctor’s gaze and saw a pile of sticks woven together on a raised platform a good distance down the tunnel they were in. Tavar unslung his axe and held it in his hands before carefully making his way towards it.
“It looks like a nest of some sort,” he said. “Violet, do you have my back?”
“Always,” the gnome replied as she forced herself to stand upright.
“It’s definitely a nest,” Tavar said as he approached it. “I see remains…”
“What sort of remains?” Lector asked, peering over the dwarf’s shoulder.
“You tell me, doctor,” Tavar said.
Lector held up a severed arm and frowned. “This came from a woman…”
In the corner of his eye, Thorace saw Violet go pale. Then, he came to the same realization. “The creature is probably still down here.”
“The two of you had better come close to me,” Tavar suggested.
“It hunts at night,” Lector remarked. “Why isn’t it here in its nest during the day?”
“I’m certainly not complaining,” Violet offered, looking around warily.
“Well, we know where to find this beast when the Captain gets what he wants,” Lector said. “We had better leave before it returns.”
“Good, the sooner we get out of here the better,” Violet said. “I’ll need to soak in a bath for a week to get this stench out of my hair.”
Lector tossed the severed arm into the water and smiled at the gnome. “Might want to hold off on that. We’ll be down here again before long.”
The gnome whirled around and arched an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting we should smell like lavatories until the day Steward suddenly decides to release the Captain, should it ever come?”
“We won’t be able to sneak up to his cell if the guards can smell us from a hundred paces away,” Thorace warned.
Lector blinked. “That’s a good point.”
“I thought it was fairly obvious,” the boy sniffed.
“We reek and we’ve only been down here a few minutes,” the doctor pointed out. “Yet that creature presumably spends all its time down here, and yet none of us smelled anything off about it.”
“That’s very fascinating, but can we discuss this above ground?” Violet asked testily.
“I suppose you’re right,” Lector allowed, making his way towards the grate they had entered from.
Thorace was about to join him when a low hiss echoed down the sewer. The others froze in place except for Tavar, who drew his axe. The dwarf glanced at Lector and arched an eyebrow. The doctor shook his head before turning to Violet and cocking his head down the tunnel in the direction of the hiss.
The gnome began to chant. Another hiss echoed down the tunnel followed by a splash, indicating something had entered the tunnel further upstream.
“Do we fight?” Thorace asked, looking around desperately for something he could use as a weapon.
The boy saw something slithering just under the surface of the water just as Violet finished her spell. Her eyes had turned yellow, and she held out a fist, aiming it at the sewer’s roof.
“Lapsus!”
There was a loud rumble and moments later, the sewer’s ceiling crumbled and fell with a crash, blocking the tunnel off.
“What have you done?” Tavar cried. “These stoneworks are priceless artefacts!”
“Saved our bacon, that’s what I’ve done!” Violet retorted. “Now let’s get out of here. Help me up!”
Thorace looked in disbelief as the doctor hoisted her up as though she were a child. “Are we sure that thing is dead?”
“I deliberately aimed my spell short,” Violet replied once she was safely above ground. “But you can go looking for the body if you like.”
A loud roar came from the other side of the rubble and Lector sighed with relief. “Well, it looks like we can still look forward to getting paid.”
“You should have finished it off!” Thorace protested.
The boy felt a meaty hand clamp around his shoulder and turned around to see Tavar looking at him with compassionate eyes. “We don’t like this any more than you do, but you’ve lived on the streets for a while now. Surely you understand that one cannot live without money.”
Slowly, the boy nodded.
“We are no different,” the dwarf sighed. “Doing free labour will only get you taken advantage of with the way the world is these days. We learned that the hard way.”
Lector hoisted himself out of the hole and peered back down. “Do you need a hand climbing out?”
Thorace shook his head. He was angry. Lives were going to be lost because these people could only think of themselves. They couldn’t be relied upon to keep his town safe. To keep Liara safe. Neither could the Steward. He’d just have to get stronger and become the guardian she needed. The boy looked up at the grate and jumped. His fingers brushed the lip, but they were slick from the foul liquid in the sewer, and his grip slipped. He came toppling back down and would have fallen into the disgusting water had Tavar not steadied him.
“Easy now,” the dwarf said kindly.
“Take my hand,” Lector offered as he reached down into the sewer. “There’s no telling what disease you might contract if you fell in that soup.”
“I’ll take my chances,” the boy said through gritted teeth.
He jumped again, and this time, he was able to get a good purchase on the lip and hauled himself up. In the alley, Violet was looking at her clothes in despair.
“I hope the Teahouse has a bath,” she groused.
Being reminded of the Teahouse seamed to blow the boy’s misgivings away, and he broke into a faint smile. “There is one, though Fleur only allows baths during for special occasions.”
The gnome arched an eyebrow as Lector helped Tavar out of the sewer. “I very much doubt she will welcome us between her sheets smelling like this.”
Once the dwarf was out, Lector saw that Violet’s spell had collapsed part of a nearby building and sucked air through his teeth. “Come on, let’s get out of here before an angry mob arrives.”