“The Fist will likely take care of all your needs for smooth studying.” Dad says and pats the pouch of coins on his belt. “But we’re still not at peace with them. They raised you well and gave you this wonderful opportunity yet we will never, ever, be able to forget the day you left the house four years ago.” Dad hisses with dark eyes and a clenched fist.
Neither will I. There are only two things I’d miss if the whole Fist of Krieg thing disappeared from the face of Aelion; the mess hall and Martha. The world would lose little if some murderers just barely within the boundaries of the law and guided by gold were no more. Some members are pretty cool but no tears would be shed if they were no more.
Is the Fist what one would call a necessary evil?
“So we’ll do our own shopping.” Mom finishes the explanation. “We’re still doing fine on money because we didn’t spend on horses and followed on foot.” She glances murderously at her husband. “So let’s see what we can get you two.”
We follow after Mom on the backstreets of Sereban with considerably less foot traffic and a more bearable mix of noise and smells.
“Me too?” Valka blinks, then fiddles. “There’s no need. I’ll be fine with-”
“You too, and it’s not up for a debate!” Mom says. Although her voice is commanding, the smiling eyes betray her. “Valka, looking after you is our choice, and never felt like a burden. You don’t need to refuse kindness or punish yourself for enjoying life. Remember, everyone is deserving of unconditional love, especially a wonderful girl like you.” Mom ruffles her hair like she’s done to me countless times.
Despite her harsh and impulsive attitude, Mom has the qualities of a good parent and always knows how to reach someone’s heart. Both with word and her spear. The point is, that was very well said.
Valka tears up a little and nods, hiding her face behind her falling locks of hair and sniffing quietly as we walk on in the narrow alley. We slow our pace a little to let her confront her emotions without interference and stop looking like a crying mess the next time we return to the crowded streets.
As much as my fate sucks, I really lucked out with the people in my life.
***
“That’s daylight robbery!” Mom barely stops herself from slapping the counter.
This is the third shop we visited so far in the commerce district, and every time we left empty-handed because the prices for simple refilling quill or mana ink were outrageous. And I say that with a veritable fortune… somewhere in better hands than mine.
“The price is very competitive and we offer a beautiful holder for the quill as a gift.” The merchant keeps on pushing the transaction without batting an eye. “I can guess the young ladies there are soon-to-be students of the Academy since today is the day of evaluation. Such a prestigious place demands the best don’t you think?” His smile is so huge and fake it makes me feel like throwing up.
“They could need it.” Dad’s resolve wanes as the merchant plays for any parent’s weakness. “Is there a chance you could go any lower?”
“I’m afraid three gold twenty is my best offer for the two quills and ink. Maybe if we-” He tries to haggle further when Mom has enough.
“No thank you!” She snaps and starts dragging all of us out of the shop. “This city got even more ridiculously expensive since last year. One gold ten for a quill… a damn quill?”
As we continue marching away from the house of a scam they dare to call a shop, a scream breaks through the blanket of noise covering the streets. The passersby instinctively flee from the shop where a demikin is visible holding a knife to a woman’s throat, shouting in with barely comprehensible words.
“Give me back what’s mine! You shameless bastards that bracelet was my last…” He starts laughing like a maniac.
[Rogue lvl 142]
I secretly tear some of the road up at my feet and form a spear out of it, aiming at the unstable man across the road. Killing him isn’t necessary but I don’t have a clear shot so I just wait for an opportunity before a hand grabs my shoulder.
Dad looks at me and shakes his head with a slight grin, signaling me to drop the vigilante act and just observe.
Before the murmurs can even settle the man seems to get yanked away by an invisible force faster than I can blink. He crashes into the back of the store where he is making a ruckus, collapsing a wall in his path and taking out a lot of merchandise with it. When the dust settles all we see is what’s left of him. Lying there with an arrow lodged into his chest and another into his skull.
Dead, instantly.
I use Premonition to guess where the arrow could’ve come from and when I glace towards the the top of a building, so far away I can’t even make out its windows, all I see is a small glint before that too disappears.
Don’t do dumb shit in Sereban Eli, it won’t end well.
We move away from the scene to make sure we avoid any interrogation and the masses of people approaching to see what happened.
Sheep.
“Should we leave purchases to the Fist after all?” Dad asks after we find a quiet corner on a street where being swept away by the crowd is less of a worry.
“No, we’re going there.” Mom looks especially guilty as she implies the location.
“Please don’t do this to me.” Poor Dad shakes his head in defeat. “We agreed not to go down there after what happended in the tavern.”
“But it’s cheap.” Comes the counterargument accompanied by a shrug. “C’mon, we’ll only visit the upper level.”
“Okay, is there a chance anyone will explain what the discussion is about?” I interrupt. The number of people around me constantly and our current success rate is chewing away at my mood.
After a quick conversation of facial gestures only married couples and people who have known each other for a lifetime are capable of, Mom answers. “A special place with the best offers. I’ll show you.” Or doesn’t actually answer the question but at least we’re getting somewhere.
From the huge square, we move to wide roads, then to still massive streets with only foot traffic, and lastly, to alleys cluttered with trash both material and human as we traverse the obstacle course called a city. The buzzing atmosphere drains my social cauldron of energy more than I expected, and even the sight of carts climbing up the walls to avoid traffic or entire blocks of buildings shifting right before my eyes fails to excite me after hours in the thick of it.
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By the time I’m really getting sick of all this and prepare to throw a tantrum, Mom finally stops in a dark corner of a shady alley. I would never even look in the direction of a place like this, not to mention come here voluntarily because the whole area smells like trouble. Okay, it smells of rotting, ash, bile, and like a very strong and disgusting soap.
“We’re here.” Mom announces and I look around to see at least one reason why I shouldn’t just walk away.
Smashed barrel, a big tub of hopefully water but more likely piss, crumbling walls, and muddy ground. Nope, I’m outta here.
“Not so fast.” Mom picks me up by my armpit and carries me to a wall. “Take a deep breath and keep your mouth and eyes shut!” She instructs and it dawns on me what she’s about to do.
I’m being held up like I don’t weigh more than a sack of potatoes with the tub of vile concoction of liquid waste below me. Fear grips my heart, the same fear people feel towards the unknown and bottomless darkness, and I look at my mother with eyes wide by betrayal.
“No-” Before I can even finish my plea she lets go of me.
As soon as my boots touch the surface, I remember the advice from Mom and prepare for the worst splash of my life. I keep on sinking and sinking into the tub, way deeper than it should be, until even my shoulders are covered only to hear Valka whisper. “Please put me down.”
My legs and arms flail to get me out of the pool of doom as soon as they find purchase, however instead of the resistance one would expect of liquid it feels like… air? The familiar pulls of gravity pull me further and I feel my face dipping into liquid shit and piss only for a second before it breaks the surface on the other side and I barely mana to put my feet under me to avoid falling onto my ass.
“What in the Abyss happ-” I glance around as a shudder runs down my body.
I’m in a tunnel, well-lit, fairly clean, and big enough for me to walk comfortably. Right after assessing my situation, I try to clean myself of the nightmare-inducing experience only to realize I’m not wet and don’t smell either. It’s as if I wasn’t even dropped into that tub, yet I’m sure it wasn’t just an illusion as I did feel the touch of the liquid.
“This won't be forgotten.” I swear revenge against those who wronged me.
Then a foot pokes through the mirror of water floating above my head and I can clearly see Valka on the other side clinging onto Mom’s collar to save herself from the same fate that befell me. I can even hear her scream with anger and desperation in her voice.
Like, how does she not catch on? I literally disappeared in a small tub…
“Hehehe.” I giggle and grab onto her leg.
A scream of pure terror echoes through the tunnel as Valka finally falls through, quickly followed by my parents jumping after her, laughing their asses off. “I don’t care if you put cockroaches in my mouth while I sleep,” Wheezes Mom. “This was so worth it.”
Yeah, they were never the normal ‘I hope she won’t get hurt’ parents. They’d watch me run, stumble, and fall before warning me to be careful and not run around. Not because they like to see me fail or get hurt but because they believe experience is the best teacher.
I know they still love me with their everything, but I’m also keenly aware my mean side didn’t just materialize out of thin air.
“Are you crazy?” Valka shouts at me first, even though I was only an accomplice. “That was more horrifying than anything I could imagine…”
“Don’t worry, they will pay.” I nod with an understanding smile.
“You’re in it too!”
Okay, maybe a little.
“So where are we?” I ask and have to wait a few seconds for the adults to catch their breath.
“We’re not really there yet, this is just one of the entrances.” Dad chuckles, reaches up, and flicks some of the floating liquid we passed through at me. “Have a little more patience.”
“But why drop us into… that.” I say and almost retch when a droplet falls onto me before realizing it's just regular water.
“If we explained would you have jumped into it on your own?” Mom takes the lead and asks with a ridiculing grin.
I don’t have to think long to have my answer. I’d rather jump into a sea of fire than that tub, at least flames don't smell.
After minutes of walking down the crudely made tunnel, following a downward slope with minimal lighting coming from yellowish glowing crystals, the sound of activity grows more noticeable. Instead of asking questions again, I use my supposedly advanced hearing to make out what’s down the path.
Every little noise echoes off the walls of stone, voices, what sounds like wheels rolling, metal striking metal, and footfalls in the dozens. If I had my eyes covered and didn’t know we’re underground I’d guess a normal street is up ahead…
Shortly the tunnel widens just as the amount of light around us increases and when make the last turn an unbelievable scenery unfolds before my eyes.
An underground city looking like someone flipped Sereban and removed all the splendor. The entire place is one big slum with dark smoke clouds gathering at the top of the massive cavern. Everything looks poor, dirty, and shady as heck. Also, the ratio of humans to non-humans, which was pretty strongly in favor of the former above ground, has now sort of evened out.
So a city under a city with secret entrances and a general dislike for the law… No wonder the entrance was masked to look… something no one ever would want to touch. I know it was just normal water and yet the memory of being released above the tub still haunts me.
“Welcome to the Undercity.” Mom pulls me aside before someone decides a gaping child standing in the middle of the pathway is getting on their nerves.
“Impressive, but not exactly in a good way. Like when you see a snake swallowing something too big, choking on it and you go wow.” I express my feelings the best I can.
“Hehe, not a bad way to describe it.” Dad hides his stash of money inside his leather jacket, probably expecting thieves to be drawn to it like moths to the light.
“Just one question. How do you know about this place?” I take up my interrogation face and look at my parents judgingly.
“And what did you mean by upper level?” Valka adds, teaming up against the adults.
They glance at each other, amusement, embarrassment, and something dangerous dancing in their eyes. “The undercity has multiple layers and the deeper you go the shadier and more dangerous things get.” Mom answers, completely ignoring my question. “Sereban is not the first city to be built upon the Ley Line. I heard this spring of mana has been here for thousands of years. As nations fell one after another throughout history, so did settlements rise and fall on this very peninsula.”
So… we’re like in the graveyard of whatever was here before Sereban? That’s… cool actually. I’m getting itchy to explore this place.
“And you just accidentally stumbled upon that entrance?” I ask inquisitively, still not done with them.
“Uhm, a friend of ours showed us around.” Mom answers offhandedly. “C’mon, they should have some smuggled mana ink on stock.”
What a blatant lie. My parents have no friends, they are just as bad at socializing as I am. I got my temper from Mom and my distant attitude from Dad, just toned down and mixed a little. A vile concoction.
What I find even more disturbing is not the fact that my parents are so on board with avoiding the law but that I actually agree with them. Those prices were ridiculous.
Walking down streets that at best look like the alleys we’d avoid in any normal city is an uncomfortable feeling. People either wear overly big clothing to cover their features or look like someone dug up a corpse from a three-year-old grave… at minimum.
Most just loiter around with no purpose in their eyes while others hurry about as if they were chased. Then there are the shapes moving in the shadows, from time to time an eye glinting in the darkness like a predator looking for prey.
[Labourer lvl 183]
[Rogue lvl 147]
[Labourer lvl 91]
[Labourer lvl 142]
[Warrior lvl 135]
[Labourer lvl 86]
…
Even the average lowlife walking around here is more powerful than your everyday citizen back in Granhall.
Telling apart people who just came down here like us and the denizens of this shithole is a brain-dead easy task. What differentiates them is not just the clothing and the skin tone looking like they never saw the light of Solaire but the posture, the eyes, and especially the way they avoid the most dangerous-looking spot almost on instinct.
It’s something a person has to grow into.
I can tell I’m slightly above the average when it comes to combat yet if not for the presence of my parents I would never set foot in this area. Lower levels don’t mean they aren’t deadly, and the people living here have both a numerical advantage and a home advantage. And I would bet at least one month of whatever money the Fist gives me that they sent at least one member to tail us in secret.
It’s weird how the first thing I do upon seeing a new place that should have me go ‘Wow’, I assess my chances and the escape routes. This can’t be normal for my age, right?