Bobby spotted an armchair that he hadn’t seen before because it was in the shadows and plonked himself down in it, making himself comfortable. Before turning to face their host. “Now I think we previously got off on the wrong foot,” he told the bewildered and very pretty woman, “Let’s turn over a new leaf.”

Lucinda stared at him for a moment, “Who are you people and why did you come to my home?”

“Good questions, we are not from around here and in need of temporary residence in this fine undercity of yours while we do some… Archaeology. Mrs Borten told us you might be able to accommodate us for the duration of our stay.”

“So you aren’t from a gang?”

“No”

“Why do you have a black eye?”

“That’s my fault,” said Michaela raspily, raising a skinny arm.

“That’s Michaela,” Bobby added helpfully, then proceeded to point at the rest of his group, “Gary, Mcgunkin and Fluff.” He finished by pointing at the curled up possum that looked like it was asleep.

Lucinda looked caught between a crossroads where she wanted to both ask why someone would be called Mcgunkin and also why there was a possum in her house. Somehow the indecision made her ask neither question. If everything is suddenly strange then you probably don’t question everything all at once, Bobby thought.

“And the rats? Are they with you too?” she finally asked.

“Ah, kind of, I don’t know them that well yet though.” Bobby said with a chuckle.

“Are they trained?”

“From what I can gather they seem more educated than trained.”

Lucinda took a few steps back and flopped down on the bottom stair of the staircase with her head in her hands. “You really aren’t making this easy for me, every question I ask leads to me wanting to ask more and more questions.”

“You get used to it.” laughed Gary, “I only understand half of it myself.”

Lucinda eventually got her thoughts in order, “If you want to stay then you’ll need to do your laundry, help out with the cooking and assist me running the algae farm.”

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“Oh, so that's what it was.”

“Yeah, the undercity calls any light that makes it down moonlight, and my family’s been using this ray of light for generations to run an algae farm and generate electricity, hence the name Algamoon.” she explained.

“Kind of poetic, but yeah, we can help out, Mcgunkin has done a bit of cooking and he enjoys it.”

“I’ll also need to see your face.” she said, turning to Michaela, “To make sure you aren’t a gang member in disguise.”

“Ah, that might not be a very good idea, she’s shy,” said Bobby, slightly too quickly.

“Why, you haven’t got anything to hide, have you?” she asked like an inquisitor.

“No, no, it’s just she’s ah… very ugly, you might not react well.”

“I promise you I’ve seen far worse,” Lucinda said, getting up and approaching Michaela.

“I doubt that,” snickered Gary.

Before Bobby could argue further, Lucinda pulled down Michaela’s scarf and came face to face with her skeletal grin. “Whaa…” she didn’t finish her sentence as she fainted.

“You’re all so rude.” said Michaela.

Bobby stepped forward and managed to catch the woman before she hit her head, although it was a narrow catch. “Mcgunkin, can you help me get her upstairs and onto that sofa, also the rest of you see if you can find those rats, I need to repay them for helping us.”

“I still don’t get how you can speak to them,” said Gary, “It should be impossible for them to be intelligent enough to hold a conversation.”

“Well, I have a curse that probably plays a part, also I suspect they aren’t normal rats, after all they seemed capable of replicating small sections of human speech, and I doubt normal rats can even do that.”

Bobby hoisted Lucinda up by the armpits, while Mcgunkin took her feet. “So heavy,” he grunted, his whole body straining with exertion.

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” Michaela laughed, “If your second eye isn't going to turn black already, she would change that quite quickly.”

“Why is everything hitting me in the eyes?” complained Bobby.

As he was struggling to get her up the steps he remembered magic had the capability to slightly enhance his physical capabilities, and called on it, making sure this time he wasn’t overcome by the feeling of power, it was getting easier to resist with his higher dexterity, because he could just push it away if the call got too strong.

With magic energising and empowering him, he and Mcgunkin managed to make quick work of getting Lucinda onto the sofa. As a final touch, Bobby put a cushion under her head, before pushing the magic away. Like always the price of using it brought a wave of tiredness over him.

As he stood up he heard a squeak from behind him and looked round. The little group of rats were there and they had reunited with the ferret and the pickle jar. He smiled at the odd group, “I guess I’ve got to fulfil my promise now.”

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