The stairs went down for minutes, cobwebs clung to the walls, ceiling, floor, and to Fiona’s orange dress. It was a simple garment and easily cleaned so Fiona didn’t fret over it becoming dirty. On the other hand, the dust coming off the cobwebs making her sneeze was a slight problem. She eventually was forced to put a handkerchief over her mouth to help block out the dust.
Eventually she reached the bottom of the stairs and entered into a small chamber filled with books. There was an old writing desk with a couple of books lying closed on it, and a set of half burnt candles sitting as cold as the rest of this room. A single door stood, wooden, old, full of holes and barely hanging on its hinges.
For several moments Fiona stood there marveling at the little hidden room. The old chair sitting in the corner with blue cushions on it looked like it might still be soft enough to enjoy sitting in if not for the thick layer of dust covering it. There were no windows in this room and the only light came from up the stairs, A normal human wouldn’t be able to see down here with their naked eyes. Good thing for Fiona that she wasn’t just a normal terran. During her stay at the monastery she’d learned a few unique abilities. In this case draconic night vision.
Fiona moved to the door and peered through the many holes. On the other side she saw a wall in front of her and to her left, but to her right she could just barely spy what looked like a railed balcony of some sort of lobby covered in webbing so thick she couldn't see the walls on the far side of that room. The wall across from her had black paint splashed against the wall.
Fiona pushed the door open gently. The entire thing made a horrible cracking and splintering sound. Just as she put weight on it the thing leaned forward and fell off its hinges landing on the floor with a loud echoing clatter. The dead silence of the place down here was disturbed for one brief and horrible moment. For the following few seconds Fiona stood there in complete silence, her heart racing, and her mind switching between staying put and fleeing.
Sounds of something hard tapping against the stone floor in rapid succession from the lobby ahead sent shivers of fear down Fiona’s spine. In the distance of the lobby Fiona could see the massive web shaking violently. Fiona didn’t need to see anymore to make up her mind. She spun around and fled. The last thing she heard was a hissing voice calling out, “Fresh Food!”
***
It didn’t take long to reach the place Rita needed. An old pub with boarded up doors and windows. There was a window in the back where some of the boards had been pulled free and there was just enough space for Rita to slip in. The inside smelled of dust. There was a bar counter with empty glasses on the top, some of the tables had been knocked over. There were scorch marks in the floor, a few bullet holes stuck into the walls, and splashes of black on the hardwood floor.
Once upon a time this had been one of the headquarters to the Thieves Guild here in Starsera, although that was before the city watch had taken them down and long before guild fell apart. Rita could imagine how glorious it must have been to be part of the Thieves Guild. Coming here to sell off stolen goods, get a nice cool drink and something hot to eat, to chat to your buddies about your spoils and plot epic heists together in the darkness of night. It was a dream come true.
Unfortunately dreams sometimes turn into nightmares.
Still Rita couldn’t allow herself to be distracted like this she needed to take care of business. Going behind the counter Rita searched the floor, but didn’t have to look too hard to find a trap door with metal bars holding it shut. Rita slid her goggles down over her eyes and pulled out her revolver and flicked a switch on the back of it. A small concentration of flame came out of the barrel burning white hot.
Rita got right to work in melting through the bars like they were butter. Once through she threw open the door and clambered down the metal ladder into the darkness below. Step after step she was taken further and further away from the safety of the daylight above. At some point she could no longer even see where she was placing her feet. Now it was time for her to press another button on her goggles and everything turned into a bright green color for a brief second as her night vision kicked in.
With night vision in tow she was able to safety climb down to floor level. Her feet hit concrete and she got off the ladder. It was cold down here but most of her body was covered up enough that it didn't matter. The smell of dust was enough to threaten to make her sneeze so she took her red scarf and wrapped it around her nose and mouth. The room itself was square and had a few beds, a sofa, an old television and some shattered lights above. There was only a single door leading out of here, and Rita approached it with gentle steps.
Pressing her ear up against the side of the door she found nothing to be out of the ordinary on the other side. So Rita opened it and pushed on through. She entered into a long hallway going both left and right. It was a little bit disorienting down here so Rita knelt down and pulled out the Master Thief's Journal which once belonged to her mother. Inside was every note the her mother had ever taken, from maps of the abandoned Thieves Highway to the layouts of quite a number of important locations. This included but was not limited too large sections of The White Castle itself as well as The Dark Archive.
There was actually an old entrance to the Dark Archive from down here, but it was very challenging to get to back when the Thieves Guild still existed, so now that it was long gone it would be just that much more difficult. Never let it be said that Rita backed away from a good challenge. In fact, let it only be said that she ran head first towards them with every ounce of willpower, and intelligence she had in her little body.
Rita moved to the right and continued down the hallway. There were numerous halls going off in different directions. A multitude of doors, and holes in the walls. There was one particular hole which was emitting a horrendous smell like that of a rotting corpse meeting with an opened septic system. Turned out that the hole was a direct line to the sewer. A dim green glow came from inside there, emanating from a tendril made completely out of green glowing slime. She decided that was not the best direction to go so she turned around and went elsewhere.
It took a little bit longer than anticipated to go through the labyrinth like halls. There were abandoned swords stained with black, bullets holes peppering the walls, blast marks, and places where the floor looked as if it had been chewed by a massive dog. This place was the leftovers of a battle which was lost and lost hard. There is no telling how many thieves met their end here when the city watch finally took them down led by the man named Crow.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Rita neared the end of her journey and found herself staring at the hard part. She stepped out of the hallway and onto a balcony overlooking a massive gash carved into the earth by god like forces. The trench was at least fifteen feet wide and stretched off into either direction farther than she could see. The depths of this trench were too far for her to see as well, even with night vision. Half of an ancient flying machine was stuck down there tipped on its side so Rita could make out the ancient words spelling "Air Force One." This may have actually been the very first flying machine, at least according to the painted label on its side.
Two posts stood where once there had been a bridge. Of course now the bridge was long gone. The challenge in the past was that the other side of this crevice was at least twenty feet higher than where she currently stood. So even with the bridge the thief in question would have to scale the cliff, though they probably had a rope back then.
Now Rita was acrobatic as hell, she had to be in order to keep up in the combat department. Twenty feet up and fifteen feet across was still too much even for her to jump. Or at least it would have been without her brilliant creations.
Rita sat down on her butt, ignoring the dusty floor and pulled two bronze metal boots out of her side pack. Well they were less of boots and more of an exoskeleton resembling boots. She could easily fit these around the boots she was already wearing. Each one had a green and a white gem on either side and hooked together with metal latches.
Once they were on properly Rita rose to her feet and tapped her feet against the ground. Slowly she lifted up off the ground and a wicked grin spread across her lips. She only got about six inches off the ground before she stopped rising but with a few test slides of her feet she found that the boots reacted just like a pair of roller blades. She slid across the floor quickly, pulled herself around in a sharp turn and practiced a quick jump. She found herself able to skate along the surface of the wall for a few seconds completely defying gravity for a brief moment until she felt the boots losing traction and was forced to land on the ground once more.
“Three seconds,” Rita said to herself. “That’s all the time I get to scale up a twenty foot cliff.”
Rita went back into the hall a good ten feet. She was going to need all the speed she could get before pulling this off. This was a scary idea, if she screwed up just once she’d fall below the city and into the under earth. Even if she survived that fall, she’d be dead from any number of other threats, most of which were unimaginable to human minds. When the humans finally began to rebuild on the surface after the aether war over a thousand years ago, all of the worlds darkest, meanest, and strangest creatures took refuge in the very depths of the earth.
It took a lot of effort but Rita built up her courage. She couldn’t afford to fail this time. Whatever those two wanted from the Dark Archive she wouldn’t let them have. Besides while she was there, she might be able to pull off a little research of her own to help her figure out what Nightmare really wanted, and to stop her from obtaining it.
Rita took off as fast as she could, flying from her starting point. Speed was the key here, and Rita was picking it up far faster than she thought possible. She reached the edge of the balcony and pressed down on the boots hard, almost touching them to the ground before leaping into the air over the balcony. With the boots Rita was able to jump fifteen feet into the air, soaring over the pit in a mere blink. She braced herself against the wall of the crevice, turning her momentum into an upwards motion. This carried her a couple feet up but she felt the boots losing traction a lot faster than she anticipated.
There was a split second where she felt her momentum stop completely. She threw herself up towards the lip of the crevice with all her might. She reached out with desperate fingers but was just a few inches short. Gravity decided to come back home and with its return, Rita was falling.
A hand lashed out in the darkness grabbing her by the wrist. Rita's body stopped falling and she slammed face first into the rock wall. After that she was dragged up and over the lip of the wall and onto the hard dirty floor. For several seconds she lay there attempting to catch her breath. A pair of bare feet stood out from under a dirty and faded red cloak.
Rita looked up to see a woman with a dark red cloak and its deep hood drawn over her head. Only the lower half of her face, plus her long crimson hair were visible. Rita tried to think of what to say, anything to say, but the woman interrupted her thought process by speaking first, “It looks like you could use some help.”
***
Wonder’s heart ached knowing that she was holding Rita back, and dragging Lapis down with her was even worse. Driving through the streets was a slow going process with Lapis at the steering wheel. Wonder rest her head on her elbow and sighed as she stared at the passing crowds.
Wonder forced the pain to stay put inside as she said, “I’m sorry.”
Lapis offered a smile. “For what?”
“For hindering you two. I… I’m not strong enough.”
Lapis put a hand on Wonder’s shoulder and squeezed. “What happened to you being the Impossible Wonder?”
Wonder shook her head. “Impossible sounds about right. It’s impossible for me to do anything right. I was too scared to help Rita against Nightmare, and I was too weak to stop the scary vampire lady, and I was too weak to help track the villains in town…”
“You did your very best against Nightshade last night. If it wasn’t for you weakening her so much, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything against her myself.”
Wonder sniffled. “R-really?”
“Really!” Lapis said in a bouncy tone. “It was like, totally scary fighting her. You should have seen it. I was so scared. I don’t know how you were able to face her with so much courage.”
Wonder wiped her bare arm across her eyes and nose. “That makes me feel better.” Upon looking at her now sticky arm she cringed. “Gross… I hope Glamour doesn’t see me like this.”
“Who cares what that stuck up skank thinks?” Lapis spat.
Wonder shook her head. “She’s incredibly powerful, and I’m lucky to have her tutor me in the ways of illusion magic.”
Lapis rolled her eyes. “Someone needs to knock her down a peg.”
They stopped at an intersection. Wonder didn’t want to reply to Lapis’s cruel statement. Yes Glamour could be… was usually a little high nosed, but that attitude wasn’t unwarranted. Glamour was the lady of New Haven, the last bearer of the title of Mab, and one of the thirteen tower wizards. She had earned her reputation in Starsera. The name Mab was one to fear, respect, love, and in Lapis’s case, to hate.
Wonder let out a sigh. “We’ll be home soon en-“
An explosion across the street from a restaurant sent tables, chairs, and food flying in every direction. For several seconds Wonder merely stared at the smoke and fire coming from side of the restaurant where a hole had been blown through the wall. A tight knot formed in her stomach and was almost painful as she saw the hulking figure step out from the hole. Pale green skin, massive muscles, bark growing along the sides of the arm and over the chest, and a head full of vines coming down like dreadlocks.
Wonder pulled out her wand before she could even think. “That’s Noct!”
Lapis growled. “Well isn’t this just great. And we’re both out of aether too.”
“Aren't we near the guards barracks? S-shouldn't they be able to stop him?”
“Yeah, if they get here in time.”
Fear shot through Wonder’s entire body. “B-but then what do we do?”
Lapis pulled out two bottled potions. “To quote Rita, we're going to use cheat codes to kick his ass.”