The sorceress resides in a network of stone beneath a hundred feet of dirt.
11 follows Safir as the dwarf leads her out of the North Gate and down a small cliff that wraps around the outskirts of the city. There, hidden among withering trees and crumbling stone is a tunnel entrance made of molding bricks.
“I cannot recall when I was here last,” says Safir as he parts away yellowing weeds with his staff.
An iron gate stands in the way. From the noise of surprise coming from Safir, 11 guesses it must've been installed somewhat recently.
“Maybe Hephoene moved?” she says.
“Impossible,” says Safir. “Even if she did, the thousands of yaojin living here will not have.”
11 is taken aback by the new information. “There’s another city beneath Kesrock?”
“Not so loud, lassie,” says Safir. “This is a place we should not be seen entering.” He taps against the key hole on one side of the iron bars.
“Shiosay.”
Pale light sprinkles from the end of Safir's staff, freezing the lock solid. He steps back, raises his staff and brings it down against the ice, shattering the iron inside it.
He turns to grin at the shocked 11.
“No need to be so alarmed,” he says. “The knights will most likely replace it soon enough.”
“Why would they even lock it in the first place?” 11 asks, following Safir as he pushes through the gate. The stench of fish and seaweed wafts from the mouth of the tunnel, ruffling at their clothes.
“I wager it is from fear,” answers Safir. “Stay close to me, lassie. These old bones are not as sturdy as they once were. I can’t guarantee we won't leave here without a few fresh bruises between us.”
The ground is wet and slippery, but Safir moves with ease not reflective of his stature. 11 keeps close to the dwarf as she scans the shadows for signs of traps.
They continue for what feels like hours, the only sound being the echo of their footsteps. Safir holds his staff in front of him, a faint blue light emitting from its end. On closer inspection, 11 notices that the staff is half the length of normal ones carried by adventurers, almost as if it’s been snapped in half before. And when Safir stops by a curved wall and raises his staff to it, she spots a metal cusp on the butt of the staff, confirming her suspicion.
“It’s here,” Safir whispers, his voice loud in the thick quiet. He sweeps his staff across the soggy brown bricks, squinting at the moss growing from the cracks. “Somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“This one,” says 11, reaching over Safir’s shoulder.
With a resounding crunch, a cascade of brinks sinks into the wall, revealing another tunnel behind it.
Safir turns to 11. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he says. “How’d you know?”
11 shrugs. “I read about a similar contraption in a storybook a while ago.”
Safir looks like he wants to ask more, but a noise from the tunnel distracts him. “Stay close,” he tells 11, stepping first into the tunnel entrance. “I don’t imagine the inhabitants here remember me. Even if they do, they have no reason to be friendly.”
The tunnel grows wide. Glowing vines crawl across the brickwork, offering enough light for Safir to extinguish the one on his staff. He keeps his weapon ready by his side and stays close to the wall, even though there is enough room for carriages to pass through.
Instead of following behind Safir, 11 chooses to walk next to him. “It’s easier to fight this way,” she says when the dwarf complains. “Less chance of friendly fire.”
Safir seems to accept that explanation, or he may just be too focused on the path to argue.
The scent of life is strong here but it’s masked by the stench of mildew. 11 works her scanners at the dark, hoping to catch a blip that can tell her where Hephoene is hiding.
Strangely, the data seems to suggest they are all alone down here.
“Are we nearing the city?” she asks Safir, keeping her voice down. The dwarf nods and then holds a finger to his lips.
“Keep your head down, lassie, and do exactly as I tell you to.”
11 wants to question Safir’s anxious instructions but as they near a corner in the tunnel, someone screams.
11's instincts take control. Without waiting for Safir she dashes past him, following the sound.
The screams pierce through the stale air, the voice sounding broken and desperate.
11 skids around the corner. She sees two figures in the dimly lit tunnel, one looming over the other. By their body shape, they seem to be a man and a child but are cloaked too heavily to tell for sure.
The man raises his hand, a metal pipe glinting in the light of glowing vines.
The child screams again.
11 rushes forward, catching the pipe before it can be brought down.
The man whirls, snarling through fangs. 11 snatches the pipe from him and jumps back. The man lunges after her, his hood falling back to reveal yellow eyes bulging from a furry mane. He swipes at 11, faster than she expects. Orange sparks glance off the front of her armor.
“Stop!” Safir is sprinting over with his arms waving wildly over his head. “Do not fight!”
The man lashes at 11 again. This time she is ready. She ducks clear of the oncoming claws and jabs the metal pipe into the man’s leg.
She hears an animalistic howl and looks up just in time to see gaping jaws closing down on her. She rolls out of the way, leaving the pipe inside the man, who rips it out and comes at her again.
“Circala Protouga!”
Safir’s voice booms through the tunnel. A golden bubble encases 11, blocking the man’s swipes.
“Calm yourself, child of Sharn!” the dwarf shouts. “We are not here to fight!”
The lion-man whips around and snarls at him. “You side with a human, dwarf?”
“Nay,” says Safir. “I side with peace. My friend does not know the workings of your kind and in her haste, trod where she ought not to. I beg your forgiveness.”
“He was beating a kid!” 11 says, pointing at the child on the ground. “I couldn’t let him do that!”
“Kid?” The lion-man glances over to the figure lying on the ground. Then he laughs. “Haw! Why don’t you save your laws for the surface world, human girl?” He walks over and grabs the figure by the hood, pulling it back to reveal a metal face with three holes in it, two of which glow with white light.
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11’s jaw drops. “What the hell… is that a… an android?”
The lion-man laughs again. “Human girl. This is what the people of your world send down here to destroy us.” He grabs the android’s head and starts to twist, forcing more screams from it.
“Wait,” says 11. “You’re hurting him!”
With a violent jerk, the lion-man rips the android’s head off. The android's limbs shudder, then go still. The lights in its eyes die out.
11 swallows her own scream. She forces herself to look at the lion-man carefully, at the dead android by his fur-covered feet.
It’s a crude design, neither Eternal nor Arcadia's. Nothing she recognizes from the database.
“I am Jo’hom,” says the lion-man, “and you have trespassed into the tribe of the Tooth. Turn your tails and flee, human and dwarf, or you will end up like this cursed heap here.” He kicks at the android’s head, sending it rolling towards 11.
She averts her eyes from the android’s dead ones.
Safir steps in. “We are here to see the Mistress,” he says. “Kindly let us through and we promise to be gone before you can wake from your afternoon nap.”
Jo’hom regards the two with sharp eyes. "Why should I believe you?"
"Because I am a dwarf," Safir says simply. "A dwarf's words are good as stone. You must know this."
Jo'hom huffs. "I will be watching you two," he says. "Do not speak to my people, or else you will find not all yaojin are as civilized as I am.” He gives them both a long look before turning away and disappearing into the darkness.
Safir begins, “Lassie,” but 11 cuts him off.
“I know. I’ll be quiet and out of the way. I'm sorry.”
"I did not mean it so harshly," says Safir, "but yes."
As they head deeper into the tunnels, it becomes clear what Jo’hom means by ‘not as civilized.’
Cut into both sides of the tunnel are narrow rooms barred with iron gates, each the size of a prison cell. Many of these cells have humanoid figures hunched outside them, cloaked in nothing more than rags. 11 spots tails and forked tongues peeping out from tattered linens, and whenever she makes eye contact, she notices yellow, filmy irises.
They don’t look much like Yue’li, but they share a similar feeling.
She leans close to Safir and whispers, “I heard you call Jo’hom a Child of Sharn. What’s that?”
“Just an older name for the race we now call yaojin,” answers the dwarf. “I thought he might appreciate it more.”
“These are yaojin?” 11 asks, glancing around at the creatures on the ground. Like Jo’hom, their faces are that of animals, and even though their bodies are humanoid in shape, the two species don’t seem to be much else in common.
As they are about to round a corner, Safir suddenly crouches down, manically signaling for 11 to do the same.
“Do you hear that?”
“Of course,” 11 whispers, inching up to the dwarf as he peeks around the corner. Someone is speaking, their voices echoing down the tunnel. The words are guttural and primal to her ears. “I can’t understand what they’re saying, though.”
“The tongue of the Ancients,” Safir whispers back. “I believe they are talking about the Knights.”
“Why are we hiding?” 11 tries to rise but Safir waves for her to get down.
“We don’t have the right to pass.”
“Didn’t stop us before.”
“That was different,” Safir explains. “Jo’hom said he was of the Tooth tribe. Look at these markings. What do you see?”
11 glances to where Safir is pointing. Above their heads is a crude painting of something vaguely resembling two bananas placed side by side.
“Don’t tell me those are supposed to be claws or something.”
Safir nods grimly. “I don’t remember having crossed into their territory so early the last time, but that was a decade ago. They must’ve increased their hold on the tunnels.”
The voices grow near. One sounds higher than the other, but 11 can’t tell if they’re male or female, or even what their ages may be. She notices Safir raising his staff but the dwarf looks like he’s hesitating.
11 scans the tunnels. There are no offshoots, meaning the two yaojin can head nowhere else but at them.
She stands up and walks past Safir with her hands up.
Both humanoid creatures freeze in their tracks and raise their weapons in alarm. One of them is incredibly large with grey leathery skin like that of a rhino. The other is lean with a thick lizard tail trailing behind it.
The rhino steps forward and shouts in his strange tongue.
11 keeps her hands up. “We are unarmed. We just want passage through.”
The rhino takes another step, bringing the tip of his pronged spear up to 11’s nose.
“Who,” he chokes out. “Whoman.”
“Yes,” says 11. “Human just wants to go through. I have an invitation.” She goes to reach into her pocket for the feather but the rhino yells and makes a stab with his spear. The iron glances off the side of 11’s head, stinging her scalp.
Anger surges inside 11. Snatching the spear on its way back, she yanks it from the rhino’s grip and snaps it over her knee.
“Sorry but I’m in a hurry,” she tells the rhino, who tries to grab her. “If you don’t let me through I’m going to have to put you down.” She ducks as the rhino swings at her again. By now, Safir has rushed out from behind the corner and the lizard is running up as well.
11 feels her anger mounting, coloring her vision red. She grabs the rhino’s arm mid-swing and flips him to the ground, then grabs the broken tip of the spear and has it halfway jammed into the rhino's throat when the lizard runs up to stop her.
“Halt, human!” the creature cries out, throwing itself by 11's feet. "Do not fight. Please."
11 is stunned at not only the yaojin's capability of speech, but also the brightness of its pleading eyes. They reflect the green of the creature's scaly skin, burning brighter than any of the yaojin's she's come across. Except for Yue'li, of course.
Wait a minute…
11 looks closer. This creature’s scales are the same shade of emerald green, its tail the same shape and curvature…
“We do not fight,” says the lizard. It looks between 11 and Safir, the expression on its face unreadable to any not of its kind. “Not. Today.”
“Neither do we,” Safir says quickly. “Let’s go, lassie. Before others come.” When he sees her not moving he pulls at her arm. "Come on, lassie. Now."
11 lets the dwarf drag her away. She turns her head to stare after the lizard yaojin, watching as it helps the rhino up off the ground.
Once they are moving again, Safir lets out a long breath. “I do not think she remembers me,” he whispers. "But she must now."
11 knows immediately who Safir is talking about. She hasn’t stopped thinking about the encounter. About that lizard.
“She has Yue’li’s eyes,” she says. “And tail. And scales.”
Safir adds quietly, “Wings, too.”
“So she really is…?”
“The last time I was here I entered alone,” Safir says, “and left with a babe clinging to my back." He chuckles like it is the most absurd thing. "Even as a wee young-en, little Yue’ling always knew how to ride the winds of opportunity.”
“But she looks so normal,” 11 says. "How can she be from here? These people look like... not her."
Safir shakes his head. “That is a story you must hear from her, once she is safe and at home once more.” He pauses by an offshoot in the tunnel. “We are here.”
11 looks past him into the tunnel. Darkness stretches into oblivion. No vines grow here, glowing or otherwise.
“Is it the same as you remember it?” she asks.
“Aye,” answers the dwarf. “One does not forget such a place easily. Follow close, lassie, and this time, please-”
“Be quiet and stay out of the way?”
“Aye. If you can.”
The smell of sewage is strong but the ground is clean. Steel pipes crawl across the walls like a network of blood vessels. Some of them have corroded into crumbling shells, but many are still hard at work carrying scalding hot water, judging from the steam hissing between their joints.
11 is still wearing the armor set given to her by Censa, and the heat makes it feel like she's being cooked like an egg. Still damaged, her internal components struggle to lower her body temperature, so for a long while she debates whether or not to strip bare and ditch the armor here.
She decides to tough it out for a while longer. I've already messed with Censa’s plans enough. Having her make another outfit feels like an asshole thing to do at this point.
11 glances over to Safir, thinking she can distract herself with a conversation, but the weary look on the dwarf’s face tells her it’s best to keep quiet. He's holding his staff out again, the ball of light casting hard shadows across the moist walls. His posture is much more relaxed than before, letting 11 know that the worse of it is likely over.
A torrent of water clatters overhead through the pipes. Steam hisses. The dwarf starts to speak.
“I came to the Mistress of Mischief hoping I could ask a single question.” The walls play with his gruff voice, bouncing it around a hundred different times. “But as fate would have it, I didn’t find the answer so much as she found me. I hold no religion in my heart, but sometimes I wonder if maybe everything does happen for a reason.”
“You said Yue'li was the second-most important person,” 11 says. “Is Abetah the first?”
The tunnel continues but Safir comes to a stop. “The feather, lassie,” he says, gesturing to the maze of pipes winding across the brickwork.
11 steps up, spotting the long gap in one of the pipes. It seems to be the perfect size and shape to hold the feather, so she takes out Censa’s jewelry case and deposits the feather into the hole. She then steps back and waits.
Safir says quietly, “The first? She graces this realm no longer.”
A dark shape pops from the ceiling, fluttering down the pipes until it reaches the feather. It is a crow.
11 watches, wondering where the bird has come from as it plucks up the feather and flutters away down the tunnel. She goes to follow but Safir stops her.
A second later, she hears a low grinding and turns to see a brick wall cascade away, revealing a red iron door.
“Well I’ll be damned,” she says. “The Heart Room.” Then seeing Safir’s inquisitive look she adds, “you know, because all the pipes are like the arteries and… never mind.”
Safir steps past her towards the door. “A word of warning, lassie,” he says, “you are about to meet one of the most powerful yaojin in all of Gandolia. Perhaps even in the entire realm. If we are not careful, she will not hesitate to take our souls and use them as footstools.”
11 knows what he really means by that.
Stay quiet and out of trouble.
“Good thing I left my soul back home,” she says.
Safir shakes his head but his mouth is curved into a smile. "Nranhana bless us," he mutters, reaching for the door and pulling it open.