The tunnel as he looked up, Norbert saw other holes in the ceiling and walls of the tunnel section he was in. Either side going for several blocks on either side, columns coming up and down, doors and steps similar to the one he had just used placed around; Norbert saw where the stone joined to the roof they flowered out, pieces added to the columns to add extra reinforcement, likely stopping the entire room from collapsing.
The things walking around—any precedence like above that they were normal-looking people were gone entirely. There was a smörgåsbord of darker colours throughout the crowd. Nothing too bright was seen on their skin except the clothes that some of them decided to wear, making them look like poisonous frogs found in a rainforest.
Norbert saw all the shops on either side, all low to the ground, people flowing within and out like you would expect to see anywhere else. Looking at the shop names and unable to read them, Norbert wondered what they could be selling down here.
"Um, why?" Norbert asked, looking at the prosperous area around him. Looking back at the two zombies, Norbert smiled apologetically and waved to them, hoping he hadn't annoyed them too much.
"To escape the sun. Not everyone can wrap themselves up as protection from the sun," Vivienne said as she started to walk off. Norbert looked once more around the area, trying to bring it all into his head before he quickly followed, not wanting to lose her in the crowd's attempt at swallowing her hole.
Joining her, Norbert looked around, amazed at the structure around him. "How did you guys even make all of this?" Norbert asked her, spinning around as he walked, trying to get as much size as possible.
Those around him pointed at his reaction, knowing that he looked like a typical tourist but not really caring.
"We didn't. Not the Grimm, at least. It was found here and believed to be dated with the colosseum above ground," Vivienne said, turning around to look at him, gauging his reaction to the news.
I was not surprised as Norbert continued to look at its extravagance, which size was giving all that. "I'm not that surprised; where else would you even get here if you can't wrap yourselves up properly?" Norbert said as he continued looking around.
Vivienne took by the hand, the crowd seemingly parting for them as they went further away from the entrance and the set of steps that Norbert went through.
Norbert followed behind for several minutes until, finally, they stopped. Norbert's feet skidded on the floor as he tried not to slam into Vivienne's back as she let go of his hand, pointing at something ahead of them.
Norbert could once more see the colosseum standing there, the same windows and guards looking out of it as he remembered seeing above ground.
Rubbing his eyes, Norbert looked out again, confirming his thoughts that it was genuinely standing there. "But, isn't it above ground?" Norbert asked them.
"That it is, and there is one down here as well," Vivienne said, turning her head to him, her golden hair flowing out of the way in the world of drab colours. “I'm surprised you could see it so far away in the dark," she said to him, a Cheshire grin on her face at having gained another piece of knowledge from Norbert.
Norbert just shook his head. "So, I'm also assuming we fight down here when going against the Grimm?" Norbert asked, seeing the issue where you would instantly start to combust if you cut through even a single piece of their clothing. It's not the best for a fighting tournament.
"Correct, and before you ask, I can already see the gears in your little heart whirring projections so that either crowd can see," Vivienne said, explaining it to Norbert before he could even ask the question forming on the tip of his tongue.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Nodding his head in response, Norbert looked out at the structure going to the top of the ceiling, remembering the several floors he had been down to get into the staging rooms, likely positioned just above his head.
"And do those up there know about this?" Norbert asked, waving his hands around the underground cavern he found himself in, too big to be called a simple tunnel system.
"But of course, how else is it explained that their champions in the tournament would just disappear, replaced with real-time depictions of the fight," Vivienne said, Norbert, hearing the strain in her voice of having to repeat herself to him again and feeling within herself that the wave of questions hadn't even started to be stemmed.
"Is this the same in other cities?" Norbert asked, trying to remember but not thinking it would be possible to replicate something like this.
"Officially, no, unofficially …" she ended, looking slightly down at Norbert as she stared at him. Norbert shivered in response, looking like someone about to do something terrible to him if he asked anything more about the topic.
"OK, change of topics then. Why are you still here?" Norbert asked her.
"Every non-Grimm residence that comes down here needs a guide," she said to Norbert, her voice growing louder in octaves until she almost shouted at the crowd around them.
The feeling of being watched from behind instantly disappears. Not realising the feeling had followed him since he first came to this place. Turning around as their chops were no longer licked, the crowd around them not seemingly as thick as before.
"I'm surprised that they would do this to a contestant in the stadium. But even more surprising is how big of a hot shot the waitress at an inn is," Norbert said to her.
"Can you blame a girl for going back to her roots now and then?" she said to Norbert, trying to put on her best innocent face.
Norbert just shook his head at her response.
"OK, I'll tell you, but not here. Let's go somewhere more … private," Vivienne said before dragging him back into the crowd. Walking around the stadium, Norbert saw the same gate entrances above ground, wondering if there was another chamber below for the contestants to prepare or if it was located above this one.
Going into a building on the side, Vivienne walks to one of the rooms. Norbert finds the place empty as she sits down in the chair. Norbert sits in the other as he waits for her to speak.
As she sat there, waving a hand to someone, Norbert heard them enter and stopped as they looked at it before leaving again. Norbert did not even turn around as he stared at Vivienne, wondering if a dagger was soon to start sprouting from his back.
"Well?" Norbert asked her aloud, waiting to see what was happening and why they were there.
"I was sent here like I said before, and I am looking at it. Before, I was working down here, getting the information I could. Then someone from Grimm, high up…" Vivienne said, pausing as she went quiet, looking slowly and carefully around their dining room; Norbert looked around as well, changing his vision to magic. The air turned away in colour as Norbert looked around, confirming no magic circles around the room.
He was concluding his search, making sure not to look at Vivienne, not wanting to see her again like that, thinking it was an invasion of privacy. As he looked back at her, his vision normal, his eyes couldn't move from her Cheshire grin forming on her face, another of his secrets that she could grasp for her own.
"I was notified to start working in the inn and await someone to help me. And that's when you showed up," Viviane said, smiling at Norbert as he sat there, not believing the words that just came out of her mouth.
"You know I can't trust anything you say, especially now with that little revelation you have given me," Norbert said to her, leaning forward. One hand dropped underneath the table, resting on a dagger, which he quietly unsheathed, leaving it dagger by his leg.
"But that's what makes it fun," Vivienne said, a mad glint quickly taking over her eyes before it fled again. Norbert shivered instinctually, like after hearing nails run on a chalkboard.
"Are you going to tell me anything else about what you're after?" Norbert asked her again.
"See no reason to; won't change much. And anyway, why would you trust me with this? What's making you still follow me right now and not run out that door and escape in a bloodbath?" Vivienne said, leaning back as she tapped her fingers against nothing, playing on a musical instrument only she could see and feel.
"Not due to you, but from what Count von Count said. There must be a reason for him to get the two of us to meet," Norbert said, looking at Vivienne, seeing her only nod in response to his statement. As he sat there, annoyed to himself, he felt like he received less from the conversation compared to the fake waitress sitting in front of him.
"Well," Vivienne said, breaking Norbert's train of thought. "Let's stop terrorising this lady's house and point me in the right direction, my compass." Vivienne said to Norbert, standing up, the chair scraping against the floor as she left the room without waiting for Norbert.