Robb PoV [https://i.imgur.com/Hh76PyM.jpeg]

“What’s going on?” asked Lira. She, along with Ashvell, had just finished their turns being interviewed and were stepping out of the building towards Robb and Cassana.

“They said the city is under martial law…” answered the redhead.

“Marshall what?” Asked Ashvell.

“I’m not sure, but it doesn’t sound good. They said something about gates being closed, and staying inside the houses…” Cassana scanned her eyes around her, watching every single movement in the crowd. The guards that arrived had all moved out, probably heading to the next gate. Same as the herald.

All four of them stood at the side of the road, anxiously watching things unfold. A few moments later, Minos appeared from a different side of the street.

“Where’d you been?” asked Cassana.

“I have a Diplomat’s pass, I don’t need to go through the same hoops as you guys.” Minos answered.

“Whatever. Do you know what’s happening?”

“They said the Burgrave declared martial law,” answered Minos.

“What does that mean?”

“Apparently, the city is facing some sort of crisis and that the military, or in this case, the City Watch, are on heightened alert. The city will be on lock-down, so no one gets in or out. And there’ll be a curfew by nightfall, everybody should be inside their houses.”

“For how long?”

“Until whatever crisis is resolved, I guess…”

“What crisis?” asked Lira.

Minos shrugged.

Cassana sat at the edge of the wagon, slamming her forehead to her palms. “This can’t be happening…”

“What are we gonna do?” asked Ashvell.

“Nothing,” answered Minos in nonchalant. He leaned on the side of the vehicle bearing down his weight. “We’ll just have to wait it out.”

“We can’t wait it out,” blurted Cassana, “we need to get Rei to The Tower as soon as possible.”

“Why are you so concerned about Rei?” Asked Minos.

“Why are you not?” Cassana snapped back. “Isn’t he your friend?”

“He’s not your friend,” Minos answered dodgingly.

Robb looked back at the wizard. He was expecting her to say something, some retort or clap-back, like she always did. But she remained silent.

As the sky continued to grow darker, the crowd around them continued to grow thinner. A pair of guards was walking down the road, calmly reminding everyone to return to their homes.

“What we need to do is find an inn where we can spend the night in…” Minos said, “probably for the next few days.” He squeezed through where Cassana was seated and climbed up the wagon, rocking it as he sat. He motioned for the rest to follow. Cassana stood up and dejectedly moved to the front passenger seat.

“I may have something…” Lira said, calling everyone’s attention.

“Something what?” asked Minos.

“I’ll have to check first, but it’s not entirely legal…”

Minos nodded, seemingly aware of what she was referring to. “This will get us in trouble,” he warned. The rest waited for Lira to finish her sentence.

“Not if we do it carefully,” Lira replied.

“Can you be more specific?” asked Cassana with budding impatience.

“I know people from The Guild,” answered Lira, “I’ll need to contact them first.”

“Which guild?” asked Cassana, “there are dozens of guilds here in this city, one for every profession, so it seems.”

“The only guild who can help us. The only guild who will do anything for money. The Guild.”

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Darkness had completely overwhelmed the City of Soliton. The sea brought in a thick fog that shrouded every nook and cranny of the metropolis. Each standing building and edifice was illuminated from the inside by their lanterns and candles, forming a twisting maze of yellow light amidst the gray-white mist.

Robb crouched quietly under the tarred canvas of the wagon. Rei was lying beside him, half-conscious. He could feel the masked foreigner’s chest heaving up and down with every pained breathing.

“What is happening?” he asked Robb with a gravelly voice. Robb couldn’t remember if he ever heard Rei speak, but he could tell he was straining his voice by the way he formed a sentence.

“They’re meeting with smugglers.” Robb answered with a slight hesitation, careful about mispronouncing the last word of his sentence, a word he only learned about half-an-hour ago.

“Why?” Rei followed up.

“We’re stuck in the city, they’re not letting us out, so Lira is trying to find a different way.”

Rei tried to move, Robb stopped him.

“They said we need to be quiet,” he shushed.

Moments later they heard the sound of footsteps on mucky cobblestones. Robb pressed his ear on his side of the wagon to listen to what was happening on the outside.

“Okay, let me do the talking, alright?” he heard Minos whisper, followed by his heavy slow footsteps.

“The night is cold, I hope you got enough layers,” said a distant female voice.

“Hey everyone, I was shopping for oyster at the market when I met Seiveril here, a friend of a friend.” Robb recognized Lira’s voice. He carefully crawled out to the edge of the wagon to have a glimpse at what was happening. It should be dark enough that nobody should see him peeking out of the shadows.

He saw Lira standing at the mouth of an alleyway, flanked by another figure covered with cloak, who Robb presumed she must be the Seiveril that Lira referred to.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” asked Minos, standing in front of Cassana and Ashvell.

“That she did,” answered Seiveril. She approached the wagon as she pulled her cloak down, revealing her tanned skin and pointed ears. A half-drow! Robb whispered.

“So Lira here told me,” Seiveril continued, “that she received a parcel the other day. However, when she opened it, there was a spider inside.”

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Minos replied after a spell. “There was, and it was a nasty spider." He paused again like was thinking of something, "actually, you know what I realized? If you’re on a boat, and you found it had two holes in it, you wouldn’t sink as long as you can plug the holes in time. But if there were, say, four holes? I’d suggest you start praying.”

“True, true,” Seiveril said in return. “But I got this cousin, who was attacked by a mountain cat. He thought he was gonna die, until a random wizard passed by and gave him a potion.”

“So, he didn’t die?” asked Minos.

“No,” answered Seiveril.

“Well if you ask me, I think when the river drains into the sea, all the salmons become satisfied.”

The half-drow paused to think. “Sure, if you say so.”

Underneath the tarp, Robb was alternating between scratching his head and scratching his butt. He didn’t know if his hearing was having problems, because he just didn’t understand anything that Minos and Seiveril said.

The young nobleman turned around to face Cassana and Ashvell, whose faces look very confused. “That’s good, we got a ride guys,” he whispered with a relieved sigh.

“What’s going on? Salmon? What?” asked the woodcutter.

“What the hell was that about?” followed the wizard.

“She said she’s gonna smuggle us out of the city. For an arian each.”

“What?!?” replied Ashvell and Cassana both, unable to contain the loudness of their voices.

“One thousand marks? For a person?” repeated Cassana. “I don’t even have five hundred marks on me.”

“I only have twelve,” said Ashvell. “Wait, when did she say that? I only heard you talking about mountain cats....”

Minos bared his teeth with a wide smile.

Then it all made sense inside Cassana’s head, “That was cant,” she said nodding, which Minos affirmed with his thumb.

“Cant?” asked Ashvell.

“It’s a stupid made-up language that thieves, vagabonds, and cutthroats employ when they negotiate deals,” the redhead explained to her friend. “They use it in case someone else is listening, that way they couldn’t be incriminated for any crime they might be committing.”

“Incrimi-what?”

“They don’t get caught doing bad,” Cassana simplified with little impatience. “Nevertheless, we certainly can’t afford their services. Who even has that amount of money?”

Minos once again flashed his toothed grin.

“Wait, you? How much arians do you have on you?” whispered the redhead.

Minos shrugged again.

He turned back towards Seiveril, crossing his arms over his chest. As he began to articulate his next words, Cassana tugged him by his elbow.

“No,” she whispered, “I’m not gonna let you pay for all of this, I’m not gonna owe you money. I’ll find my own way.”

“There is no other way. Our options are to smuggle ourselves out of the city, or wait out this crisis.”

“There is another…” Cassana surmised, having realized something just then. She pushed Minos aside and faced the half-drow rogue. “Sorry, we won’t be needing your services. Or salmon, or… whatever.” She stepped backwards and pulled Ashvell back to the wagon.

“Wait, no, we’re not done yet,” Minos said to Seiveril while pulling Cassana towards him. “What are you doing?”

“Heading towards my third option.”

“And that is?”

“Hey dumbfucks!”, Seiveril interrupted with a rehearsed cough. When she was sure she got Minos and Cassana's attention, she continued, “I ain’t got no time for your family drama, so tell me, do we have a deal or not? My time is precious.”

“No deal,” answered Cassana.

“Hold up, let’s discuss this first,” objected Minos. “What’s this third option you’re suddenly bringing up now?”

Cassana let out a tired sigh. “I just realized we can go to the Small Tower.”

“Small Tower?” asked Minos.

“The Tower of the Legate. We call it Small Tower. Anyway, I can talk to the Legate and I can use their Teleportation Matrix to bring me and Rei to Ad-Nilem.”

“Just you two? How about us?”

“A moment ago you didn't seem to mind getting stuck in this place…” Cassana remarked with a snide.

“Rei is not going anywhere without me,” insisted Minos.

“So now you give a shit about him again?” added Cassana.

Even through the dark, Robb could see Minos’ color turning red. The veins on his forehead swelled as he stared down at the feisty wizard. The young nobleman took a deep breath and raised his index finger towards Cassana.

“You don’t know him like I do. You’ve just met. And don’t pretend you’re doing all of this out of charity, or out of the goodness of your heart, or whatever. We both know you’re only doing this out of guilt. Well guess what, saving Rei won’t bring your stupid dead boyfriend back to life.”

Cassana met Minos’ stare with her own sharp glare, as her nostrils flared in anger. Robb’s hairs stood on its end as soon as a sharp gust of cold air enveloped around them. Something about it felt familiar to him, until he realized it was coming out of Cassana. It was magic, pure and raw, usually manifesting during extreme bursts of emotion.

Ashvell recognized it too. He stood between her and Minos before the former could utter another word. He grasped Cassana by her shoulders and tried to gently push her behind. He glanced back at the nobleman and gestured for him to cut it out.

“Hey,” Seiveril shouted at the group, "no magic! Or this place will be crawling with guards in a minute."

Minos brushed his palm over his tunic, trying to calm himself down. “Sorry about that. That was awkward… but as you can see we’re in a very tense situation.”

“No shit!” the smuggler hissed, “Look, what redhead is suggesting here, teleportation matrix? Not gonna work. I’m sure you’ve noticed, Big Brother monitors all magical activities in the city, that includes teleporting in or out, so…”

The rest of them looked at Cassana with dejected eyes, she sighed with disappointment.

“So I guess we have no choice but to go with you then?” said Minos.

“Good thing I’m still here!” the rogue remarked with sarcasm.

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Robb could feel the filth of the sewers clinging to his tunic. The violent smell was assaulting his nostrils so much that he thought he was going to suffocate. He was considered an urchin, a street-boy, and yes there were times that he was scolded by some adults for not taking a bath; but even he could not bear the smell of the path they were taking.

It was a network of underground passageways, soaked in muck and grime. Every stretch of these passages were bordered by one-foot wide gutters allowing one person at a time to traverse. Robb had to press his chest hard against the sticky walls of the tunnels, to keep himself from falling off.

One wrong step along the gutters, and Robb would surely fall down to the murky water below. He couldn’t tell how deep the tunnels went as the only light source they had was the torch Minos was holding behind Seiveril. I should’ve stayed behind with Ashvell, Robb thought to himself as he made another turn across the labyrinthine sewers.

One glance at the entrance of the sewage, and they already knew that they couldn’t bring Rei with them, so the group decided to split up. Minos needed to come along, since he had the money and the negotiation skills; Cassana had to come because she didn’t trust Minos’ negotiation skills.

The rest silently agreed that somebody else had to accompany Minos and Cassana to keep them from slicing each other’s throat. Ashvell volunteered but Cassana insisted he should watch over Rei. Lira refused without even explaining herself. So that task was left to Robb.

“I don’t think it’s safe for you to come with us,” Cassana hesitated.

“Come on, let the boy come. It’s just the sewers, it’s the safest place on the continent!” Robb could not tell if Minos was being sarcastic or not. “Plus, he might see the mountains of poop we were talking about earlier. You don’t wanna miss that, right, Robb?”

Cassana looked over at Seiveril to get some sort of reassurance. “Yeah, it’s safe, relatively speaking. You’re not scared of rats, are you?”

“I love rats.” Robb answered without much of a thought.

“Then you’ll love the sewers!” exclaimed the rogue, pushing the boy along towards the entrance.

As they went deeper and deeper down the culverts, Robb started to regret expressing his fondness of rodents. Every turn and every corner, they were greeted by large, red-eyed rats, angry for having their space violated. These animals were far from the friendly, playful farm mice that he used to find in their village.

And instead of the mountains of poop that Minos promised, what Robb found instead were rivers of poop. Concrete pipes protruding from the walls of the tunnels spew black-water filled with shit and piss. Each drop of black-water accrues to the surface of the tunnels, accumulating into a slow-moving stream of filthy goo. Every second he spent looking down below made his stomach turn so he kept his eyes level, head faced forward at the dim torch that was guiding their path.

A few turns, ladders and narrow hallways later, the four came to a barred wooden door. Seiveril knocked and it pulled open, revealing a small head peeking through the opening.

“I got clients.” Seiveril spoke, pointing her thumb back towards Cassana, Minos and Robb.

“What do they want?” asked the voice behind the door.

“Passage.”

“You told them about the price hike?”

“Of course, what do you think of me?”

The person behind pushed his upper body out of the narrow opening to study the three potential clients more carefully. “Alright, let them in,” He said to Seiveril, before opening the door fully.

The rogue stepped back and motioned for the three to come in first. She followed after them and shut the door behind her.