The white city walls shone in the sun like fresh paper, the spires of the city rose into the sky like the ribcage of a giant and the river Etira glistened like a road paved with sapphires. This was the view that Nannade saw from three miles away, on the last hill before the city Plirova, daughter of old Pliranto, city-state capital of Cintezzio, at the base of the southernmost tip of the Impjasegi mountains.
This was the city she had been sent to. For almost an entire month, she had been wandering far off the roads, through the southern Impjasegi, to avoid having to pass through the squabbling kingdoms. So many borders meant so many tolls, and conflict was still young in that land. Her efforts had paid off. Now she stood here. Short on supplies and coin, but alive and well. Aaka - now freed of one of her most critical of duties - had remained largely inactive, sitting in her glass jar, which Nannade was sure to drop a grasshopper or butterfly into every day.
Nannade has had a few talks with Ssil, especially in her dreams. For now, it was mainly about the people they now were. Nannade had to accept that she was Nannade and that nothing would ever get her out of the pact that she had called for, that she had agreed to. They were conjoined now. A situation both of them had to accept. Nannade had gained a life outside of the basement and free by her own design and abilities, Ssil had gained a temple to call her home and safety from the slow death of oblivion. Now they had to accept the price for these gains.
Nannade shook her head free of these contemplations. Her journey to Plirova would take priority for now.
She passed through the outskirts. Miserable looking and crumbled houses littered the hills surrounding the city, like rotten dreams fallen on ground not fertile enough to sprout into a life as rich and glamorous as promised. Just before the walls was a great moat into which the refuse of the city poured. The closer she got to the walls, the more impressive they seemed. Over a hundred feet high and engraved and adorned with wards in abundance, they looked like no army could ever overcome them. For a moment, even magic seemed flimsy and insignificant.
“You have to report to the headquarters of the city guard, where you will receive further instructions.” Aaka told the girl as she walked through the city walls.Nannade still hated the feeling of passing through such wards. The suppression of the spirit was something she’d have to take care of sooner or later. For now, she just wanted to receive her mission and get on with it.
Inside the walls the city was blinding with pomp and glory, even more so than Kalonitz or Calestre. Stones of perfectly equal size and shape paved the road, coloured glass was in every window and fused stone rose into the sky in the form of towers and halls, with grooved pillars and round arcs dominating the architecture, and no building rose less than five floors upwards, without any crooked towers like she had seen in Doessenhof. It was all dazzling, to say the least.
She made her way to the headquarters of the guard by the directions of the guards by the gate. The streets were busy and many people moved here and there, on undoubtedly important business, the centre of the road was kept clear for the wagons and Nannade was looking at each and every one, guessing each time what they might have loaded and for whom. She even saw one of the rumoured horseless wagons, used almost exclusively within cities, where the cost of flux was offset by the advantage of not having to pay stable boys and not having to deal with nervous and bucking horses. They were marvels of modern technology and magical application.
She took a turn into another street, and that was when she saw them. Crolachans. A group of four, two men, two women, walked down the street in the opposite direction. She just now realized that she had never seen another crolachan in her entire life, except for her parents. On her dream journey she saw those in the serpent’s temple, but they were more like the concept of a crolachan. These were actual crolachans. Their coats were even lighter in colouration than Nannade's, with only a hint of creamy yellow on the darkest areas, and white in most other places, they were of much smaller stature than Nannade, already a tall woman by herself, grown a little taller by the pact. She also noticed their much shorter tails. Nannade felt the need to hide herself and drew the cloak even further closed, despite the last of the summer heat building up in the street canyons. Black Surgeon had said that people of her own kind or familiar with their facial structure might recognize her as not entirely crolachan
They passed her by without noticing her, engaged in their own chatter. They moved carefree and without covering themselves. In Sturreland, Nannade had always moved about unashamed. People would ask her questions from time to time, beg to stroke her fur, and look at her other inhuman features, but in the end, her status as an apprentice of the Lodge made her untouchable – to a certain degree – but now the tables had turned. She had been hiding herself mostly in the recent month, and a new feeling of deep shame and fear accompanied her everywhere.
The other crolachans had disappeared in the crowd behind her and Nannade focussed her mind back to finding the headquarters of the guard. She finally found it, and again was struck by the construction. It consisted of a great central building, seven stories high, with pillars and columns that seemed to flow upwards to stem the weight, flanked by two high spires that served as lookouts. The city guard in Plirovawas their own power, as in most cities, that much Nannade knew, on equal footing with the guilds, the university and the major churches, only accountable to the city council and largely self-run. Technically, they could issue their own citizenships and currency, and in some cities they did.
The inside was a large room, large enough to house the patrons of three large inns. Almost no light was let inside and instead, light vials on the walls and the ceiling cast a soft white glow onto the interior. There were several tellers with signs above them to indicate where to report crimes, request assistance, or pay fees and tolls.
She got in line at the sign for requesting assistance, but when stating her concern, was pointed to a smaller teller further in the back of the lobby, next to a noticeboard and the sign “contractual work & bounties” next to it. This type of teller would be her future, that much she knew.
Nannade stepped closer and an old woman with an air of bureaucracy about her lifted her head from a long list to look at her.
The woman spoke in cintezzian, the local language, which Nannade did not understand, and when she noticed, the woman turned to scholarian instead. “What can I do for you child? This is for bounties and contractual work, do you want assistance to find your way in the city? Then line up back there!” she lifter a thin finger pointing back to the other tellers.
But Nannade persisted. “My name is Nannade, apprentice of the Lodge of Sturreland. I was told to come here for a contract.”
The woman raised an eyebrow, but checked her list. “I see. I will inform the chief commissario then.”
The old woman took a piece of paper, wrote something on it and rang a bell. A boy, younger than Nannade, came running, assumed an attentive stance, and received the piece of paper from the woman. Then he dashed off to somewhere in the back of a building. Shortly afterward, the boy came back and spoke to Nannade in very insecure and accented scholarian. “This way please, commissarioFanderi will receive you now.”
CommissarioFanderi was an imposing man. A few dark brown hairs remained in his grey mane, and he was large enough to block a doorway with his broad shoulders and hard chest. He wore the uniform of the guard, a dark blue vest, black pants and a white shirt, all covered by a blue robe with a short cut and leather bracings, to indicate his status as a mage. A seal Nannade did not recognize gleamed on his right hand, with three circles of glyphs around it, meaning he had acquired three separate degrees. He looked at Nannade intently, seizing her up with his piercing, judging eyes. She did not know how much he knew about her and her quest, so she decided to answer every question truthfully, but leave everything else unsaid.
“So, you are here to stand in for Black Surgeon?” Fanderi asked her.
“Yes. I’ve been sent on a mission. I am accompanied by his familiar, Aaka.” She held up the jar to show the spider. “But I have not yet been inducted into this specific contract.”
Fanderi nodded and hummed in agreement. “We called for Black Surgeon because we recently got the last bit of information on a problem that has been plaguing this city for quite a while. Are you familiar with the city below?”
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“You mean Pliranto's ruins?”
“Yes and no. The greatest parts of Plirantoare still buried somewhere beneath, together with the bodies of countless dead. As it turns out, the city is still somewhat alive, as a corpse, crawling with maggots and rats, the scum of this city: Thieves, muggers, murderers, drug runners, and worst of all, occultists.”
Nannade had thought as much. Garetas had taught her that there is an underworld beneath every society, in some cases literally in the form of tunnels, repurposed crypts and ruins, especially in those big cities that were simply rebuild atop the ruins after the Great Sundering.
Fanderi continued his explanation. “For the longest time we had no success in getting into that place and cleaning it out. The thugs know these tunnels too well and we cannot afford to lose more men. But thanks to some recent info we squeezed out of a captured occultist, we are confident that we can start our move. He confirmed the existence of a “Lord of the Tunnels” which we thought was just a moniker, but now we know it’s an actual being, an unholy union of human and demon. We only have a rough understanding for where this beast is held, which they worship as a god and use as their highest enforcer. And we need a specialist to finally kill it. That’s where your master comes in, girl. He wrote me at length that you are trained and prepared for this, aren’t you?”
Nannade wanted to protest with the notion that Black Surgeon was her master, but she decided not to. “Yes, I am.” She also was no specialist. But she realized the contents of this test: Kill one of “her kind”, or die. They not only wanted her to prove she was no monster, but also that she was willing to put humans before those that share a fate similar to hers. At least that’s what she suspected. She knew Black Surgeon wasn’t the only one choosing the tasks. The Arch-Druid and the highest circle of the Lodge were involved as well. If she died off in distant lands, that were fine by them. She did not however know whether Garetas and Elissa would still be executed. She never heard the terms and conditions considering her death, only her failure to return. This could be a cruel stipulation by a certain someone to get rid of a certain other someone as well. She returned to the present and asked Fanderi a question. “Is there any kind of support I am granted? I did not bring special equipment apart from a few knives.”
Fanderi leaned back. “I guess we could grant you any equipment from our own armoury, flux included. But we cannot send men down with you. They seem to smell the blue on us, because no attempt at infiltration was ever successful. At a certain point, our agents were simply... disposed of.”
Nannade had not expected to get much help. These were tasks picked for her, not someone else.
“Alright, I accept. Give me all the info you have.” She said and prepared to get up. “When will I start?”
“We want you to enter the crypts as soon as possible. Best this night already.”
“I need rest, I walked here from Kalonitz, with extra detours.”
“You can lay down in the guards’ quarters. We’ll get you some food as well.”
“Alright then.” Nannade was just about to get up and leave, when Fanderi interrupted her another time.
“Nannade!” She turned around. “It is customary to address people of my rank with “ser”. I won’t assume anything about your upbringing, I’m just warning you.”
Nannade nodded hastily. “Thank you, ser.”
Nannade wanted to take a proper bath, best with someone grooming her. But if she had to go down into the soil below the city anyway, then it would serve no real purpose. She accepted the terms, took the information ledger she was handed and then led to the guards’ cantina by the same boy as before.
The mostly men there gave her queer looks and asked each other questions behind hushing hands. At one point, someone sat down in front of her. When she looked up from her bowl of gruel with dried fruits and nuts, she saw a crolachan man - probably on the older side of his service – smiling at her. He too had the much lighter coloration of the ones Nannade had seen on the street, his hair had some dull grey areas in his hair and even through his fur, Nannade could see the beginning of wrinkles
“Hey there. I’m Lieutenant Camillo, what’s your name?”
Nannade thought for a moment, swallowed her last bite and answered. “Nannade, ser.”
“Nannade? Huh. That’s an uncommon name, where is it from?”
“My parents, ser.” Nannade knew what he was trying to get at, but to be honest, she didn’t know either way. People in Sturreland always just accepted that a crolachan would have a weird name. But Camillo was local. So apparently, the small crolachan population here gave their children usual names.
“No need to “ser” me. I mean, where do you hail from? You don’t look like a usual crolachan.”
Nannade had to think again. He could be referring to the fact that she seemed to stem from what is called the western tribe, or that she had engaged in a blood pact.
“Well, I don’t know my heritage myself. I haven’t seen another crolachan except for my parents, and they’re both dead since I was nine, so there are not many people to go by.” It was always easiest to shroud a mystery in ignorance. “Was there anything you wanted from me?”
“Okay, good for you. Or not. I mean...” Camillo was out of his element. There was nothing about Nannade he could hold on to in a conversation without seeming overbearing or ignorant. “I’ll just go and... leave you to... what you’re doing.” He stood up and went. Nannade watched him leave the cantina in embarrassment.
“That wasn’t necessary.” Aaka said from her jar.
Nannade spoke in a hushed tone, to not alert others to the fact that she was talking to a spider. “Are you even still necessary? Can’t I just drop your jar in the sea and let you bob back to Hozorcia? I have enough cloth scraps for a sail if you want one!”
“I am still here to observe your behaviour. One day, you’ll have to learn to deal with people, even if you don’t want to.”
She sighed. “I just don’t like dealing with my own kind, okay? They could... look at me once and know that I’m different in more ways than one. It's worrying, okay? I’d rather just stay low for now.”
“You’ll have to live with it. You can’t hide in the forest forever.”
Nannade refused to validate that with an answer.
After she was done eating, she was led to the armoury. A large collection of spears, helmets, armour, and even swords, was available to her. She chose to go for a long, slim dagger with a bent-up guard, like the one Garetas had, just without the crystal pommel, and a padded leather cap, as well as a green shirt to replace her torn one. She was allowed to simply keep it as hers without compensation. She thought about getting a spear to compensate for her short reach, but she needed to stay concealed for most of her mission and spears were cumbersome in the narrow tunnels anyway. At last, she filled up her flux bottle, which was not used that much. She had restrained herself well on its usage, but she did need a new infused wax crayon, so she got one of those as well. They were more expensive that a comparable amount of infused ink and were much less precise than a quill, but they needed no inkwell and quill and would not smear when wet. Lastly, she also traded a bit of her Communion silver in for local coin, the “Plirenni”.
She slept well in the bunk beds of the guards’ dorms. The other guards, resting from their nightshift, snored loudly and it reminded her a bit of home. She decided to write a few last lines in her Notebook before falling asleep.
[Entry into Nannade’s Notebook]
Arrived in Plirova. A grand city, truly. Got my task from commissioner Fanderi. Again have to enter the city’s underground not even a day after arriving, have to slay some abomination the underground gangs use as a god & enforcer. Won’t be easy, have barely any info, the map of the tunnels looks outdated. Will have to make my way down there in the tunnels.
[End]
She was awoken in the middle of the night by Fanderi and two officers. They guided her to the piazza di sepolcro. Where Fanderi gave her some background info on the crypts below.
“After the landslide, the few survivors tried to unearth the city. They stopped after just a few buildings due to the lack of workforce and food. So they just repurposed the ruined buildings for building material and built this crypt, expanding it whenever needed. Now half the city is sitting on top of it. We have our own secret access to the tunnels in there.”
They entered the crypt via a big wooden door strengthened with glyphs and sigils. Inside was a spiral staircase and down there were rows and rows of stone shelves with compartments. In front of every single one was a human skull, sometimes crolachan, even rarer other shapes of skulls that Nannade did not recognize. To the left and right other tunnels in the same fashion branched off. She was led down a few branches, and branches of branches, until they came to a dead end. Fanderi beckoned one of the officers to help him. With a key they unlocked a keyhole hidden in one of the stone shelves and then pulled three compartments out of that shelf, roughly the height of a man. The fake compartments were only a few inches deep, and behind them lay a dark tunnel dug into the soil.
“You’ll have to walk around a hundred feet and then drop down through a hole in the floor. We wish you good luck and may Radiance light your path.”
She made a small bow to them and thanked them. “I will do my best, I promise, ser.”
She walked into the tunnel and the door was closed behind her. She would have to go on alone from here on out. She preferred it this way. The darkness welcomed her back.