A deep breath rattles my lungs. This is it.

The Thieves’ Guild was unable to help. The Mistress is busy… I should probably check in on her at some point, because if she can’t send a guide for the Undercity, it’s bad.

So now… it’s plan C.

What’s that saying? Plan A and B never survive contact with the enemy? Well, they gotta actually get to the enemy before they can survive it. Does this mean this is actually plan A and I need to have a plan B and C?

Head in the game, two-legs. We’ve work to do, Ran growls in the back of my head.

I pull up the hood, tying the mask in place with a reverence that… well, I’m not sure I’ll ever have this pleasure again. Those who hate me are about to know what I look like, and that hurts. It’s much easier to hide behind a mask and hood. Life is about to get more dangerous.

Something with a dark cloak descends from the opposite end of my alley where I’m bunched up on a little awning.

The person gives me a salute and then meanders out of the alley head with a saunter.

WHO IS THAT? THIS IS NOT PART OF PLAN A, C, D, whatever it is.

I race to the alley head, but not before someone descends on the person.

I scurry behind a barrel, peeking my head around almost at ground level, a trick I learned a while back. Someone is unlikely to look for a head at knee height.

Four men dressed head to two in black surround the deep-red cloaked person… who isn’t me, but is supposed to be me.

Nice way to state the obvious, rider.

I stick my inner tongue out at her, watching the unfolding scene before me. Someone throws a fist, and a fight ensues. The person is fighting a bit like me… enough to make it realistic.

Is that Hans?

I think he’s a little shorter than Hans.

Someone outside the circle sneaks up behind the person, clocking them in the back of the head with a dagger hilt.

The person crumples to the ground like a marionette with the strings cut.

I move forward almost without realizing it, going to help the person on the ground out of instinct. A hand on my shoulder stops me.

I twirl, a blade at the neck and kidney of the person before he can blink. Steel-gray eyes set in a stern face watch me without concern.

“He wanted to do this,” Hans says.

I hiss out a breath, turning to watch the men pick up the prone form and hightail it out of there, the apothecary’s soft lights illuminating the men for a bare moment, the light glinting off silver and black daggers, before they duck into an alleyway filled with shadow.

“Why would you let him? This is my fight!” I hiss, following along behind them, just enough to stay out of sight but keep them in sight. Sir Hans flanks me.

“Because he is better suited for this task.”

I would stab Hans if I weren’t so concerned about losing the men before us.

The only way I could think of finding the underground way into the place without a guide from the Thieves’ Guild was to find my own guide… or perhaps let myself get kidnapped so that the guides would find me.

But Silver Eyes has thrown that plan to the wind. Plan C didn’t survive pre-contact with the enemy, either.

And if there is no underground way that the criminals use to get supplies in and out of the abandoned warehouse?

Then we’re all sunk and the kidnapped person is sunk too.

My heart thuds in my chest so hard I feel it against my ribcage, and it hurts. My ribs thoroughly protest the running and twisting and crouching I’m doing to keep the men in sight as we get ever closer to the warehouse where my family is held.

What if there is no underground passageway? I shove the thought out of my mind, because if this plan does not work, it’s back to plan A. And I don’t like the thought of waiting for the fairies to dismantle the large shield while who-knows-what happens to my family.

Fairies should also be following from above… but I would rather keep my replacement kidnappee in sight.

Of all the stupid things to do. Why get yourself kidnapped?

That’s what I’d like to know. Ahh, yes. Ran is still peeved about my plan.

The men duck below some crates stacked behind a closed shop. One man stands guard outside the door, watching.

My heart jumps. Yes! I knew it!

Me and Hans take a detour, ending up at a roof a few blocks over where we have a good view of the action.

We exchange glances, triumph dancing in mine and pride in his.

This is what we needed.

I raise a brow, asking if we move in.

He shakes his head for us to wait.

I can see the warehouse where my family is from the corner of my eye, mere blocks from us. The river behind it trails lazily, gleaming like a silken ribbon from the moonlight. I can see the library spire in the distance, and farther away the white castle on the hill.

My eyes are drawn back to the plain grey warehouse. It’s not huge, just two stories and kinda squatty. It’s drab, with boarded-up windows and a shimmer of silvery light around the edges... which I take to be the shield. My chest hurts from more than my broken ribs.

A few moments later, a small thud draws my eyes back to the alley. The guard who was lounging on the crates is awkwardly splatted face-first on the dirt, his behind sticking up behind him. I wonder if he can breathe with his nose smushed into the dirt like that?

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It almost looks as if someone knocked him out from behind and then shoved him off the crate.

From the shadows of the crates emerges a wraith-like creature who moves like wind and is not tame… at all.

The cloak folds and bends, conforming to the shadows and making him look like a shadow himself.

I wish I looked that good as the Guardian.

Hans taps my shoulder, and we both climb down from the roof.

Silver Eyes glow like pinpricks of stars from beneath the hood, dancing in mirth.

I’m tempted to either glare or throw my arms around him in thanks. Or stab him. I personally like option C the best. I still haven’t forgiven him for taking my place.

“It’s clear. The way can be followed with ease. Call the fairies,” he demands, turning those sparkling eyes on me.

I growl out an indecipherable word at his commanding demeanor, then call the fairies down because I’ve no time to argue. I’m so close to my family I can almost touch it.

I’m coming. And all my enemies better bow before me, because if not, I’m feeling really stabby tonight.

~~~

The fairies... when the Spark reaches out to them, they are silver threads of light instead of the usual golden. And they also almost... hide? I guess that’s the best way to describe them on my internal map.

My Gift is not finicky tonight, thank The King.

The fairies descend, and I can feel them grow closer, but I cannot see them. Must be like the glamours they put on Ran’s horn to make her look like a pony instead of a unicorn.

When I hear a haughty cough, I know they’re here.

“Why’d you bring the king?” I ask, glaring at the place where I feel the emotions of haughty indifference and disdain. But there’s something beneath them I can’t quite fathom... something golden and light, but also dark and broken. He is... I don’t get the king at all. He's complicated.

Areece narrows his eyes at me. “The king?” he asks, but startles when a voice comes from beside him. I grin under my mask. Now that’s payback for all the times he’s snuck up on me. I turn my mind to the queen’s voice.

“He insisted, Guardian. And we will be able to use his skills this night,” the queen says, her voice nonchalant but with a hidden undertone that hints at annoyance.

My grin grows bigger. “Then let’s rescue my family and stop those who have harmed those we love.”

~~~

The four men who took Silver Eyes plus a few are lying around in an abandoned cellar, some in pools of blood and some only unconscious.

I look over at the culprit of this, and he glances to the ground. Almost... sheepish?

I raise a brow. Is he abashed by his skill level?

He raises his eyes to meet mine, and something churns in the depths, something I can’t name.

He turns and presses a hand along the edge of the wall opening the pathway farther down below.

The entrance to this underground is not what I’ve come to expect from other places underneath I have visited. This is dark and dank, the walls bleached almost white in some places and darker than black in others, and shimmering with a slimy green hue. It’s not the warm welcoming walls of a cave. It’s the stink and bone level, quaking horror of a dungeon.

I grimace, but have to physically stop myself from running, because if this leads to my family, I wish to get there quickly. But... wisdom cautions me and I try to listen. There could be traps or more guards or mages. We need to be slow and steady.

The thread of selfish wishes and deep darkness and bright light darts forward, getting about three feet in front of me. The queen does something and reels her husband back.

I gape as the orb around the king pops into existence, then abruptly vanishes. The king crosses his arms and glares in the direction I feel the most faint silvery thread.

The queen hides herself from me, emotion and all. And I wanna know how to do that. Cause if there’s another Empath around... I shiver. I really don’t want someone else inside my brain right now. It’s too busy and crazy as is.

Hans looks to Areece, and Areece nods at something he sees there.

Hans starts down the passageway, walking slowly and easing his way down the slick and muddy floor. Water drops from above, and I’m suddenly worried about the place collapsing on us.

My family. Focus on my family. That is the only thing that matters here.

And getting all of us out alive.

Trust, daughter. I’ve got you.

Peace overwhelms my soul in a place of nightmare. A gentle smile tips my lips, and I flick my eyes skyward, my heart full.

He’s with me... even when I forget him. And he’s got me.

But can I trust him with this? With my family?

My mind returns to the many years I was a vigilante. The many times I shouldn’t have survived. Just like when I met Hans. Rescue or a way out or a way to win would come... just when I needed it and not a second too early or late.

I survived because of that.

And this time... no matter what happens, I will choose to trust.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t trust. A part that feels broken beyond repair, but The King merely wraps himself around it, easing the pain of the jagged wounds my heart had accumulated over the last years.

I take a deep breath, the pain of my ribs minuscule compared to the pain eased in my heart, and let it out slowly.

We can do this. We will do this.

Together, my King? I ask softly.

His smile warms my heart. Together, my child.

We come to a fork in the passageway.

Down one is darkness… and so is the other, which feels poetic. All branches and choices of my life have led to here, where darkness seeps into whatever pathway I choose.

That just means I need my own light.

The Spark warms in agreement.

Silver Eyes glances over at me… and stares. I think if he were less emotionally constipated, the staring could be considered shock.

I quirk a brow, staring right back. Then I see Hans start from the corner of my eye.

“Minx… you’re... glowing.”

I look down and jump.

I frantically shake my arms out, but that does not diminish the warm orange glow coming from my hands and glowing slightly from beneath my dark sleeves.

“You don’t see that every day, do you, sir?” Silver Eyes asks Hans… and not in a rhetorical way.

“No, son. Can’t say I’ve seen this before.”

“Would you two stop? It’s just me… having my own light,” I say, still trying to shake the light off as if it were water instead of coming out of my pores.

Silver Eyes still looks a bit spooked, but he gives me a smile beneath his red cloak. “You are a light, mea tigris. No need to glow to show us that.”

“He’s right, minx. Think you could shut it off?” Hans looks down both passageways and back the way we came, his brows pinched in concern, and I know he’s as concerned as I am about being a glowing beacon to anyone down here.

Alrighty, Rose. Would you mind to stop glowing?

She’s not doing this, rider.

Then what is? I ask, trying to stay calm and not scream.

Her confusion makes me confused. If the Spark isn’t making me glow… then what?

“You’ve found peace, Guardian. This is what makes you shine.”

My eyes widen as the queen’s steady voice comes from right beside my ear. “Peace at a time like this?” I ask, looking down passageways of nightmare that stink. Where my family is.

“With The King by your side, there is no time too great or too small for peace.”

A gentle smile curves my lips beneath the mask. “True. But now how do I get it to stop?”

“You glow for a reason. Continue, dearie. Many do not reach such a point in their lives as to glow with The King’s light, and at such a time as this… you are special, Guardian. Shine, and let all those who stand in your way see who comes with you. All should tremble in fear.”

I look over at Silver Eyes, who watches with a hint of something hidden in that gaze again. It’s almost like hesitancy mixed with fear and admiration, but his face is as smooth as granite.

“Alright. Let’s move.”

Silver Eyes leads the way this time, going down the left passageway.

I take a deep breath and follow.