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As we headed out from the Temple, Master Landon's cage continued to jolt and jostle toward our destination, accompanied by the occasional high-pitched, tiny screeches of the demonic leech trapped inside. His gold staff tapped along the flagstones, serving as support as he tried to counterbalance the tiny but mighty fiend’s pulls.

“What are you four up to?” Tetora questioned from behind a courtyard pillar where he had clearly been waiting to intercept us.

I glanced around furtively, noting only the Order of the Silver nearby. “Demon hunting,” I replied in a barely audible whisper.

He straightened considerably. “And you didn’t invite me?”

“Well…” I hesitated. “Aren’t you busy in the Periphery?”

“I need a break from the kid. Do you know how many questions Kiko can ask in a minute? She doesn’t even give me a chance to answer one before the next one’s halfway out of her mouth!”

“Where is she now?” I asked, worried she was off on her own.

Tetora waved his hand dismissively. “Lieutenant Fianna’s keeping an eye on her.” He scowled for a moment. “Aleph’s there too, and he has more patience than I do for children.”

There was no way he didn’t like kids. “She mussed your fur, didn’t she?”

Tetora snorted and crossed his arms, falling in step with us as if I had conscripted him. “Both cheeks when I wasn’t looking!”

I’m going to assume he meant his face.

With a deepening frown, Nora slowed her pace until she came to a complete stop. “Just because Rae found the leech problem doesn’t mean she needs to be the one to solve it, right?”

Master Landon exchanged a guilty glance with Relias.

Nora tapped her foot impatiently. “Spill the tea, teach. What’s the secret in the sewers you’re worried about?”

“Not here,” he replied firmly.

The closest entrance to the sewers in the Sanctum was poorly hidden behind an ivy-covered wall in a small, overgrown garden. Despite the intentional proliferation of fragrant flowers, nothing could mask the smell of an open cesspool. We cracked the grate covering the hole, and Nora again protested on my behalf.

“This reeks of a trap,” she warned. “Separate the Captains, break their coordination? Classic bad guy moves!”

“Captain Corwin and I will remain in contact,” Relias assured us, holding up a small blue orb. “Should anything happen on the surface during our sojourn, he will keep us informed. He is aware of our current situation.”

“Except for whatever you don’t want him to know about,” Nora said, her tone laced with accusation.

“Please trust me, Lady Nora,” Relias murmured with a bow. “All will be made known to you shortly.”

“It was my decision to keep it secret,” Master Landon added with a shrug. “Relias simply agreed to my terms.”

Tetora was already holding his breath.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright going with us?” I asked. “Your sense of smell is quite acute, isn’t it?”

Defiantly, he took the lead and went in first.

You don’t need to keep proving your strength to me… I know you’re tough!

I let Master Landon go next since he insisted on holding the cage with our desperate captive inside. Relias followed, exuding a gold aura from his staff similar to mine. I went next, and Nora closely trailed behind.

I turned to Nora, who was summoning her ball of light. “At least we don’t need torches. Isn’t that nice?”

Master Landon, not to be outdone, took his gold staff and summoned an even larger sphere of incandescence. Nora inhaled sharply as its light overtook hers.

“Where do I get a staff like that?”

Master Landon shook his head. “Stick with the one you have. You have no need for gold.”

“Gold conducts magic better than wood!” she snapped.

“So?”

“So, I should get the better weapon!”

“Better weapon?” He let out a long sigh. “Very well. After our experiment is complete, I shall trade staves with you. Deal?”

Nora blinked several times. “Well…”

“Oh? Second thoughts?” he asked, a smirk hovering on his shadowed lips. “I thought I was being generous, not even charging you extra for the precious metal it's made of.”

“You’re looking to make a fool of me,” she muttered. “I’ll hold off for now.”

He nodded slowly, turning down a smaller stone passageway that descended sharply. “You’re becoming a quick study.”

We were all probably lucky that he couldn’t see the faces she made behind his back.

We walked a little longer before Master Landon tapped Tetora’s shoulder with his staff. “Let’s stop here and talk for a moment.” He pointed skywards. “That small vent way up there is our blessing. Too high for us to be overheard at street level but low enough to provide temporary relief.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Tetora clearly disagreed with his last observation, but he did pause, his eyes scanning the passageways.

Master Landon let out a shallow cough. “The leech seems to be luring us to the central cistern. Sealed within it is—”

“An ancient demon!” Nora gasped.

“An invention of mine,” Master Landon corrected, giving her a stern look. “Who in their right mind would seal a demon in the middle of a populated city? Why don’t I just build a sanctum for them while I’m at it?”

“To be fair, I was thinking the same thing…” I admitted sheepishly.

“My invention,” Master Landon continued after striking his staff against the stone wall, “serves as the propulsion behind the crystals. Without it, they would not rotate nor cast the barrier that protects Chairo from above and below.”

“And below?” Nora cocked her head. “There goes another one of my theories… I was wondering if the demon snuck in from underground.”

“I think, um, the demon scribe got in during crystal maintenance,” I murmured, recalling Olethros’s charge to him. “It might not have been an innovative idea after all.”

Relias grimaced. “Regardless of the demon’s method of entry, the fact remains that Master Landon’s apparatus must be preserved at all costs.”

I frowned. “Shouldn’t someone be guarding it, then?”

Master Landon turned his gaze toward the darkness. “No one is supposed to know it exists. It was hermetically sealed with amity, never to see the light of day.”

“Just because it’s made from dark magic? Or were you afraid of tampering?”

“You listed my fears in order of priority,” he conceded. “The world is not ready to admit there is a connection between amity and animus energies.”

I blinked, thinking their relationship was obvious. “They’re just two sides of the same coin.”

Relias stiffened, his jaw tensing. “Animus is nothing like amity. It must be carefully controlled and counterbalanced; otherwise, only destruction awaits. Master Landon is an expert on this, but I fear others, even those who have received his tutelage, are not nearly as skilled.” He then caught Nora’s disparaging glare. “Present company excluded, Lady Nora.”

“Indeed…” she said with a shallow sniff.

“I do perform checks routinely,” Master Landon added as the leech continued to pull the cage forward. “The cistern is encased in steel, with which I am able to evaluate its functions remotely. Even the other day, I noted no abnormalities. However…” He sighed. “Given current circumstances…”

I shifted uneasily. “You’d like to perform a visual inspection?”

He nodded. “With proper security precautions, of course.”

Tetora, who had only been half listening, flattened his ears as a soft growl started to escape him. “More leeches,” he snarled, pointing to a few squirming shadows in the shallows ahead.

Relias flicked his finger, and small magic circles surrounded them, burning them away in tiny blazes of light. "Let me know whenever we see one. I do not trust that they operate independently."

We continued down into the sewers, with Tetora pointing out the occasional dark leech. Although water splashed and sloshed around us, we stayed dry as we wound around the elevated stone walkways until we came to the large, curved wall I had found suspicious during my first trip down here. It was marked with the Roman number VI, signifying we were directly south of its center.

“I suppose this is as good a place as any to make an entrance,” Master Landon remarked after we cleared the area of vermin. “Lady Nora. I would ask you to create an entryway following my precise instructions.”

“Me?” she scoffed, placing her right hand over her chest. “Are you sure I’m not too unskilled? Reckless? Destructive even?”

Master Landon tilted his head. “If you have self-doubt, then I shall open the way instead—”

“No! I can do it! Just tell me what you want done.”

“You will need to convert all physical materials blocking our entry. Transform them into an open doorway, three feet wide, six feet tall, and two feet deep. I suggest turning the steel and stone into water so the opening will clear itself.”

Why does this sound like another math problem?

“Right,” Nora muttered. “Water…”

He tapped his chin. “Oh. And do it without using your staff.”

“Why?!”

He shrugged. “What did you ask me for before? Extra credit?”

Nora shoved her staff into my hands, cracked her knuckles, and put her hands on the wall.

Master Landon stepped back. “Do you feel the need to touch it to convert it to its new ideal form? How interesting. Too bad you’ll be soaked in the process.”

At that, we all moved upriver, Nora included, opting to stand on a few elevated stones nearby. She puffed out her cheeks and snidely muttered, “Transmuta rem!”

Water poured out the newly formed hole in the curved wall, joining the dingy river that flowed beyond us. A violet light pulsed in the doorway beyond.

“Well?” she asked proudly as Master Landon slowly approached the entryway. “Did I do good?”

“You did well,” he corrected absently, peering inside. “Remind me to measure the proportions later to calculate your final score.”

Despite the increasing grief she had been receiving, she laughed openly, a giant smile on her face. “I won’t accept anything less than an A+.”

Does he even know what that means?

Master Landon breathed a sigh of relief as his ball of light zipped back and forth. “It appears everything is still in order here. Come, let me show you my greatest invention.”

We filed inside the large cistern carefully, trying to avoid the small waterfalls spouting from the upper sides. However, our attention was immediately diverted to a gigantic contraption powered by the streams of water as they fell into a large pool below. A series of crystalline orbs of various sizes glowed faintly with dark, swirling energy, suspended within a circular, delicately wrought metal framework. A large orb, taller than even Aleph, rotated on its axis at the heart of the apparatus, spinning the other orbs around as they bobbed up and down.

“Like a weird, three-dimensional magical carousel,” Nora marveled.

“All carousels are three-dimensional,” I corrected.

“You know what I meant. It’s moving in three dimensions.”

“Technically, all carousels also—” I caught her warning glare. “You know what, you’re absolutely right.”

Oops. I was getting too carried away when I should have marveled at Master Landon’s craftsmanship.

Relias, however, looked concerned. “Lady Nora… Did you also erase the amity barrier?”

“No? I mean, I don’t think so?”

Relias’s nose twitched slightly as he clutched the blue orb in one hand, using his staff in the other to extend the gold bubble around us. However, as soon as the holy barrier came near the contraption, its edges fizzled, eaten away by the black blaze around it.

“It might… be working too well…” Relias mumbled. “I cannot encase it properly!”

The cage in Master Landon’s hand suddenly burst apart, and the leech flung itself toward the giant orb. Both it and the orb glowed with a similar purple twilight, and the leech dissolved into the orb's core. As if in response, a wave of leeches from nowhere flooded the entranceway, leaping forward to infuse themselves into the dark heart. A few bounced off the barrier surrounding us, and the orb shrank and swelled as it absorbed the tide of leeches.

“No!” Master Landon shouted, brandishing his staff. “Exsuge Animam!”

Nora echoed his incantation, her voice resounding in a desperate cry. Together, they began ripping away layers of dark miasma from the orb.

“It’s too late! Fall back!” Tetora shouted, stepping in front of me.

Relias grabbed my hand as we strengthened the holy barrier around us. The dark orb contracted sharply before exploding outward, showering the cistern with black shards of crystal that tore through the other orbs before embedding themselves into the surrounding stone. Although we were protected on all sides, we all fell to the ground, unable to maintain our footing.

In the now-open center, a giant demon unfurled itself, its lower half appearing as a sickly green, segmented yet armored worm. Its upper body was vaguely humanoid, with two emaciated, oozing arms and a round, bulbous head from which pupil-less eyes jutted at odd angles. It had no nose, and its mismatched jaw protruded unnaturally, filled with teeth that could never meet their counterparts. It let out a triumphant scream, but it was quickly drowned out by the violent tearing of earth and stone as large structures fell above us. Relias’s orb, which had fallen from his hand, crackled with static as the cistern’s ceiling began to crumble, revealing a sky devoid of any protective barrier as the clouds themselves wept at the city’s impending doom.

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