Since the people had ceased to flood in after the initial rush, the Caverns had quieted down and settled into an established order. Even so, the place was a mess of people, since they were not large enough to accommodate everyone. With people crammed together like sardines, the walls had begun to feel narrow, and the bustle of the Squalor had invaded here as well.
Right in the middle of the road, vendors had spread their wares on blankets, whatever he could save from the raid. I didn't know what made them so confident to avoid robbery in this chaos, but this didn't really matter to me. As I shaped my mana like the old man had taught me, I swaggered through the crowd in the easiest, fastest way possible: Right over the vendor's blanket, where no one else would dare step.
“Hey, watch it brat!” an angry voice rushed after me.
Unfortunately, my abilities were far less developed than I had thought. Startled by the sound, I jolted up and bolted off into the masses.
After that little incident, I decided to be more cautious. I would tail people on silent feet, focused on the shaping of light alone. Both the shapes for light and sound were a challenge for me, both together seemed impossible so far. In the end, I decided to drop the sound shape for now, since the light shapes seemed more useful, and the Mystic had put a special focus on them. By now, I recognized that a single shape would be enough of a challenge for the inexperienced me.
After a few hours of practice, I could reduce the distance to less than two meters and still feel confident that no one would notice me, at least until I made a sound. I followed all kinds of people, but most were either going to some distant corners to relieve themselves, or they would go get food or water.
By now, the gangs had once again claimed their territories and divided up the caverns between themselves. They had claimed most of the earthen houses along the walls, while the commoners had to sit in the center and let the water from the ceiling drip onto them. Whole colonies of people just sat there and stared into nothing, their eyes empty.
However, this wasn't the end of their trials. I had only been out for a few hours and yet I had already seen enough callousness and misery to last me a lifetime. There were multiple water holes around the edges of the cave, more than enough to support everyone. Yet despite their abundance, they had all been controlled by different gang factions. I saw a father beg for water for his dying child, but the gangster in charge of water had remained stone cold. At last the thin man became desperate and offered the gangster what little he had, in an effort to bribe his way to more water. I looked around, into the empty eyes of the Squalor folk around us.
For me, the incident was one bridge too far, one injustice too many to ignore. Now I was a mage. No longer would I stand for such tyranny. Even though I knew revenge wouldn't change a thing, I couldn't just use this new-found power all for myself. There was a responsibility to use it for the common good, to fight unfairness wherever I found it.
Thus, as bold as I was foolhardy, I made the decision to sneak into the gang's hideout. My goal was to take from them what they had forced from the people and return justice to the poor man who had been robbed to save his child's life.
Of course, the gangster's green jacket had only made my decision easier. This was another one of the Jackals, the exact same as Lester. Taking from his people would be extra sweet.
Though it shouldn't have surprised me, getting access to the jackal's lair was trivial. Since the Caverns had been built from raw earth, there weren't even any doors on the earthen abodes the gangs had turned into their temporary headquarters.
The fast evacuation after the raid told me that the people of the Squalor had known about the caverns before the guardians had appeared, but it seemed like the gangsters had never bothered to prepare for eventualities, which was why their front door was left open. All I had to do was walk past the dozing watchman besides the entrance.
Once inside, I waltzed past the drunk, drinking or bragging gangsters. Where would they hide their valuables, I wondered. Guys like this were only ever interested in their own benefits, with no regard for their fellow man. Of course they would have all their treasure locked up somewhere safe. All I had to do was find the most solid door in the building and open it.
As I sneaked around and looked through the rooms, I found one in particular which didn't match the atmosphere of the others. Unlike the rest of the jackals, the men inside weren't boisterous or frivolous. Instead, the air in the room dripped with danger.
“That little bastard! It's all his fault!”
Through the open door, the growl hit me like a sledgehammer. I recognized that voice. My stomach sank to my knees as I sneaked over and leered inside.
The result wasn't unexpected. In the room, Lester's lap dogs sat in a circle while their boss was pacing up and down and cursed in a breathless voice.
“Without that skinny rat, none of this woulda happened! You heard what my bro said? I'm trouble? Me?! No way am I gonna take the blame for that shit!”
He looked around his crew, but his own men averted their eyes. Of course they would. These sorts would only ever follow the strongest, most successful. To be frank, I was surprised they hadn't jumped ship already.
“You guys still haven't found that bastard's people, have you? Just what are you doing?! As soon as we get that little brat, we're gonna be off the hook again!”
Despite the risk inherent in opposing an enraged Lester, one of his crew raised his head to face him. This one might have been something like a vice-leader, I thought. Never would I believe that all of fatty's goons were this brave.
“...we tried. For the last couple days, we've been moving through the caverns around the clocks. We've even followed you back to the Squalor. Not once, but twice, just like you wanted, Les. You know how tough that was for us? Going against the big boss' orders like that? What if the reds find us out there? We'd be toast!”
Although Lester's heavy brow furrowed to cast a shadow over his face, the vice-leader seemed to have talked himself into a panic.
“This sort of stunt is way too dangerous, Les. Rather than sneak around the red guards, we might as well look for something to do in the caves. With how mashed together and tired out all those bums are, it'll be easy to plan a decent score. Just give a big tribute and make a good impression on the boss. Make up for our mistake or whatever.”
After the minion had finished, an eerie quiet fell over the room. Lester still stood there, his face covered in shadows, and stared down his underling. The fatty really didn't like it when others thought for him, I knew that well. Under his boss' stare, the vice-leader's voice had become smaller and smaller, until his vigorous speech had turned to a mumble by the end. Once again, no one in the room was willing to face his boss.
“You done?” Les said at last, his voice as dark as his expression. “Any more brilliant ideas? Don't think I don't know what you're tryin' to do. 'Let's go get some gifts and join someone else's command unit. Leave Les to take care of his own shit'.”
“No way, we'd never...”
Although I didn't know him, the panicked voice told even me that the guy was feeling guilty. Of course the oversuspicious Lester would pick up on it as well.
“You'd never... what? Huh!? You guys don't know how things work around here. Without me you'd still be sitting in a dark room. Paint pictures and pick your noses You get that? I brought you guys here! Me! That puts me in charge! So you best listen to what I have to say!”
As Lester's face turned into a pressure cooker, his men tucked in their heads to brace for the explosion to come. However, their boss surprised them all, as he did me. Rather than throw chairs at his men, he calmed down enough to speak with purpose.
“This isn't school anymore. Here in the real world, things aren't that easy. You really think the boss would welcome you in his team if you steal some random trash for him? Since those bums are such an easy scoop, the boss can take whatever they have all by himself. No need for him to bother you bitches with the easy pickings. Nah, what that guy cares about is loyalty. Ever heard of that? No way is he gonna commend some rat bastards who abandon their commander at the first sign of trouble.”
His massive frame built up and his hands crossed before his chest, Lester lorded over the room. His presence laid over his men like chains as he shackled them to his cause.
“We entered this place together. For the boss, that means we might as well be one giant blob, got it? Whatever happens to me happens to you,” Lester sneered.
“As for your other bright idea... what was it? 'Make up for our mistake'? You think that's gonna work? Why do you think we gotta stay here by the entrance, in a room with fucking nothing in it? Why aren't we sitting with my bro upstairs? Huh?”
Again he looked around his whipped underlings for dramatic effect.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“The boss thinks the reds' raid is our fault! That's a stain on our rep. No way is the boss gonna forget that just because we did good one time. You don't just cover a stain with another stain. You erase it. Just like I'll erase that little bastard.”
“But, Les-”
Like a snake taking a prey into its sight, the gang commander's head jerked over to the dissenter.
“You got a problem?”
“...well, if we can't find him then we can't find him. How are we gonna erase him if we don't know where he is? We've been looking for days. I don't think he's even in the caves, or the Squalor.”
Rather than answer, Lester stared down the disturbance hard. I knew that stare well. It was his 'don't bother me with reality' look. I had received this one many times before he beat the crap out of me, be it out of spite, or because I dared to disagree with him, or just for the sport of it.
Unfortunately, he would be far better behaved with his own men, moreso in a place where he wasn't anywhere near the top of the pecking order. Thus, he sank into thought as he forced that slow brain of his to come up with a solution to their problems.
A deep breath was my attempt to calm my racing heart. If their best tool to catch me was whatever the fatty had in place of ingenuity, I wasn't in any danger for now. On silent feet, I stole myself away from the door and got ready to retreat backwards, to continue my own mission.
Let him chase shadows until he dies of old age, I thought.
“Hey, I got it!”
When I heard the fatty's shout, my head turned back all on its own. Extra intel never hurt, even if I didn't think Lester of all people would have come up with any useful ideas.
“The coathanger's got a sister, right? Allie or something?”
“Yeah, she's like a class below ours. Another weird and gloomy one, same as her brother.”
I barely registered the words of the juvenile gangster as my head filled with smoke. In a haze, I turned to stare at Les. He better not plan to do what I thought he would. Not even he could be this scummy, right? I would be proven wrong within seconds.
“Wasn't he always trying to protect the sister, buzzing around her like a servant? Okay, since it's like that, let's just go and take the little bitch. I'm sure the girl knows where her bastard brother is hiding out. Then we get him, bring him back to the boss and even get the girl as a little bonus. Bang! Problem solved.”
Cold sweat ran down my spine, my eyes agape in fear and anger. I wouldn't let this fat lowlife get his fingers on Amy. Not in this life. She didn't even have anything to do with this! Why would he aim for her at all? All my muscles tensed as my body tried to decide between fight or flight.
My brain was running faster than it ever had, frantic in search for a solution. I wasn't even aware that in this moment, the Mystic's training had saved my life. Not only was I still invisible to the mortals in front of me, despite my rattled state. I hadn't even considered blasting the fatty's head off his shoulders, an easy feat for the new me.
Throughout my training, the old man had been most adamant about two things: Don't show yourself to others and don't waste your mana. If I had done either here, I would have been exposed, trapped behind enemy lines.
With my lack of training, I could have never managed a safe escape. Not only that, escape also wouldn't be an option at that point. After all, even if they couldn't get to me, they would still aim for my family.
Finally, something in my head clicked and I knew what to do. Spurred into action, my feet rushed out of the room, irrespective of the noise it would cause.
“Who's there?”
I ignored Lester's panicked voice from behind. The building was packed anyway. Who would know just whose steps those were? If the noise could help me make fatty think his boss might have set a spy on him? All the better. For what I had planned, I would need to stall for time.
Back out in the communal hall of the jackal's lair, I scanned the place for my new goal. If I wanted to finish my work before fatty was done with his meeting, I had to be fast. My steps brought me towards the stairs. If security was any indication, Lester's boss would be up, just who I needed. Although a gangster with broad shoulders stood guard at the foot of the steps, the constructions here were as simple as anywhere else in the Caverns. Without a railing along the stairwell, all I had to do was walk past the guard and sneak up the second step from the side.
Too easy.
I didn't even consider the danger, or the eerie calm of my actions. Just like in my fight in the Squalor, that unnatural, serene part of my brain had taken over, the one with total confidence in my actions.
Halfway up the stairs, another gang member surprised me. His hand full of bottles, broad steps carried him towards the ground floor.
Dammit!
I pressed myself to the wall, as tightly as I could, but the gangster's generous girth didn't fill me with confidence. Like this, we would touch and my disguise would be ruined.
From within myself, I found another stroke of genius. My feet pushed off the stairs and, for the first time in my life, I used my magic power to form an original shape.
Force, pressure.
I jumped up and pressed my back into the wall. Any normal person would just bounce off. However, my mana shape created an unnatural force to press me onto the hardened earth. Held up by the friction, I hung there as if crucified, while I watched the careless gangster bumble past me. My eyes were cold, sapped of all emotions. I would never forgive them if they dared hurt my sister. Not a single one of them.
As I released the magic pressure on my body bit by bit, I slid back down from the wall. Once again on my own two feet, I returned to my previous task and went upstairs. All I found at the top was a simple hallway. At its very end was a door barricaded shut by metal sheets. Two armed guards stood in its front, vigilant unlike the men below.
Behind the mounted obstacles, I would find the treasure of the jackals, of that I was certain. However, none of it mattered right now. Playing savior might have been fun, but deep inside, I knew that my act would help no one but myself. Right now, I didn't need to make myself feel better, I needed to save my sister. So I turned to the rooms off to the side and moved in for the one which emitted the most noise.
Unguarded. The guys inside must be pretty confident. Perfect.
A glance through the door frame revealed a table, crudely fashioned out of scrap wood from who knew where, with a group of gangsters sitting around it. Unlike the people below, the shouts at the chief's table were urgent, rather than raucous.
“This isn't a solution! You wanna let the people dry out like weeds?” One gangster's palm struck the table.
“What does it matter?” another asked. “They're weeds anyways! Don't do anything but multiply. We're in charge of their water supplies, but they try all kinds of tricks and just take more than they need. They're gonna resell it anyways, the fucking rats!”
“So why not just punish the assholes who abuse our system? Why punish children and old people!?”
“We need to be real here! We can't feed anyone on being nice. We can't punish the resellers because they've bribed our own guys. How do we even start to punish them? We'll just piss off our own. The wells are already drying up too. By the time we're done with the cleanup, everyone is gonna be dead. We need a fix now, not once you've decided who deserves to live!”
“And your fix is to cut the old and weak off from the water!? To let them die!?” Body tensed, the gangster jumped to his feet, but his opposite remained calm.
“We're not the council, we don't have unlimited food and water. We need to be realistic, so only the ones who can help us deserve supplies.”
Although their discussion seemed important, none of it mattered to me at that moment. All my focus was on the tall man with the buzz cut who sat in the center of the group, a grim look on his face. This was the jackals' boss, I remembered. Even more importantly, he was Lester's boss.
Although my skills were still trivial, I had studied the basics well. Not only had the Mystic forced the lessons into me, my determination to see Eileen had reinforced his teachings in my mind. Though I still didn't have full control over the elusive sound waves, I knew enough to fulfill my plan.
Thus, I began to form a cone of mana, invisible to the dull creatures inside the room, and began to retrace my steps. Back into the hallway, back down the stairs, back past the guard. Back into Lester's little exile.
By now I was sure the bosses upstairs were confused. They would have realized the strange phenomenon around them. Suddenly, sounds from far away would make their way into their private room and interrupt their discussion.
I would have to be fast before surprise and confusion turned to frustration and anger. They couldn't leave the room to investigate the phenomenon or my plan would fail. There was something I needed them to hear before that happened. I moved into fatty's exile, the ever elongating funnel of magic dragged right behind me, and folded it over the entrance.
Afterwards, I put my ear to the funnel. I had to listen in and confirm that my work had been a success. While redirecting sounds was easier magic than swallowing it outright, it was still a challenge to me. I had made sure the sound would only travel in one direction. There was no point if Lester would be alerted by the suspicious voice of his boss. I needed him to run into his doom with eyes closed.
“Okay, but we have to be careful,” one of the minions said in a meek voice. I didn't know which one. It didn't matter.
“What the crap do you mean 'careful'! We're green jackals! The only men in Astralis who don't have to fear anything!”
They were still inside, still discussing their plans. I knew Les well. It wouldn't take long for him to say something stupid.
“So what if the boss has sent a guy to look after us? Maybe he's just there to check if we have the balls to do what needs to be done. Do you really think we'd still be sitting here if that was a spy? Boss would already be down here to kick our asses! No way. If we don't want to embarrass ourselves even more, you guys have to stop being such little bitches. Got it!? Act like men for once! I'll go outside right now. Again. I'll sneak out of the caves and into the city, catch the little bastard's bitch sister and be back before dinner. Anyone who wants to come along can stay in my unit. Anyone who isn't man enough can fuck right off. You're no longer in my crew. Go find someone else to roll with.”
“What the hell is going on down there!” An awe-inspiring bellow from above caused the time inside the jackal's lair to freeze solid.
A small smile crept onto my lips as I let the mana of the funnel loose. With no one there to hold its structure, the shape dissipated into the environment. Its work had already been done. There was no way Les would get anywhere near the Cavern exits within the next couple days... if he was lucky. A few days was more than enough time for me. Time was all I needed.
I left the lair the same way I had entered it. Although my original goal had gone unfulfilled, I had discovered a much more important one in the process. As I left, I heard powerful steps rush down the stairs, but there was no reason to turn around. Whoever was running down wasn't after me. Lester would surely appreciate the little lesson in karmic justice, but I had no more time to bother with the scum. I needed to keep moving, for I had only gained some time for now, nothing more.