Chapter 43 - A Problematic Solution.

“It’s simple,” said Annalisa over the sloshing of water. She’d followed my example in having a bath, and, of course, she’d had them drag her tub over next to mine out behind the Mop. How else was she going to tell me all about her plan? I had sank down to my nose in the steaming, soapy water. She periodically had to break up the ice starting to form on the surface of hers.

Of course all the staff from the Mop had come running when they heard Annalisa was taking a bath with me, only to be supremely disappointed at the reality of the situation. And, of course, several had stayed to ogle her fighter’s figure. Not me, mind. I wanted to honor her modesty, though it should have occurred to me that the devilborn woman didn’t have a modest bone in her short blue body. She’d grown up with seven brothers and spent her days wrestling people twice her size into submission. And having watched some of Jeedles pit fighters go at it, I can safely tell you some of those grappling positions ought to have been in Madam Twopeak's gallery of fiendish delights back in the upper city.

I was just glad Mithra wasn’t around. I doubt I’d have survived the chiding. My cheeks reddened just thinking about some of the comments she’d probably make. But I wasn’t going to let that ruin what was otherwise an excellent bath that I desperately needed.

Annalisa scrubbed her back with a rough sponge held aloft by her tail, which was a handy trick, at that. I was so stiff from three days in rat-bed that I could barely bend half my joints. But they were starting to unwind in the scalding water. And the bark tea was starting to unwind the thumping in my head.

“Annalisa, you haven’t even told me which problem you’re talking about. Is it the Seeker’s Guild knowing we’re here? The elite shark swordsmen with the grudge and the taste for our blood? The shadowy nobleman holding thinly veiled threats over our heads?”

“The lack of magic items, of course,”

“Ah, that problem. I’d forgotten all about it,” I said.

Anna nodded. “It’s a good thing you’ve got a bodyguard with a good memory, then.”

I’m fairly sure her stint as my bodyguard was weeks over what she’d promised and had gone out the window when Kridick fled the downs, anyway. But I knew better than to argue the point to Annalisa. From her point of view, I handled the finances, the magery, planning, the businesses, and the organization. She cracked whatever heads were needed and trained to be a better fighter.

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But she was also right about still needing more magic items. The fight in the middle city arena had been a boon for our coin reserves, but that was all earmarked for our fledgling organization. None of it could be spared for prohibitively expensive magic items. “So, what’s your plan?”

She dropped the sponge and pointed the spade of her tail down at the sopping ground of the Mop’s back lot. The sponge hit her reduced water level with a splash. Annalisa apparently attacked bathing with the same fervor as everything else, in that she seemed to have a personal vendetta against dirt and grime. I’m pretty sure her wooden tub was down to half its original volume of soap and water.

I looked over the rim of my tub. “The… floor?”

“The undercity!” she exclaimed.”

My thoughts immediately went back to looking through the drain in Mother Mayaz’ basement and seeing the fist-sized eye of the stray demon. I shuddered, despite the heat of the bath. “Annalisa, just because we’ve got guild badges, it doesn’t make us adventurers. I shouldn’t have to explain how absolutely bad that idea is.”

“Why so?” she asked earnestly. “There’s tons of magic items down there.”

“There are tons of magic items down there. Most of them were carried down there by adventurers and are now in the stomachs of various monsters. It’s incredibly dangerous.”

If anything, it’s incredibly dangerous, is the phrase that would most spur on my capricious partner, and I ought to have known that.

“It’s dangerous up here,” Annalisa pointed out. “Dragonmaw isn’t a safe city, and the downs least of all.”

“Yeah, but you’re not likely to die just by setting foot in them. Delving the undercity is a constant fight for your life. You might as well pick a fight with a lamplighter.”

“Weren’t you caught in a fight for your life your first night in Barrowdown?” she asked earnestly.

“I…” I stopped and growled. I wanted to argue her point, but she was right. The downs were dangerous. But it was a day-to-day familiar danger. The undercity was foreign and deadly to me because I had never been there and had no idea how to plan for it. But adventurers delved every day, and more came out than didn’t. And of those that didn’t, the hydra’s share of those were because of untrustworthy partners. The elf delver, Alondalis, had come to me for a reading for just such a reason. Whereas I had Annalisa, who I’d faced death with on more than one occasion and trusted with my life. With her by my side, and proper planning and preparations…

I rubbed my temples, and immediately regretted it when sudsy water ran down into my eyes. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this.”

Annalisa shot up from her tub and cheered. I quickly looked away, but she was wrapped in a cloth and off in a blue, soapy flash, followed by the thunderous complaint of Miss Trundi at the water being tracked across her floor.