The next morning found all of us in varying levels of discomfort. I was mostly fine, I’d minimized drinking as much as possible, and chased it with plenty of water, but the others weren’t all so lucky. Gabe, Chelsea, and Mel were all twitching messes. Callie seemed like she might be a bit hungover, but she also just generally hated mornings, so it might have been that.
Abel and Bethy were both fine, of course. My mentor’s physical toughness and Bethy’s vampire constitution apparently made them better suited to long bouts of self poisoning.
“That was so much fun!” Squealed Bethy in a register that made several people in the bar moan and cover their ears. “We should totally do that again sometime. Shame everyone here is such a lightweight.” She dug into her plate of eggs (the kitchen at the Randy Skink made breakfast for Horned Lords members before opening, and it was pretty good) unheeding of the scrape of fork on plate.
Gabe groaned loudly, wincing to himself at the sensation. “Please stop.” He begged. “So loud.”
I felt bad for Gabe. I didn't think he was a big drinker, but like me I was pretty sure he felt like he needed to blend in when we were undercover. I hadn't even had that much in comparison, but I was already mentally promising myself never to drink again if I could help it.
“Mornin’!” Said an unreasonably loud and cheery voice as someone slammed a backpack down on the table. We all looked up to see Griff grinning down at us, and at our collective wince he barked out a laugh. “Aww, you still get hangovers. That's so cute. How's your crew doing Kyle? You still want to tag along to the meeting?” He kept it vague but felt compelled to add. “It's a long and uncomfortable trip.”
Abel snorted. “We’re still in. I want to hear more of this ‘truth’ you were telling me. We just need a few minutes to get cleaned up. You got a shower around here?” We’d slept in the bar (and thank the gods for vitality because we’d be made of knots and sore muscles if we weren’t Ascendants) and we all smelled pretty bad.
Chuckling, Griff just shook his head. “Nah, you won’t need one of those. No real point where we’re going.” He turned and walked off with a snicker.
“What do you mean by that?” Asked my sister as he walked away. She turned to us, eyes filling with panic. “What did he mean by that?” She sounded so genuinely distressed I was taken aback. It took me a minute to figure out why, and when I realized it I felt stupid for not assuming.
My sister didn’t come across as a neat freak. She didn’t insist on extra stops or wince at germs or any of that. However, that was because her power was literally cleanliness. Purification flames could remove dirt, grime, anything unclean she wanted, and it didn’t need to be used long or obviously to do it.
Thinking about it, Chelsea always looked clean to me, and now that I thought about it, her power was probably constantly in use keeping her that way. Since we were undercover she couldn’t use such an obviously Church related ability.
“It’s fine.” I said kindly, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. “He just means we’re probably going somewhere hideously filthy. Maybe a sewer or some kind of charnel pit. We’ll be covered in muck of one sort or another, made up of gods know what and we won’t be able to wash it off as we travel for hours into an underground labyrinth of disgusting effluvia.”
Her glare was so intense by the time I finished I was worried she might lunge across the table and bury a knife in my eye.
Callie kicked my shin, and I just shrugged. “What?” I asked innocently. “I’m teasing her. It’s what siblings do.”
She held her glare for another few seconds before finally breaking down in a fit of giggles. “Honestly.” Gasped my sister. “You’re so easy. I’m not a five year old, Shane, you won’t hurt my feelings by teasing me a bit. Besides, you’ll be almost as miserable as me, it’s been like two days since your last shower.”
I froze. She was right. I was filthy and I hadn’t had any miraculous steaming tears of the gods pouring down on me from above like a storm of divine forgiveness.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Thanks for that.” Scowled Callie. “I’d been distracting him from that realization. Now I’m going to have to experience his moping about it all day. Well played.” My sister grinned, but I was too distracted with surreptitiously itching at my skin to really get into it. I suddenly felt so unclean. I wondered if I could borrow a pitcher of water and dump it over my head.
Which was…weirdly extreme. I did love taking long showers, but I wasn’t…I paused, turning to Callie. “Do you guys ever MENTION my shower addiction to anyone? Like outside of our general group.”
She shrugged. “I guess. Like as a funny story here or there. Why-” She stopped, then her lips twitched, and she eventually dissolved into gales of laughter. “Oh my gods, you have SHOWER related recursion. How bad is it?”
“Not terrible.” I shrugged. “But I might commission someone to make a portable shower for long trips.”
Everyone at the table started laughing, and even I joined in. As far as recursion went I could think of worse. It made me smile to think about it too, even if I was a bit itchy. Sadly, the amusement didn’t last long. Griff barked out a command, and the rest of us all headed over to him, ready to follow.
Everyone in the bar had dragged themselves out of their post drink funk, some splashing water on their faces to wake up and some not bothering. When we were all gathered, Abel raised a brow at Griff. “So…how do we access flipside. Is there an elevator or something?”
“Nah.” The big man shook his head. “Flipside isn’t exactly residential. It’s more like maintenance tunnels. There are lots of entrances, but most of the access to deeper spots is under the central market. They have a sort of underground district made up of black market shops down there, accessible through staff stairwells from the larger buildings where the major corporations and clans do their business.”
Callie cleared her throat. “Isn’t that…risky?” She asked worriedly. “Like we’re supposed to be avoiding scrutiny here, right? How are we doing that bringing a bunch of rough looking gangsters in masks into an upscale shopping complex.”
“Excellent question.” He said with a grin. Walking over to the back of the bar, he took a position next to one of the booths. Reaching down, he slid his hands under the edges and squeezed. There were a pair of clicks and he lifted, revealing that the whole booth was on some kind of trapped door and opened to reveal a slight indent in the ground with a big hole in the center.
The hole led down into absolute darkness via ladder, and Griff gestured to it grandly. “The entrance to the deeper sections can only be found in the underdistrict, but access to THAT can be gained from plenty of places. The easiest way to find the primary tunnels is sewer access. It’s how we get around most of the time when we’re on serious business instead of rattling cages.”
I was actually kind of impressed. There was no visible seam on the floor and that table hadn’t seemed unusual in any way. It was perfectly camouflaged, and the table itself was much bigger than the small vertical shaft, so it didn’t like, thunk hollowly when used, at least not from my recollection.
He gestured us forward, and I shrugged, stepping out into the shaft and flexing State of Grace a bit. Always on or not, I could tweak the usage, and a quick pull of my soul let me drift gracefully down and touch the floor of the tunnel nearly soundlessly.
Stepping aside, I held out my arms as Callie dropped right into them. I’d felt her plan through the bond, and she’d even shot me a quick message, so it was easy enough to catch her.
We both moved as the others came down, though not just our group, the rest of the Horned Lords were interspersed throughout the descenders, until finally, we were all standing in the darkened tunnel.
I noted the edges of it were arched and made of cobblestone or something, and the whole place had a very historical feel. Griff snapped his fingers, and a lantern on a stick appeared. He opened it and lit it, flooding the tunnel with light, then closed it and held it out in front of us. Once that was done he removed a small remote from his ring and pressed a button, and the booth above us swung down, sealing us all in what would have been darkness without the lantern to light our path.
Callie grabbed my arm, looking unhappy. “Stay away from the walls.” She said calmly. “Those aren’t natural.” She pointed at the stone, and I watched the movement of our flickering shadows along the walls in the dancing candle light. Or I WOULD have assumed that, if she hadn’t said anything.
In between the naturally shifting shadows, a series of other dark forms danced, twirling and spinning and throwing themselves back and forth. As I watched, my heart started to pound, taking on a staccato beat like drums. I stared in fascination until I got a smack upside the head. “Ow.” I complained, turning to Callie. “What was that for?”
“You were standing there almost a minute without responding.” She said bluntly. “And it wasn’t just you?” She gestured around at the others, some being woken from their stupor, some seeming fine. Bethy was chatting amicably with Chelsea, both of them seemingly unaffected.
“I don’t think everyone has noticed yet.” She said with a shrug. “Without my shadow senses I wouldn’t have. Though I think Griff knows. That lantern seems to be keeping them away.”
We all turned to look at the gang leader, who was grinning at us. “You got me.” He said with a chuckle. “Just one more little test. The forsaken live in the dark down here. The lantern keeps them off but their dance is hypnotic.” He turned to look at the others. “OI!” He barked. “Quit lollygagging.”
Everyone who was distracted snapped out of it. I was curious why some of the others didn’t seem to know about this, but before I could ask, he reached up and flicked a switch on the lantern, closing one of the four shutters, and the dancing of the flame was subdued. The shadow forms faded, no longer visible, and I realized he really HAD been testing us. And not just us either.
Once the little interlude was over we set off through the tunnels. I’ll give Griff this, he was a damned good navigator. He took us through about a dozen nearly identical intersections and chambers, taking us up and then down a few ladders, until finally we came to one large chamber that was different than the rest.
Approaching the side of the room, he slid the lantern stick into a bracket in the wall next to a small waterfall. When he did, a small platform emerged from the water, splitting the flow and opening a door as a series of round stones rose to sit just above the water, forming a walkway.
He gestured us in, and we all entered. He removed an identical lantern from the opposite side and the waterfall resumed its solid form. It took another fifteen minutes before we arrived at the entrance to yet ANOTHER huge cavern, but this one was filled with people, rushing about in a variety of states of hurry. “Well, here we are.” Said Griff happily. “Welcome to the underdistrict.”