Receding Threats: Unexpected Encounters

[Yshvold]

Receding Threats: Unexpected Encounters

38th Ash 121

Deeper and deeper still, Yshvold must explore deeper to find this discrepancy against the natural order to his playground. Whatever it was had left its presence from where it was before and life continued as usual towards his own entrance of the waterways. He could think of no explanation for this strange happenstance besides it was simply exploring like he was, and they happened to cross paths somewhere without his notice.

A troubling notion. If he was unable to see, sense, or hear something that could threaten beasts into hiding by simply being then he was still far too weak to be of use to anyone. He will correct this discrepancy to his pride, with the head of whatever it was decorating the entrance to his way into the Middens.

Blasphemous, that was the only word that could be used to describe his feelings towards going even deeper into a place he wished he would never have seen for the rest of his life. Still though if something was down here, underneath the city above, it could threaten everything he hopes to achieve with his new found life and it must be snuffed out swiftly.

Yshvold felt the flutter of the end of his cloak behind his legs as he kept a low crouch while moving through the sewers. His mask had been pocketed away to help him see better down here, any small movement would be seen and alert him to threats before they became one.

Being in the Cistern meant that rats and slimes were not his only foes. People will undoubtly be here and may attempt to prey on him should he be seen, so he remains unseen and stalks the corridors as a shadow.

The grates that held back debris from other parts of the waterway drooled slimy water from the lips, what you would call water glittered against torches placed there by smugglers and travelers that make this place their main avenue for transport towards other parts of this forbidden hell hole. These lights made it difficult for him to find places to hide in plain sight, but he made due.

Yshvold found himself standing on a pathway that overlooked most of the area he was in. Down below a rowing boat traversed the muck filled sewage water with crates and bags, another smuggler he thought and dismissed the wayward soul to their business. For now he had another target and these people need not know he was here in the first place.

At this moment he found himself at a crossroads, a large open grate that he knew went in deeper but never had reason to go in knowing he would've never came back out and going down the steps below. Either option did not appeal to him as one was the obvious choice and the other condemned him to suffer the presence of these people and hoping they might offer him a safer route deeper in. His plain expression soured and cringed at the thought and he looked deep into the darkness of the open grate, the open maw of the beast looking far more appealing by the second.

[Aurin]

There were two sets of footsteps approaching. One sounded stealthy, but Elwes was just the quiet sort. Her hood was up as was her wont; Aurin's face was obscured by a scarf tied like a mask, but even his eyes were different, everything slightly altered by a bit of his masquerade trick. Aurin Kavafis was an upstanding businessman now; he couldn't be recognized down in the Midden. Normally, Elwes saw to things down here and they met in the Low-City to confer, but she had said there were things he needed to see and he trusted her judgment. And so here he was. And he was visibly armed. People were less likely to give him shit when they saw sheathed weapons, though some were tools, as well. All weapons were tools to his mind. But not knowing what he would need, he came prepared, and there were other blades hidden in the soles of his boots and the weave of his cloak.

Caution was the better part of valor.

Elwes was deadly in her own ways, though, and he felt safer for having her at his side.

They didn't talk now as they approached. She just gave him a look and a sinuous nod of the head to indicate their goal was just around the corner. He only nodded in response. Though quiet, they made no pretense at stealth because they weren't trying to sneak up on anyone and didn't want anyone they happened upon to think that they were. They hadn't come down here to do a murder. They just came prepared and Aurin always preferred the fight that could be avoided. Violence was a tool, but it wasn't one he liked to rely upon.

Then they turned the corner and then the crossroads was in sight.

[Yshvold]

Two sets of feet approached from nearby and instantly Yshvold went on guard. He weighed the merits of just running in to avoid contact with these strangers, but suicide was not an option for him, and instead opted to stand his ground against whoever this was.

He waited, with his hands gripping the hidden daggers from beneath his cloak, and watched as two figures stepped forth. Their identities hidden are from him, but he could not fault them for this, and they took no pains in hiding their weapons from sight. They were strong.

No hiding this time, not like he had any good options available to him, with the only way to be unseen was to hang from an edge and hope they ignore him. Mayhaps they would find some kinship with him as he puts on his own mask to hide what he is, maybe they are like him, he wonders. Such dangerous thoughts would have to wait until later, after he can be certain they weren't after him. Who would willingly come down here if not to do something that should be hidden from the light of day?

The first to take the initiative would win the day but combat should be avoided, as outnumbered as he is, but should he be friendly to these strangers? He knows they did not come in the same way he did but what business do they have at this particular junction, or could they be moving beyond. Whatever the case he would have to act now, somehow.

"You." Yshvold whispers as he stands in the open grate, hand on a bar to keep himself steady amongst the muck at his feet. "You did not follow me, but you are here. Why?"

It is a quiet and soothing tone that keeps from echoing off the walls of the chamber, its sound seems as though it belongs somewhere more kind but with a guarded coldness that would keep others at bay.

[Aurin]

Aurin was at a bit of a disadvantage. They were walking along the narrow lip that ran alongside the effluvia. He didn't mind getting his hands dirty, but he didn't really want to slog through shit if he could help it. But whoever this was, they were short. That didn't mean they weren't dangerous, but this wasn't the sort of danger he had been anticipating. He glanced toward Elwes, but she was looking straight at their interlocutor. Her face was in shadows, but her eyes burned coldly. She wasn't a malevolent creature, but when confronted, she would go straight through an obstacle.

Aurin could be a bit more creative.

"My friend here told me there were disturbing rumors coming out of this part of the Midden and she wanted me to accompany her down there. Strength in numbers, you see? So I suppose we're going down there?" He glanced toward her for confirmation. Though her eyes remained fixed on the child, she nodded slightly.

"Right, we're going down there. I'm going to watch her back while we investigate." He paused. "Don't tell me there's a fucking toll?"

It was a joke, though perhaps now was not the right time and place for it. He snorted, but Elwes didn't react.

"You have heard sssimilar rumorsss?" she hazarded, her serpentine lisp possibly menacing. Aurin was just used to it. She was a snake. One had to be careful not to tread upon her, steal her food, or otherwise fuck with her. But, as a general rule, if you didn't fuck with Elwes, she didn't fuck with you. He hoped this one wasn't going to fuck with Elwes, though. That would be inconvenient.

[Yshvold]

A man and a woman together in the sewers and looking to go even further down because of rumors?

"I don't know anything about rumors, this place was a home once. I came back on a whim and found the air here to be wrong. Beasts cowered the last time I came when they should have swarmed and now they return to normal, as if whatever it was had moved deeper in. Something here is challenging everything for control, I believe, and it irritates me. I mean to kill it." Yshvold says plainly, speaking with a clear certainty that this was how things were going to play out. He doesn't let go of the bar but puts himself behind it to put them between it and him, keeping a firm grip while watching the woman as intensely as she had been with him.

"You are going down there? You don't look like the soldiers from above, and the adventurers only send their stronger members deeper in." Yshvold asks in a curious but monotonic way as he extrapolates the true reasoning behind their being here.

"I don't think it matters to me unless you do try to kill me. If you're strong then you'll live, if not then I'll just have to run and come back for your stuff before the thieves find you first." by now Yshvold is speaking to himself and lets his mind wander for a second as he thinks, falling back on old behaviors he thought long abandoned when he left the Middens behind

"Maybe... we could help each other?" Finally he comes to his conclusion on how to handle the two strangers, if they were not natives of here then they wouldn't quite understand what it meant to him that someone was disrupting the natural cycle in favor of something more sinister.

[Aurin]

Elwes let Aurin do the talking. They had long ago established that he was the people person of the pair, and she trusted his instincts.

"Well, I don't know who you are, so I have no reason to want you dead," he said plainly. "I'm not rich, but I'm not poor enough to need to steal." He shrugged. Glancing at Elwes, he wondered what she made of the lad's report about the behaviors of the local fauna, but he wasn't going to ask when it corroborated her concerns. "Soldiers get paid for this shit and adventurers are idiots. I'm not getting paid for this and I'm not an idiot." Before Elwes could say otherwise, he cut to her with, "Not a word to contradict that, serpent."

Her shoulders rippled under her heavy cloak. It might have been akin to laughter.

"Call us concerned citizens. We're going down there. You're going down there. Strength in numbers, like I said, eh?" Nodding along with the lad's thought of working together, he continued, "We've no reason to trust each other except logically we seem to be down here for the same reason. Why don't we declare a truce and go down there together? The only way to build trust is to earn it and that will be a step in the right direction."

If things went well, he might even have another pair of eyes and ears he trusted to bring him information in exchange for coin or whatever else a Middens rat might want from up above. Aurin couldn't judge. He had lived low when he first arrived in Kalzasi.

"Would you feel more comfortable if we went down first? Then nobody's behind you with weapons. But I'll warn you, Elwes might overreact if you try anything funny." He smiled, a little ray of sunshine down in the dark.

[Yshvold]

Something seemed off to Yshvold about what he had said. A direct contradiction to his own words troubled his mind and something must be said.

"You are no soldier or adventurer and you say you are not stupid. If you are neither and are just an ordinary person then you must be something more than stupid, or confident. I believe I would rather you go first then, the other one must be the fighter between the two of you." Yshvold takes a chance and brings himself out from between the bars and slowly walks around the two strangers.

At first he keeps an eye on the woman but something about the man catches his attention. It was near impossible to tell from where he was but once Yshvold got closer he could see the telltale lines of aether surround him in a tranquil aura. Each tiny thread move out from him and felt everything around him, touching his surroundings like a delicate lovers caress. Yshvold leaned backwards as the lines slowly reached out to him and kept out of range. Each little thread gathered into lockets of fine hairs as they focused on him but just out of reach.

He couldn't quite tell what they could do, only that they seemed to be looking for something. He wanted to make sure he wasn't that something they wanted. His physical flinch as he approached Aurin was instinctual but he felt it was the wrong move.

"I will stay behind you, far behind. Your air is... unpleasant." Yshvold says with a hint of revulsion in his voice, the idea of being groped by some strange magic did not appeal to his mind, perhaps the spider would enjoy it. He should introduce the two sometime.

"I do not know how you are allowed to walk the streets above without being arrested." Yshvold says in a hushed voice as he backs off and unsheathes his daggers. He clears a path for the two of them to enter first and wonders how he should best show his gratefulness and sincerity for their offer.

All that came to mind was the greeting he learned to do on an outing a while ago, he grabbed the edges of his cloak and performed a noble woman's courtesy like he had practiced before.

[Aurin]

Aurin nodded agreeably enough as the lad was complying with his plan. Then he laughed quietly, shaking his head. He didn't know that anyone could smell him over the stench of the refuse and, probably, offal down here. But if that was what the lad needed to say to accept the plan, then Aurin wasn't going to call him out on it.

"But I bathed just last night," he protested.

"The boy isss not wrong," Elwes hissed. She was probably lying, though her serpentine senses were different than his own.

Aurin shrugged and started to step through the grate when the boy—according to Elwes; he was paying more attention to their surroundings, magically speaking, than their strange new companion—curtseyed. Another man might have laughed or made a cutting remark, but Aurin remembered being a boy on the streets, even if there had been some safety in his parentage. You learned a thing that you didn't have context for and then you misused it until someone corrected you, kindly or unkindly.

He often told people point blank that he was a bad man, but he wasn't unkind without reason.

The masked man offered a courtly bow in return, and then walked past and into the depths. Elwes followed, her eyes in deep shadow but watching the boy as she passed and followed Aurin.

If the lad was going to unsheath his blades, then it was probably wise to do the same. Out came his kukri, at least, and the rest could come out when and as they were needed. With luck, they wouldn't be needed, but it was best to be prepared for anything and a denizen of the deeps would know better than he would. These days, he spent more time over ledgers and tipples with Lord Yserloo than doing anything truly dangerous. Today felt like it would be dangerous.

[Yshvold]

A sense of relief came over him when the man simply passed by without reacting negatively to him flinching away from his person, even a sense of curiosity as the man performed a new type of greeting in front of him.

He let them pass by and attempted to mimic him as the snake woman passed by as well. Whatever she thought of him would have to wait and he understood the need to be cautious around a new face, especially one you could not see. He reflected on how he approached people before and gave thought to his own approach to others on the surface, perhaps something a tad more revealing would be best in order to gain better trust of strangers without showing others what he was. This would be something he needed to dwell on later.

Inside the grate is a dark straight line forward, light from behind sparkled the water inside for a time until there was nothing. Yshvold had issues seeing ahead of the two but the man shined like a bright torch. While he could not watch them outright, Aurin's aether let Yshvold know he was still in front of him, and assumedly the woman was right beside him.

For now Yshvold quieted his presence to a near silent step and waded with little sound through the little noise the running sewer water made. An unexperienced person would assume he abandoned them but those who knew what to listen for could easily tell the boy was still at a respectable distance away.

Their journey felt as though it went on for too long and suddenly the pipe started to go upwards expect for a broken out opening to the side that led to a tight squeeze heading deeper in. A cavernous passage way with wet walls and a divergence of the sewage water going in. All three could fit inside but it would only allow one to pass at a time through.

On the other side a shadow of some unknown beast pounces on something that squeaked in pain and fear. The sound of a quick tear caused whatever it's prey was to almost scream and was taken away, its gut wrenching screams of animalistic pain falling away at a breakneck pace, possibly deeper into the underbelly of the Middens.

[Aurin]

Aurin was content to focus forward, trusting Elwes at his back to keep their new friend honest. He was frowning at the passageway, but he had paused when the sounds of animalistic violence began and then receded. He was focusing his trick into that darkness, sure that was where they were supposed to go next.

"You're going to owe me new boots after this, Elwes," he grunted. "The sneaky kind."

She made no response, so he looked back to see their tail hanging back at a safe distance. But she did reach into her robe and pull out a small lantern that she deftly tied to his belt. Rattling it, the dragonshard chip began to glow with a ruddy light. The red, he knew, wouldn't ruin his night vision. They had clearly done this or similar before.

"Danger seems to have passed for the time being. Tight squeeze, though." He wrinkled his nose. Aurin didn't expect much from the kid, but he didn't want to explain his semblance trick, so he just left it at that. "All right, then." He ducked and tried to avoid as much of the muck as possible. He wasn't the most fastidious person, but neither did he want to come out of this covered in shit. That could be especially dangerous if they were injured. Infections were disgusting things.

The passageway was narrow and it stank, but it was better than getting stabbed. Whatever the predator had been, it had left with its prey. But eventually, he began to sense something off in the aether up ahead. It was too difficult to judge distance in passageways like this, and it wasn't a pattern he was familiar with. He paused.

"The fuck is that?" he murmured. But whatever it was, he didn't want it to catch him in close quarters, so he moved forward again, wanting to get someplace more spacious before they made any further decisions.