Maureen
“I thought you were getting ready.”
Maureen looked up from Gods, Aspects, and Spirits; a comparative study of religious practices. Mr. Sunder was standing in the doorway of Rae's library.
“I finished my preparations an hour ago. I thought I would explore this marvelous collection while I could.”
“The day grows old. Perl and Lore are already down at that hole Lore used last night, waiting around with some food. Selena's just finishing her preparations, and we'll be leaving soon.”
“It can't be past third toll yet. Do I have time to finish this book?” She thumbed through the sizable quantity of pages left.
“Third toll... right. Well, look, how about this: you can read that tomorrow – Rae has agree to host us another night, after today's expedition.”
Maureen brightened. “Oh, that's wonderful.”
“But we do have to go now.”
Maureen sighed, and put a velvet bookmarker into the book. She set it down on the table.
“And so off we go. I wonder people will ever write about us?”
Perl
Perl sat in the alley with Lore. The sun had begun its descent, and the height of the squalid apartments around them left the alley in shadow. It was good. Sewerfiends did not like the light. Maybe that was why the creatures hadn't bothered them any, yet. Or sought them out. It really wasn't bothering if Perl wanted them to come, right?
“So what are you going to do when a sewerfiend comes?”
“Ratman, Perl,” said Lore. “They find sewerfiend to be insulting.”
“Ratman, right.” Perl thought about it for a bit. “Are they all ratmen? Are there ratwomen, too?”
“Of course there are ratwomen. My friend mentioned his mother quite a bit.”
“I don't know how you managed to be friends with one of those things.”
“Hey, he was nice. Really friendly, and he really helped me out. I probably would have still been lost down there if it weren't for him.”
“You speak of it like it's a person.”
“He is!”
“It's still a sewerfiend, Lore. Those things aren't human, and nothing about them can be good. Call it what you want, it still probably eats babies. Walks around, watches people, and eats babies.”
“Hey, my friend specifically told me that they don't eat babies, just 'dead meat.'”
“Great! So they just eat dead babies. That's so much better.”
“Well, there's a big difference between stealing children and eating them alive and... hm... I don't think they consider dead humans to be just dead meat. But it's all just folklore.”
“Hrmph.” Perl was unconvinced. “I've worked with Sunder for years. It's like he says – folklore has a reason for existing. Maybe that sewerfiend, um, ratman... well, whatever it is, maybe it did help you. But that's just one instance. Ask anyone in the city. This city has been here over 400 years. If sewerfiends were really, actually good, someone would have noticed, right? Y'know.”
“Ratkin, Perl.” Lore sighed. “Look, do you think you could go to the main street and look around for Maureen, Selena, and Mr. Sunder? They should have arrived by now. Maybe they are lost.”
“Hrmph.” Perl thought about this. Sunder did seem to have a problem in this city. Every time Sunder went out to walk around and get something, he managed to take far more time than he should have. “Okay, you stay here and wait for one of those things while I go look for Sunder.”
Perl walked out of the alley, and down the sidestreet to one of the thoroughfares. Spying a big stone windowsill, he went to sit on it and watch for Sunder's carriage.
Lorelei
With Perl gone, Lore turned her attention back to the hole. It was still dark, quiet and empty. “He's gone now, if you're listening to me.”
There was no response.
Lore took off her thunderstick, and lay it down next to her. Then she lay down on her satchel. Jack had been so nice, so kind last night... but today... he seemed so distant. Back to that sort of professional detachment he had previously affected. But last night... hm... something had changed, then changed back. Maybe such hopes were too much for a girl like her to dream about.
Lore sighed and looked up at the sky. Three stories of apartment on either side made for a thin strip of blue and white above her. Apartments. Rooms for rent by money-grubbing landlords, where entire families shared a small room. The best in a life she to had been resigned to living, once, before Sunder had intervened. But now where was she?
She heard a noise, and sat up.
“Are you there? A ratman?” She thought about what her friend had said. “I am here with no cold steel, and niceness in my... liver.”
There was no response.
“I have food here for you.” Lore tugged a string, and the chicken attached to it woke up and stumbled around, one foot being pulled out from under it. “That's what my friend said. If I wanted to talk to ratmen, offer food, and let them know sayings, stuff like that.”
Still no response.
“Last night I got lost in the catacombs of the underworld. A ratman helped me out. He said that I was near a place of screaming, and that wasn't a good place for me. He said his mum told him that being near screaming was never good. He was my friend, and I was a friend to him.”
Lore stared at the hole. Maybe there wasn't anything there.
“Well, he said that sleeping people are friends to all.” She lay back down on the ground, her head resting on he satchel. “Maybe if I take a nap, someone will be friend to me...”
She lay down and closed her eyes. She was such an idiot, talking to a hole when probably nothing was there. Sunder was going to be disappointed if she wasn't able to follow through about being able to find a ratman guide, though, she had to try.
Lore sighed again, and stared at the sky. Apparently there was no ratman, and she was just deluding herself.
Maybe Rae had something to do with the change in Sunder's attitude... She certainly had a lot more to offer him than Lore did. But would Sunder go for that? Lore shook her head. He was not so shallow. He could not be so shallow.
“Little girl says she nice, yes.” Lore sat us suddenly at the familiar voice. “But she human. I think to self, 'humans always colds steel, no niceness in liver.' This is what momma says, yes. But little girl says things of screaming place. How girl know of such things? Little girl must be deep, deep in earth, to hear with lousy human hearing. Believe about having friend, yes? Maybe little girl have little niceness, perhaps, yes?”
Lore nodded at the hole. “I mean no harm. I owe a ratman my life.”
“Hm. So you say, yes? And I believe, yes? But no niceness at all in big one liver.”
“No... I can't seem to get him to understand.”
“Maybe little girl different, yes? But city still full of hating humans with cold steel and no niceness in hearts. How to change that? Nobody know, yes?”
“I'll... try. I promised my friend that.”
“Mmm... you say, yes. Only see once, no good! Like momma says, no quit, just different place sometime later, yes?”
“Yes.”
“This nobody likes this conversation, but little girl have more to say? Why wait in alley with delicious chicken, not in big stone house, or running on street like little human children do? Little girl have reason, yes? Not reason bored, hm, yes?”
“Yes... you know of the screams under the ground, right?”
“Oh yes. Horrible screams all hours never stopping. No sleep near place of screams. Screams no good.”
“I want to go to the place of screams, and stop the screaming.”
“Foolish little girl, you are! No go near place of screams – little girl has niceness in liver, very rare in human, yes? Talk to people, say good things about we ratkin, yes? No go near place of screams. No join place of screams. If you scream all times, you not saying good things about we ratkin, yes? No go!”
Lore sighed. “I won't be alone. There are five of us, and together we are very strong. How to put this in a way you would understand... We will have have torches! Light! We will be hunters, but not in your homes, but in the place of screams. They are hurting humans down there, but we are humans – we do not wait until screams are done. That's smart for a ratman, but we are humans, full of cold steel and fire. But not for ratmen. For the place of screams. Or whatever is causing the screams.”
There was only silence in response. Perhaps the comparison to hunters was unwise. Lore sat there, waiting for a response, but no reply came. In time, Lore lay down her head on her bag again. Stupid Lore... she thought – why would she compare Sunder and Associates to the hunters? Lore stared at the sky some more. Maybe another ratman would come. Or maybe she has simply failed.
Jack Sunder
Mr. Jack Sunder sat in the carriage, listening to the clip-clop of the horse's hooves. Across from him sat Selena, still checking her equipment, and Maureen similarly fiddling with her hammer, despite the simplicity of the object. Nervousness drove these actions, Sunder knew, just as nervousness caused him to shift inside of his armor, feeling the reassuring weight of the brigandine jacket. No fancy suit today, just armor and weapons.
What of Lore? How was she doing? Sunder frowned at the thought. He had done his best to stick to being strictly professional today, but how much of that was his need for everything to be in order for the assault, and how much of that was Rae's words echoing in the back of his head?
Sunder shook his head. Useless to think of that now. Now was time for a trip in the under-city, and then a rescue mission, taking captives from cultists or worse. He had to keep a clear head – everyone was counting on him.
Lore. Not Lore in a... emotional light. Lore as a soldier, a pawn like any other. Lore was injured, and had not fully healed from it. Was it responsible to bring her with them? She provided the critical connection with the sewerfiends, but would it be possible to not bring her in for the fighting? That would leave her with the sewerfiends, in the tunnel, and whatever she might have to say about them, he wasn't about to leave a member of his team in their clutches if he could help it.
Member of his team. Good. That was the way to think of her right now. Everything else would have to wait until he finished this sorry little job.
Job. Payment. He hadn't gotten Rae to pay for it, and instead the cost had been saddled onto the commoners, who really could not afford it. Could he take that money? Would he have to? He did have associates to pay, and there were costs to the whole thing (though Rae's hospitality had helped considerably in that regard). Again, more distractions. He would know the costs better when he was done, he could figure that out later. Maybe talk to everyone about it. Gods know that's not what they needed on their minds right now.
“Selena,” he said. The girl glanced up from her device, some sort of tool. “What's on your mind?”
“Um... no much. Just wondering about who is down there, who is doing the kidnappings.” She looked back down at her tool and fiddled with it some more. “Do you really think it could be Sadists of the Pleasure Aspect?”
Sunder grimaced inwardly, but kept his face straight. In hindsight, he should not have mentioned that possibility the previous night, but... he had been tired, and that was what was on his mind. Sadists... he did not relish the thought either. “Possibly – the kidnapping and the screaming both match. But other things don't – it's right near the Life Aspect Temple, possibly even in the domain. I can't see them actively worshiping the Pleasure Aspect so close. A non-religious cult might be very interested in having the domain at their disposal, it's helpful.” Silently, to himself, he continued: 'helpful for torture, since it can heal the wounds quickly.'
“Yeah, I'm surprised that any group can be so close. You'd think the priests of the Life Aspect would take issue at it, wouldn't you?” The girl put away her tool, and adjusted her clothing. Leather was tough, but not as strong as Sunder's brigantine. Did fussing with her armor reassure her as it did Sunder?
“Maybe they don't know. Lore said she was pretty low, and she couldn't actually hear anything – only the sewerfiend could. It could be that they have never ventured deep enough and never explored the caves down there.” Something bothered him about this, something was wrong. “Of course, even if they did know about the screams, it's not like they are of the War Aspect or something. Taking action isn't their strong suit – their philosophy does not actually ban violence, but it does attract people who don't like it.”
“So maybe they know, and... they just sit there? That's horrible!”
“Some people look out for themselves first. Not everyone is keen on putting themselves in danger for the good of their fellow man. That's what we are for, right?”
Selena grinned. “We should put that on a banner or something. 'Professional do-gooders. We put ourselves in danger so you don't have to' or something.”
Professional do-gooders. Sunder smiled at the thought. “Yeah. Except we only do so when we get paid.”
Selena's expression went sombre again, and Sunder regretted his remark. Selena glanced at Maureen and then back at Sunder. “Yeah, I feel kinda lousy about charging so much to those commoners. Rae could have paid for the whole thing, easily.”
“That's what I though she would do. But our fee is a lot of money – that's months worth of wages for the servants in her household.”
“And months worth of wages for the commoners. They might even be servants in her manor, for all I know. Not that I recognized anyone.” She frowned. “I really appreciate her being so nice to us and all. I mean, I know we are trying to rescue her sister, but while I've been part of this group... most people aren't like that. I'm not sure what to make of her.”
Sunder stared out the window, thoughts a jumble in his mind. “I'm not sure either.”
“Hey Maureen, what do you think?”
“She suggested I feel free to peruse her library. I just wish I had more time to explore it, read more of it.”
“You will,” said Sunder, still looking out the window distractedly. “Rae's invited us for another night, as well. I don't think she will be in a rush to shoo us out, you know.”
There was a little snort from Selena. “Not as long as you keep those dashing good looks of yours.”
Sunder frowned, then happened to see Perl out the window. The man was sleeping on a windowsill, all stretched out.
Sunder reached out the window and clapped the side of the carriage. “Stop! We're here!”
The coachman slowed the carriage to a halt, and the three disembarked. Sunder strode down the street to Perl. How the man could sleep with all the noise of the thoroughfare was beyond Sunder, as was Perl's vulnerability. Of course, in the years they had worked together, this had never actually caused trouble, but it was going to do so... one of these days.
Sunder puffed in the man's ear, one of the few things he knew roused Perl. Instantly the man's eyes snapped open. “I wasn't sleeping, you know.”
Sunder grinned. “Just resting with your eyes closed. What are you doing out here?”
“Watching for your carriage.” Perl seemed oblivious to the contradiction between his statement and his actions, and continued. “We were worried that you had gotten lost.”
Maureen came up to them now, having helped Perl attach her mechanical mockery of a rucksack. “My fault, Perl. I was distracted by the Lady Varnya's library, and Mr. Sunder had to find me.”
“Mmm... I see.” Perl sat up, then eased his way off of the windowsill. It could not have been comfortable to sleep on. “Let's see if Lore is having any luck with her sewerfiends.”
“Ratman. Ratmen,” said Maureen. “If we are going to be working with them, we should be polite.”
“Hey, don't they have ladies? Ratwomen? Y'know, maybe we won't be dealing with a ratman at all.” Selena joined them as they followed Perl down the street to the alley where Lore was waiting.
“They are all sewerfiends to me.”
Sunder shook his head. “No. Maureen is right. We are calling them ratmen, and that's an order.”
“Or Ratwomen,” said Selena, chiming in again.
“Or Ratwomen, sure. Or Ratkin, or Ratfolk. We can ask them what they want, and go with whatever they say. But we're on their grounds, receiving their help – we call them what they want. If they do stab us in the back, then sure, whatever then. But not as guests, got it?”
“Yes boss,” said Perl, looking a bit crestfallen. He turned the corner to the alley, and his expression changed to shock and horror. “Goddamn sewerfiends!”
With a dreadful tingle dancing upon his spine, Jack lunged forward, and rounded the corner, his hand on the hilt of his machete.
The alley was empty.
Perl
Perl broke into a run towards the hole. He could fit in. It wouldn't be easy, but he wasn't going to let his carelessness cost Lore her life. She was alive, and he was going to get her.
Behind him, he heard Mr. Sunder yell for a flare, and Selena yell something in response. Didn't matter. Perl lunged for the hole, and slid in surprisingly well. Head-first, unfortunately, but he didn't care.
Landing on his hands and head, he heard shrieks from around him. His hands closed onto something heavy and metal, and he rolled to his feet. He was completely blind, a negligible amount of light coming in the entrance, but better that they attack him than Lore. “Lore!” he shouted. “I'm coming to get you!”
At that moment, a burning stick of incredible brightness flew down through the hole, illuminating the tunnel in its hard yellow glare. Perl saw a half-dozen ragged shapes fleeing down the tunnel, and Lore covering her eyes with her arm.
There was a crash, and then Sunder was beside him, the man's machete at the ready. “Lore!” he yelled, rushing to her side. Perl hunched over and hustled down the small tunnel, blocking off Sunder and Lore from the inky blackness around the bend. A slap echoed behind him, but that wasn't relevant to him.
He stood there, holding what he realized to be a crowbar of some sort, but no challengers came into the light. Sunder and Lore were arguing behind him, but his place was to cut down any sewerfiends that attacked, and hold the entrance until Maureen and Perl made their way down and readied their more complex weapons.
Sunder's hand landed on his shoulder and he glanced at his friend. Jack shook his head, and Perl lowered the crowbar and stood up from his combat crouch, inadvertently hitting his head. “Miscommunication, Lore just came down here to talk with the... ratkin. They didn't want to be seen street-side.”
Perl couldn't see Sunder's face well, as the flare silhouetted Sunder with its bright glare, but Perl thought he saw some trace of redness on Jack's face. Perhaps there was a slap.
“What now, boss?”
“Now? Now we see if we can repair this situation.” Sunder folded his arms, and walked back to Maureen, who handed him a lit torch. “Lore apparently had everything going well, but our attack drove them off.”
“Sorry, boss, just following instinct.”
Sunder shook his head. “I know. It was the right thing to do, given what we knew, but we didn't know enough.” Sunder's expression, now visible in the torch-light, was the self-hating frown Perl had come to know all too well.
“True enough, Jack – that goes for you as it does me.” Sunder's expression lightened slightly. “What now, though?”
“Now we sit down here while Lore runs off in the darkness to find the ratkin again. I'm sending Maureen with her this time.”
“Are you sure that's wise?” Glancing over at Lore, the girl was talking to Maureen, and the two of them looked about to go.
“Lore seems to think that the Ratkin must avidly hate us now. She knows them best, and honestly, it makes sense to me too.”
Sunder turned to Lore, and nodded to her. “Best of luck,” he said. Lore's look in response was indeterminable, but unhappy.
“Waiting, right.” Perl walked over to Selena, trying to keep bent over enough not to his head, and sat down on the ground. “Thanks for the flare, Selena.”
The girl did a mock curtsy, looking fairly ridiculous in her trousers, and handed him her torch. “Glad it went off so well. I was half expecting it to explode like the last one.”
“Well, you figured it out. How many do you have left?”
“Five.” Selena shrugged and sat down, facing down the tunnel. Apparently her spirits were just as dulled as Sunder's. Perl shrugged to himself, and stuck the torch into the ground, propping it up with some rocks. He let his eyes trail over the slight curves of Selena's young body, as she sat there, her chin propped on her hands. Not fully a woman yet, he decided, but lots of potential.
A few sounds from down the tunnel broke him out of his thoughts, and he looked over to see a dejected Sunder kicking a few rocks around as he paced.
Such was life, Perl reflected, and he leaned back on a wall and closed his eyes. Sounds from down the tunnel interrupted his rest with a rush of adrenaline, and he started up, grasping the crowbar. Looking down the tunnel, he saw Sunder and Selena talking with Maureen and Lore. There was a set of nods all around, but at what he couldn't tell. Perl leaded his head back against the wall, and willed himself to move.
With a groan, Perl stood up, older bones and joints protesting at the movement. Lore and Selena didn't have this problem, no doubt. Now that the short rush of adrenaline was wearing off, he noticed that a few of his muscles ached from the tumble down the hole. Tough luck – he was just going to deal with it.
“What's going on, boss?”
Sunder said something to Lore and Maureen, and the two ladies peeled off into the darkness as Sunder turned around to face Perl. “Compromises, mostly. Lore and Maureen were able to sort things out with the ratkin. Apparently she had managed to collect a few members of the undercity community before we scared them off – she was right about the ratkin not liking whatever's down there.”
“So no harm done, huh? That's good.”
“Well, not quite. We have the full support of the ratkin community, but they refuse to talk or even see the two of us. Lore and Maureen are going with them, they are going to leave markers in the tunnel so we can follow. We trail back behind, follow their lead.”
“We can use torches, right?”
Sunder nodded.
“That's good. I don't mind following then.”
“I'm more worried what happens when we get there. Not comfortable with Lore and Maureen out there in front.”
“You think the... ratkin will turn on us?”
“No, they seem pretty set on us ridding them of whatever is down there. I'm worried that whoever is there is going to notice them and attack. Keep your ears peeled for combat, okay? I told Maureen and Lore to use their whistles if anything goes wrong, but you know how these things go.”
Perl picked up his torch, doused it, and trickled more oil on it. Lighting it with Sunder's torch, he nodded. “I know how these things go. We've done it before, we'll do it better this time.”
Sunder's expression was more dour than usual.
“Right,” Sunder said, then paused for a moment, considering something in his head. “Let's do this.”
Lorelei
“We take them up to big hole you make, show them out, yes? No problem, yes?”
“They are human, though. Aren't you worried that they are going to try and hurt you?” Lore's hand bumped against a protrusion in the ceiling and she ducked her head under it.
“No burning fire, no bright light, yes? Then we not so afraid of blind deaf human in our tunnels, yes.”
“Hrmph.” Lore stumbled over something in the dark, long-fingered hands caught her and steadied her. “They are going to be scared. I don't know.”
“If they too scared to follow us, then they stay, follow big men with bright lights, leave then.”
“Is it shorter to the basements of the Life Aspect temple?” asked Maureen. “Could you direct them there?”
“White building, white floors, very nice, feels very good, yes? Feels less good with shouting and fire, and anger, yes? We not so welcome there.”
“But could you direct any prisoners we free down towards that direction?”
“Mmmm... maybe.”
Lore shook her head, useless as it was in the blackness. “Something's wrong there, I don't trust them. Sunder says he was not polite to them, but... there's something more than that.”
“The followers of the Life Aspect are good people. If we clear out whatever's happening down here, they don't have anything to worry about, right?”
“Ssssh! Quiet, quiet, can you hear?”
Lore and Maureen both stumbled along in silence, but Lore didn't hear anything, and Maureen, if she did, gave no reaction.
“Screams, we can hear them from here, yes? We hear screams for while, but now close enough for lousy human ears, yes, hm?”
Lore stumbled down a sharp incline, and found her feet on a flat stone surface. Probably part of the catacombs, and not a tunnel dug by ratkin or other denizens of the under-city. As Maureen clambered down beside her, Lore thought she could hear some sort of shriek in the distance, echoing down the tunnel.
“You hear, yes. We take you little farther, yes, stop. Say 'bye-bye, nice Lorelei friend.' You wait for big men with bright lights, go with them, follow ears, yes. Send screaming people up the way you came, we wait here, cover ears, yes.”
Lore thought about this for a bit. “We can't hear the direction from here. Do you think you could take us a little farther?”
There was some chatter between the various ratkin that had been accompanying them, and then one of them spoke up, taking Lore's hand “Make marker here for friends with no niceness in their livers, go that way, follow left wall. Feel hole, you hear clearly there.” As the ratman said the instructions, he used Lore's hand to gestuate.
“Okay, thanks. See you again soon, friends, okay?”
“Yes, yes – we watch in shadows for nice lorelei girl. Talk friends, family, how nice little lorelei, yes? Nice lorelei girl do the same, yes? Maybe even maureen woman fine niceness in her liver, something there, yes?”
Maureen spoke up from Lore's left side: “Thank you very much. I will tell my friends about your kindness.”
“Maureen girl not so bad, yes. Maybe see later, maybe maybe, yes. Hope cold steel and hot fire stop the screaming, we all think, yes? Bye-bye!”
Lore and Maureen stood in the darkness, listening to the slight sounds of rocks and pebbles disturbed by many light feet.
“You seem to have have made quite the impression on them.”
“I was nice. I don't think they get that from humans much.” Lore paused. “I mean, even I though badly of them until one of them saved me – I almost knifed the ratman.”
There was some scrabbling on the ground, and Lore lit a match, seeming incredibly bright compared to the blackness they had been walking through. Maureen was fiddling with some rocks from the tunnel, making them into a conspicuous stack with a short line of stones pointing down the corridor. In the light of the match, Lore thought she could see another tunnel leading further down, just as the ratkin had told her.
“Let's go,” Lore said, dropping the match before it burnt her finger. Eerily, a long, anguished scream rose up in response, distant, but still vividly full of agony. Lore shuddered, and started down the hallway. Things would be better soon.
Following the wall of the tunnel, as the ratkin has said, Lore found that what she thought was a tunnel was just a small alcove. Feeling around she felt engraved letters on a large square stone. She felt the hair on her arms prickle as she realized that the alcove must have been a tomb for someone important in generations past.
Maureen bumped into her, having followed the wall as well, and so Lore continued down the wall until she found the actual tunnel in question, which lead down and smelled strangely fresh. She could hear faint groans of agony, the sound of crying, and, with better clarity the occasional scream of pain. “Hey,” she whispered back to Maureen. “I think this is where we wait for Sunder and the rest.”
Maureen touched her on the shoulder, then rested her hand there. “I don't like this, Lore.”
Lore reached up and rested one of her hands on top of Maureen's hand. The hand was warm and... comforting. “I don't either. I'm... a little scared.”
“Me too. When I first got recruited by Sunder, my first task with them was nothing as horrible as this.” There was a pause. “You should be proud of yourself.”
Lore stood there for a few moments, stroking the hand on her shoulder. “I guess...” she said, then with a small amount of fumbling, turned around and hugged Maureen tightly. “Thanks. We can do this.”
Maureen hugged her back, tentatively. “Yeah. We can do this. I'm sure we can.”