“Wait!”

I didn’t. Swinging the sword down, I took the life of the mostly human looking man.

His large body fell with a thump, and I noted the way his red eyes spasmed as his head rolled a few feet away and came to a rest. Some kind of bat maybe, based off the way they looked.

Reminded me of Inar’s eyes… though he had been more bat than human. And what I was likely remembering the most, per the comparison, was the look of utter shock and terror in the eyes more so.

“Vim, what are we going to do about the humans down here?” Reatti asked as she glanced down the hallway to our left.

“Most were as much victims as not, Reatti. We’ll kill any who attack us, but if they run and hide then we’ll leave them be,” I said as I stepped away from the body. The three other bodies in the hallway weren’t as human. One had a huge claw for her right hand, and the other had thick scales all over their head instead of hair.

“I can’t believe so many were down here. How did none of us ever notice Vim?” Reatti asked softly as she glanced at the one I had just killed.

“Happenstance. That was the nineteenth I know of… I think,” I said as I glanced at the head. The red eyes had stopped twitching.

“Did not a one ask to join? Or not attack you?” Reatti asked as I gestured for her to join me down the next hall. We were near the place that Fly and Renn had been tossed into that pit. The hole. It should be not far from here, if I remembered correctly.

“Well…. One…” I said as I remembered the woman with horns. The one who had been willing to incur my wrath by not telling me where I could have found Renn.

“Fly you mean,” she nodded, misunderstanding.

I kept my mouth shut since I really wasn’t looking forward to that woman joining the society. It was hard to blame her for her willingness to sacrifice Renn for her own needs… since I knew her circumstances. But all the same it pissed me off.

Hopefully she never showed herself again.

Reatti walked calmly next to me down the hallway, and had to pause a moment as I stepped around a cave-in. It wasn’t the first we’d encountered, but at least this one didn’t block off the whole hallway. Only a part of the wall had succumbed.

“The whole sewer is going to need to be rebuilt,” Reatti complained as she followed me. She made a few bricks and rocks clatter, likely from kicking a few as she walked past the rubble.

“Let the humans deal with it,” I said.

“Which means it’ll never get done,” she sighed.

Possibly.

So far the humans of Lumen had not ventured down here yet. They were still licking their wounds topside. It’s been two days since the creature had died, and they had only just started burning its corpse.

It was a little late, honestly. I knew disease would start to spread, since it’d take them weeks to properly deal with the massive body. It was already decomposing at a steady rate. One of the larger tentacles had landed near the Animalia Company building, a street over, and its scaly flesh was now soft and decaying. Already abuzz with flies and other insects.

Reaching the end of the hallway, we entered a little room. One that had tables and other furniture yet was empty of people. Like most of this area down here, it stunk horribly of the non-humans and now… well…

Blood. Death. And not just of the creatures I had slain.

I had killed quite a few when down here the first time… before jumping into the hole to fight that creature. Yet the smell of death and blood was too strong. Too strong even for all the death I had caused.

They had fought amongst themselves. Maybe those less fortunate, like that sheep-horned woman, had fought back and escaped during the commotion.

Hopefully it hadn’t been the survivors of those I had failed to deal with before jumping in the hole simply killing freely.

Reatti and I hadn’t really scoured much of the sewers yet, but what little we’ve gone through had been empty. Even most of the homeless humans were gone.

Wasn’t a surprise at all though…

“Sure it’s safe down here?” Reatti asked as we stared down another hallway… or at least only a few feet of it.

The rest of the hallway was fully collapsed unto itself. Sealed off, from all the rubble and brick.

“Well, within reason. The next big storm will tell us just how badly these sewers will become,” I said.

“Great,” Reatti huffed as I chose another hallway to head down. One that was a little bigger than most. A main tunnel.

While walking I listened to Reatti’s fingernail as she tapped her sword’s pommel with it. She had yet to draw her weapon, since I’d been handling all of our confrontations… but I knew she’d do so the moment she got the opportunity.

She was still furious, and would be more than happy to direct that anger at anyone and anything if given the chance.

It was the reason she was down here with me as I cleaned up the place. Usually I’d never allow a member to join me during such a venture… for multiple reasons… but she had been adamant. The kind that would have only made her attack me again if I denied her request to join me down here.

She was furious. Beyond reason. At everyone and everything… which was completely understandable. I neither blamed her, nor judged her, for her emotions and actions.

I could not have asked for a better outcome for her.

She and I were the only ones left in Lumen, of the Society. Brandy had left a message, one in code, which told me they had taken a ship to the north. To take those they could to the Clothed Woman, and the rest to the Bell Church.

They were safe for now, but couldn’t return until I made sure they’d not get attacked by any survivors. Revenge was…

Well…

Not just to be expected, but understandable. Even if someone didn’t hate our people, or desire to hurt us, they would still seek us out to get revenge upon us. Even if they hadn’t cared for their Master or any of their other members.

We had destroyed everything they cared for after all.

Or at least, I had.

Stepping out of the large hallway, Reatti and I entered a small enclave. One that was somewhat similar to the large room that their Master had been sealed in. This one however was used for housing. Houses of wood, metal and scrap lined the walls. Some looked rather good, actually. One near the center was made of entire logs, like a cabin. It looked weird here in the sewers. How had they gotten entire logs down here?

“They made a whole community down here…” Reatti whispered as we walked among the makeshift houses.

“Is it so surprising?” I asked her as I peered into one of the windows. The house was empty, but there was stuff scattered around.

No one was here… and they had left in haste. Some of the stuff littering the floors, even outside the houses, was valuable. Too valuable to have been willingly left behind.

Bending down to pick up a small purse, I frowned at the design sewn on it. Little familiar clanking sounds came from the thing as I studied the crest of Telmik.

A devotee of Telmik…

Opening the little thing I wasn’t too surprised to find Lumen Marks instead of Telmik’s Scripts… but I was surprised at how much money was in it. There was enough money in the purse that it was impossible to think of why it was not only down here, but had been left behind.

“Vim?” Reatti stepped up to me, wondering why I was still fixated on something so intently.

Handing her the pouch, I sighed as I wondered how many lives we had uprooted or destroyed completely. Not just those who had been our enemies… but those who had been innocent. Who had nothing to do with those creatures, or the people who had fed them.

Including those lost and hurt up on the surface… well…

“Smells more like humans here than anything else Vim,” Reatti said as she let the little purse fall to the ground. She hadn’t cared for it, or the money within.

I nodded. “Likely. We must have rounded the area too much…” I said as I imagined the map in my head. Maybe enough of the hallways had collapsed around that pit that I’d not be able to get back to it.

Such a thing wouldn’t shock me that much. That creature had pulled its roots from all around… and then of course the one up top…

It had emerged near the edge of Lumen, not far from the sunken capital beneath us. I still wasn’t entirely sure yet if the two creatures had actually been two separate beings, or connected somehow. The deeper one went into the sewers, those roots started to appear frequently. Emerging from the walls, floors and ceiling. It was a mess a few more floors down thanks to all the roots, yet I knew those very roots were likely the reason most of the sewers hadn’t collapsed already. They were acting as supports in a way.

Which would only further damage the sewers… as they rotted and withered, causing larger gaps and holes to appear all over the place.

Sighing, I wondered if maybe I should have Brandy and the rest dedicate a few years to rebuilding down here. If we used the Animalia Company’s resources, we could employ enough people quickly enough to do it swiftly, before the entirety of Lumen collapsed beneath itself. It would also give let us use some of the immense wealth Brandy and the rest had accumulated, without them complaining too much about it.

Plus it’d likely force out any non-human survivors I’d not be able to find before I left. They’d not be able to stay down here in the sewers when they were being frequented by human workers, and knights.

Many birds with a single stone… or well…

Kicking a loose brick as Reatti and I entered another hallway, I nodded to myself.

Yes. Lots of stones. Likely millions of bricks in total.

Rounding a corner Reatti and I came upon a stairwell. One that led upward and down… but only about half way down. Before the stairwell reached the floor below, it ended in a wall of stone and dirt. It had collapsed.

“At this rate we’ll get stuck,” Reatti complained.

“Which is why it’s surprising we had met those idiots earlier,” I said as we backtracked. The hallways and stairs here were all sealed, so Reatti and I returned to the room with houses in it.

“They had been carrying packs, Vim. They had likely been escaping,” Reatti said as we passed by the empty houses.

“Well… yes…” I agreed with her assumption, since I had made a similar one. But I didn’t like to say it aloud.

I had killed those who were fleeing. Who likely had no plans to attack the Society or hunt us down.

But I couldn’t bet on that.

Hadn’t.

It had helped that one of those four had been in that pit room before I had jumped down it. They hadn’t attacked me out right but I had remembered them handing a spear to someone who had.

Plus none of them had hesitated to attack us on sight, so that had also made taking their lives easier.

“Vim.”

I paused in my thoughts and turned to see what Reatti was staring at. She was looking upward… to the ceiling and…

Staring up at an arm hanging off the roof of one of the buildings, I noted the way it wasn’t moving. It hung lifelessly, without a twitch.

A body was on the roof.

“Should we check it?” Reatti asked.

Had it been there before? Usually I’d notice such a thing… but this place did reek of death. The air was pungent, so I likely hadn’t noticed thanks to the stink in the air.

“I’ll check it,” I said as I headed into the house.

The door had been open, and it led to a makeshift hovel. The small, dirty and mostly empty home was oddly comforting to me. It reminded me of a lot of homes I’d been in over the years, especially of those of the Societies.

It wasn’t hard to find the stairwell that led to the next floor, nor the stairs that led to the ceiling. They had been built into the wall in the back of the house, and didn’t even have a railing or wall to cover them. As I climbed up the stairs, I noted some of the stuff that hung from the open stairwell. They had hammered nails into the stairs, to hang up clothes and other items beneath.

There was no door to the roof. It led straight up to it, but that wasn’t a surprise. We were underground… they didn’t really need to worry over rain or the elements…

I stopped before fully exiting onto the ceiling, and studied the body of a young girl. Likely in her teens.

She was dead. Her neck was broken. It looked as if she had been trying to crawl away from her attacker, and had ended up next to the edge of the ceiling.

There were some chairs and a small table near her. All but the table were knocked over, and done so in a way that told me what had likely happened. She had been chased up here to the ceiling, and had nowhere else to run. Maybe she thought of leaping from the roof as a last ditch effort, and had hesitated and then got caught.

“Vim?” Reatti called for me from below. I stepped out onto the ceiling and over to the ledge, as to make sure she was fine. She hadn’t sounded distressed… but Reatti right now was in a peculiar state of mind. I needed to be careful with her.

She was fine. In fact she looked annoyed that I was taking so long.

“A dead child. Looks… human,” I said as I studied the young girl’s body.

“Let’s go then.”

I nodded. Yes.

There were countless reasons as to why she had been killed… but none of them mattered to me right now. I had duties.

She was just another victim of me and my people’s fates. Forced upon her without her ever knowing why.

Stepping off the ledge, I fell to the ground. The sword at my waist shifted as I stood back up and nodded to Reatti.

Reatti studied me as I stepped past her and headed for the exit, before we found anymore dead bodies. I was growing tired of finding them.

“Your wounds are healing, Vim,” Reatti said as she followed behind me.

I frowned at her statement. She sounded upset. “They are.”

She huffed a sigh, and I wondered if she wanted me to… stop healing my injuries or something.

Likely she did. It was… sad, that Reatti would likely never greet me happily again. But it was better than her dying, or being lost to the Society forever.

Her hate was a small price to keep her safe, and with us.

I wasn’t sure if she’d stay in Lumen yet… but I didn’t expect her to. This place might become painful for her… though some did stay in the locations where their families perished. Like Kaley. Not everyone ran from bad memories like Lughes.

We walked in silence as we returned to the last crossroads, and headed down a new hallway we hadn’t been down yet.

This hallway led to a large pipe like structure. One that oddly didn’t have much water in it. It hadn’t rained in the last two days but there was still a lot of water built up down here. Mostly thanks to all the blockages and collapsed tunnels… though that was likely the reason as well. Odds were if we followed the pipe we’d find a huge hole somewhere, letting the water spill farther down into the sewer systems.

“Did you build these sewers Vim?” Reatti asked as we stared at the small stream running through the pipe.

“Hm? No.” Not these ones at least. Not Lumen’s.

“Did our Society?” she asked further.

“No. We built some of the ports and parts of the castle, but none of these,” I said as I turned around as to head away from the pipe. The pipe would just lead to a wash, or the sea. Not where I wanted to go.

Reatti went lost in thought as I tried to find that pit room again. Why was it proving so difficult? The path I took to get there last time was gone, sealed by cave-ins and debris… but I remembered many other hallways going into it. You’d think at least one path was still intact.

I really wanted to find it before the knights of Lumen came down here. I knew it’d only take a few days at most before they ventured down here, thanks to the hole made by the large creature topside. They’d come down here to verify it was dead, and that there were no more like it.

Odds were there was. It was likely there were a few more of the smaller ones down here, but I’ve decided to let them be until I found them. Odds were that massive one had lived beneath Lumen for decades, if not hundreds of years. It had been more than happy to survive down there, unbeknownst to anyone, until I had pissed it off.

Rounding another corner, I sighed at the sight of clothes and bags strewn all over the place. Someone had left behind a bunch of stuff as they escaped. Another mess, another tall tell sign that pretty much everyone down here had run away during the commotion and hadn’t come back.

“We’ve been here before Vim,” Reatti complained as we entered a new hallway.

“I know. We’ll give up soon if we don’t find it in the next few hours,” I said.

“Find what exactly? You said some kind of pit, but why?” Reatti asked.

“The pit is where they tossed Renn and Fly down to feed them to their master. I killed someone there I want to… dispose of, before the humans found them,” I said.

“Oh… someone very inhuman?” she asked, understanding.

I nodded. “The others so far can be explained away. It’ll cause discord… but I’d like to avoid the church becoming too powerful here. Though it’s likely a very fruitless effort. That creature alone will invite the church here. Such things are seeds of faith,” I said.

“It is pointless. Before we came down here, while you were checking the thing’s carcass I overheard some humans talking. They all think it’s a demon,” Reatti said.

“Yes, but a defeated demon nonetheless. If they also find bodies of… our kind, they’ll just have more ammunition. More chances to suspect. More years of our people having to be far more careful than needed. I’d like to keep the rumors and populace fixated on that giant monster, not our kind,” I said as we entered a new hallway. One with more junk on the floor. Trash, clothes… and… buckets. At least the buckets were empty.

Reatti sighed, telling me she likely didn’t think anything I did would change anything.

Well… she was likely right. But I still had to try.

“Afraid your little pet will get found out if the humans are on edge, are you?” Reatti mumbled.

I stopped walking.

The still and stinky air grew colder as I waited.

Reatti stopped walking, coming to a stop right next to me. She didn’t look at me, but she did grab her own arm as if suddenly aware of what she had just said.

A long and heavy moment passed before Reatti took a deep breath and sighed.

“Sorry Vim… I… I don’t know what to say,” Reatti said.

Turning to face her, I studied the way she kept her eyes on the ground. She was ashamed… but I could tell she was also upset. Upset at herself. Me. The situation. Everything.

She knew she was being vindictive and emotional, yet also couldn’t help but feel her anger was justified.

How similar we were.

“I can’t honestly say that Renn’s presence didn’t cause this, Reatti,” I said gently.

Reatti finally looked up at me, and I did my best to not grow upset over the look in her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious Vim? The only reason they even realized we were here is because of her. They smelled her. Look at all this! They’ve been down here for years. Maybe even had been in Lumen as long as we have!” Reatti’s voice grew louder as she stepped aside to point at all the clothes and junk around us.

She stepped away a few feet, and then turned to glare at me. She looked like she wanted me to set her straight. She had the look of someone waiting to be punished.

Did she want me to grow angry and upset with her?

“You’re not wrong, Reatti,” I said gently.

Reatti’s face scrunched up, and proved I was right. She didn’t want me to agree with her.

“One could argue it would have happened eventually, Reatti… but there’s no denying that the spark to cause the fire was Renn. Her presence forced fate’s hand,” I admitted.

She made an odd noise as she groaned and stepped away from me; she grabbed her sword’s pommel… but didn’t draw it. She instead went to pacing, frustrated.

“You can blame her Reatti. It’s okay,” I said to her.

The meerkat shook her head. “No it’s not!” she cried.

“It is.”

“It isn’t!” she shouted.

“She’ll blame herself too, Reatti,” I said.

She stopped pacing, and her shoulders slumped. “I know,” she cried.

I smiled at the woman in front of me. Maybe I didn’t have to worry over her running off or becoming like Tosh at all.

Glancing down the hallways, to make sure her shouting hadn’t drawn the attention of anyone or anything… I nodded and approached Reatti once I was sure it was safe.

“Who do you think your brother blames, Reatti?” I asked her.

Reatti sniffed as she shook her head. “No one.”

“What of Merit? She had been there too,” I asked.

“Merit will only hate herself,” Reatti whispered softly as she wiped her eyes.

“And what of little Fly, Reatti?” I asked further.

Her face scrunched up even more as she glared at me. “She’s just a child,” she nodded.

I nodded back, glad she understood.

“You can hate, Reatti. Your brother was taken from you. You can hate all you want. But don’t let your hate blind you to the sorrows of those around you,” I said.

“Should I run away?” she asked.

“You can. I’ll help you if you’d like,” I suggested.

As Reatti sniffed and tried to clean her face of tears and snot, I studied the way she swayed in front of me. She suddenly looked exhausted again. “What of you Vim?” she asked.

I frowned. What of me? Was she asking for my thoughts on Renn, what I thought she should do, or something more?

“Aren’t you upset?” she asked after I remained silent.

Ah. “I am,” I said.

“At yourself,” she scoffed.

“Yes. A hypocrite. I know,” I admitted with a nod.

She sniffed as she smiled. “You are… but I guess that’s why you’re the protector, isn’t it?”

I shrugged, since I no longer really believed such a providential excuse. Hadn’t for centuries.

So many said I was perfect for my role, since I didn’t allow my emotions to intrude or make my decisions. Yet in truth it made me worse than those who did.

“It’s not your fault Vim,” Reatti said.

“Are we going to go back and forth like this forever?” I asked her.

She coughed a laugh, and then shook her head. “I mean it. You wanted to come here. You wanted to hunt them down. You suggested using Renn as bait even. We ordered you not to,” she whispered.

My eyes blurred a little, and I wished she hadn’t realized it. At least… not so quickly.

I wanted her to blame and hate me, not anyone else. Not herself. Not the Society as a whole.

“And it’s not… your and their fault for trying for a better result, Reatti. There’s no shame in trying to be better. We’d not be anything more than monsters if we didn’t try to be kind and welcoming,” I said.

“Yet you knew from the beginning. Didn’t you?” she asked.

Did I?

Well…

“See? How many times has this happened? Where everyone votes against what you suggest, and you just let it happen. Maybe it is your fault, for not being stricter with us,” Reatti said.

“Some have said that, yes,” I agreed.

Reatti sighed and once again went to cleaning her face. As she did I was reminded that she was… well…

Young. Young of heart. She may be as old as Renn, but she was more like Lellip and Lomi. She was more like Fly than Renn, even more so right now.

“What should I do Vim…?” Reatti whispered softly.

“Whatever you think you must… though I hope it won’t involve death or bloodshed… and that you’ll not do it alone, whatever it is,” I said gently.

She smiled at me with a pained grin. “I’ll not kill myself, I promise,” she said.

That was good… but I was more so worried over her attacking others, really. Namely a certain woman she… somewhat rightfully… blamed for her brother’s death.

“Nor Renn, Vim. I know it’s not really her fault,” Reatti said.

I blinked and hoped she didn’t say such a thing just because my worry had been visible on my face. “If it makes you feel better… she and I will leave soon,” I said to her.

She shook her head. “That’s not fair, Vim. Don’t banish her from here over this. That’s cruel,” she said.

Reatti blinked some tears out of her eyes, and I couldn’t help but praise her. She likely couldn’t help but hate Renn, yet was able to say such a thing… and even mean it.

Brom would be proud of her. It was too bad she wasn’t the one to be there during his final moments… it would have likely put to rest a lot of Reatti’s hate and vitriol. Though she hadn’t been there, seeing his mangled corpse had oddly calmed her. The first thing she asked for upon waking up from being knocked out was if I’d help her un-bury him from the rubble, but she hadn’t let me help bury him after.

“Where’d you bury him?” I asked her.

She shifted and blinked at me. At first I thought she’d not tell me, but she then smiled. “Beneath a huge tree. He wanted to be buried in an open field, so I found the densest part of the forest I could,” she said.

I smiled at her, and nodded. Yes… that was just like her.

Reatti gulped and her smile faded, and I realized she was about to sob and cry.

“Come on Reatti… let’s finish this and go home. You need a warm meal,” I said.

“Mhm,” she made a noise as she let me pat her on the back, and I guided her to join me back down the hallway.

The movement was a good excuse for Reatti not to break down crying, yet she still sniffed as she held back her tears. She walked slower than earlier too, but stayed next to me. I planned to have Reatti join me in most of my efforts and tasks for the next few days, if not weeks. It’d help her keep her mind occupied, and hopefully her hate too.

Walking side by side, I sighed as I realized this would only get worse. Reatti would be like this for years. Merit would get worse, too, and then of course there was Renn…

Such chaos never faded away quickly. Even when the enemies were slain, and the danger gone… there was still much to worry over.

Rounding a corner, Reatti and I ended up at another cave-in. One that had a person trapped beneath the rubble.

Walking up to the wall of brick and dirt, I noted the familiar tentacle root within the rubble. It wasn’t moving, but it was obviously the cause of the collapse of the hallway. It had broken through the ceiling.

There was a man half stuck under the pile of debris. He was dead, and his head and right arm were the only parts of him exposed. He had been trying to claw and dig himself free for what had likely been some time. There was blood all over the floor in front of him, and not from any visible wounds. He had tried to pull himself free, desperately.

“He had been alive,” Reatti whispered as she saw the same things I did.

I nodded.

“Another thing to prove that most of those down here are gone, Vim. Someone would have heard him screaming, likely. No one came to his aid,” Reatti said.

“Or they did, and decided not to help him upon finding out whom he was,” I said.

Reatti shifted on a heel, not liking what I had said.

But it was the truth. Reatti may not know, but I knew from experience that there were many people down here who had been… or were…

Well…

Cruel. Diabolical.

They had fed monsters for no reason. They had willingly sacrificed Renn and Fly. That man had been abusing that horned woman. Those humans had been terrified of them. Abused by them.

And this man wasn’t human.

The man had a deformed forehead. One that at first glance only looked misshapen, but I knew better. It was thicker, and shaped in a way that one could realize what he was if they simply stopped thinking like a human would.

He was a ram. One whose horns never emerged from his skin. The two bulbous bumps on his forehead were rather obvious.

Standing, I decided his body didn’t need to be dealt with. Even if the humans noticed his odd bones in his forehead, they’d just chalk it up to the collapse of the ceiling. They’d simply think his skull had been broken oddly, or he was deformed just enough.

Unless of course he had other non-human traits beneath all that rubble… but his hand was human enough. As was his arm, and shoulders.

“Let’s go,” I said as I headed away, to find another hallway to venture down.

These bodies would need to be dealt with eventually. Another source of disease… luckily these waterways were all drainage and rain water, but the carcasses would still corrupt and decay into the soil. It was a good thing society hadn’t developed to the point of running potable water yet.

Though…

“I’ll need to check the Societies’ water source,” I said, making sure to make a mental note to do so.

“Oh? Where is it?” Reatti asked.

“Underground, but not a part of the sewer system. It feeds off a spring below,” I said with a point beneath us.

“So… definitely something that could have broken,” she noted.

I nodded. “Maybe. Most of the damage is in this area. We might be lucky and the Animalia building is far enough away, and it is unscathed,” I said.

“Hm,” Reatti nodded as we found a stairwell. One that only led down, and not because it was blocked off or broken. It seemed to only lead to the floor below.

Staring down the dark stairwell, I sighed as all the stuff I would need to do started to nag at me.

Check the pipes. The sub-floors. Check the sewers for anymore of Fly’s people, or those creatures. Get the city of Lumen to dedicate manpower to fixing the sewers and cleaning them up, one way or another. Ensure the corpse of the creature I had killed is properly disposed of. Make sure the soon to arrive church and other religious groups didn’t take too much advantage of the situation. Check the ships… I still hadn’t found out who had captained it during the battle…

Then of course, all the troubles of the inhabitants of Lumen. My inhabitants. The Society itself.

The next few weeks will be painful and long.

“Vim,” Reatti whispered my name to draw my attention to our right. I turned as Reatti stepped back, as to let me see the people down the hallway clearly.

There were three of them. They were gathered around something, and hadn’t noticed Reatti or me yet. Looked like one was smaller than the other two, a child maybe.

I nodded as I stepped towards them, and gestured for Reatti to stay behind me. They looked human, but I wasn’t close enough yet to verify it.

As we approached, I hoped that things went smoothly from here on out. No more deaths. No more chaos… just the plain old headaches of cleaning up after a mess.

The three noticed us, and I noted their poor appearance as they turned to face us.

A family. A man and woman, with a young girl. All dressed in worn down rags, and were standing next to what looked like a large sack.

“Honey,” the woman’s panicked voice as she reached out to grab the man’s arm told me most of what I needed to know of them. The man stepped between the woman and the child, and he gulped. His expression told me he was doing his best to figure out who and what we were.

Coming to a stop a few dozen feet from them, I glanced at the sack they had been messing with. It was stuffed full of clothes and other stuff. Next to the sack was a small pile. They had been sorting what they would take and what they’d leave behind.

They were scavenging.

Just poor humans who were taking advantage of the moment.

“Sir Knight… we’re just gathering our stuff before we leave, that’s all,” the man finally spoke, and I didn’t need to see the panic in his eyes to know he was lying.

Knight…?

Oh. Right. The Animalia Guild emblem.

Thanks to our clothes being destroyed during the events a few days ago, Reatti and I were now walking around in the security uniform of the Animalia Guild. I had us wearing them in case we ran into real knights. It gave us a good excuse as to why we were down here.

I wasn’t wearing armor, but the sword on my hip and the clothes made it clear I was someone of note.

“You were living down here?” I asked them.

The woman and child shifted at my voice, but stayed behind the man as he nodded. “Yes sir… A floor down from here. It’s sealed though, it collapsed so…” his voice cracked near the end, and I heard Reatti sigh behind me.

They were human, thru and thru. The young girl peered at me from around her father, but was being held back by her mother. She looked malnourished. The parents didn’t look as unfed as her. Maybe she was sick or hurt.

“We’re just repacking our things, sir… then we’ll be gone,” the man said stiffly.

“Have you seen anyone else lately?” I asked.

“Lately…? No sir… Most everyone ran out once the world started to shake,” the man said. I believed his words, since he sounded confused. He didn’t understand why I was asking, or why I’d even care to know.

“We’re leaving soon, sir knight, real soon,” the woman said quickly. “Just after we finish packing!”

They might not be entirely lying, but it was clear not all of their stuff was theirs. Some of the clothes and items were… well…

There were shoes in their sack. Shoes that obviously were far too nice for them, and likely none of their sizes. The black gleam of a nobles leather shone even in the dark of the sewers. That single shoe was worth more than everything they wore.

Hopefully they’d sell it and buy the poor girl some food, and not alcohol or something worse.

I put aside my sudden worry for the young girl, and returned my attention to the man. “Soon the knights of Lumen will be down here. I suggest getting your family out before that happens,” I said to them.

The man stood up straighter and quickly nodded. I nodded back and stepped forward, the family quickly stepped aside and up against the wall to let Reatti and me pass by.

Heading deeper down the hallway, away from the human family, I ignored their hurried whispers as we left. The woman was scorning the man. She had told him they should have left hours ago.

“Hopefully no one tries to pillage the building while we’re gone,” Reatti mumbled as the human’s whispers faded away.

“The building is sealed well enough,” I said. I had checked all the doors before leaving.

“Was just a thought,” Reatti said softly.

A good one. Though mostly born from her distaste of seeing humans act in such a way.

“There might be some looting, but I expect the knights to take over soon enough. I heard a marching horn earlier before we came down here,” I said.

“Marching horn?” Reatti asked.

“A horn used to give orders to lots of humans at once. Likely a knight’s troop,” I explained.

“Great,” Reatti didn’t like the sound of that.

Reaching another intersection of hallways, I had no choice but to accept the fact that I’d need to give up.

Two of the three available new paths were blocked. One by rubble, the other by roots.

“Well Vim?” Reatti asked as I stared down the only new hallway. It lead to a larger room. One I recognized. An entrance, one that led to a large stairwell that went topside. One near the central market. The same one Reatti and I had used to come down here a few hours ago.

“One last try… then we’ll go back up,” I said.

Reatti sighed but followed obediently.

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