70: Into The Sewers (Patreon)

NOTE: Got a shoutout for you all today. I'm only going to shout a small handful of stories on patreon for my friends who really helped out. I won't be spamming you here.

J.M. Clarke (aka U Juggernaut, Traitorman) beta read Ashborn and has helped me immensely over the past year, auditing my outline, and even helping me get through decisions as late as arc 10. He's one of my very best friends, and I respect him immensely as a person and author. Plus, I just love his stories :-)

Mark of the Fool is a fun slice of life story that's like university-level Harry Potter. It's very well written by an author who knows his craft, and it's one of the biggest fics on RR for that reason.

Check it out on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Fool-Progression-Fantasy-Epic-ebook/dp/B0B134YJYF

and RR: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/41618/mark-of-the-fool

The sewer entrance wasn’t difficult to find—Vir let his nose guide him to a gate in a small alley, where a black-bearded city guard sat on a stool. He’d never seen anyone look so bored.

But Vir didn’t approach the man just yet. Though the bestiary had said that Jatu were mostly harmless, especially for someone of Vir’s skill and power, he wasn’t going to take any chances. Not when there was still low hanging fruit to be picked.

Vir Danced up to a nearby rooftop with clothes hung from a line. Dahans tended to make good use of their flat roofs for drying clothes, though the Vimana that floated overhead likely reduced the efficacy of that tactic.

Hopping over to another, more empty rooftop, Vir launched into his experiment. Empower had so many useful combat applications that they were almost impossible to list.

Yet, as he’d found, it had proven difficult to pull prana from his feet all the way up into his hands. Kicks were useful, and his Kalari training allowed him to incorporate prana-empowered kicks into his fighting style, but punches—or katar swipes and thrusts—would be far more deadly.

He was sure there was some way of getting prana into his arms, but until then, perhaps a quick workaround would suffice.

Vir touched a hand to the roof and pulled blood up from his hand. Though he was on a rooftop, the clay construction conducted prana well, and it only took a second before Ash affinity prana came surging up into his arm.

Then it was just a matter of ‘willing’ the prana to accelerate his katar slice.

Similar to when he’d learned this technique for his legs, the first several times he attempted it, he either used too much or too little prana. That caused his arms to shoot off with extreme force—straining his shoulder—or just petering out to no effect.

The nice thing was that overall, his arms consumed less prana than his legs, which made sense since they were smaller and had less blood flowing through them. This would normally make prana-empowered arm attacks weaker, but weapons more than made up for that.

Satisfied with his progress, and unwilling to drain too much Ash affinity prana from this area, Vir Danced back down and approached the sewer guard.

“I’d like to enter the sewers. Brotherhood business.”

The guard’s eyes slowly meandered over to Vir, and the man spoke in an equally lazy drawl. “Initiation, I s’pose?”

Vir nodded.

“Well, go on in then,” he said, unlocking the gate for Vir.

“Uh, you don’t need to see my Brotherhood writ?”

“Boy, you think anyone sane wants to go into that place? Only people who e’er come here are Brotherhood folk seeking initiation.”

Vir had to wonder whether this was the real reason the Arbiter told him not to ask anyone for help. The exam would be rendered useless if word got out. Then again, it sounded like someone would tail him to ensure there was no foul play. Either way, Vir wasn’t about to cheat. Not like he needed to, anyway.

Vir descended the stairs into the sewer tunnel, thankful he’d heeded the librarian’s advice and changed into rags. The stench was something else.

“Knock when you want out. And be sure to be back before dusk, else ye’ll have to stay there overnight or find yourself another exit.”

Liquid detritus ran in the center of the cramped tunnel in a canal, while a narrow stone walkway ran along one side. The tunnel was made of arched stone, damp and wet. Vir’s head spun at the sheer intensity of the smells.

Tying a rag around his mouth helped just enough to allow him to function.

The tunnel extended into the darkness in both directions, so Vir just picked one at random. He really had no clue where these Jatu might make their nest, so either worked.

After only a few paces, the light from the entrance died away, leaving him in complete darkness, apart from what Prana Vision told him. With the ability flaring at its maximum, the tunnel appeared even brighter than the alley he’d come from, making navigation a nonissue.

He ran into the real problem just a hundred paces away, where the tunnel branched into two forks.

How am I gonna find my way back?

The first solution that came to his mind was to etch a mark on the wall at each junction, but unlike with regular vision, these kinds of details were muddled to Prana Vision.

No, the best option was something that blazed brightly to his eyes, and that meant only one thing. Setting his pack down, Vir rummaged for something that looked different to his eyes. In the walls where the brown Earth affinity dominated, Life’s white color was completely missing, making it an ideal choice. Vir pulled out a vial of salve he’d put together some time back. Made from various herbs, water, and alcohol, it made for a great disinfectant, but more importantly, was made almost entirely of Life and Water affinities.

He only needed a few drops on the wall—the contrast made the salve obvious. It wouldn’t last forever, but it’d certainly be there hours later when he returned.

The rushing of the liquid refuse filled the sewer with water, which would ordinarily blind Vir to any other presences, but here again, Prana Vision bypassed that issue.

For hours, Vir searched. For hours, he failed to find even a single trace of Jatu or any other organism.

The monotony broke when he heard, rather than saw, several voices in the distance. Men shouting, hurling expletives, and another voice—that of a girl—yelping in fright.

Vir ran to the source of the sounds. Though it was none of his business, he needed to know whether these people would pose a threat to him in the future. And, if someone was in danger, he’d be remiss not to help if he could.

The sounds suddenly stopped, and Vir came to a halt, straining to see something. Prana Vision’s resolution decreased dramatically with distance, so he couldn’t tell what was going on until he got closer.

Just when Vir thought everyone had passed by, he heard a single pair of footsteps, growing louder, and the silence was broken again by…

Giggles?

It sounded like the girl from earlier. Whoever they were, they sounded young, and without a care in the world.

Finally, light began to flood the tunnel Vir was in. He stood still, allowing the girl to approach, monitoring her prana signature as it got brighter and better defined.

She held a Magic Candle, which provided paltry illumination—just enough for her to see a handful of paces away. Though she was now less than thirty paces away, Vir remained invisible to her.

If he did nothing, she’d eventually find him, since there was only one path through the sewer, but Vir didn’t have cause to panic.

When she was twenty paces away, he activated Dance of the Shadow Demon, disappearing into the shadow realm. He stayed there, observing her as the seconds ticked by and she walked along, blissfully unaware. The innumerable shadows in the sewer allowed him to look at her from different angles as she walked.

As he'd learned over the past months, by placing only part of his body in the Shadow Realm, he could remain inside for longer. What's more, time continued to flow proportionally to how much of his body was inside the shadows. With only his head inside, time moved only slightly slower than normal, and he could stay in the shadows for over a minute.

Everything about her screamed ‘harmless’ to him, except for the dual affinities she possessed. Water and Lightning. Both lesser affinities, though.

Vir’s ten seconds expired, but instead of reappearing in front of her, he popped up behind her, opting not to make contact.

Instead, he tailed her as she walked along, skipping her way through the sewer as if she were on a stroll through a beautiful garden. The stench didn’t seem to bother her one bit.

Vir activated Dance periodically to study her in more detail. The slim framed girl wasn’t a girl at all, but a boy who wore holey rags that looked like they gone unwashed for months, and his greasy black hair looked no better. He looked to be around the same age as Vir, or perhaps slightly younger.

What interested him the most, though, was how well he knew his way around the sewers. As if he had a destination in mind and knew exactly how to get there.

The boy’s affinities were of a surprise, but even if he happened to be a mejai in disguise, Vir was confident he could take him on.

He decided to contact him—if he could guide Vir to the Jatu, then he’d take it. Any more time in the stinking sewers, and he’d vomit.

But just as he was about to pop up in front of the boy, sounds echoed through the tunnel—the boy’s pursuers from earlier. Panicking, the boy ran… but in the wrong direction. At his pursuers. The tunnel echoes made isolating sound direction difficult, but Vir was sure he was heading straight to them.

Exiting the shadow realm, he stuck out his foot, tripping him.

“You’re going straight to them, y’know?” he said in a low voice.

Unfortunately, the boy screamed… and continued to scream as he cast his Magic Candle upon Vir, right until Vir clasped his mouth shut.

I should’ve expected that… Vir thought. Popping up out of nowhere in the middle of a pitch-black tunnel would scare anyone.

Sure enough, the footsteps of their pursuers grew louder, and the sounds of their voices were now distinct enough to discern. “This way! He went this way!”

“Come on,” Vir said, grabbing the boy’s skinny wrist. “We need to lose them.”

Together they ran. The boy’s untrained footsteps rang like sirens in Vir’s ears with each step, making him cringe.

Luckily, a fork presented itself, one that Vir had already been down. He took the path he came from, and only when they arrived at the subsequent junction and took a right did he allow them to rest.

They waited with bated breath while the footsteps grew louder, then finally dissipated. While the boy was likely worried about being harmed, Vir was more worried he’d be forced to use Dance to slip away.

The fewer people who knew about that ability, the better.

“So, uh… wh-who are you?” the boy asked, averting his eyes.

“You first,” Vir said. “Why were you running from those people?”

The boy pulled out what looked to be a loaf of bread from under his clothing and sneaked a grin. Vir might’ve seen it through Prana Vision if he’d paid closer attention, but only if he’d been standing very close to the boy.

“I kinda stole some bread.”

Vir narrowed his eyes. “They’d chase you into the sewers for swiping some bread? I find that hard to believe.”

“Ha ha yeaaah, well,” he replied, scratching his head, “times are rough, y’know? Ha ha ha.”

“Really?” Vir said. “Rough times, even for those who possess dual water and lightning affinities?”

Shock flickered across the boy’s face, but only for the tiniest instant before it was gone, replaced by a look of suspicion that made him look several years older. “How could you know that?”

“I have my ways,” Vir replied. “Who are you, really?”

“Hmm. Well, I can see why he sent you. You’re better than you look. You pass!”

“Sorry, what?”

The boy grinned. “I’m Riyan Savar’s contact. Welcome to Daha.”

NOTE: Now that we're in march, the story's shifting to 5x a week. I'll see you all on Monday!