I tilted my head towards the ceiling. “... Cassia is looking for us.”

  “Wait, you mean she’s running around the undercity?” Visk asked me. “Is the knight with her?”

  My connection with Cassia twinged as I pushed the smell of steel and horses at her inquisitively. That was my best approximation of what a knight smelled like. She sent back emotions of confusion, so I tried again. The next time, I sent her an impression of repeatedly falling over and making mistakes. That she immediately responded with a negative was both gratifying and a little irritating.

  “No, Sir Kenneth isn’t with her,” I growled in annoyance. “That man has a lot to answer for, if he abandoned Cassia to fend for herself.”

  Visk hummed, staring off into the darkness. “I dunno bossy, that doesn’t seem like something he would do. He might be a twit and a bit of a coward, but he did his best to make sure those bandits didn’t hurt her when we got captured.”

  “If you insist, I’ll trust your judgment.” I twisted and turned my head to look around the space we were in. “We need to find a way out of here and up to where she’s at. I don’t want something to find her when she’s alone in the dark.”

  “Can’t you shape the stone, like with the tunnel back home?” Visk asked me patiently.

  I stopped to consider that. It was a little embarrassing that I’d not thought of that. As I focused on the smooth stone around me, I found it strangely unresponsive to my touch. There was only the slightest indication that I was even affecting the currents of Vitae flowing through the material.

  A lick of flame coiled out of my mouth and brushed against the smooth stone. It not only resisted the magic’s touch, it actively started draining the pseudo-spell. Magic was pulled into the stone and dispersed throughout it. I recoiled away from it and eyed my surroundings suspiciously. Visk stared at me with obvious concern.

  “... No, I can’t shape the stone here Visk,” I said carefully. “In fact, we should probably leave, this place may well be dangerous to us.” I didn’t want to think about what would happen if the strange smooth stone of this structure started draining our magic continuously.

  The elf swiftly hopped up on my back and settled into the seat there. Come to think of it, I was fairly certain that my body had subtly shifted its shape to allow someone to sit in the position behind my wings more comfortably. That was a little concerning. I didn’t want to be regarded as a common pack mule, or a pack horse like Edith’s steed Bronston.

  I idly wondered how the patient stallion was doing.

  Regardless, my body changing its shape to suit someone riding me left a complicated feeling inside of me. My Cassia seemed to notice it and sent me sensations of concern. I acknowledged her but sent back an impression of speaking. It was something we could address when we met up… There was actually a long list of things we’d need to talk about.

  My wings carried me up into the air. As we sailed upwards through the cylinder of smooth stone, I kept my eyes out for anything that might be out of place. Nothing immediately caught my attention, but a low feeling of tension remained in my gut. Something about this place just felt ‘off’. Hopefully I wouldn't need to return here any time soon.

  As I landed at one of the tunnels exiting, I stepped around a fast flow of water that dropped into the depths of the cylinder. The flow was small, but constant. That made me wonder where all the water was going. I wasn’t interested in sticking around to find an answer and headed down the tunnel with Visk on my back.

  Unbeknownst to me, down in the pool of water at the bottom of the turbine chamber, something was watching me leave.

  Finding Cassia in the underground was a frustrating game of cat and mouse. I could use my connection to check on her general direction, but I was wary of relying on it too much. Sixth still hadn’t woken up since I’d been knocked out by Second’s trap. Usually she’d have at least projected a catty comment into my head.

  I still had questions for my sibling. The brief mention of ‘Crystallizing’ had me concerned for the future. Visk’s words on the subject of time had calmed me a little, but I wanted to know what exactly was in store for me. Not knowing about my heritage had only occasionally been a problem thus far, but Sixth had hinted at just how much I was missing out on.

  Learning more about my draconic heritage was moving up the list of my priorities. Getting trapped by Second had hammered home just how far I was behind my siblings. The truth was that I’d gotten astronomically lucky in my fight with Third. Someone or something else had killed him after we parted ways. I couldn’t have even attempted to rescue Magnus with that threat hanging over my head.

  More than likely, I’d have needed to glut myself on life force just to stay alive.

  I mulled over these things as Cassia and I grew closer to each other’s location. The labyrinthine nature of the undercity made following a straight path impossible. At times I needed to climb up a vertical shaft hewn through the stone, or climb a set of stairs, only to double back when the route was blocked.

  We eventually left the strange smooth stone behind. As the corridors narrowed, Visk slid off of my back but stayed close at hand. Or claw, as was my preference. I felt comfortable using my magic to clear our way once the ‘normal’ ancient stones of the undercity resumed.

  At a certain point, I felt Cassia directly above me. Only a short distance of stone separated us, but the pathways we were on did not converge. My eyes narrowed at the ceiling above me. I communicated to Cassia to move and then wait.

  “Visk, take shelter under me for a moment. I’m going to try something a little dangerous.” The elf scuttled under my legs without question. Having a house dropped on us had been an eye opening experience for us both. There was no sense in being shy when danger loomed.

  I focused on the Vitae flowing through the stone that lay between me and Cassia. The immense frustration which had been building within me provided excellent fuel for my mental image. I bundled all of that barely restrained fury within me into my magic and hissed out a word.

  “OPEN.”

  The stone of the ceiling didn’t just slide apart. It was forced wide, like I had sunk my claws into it and pulled it in half. The surrounding stonework crumbled and cracked, shattered into rubble as the earth was rammed out of the way. A cloud of stone dust filled the chamber, spilling out of the hole I’d torn in the ceiling.

  Someone dropped down through the hole a moment later. I didn’t immediately recognize who it was in the cloud of dust. As I quickly checked my mental connection, the figure dropped a bag it was carrying and ran at me.

  Visk yelped and jumped out from beneath me as Cassia took a leap through the air. Her body slammed into my neck with surprising weight, carrying me into the wall behind me. Those arms continued to cling to me tightly, almost choking me as she pressed into my scales. All I could do was slap my tail against the ground, asking for some manner of mercy.

  “Godsdamnit Sanguine, what happened?!” Cassia cried. A mixture of anger and sadness erupted from inside her, washing over me. It was undercut by sheer joy from being reunited. “You were supposed to come get us if something went wrong!”

  I didn’t have any easy answer for that. Hopefully my Cassia would stop choking me long enough to let me explain.

  “Well this has properly gone up the creek without a paddle,” Cassia summarized as she crouched by a small lantern. While me and Visk were comfortable in the dark, my Cassia preferred to have at least some light when she wasn’t sleeping.

  The three of us were taking a rest in an empty room that was connected to one of the underground aqueducts. It seemed to have been some manner of work space, perhaps for those working on the aqueducts themselves. Most of its contents had long rotted away by time, but it was still fairly clean. Most importantly, it was large enough to accommodate all three of us without someone getting squished.

  “I’ll say,” Visk muttered quietly. “We came here to find an Alchemist to tell us where the Wizard was, and it turns out they’re the same guy! … Kind of. We got captured by bandits, performed experiments on rats, punched through walls, fought half the city, and you got put up as some secret noble lady?”

  “... Edith is going to kill us,” both Cassia and Visk said at the same time.

  There had been an initial bout of tension between the two that I didn’t understand, after Cassia stopped choking me long enough for us to find a place to rest. The two of them had gone off into a quiet corner to ‘chat’ and told me not to listen in with either my ears or connection to Cassia. By some arcane rules that I couldn’t begin to understand, the two of them had come to an agreement.

  That resulted in Cassia laying on my back while Visk sat with my head in their lap. I deliberately chose not to question the arrangement. If it made the two of them happy, then I was happy.

  “We could try and visit Mortimer, the Alchemist one, again,” Visk offered after a few moments of silence. “He told us where to find the Wizard Mortimer and he seemed almost happy about the prospect of us killing him.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Maybe,” Cassia grumbled. She was busy burying her face into my scales and only took part in the conversation reluctantly. Despite her desire to rescue Magnus, our ‘visit’ to the city had been quite hard on her. She wanted to leave, but agreed to stay so long as we did. None of us wanted to be separated again, even for good reason.

  “... Sir Kenneth might be our best shot,” my Cassia eventually said. “He’s gotten in good with the local knights. They seem to have a bone to pick with the Wizards. I don’t know much about nobles, but some guy working for the ‘Margrave’ showed up and recruited him to go help the city.”

  Visk gave a low whistle. “The Margrave? Yeesh, that’s a big noble. The Baron back home would have to clean the Margrave’s boots if he asked.”

  All of us considered the possibility of relying on Sir Kenneth of all people to rescue Magnus. It was a harrowing thought, but both my Cassia and my Visk had told me that the man performed admirably under pressure. Even I had to admit that I’d first met the man when he was attacking a near fully grown Dragon, my sibling Third. That took an insane amount of guts, or stupidity, but Sir Kenneth didn’t strike me as an imbecile.

  “How are we going to contact him?” I asked quietly. “You know the Inn where he’s staying at Cassia, but how will we reach it together without drawing attention?”

  Visk lightly bapped me on my nose. “BOSS. We just watched you rip a door through solid rock when you got annoyed enough. Just this once, tossing a ton of magic at the problem is probably the solution.”

  Cassia gave a quiet giggle from my back. “Well look who has gained some confidence! They’re right though, Sanguine. I think the best approach is probably to tunnel up beneath the Noble Quarter. The Inn we’re staying at has a basement we can probably sneak into.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled. “But if anything goes wrong, I’m going for the ‘burn down the city’ route.” This time, I really wasn’t joking.

  Sir Kenneth sat down in his private quarters, rubbing the sweat off of his brow with a rag. The day had been long and difficult. After his initial success in bringing down a Wizard, the other knights had jokingly started referring to him as ‘Mageslayer’. As one might expect in a city full of angry Wizards, that kind of nickname could cause a lot of trouble.

  Some of the things he’d seen were harrowing. Lives snuffed out in an instant simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wild magic that stalked the streets like a predator. Both the best and worst of humanity duking it out over the cobbled stones. Ultimately the Castellan's efforts could be called a ‘success’, but it was a bitter one.

  The real power that had brought the fighting to a halt was the mage ‘Council’. Each Tower had a Master or Mistress, who would select a small number of representatives to attend to the day to day business of the Tower and sit in on meetings where one Tower had business with another. When these Senior Wizards had taken to the field to bring order to the chaos, everyone else either got out of the way or they died.

  Sir Kenneth had contributed to the capture of a total of seven Wizards who were fighting each other in the streets, or had come looking for him specifically after his nickname got around. The last couple had taken umbrage with anyone whose name was ‘Mageslayer’ and tried to drop a massive boulder on him from the sky. A couple of knights hadn’t been able to get out of the way in time and became red stains on the cobblestones.

  There hadn’t been any warning when the Senior Wizards arrived. They had simply blasted any Wizard still fighting or causing trouble into oblivion with raw power. The amount of enchanted items on display was simply jaw dropping. Those responsible for dropping the boulder on Sir Kenneth had been vaporized by a line of pure darkness, as well as the boulder in question.

  No apology was given. The Senior Wizards simply flew away to the next issue.

  In the end, the Castellan backed by his Witch Hunters had gotten some small concessions after an intense stand off. An open Council session would be held to determine the cause of the ‘accident’ as the Wizards called it. All Senior Wizards would be in attendance, as well as the Castellan and his chosen knights.

  Somehow, word had gotten around that Sir Kenneth had witnessed a particular Wizard fighting in the Barony of Reimse. That led to him being summoned directly to the Castellan and told in no uncertain terms to Keep His Mouth Shut until the Council meeting and not to leave his quarters until then under any circumstance.

  He had just finished getting his blood stained gambeson off and was wiping down his torso when Visk appeared out of thin air in front of him. The elf swiftly slapped their hand over the Knight’s mouth to prevent him from screaming in terror. Sir Kenneth stared in wide eyed shock at the elf’s shining silver hair and tattoos.

  “Shhh,” Visk said softly. “Been a hell of a day, eh?” They looked around the room, their eyes searching for any sign of a trap. “Cassia is back with the boss. I figure you’re probably pretty annoyed with them both right now. You probably have a right to be, but I need to know if you still intend to help the kid, Magnus.”

  Sir Kenneth narrowed his eyes at the elf. After the things he’d seen today… Visk was right that Kenneth was furious with Sanguine. The dragon wasn’t at fault for the Wizard Towers’ recklessness, but his presence had undeniably caused a lot of death and suffering that didn’t need to happen.

  After a few seconds of silence, he nodded. Visk withdrew their hand.

  “Good,” the elf said. “Listen quick, because I’m on a time limit before my magic runs out.” Sir Kenneth leaned back on the stool he was sitting on and crossed his arms. Several new scars covered his upper body. He idly flicked his hand for Visk to continue.

  “That carnival earlier today happened because the Boss and I were tracking the kid. Something is wrong with him, seriously wrong. Neither of us know enough about Sorcerers to be sure, but we think the Wizard is draining him dry somehow. Boss says his magic feels ‘hollow’.” Visk’s explanation did not sit well with Sir Kenneth, but he allowed them to keep speaking.

  “... Magnus is acting like the Wizard is his best friend. I hope I don’t need to explain why that’s a crock of shite. He went so far as to attack Sanguine when we were about to rescue him. Knocked us halfway across the city and into a building. Sanguine bloody saved both the kid and Edith’s lives. There has got to be some kind of magic nonsense affecting his mind...”

  “... The fight started because of the Wizard’s familiar. It’s… possessed or something. None of us have any clue what’s going on with that, but Boss says it smells like ‘Pure Death’. Whatever it is, it’s bad news. When it cawed, I felt like years got stripped off my life. I’m an elf, so there’s no telling what it’ll do to humans.” Visk sighed deeply. “That’s what we know.”

  “An interesting story,” the Witch Hunter said as they stood behind Visk, coming out of thin air.

  Visk screamed.

  “Hail, scion of the vaen loeg,” the Witch Hunter said in a casual tone, hand on their staff. “I wasn’t aware any of your ilk were in the city.”

  “How do people keep getting the jump on me?!” Visk hissed as they stood across from the Hunter, knives drawn. “This stupid bloody city full of Mages!”

  “On that sentiment, we agree,” the Witch Hunter replied. “But pray, lower thine weapons… before I remove them.”

  Sir Kenneth looked back and forth between the pair before carefully getting off of his stool. He pulled a fresh shirt off of a peg where he’d hung it earlier and tugged it over his head. “Does anybody in this city knock before they enter a man’s chambers?” he asked no one in particular.

  Both the Witch Hunter and Visk seemed to ignore him. Slowly, the elf lowered their daggers. The Witch Hunter nodded and transferred their staff to the crook of their elbow. Their hand reached up and pulled their hood back.

  Visk gave a small hiss when they saw the Witch Hunter’s face. Soft blue eyes stared back at them. It wasn’t just the irises. The Hunter’s whole eye glowed a gentle blue, in the same manner as Visk’s moonlit orbs. Sir Kenneth could see the slightly pointed tips of the Hunter’s ears poking out through their golden blonde hair.

  “Greetings,” The Witch hunter said simply. “I am called ‘Veda’, professionally. I hold the honor of serving the Empire as an Interrogator of the Order of Qaetil Saehra. The Mage Slayers, in other words.” Their blue eyes glanced over at Sir Kenneth. “You should probably seek another title I am afraid, good sir. Your new nickname would be an unfortunate association for you.”

  Sir Kenneth felt heat rise to his face, but he couldn’t exactly place the source.

  “... So you’re not attacking yet,” Visk said quietly. “You can call me Visk. Just Visk. If you’ve been spying on the ‘Wizard Shanker’ here, you know something is up. What do you want?”

  “Fortunately, bounty hunting does not fall under my purview,” Veda said calmly. “And the crimes you are wanted for are… non violent, save for your association with a man who the nobility would see die in a spectacularly gruesome fashion.”

  They leaned on their staff and sighed. “I have taken the opportunity to ask some questions about our mutual acquaintance, Mortimer the Wizard, after an earlier conversation with the young Knight here. I believe that you and I may share a common enemy.”

  Sir Kenneth glanced back and forth. “... Can I persuade either of you to sit down and to not talk like I’m not here?” he said a bit stiffly. “This is my bedroom.”

  Visk and Veda both selected a stool to sit on. There were only two in the room, so that meant Sir Kenneth had to go sit down on the end of his bed.

  “Apologies, good knight,” Veda said politely. “You have as much stake in this as your compatriot. To be concise, my understanding is that: the Wizard Mortimer has kidnapped a child with powerful Sorcerous abilities, is exploiting him for personal gain, and has also let his familiar become possessed by an angry spirit which helped cause a city wide catastrophe. Is that correct?”

  “He also murdered the child’s guardian and is likely employing the man who you said the nobles would want executed in horrific fashion,” Sir Kenneth added grimly.

  Veda steepled their fingers in front of their face and went silent for a full three minutes before speaking again.

  “My Order has routinely experienced great difficulty in proving the depravities routinely practiced by the Towers of Osteriath,” Veda said softly. “It is a blight on our honor and that of the Empire. Normal citizens suffer every day, because the Wizards go unchecked. I have already been assigned as your personal guard until the Council meeting, Sir Kenneth. If you would allow, please enlighten me about everything you know of the Wizard Mortimer.”

  “As for you,” Veda directed at Visk. “While I am… displeased, by your Master’s presence, he is ultimately not my concern until he makes it my concern. Please convey to him that, now that the Qaetil Saehra knows of his presence… we will be watching. So long as he does not cause further trouble, we will have no reason for conflict.”

  Veda stood from their seat. “In fact, we may desire to call upon him at a later date for his assistance. If he is all that I suspect he is… we can ill afford to make an enemy out of him.”

  “I’m not gonna speak for the Boss,” Visk said as they also stood up. The shine from their tattoo’s was fading. “But I’ll warn you now that if you’re blowing hot air and don’t do anything to rescue the kid, today will look like a side show before the real carnival starts.”

  Both elves fell silent and gave a strange bow that Sir Kenneth was unfamiliar with. They then both promptly vanished into thin air. At least one of them used the door on their way out, which seemed to open and close on its own.

  “Great,” the knight muttered to himself. “Now I’m going to have to worry about invisible elves whenever I get changed.”