The crawl through the long tunnel was tense, the occasional thundering boom shaking the stone around them even down here.

  Rylan tried very hard not to imagine being buried by a cave-in, and just kept crawling.

  When they at last exited through Kher’s secret door into the larger caves, he sighed with relief. To be honest, he had no idea whether this place was actually any safer than the cramped tunnel, but it definitely felt that way.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t spot any glowing footprints leading away from the exit; if Kher had walked over the gloamstep moss here, it had been more than twenty minutes ago.

  “So, now what?” Nazyr grunted. “And before ye ask: no, we don’t know Kher’s route. There’s a reason he leads people in the dark, ye know?”

  “What about you, Ryles?” Leahna asked. “You said your memory has improved since you’ve increased your Mind Attribute, right?”

  Rylan pursed his lips. “I’m not sure if I know all of it, but I can definitely give it a try.”

  “Well, I suppose it beats standing around and twiddling our thumbs,” Yuel drawled. “Should I light my lantern?”

  Rylan hesitated for a moment, but then remembered that he’d already introduced the former pirates to his spiritgear back when they were tricking some Quinthar into giving up the location of the console.

  “No,” he replied, shaking his head out of habit even though no one would be able to see it. “I’ve got Arphin to help me navigate and it’ll all just look unfamiliar in the light anyway. Plus, we might still come across Kher’s footprints or something if we’re lucky.”

  [I’ve got you, Boss,] Arphin sent, before starting up another stream of impressions which gave Rylan a sense for the layout of the cave they were in.

  “This way,” he said confidently, starting in what he was ninety percent sure was the right direction, leaving a trail of glowing footsteps in the moss for the rest to follow.

  Rylan was pretty sure they were heading in the right direction, at least for the first ten minutes or so. Then he came across a fork in the road that he didn’t remember. He chose to go right.

  The climb they did after that seemed familiar, but to be honest, everything looked and felt the same down here.

  Two unfamiliar forks later, they hit a dead end, and had to backtrack.

  After the third dead end, Rylan was forced to face facts.

  He’d lost the trail, and he had no idea where.

  As he was helping his sister back down a slope they’d only just ascended, Yuel spoke up. “So, this isn’t really working, is it?”

  Rylan let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m wracking my brain over where we went wrong but it’s just...”

  “You’re trying to do the impossible, milord,” Yuel said gently. “I hate to say it, but perhaps we better head back now that we can still see our footprints.”

  Rylan clenched his fists. “We can still keep going; I may have lost the route, but I could still easily find the way back.”

  “You could still find it now,” Yuel replied. “But for how much longer?”

  “Wait,” Leahna said, having reached the bottom and turned around. “What’s that?”

  Rylan could tell in what direction she was pointing only because Arphin showed him. He was squinting into the dark to see what she was indicating when he saw it.

  On the other side of the large cavern, there was a faint glowing trail, like a giant bioluminescent slug had passed through. Except, actually, it was a bit more granular than that.

  “Are those... footprints?” he mumbled.

  The foursome quickly made their way over. And indeed, the trail appeared to be a mostly faded mass of footprints in the gloamstep moss.

  “That’s a lotta people,” Nazyr commented. “An’ they seem to have been in a hurry too!”

  “Maybe it was a group of commoners from the slums,” Leahna suggested. “Looking for a place to hide from the violence?”

  Yuel tutted. “Naw, these aren’t the shoes of commoners... Look at these prints; they’re all big, with well-made soles without any holes in them. No children’s sizes, no one on bare feet, and these prints over here—look at the sharp lines, that pointy tip—these aren’t from boots, they’re from greaves. I’m telling you, these tracks are from soldiers.”

  Rylan followed the tracks with his eyes. They came from a lower cave and moved up into a higher one. His eyes widened. “Fog, that’s right! The first time I passed through here, Kher and I came across some people who were mapping out these tunnels! They must’ve been working for the Talons... They found a way up and now they’re using it to sneak a force into the city; that means they’ve been preparing this assault for seasons!”

  A silence fell over the cave for a moment, as the echoes of his voice died down.

  Leahna cleared her throat. “So what you’re saying is... this trail leads up into the city?”

  Rylan blinked. “I mean... Yeah. I can’t imagine it leads anywhere else. Unless they manage to get lost somehow.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” she asked, before turning around and starting to speedwalk along the trail.

  Rylan laughed and set off to follow her. After a moment, however, he stopped and glanced back. “Are you guys coming, or what?”

  “You kids are mad,” Yuel complained. “Mad, I tell you!”

  “And that’s just how we like it, right boo?” Nazyr added, slapping Yuel on the back as he started to follow Rylan.

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  Yuel grumbled something. “Fine!” he finally exclaimed. “Let’s chase the fogging soldiers through the sodding tunnels!”

  The broad trail left behind by the soldiers was pretty easy to follow in the dark, so they were able to make good time.

  As they hurried through the tunnels, the footprints slowly grew a little brighter. Still, it was clear the soldiers were marching at a decent tempo as well, and while they were closing in, they weren’t about to catch up.

  It didn’t take too long before they were out of the fog, and not long after that, they started hearing muffled noises that sounded suspiciously like clashing weapons and shouting.

  As they got closer, some dim light started to filter in from the distance. This made the glowing footprints a little harder to follow, but soon it didn’t matter anyway, as they reached the entrance to a tunnel that clearly wasn’t natural.

  No gloamstep moss grew on the hewn rock, the cramped tunnel supported by crude arches of brickwork that made Rylan fleetingly nostalgic.

  Shaking his head at himself, he laid a hand on Leahna’s shoulder to grab her attention. “I’ll go first,” he whispered.

  She bit her lip, then nodded, stepping aside to allow him to pass.

  Rylan activated Stealth, then crouched down slightly to enter the cramped tunnel, trailing one hand over the brickwork.

  A moment later, Leahna crouched down and went after him, with Nazyr and Yuel on her heels.

  The tunnel slowly became brighter, but remained quite dark, clearly ending in a room of some kind.

  ‘Let me know if there’s anyone around in a position to see me, all right?’ Rylan sent to Arphin. ‘You remember how lines of sight work, right?’

  [I remember, Boss! There isn’t anyone in the room beyond the tunnel, though there are people napping on the floor above, for some reason.]

  Oh boy...

  Since Arphin said there wasn’t anyone present, Rylan didn’t hesitate to step out when he reached the tunnel’s end, despite the growing sounds of steel meeting steel.

  Though he did have to take care where he placed his feet in the dimly lit basement, as there lay a bunch of smashed wicker and shards of clay around the exit, as well as unidentifiable liquids that smelled alcoholic.

  It took him a moment to realise the wicker had once been part of some kind of shelves used to conceal the tunnel’s entrance.

  Around him, stone pillars supported a vaulted brickwork ceiling, while other wicker shelves still held large clay jars and sacks with unknown contents.

  “Watch your step,” he whispered to Leahna, holding out a hand to help as she exited.

  She accepted it with a strained but grateful smile, anxiously taking in their surroundings.

  Nazyr quickly followed and Yuel stepped out last, glancing around with a frown. “This place looks familiar... Is this The Gilderberry?”

  Nazyr lifted his nose and took a couple of deep sniffs. “Nah, it’s The Drunken Gull,” he said with conviction.

  Leahna eyed him funnily. “You can tell from the smell?”

  “Course not,” Nazyr said with a grin. “It says so on the barrels.”

  Yuel snickered. “Well spotted, boo. You know, I always suspected the Gull had a smuggler’s access of some kind; their spirits were suspiciously cheap... Anyway, this is good news; it means we’re not far from South Harbour District!”

  Rylan didn’t really pay their antics much attention. Rather, his eyes were locked on the faint blobs of light moving around on the street outside.

  There were faint white lights depicting what he presumed were soldiers, but more importantly, there were a number of coloured ones as well. Four greens, two blues, and most chillingly... a red one.

  A small grate near the street side was the source of the sounds of clashing weapons, as well as the light filtering in. It seemed to be a lot brighter outside already, which made sense as, altogether, they’d probably spent a good two hours making their way up through the tunnels. Despite the light of day, however, Rylan could still see occasional flashes of brighter light as well...

  He swallowed. “We need to be very careful,” he whispered intently. “The pressure I’m sensing... there are a number Quinthar fighting outside, including a Ruby-Grade.”

  The former pirates immediately fell quiet, Yuel’s face going pale.

  “Is there a rear exit?” Leahna asked quickly.

  “Aye, there is,” Nazyr replied. “But we’ll have to cross the taproom either way...”

  Rylan bit his lip. “Stay here,” he finally said. “I’m going to scout ahead.” Leahna opened her mouth to protest, but he held up a hand to forestall her. “I’ve activated my new Skill. As long as I stay out of sight, they won’t notice me.”

  She sighed, then nodded.

  Rylan snuck up the stone stairs to a gaping doorway that led to behind the bar, the wicker door ripped clean off its hinges. Carefully, he peeked out. The taproom was a complete mess, tables and stools scattered around across the floor, mysterious scorch marks marring the stone walls and floor.

  The scents of blood and acrid smoke clung to Rylan’s nostrils. He tried not to look too closely at the people ‘napping’ on the floor, sticky red pools congealing on the stone around them amidst shards of smashed teacups and trampled breakfast omelettes.

  Rather, he focused on what he could see out through the windows, where soldiers were fighting right on the street.

  Several of the Quinthar whose spirits he’d spotted were in his view, some of them wearing Cliffport’s lacquered armour, others the Talons’ black and yellow.

  One of the latter turned towards him and he hurriedly ducked back behind the counter.

  When the source of the red glow moved in front of where the right-most window should be, however, he couldn’t resist another peek. The Ruby-Grade Quinthar turned out to be a woman with blood-red hair and a mean-looking smile, wielding two black axes with jagged edges.

  While he’d never seen her before, he recognised her from description.

  Karina Talon. Formerly Bloodtalon, but adopted into the main branch after she’d shown great promise. She was Vidric Talon’s older cousin, and supposedly one of his main competitors for the position of heir.

  As he watched, she raised one of her axes above her head. A shimmering red glow surrounded it and the axe quickly turned red-hot, before she hurled it forward.

  Rylan watched wide-eyed as the spinning projectile flew past the building like a massive ball of fire, heat washing over his face every time it passed a window.

  The target appeared to be one of Cliffport’s defending Sapphires, but before it could hit the brunette woman, a shimmering wall of multi-coloured light appeared in front of her.

  The axe smashed into it, sending ripples and flames propagating out. The wall quickly started to shimmer and fade, but the axe ultimately didn’t penetrate, instead falling back down.

  A hush fell over the street as a second red glow rapidly approached in Rylan’s view, stopping in front of another window to the left. From his shimmering, multi-coloured armour and shield, Rylan recognised the man as Askir Brightwall, one of the city’s three Ruby-Grade Quinthar.

  “Karina,” the man said dispassionately, his eyes hard. “You might as well turn back the way you came; there is little point in us facing off.”

  Karina let out an unpleasant laugh as she grabbed a spare axe off her back. “There’s more point to it than you might think... for me!”

  She leapt forward in a burst of heat, a red glow below her feet. It took Rylan a moment to recognise the Skill as Jump.

  As she jumped, she raised both axes, bringing them down seemingly without any fear of reprisal.

  Cursing, Askir brought up his shield, his sword remaining low as he backed up. A dome of multi-coloured light burst out of his shield to cover him, which weathered her blows. Despite his defences seeming well up to the task of blocking her, the man appeared quite flustered. “How?” he cried. “You-You shouldn’t be able to!”

  Rylan couldn’t see Karina where she had landed, but her voice was still loud and clear. “We Talons are not bound by the rules; we make the rules!”

  Meanwhile, Askir seemed to be trying to raise his sword in front of him, but its tip was trembling, and his face quickly turning purple. With a groan, he let it drop back down. “Everyone fall back; I will protect you!”

  Karina cackled. “Get ’em, boys.”

  Following that statement, a massive gout of flames burst forth from her position.

  Askir threw up another wall of light to block it, and started to methodically step back, keeping his shield raised but his sword lowered.

  Seeing the defenders get pushed back under her assault, and the street in front of the pub clearing, Rylan quickly snuck back down to fetch the rest.

  He figured they better get out of there before the Talons’ men decided to carry their wounded back into the pub or anything like that. Still, as he rushed down, he couldn’t help but wonder about what he’d just seen and overheard...

  We Talons are not bound by the rules... what rules was she talking about?!

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