We jogged for a very long time. I looked at my guidance screen to see that my relatively extended stamina bar was depleting faster than I expected. Then I realized I was under the effect of the Exhausted status. Handful of hours left, maybe less. 

Still, I managed to pace the much bigger Human strides. I followed closely to Coury, the bodyguard with Justice, who wasn’t sobbing quite as much, but her breath was still uneven. “Where are we going?”

No one answered me at first, but the Princess fell back a few paces to directly address me. “Out of the city. Uncle has the Royal Guard and a lot of the urban aristocrats. I have the military and the City Guard.”

“I see.” I tried to mask my doubt with my lack of breath. It was easier than I wanted. 

“You see, we weren’t completely shocked by this turn of events. Ever since it came up that there were plans to disrupt the coronation from the outside, my people have been putting their feelers out. We’d thought... well, if the coronation was successfully disrupted, we’d have a few more days to sus things out.” 

Coury spoke up. “No one could have expected he’d kill the Empress and pin it on you.”

“He had arranged for the Drakengard diplomatic mission to be suborned outside of Sumar so that they could instigate war on a scale unseen since the Age Of Avatars.” I was too tired to be tactful.

The princess had the self-awareness to look embarassed. “Well. Like I said, he has a stronger power base here. It was a miscalculation. I won’t underestimate him again.” 

I didn’t answer  as we’d finally gotten to a termination point after passing through a couple forks in the tunnel. 

It was a stone stairwell that led up and around in a spiral. One of the guards led the way up and did some intricate unlocking ritual, more security enchantments, on a solid wooden door with a lever handle. There was a small thunk and he pushed open the door. 

We were in a warehouse of some kind. Storage for barrels lined in front of us in both directions. I could see crates on the next row of shelves beyond the barrels. I’d put away Katarachin during our run, but had him out again. As the door was sealed behind us again, I found this was a prudent choice. 

The assassins dropped down from the top shelves, six of them, all in browns and greys. 

“Black would have been just a little too conspicuous in this colorful city, ha,” Katarachin mused, not far from my own thoughts. 

I leapt at one of the assassins before they managed to stand up straight, Katarachin angled to disarm rather than kill. They might have been friendlies after all, but I saw how the others had tensed up and changed tact quickly. 

The fight was not pretty, or clean. Someone [Inspected] me, and I threw up my guidance screens to distract as I leapt to another person who’d assumed his companion would keep me occupied. The leather armor on their back was threaded with alloy fibers, incredibly expensive and elven designed. But it was not magical, so Katarachin cut through it like linen. 

Someone, the princess, I was certain, shouted, “Flywheel!” 

I was turned away to face the assassin I first engaged, so all I saw was a flash of light, like lightning. My assailant was not so lucky and they stumbled back, trying to make space while rubbing their eyes. 

I didn’t waste time, jumped to intercept. Several cuts later and they were grounded, bleeding out. 

When I turned around, I saw what had happened to cause the flash. The Princess’s bodyguards were getting up from prone.  There was an arc of damage through the shelf that was about a four feet wide. Three of the assassins were smoking, one cut completely in half, the other two, only catching the edges of the ray. I could see the slice that had pierced the assailants had traveled far enough to lop through several barrels, causing wine to bubble forth and stain the ground. 

Light magic was exceedingly rare, particularly potent, and feared by most who would face it. The princess was breathing a little hard, but didn’t look as exhausted as I’d have expected. 

Justice was standing up from where he’d been placed on the ground as well, rubbing her eyes, but not looking nearly as shaky as before. 

“They’ve compromised our tunnels.” The Princess said, more annoyed than despaired.

“We don’t know that they’ve got our whole route. The tunnels in each wing are an open secret.”

“Devlin and I will distract them, go along the way to Point Arcana. Afterwards, we’ll go to a sanctum house,” said the guard I didn’t have a name for. As she said as much, Devlin began casting a spell, which made their features and hair resemble the Princess. Given their similar builds, it would confuse anyone not [Discern]ing enough. 

The princess seemed to hesitate but then nodded. “Safety before sacrifice. I’ll need people in the city.” She turned to Justice, who tried not to shrink from the attention. “Can you move?”

“I- Yes. I’m sorry, its just-”

“Don’t worry, let’s just move.” 

We split up. Coury led the way, while I slunk back at the end of the line. 

“Are you alright?”

*Not particularly. I am reaching the end of the extend of my terror state.*

“I don’t know Kobold physiology. What happens when you do?”

*I go into a coma that usually lasts two days. Hibernation.*

“Usually? You are usually more precise than that.”

*That’s the average. It can last as long as a week.*

He didn’t ask anything else, and I didn’t have the energy to wonder. 

We left the warehouse into an alley. I couldn’t quite place where we were, but it had to still be in CenSum. We hadn’t moved that far that quickly.

Talina pounded on another door in the alley in a staccato pattern. It was surprisingly reinforced and the architecture was shockingly familiar. 

A city guard opened the door. It was Jahard, one of the officers in the CenSum City Guard Headquarters. We were back where I worked three days ago. I almost laughed aloud, feeling a little delirious. 

Jahard was one of the guards that had simply ignored my presence when he didn’t have work with me. As far as the City Guard officers went, I barely had an opinion and I usually had a lot of opinions, albeit kept to myself. 

He took one look at the princess and opened the door completely. We were in a back office, not far from the stairs that lead to the cells deeper into the earth. Instead of taking us there, however, he went through one door, told someone they were being given the rest of the shift off, and waited for them to leave while we waited. When the other person was gone, we were lead into one of the small common areas, where meetings and meals were often held. Jahard led us to another door, which opened into the sewer access for the City Guard. 

I almost laughed again, remembering that we’d taken one of these less than a day ago. 

We went down the ladder, Jahard not sparing me a second glance. In the darkness, we jogged for half an hour to make it to a boat, loaded with a couple chests, and docked on a wide stream that I assumed met up with the main river. We all climbed in, and Coury began rummaging around in one of the chests while the princess untied us from dock. 

He pulled out two scrolls and said. “These are Remove Curse scrolls. Talina, you need one. Do either of you need to remove any curses?”

I pointed to Justice. “Three city guard curses. Tracking. She needs them removed.”

“You received a death curse, Scaleen. We have no idea what it does.”

I ignored Katarachin.

Justice offered to cast the curse on herself, while Coury cast on Talina, who was piloting the boat down the river. I was sitting in the prow, such as it was.

Justice asked, spell cast, “So, where are we going now?”

“Nepanister. We have allies there and it’s not so far that we can’t return in order to contest the throne.”

“Nepanister? Not Gowerine?”

“No, Gowerine is too far from the Empire’s borders. ‘Naper’ is the navy headquarters too. We need to be able to intercede if Roginar tries to start a war with the Drakes. Hopefully, he’ll be too distracted by a civil war brewing inside my borders.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s good. We can keep it from sinking too.”

“Nepanister?” 

“Yeah. So, in like, six months,  its primary ballasts are going to be targeted by Auran Pirates who want to offer the city as a sacrifice to their deity, who is trying to wake up the horroautomatons by breaking the Eighth Chain.”

“What are you talking about, how do you even know what the Eighth Chain is?” The princess’s disbelief was evident. 

“Scaleen explains it better, he- Scaleen, are you alright?”

I had slid off the first bench, and realized I’d curled up in the front hollow of the boat. 

“Oh. Sorry.” I managed to say without mumbling. “Terror is wearing off.” 

“Coury, check on him.” The princess sounded as worried as Justice, which did cause me to chuckle dryly. If this princess knew what I thought of her reign, she’d probably cut my head off as quick as I lost the end of my tail. 

“This is too dangerous a time to let go. I am going to try to keep us afloat.”

-  -

Katarachin is attempting to take over your body. 

The attempt fails, Perceptive Score exceeds attempt.

- -

*No. We are going to nap. Justice probably has this.*

“Scaleen? Scaleen, don’t worry, we’ll help.”

“Just a coma, a short one. Short as my new tail. Promise.” I said and squaked a laugh, curling further in on myself. My mind finally went quiet for the first time in days, and it was bliss.