The pair pushed the door open and walked in. Instantly, they were greeted by the sight of a long, spiral-shaped and dimly lit staircase that led downward, into the ground. The master and the servant followed the staircase cautiously until they reached the bottom. Leaks of man-made sources of light hinted at human presence behind another door. 

They opened the second door and found themselves surrounded by several pairs of sharp and unkind eyes. 

One of the owners of these hostile eyes approached Yuer like a predator attempting to close in on his prey.

“Who are you? What’s your business here?” he demanded in a raspy, deep voice.

“I’m here on personal business with Lone Eye.” Yuer answered, his tone was even and unruffled.

The man looked slightly started for a moment. Then as if he had never been affected to begin with, the Shakoura guard pinned his deep, knife-like gaze into Yuer’s. His eyes seemed as if they wished to cut through the very skin and flesh of Yuer’s hooded face to see what’s underneath.

The code names of the Shakoura’s sub-chiefs were never made public to people outside of the Undercity. So, unless Yuer had already met and closed a deal with Lone Eye, that would be no other possible way for him to know that code name. Yuer had Jarak’s running mouth to thank for this.

After a brief moment of hesitation, the guard turned around and threw Yuer a careless “follow me.”

Yuer glanced back at Sakina, who nodded back at him. The pair then trailed after the guard, who led them deeper into the Undercity. After crossing the foyer of the second doorway, Yuer was met with the bustling main underground street of the city of Night. Massive torches hanged from every wall, paper lanterns of all sizes and shapes dangled from every crook and cranny of the street. Merchants with all sorts of wares and artisans of varying crafts stood behind their makeshift stands, angling to hook in customers. People of differing castes and races walked down the street, some talked, some marched as if they had somewhere to be, and others pursued the merchandise laid before them. Beggars and homeless Shefrin stuck to the walls. Their bony and gaunt figures looked as they were attempting to fuse into the very hardened soil of the walls. Among the people, the occasional Shakoura member could be glimpsed. Their peculiar black attire and forehead Scythe Spider tattoos made them stand out, even to the most air-headed of people.

However what caught Yuer’s eye the most was this city’s most prized possession, its ‘sun’. In the middle of an open plaza, a gigantic orb of Echo Light floated above the people’s heads. This orb was the strongest and most precious source of light for the city of Night. A great chunk of the Shakoura’s illegal earnings went into the maintenance and the upkeep of this ‘sun’. The way they did it was that they hired Light Listeners and had them set in timed rotation around the clock. Each Light Listener would feed his Echo into the orb, so that it would never run out. This idea seemed to be the work of the first head of Shakoura and because the Divine Echo was the closest imitation possible of the natural elements, this Light Echo orb had held off the outburst of skin diseases and eye sight ailments by the virtue of its presence for more than half a century. This ‘sun’ meant more to the people of the Undercity than the Mahatir, Zaradate and the Rezas combined.

 The Undercity was for all intents and purposes a fully functioning body of its own right. Its expanse stretched as far Indigo District and some believed that it stretched even further, with certain hidden tunnels that could even lead into the outer courtyard of the Imperial Palace. No one knew how old the Undercity was or when it started. What everyone knew was this city had existed for as long as the capital itself had; A juxtaposed, hidden and less pleasant-looking twin.

The guard stopped in front of one of the many stacked and narrow buildings of the Undercity and loudly knocked on its door. The door opened and whoever behind seemed to exchange few words with the guard before beckoning Yuer and Sakina in.

The pair stepped into the building and Yuer’s attention was suddenly snatched by the state of the man who greeted them. He was so thin that Yuer feared a gust of wind could snap him in half. His bald head and hairless eyebrows gave him the man an eerie and off-putting air about him. However what was most ghastly about this lackey was his mouth, which was sewed shut with some form of metallic thread. His beady eyes looked dead, as if they had long forgotten how to register their owner’s own being.

The mute husk of man paid Yuer no attention; instead he guided them toward a certain door and knocked. A “come in” resounded through the wood. The servant’s morbidly expressionless face titled towards the door, wordlessly gesturing to the pair to enter.

Yuer took a step into the ‘office’ and found himself faced with a familiar yet abhorrent scene.

An emaciated, bony little boy lay motionless within the clutches of several burly-looking men. His eyes were hazy and unseeing. His stark, white hair was messy and matted with blood. His rags were strewn across the floor; varying shades of purple and blue were littered across his abraded skin. Streaks of startling red run from between his dangerously thin thighs. A dark-haired man was seated on a darkwood armchair; his one-eyed face remained expressionless as he leaned it atop his upturned palm, indifferently watching the scene unfolding before him.

Suddenly, Yuer wasn’t there anymore. He was somewhere else, somewhere big, gaudy and familiar. The man on the chair grew larger, his facial features shifted and his physique morphed. He became some else, some else whom Yuer knew far too well. The men around the boy contorted into long, faceless shadowy figures that had neither eyes nor noses. They only had scythe-shaped smiles the color of blood painted across their featureless faces. The white-haired boy’s dead-looking black eyes became blue. Then, Yuer found himself looking at his own image. Another him with the very same, empty, quiet, dead eyes.

Yuer couldn’t breathe. The air grew too thin and no matter how much of it he gulped into his lungs, it still wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough!

The walls of the room shifted. They grew too thick and too high all of a sudden, rushing towards him, drawing too close, boxing him in, suffocating him.

Yuer panted, his saliva pooled like a flood within his mouth, overflowing down his lips. Rivers of cold, chilling sweat traveled down his back, soaking the fabric of his tunic. The frenzied thumping of his heartbeat rang deafening inside his ears. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move.

Suddenly, an eerie moment of silence settled over his mind. And then he heard it, the crisp, sharp sound of something snapping.

Click, click.

The world before Yuer’s eyes became black, then red, then black and red. He couldn’t tell where one color began and the other ended. They danced, twirled and glided together, all in perfect, beautiful harmony. Only there was no music to be heard. The world had become blissfully quiet now.

“Mas—”

What was that? Why did it feel like there’s water in my ears?

“Mast---”

Who is that? Who’s calling me?

“Master!”

Why are they calling me?

“Master! Please!”

Yuer jolted. The film of blissful quiet lifted. He found himself looking into a familiar yet pale and tear-streaked face.

Sakina.

Her slight, nimble hands trembled as they cupped his cheeks. Her brown eyes were bloodshot and misted. Within their warm pools, grief and shock warred in equal measures.

Yuer stared into those familiar eyes, confounded. Before he could open his mouth to speak, an overwhelming, metallic stench furiously assaulted his nose. The smell was so thick and heavy that it nearly caused him to choke on his own breath. Yuer held a hand over his mouth and reflexively gagged.

Sakina drew him close to her. Her slender, still trembling hands circled around his shoulders, embracing him. She squeezed him gently in her arms. Yuer buried his nose into her skinny shoulder, wisps of his brown hair plastering themselves against the skin of his face, sticky with sweat. A light, sweet scent unique to Sakina traveled into his nostrils, driving away the stench that nearly numbed his sense of smell.

Sakina murmured. “It’s alright. Master is here now. Master is back. Hush. My sweet, sweet master. ”

Yuer closed his eyes, soaking in the warmth of Sakina’s embrace, engraving into his mind the pleasant timber of her young voice. He hoped for her to drive away the chill for a bit, this chill that clang to him like a second skin. 

A moment passed and he opened his eyes. His gaze swept across the office and stopped at the blood-covered child in the middle of it. The boy looked back at Yuer, his dead obsidian eyes wide open. Around him, corpses scattered about the blood-soaked floor. ‘Corpses’ was too a generous word for them for they were but mere torsos, limbless and headless. Spatters of fresh blood painted the walls of the room crimson. Yuer slowly shifted his gaze to the man on the chair, except there was no ‘man’ there, just a collection of bloodied intestines and gore. No corpse to speak of.

Yuer slowly pushed himself out of Sakina’s hold. “Did I do that?”

Sakina fought the tremors that quaked throughout her body. Instead of answering, she snatched Yuer’s hand and tried to haul him up. “Master, we must leave. If the rest of the Shakoura find out about this, they will flood the entire Undercity and we won’t be able to escape. They are likely to have high-level Echo Listeners among them.” 

“Did I do that?” Yuer asked once more, refusing to move.

Sakina then understood that in order to make her master move, she had to placate him. “I will tell my esteemed master everything once we get out of here. The driver is still waiting for us outside. Master, please, we must hurry.”

Yuer was quiet for a bit before he stood up, “Alright.”

The pair dashed to the door when Yuer suddenly halted in his steps. He turned around and looked at the white-haired boy, still kneeling within the stench-filled room. The boy’s fathomless eyes still locked into him.

“Do you know how we can get out of here without going through the entrance door?”  Yuer asked.

The boy titled his face, as if trying to process Yuer’s words. He then lifted one bloodied, thin hand and pointed to the southern wall of the room.

Yuer run to the wall. He touched the cold stone and enveloped its bloodied surface in a layer of Earth Echo. His Echo responded, affirming the existence of a lock mechanism. Yuer pressed into the wall with his Echo and the wall shifted slightly. It then parted, revealing an underground staircase of hardened soil.

“Get in.” He ordered.

Sakina rushed down the stairs. Yuer swept his gaze across the room one last time before marching toward the white-haired boy. Without uttering a single word, Yuer hauled up the child into his arms and followed Sakina into the secret passage. He made sure to return the wall to its previous position before descending down the stairs.

The passage was dank and dark so Yuer activated his Light Echo, forming a little orb within his palm then sending it up into the air. The orb floated above their heads, following the trio as they moved, illumining the path ahead.

Soon enough, the trio met another set of stairs, except this one led upward instead of downward. They ascended the stairs hurriedly and once they reached the end of them, they found themselves facing a bolted door. Sakina rushed to unlock the door but found the metal bolt across the door too hard to even rattle.

Her heart started to thump wildly against her chest. Yielding metal was within the capacities of Earth Listeners. However, no beginner-level Earth Listener could control metal. They needed to be at least middle-level or above to able to shapeshift metallic essence. She was aware of such things thanks to the many books her master would read outloud to her in his courtyard’s garden during hot, long summer days.

Sakina glanced at Yuer. Her master was supposed to be less than a beginner-level Echo user, on both of his attributes. However, she was promptly reminded of the horror he personally induced within the Shakoura subordinate’s office. That ghastly and gory scene was still very fresh in her mind. Those black, sinister, inky things pouring out of her master at that time, she had never seen anything quite like it, not in Thurul and definitely not anywhere else.

She had no idea what sort of Echo that foul-looking substance is supposed to be, she was even doubtful if it was an attribute of the Divine Echo to begin with. The Divine Echo was supposed to a blessing of the Mahatir thus holy and sacred in nature. That black ink looked the furthest thing from holy in her eyes. Instead, it brought up another image in her mind, an image she glimpsed once in one of the books her master showed her. An image of a massive, pitch black Nak’e coiled around itself: The Dawaha.

 The thick, black ink that harbingered death looked far more fitting of the originator of all evil than the Holy All Mother.

Sakina shook her head, attempting to drive away the treacherous thoughts trying to crowd her mind. Instead, she reminded herself of her eternal vow to her young master. No matter what kind of power he had or whatever kind of man he became, she would follow him to the ends of the known world. This one secret of his, she would take to her grave.

 Yuer noticed his servant’s distress. He walked toward her and handed her child. “Hold him for a bit. I will take care of this.”

Sakina didn’t say a single word. She simply took the little boy and took several steps away from the door. She decided she would no longer question her master on his abilities anymore. It looked like she had been ignorant of many things regarding the youth, despite spending every single day of her life by his side. 

Yuer placed his hand atop the metal bolt and closed his eyes. He gathered up the Earth Echo residing within his soul and directed it toward the lock. He willed the iron to shift and morph. It only took a moment for the lock to break apart. A thud sounded as the broken iron met the ground, stirring up a small amount of dust in the way of its fall.

A horrible pain suddenly exploded across Yuer’s temples.
His slender, thin figure staggered for a bit from the force of the agony.

Nrai and Damnation! I overused my Echo. I should’ve expected this.

Sakina rushed to him, offering a free hand to steady him. Yuer shook his head slightly, afraid to aggravate the headache any further. “I’m alright. Let’s leave now.”

 

A quarter of a candle-hour later, a pale skinned long-haired young man in black garbs stood in front of the blasted door. A small group of similarly dressed people crowded around him. The black outline of spider tattoos was starkly visible against the skin of their foreheads.

The young man with the glaringly white long hair held the broken metal bolt in his hand. He inspected it several times before throwing it at someone among the group.

That someone turned out to be a young woman. She closed her eyes for a brief moment as she clasped the lock in her hand. She opened her eyes and a glint of green flashed in their depth before disappearing.    

“Earth Echo. Above middle-level.” She stated in an even, cold voice.

“The work in Lone Eye’s office?” The long-haired man asked.

The woman shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s their work. There wasn’t any Echo presence in that room, except around the secret passage. I sensed Earth Echo and Light Echo but that’s about it. That level of killing… it’s likely a master assassin’s work. A subordinated of this person, probably. At least three people should be involved from what I summed up. ”

The young man nodded. He swept his black gaze across the dank place and said to the woman, “Round up all the Shakoura men assigned to guard duty today. Question every single one of them. Whoever let these people through, kill them.”

The young woman beat her hand against her chest and barked, “Yes, Sir!”

 She turned and briskly marched out of the dim passage, the rest followed behind her.

The white-haired young man remained alone in front of the door. A sinister red glint flashed within the obsidian depths of his sharp eyes, “How brave, walking into the Nak’e’s lair and stepping on its tail in your way out.”

Bright orange flame burst out of the youth’s hands, illuminating the dark cavern. The fire grew darker and darker in shade until it turned into a mesmerizing deep crimson. The blasted iron door couldn’t stand the heat as it started to melt and bubble. The young man dashed out of the underground passage. His sudden and sharp movement caused his long white tress to slash through the musty air like a snow-colored whip.

A moment later, the passage became utterly devoid of human presence, it remained silent and dark except for the sound of bubbling metal that continued into the night.