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The city of nightmares, Windhelm.
Mevela 26th, 1125 Dom.
“What are you asking for again?” The man in glasses said with the wide jowls and sunken eyes set on a big red book. The table was twice my size, this man was twice my size and about him carried the municipal stench of false-authority. The kind that isn’t earned by vote or violence, the one that is granted through nepotism or tenure.
“I’ll say this again.” Both my hands were in front of me, pressing on the pages. “I want any blueprints you may have regarding the sewer system.”
“Mmm. The blueprints.” He licked his finger and went forward and back across the pages, his nail running through writing. He walked behind him to an assortment of shelves with rolled up papers. The candle lights on the walls flickered, the stale stench in the wooden office filled me. I felt tired, nauseas, annoyed all at once. “Mmm. I have nothing regarding the blueprints, unfortunately.”
“What do you mean you don’t have anything?” I asked. “Is this about authority. You do realize I’m part of the flock, right?”
“Mmm. No. It seems as though we have no blueprints at all.” He said. “They’ve already been taken out. Borrowed.”
“By who?”
“It doesn’t say.” His eyes narrowed on the book. “Anonymous.”
“How the fuck is it anonymous?”
“I don’t know sir.” He said.
I looked around, people passed me with their rounded shoulders and black suits and small glasses. They entered the office, went up stairs, down stairs.
“Well that’s great.” I walked back. I couldn’t look at the bulldog looking son of a bitch any longer. Or his his heavy breathing, or the monocle piece hanging by his front pocket. I walked back the door and into a round main walkway where a fountain fluttered water from a low raised ledge, wooden benches decorated the edges of the circle. The officials, the royalty all stared at us and our leather armor and the swords around our waists.
I fluttered my cape about me, almost covering my mouth.
“What’s wrong?” Justinian asked.
“Everything.” I said.
“What’s the big deal about the blueprints?” He asked.
“The catacombs. The ones you told me about.” I looked around and drew him in closer. “I suspect the nightstalkers are hiding in the catacombs. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“The catacombs? They’re like an urban myth. I don’t think they’re real…”
“But what if they were?” I asked. “Not that we’ll ever know.
“I mean…” He looked around to, making sure the people passed us with enough distance for him to whisper in safety. Which really wasn’t a whisper given how excited he was. “What if we didn’t need a blueprint?”
“It’d take a long time searching the sewers. It’s a big city.”
“I thought all we had was time?” He said.
“You’re absolutely stupid if you think I’m going down there.” Obrick chomped down on a crunchy loaf, taking giant chunks too big for his small mouth. “Well, you were already stupid. Now you’re just insane.”
“That’s where the nightstalkers are at, I guarantee it.”
“The catacombs? This imaginary city below the ground? How are you guaranteeing this, exactly?” He spilled crumbs across the table. The drunkards to our rear were face down on the wooden tables, the barkeepers wiped a tabletop with a wet rag. The tavern was lifeless, to call it anything.
“Even if they were there, that’s more of a reason not to go. We don’t have any god damn back up.” He said. “And they probably know the terrain better. If they’re there, which is a big if.”
“If the nightstalkers were there, we’d have the perfect environment to wipe them out.” I said.
“How?” Kal got off the wall he stood by.
“Two words for you, Kal.” I raised my hands and waved. “Black fyre.”
“No. No. No.” Kal shook his head. “This time it’ll take your arm. For sure.”
“I’ll be more careful second time around.”
“This is stupid.” Obrick said. “One of your dumbest ideas yet.”
“It was my dumb idea that saved your life.” I pointed to Obrick. Then Kal. “All your lives. It was by my hand that you both stand here today.”
“It’s one thing to show gratitude, it’s another to go on a chase that may or may not end up with a whole swarm of monsters out to kill us.” Obrick mopped tallow off a shallow plate.
“So we find them, then what? Bomb them?” Kal asked.
“That’s one thing. We could inform Vincentius too.” I said. “Do you know how much reputation we’d gain? They’d never let it down, we’d be titled for life.”
“So there it is. The real reason behind all this.” Obrick said. “You see that? Justinian, Kal? You see that. That’s greed in his eyes. He doesn’t want the monsters, he wants the glory they carry.”
“I want to do right by the city.”
“Bull. Fucking. Shit.” Obrick said. “You’re full of it, Virgil. And quite honestly, I don’t take for it.”
He raised his face snooty-like.
“I’ve been around people who want nothing but reputation. It’s a bad attitude, Virgil.”
“I don’t think you have a choice, Obrick. I think everyone kicked you out because you can’t stop having arguments like this.” I said. “I don’t think people like you’re antagonizing attitude.”
“That right?” Obrick raised his steak knife to me.
“Settle down.” Kal put his hands on both our shoulders.
“Listen Obrick. You owe me one for the basilisks.” I said. “So it’s either I let you pay me back or I force my rank on you. Remember that?”
“You’re a son of a bitch, you know that Virgil?” Obrick took his plate and stood.
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s a yes.” He raised his middle finger at me.
“I guess I’m paying?” I looked around to Kal. He nodded and drank from a mug, something foamy. Justinian sat in the corner with his shoulders compressed, stuff between Kal and the wall. And he was smiling.
“This is so stupid.” Obrick said. “This place reeks of shit.”My leg struggled to rise above the water level, if I could even call it water. It resembled sludge, septic brown sludge that dug into my clothes and made my body coil when it rose up to my groin.
“I think you smell better now than you usually do, Obrick.”
“Real fucking clever, Virgil.” He said. “Real clever.”
“Where are we heading?” Kal raised the lantern in front of his face. The light went across two paths, from which I swear I could see flickering shadows. I brought up my map.
“That depends, where are we?” I asked.
Justinian came up behind me, his finger pointed up through grates where moonlight shone through. A small corner sign read Havenbrook “That’s where we need to go. It’s one of the oldest streets, I think. So my guess is if we’re going to find a catacomb, we’ll find it here.”
“Is that your guess?” Obrick asked. “And what’s it based on? A hunch?”
Justinian slunk behind me. The Silverfangs walked above the grates, slender and green clothed like small imps, their thin legs outstretched past the metal grates like a catwalk.
“How much farther do we have to go?” Edwin screamed from above.
“You didn’t even have to come. You’re barely members yet.” Obrick turned around, the light against his face. “None of us had to come if we’re being honest. This is a waste of time.”
“We’re here though, and we’re stuck with it. So get used to it.” I said. “Edwin, when any of us tells you to, we’ll have you deliver a message to Vincent.”
“Vincent? Vicentius you mean? What kind of message.”
“That depends on what happens, right?” I said. It could have been a letter. A bug-body. A corpse.
We moved across the sewers. Me leading the way now, the passages narrowing with each corner and the bustle of people above quieting.
“It’s been an hour.” Obrick said. “One whole hour of walking.”
“Shut up.” I said.
“Don’t tell me to-” I pushed him against the wall, my hand on his mouth. My eyes peeked around the corner to that cockroach noise, the squeaky voice of some rodent squirming. The sound of a bug. Of a thing. A noise so awful and high pitched you could have confused it for some pesky rodent. But I looked, my eyes adjusted to the darkness, their forms obvious even though their particulars weren’t.
A nightstalker. It ran across the floor.
I turned to the four behind me, all of whom waited behind the wall next to me.
“We’re following.” I said. They didn’t say much of anything, but their eyes spoke of some horrified agreement. Wide eyed we went, our bodies low against the ceiling and the form of the creatures in front of us drifting into darkness.
“Put out the lantern.” I turned to Kal.
“Are you insane?” Obrick said. “Wait, of course you are. Listen, for everyone else here, we need that light to see.”
“It’ll give us away. Let me guide you. You can turn it on once we fight.”
“Once we fight?” Obrick turned around, expecting agreement amongst them. Seeing nothing but wide eyed excitement, fear. He grabbed me by the shoulder. “I thought this was recon.”
“Do you think we won’t get into trouble, even if it is recon?” I shrugged his shoulder and walked forward, walked towards a crumbled wall where the end was. The water long since dried up. At least, I believed.
The rocks rolled down the crumbled path.
“What now?” Obrick asked.
I looked above, to a small hole, like a sort of ventilation shaft. I grabbed one of the stones and threw it. The space it made gave off a wind, a draft behind the new hole.
Kal started working on the rocks, his big barrel of blackfyre jumping up and down by the straps it clung to.
“I tell you what.” I said. “How about I get in there and see if there’s another entrance?”
Kal rubbed his chin going mmm. Mmm. Mmm.
“I know I’ve been insulting you this whole time.” Obrick said. “But I can’t agree one bit with what you just said. We know those things come through here, that should be good enough.”
“It’s not. We need to make sure.”
“Do you know what you’re asking, Virgil?” Obrick said.
I grabbed one brick and then another and worked my body up the wall.
“Virgil.” Obrick looked around. Then pleaded to Kal. “Grab him Kal, please.”
No one did. They all watched, worry on their faces.
“Why are you never happy with the simple solutions?” Obrick asked. “Why is it always a risk with you?”
But it wasn’t like I was even there anymore. My body went through the hole, where loose stone fell behind me into an echoing chamber.
“If I don’t come back. Tell Vincent where we were.” I said. “Map this whole place.”
“Virgil.” Obrick said through the hole. “Virgil. Come back!”
“Virgil. Virgil. Virgil!”
