“Honestly my daughter’s just… well…” Lana sighed as after she gave up trying to complain about her daughter.

“Some children are just… promiscuous,” I said as I poured the remainder of Renn’s fruity drink into my own cup. She had taken her cup, but had left behind the pitcher I had ordered for her.

Such a waste. I didn’t like it at all.

Lana smirked as she watched me fill my cup. “You’d think she’d run out of men, Vim. I don’t think I’ve seen the same man twice in months,” Lana said.

I nodded. That was a little much. “Least it’s only one at a time?” I suggested a way to think of her daughter’s activities in a good way.

“Don’t tell her that’s possible, please,” she groaned.

Chuckling at Lana’s attempt at keeping her discomfort at bay. She wasn’t succeeding too well, she looked genuinely worried.

“Though I’ll admit, it is funny. Your grandparents had been…” I frowned as I tried to remember what religion they had subscribed to. It hadn’t been the religion of the blind, nor the holy sisters…

“Don’t get me started. At least she does her job. But if you’ll forgive a mother for insulting her own blood, I’m really glad Stan is going to inherit the pub instead,” Lana said.

“Hm…” I nodded as I watched Lana glance to our right. To her son, who was taking orders from another table nearby. He had already come over to say hi to me earlier.

Really. What had been their religion? Maybe something from the west? I remember them wearing crosses, but they had been red in color…

“Still, we’ll be able to run this place for another few years, hopefully. Who knows maybe I’ll be able to work until my end like my mother? Used to think it was silly that she worked even until her death, but today I see the charm in it,” Lana said.

“Doing what you love is the only thing you should be doing, near you end,” I said.

She smiled. “Some would say to do it your whole life, not just near the end,” she said.

“One has duties. Life would be boring without some kind of struggle,” I said.

“Coming from you that’s quite a statement…” Lana whispered.

Was it?

Taking another drink, I felt my eyes get drawn to the entrance. Had I heard something?

For a small moment I saw nothing. People coming and going. The doorman, a large man, was talking to a pair of older humans. Likely new arrivals. Lana’s son, Stan, was walking away from a large table and towards the eastern bar. Likely to drop off the platter of dirty plates and cups he was carrying.

What had I…?

Merit.

I stood as Merit ran into the Sunken Barrel. Her distraught face, with her white hair clinging to it thanks to blood, told me all I needed to know.

“Vim!” Lana shouted at me but I left her behind without warning. Before Merit could even shout for me I was next to her, about to bend down a little as to check on her. It looked like she had been hit on the head, thus the blood…

“They took her!” Merit shouted me.

Pausing a moment, I realized she really was hurt. Her quick shout had made some of the blood dripping down her face to splash around.

Renn.

She didn’t need to say more, she and I hurried out of the place and up the stairs. People tried to move out of our way but were slow in doing so, caught off guard I bumped into one of the men I passed. I ignored the woman he had been with as she screamed in shock and upon reaching the street I hurriedly looked around.

It wasn’t stormy anymore. No more rain. Yet it was damp. Cold. Dark.

And for some reason I couldn’t smell Renn. Even though I felt as if I should be able to. Right now all I could smell was Merit’s blood.

It smelled of the sea.

“This way!” Merit ran past me, down the road heading towards the Animalia Company. I kept myself calm as I followed her to an alley.

It wasn’t empty. There was a man in it. Sprawled near a closed door.

Stepping up to the dead man, I studied the way the man’s neck bent and his agape expression. Merit had broken his neck, and rather harshly too.

“They hit me over the head, and took Renn. They wrapped her in some kind of sack and..!” Merit spoke quickly, pointing down the alley. She sounded frustrated, but was keeping herself in enough control to let me know what happened.

“Fly’s people,” I said, and then sighed as I kicked the body over a little. He was wearing better clothes than Fly did, but they didn’t fit him well… and not just because his body was distorted into odd ways thanks to his death. He had odd tumor looking things all over his body. They looked hard, and cancerous. Some were as large as my closed fist. Yet it wasn’t them that told me he wasn’t human. It was the man’s ears. They were long, pointed and sharp. Much harder than the soft cartilage humans had in theirs.

“I let them take her, Vim!” Merit cried.

“Go to the Society. Warn everyone and take a head count. Lock it down,” I ordered.

“Vim!” Merit stepped towards me, to argue.

“I’ll not abandon her. I’ll go get her back. After we verify the Society is fine,” I said.

“I didn’t come back to you just so you could waste time!” She shouted.

“You’re the one wasting time, Merit,” I said calmly as I stepped out a few feet into the street. Ignoring the people watching us from a distance, I bent down to pick up the small black book.

“Gah!” Merit turned away, hurrying down the street. People hurriedly moved to the other side of the street, as to stay out of her way.

Sighing at her, I glanced one last time to the dead man.

I had no time to handle his body. I’ll just have to deal with it later. Luckily his… tumors, would maybe excuse his ears and any other traits the humans found upon him. They’ll just think he was deformed or something.

“Come on Vim!” Merit shouted without looking behind her. She was nearly at the end of the street already.

Taking a deep breath, I noticed the weird smells. The smell of death, likely from the man in the alley. The stench of the sewers. Renn’s smell. Merit’s blood. The unique leather book in my hand.

It took a lot for me to turn away from the alley and follow after Merit. It was noticeably difficult, which worried me.

I not only shouldn’t worry over Renn more than the rest of the Society… but I also couldn’t afford to actually grow furious.

If I did then I’d not be gentle with her kidnappers, or Merit’s attackers.

Running away from the alley, it didn’t take long at all for Merit and I to hurry into the Society. Our hurried rush into the building, causing workers and customers alike to pause in what they were doing as to stare, told me the Society was fine.

Reatti was at the door’s entrance. She stood upon our hurried entry, her eyes going wide.

“We were attacked,” Merit said a little too loudly as she hurried over to Reatti.

Glancing around at those in the main lobby, I noted the many humans. Not just the workers, but the visitors. This was not the place to have such a conversation… even if it was clear that Merit was hurt, based off her appearance.

“Didn’t Renn go with you?” Reatti asked worriedly.

Merit nodded harshly, and Reatti quickly looked over at me as I too approached her.

“Is Fly here?” I asked her.

Merit flinched as Reatti quickly understood my meaning.

Luckily Merit, although hurt, wasn’t too far out of it. She was able to step forward and grab Reatti’s arm, before she could run off.

“Merit!” Reatti nearly growled at the bleeding Merit, her face contorted into wrath.

Reatti tried to pull her arm free, but Merit’s grip was firm. I knew the humans would find it odd that such a young girl could so easily keep a grown woman in place, especially when said young girl was so hurt.

“He didn’t mean to kill the poor bird, Reatti,” Merit said gently.

“But!” The Meerkat’s shout had drawn more than just the gazes of those here. Her brother ran into the lobby from the hallway that led to the bank. His eyes were hard, and scanned the room as he approached.

He had heard his sister’s tone. They were good at alerting each other, at least.

“I’m going to go get Renn back. Merit you handle the rest here,” I said. If Brom was here like that then nothing was wrong here. At least not yet.

“You better! Get going!” Merit turned and shouted at me, even though she still hadn’t released Reatti’s arm yet.

Holding out the black book, Merit’s face scrunched up at the sight of it. She took it, yet did so in a way that told me she was no longer interested in reading it. In fact she simply tossed it over to the nearby desk that Reatti had been sitting at.

Turning away as Brom hurried over, and I noticed Gerald appearing on the second floor. He was looking down at us, concerned.

So Fly was here.

Did she know?

I didn’t have time to find out.

Leaving the building, I wasted no time. I ran across the street and to the next block over, the one that Renn had been taken in. I wasn’t sure if they had gone straight into the sewers from the alley that they had taken her in, but it was a good bet that they had. Carrying a person in a sack, likely while said person was screaming and struggling, through town wasn’t smart even for them.

Going to one of the large warehouse buildings, I rounded it and headed into the back alley. About half way to the next building, I came to a stop before a large grate. One built into the building rather than the alley itself.

Bending down, I pulled the iron bars off one by one. Until there was enough room that I could easily slide in.

Without any hesitation I crawled down into the rain drainage. It was dark. Damp. And I landed in ankle high water.

My landing in the drainage system made a loud echo, and I listened to it as it rolled along the square sewer. I noted that the echo ended quicker to my right than my left.

Which meant the right was a dead end, or something like it.

Hurrying to the left, I didn’t care about the loud splashing sounds I made as I ran. I could feel that the center of the sewer was rounded lower than the rest of the ground. Meant to guide the water, and possibly let there be sections on the sides that one could walk along… but there was too much water down here. The water was flooding it seemed, thanks to all the rain.

Running through the sewer, I reached a turn. It went left and right, with the left having a slight decline in it.

Of course I had no idea the layout of the sewers… but I knew that they had been built to divert water as much as sewage. To the sea, especially.

Which meant as long as I followed the water, eventually I’d find a route downward… to the old city below.

As I ran I tried to pay attention for any hints of Fly’s people. Usually people, even the nonhuman type, left traces. Scratches in the wall, either from a bored drawing or guidepost for their ally’s. Yet the only things I found as I hurried through the sewers were wastewater, flooding tunnels, and blockages.

Pausing in front of a blocked off tunnel, I groaned as I watched the nasty water piling up. It’d not be long until the whole section I was in was underwater at this rate… especially if the storm picked back up, as I suspected it to do.

Lumen needed to clean them. Did they even know that half of their grates were blocked like this?

About to turn away, to find another route… I stopped.

The running water here was not as fast as the other places, thanks to the blocked drain… but that was the point, wasn’t it?

Looking back at the blockage, I quickly saw what I hadn’t upon my first glance.

The large pieces of wood. The way the wood and blocks were stacked and tied to the grate’s iron bars.

“Done on purpose…” I said as I saw the handiwork of man, and not nature.

I wasn’t too bothered by the waist high water pooling in front of the blocked drain… but I wasn’t sure if this was the route I really wanted. Heading around, I used the location of the blocked drain as a center-point… and eventually found another blocked drain.

This one too looked blocked on purpose. And it too was leading in the same direction as the other had been.

“This is how they keep water out,” I said, understanding.

Would explain the flooding too. Even though it had been raining constantly lately, the downpours hadn’t been that bad. Nothing that such large drainage systems shouldn’t be able to handle.

Hurrying down another tunnel, I slowed to a stop as I approached another drain. This one was blocked as well… but there was more than just wooden panels and large boxes being used.

Near the edge of the blockage, was a makeshift gate. One that even had things piled up in front of it, to let someone climb over it.

An entrance, if such a makeshift thing could be one. How did this stuff not fall apart during such storms? It looked so rickety…

Approaching the makeshift gate, I stepped up onto one of the boxes before it, out of the water, and looked in-between one of the panels. Past the iron bars that hid behind it… and down the dark tunnel beyond.

All I saw was more tunnel, and darkness… but I didn’t need to study it long. Especially since there was a slight draft coming from the tunnel.

A draft that stunk horribly… and not just from the waste water.

This might not be their home, but it was definitely connected to it. Their stink was far too strong for it not to be.

Pulling on the makeshift gate, it wasn’t hard to open it… in fact, it was too hard to open it without breaking it.

The thing cracked, a little loudly, as I moved it just enough to step through it.

Ignoring the broken gate, I had to crouch a little to get under the sawed off iron bars that they had removed to make their door.

Sighing as I entered the tunnel, I glanced at the floor. There was a small bit of water still, flowing down the drain. It wasn’t just because I had broken it either; it seemed to be seeping through all the same.

Explained this stench. The seepage let enough in, and without the rest of the rainwater to wash it out the stunk only became worse.

Not that it mattered.

Heading deeper into the tunnel, I ignored the deep sense of urgency to rush forward. To find Renn, and save her.

I needed to, of course… but…

Sometimes one needed to force calm, even during chaos.

Otherwise one simply joined it.

Walking at a brisk pace, but not a run, I headed deeper into Fly’s people’s territory.

To find Renn.

To punish those who would kidnap and attack a member of our Society.

To do my job.

Hopefully Renn would forgive me once this was all finished.

Hopefully she’d be able to…

Since I won’t.