Kael and Liriel relieved them just before midnight, and Eya was grateful to retreat to the warmth of the Tiny Hut. Elara propped her head on her pack and Eya curled up on the ground, tucking her arm under her head. The excitement of the stakeout soon gave way to the rhythmic snoring coming from Theron and before long her snores joined his.
After what felt like only a moment's nap Eya was jostled awake by Kael. She snapped upright, startling the warrior who then moved on to Theron. The ache in her neck told her that it had not been just a cat nap.
"He's on the move, let's go!" Kael whispered to them. Elara was already out of the protective dome, so Eya gathered her bag and her staff and ran out to find the others.
Liriel was still at the vantage point, peering around the corner when she approached. The rogue put a hand out behind her to stop her. "Elara's tracking him down the street." She whispered. "Wait here." Eya nodded and shrank back against the building, trying to keep to the shadows. Kael and a bleary-eyed Theron finally joined them and they only had to wait in silence for an additional minute. When she spotted a signal from the ranger, Liriel ushered them forward and the group slipped silently into the early morning streets.
They met Elara in front of a closed tackle shop, where she unslung her bow and nocked an arrow. With a quick jerk of her head toward the corner of the building, she addressed them in a hushed whisper.
"He went down this alley. It looks like a dead end but I can't hear him any more." Liriel nodded in understanding and took a position in front of the ranger, who stepped away from the building and drew her bow in the direction of the alley. The pair worked in silent coordination to round the corner, a honed understanding borne from experience. Kael moved up in front of Eya, who watched the team moving together smoothly and felt a tug of something strange in her heart. It felt like...envy? Regret maybe? She shook her head to pull her attention back to the present.
The rogue crouched low, observing and remaining close to the structure while Elara began to smoothly round the corner. Her eyes penetrated the darkness of the alley, scanning each new segment as it was revealed. The experienced marksman utilized her sensitive peripheral vision to overcome her natural limitations in the dim light while Liriel's own fully-attuned sight covered her. Eya could see Kael tense in anticipation, his armored left side turned toward the alley and his silvery sword poised to strike. He was ready to spring at a moment's notice to defend them both.
When Elara had emerged fully from behind cover, she remained tense but did not fire at anything. With a quick nod toward the darkness, she signaled the two melee fighters into action. Liriel quickly rounded the corner and ducked behind a rain barrel while Kael crossed behind the ranger to take position on the opposite side of the alley. Eya stepped forward, but felt a tug on the back of her robe. Looking back, she saw Theron shake his head. He leaned in and whispered.
"They live for this shite. Let them have their fun." He smirked and shot her a wink. She smirked back and returned it, then pressed herself against the storefront and waited.
On cue, all three fighters began a silent, crouching advance into the darkness. Liriel and Kael flanked the edges while Elara, scanning her arrowhead back and forth, lagged three paces behind. When they disappeared from Eya's line of sight she began to unconsciously hold her breath, straining to catch any sound. She was amazed to hear nothing, not a single footstep or kicked rock. Unfortunately, the longer this 'nothing' persisted, the longer she held her breaths. Her heart began racing but her thoughts became oddly quiet, almost disconnected. Primed for action, she nearly jumped out of her own skin at the touch of Theron's hand on hers.
"Hey," he whispered, "yer hand is shaking, ya doing good there?" She looked down at him and suddenly felt the rhythmic tremor in her left hand that hadn't registered before. She pulled it back from him, rested her staff in the crook of her elbow, and began rubbing her shaking left hand with her right. She smiled reassuringly at him, nodded, and whispered back.
"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm cold, I guess." The dwarf grunted but continued to look at her with a concerned, analytical eye.
"Hey!" Liriel's voice, while still hushed, was shockingly loud to the pair of casters. Her head had appeared from around the corner of the building and slid over the pair of them quickly. She opened her mouth as if to say something further, but stopped and jerked her head toward the alley. When they followed her and assembled against the wharf's security wall the frustration was palpable.
"He came this way, and I didn't take my eyes off the alley the entire time. There's no way he doubled back." Elara was seething. Kael nodded from where he was inspecting the wall of the tackle shop.
"Maybe one of these shops has a secret door." He posited while running his hand over the stonework and pressing at random points. "It'll be tough to locate in the dark though, even if I can see just fine." Liriel sheathed her daggers at her hips and reached down into her boot. She withdrew a thinner implement, resembling an ice pick, and began probing points in the opposite wall. The remaining members all followed suit, poking and testing the walls around them. After several more minutes of fruitless searching in the light drizzle, the entire team reconvened in the middle.
"Tomorrow night, I'll post up there-" Liriel pointed to the roof of the tackle shop. "We'll catch the asshole in the act and I'll take payment for this shitty night out on his face." A ripple of light chuckling moved through the group, tainted by exhaustion. Only Elara didn't respond, she was looking down at the ground and watching the water flowing toward them from the street. The fine rain had been going on long enough for a steady stream to have coalesced in the main thoroughfare and part of it split off into the alley, flowing gently between the cobblestones toward them.
"Why aren't we ankle-deep in water right now?" She asked no one in particular. Her head down, she walked back toward the wall with Kael in tow. They got their answer: a large drainage grate in the cobblestones, nestled up against the wall. They looked at each other and Kael smirked when Elara rolled her head back and grimaced. The warrior reached down, took hold of the grimy grate and pulled.
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The metal swung up easily and shockingly smoothly to Kael. Despite its slimy, rusted appearance, it did not creak, squeak, or groan either.
"Someone's been taking care of this grate." He said with a glance around at his companions. "Made sure it moves quietly but looks old." Theron groaned along with Elara, but Liriel stepped up and looked down the hole in front of her. Her vision, undeterred by the darkness, was able to see into the drainage sewer that ran along beneath the wall.
"Well pull up your big girl pants, kids." She said, stepping to the edge. "It's not getting any prettier." With a light hop, she sprung down and out of sight. Elara and Theron followed, though more reluctantly. Kael looked up at their healer and cocked an eyebrow.
"You still in?" He asked, his tone light and amicable as if to encourage her. She shrugged and sighed.
"I've seen worse." Eya clutched her satchel and staff close to keep them from flying off and stood at the edge. She closed her eyes and muttered a short prayer. "Everlight, keep me in your gaze and illuminate our path. In your light let my purpose be known. I fear no foe, your light is with us. I fear not death, I will rise renewed."
"Well said. After you." Kael smiled at her and she nodded, squared her shoulders, and hopped down. He followed last, climbing gently in and propping the gate until the end to keep it from slamming shut.
The tunnel was just wide enough for most of them to walk upright, though Kael had to crouch slightly. The faint whispers of weapons being drawn by the party were all that interrupted the burbling water at their feet and the dripping coming from above their heads.
Kael, being an aasimar and thus able to see in the dark, positioned himself in the front and chose the downslope direction. Liriel, also able to see in the dark, took the rear. Elara, Eya, and Theron walked between them, occasionally stumbling in the wet, dank space.
After a disorienting first minute, Eya realized she could only see parts of the tunnel where faint lamplight shone in through other drainage grates. She whispered ahead, toward the ranger in front of her.
"Hey, Elara...I'm blind down here, you?" She was answered by an amused chuckle.
Elara then whispered back "Can't-see-shit club. Up top!" Theron snorted when he saw them both swipe uselessly in the air, each pantomiming a missed high-five. From the rear, Liriel hissed at them.
"When you three assholes are done assholing, it's time to serious the fuck up!" After a moment of silence in the oppressive darkness, Liriel then whispered again. "Cherry, if you don't put that tongue back in your mouth I swear to Gruumsh you will be leaving it down here and tasting sewage in the afterlife."
The troupe progressed silently for several more minutes, following a path that Kael seemed to be able to intuitively figure out. After about ten minutes of winding twists and tunnels, Eya's eyesight had adjusted well enough that she was able to spy something which piqued her interest.
Small, faintly glowing sigils drawn on the bricks that formed the tunnel walls suddenly became noticeable in her peripheral vision. She gestured at one and turned back to where she could finally make out the faint outlines of Theron and Liriel.
"Is Kael following these? What are they?" She heard the half-elf sigh and she responded after a moment.
"They're markers for the different gangs and guilds that run down here. They all use different symbols, its a way to mark out who owns what real estate under the city."
"Real estate?" The cleric's voice rose above a whisper from surprise and confusion. Liriel's whisper became sharper again.
"Yes, real estate. Turf, territory, whatever. Trust me, they regulate this stuff as much as the land above ground, just with different rules. Now kindly cram a cork in whichever end you're talking out of." Eya made a face back into the dark but didn't stick her tongue out.
Another silent stretch of time drew out in the interminable darkness while they made their way through ankle-deep runoff. In some tunnels, newer construction afforded them elevated edges that kept them out of the rank water, but in others they had to just hold their noses and make do.
Eya had tried to keep track of the winding labyrinth but had become hopelessly lost within the first twenty minutes. She guessed they were near the city center, but couldn't tell where or how close. Ruminating on this and trying to recall every twist and turn they had taken caused her to bump into Elara about twenty feet after they had made another left turn. She then felt Theron bump into her rear end.
"Sorry lass, wasn't tryin' to get fresh with ya." She reached back and patted his shoulder in acknowledgement. She felt him shift and look around the side before he spoke up again. "Ah, balls."
"What's going on?" She asked, suddenly concerned with the stop.
"Dead end." Kael's answer came from up front. "This tunnel just stops another sixty feet ahead."
"Oh," she huffed, "now what?"
"Now you continue to keep a cork in it while we work this out." Liriel answered testily while she walked past them to join the warrior up front. The others were able to make out a quiet argument between the pair while they tried to figure out their next move. Eya felt a tug on her arm as Elara helped her out of the water and up onto the curved side of the tunnel. They sat against the brick and waited there with Theron joining them a minute later.
The argument started to get heated until it ended with a sharp "Fine, fine!" from Liriel. The two humans could hear their partners approach them again and turned to face their faint outlines.
"Sun should be up soon." Kael's voice emerged from the darkness, drowned out slightly by the hiss of falling water nearby. "We're going to head back and try again after we get some rest."
"More sewers?" Eya asked, trying to keep the dejection in her voice from sounding whiny.
"Afraid so," he chuckled, "it's glamorous work, that's why it pays so good." She laughed in response at his earnest attempt to lighten the mood. She put one hand up and felt him grasp it and pull her to her feet.
"Before we go sloshing around this lovely little palace again, I want to try catching the bastard above ground." Liriel commented in the dark while Kael helped Elara up as well. "We'll use a Dagger of Finding, get some answers in no time." She finished with a dark chuckle.
Eya reached out to where she thought Theron was seated and helped him up, then heard his voice from the darkness.
"I'm pretty well read on magic artifacts an' such, never heard of a Dagger of Finding before though. Where do we get tha'?" He asked the rogue. The sound of her unsheathing the dagger at her hip was accompanied by her audible smirk.
"This one. I stick him with it until I find out what I want to know." The chorus of groans was cut off by an ominous, deep, and unfamiliar chuckle from the mouth of the dead end tunnel.
"You're certainly welcome to try, pretty elf." The gravelly, menacing voice was immediately followed by the sharp sound of flint striking metal. A shower of sparks caught a torch and it flared to life. The sudden flare of light revealed a dozen looming figures, all clad in a hodgepodge collection of leather armor and dirty clothes. They were crowding the entrance of the tunnel, occupying the T-intersection and blocking any egress. The speaker flashed a sinister grin at the cornered troupe, his missing teeth adding to the spectacle.
Without missing a beat, Liriel flipped her dagger to catch the blade and immediately threw it at him while spitting back venomously.
"Pretty half-elf, you racist twat!" She charged directly at the ragtag group with a war cry that echoed through the sewers.