Chapter 28 – The Undercity

Chapter 28 – The Undercity

 

Tomas led the way with surprising confidence.

Whatever awe had seized him earlier had not dulled his instincts. If anything, it seemed to have sharpened them. He moved carefully but without hesitation, one hand brushing the wall as he guided them through the lower landing and into a broad maintenance corridor of old brick and stone.

The ceiling arched low overhead. Moss crept along the mortar in dark green veins, and ancient drainage channels ran along either side of the passage, carrying a sluggish trickle of black water deeper into the underground.

The air beyond Seris’s Purification Circle was thick with damp rot, mildew, rust, and stagnant filth.

Even with the spell keeping their immediate surroundings fresh and clean, the contrast with the surface was impossible to ignore.

Liria reminded herself that this was for a good cause. And compared to the horrors she had endured in that ruined future, this was nothing.

But she still hated it anyway.

Tomas slowed near a bend in the corridor and crouched.

Liria stopped beside him at once. “What is it?”

He pointed around the corner. Liria leaned just far enough to look. Then she froze.

In the shadows beyond the reach of her Light spell, a swarm of vile, cacophonously squeaking rats had gathered around the carcass of some enormous reptile. Its broad snout and armored scales marked it as one of those swamp predators from the southern marshes, though its thick tail and clawed feet were already half-lost in the black water and gnawing bodies.

And the rats.

Oh, Goddess, the rats.

They were huge.

Each one was larger than an adult man’s thigh, their slick tails dragging through the filth as they tore into the carcass in a frenzy of wet gnawing, chittering, and squabbling. Red eyes gleamed in the dark. Yellow teeth clicked against bone.

One of them yanked free a strip of flesh with a sucking, tearing sound.

Liria immediately pulled back behind the wall.

She did not wish to look at them for even one second longer.

“What is it? What did you see, Big Sis?”

Seris, of course, immediately poked her own head around the corner.

For one suspiciously thoughtful moment, she went still. Then she gasped.

“Oh no!” she gasped in an entirely too dramatic voice, then promptly flung herself into Liria’s arms. “That’s so scary! And gross! Protect me, Big Sis!”

Liria caught her automatically, though not without narrowing her eyes.

“Seris,” she said flatly, “are you quite sure you are frightened?”

If she remembered correctly, then Seris had once—

“That’s mean, Big Sister,” Seris protested at once, interrupting the thought before it could fully form. She drew herself up with a deeply wounded pout. “Seris is a delicate and proper lady! Of course I’m afraid of rats!”

Liria looked at her. Seris looked back with wide, innocent eyes.

Liria decided, with admirable diplomacy, to let the matter go.

Then Seris twisted around in her arms, pointed down the corridor, and chirped, “Go get them, Tomas!”

The poor boy froze as if she had just sentenced him to immediate death.

“M… me, my lady?” he stammered, pointing weakly at himself.

“Who else but you?” Seris said, still tucked safely in Liria’s arms. “Seris is a delicate lady, so Seris can’t do it!”

Then her expression darkened.

“You’re not thinking of making Big Sister fight those things, are you?” she asked menacingly. “Hmmm?”

Liria blinked.

For one deeply cursed moment, she could have sworn she saw the image of the future Lich King overlaid atop her adorable little sister.

Then the vision vanished, leaving behind only Seris’s golden curls and sweetly expectant expression.

Liria immediately dismissed the blasphemous thought.

The Lich King was Vhal. He had absolutely nothing to do with Seris.

Her little sister was innocent and lovely and full of light. Liria could hardly blame her if she occasionally weaponized those gifts.

Meanwhile, Tomas had turned toward her with such naked desperation in his eyes that he looked moments away from weeping.

“Lady Liria!” he all but sobbed.

Seris let out a tiny little “hmph.”

“And that’s for doubting Big Sis earlier,” Liria heard her mumble under her breath.

Oh, what a little menace.

An adorable little menace.

A beloved little menace.

Liria wanted, with extraordinary intensity, to pinch those soft little cheeks until Seris squeaked.

Unfortunately, they had an audience.

She mastered herself and instead placed a reassuring hand atop Tomas’s head.

“My little sister was teasing you,” she said gently. “But she is not entirely wrong. Fighting them would do you a great deal of good, child.”

And if she herself could remain as far away from those horrifying creatures as possible, then that was merely a fortunate secondary benefit.

“It would?” Tomas asked in disbelief.

“It would?” Seris echoed, before quickly straightening with a rosy little blush. “I mean, of course it would. Seris already knew that.”

Liria did not dignify that with a response.

She refused to give in to the temptation to pinch that soft, squishy little face.

Liria was a woman of focus, commitment, and unwavering will.

Instead, she turned back to Tomas.

“I noticed from the start that you have not yet chosen the Blessing of Light, even though you are already ten years old,” she said. “Did you want to become an adventurer? Is that why you were hesitating?”

Tomas shuffled awkwardly.

“You don’t need to try to talk me out of it, Lady Liria,” he muttered. “I already know how dangerous it is. Everybody says adventurers die young, and the ones who don’t usually come back missing something.”

He hesitated, then looked up with a flicker of stubborn hope.

“But I still wanted it. I’ve heard the stories. Even orphans like me can make it if they’re talented enough. Or lucky enough. If I got strong, then maybe I could protect the others. That’s why I was thinking about taking the Blessing of Darkness instead.”

Liria nodded once. “Then do it.”

Tomas stared at her. “My lady?”

“I was planning to personally entrust you to Elysium’s Adventurer’s Guild after this,” Liria said. “With proper support, equipment, and guidance, you should survive the most dangerous period of acclimatization without much difficulty. There will still be risk, of course, but it is a far safer and more honorable path than joining the local thieves’ guild.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “You would do that for me, my lady?”

“Yes,” Liria said simply. “Which is why you should choose the Blessing of Darkness right now. And fight.”

She lowered her voice slightly.

“The creatures here are around your level or higher. Under normal circumstances, that would make this dangerous. But you are not under normal circumstances. Seris will heal you, shield you, and empower you. And as long as I am here, nothing in this undercity can truly threaten you.”

Tomas swallowed.

“You will never again have such an ideal opportunity to gain levels safely,” Liria continued. “So tell me, brave little one. What will you do?”

Tomas drew in a slow breath. Then he straightened. “I’ll fight, my lady.”

“Good.”

He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together in prayer.

The corridor seemed to dim around him for the briefest moment.

It was subtle, but unmistakable. Light pulled inward, as if the shadows themselves had leaned close to listen. A faint ripple passed through the air and sank into his body.

The Blessing of Darkness accepted him.

When Tomas opened his eyes again, there was a new sharpness to them.

“I’m ready, my lady!”

“Then cast your enhancing miracles on young Tomas, Seris,” Liria instructed. “And watch over him with barriers and healing should he misstep. You are going to fight alongside armies in the future. Consider this useful early practice.”

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“Yes, Big Sis!”

Seris hopped down from Liria’s arms and planted her feet firmly on the stone. Golden-white light bloomed between her palms.

“Blessing of Courage.”

Warmth poured over Tomas, and his posture visibly steadied.

“Blessing of Vigor.”

A second pulse of light sank into his muscles.

“Blessing of Precision.”

A third miracle settled over him like a whisper.

Then Seris reached for Tomas’s dagger, tapped one tiny finger against the flat of the blade, and whispered, “Sanctified Flame.”

White-gold fire rippled across the weapon for a single breath before sinking into the steel. It did not burn the leather of the hilt or the cloth wrapped around Tomas’s hand, but the edge now gleamed with a faint, sacred sheen.

Only then did Seris narrow her eyes and flick one finger. A translucent barrier shimmered once around Tomas before fading from sight.

“There,” she said proudly. “Now go be heroic.”

Liria nodded in approval, then turned back to Tomas. “I would like you to finish in less than a minute.”

His face blanked. “A minute, my lady?”

“With Seris supporting you, and with the Skills and equipment I have already given you, a minute is already quite generous.”

Tomas looked down at his dagger, then toward the corridor, then back at her. After a few seconds of very serious thought, he nodded.

“Yes, my lady.”

Liria gave him an encouraging smile. “Off you go, then.”

Tomas inhaled once, set his jaw, and darted around the corner.

Liria remained exactly where she was: Far behind him. As was only prudent.

The rats noticed him immediately.

A wave of squeaking exploded through the corridor as several slick-furred bodies turned toward him. The largest rose onto its hind legs with a wet hiss, strips of reptilian flesh hanging from its teeth.

Tomas nearly flinched backward.

Then Seris called out brightly from behind, “Remember, Tomas! Stab first! Panic later!”

Liria closed her eyes for half a second.

Then Tomas moved.

He dropped low and surged forward with surprising speed. One of the frontmost rats lunged at him, all snapping jaws and claws, but Tomas twisted sharply aside in a clumsy dodge that somehow became effective through sheer desperation.

Its muzzle missed his leg by inches. Tomas yelped and slashed downward, his dagger biting into the creature’s neck.

Seris’s holy fire ignited at once.

White-gold flame erupted along the wound with a hiss, and the rat let out a shriek so piercing that Liria almost recoiled on principle. Its body convulsed once, then collapsed into blackened ash.

Tomas stared. “I got one!”

“Very good, Tomas,” Liria called. “Stay focused.”

A second rat sprang at him from the left.