202 (II)

Sewer

He regarded the Pathbearers standing before him. Most of them were clad in full sets of nondescript adamantine armor.

Adamantine wasn't cheap, but the armor also didn't fit these people. They were slow and sluggish, and the fear spilling out from them—fueling Shiv with power—told him that they weren't seasoned warriors. Someone had spent a great deal of money supplying these Pathbearers, but their skills weren't up to snuff.

He suspected there might only be one Master among them, and that was the ant-like creature's Biomancy. The rest were merely Adepts, which told him one of two things. First, these people didn't see much action and were simply a deterrent, more of a watchguard than actual warriors. Second was that they were a statement in and of themselves, because adamantine, again, wasn't cheap at all. If someone could supply someone with adamantine gear while you were still an Adept, that meant they were a good employer to work for.

Just then, the world outside rumbled with noise, and he felt the heat climb another few degrees. A groaning followed, and the walls around him began to gurgle with splashing fluid. "Where the hells are we?" he asked.

"Inside an incinerator," Custiel said. "Well, inside the coolant pipes of one of the incinerators meant to process waste for the capital. We're in the Sapphira district, so the big gun upstairs is constantly running, churning, and burning all the stuff that people throw out."

"What? Are you serious?" He studied the goblin's features, trying to see if the forger was shitting him. He really wasn't. Adam's eyes were aglow, and he was trying to confirm Custiel's words directly. The Gate Lord's mouth opened slightly.

"Broken Moon, why do you have your business open here?"

"Because it's not like you can be a forger in the open, can you?" Custiel snapped. "Let me tell you, it took the Neath a good few years to find a way into the coolant pipes, locate a spot that was stable enough to build in, and start making some minor tweaks to the infrastructure to fit my establishment in. Oh, that, and they also had to rewire some of the pipes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to have a brief conversation with my partner here. Munson will see you guys moved to the academy grounds. Won't you, Munson?"

A low grunt came from one of the guards. He stepped forward, and though he was large, Shiv stood a bit larger. He regarded the armored man trying to size him up. Shiv lifted an eyebrow, and just then, his notification loaded. Now all the guards were looking at him.

"Listen, if any of you are feeling greedy, and if you think you can take my life from me, just go for it. I won't even kill you if you try. I will, however, cut your arms and legs off with my frying pan, then I'll leave you like a bunch of nuggets on the ground. See how fast your Biomancer can heal you." A few of the guards responded with increased fear. Munson, meanwhile, continued staring at Shiv for a few seconds longer before waving for the rest of them to follow.

"Hold on," Shiv said. "We still got a few people in the wine cellar. They need to be coming with us too."

"Do they, now?" the Educator said, and Shiv caught her meaning.

"Yeah, they do," he deadpanned. "They helped us get out of the prison; we're helping them get out of this mess. We're not dumping them like trash. Godsdamned… If I have a problem with one of them, I'm just gonna finish them off myself. None of this backhanded betrayal bullshit. If you have a problem with that, feel free to stop me physically. Seems to be the way the world works, anyway."

Unlike all the times before, Shiv didn't get into a contest with the Educator. He simply marched back into the forger's den and went to the jetting pipe sticking out from the other side of the room.

A few minutes later, the escaped prisoners, Solzimort, who was swimming through the floor due to the cramped nature of their surroundings, and all the orcs were across with Shiv, and they followed Munson as a rejoined party.

Munson was a man of few words, and Shiv was ultimately fine with that. He gave him a few minutes to observe the insides of the coolant system. As he looked up, he felt a faint presence brush against his Pyromancy. He guessed that was the core of the incinerator working somewhere above him. Quite a bit of power going through that too. Not nearly as much as a Hero—maybe at Master-Tier.

Not a bad place to hide a criminal enterprise, Shiv admitted to himself. The Pyromancy likely masked some of their activity, and ultimately, it was a counterintuitive place to look. After all, who would be hiding inside an incinerator?

Their walk was ultimately a short one. After moving through the rubbery tunnel for a few minutes, they arrived before an open cleft. It looked like someone had cut a gap in one of the walls, and between the separated material bubbled globules of murky white water. However, though the globules pulsated and burst, none of it spilled across the ground or flooded the inside of the cooling pipes. Munson grunted. Shiv shot the guard a look and left another temporal anchor in place in case he needed to conduct another escape.

He went across first. The moment he did, he felt a crushing sensation seize him. Once more, he reminded himself to relax. He stopped fighting it using his Shapeless Tides, and he was drawn across a new set of pipes before being teleported again. This time, it was harder to follow what was happening to him Hydrokinetically.

He was moving fast, faster than ever before. As his travel speed alternated and the number of teleportations he experienced increased, Shiv began to suspect that the Neath had a team of Dimensionalists, Hydromancers, and Pathbearers with Heroic-Tier Awareness under their payroll. How else would they know where he was? How else would they be able to use their magic to surgically move him?

All of a sudden, he came to a halt. In that moment, he managed to get a feeling for the environment beside him. He was still in a set of pipes; he could tell that with his Hydromancy, but aside from that, there was a great deal of waste moving alongside him. Human waste. And some of that waste was gliding through him as well. A feeling of utter disgust coiled through Shiv as he guessed he was in the sewer system now. That was another place most people wouldn't look. Perhaps some smugglers had hideouts leading down from manholes, but how many of them were transported after being turned into part of the wastewater themselves?

My life's full of shitty first experiences, Shiv thought to himself, and a little chuckle followed.

The entire ordeal took around two hours, and for most of that time, Shiv moved fast in bursts of speed, his only companion human waste and his own thoughts. He looked forward to asking Adam how he enjoyed this trip, but for the moment, Shiv preferred the solitude. There was a great deal for him to think about.

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Or not.

Frankly, it had been a while since he had a chance to not think about anything, perhaps to just cook or prepare food. He was starting to go through what felt like withdrawals, and the faces of the dead, dying, and all the other horrible shit he'd dealt with recently kept flickering behind his eyes.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but being among flowing shit is kind of peaceful. At least the shit's not trying to kill me. He felt another particularly thick specimen of shit pass by him, a shell of undigested nuts dotting its exterior. How about you, friend? You actually my dad or something? You steal his mind just like Udraal stole my mom's? Am I a shit-baby too? Another near-delirious laugh passed through Shiv, and it became a shudder. Fuck me. What is my life?

But the Deathless got a hold of himself. My life's whatever I make of it. My life is whatever I do, whatever I decide. To hells with Udraal. To hells with the Educator. To hells with the Ascendants. I'm gonna keep trying to do what's right, and I'm gonna try to win this game, whatever the hell this game even is. I'm not gonna just let them drag me around like I'm some kind of dog on a leash. I am my own man. That means being a little bit more... That means growing up and facing the ugly shit around me.

That made Shiv grunt again, but he didn't quite manage a laugh. It was old by now, but it was still true. He needed to deal with things, no matter how unpalatable they were. Just because Veronica's revelations left him disgusted and feeling alienated from his very self, he didn't need to react to it. He didn't need to let his thoughts run wild.

Can't control the feelings, but I can decide how to respond and what I'm going to do in response. And I got quite a bit of control. More than the Educator would like me to have, anyway. Pushed her pretty hard, and she just kept letting me off. Means I'm important to Udraal, and she knows that. It also means that Udraal needs to tread carefully with me. Same thing with Veronica. I got them all working against each other on my behalf. And with this whole 'breaching the Outside' science experiment these two people are doing at the Academy, maybe we don't need to go to Blackedge at all. Maybe we can bring Blackedge to us right here. Or at least I can cross over and find Uva and the others myself. There are opportunities all around me. I just need to make them work. I will make them work.

Philosophy 28 > 30

Psycho-Cartography 91 > 93

Psycho-Cartography: Yes, good. Maintain this scheme of thinking. We will likely run into more traumatizing situations, but that doesn't mean we should succumb to them. In fact, maybe we should dunk our head in feces-infused water some more. It seems to be good for our mood.

Absolutely goddamn not, Skill. What the hells is wrong with you?

Psycho-Cartography: In the absence of Adam, I must treat you as Adam. It has become a reflex for us to jab at someone, and all we have is each other.

Hey, listen. I'm not the Adam. You're going to have to be the Adam. You're the smart bit of me, you know that?

Psycho-Cartography: Are you admitting Adam is smarter than you?

Shiv paused. You know, in certain, specific ways, he's more learned. And, uh, he's got a keen awareness of things.

Psycho-Cartography: Indeed, he does. Do you think he's smart enough to argue with himself to distract from the fact that he's effectively being suffused in wastewater?

Shiv paused. That made him start guffawing internally with new gusto. He realized what Psycho-Cartography was trying to do, an insinuation that his subconsciousness was crawling toward.

Adam was a great many things. More intelligent than Shiv in terms of tactics and strategy? Absolutely. But psychologically and emotionally, the Gate Lord was… not likely to deal with this trip well.

That was something Shiv couldn't wait to see.

***

"What in the Broken Moon was that shit?" Adam snarled. "I'm absolutely never doing that again. I mean, what the hells? Just throw me out in the street. Let the Ascendants take me again. Let Stormhalt ruin my mind! What was that? They sent us through the sewer, Shiv. They turned me into piss, Shiv!"

Shiv was right. Adam did absolutely hate that, and it was an utterly glorious meltdown to behold. As Shiv emerged from his final exit in a splash of fetid water, he realized he was standing in front of a damaged toilet. Adam arrived not a few seconds later, and the Gate Lord sputtered and gagged. Even though their bodies weren't soaked in the waste—the reason being that they were turned back into things of flesh and solid matter, rather than actually being suffused by the wastewater—the effects were the same.

Adam could still feel the disgusting sensations clinging to his side. He could still sense and smell everything around him, and that was the worst thing of all. Adam had Heroic Awareness, and for two hours, he had endured the conditions of their transit.

After a bout of violent heaving and cursing, the rest of their group arrived, with Solzimort being flung out and phasing through the walls, while Irons staggered free with a shake of his head and no other reaction besides: "Well, that was interesting."

"Terrible, absolutely unpleasant, but also interesting," Five commented.

"Fuck interesting," Kura muttered, shuddering. "I'm with the pretty boy. Prison's barely better than this."

For once, Gone looked like she was in agreement with the elven Chronomancer.

"Oh, don't be dramatic," Helix sniffled. The few other orcs were forming up on the outside of the restroom, securing the premises. Mold clung to the corners, while the ground was caked in a layer of grime and a mess of dead bugs with bits of smeared tiles shining in between.

As they finished getting their bearings, Captain Irons looked around, and a grimace crawled across his features. "I know where we are," he said. "We're in the sealed wing of the old Aenerial Coliseum."

Adam stopped choking and turned to stare at his former instructor. "What? The one that crashed down on the Yithvelhul dormitories during the sabotage? I thought it was completely destroyed."

"Sabotage?" Shiv asked.

But before anyone could say anything else, a knock sounded from the far end of the room. Past a set of cracked mirrors was a rotting door. From behind it came another rattle, but this time, a piece of the door fell off—a rectangular chunk that showed the one who was knocking. Shiv saw half a face. Elven. Bronze skin tone. And what looked to be a tall and pointed hat.

"'Ello?" The stranger whispered. The orcs were still. All of them were staring at the unexpected visitor like a pack of wolves that had just noticed a lamb. Kura manifested a shadow. Adam shaped an arrow. Irons, however, held a hand up, stalling everyone.

"Hello? Are you… Are you the… the volunteers? I was told by the… the liaison to come here. To make sure I was alone. To—to come and help with your final… relocation. Oh, and—and I am Hero-Enchanter Merrielmel! I—ahem! Welcome to Phoenix Academy. There are, oh, there are many of you. Orcs too… Why… And… Irons?"

Captain Irons just glared at the other man through the crack in the door. "Merrielmel. How long? How long have you been under them?"

"Ah. Eh." Merrielmel's voice was soft and stutter-wracked to begin with. Now, he sounded like he had throat problems. "A few years. Ever since—since—"

"The Sivoron Core Collapse," Irons said with absolute certainty. "I wondered how you didn't get fired after that."

"Ah. Ah." Merrielmel coughed. "How… But you…"

"Melissa. She's still missing."

Merrielmel went still. He sighed, nodded, and pulled the door open. "I see. That… that makes more sense. I am glad that you gave yourself away for a good reason."

"I'm not," Irons replied bitterly. "But it still needed to be done. Where's Concelhaunt?"

"Ah. Eh. He's, eh, occupied." Merrielmel coughed. "Best to… come out first. Come out fast. We are… This place will not be secure for long. The city—the Ascendants have placed the capital under lockdown. And… and…" And just then, Shiv's Hidden World Quest Notification loaded again. "I… Oh… You are… You… You're my volunteer?"

The Deathless breathed. "Yeah. Oh. Me. Volunteer. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I don't know if you'll be feeling the same way in a while."

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