The path of the thief’s tunnels twisted and turned before Lieut, slowly meandering to the south. Lieut turned a couple of corners and came to face a dead end where a small grate at the bottom of the wall let only the water pass beyond.

He stopped his walking and looked about curiously.

Answering Lieut’s unspoken thoughts Vythe moved past him and up to the corner where a small blue rune appeared glowing on the wall. Vythe lightly pressed the rune and a cleverly crafted doorway swung inwards to reveal a flight of stairs going down. As the door opened the water in the tunnel gushed down the steps, making the descent slippery. The narrow staircase quickly opened out onto a ledge that overlooked a raging river and waterfall.

They were on the side of a cliff with no way down or across the river. But looking up Lieut saw their path, and above his head the underside of a bridge could be seen in the darkness. Along the underside of the bridge was a series of metal rungs that ran like a ladder on the arch of the bridge, the first rung being barely inches from his head.

Lieut was about to start across when he saw movement at the other side. Someone dashed from the shadows and swung themselves up onto the rungs and began to come across. Strangely they moved like an ant with their feet finding secure hold on the underside of the bridge and not slipping. In short order the man landed down next to them breathing heavily, his eyes wide with fear.

“Help me,” the man begged as he violently grabbed a hold of Vythe’s shirt. “Blood, there was so much blood. We were attacked, a large man with red eyes and hair of silver. By The Five, the blood!”

Suddenly the man noticed Lieut and his eyes widened and he let out a maniacal scream before scrambling away up the stairs and into the tunnels.

“That was ominous,” Fairris remarked darkly.

“Come on,” Vythe said, and he climbed up on the underside of the bridge and began across in the same fashion as the man that had come across.

Lieut moved after Vythe and swung up in the same way, and to his surprise his feet also stuck to the underside of the bridge. With ease he climbed along the ladder and quickly made it across and joined Vythe on the ledge.

Once Fairris joined them Vythe quickly led the way up the stairs and through a familiar looking secret door. On the other side of the door rushing water met them along with the similar looking tunnels to the ones they had traversed previously. Following Vythe, Lieut quickly raced down the tunnels and splashed through the knee-high water.

Lieut smelt the stench of death several turns before he saw the mutilated corpses of three bodies in the water. All were missing limbs or heads and had their entrails away on the current. Covering his mouth Vythe knelt beside one of the bodies and looked darkly up at Lieut.

Fairris leant up against the wall of the tunnel, covering her nose from the stench, but she quickly drew back her hand from the blood soaked stone.

“Quickly, we must go,” Vythe said as he stood up, still looking at Lieut darkly. “Before the Grand Magi finds a similar fate.”

“What is going on?” Fairris demanded as they quickly left the gruesome scene.

“When I went to the Thieves Guild to buy these chains, they spoke of a large man with silver hair and red eyes who had come barely an hour before myself,” Vythe explained hurriedly. “He wore a navy blue vest, dark pants that were tucked into his tight knee-high boots.”

Fairris looked at Lieut’s attire straight away, which Vythe had practically described.

“This man also carried a black metal war axe with a silver edge,” Vythe continued. “Which reminded me very much of Lieut’s very own sword. This man bought a Key to the City and asked for the direction to the tunnel that led to the Land of Lords. I am finding it very hard to think it a coincidence that Lieut is heading in the same direction. I also find it very hard to believe that you do not know this man Lieut.”

Lieut did not reply.

“That is what I thought,” Vythe said darkly. “After what I saw in the tunnel back there I am starting to wonder what you and this red-eyed warrior want with the Grand Magi.”

“Lieut?” Fairris asked her expression very serious.

Lieut hesitated and stretched the stiffness out of his neck.

“It is the red-eyed man that I am after,” Lieut said through clenched teeth. “Not the Grand Magi.”

Vythe looked at him curiously. “So this red-eyed man is the one after the Grand Magi?”

Lieut nodded stiffly.

“How do you know him?” Vythe pushed.

“And how is Regional Commander Rathgard involved in all this?” Fairris asked.

“None of that is your concern,” Lieut replied seriously.

“Damn it Lieut,” Vythe swore.

Lieut whirled around to face both Vythe and Fairris. “This is my business, and it has always been my business. Be content that I have told you both what I have. I never asked for your company and I will be free of it at any time I wish. If either of you desire to remain in my company and call yourselves my companions, you will ask no more questions on this matter.”

Lieut left it at that and continued on through the tunnels. At first he thought both Vythe and Fairris would let him leave. But before long he heard the slosh of water as they followed.

No words were spoken for a long while after and the only sound to be heard was the splashing of water as they moved through the flooding tunnels. The pouring of water down from the grates above their heads echoed through the passages and the thunder roared distantly. The tunnels twisted and turned this way and that, sometimes dropping down a short descent only to rise back up again. For a long time they walked the drains but soon they came to another dead end where the water drained through small metal bars at the base of the stone wall. But with so much water trying to flush through, the small opening had become clogged and the level of water was up past Lieut’s knees.

Assuming it was similar to the last door they passed through, Lieut moved up to the corner, to the side of the clogged drain. He guessed correctly for as he moved close to the brick work a small blue glowing symbol appeared on the slimy stone. Lieut touched the rune lightly and a secret door swung inwards, forcefully pushed by the water.

Lieut had some trouble going down the stairs with the torrent of water pushing against his back, but as Vythe and Fairris moved past the door it closed and blocked off the deluge.

Lieut descended the last couple of flights of stairs and moved out onto a ledge where a wall of water greeted him. The fast moving river that divided the Land of the Lords from The Ladder raced in front of his golden eyes held at bay by some form of magicks. Trickles of water ran by his foot and floated in the air to join the river’s surge.

“This is Mandrel’s greatest work,” Vythe remarked. “The Water Gate. Look at the stone around you and you will see thousands of small runes etched into the rock, which keep that river at bay and also allow us to move through it. This is the larger of the two watercourses that the River Yorna breaks into as it comes to The Port.”

“Incredible,” Fairris gasped in bewilderment.

Lieut had to agree with Fairris’s statement, it truly was remarkable. Slowly he moved his hand up to the wall of water and let his fingers create waves within the water. The pendant that hung on the chain Vythe had given him flashed brightly for a second and the wall of water parted before him creating a tunnel through the river.

Fairris gasped at the sight and Vythe laughed quietly to himself as he moved into the tunnel. Fairris followed next and Lieut brought up the rear, stepping cautiously onto an unseen surface that was barley inches above the flow of water. But when he went to touch the walls his hand went right into the water.

“It is incredible,” Fairris remarked to Vythe as the water tunnel closed behind them. “How is it all possible?”

“The runes on the stone,” Vythe replied with shrug. “Similar to the bridge we crossed under previously, and the lights in the tunnel. Mandrel carved them all.”

“Why not use normal magicks?” asked Fairris.

“Runes are what Magi call passive magicks,” explained Vythe. “Active magicks, which is nearly everything else, can be easily detected. So you can see why passive magicks appealed to thieves. I am surprised that you know little of magicks when you are so good at them.”

“I know how to use some magicks,” Fairris replied with a shrug, “and that has always been enough. I never even considered going to the Magi Guild and learning the intricacies. But I am curious.”

“You have a strong Quia Fairris, I would have thought you would have been recruited as soon as you turned twelve,” remarked Vythe.

“Learning more of magicks was the last thing on my mind at twelve,” Fairris remarked sadly, causing Vythe to raise an eyebrow curiously.

“Perhaps I can make up for some of your lost chances at gaining knowledge of the intricacies of magicks,” offered Vythe with a smile.

“Alright,” Fairris said with a smile. “What is the Quia you mentioned?”

“Talk as you walk Vythe,” Lieut commanded. “We are far enough behind as it is.”

Lieut said no more and moved quickly towards the ascending stairs, which ended abruptly and the secret door opened wide. A cascade of water met him in the face, knocking him back a step, but he pushed through it. After a great struggle he, Vythe and Fairris were soon in the tunnels, breathing heavily with the door shut behind them.

“Right, what is Quia?” Vythe laughed as they set off through the tunnel. “It is quite simple really. Quia is the term used to refer to one’s inner strength or level of magickal power. It is the strength of will and spirit, and is directly related to your connection to the magicks of the Fog.”

“So the more powerful the Magi the greater their Quia or power is?” Fairris said slowly and Vythe nodded. “Alright, how do runes work?”

“Another easy one,” replied Vythe. “The rune markings upon an object create a pathway for the Fog to move through. Such markings can imbue the object with characteristics. Take these lights for example. Those crystals have runes upon them that cause the crystal to illuminate when in the vicinity of the pendants I bought from the Thieves Guild.”

“And the underside of the bridge?” asked Fairris.

“Runes that cause your feet to have extra friction and stickiness when they come in contact with the stone,” Vythe replied.

“What about the Water Gate?” Fairris asked curiously.

Vythe laughed. “Do not ask me to explain that one, for I have no notion of how Mandrel was able to do it. He used thousands of runes, and considering that when you combine two runes that are not compatible the magicks will violently tear the object apart, I am not going to attempt to understand.”

“Did you not say once that you wrote a dissertation on runes when you were in the Magi Guild?” Fairris remembered.

“Indeed I did,” Vythe replied with a nod. “Which was the same one that Magi Cardonian passed off as his own. It theorised that dwarven runes could be used to make the process simpler, for truthfully the Dwarves had already mastered the art of Runiology. But because they are so secretive and kept their knowledge to themselves, none others know of it.”

“Then how did you?” Fairris asked curiously.

“There was an old dwarf who used to work for my father,” Vythe replied. “He was kind enough to teach me and show me a few things. But nothing substantial enough to do anything more than theorise about dwarven runes.”

“Why are the Dwarves secretive?” Fairris asked out loud.

“The same reason the Elves are,” Vythe was quick to say. “But neither race can be blamed, for it is obvious that Men are very foolish and greedy when it comes to power and the obtainment of more power. Why else do you think Magi Cardonian stole my work?”

“Is that the reason you were expelled?” Fairris inquired.

“Partly,” Vythe said. “Of course he is Grand Magi now, largely thanks to my work. After he passed my thesis off as his own I sought revenge and implicated him in making malicious deals with unsavoury individuals. He had me expelled and soon became Grand Magi.”

“Did he really make such deals?” asked Fairris in wonder.

“How do you think he became Grand Magi so quickly?” Vythe countered, and then he shrugged. “But it does not matter now.”

Fairris asked a few more questions about the Magi Guild, but for most of the time the silence was filled with the sounds of water and the rumble of the storm.

It was not long into the trip under the Land of Lords, when Lieut started to notice the alarming increase in water that was flowing through the tunnels, so much so that even he was starting to struggle against the flow.

“We need to get out of these tunnels,” Vythe remarked seriously. “The deluge will wash us away.”

“Where is the closest exit?” Lieut asked in agreement.

“Follow me,” Vythe said, and he led the way through the water and down a side tunnel, one of only a few that had been seen throughout the trip.

They pushed through the water and around the corner to see a glowing Fog barrier in their way. But as Vythe neared it the pendant around his neck flared and the wall parted down the centre. By now the waters were driving into them with serious intent to wash them away. Thankfully Vythe began to climb up the closest metal rungs that were imbedded in the tunnel wall and led up to a small hatch.

Lieut and Fairris followed Vythe up the ladder and found themselves in the large basement of a house. Crates of goods lined the walls and lay around stone columns, and a crystal wall light cast an orange glow about the room and reflected off the puddles of water they had brought with them from the drainage tunnels.

“Where are we?” asked Fairris. “Do all the houses have such easy access to them?”

“No.” Vythe shook his head. “This is the manor of a former leader of the Thieves Guild, and my mentor.”

“I do not have time for any reunions,” Lieut said seriously.

“Agreed,” Vythe said, before heading up the stairs.

The staircase was only short and he followed Vythe into a large kitchen with nicely tiled floors and painted walls. A wide door opposite the cellar stairs led to a dining room, another doorway led to a hallway and another up a narrow flight of stairs. Vythe moved to the door that led out into a side alley that was used by the servants of the house.

As Vythe reached the door the sound of light feet came into the kitchen and in floated a beautiful woman with long silver-blonde hair, porcelain skin, stunning moss green eyes and delicately pointed ears. She was a snow elf, a Lithinüer from Thienlin to the north of Crydon, also known as the High Steep. The elegant elf wore a light nightgown of rich white satin that enhanced the colour of her eyes. Her radiance seemed to emanate around the kitchen as she floated over the tiles, brightening the corners with an inner glow.

“My dear Vythe, why do you pass through my home without a word of greeting?” the snow elf asked, her voice clear and soft.

“Sārlien, I assumed you were abed.” Vythe bowed in apology. “The hour is quite late.”

“Do not offer me your lies, Master Varrintine.” The elf narrowed her eyes. “I know it would be more than mere thievery that would see you return to Port Na’brath. Give me truth.”

Vythe bowed again. “I apologise, my companions, Fairris, and Lieut, and I are tracking a large red-eyed man through the city. The same man killed three members of our guild earlier this very night. It is important that we find him before he reaches the Magi Guild.”

“I have heard of the trouble you speak,” Sārlien said gravely. “The same man is said to have emerged from the city tunnels not long ago where the guards tried to arrest him for having no permit. This red-eyed man killed them before disappearing into the city.”

“You have talked long enough, Vythe,” Lieut said forcefully as he moved towards the door.

“A relation of yours, Lieut?” Sārlien was quick to ask, making him stop. “The man’s description almost matches your own image.”

“I leave, Vythe.” Lieut ignored the snow elf. “If you wish to remain and talk say so.”

“I apologise again Sārlien,” Vythe said. “But I must go, if I find the time I will tell you all I know.”

“Be careful, Vythe,” Sārlien warned. “These times of peace are fast turning dark, and I believe you are at the edge of that darkness.”

Vythe blew the elf a kiss and pushed past Lieut and out the door.  Lieut followed quickly and Fairris joined them in the rain outside.

In the Land of Lords the streets were paved with patterned stone and a street light sat on every corner. At the edge of the roads were crafted gutters and metal grates, and at the centre of the widest streets were islands of gardens and small trees. The houses were tall and narrow, three stories at their highest with many balconies, painted colourfully. Above every door hung a coat of arms or a flag with the house’s design on it. The buildings were built alongside one another to limit the amount of dark alleys in this section of the city. But there was the occasional service alley where servants of the houses could enter without being seen going through the front door.

Lieut stood in the middle of one of the service alleys and began to head out into the city streets, but Vythe grabbed him by the arm and stopped him.

“You will draw far too much attention from city guards walking along the streets,” Vythe said seriously. “Follow me. There is an access to the roofs this way.”

Vythe was right so Lieut followed without objection to the end of the alley where a small blue rune appeared on one of the bricks, slightly different looking to the ones in the tunnels. But like the runes in the tunnels Vythe touched it lightly and it flared brightly before a dozen bricks began to slide out from the house, taking the form of a ladder up the side of the building.

Vythe began climbing, Lieut followed quickly and Fairris came up behind them. It was an easy climb for Lieut and he was standing on the roof within seconds, looking out across the city. As the lightning flashed he caught a glimpse of great domed roofs in the distance as well as a huge natural arch that stretched out into the ocean, which was where the Magi Guild was built.

“No trouble, Fairris?” Vythe asked the elf when she joined them.

“None,” Fairris replied. “I was climbing walls and running across roofs through most of my childhood.”

“Really?” remarked Vythe, looking at Fairris curiously. “I did not expect that, would you care to elaborate?”

“No. Let’s continue,” Fairris was quick to reply.

“Very well, you can see the arch from here,” Vythe said, pointing into the distance. “It is easy enough to follow the line of buildings towards it and then to the docks.”

“The docks?” Lieut asked Vythe curiously.

“There is a forgotten staircase that leads up into the Guild,” Vythe explained. “See there, where the arch touches back down into the bay.”

As the lightning flashed again Lieut could make out a small rocky island at the edge of the bay. Lieut nodded and started off at a jog across the uneven roof tops as they stretched into the city and towards the natural arch. Vythe and Fairris fell into step behind him and soon they were racing across the ridges of the roofs, none of them disturbing the terracotta tiles that all the buildings had.

As Lieut ran along his mind kept wondering about meeting up with his brother, and he was eager to do so, but for some reason he was also afraid. What if he could not be cured from this illness that had crept into his mind in the form of the Fog? What if his mind could never return to the state it was before all this had happened?

The thought truly scared him, but not nearly as much as the thought of never knowing. As his mind raced around in mental circles his pace gradually increased, and soon he was at an all-out sprint and Vythe and Fairris were struggling to keep up.

Ahead of Lieut the building dropped away as the next house fell to only two stories high, but across the void were three sturdy chimneys with little terracotta tiled roofs of their own. His mind hardly registered the obstacle and he agilely dashed across the chutes and back onto the line of roof tops. The line of the buildings began to turn more to the south and away from the west and gaps began to appear between the houses, but they were of little concern to Lieut. Without slowing Lieut jumped across a gap between the buildings and rolled to his feet on the other side, a full story below from where he had jumped.

The houses continued at this level for many minutes more and now he was heading due south. Up ahead the buildings returned to a height of three stories and a flat brick wall threatened to make him find another way to continue on. But Lieut did not slow down and look for another path, instead he increased his speed and virtually ran up the brick work. Launching himself off the third step up the wall he grabbed a hold of the edge of the roof and easily pulled himself up.

Before long the buildings came to an end and Lieut overlooked a huge market square. Dozens of other roads led from the square and each of them beginning with a large archway with many statues along the top. At the centre of the square was a large fountain in the shape of a tall, stern looking man. In one hand he held a sword while the other was stretched out before his face as if receiving something from the heavens. Around him hung blue glowing orbs that floated effortlessly in the air and cast the statue in a bright light.

Just then Vythe and Fairris slid to a stop alongside him, labouring for breath, and one of them accidently dislodged a tile from the roof. The tile flew silently through the air before shattering loudly on the marble pavement below.

“Cardonian Square,” Vythe remarked between deep breaths. “Every time there is a new High Lord of Port Na’brath a statue of him is erected here. Hence the current name of Cardonian Square.”

“Why?” asked Fairris, who was also sucking up deep breaths.

“It does not matter,” Lieut cut in and he set off again.

Lieut moved from the rooftop and out onto one of the arches that marked the entrance of the square. Vythe and Fairris reluctantly followed him as he agilely skipped across the top of the arch.

Lieut was halfway across another arch when he noticed the flicker of a torch in the dim streets. Quickly he darted behind one of the statues that sat atop the archway, and he motioned for Vythe and Fairris to do the same.

Hiding in the shadows atop the portico Lieut watched the guards walk painstakingly slow from one street and across the square. One of the guards pointed out something to the other and they walked over to where the tile had shattered upon the ground. The first guard knelt down to get a better look while the other squinted against the rain and scanned the roof tops. Eventually they shrugged to one another and continued their patrol.

As soon as the guards disappeared Lieut set off again, finding a straight line of buildings towards the west. He again started off at a jog but it soon turned into a sprint. Even though he was still somewhat wary of how his brother would react upon their meeting, he had to see him and at this point his brother was the only stability he might have to sort out the problem of his mind.

**********************************************

So close now. Lieut is so close to reaching his brother. But will Vythe pose a problem in his plans?

Find out next week.

If you cannot wait until next week to find out what disasters strike you can purchase the whole book on any online bookstore.

Or if you haven’t read the previous chapters yet please do so you can find them all on my profile.

As always thank you for reading.

– Kaeleb LD Appleby