Rush left Elsewhere for the Archives without returning to his space. There was no need to return, as the journey would likely be problematic with Arathan there. Maybe the golden three-eyed crow would leave, maybe she would not. It didn’t matter to Rush whether she stayed obediently, or not. Pipren had taught him that Arathan wouldn’t be worthy of conquering.

Value Loyalty Above All Else.

He felt the simple phrase etching itself into every fiber of his being. It was profound, powerful, and wonderful. A ponderously big thought packaged as a quick and exciting small one. He wouldn’t be surprised if the phrase showed up somewhere in the soul space he shared with Ruth. Would Ruth be as excited and affected as Rush?

Rush appeared in the room with Ruth and looked at his face from his position at the foot of the bed. There didn’t seem to be anything particularly enlightened about the Tiefling’s expression. A small strand of drool was actually coming down Ruth’s dirty chin and starting to pool on the clothing at his neckline. Rush shuddered as he watched the clothing start to absorb the drool.

Rush moved half a foot to the right on the edge of the bed as one of Ruth’s feet kicked out at him, maybe sensing that he was at the foot of the bed. Rush narrowed his eyes but decided to let the transgression pass. Ruth couldn’t help being himself.

“Wake up, dumb dumb,” Rush used his mouth, feeling the unfamiliar syllables move across his tongue. They were so simple compared to Draconic. He flicked out his tongue a few times, pleasantly surprised to see that it was long enough that he could actually see the tip when he flicked it out past his snout. It was slightly forked. His eyes narrowed in concentration as he wiggled it back and forth in front of his vision for a moment. A maddening number of scents start to assault his senses from the tongue. They were too much for Rush right now so he pulled his awesome tongue back into his mouth and kept it inside for now.

After the distraction passed he realized that Ruth hadn’t stirred. Indecision tore at Rush for half a second before he hopped down onto the floor and started to move rapidly to the closed door of the closet. A quick pop sounded out as he teleported beyond it, already infinitely familiar with the layout of the Archives from his wandering.

Let Ruth sleep. He probably had a hard day coming up.

Moment of silence for Ruth, who would probably be poisoned numerous more times, beaten until unconsciousness more times than that, and then likely scarred mentally and emotionally by Tamara after that.

Finding Sikes wasn’t a problem. Sikes was sleeping in an adjacent room. He was wearing a dumb hat of some sort and a long gown under a rather puffy looking comforter with a bunch of weird circles. The end of the hat was topped with a small button, a button that bobbed up and down over his face as he breathed in and out. Rush jumped up on the side of the bed and reached out to wake him -- hesitating and just stopping himself from pushing onto the Durvgar’s shoulder. The end of that hat was bobbing up and down almost hypnotically. The urge to begin batting the button was beginning to become overwhelming.

Rush fought down the urge to hurt the small piece of cloth or the button at the end of the nightcap and reached out to wake up Sikes instead. He tried to be gentle.

Sikes fell on the floor on the other side of the bed, Rush’s gentle push having sent him careening to the side. Fire seemed to blaze in his eyes as he leaped to his feet with a snarl. His fists were raised in front of him in warning.

“I need things. You give me.” Rush raised his head high when he saw that Sikes was actually staring hostilely at him! Intolerable!

Fortunately, seeing a golden eyed Rush in the middle of the night in the dark seemed to take the anger and fire right out of his sails. He sagged, deflating as if he had just realized that his manner was unbecoming a minion.

Rush narrowed his eyes. Value Loyalty Above All Else. Had Sikes been loyal to him or was he just biding his time? After speaking with Pipren, Rush suspected that Sikes was not a good retainer to have.

“What do you need Rush?” Sikes took his cap off and used it to wipe the sleep from his eyes.

“Need space. Need a room for more.” Rush looked around the small bedroom with a curled lip. He would need more space than this. He turned his head back to Sikes and waited expectantly.

When nothing immediately happened and Sikes didn’t ask for more information, Rush began to narrow his eyes. Sikes had his head turned slightly to the side as if he were listening to something.

Or someone?

Rush looked this time. Really looked, and felt his eyes widening in disbelief. A small golden tendril was connected to Sikes! A quick tongue flick confirmed his suspicion. It smelled like Tamara! One of his first ever minions was asking his hated enemy for advice or permission?!

OUTRAGEOUS.

His golden pupils grew smaller and his claws slowly began to push out. It would take a small leap and he’d have Sikes by the throat. Traitors didn’t get eaten. They got killed and then punted out the door for all to see. Maybe a little eaten...

NO!

Rush slowly retracted his claws and feigned nonchalance. Inwardly he seethed, but outwardly he was calm and aloof. Like Sikes making him wait was normal. In the past, Rush might have just killed Sikes for revealing his true colors. That was before Pipren. Pipren had given him many things to think about. Rush was really beginning to enjoy thinking.

He was pleased that she had shown him how to leave a mark near her soul space. He would be able to return and discuss many things with her. He was eager to do just that!

Thinking about Pipren must have distracted him because Sikes was coughing meaningfully to get his attention.

“Let me get you a key. There is a warehouse near the docks to the lake that is sufficiently large. It is empty right now.” Sikes moved slowly to his nightstand and rummaged through the drawer before producing a rather large and old-fashioned metal key. He placed it on the bed in front of Rush and seemed to be watching expectantly.

For his part, Rush looked at the key and tilted his head. He couldn’t carry it with him so the key was kind of pointless? He didn’t even really need the key, did he?

“Would you like me to get you a bit of string so that you can carry it around your neck?” Sikes offered.

Rush looked up and considered him for a long moment. Despite his best attempts he felt like some of his fury was probably still showing through his eyes because Sikes was starting to fidget. “No.”

Rush looked at the key again and considered. If he teleported would the key teleport with him? Better to not have a key. Physical keys were for dumb dumbs.

Rush lifted a clawed hand and stared at the key. Red energy poured from the palm of his hand and turned loosely into the shape of the key. When Rush was certain that the dimensions and details of the key were perfectly represented he let the aura projections extinguish. The red energy faded and the room was once again dark. The entire process from beginning, to experimentation, to end, had taken less than a minute.

Rush looked up and saw that Sikes had his mouth open. “Where is?”

Sikes scratched his head. “Walk toward the lake. On the docks where the boats start there are a line of buildings overlooking the water. Building three. It has a big A on the front with a 3.” He traced the lines in the air, watching Rush carefully. Moments later Rush mimicked him and traced A3 in the air with red aura. Sikes nodded.

“Why empty?” If it was free space then Rush would take it, but the image of a warehouse in his mind provoked a series of other images. Warehouses were synonymous with storage and wealth. Having one sit empty didn’t seem prudent. Also, Rush would never let anyone take his territory. It immediately made him suspicious all over again.

“Err, it wasn’t empty earlier, but now it is?” Sikes didn’t seem to have a good answer and was looking a little anxious. He started to look to the side as if he were going clandestinely ask Tamara. He must have reconsidered since Rush was staring so intensely. That made it worse. Sikes knew that what he was doing was bad.

Fuck Sikes. Eat later.

Internal swearing made him feel a little better.

Tamara. Tamara must have made it empty. Trying to keep track of where he was going? A baleful light appeared in his eyes as he looked at Sikes. It didn’t matter. Even if she knew where he was and watched what he was doing it wouldn’t matter as long as she didn’t interfere. If she did interfere…

Rush narrowed his eyes again and growled softly. The sound seemed to startle Sikes, making him straighten in the dark.

“Thank Pipren!” Sikes scratched his head again and seemed to be about to ask who that was when Rush decided he couldn’t stand being here any longer. “Goodbye. Temporary.”

It was the last thing he said before he popped out of the room and began popping toward the front door of the Archives in short teleporting lurches. He could teleport small distances without exerting much energy, so that’s what he did.

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

Finding what Rush was looking for in Under Arch wasn’t as challenging as he thought it might be. If anything, finding potential subordinates from the criteria he had decided upon was yielding far more results than he had anticipated.

The late night left the streets filled with the scent of blood and danger. For while the entrances to Under Arch were closely guarded at the command of the Arachne castle, the populace itself was a rough and lawless lot, as likely to be exploited by the castle guards as they were to be accosted by muggers and robbers. The rousing laughter from inside a pub might fill the street for a block only to be replaced with the sobbing of the desperate and dissolute a building away.

The algae flared and darkened periodically as people moved through the streets. Pockets of darkness sometimes lighting up in brilliant greens or sinister reds.

Rush kept to the rooftops of the short dwellings, teleporting across the empty spaces in between. His profile was small enough that the light produced from his passing went largely unnoticed by those below. When the paranoid and wary did look up to see why the algae was reacting above them they only saw a small reptilian shape darting across before it disappeared, moving at a speed that made it seem like the creature was trying to catch the darkness that lay in front of it while it ran from the light behind.

It didn’t take long to find his first prospect.

In fact, Rush was a little concerned that he had found quarry so soon.

He hopped lightly and soundlessly on top of the roof as he followed a figure that was walking confidently toward the end of the dark alley. The alley itself was unimportant. It looked like a hundred dead ends in this inner city, stacked high with trash and refuse and the walking stones muddied with dirty puddles of water.

The dark figure pushed his hood back and spread his arms out in a disarming fashion as he continued toward the end of the alley. He had dirty brown hair and the tops of his ears looked like they had been chewed off. Part of his scalp was ragged and bare, showing through the dirty hair. Maybe that part of his head had been chewed on too, Rush thought.

Fascinated, Rush continued his slow stalk from behind and above.

“No, don’t run… Old Ferol won’t hurt you. C’mon now… come out…” The man was trying to coax two small figures that were huddled in the back of the alley out of a tall pile of garbage. It might have been more convincing if he wasn’t standing directly in the center of the narrow passageway, blocking off the street with his body. Rush narrowed his eyes and hunched down. His tail lifted as his butt began to wiggle expectantly. The small bell at the end remained silent even as Rush went to the edge of the rooftop and silently dropped down.

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

“Come out…”

Trotter looked up nervously and pulled his sister, Fanny, behind him. This was just bad luck. The old couple they’d been staying with had passed two nights ago. Trotter had already been missing that dirt floor they were allowed to sleep on during the day. As the man approached them he once again cursed his fate.

He didn’t even have any rocks to throw, he thought bitterly.

“No need to scream…” The psycho advanced toward them with his arms still spread out, like he wasn’t going to hurt them. Like it was perfectly normal to back them into an alley in the dead of the night.

Scream? Yeah right… Who would come? No one good. Trotter bit his lips and considered his options. Old Ferol had a thing for the little girls, so letting him have Fanny was a bad idea. Worse was they weren’t in a gang anymore now that the rats from the wharf had all been cleaned out by the water sickness two winters past.. Old Ferol probably didn’t know they were on their own, but it would still be bad.

Trotter looked down at his thin arms and his trembling legs and sighed. He turned and stared with his brown eyes at his twin sister. A sister that by rights should have been as big as him but was crushed by the reality of malnourishment and a lack of sleep.

Sorry… her eyes seemed to say.

Just bad luck.

Shake...shake...shake…

Shake...shake...shake...

The noise startled both parties.

Each side of the street was basically lined from end to end with man-sized mounds of trash. The mound of trash between them and Old Ferol on the left trembled for a moment as the strange noise sounded out one more time. Old Ferol paused slightly, his arms lowering incrementally.

Everyone paused for a moment as they considered this new development. Trotter began pulling Fanny away to the far corner of the street, wondering what kind of critter was disturbed by the very human disturbance going on near it’s roost.

Old Ferol pulled a short and thin blade that looked like he might have just pulled it out of a trash heap on the far end of the alley. The trash had stopped shaking and that weird sound had ceased.

While he peered into the garbage, mouth slightly parted revealing crooked and broken teeth, the trash continued to remain still.

Trotter felt his mouth going dry. Unreal. He saw it didn’t he? How could Old Ferol not see it? Why wasn’t he running? Maybe he was too intent on looking straight ahead to see the change at his feet.

A dark red smoke-like substance was leaking out around Old Ferol’s feet, coiling sinisterly like a pool of bloody water.

N-not smoke!

Trotter gulped, catching the attention of Old Ferol who started to turn toward him with a glower. Before he could spout whatever convenient lie or threat, the blood-red substance seemed to grow solid around his ankles. One startled look and then the red stuff pulled back into the trash pile.

SHAKESHAKESHAKESHAKE…

There were no screams. Just a violent shaking of trash as whatever battle was waged inside was quickly ended. Ended with an obvious finality.

Trotter began to slowly slide toward the street, eyes never leaving the trash pile as he herded his sister behind him. A soft whimper alerted him to the fact that his sister had also seen everything.

Before they could get far enough past the trash pile and make a run for it… a creature popped out. It was some sort of lizard. Large for a reptile. Trotter wasn’t very tall but the lizard came up to his waist.

Eyes narrowed, Trotter spread his arms in front of him to block the creature. If it was a lizard. It had eyes that absolutely glowed golden in the dark. The horns that curled wickled around its head looked bloody. Probably just used on Old Ferol. The tail was weird. It looked like a rattler tail. That had probably been the source of the noise.

The creature studied him for a moment, forked tongue licking out past bloodied lips. Then it spoke a simple phrase in perfect Under Common. “Follow?”

It was fast. Very fast. It could speak. It had just eaten someone right in front of him and his sister.

Trotter licked his lips as he considered his options. “What if we don’t?”

The creature seemed to shrink slightly before lifting it’s head and meeting his gaze. “Choice. I am Rush. Follow, or do not follow.”

Rush turned his back on them and moved quickly through the alley toward the main street. He stood at the mouth and turned, waiting for them with one forward leg raised. His tail was sashaying back and forth behind him, but it didn’t make any noise now.

Fanny tugged on the back edge of his dirty and torn jacket, gathering his attention. When he looked in her eyes he saw desperation in them. The same desperation he knew he had in his own.

Trotter and Fanny carefully moved to the street. They began following Rush through the town, earning no small number of curious looks as they were led by the creature through the streets. Fortunately, Under Arch was one of those places where if you saw something strange it was probably in your best interest to mind your own fucking business.

Trotter and Fanny watched as the creature stopped in front of a building on the docks. Fanny was trembling behind him, the cold air from the water chilling her and making her small body tremble. They were both so tired.

At this point it didn’t seem weird when Rush made a key out of red light and unlocked the door. Oh good, their savior was a land owner?

Trotter walked inside and found that the warehouse was absolutely empty. Wooden floors without even a pallet. No windows, because what was the use of having windows in the Under Arch? You’d just be inviting people to look inside so they could see what you have to steal.

“Name?” Rush turned toward them and was eyeing them carefully.

“Trotter…” Trotter replied cautiously. “My sister is Fanny.”

“Trotter. Dumb. Dumb name. New name.” Rush looked off to the side as if considering something of great import. “Lucky. Lucky is a good name.”

Lucky blinked rapidly. He didn’t know what astonished him more, the fact that Rush had just instantly renamed him or the fact that he liked Lucky a lot more than Trotter…

Fanny tugged the hem of his shirt and then looked at Rush. She was still trembling.

“Fanny is a go--” Rush paused, watching the disappointment flash across the little girl's face. “Fanny is dumb. Dumb name. New name…” Rush lifted a claw to scratch his head. “Chance!”

“Chance is…” Lucky began.

“...perfect!” Chance scowled at him. It didn’t seem to matter to her that Chance was more of a boy's name.

Lucky Chance.

Lucky shivered. It was mostly the cold, but a small part of him was a little worried that they had been named whimsically. Oh well. It didn’t matter what Rush called them. For now they had a place to stay and it didn’t seem like…

“Are you going to eat us?” Chance asked innocently. Lucky almost facepalmed, even if she was asking what he had been wondering himself.

“Why? Taste good?” Rush looked honestly confused for a moment and then shook his head, as if he was answering his own question. Maybe he knew more about it than them. He had just eaten Old Ferol, after all. Probably.

Chance shook her head and started to move gingerly across the wooden floor. She didn’t have any shoes and her feet were probably cut. It was hard to walk through the muddy streets without getting soft skin.

“What do you want us for?” Lucky asked, seeing that his sister was taking the opportunity to rest while he felt out their new arrangement.

“Can read?” Rush seemed to lift the skin above his right eye. A comical parody of a raised eyebrow.

Lucky nodded hesitantly.

“Wait.” Pop.

Then Rush fucking disappeared.

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

The next few hours were an emotional rollercoaster for Lucky and Chance. Rush had reappeared several minutes later, explaining to them that he had gone to learn to write the words he needed them to read.

A red point extended from one of his claws as he began carving into the warehouse wall near the doorway. The text was simple.

CAN READ? READ THIS!

LORD RUSH - LEADER, PROMISE TO PROTECT AND CARE FOR

LUCKY - CHANCE

IN RETURN FOR LOYALTY.

VALUE LOYALTY ABOVE ALL ELSE.

That was it. There was a lot of space for names next to Lucky and Chance. It made Lucky wonder what the hell the little creature was trying to do.

That wasn’t the end of it. Rush had made them read it back to him, and only then did he seem satisfied. He vanished right in front of them again, gone for several minutes. When he returned he came through the door, grunting slightly as he looked over his shoulder, dripping wet.

Lucky felt his jaw dropping.

Rush had created some sort of big hand and it was holding a number of fish that were spasming in the grasp of the red light. He dumped them on the wooden floor in front of Lucky and Chance, tilting his head and studying their expressions with narrowed eyes.

Pop.

A half hour later he came back carrying a number of blankets clasped within the strange floating hand made out of red light. More than half he piled onto the floor in the middle of the huge and empty room. The rest he brought in front of Lucky and Chance and dropped. Rush gazed at the untouched pile of fish with a bit of surprise on his face and looked up questioningly.

“We can’t cook on the wooden floor,” Chance muttered. She had already brought up the idea of eating them raw. Honestly, Lucky was just a few minutes away from giving in to that demand. He was so hungry.

Pop.

Rush once again darted through the doorway completely soaked. Water dripped from his scales.

Lucky peered expectantly at the door and, sure enough, the red hand came in. A large shell the size of Chance’s torso turned sideways to fit through the door. It was the shape of a wide-brim kettle or wok. It hit the ground with a low clang and turned like a coin on the floor before coming to a rest, facedown.

Lucky moved reluctantly to the shell and turned it over. He shivered.

It looked like whatever had been using the shell had been evicted recently. Rush had obviously done what he thought was a ‘fine’ job cleaning the meat from it but there was still red marks from the recent removal process.

Lucky looked at Rush and Rush looked back at him. There seemed to be a silent expectation from Rush’s golden pupils.

Reluctantly, Lucky left the warehouse and started scouring the trash heaps on either side of the building. It didn’t take long to drag in a bunch of broken furniture. He put the broken furniture, mostly comprised of wood taken from the really long roots that wove their way into Under Arch from the sides or fell from above, and started placing it in the shell.

No sooner had he filled the shell than the contents inside seemed to hiss. Water began sizzling and jumping off the wet wood. He yelped and leaped back as everything in the shell burst into a steady flame.

You fucking made fire?

Lucky blinked rapidly and turned toward Rush with wide-eyes.

“Rush, are you here to take care of all the bad people?” Chance moved closer and reached out hesitantly to touch one of his horns.

Rush didn’t pull away and allowed her to touch the horn, though his expression almost made Lucky’s heart stop. It was like he was giving her an opportunity to touch him but was ready to eat her if she did anything wrong. Chance must have missed that look because she just giggled.

“Bad people? Taste good?” Rush squinted at Chance.

She giggled again.