Refos slowly crept behind his daughter’s insect, focusing wholly on three things, the composite elements of his task. The first was the beetle’s flight, the small bug easy to lose in the flickering darkness. The eerie, sourceless light of the hallways cast strange shadows in the corner of one’s eyes, though anything Refos directly looked at was perfectly illuminated. The second was the atmosphere of the complex, searching for the sounds of footsteps or the smell of food. The third was himself, his breathing slow and soft, his movements under perfect, soundless control.

For many, even attempting this level of complete focus on a single task would have been fruitless, but Refos was a [Precisian]. [Sectionalize] was a powerful skill, and at his age, those were just as well-used as his body. He could [Meditate] nearly anywhere, by now, and he did, the skill helping him slowly wash away his doubts and worries, freeing his conscious mind from distraction. He had one, simple goal. Meet Holia Kardobri, to acquire some food. More could come later, but the plan was a good one, so far. Presuming, of course, that Pellex wasn’t lying about the famous [Culinarian]’s presence. Refos didn’t think that likely, though. The boy had no reason to deceive the captives he had risked himself to save, and besides, if the newly-classed [Artificer] planned on doing anything untoward, Ucria would easily deal with him.

Refos peered around a corner, and, confirming the lack of guards, continued following the silver beetle. Refos had traveled far and wide in the course of his adventures, but the arder’s hideout had been an entirely new experience for him. The oddly-placed rooms with their makeshift doors, the winding, almost natural-seeming hallways, the ambient lighting, seemingly just a feature of the air, the areas that, for whatever reason, were far more defined than the rest of the complex. It tickled a part of Refos’ brain that the old sharpshooter really didn’t enjoy the silence of. Why had these tunnels been placed so haphazardly? Why bother carving all those rooms, and covering the entrances, if they were never going to be used? The whole place felt half-finished, as if construction had entirely focused on a few important areas and simply carved the rest out for later expansion. The problem, of course, being that there was no expansion. The storerooms were just ordinary rooms that had boxes in them, but the prison was a distinct area, with hundreds of cells. It didn’t make sense.

Another thing that didn’t make sense was the beetle’s flight pattern. It had started to go around a corner, then it had quickly flown back, and started bobbing up and around in a variety of crazy formations, repeating the same dance over and over again. Refos watched it for a few moments before it clicked: It was using Silent Speech, specifically the two signs for “see person”. The bug obviously wasn’t intelligent enough to actually communicate, but with Ucria’s sci-link to it, an order to perform that maneuver whenever it identified an arder insignia up ahead wouldn’t have been too hard for her.

Releasing [Sectionalize], Refos focused and activated [Presence Intuition], and as the skill washed out from him, pushed by his concentration, he felt it wrap around the arder. A fair length past the corner, but approaching quickly. Refos could very easily disable him, given the element of surprise and the angle of attack, but an unconscious arder would raise an alarm, and there was still a chance that his group was thought dead. Still, possible hunting or assured discovery? If he did this well enough, there wouldn’t be a possibility of either.

The instant the arder rounded the corner, Refos leapt, [Exactitude] flaring to life as the bearded [Precisian] effortlessly moved around the pirate, the arder completely unable to react. Targeting vital points with ease, every strike landing true, Refos landed a dozen blows in a single moment. That instant was the sum total of years spent training, decades fighting, the skills, stats, and experience of a masterful warrior who knew that being more than one’s class was the key to victory. With a final, decisive blow, the arder fell, and Refos swept the limp form onto the wall, sweating lightly. He arranged the bandit to look more natural lying there, and was fortunate enough to find a hip flask at the arder’s belt. Unscrewing it, he poured some to wet the arder’s lips, dumped a little more on the pirate’s outfit, and left the flask in the arder’s lap.

As Refos started moving again, the bug resumed its normal flight. Refos didn’t have much hope that his ruse would work. None of the arders he’d interacted with had been much given to over-indulging, and while he was still fast, he was getting old, and the pirate would probably still remember someone attacking him. All the more reason to get on with it, he supposed, watching the beetle intently.

There were no more incidents the rest of the trip, but Refos’ back was aching from all the skulking long before reaching his destination. He’d passed strange intersections, weird rooms with half-made furniture that looked like it had grown out of the stone. The feeling of wrongness grew the more he walked, and even the beetle stayed far away from the walls. He knew there was something he was missing, something that he should have known, but right now, he didn’t have time for distractions. [Meditate] kept him focused, and, eventually, he got to where he needed to be.

After a nonsensically obtuse turn, the corridor went past what appeared to be a locked room, and the beetle disappeared through the barred window in the metal door. After another pulse of [Presence Intuition], and finding no arders before breaking off his concentration, Refos walked up and knocked on the door.

Peering through the window, he could see Holia, just as Pellex had said, efficiently preparing several meals in the serviceable kitchen. Upon hearing the knock, she froze for a fraction of a second, then walked to the door faster than Refos could run. Second Echelon was a frightening designation. Upon seeing that Refos wasn’t an arder, her eyes widened.

“And who might you be, sir?”

“Refos, Mrs. Kardobri. To compress a rather complicated story, Pellex helped myself and two other prisoners escape into the complex during the recent [Ulvis] attack, and I was sent to meet up with you.”

“Oh, delightful! I’m glad he could seize that opportunity, but getting off of the mountain is going to be hard for you. I assume you need supplies for a while? I would join you, but Julian has the only keys to this door, given how easy it would be for me to make one of the other arders give them over. I can pass a few bottles of soup through this window, though.”

“That would be extremely helpful, but are you positive there's no way we can provide assistance?”

“Oh, no worries. What helps us one, helps us all, doesn’t it? If you can get off this mountain, you can bring some Dawnwatch back, and that's far more helpful than freeing one old cook.”

At that, the [Culinarian] began to pass warm ceramic bottles of soup through the window, and Refos used the few pockets on his rags to store as many as he could.

“This is the good stuff, mind, so don’t go eating too much! And, ah, run.”

The tonal change made Refos spin around, and he saw the arder just as the bandit got over his shock and started running. Refos wasn’t sure how Holia had seen the pirate, but it didn’t really matter, under the circumstances. As he charged around the corner, he heard Holia talking to the arder.

“Hello! Are you hungry, by any chance? I think you just might be. Can’t you smell this delicious food?”

Despite the distance he was putting between himself and the kitchen, despite the fact that it wasn’t targeted at him, Refos still felt a part of his mind tugging at him, urging him to follow Holia’s orders, faintly smelling something more wonderful than he’d ever even conceived of. Fortunately, [Precisians] were made of sterner stuff, and he broke away and ran off, heading back to the others. They had to run, hide, go deeper. The arders would be coming.