As Skitters walked into the gloom, Kora stepped in front of Orion, whispering, “Be careful, something’s wrong,” as she passed him.

Usually, he would have ignored her overly pessimistic judgement but this once, he couldn’t help but agree with her. After saving Skitters from the sailors and bandaging him up, he had believed the thief would be open and truthful to them. Instead, his allegiance to Grima was clearly greater than his gratitude to them. In fact, remembering back to how calmly Skitters had walked past the sailors to throw the flares overboard, it made Orion doubt how genuine the thief was being now, after all, he was a skilled actor.

If he was playing them for fools, then following him down an inky tunnel was not the best idea. Yet, he was also their only lead to the Underking and it could be Orion was overthinking the test – maybe he really had good intentions for them. Either way, Kora seemed unruffled as she followed the thief into the dark, their dull footsteps sounding through the tunnel.

Taking a deep breath, Orion moved past the brooms and followed them. The passage became devoid of light a little way in as the storage room faded away. His good eyesight meant nothing in the passage so he walked with his hands trailing the walls beside, listening to Kora’s footsteps so he didn’t bump into her - although the echoing made this a wasted effort. As for Kora, he knew she had sharper sight, especially in the dark, but he doubted she had nocturnal vision since she sounded as blind as him.

“It’s not that far now,” Skitters called out, his voice travelling the train, his walking stick making dull comments on the ground.

Twenty minutes later, it turned out he was flat-out lying as they were still straggling through the dark. Orion’s thoughts had made him tense but the uneventful period pushed him into a calmer state, even more so after he figured how to stop bumping into Kora.

Suddenly, a click sounded from gods know where and Skitters stopped.

“Remember kids, the boss knows why you wanna meet him. I say be polite to him; he lets on much less than he actually knows so you don’t wanna get on his bad side. If you become like me, you’ll benefit a lot,” he said.

“Mm, we’ll tr—”

Skitters ignored Kora’s words as he counted his steps. One, two, three. He did his best to step as smoothly for his fourth one, muting the fact the path fell to a lower level here. It wasn’t a large fall in height and wouldn’t cause much damage if someone did trip over their ankles, but that was the beauty of a combo-trap; it wouldn’t hurt him if he was leading someone, but if he stood in place with his dagger, then it was a whole another story for them.

Kora resumed walking while talking. “try but it doesn’t sou—” She stumbled over the drop and felt her body falling face-first. Luckily Skitters caught her, his blade puncturing her lung. She gasped as he withdrew, dropping to the ground as her shirt soaked up the gush of blood.

Before her partner could react, the thief flung a canister at the ground and his walking stick at her for good measure. The canister burst open, releasing a thick cloud of smoke over the Seekers.

Orion’s eyes stung and he coughed desperately, barely hearing the thief’s footsteps disappear into the distance. His reflexes finally came into play as he held his breath while closing his eyes, though he still tripped over the trap and fell onto her. It seemed her reflex awoke simultaneously as she wrapped her hands around his head with faltering strength and bit, drawing blood from his neck.

He initially resisted but stopped and lay in her grasp as he realised what she was doing. Seconds later, she lifted her lips and coughed, leaving him faint. He used Giah and felt the earth’s energy fill his body, exploding the anger Skitters had ignited. Picking Kora up, he sprinted out of the smoke, finally tasting the freshness of stale air.

Putting his right hand down, the path in front of him became a rapidly advancing sheet of ice, letting him scan for pitfall traps. Sensing none, he said, “Transform already, he’s getting away,”

She didn’t respond but he felt her muscles growing thicker next to him, and soon, the tip of one of her talons against his chest. “Fucker, the motherfucker…” she roared, her response at last resembling what Orion expected of her.

“Good. Let’s go,” he said as he charged down the tunnel, bending over in order to not whack his head into a low-lying roof and collapse. She followed, her muscular legs a constant thunder behind him.

They quickly made ground, going at full-force for about two minutes until they exited the tunnel. They left the pitch-black and entered a cavern dimly lit by holes above. The path they had been following forked into a dozen in front, all of them seemingly going different directions.

Orion stared at the choices, lost on what to do. Luckily, Kora had other ideas as she went to each one and sniffed around, spending a few minutes in total doing this.

Meanwhile, Orion stood to the side and cooled down, thinking about what had just happened. The click in the tunnel had told Skitters the trap was near, and he had been prepared to betray them as he had come with a blade and smoke grenade in hand. But why? Was he even related to Grima or was he just an ordinary conman?

The pale Seeker shook his head and revaluated, wishing for some paper, ink, and time to put his thoughts down. Skitters was somehow related to Grima, after all, he had known what Rats would say and had known they would want to find Grima. Moreover, he had awaited them and called them Seekers – there was too much evidence stacked up against him. Then, if he wasn’t clean of Grima’s influence or just a simple informant, then he had to be a higher-ranking member, maybe Grima himself. But this didn’t work either since why would he put himself in such danger like on the ship and now?

“It’s this one,” she finally said next to the rightmost tunnel, bringing Orion out of his thoughts, “The bastard must have dropped the dagger after stabbing me since I can only faintly smell my blood,”

Orion nodded, and they resumed their chase. They continued for a few minutes until they began to hear noises from the other side, at which they sped up further. They heard Skitters shouting, followed by metallic clanging.

The Seekers burst out of the tunnel, entering a Glubber’s wax-lit warehouse. The warehouse was massive with items everywhere, mostly cabinets and desks with piles of paper on top. But there were also piles of golden luxuries, lockpicks, weapons, and murky-looking drinks scattered around the place.

With them in the warehouse were several tens of people, maybe 40 in total, who had frozen at the Seekers’ entry, in particular at Kora’s visage. Her curved horns, her red-tinted skin, her black neck-talons, her muscular body – they weren’t used to seeing an unchained monster so deep in their midst.

They were a mix of men and women, some well-off looking while others looked like slum-dwellers. Amidst taking the sight in, Orion spotted Skitters: he stood on a raised platform, frantically gulping down a murky drink.