W-where am I...?

Tiffania woke up feeling groggy. She couldn't move, and her head was spinning. She also couldn't see, even when she tried to open her eyes.

"Looks like she's waking up," a gnarled and grizzly voice said. That didn't sound like anyone she knew.

"I thought she was supposed to be drugged."

"That's what the lady said. Guess she was wrong."

"Whatever. Quit yer yapping! We've got a job ter do."

"Yeah, yeah. Damn, who the hell made him our boss."

Tiffania tried to move, but her hands were tied behind her back, and her legs were tied to whatever she was sitting on. Panic shot through her. She tried to scream, but something had been shoved into her mouth. The sound came out muffled.

"She's panicking!"

"What should we do?!"

"The fuck do you think yer doing, brat?! Quit squirming!"

Tiffania struggled harder. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to leave!

She stopped when something sharp pressed against her neck.

"Quit yer strugglin', or I'm gonna carve up yer face," the grizzled voice threatened. Tiffania whimpered but stopped trying to break free. "That's right. Move and I'll cut you up! Now be a good girl and don't be movin'."

As the sharp object left her neck, Tiffania nearly sobbed in relief. Only the voice's threat kept her from crying.

Big sis, please help me!

***

Just like any other city, Axium had its share of seedy districts. The red light district, a place filled with brothels and whore houses. The poor district, where those who lived in poverty took up residence.

Underneath it all was the sewers.

While not a district in and of itself, the sewers was the place where the criminal underworld did their deals.

The Peacekeepers, tasked with protecting the citizens and busting criminals, was not large enough to stop criminal activity entirely. Even if they were larger, Caspian had his doubts that they would be able to do anything. Humans could be quite greedy. All it took was a few corrupt officials being bribed into looking the other way, and the Peacekeepers became useless.

Money was power, after all.

Caspian's footsteps echoed ominously as he wandered through the sewers. It had been a long time since he'd gone down there. The sewer walls looked the same as he remembered, however. The bricks were covered in fungus that clung to its surface, and what could be seen of the walls was faded and chipped, worn down by age and a lack of maintenance.

The sewers were composed from a series of tunnels with rounded ceilings. Brick walkways traveled along either wall, while black water flowed through a channel in the middle. Sometimes the tunnel would branch off into lateral passages.

Caspian's ears twitched beneath his bandana as he listened to the sounds of the sewer. The slowly flowing water sloshed along. Chirps from crickets bounced along the walls. Metal creaked as water put a mild strain on iron grates, adding to the ominous music of the sewers.

His eyes were all but useless here. Without a light, visibility was too low to see more than ten feet on either side—and he could only see that well thanks to his elvish blood.

I wonder if Tiffania is really down here.

There was a chance that he was wrong. If that was the case, then coming down here will have turned out to be pointless. Still, there were only so many places that a group of kidnappers could hide a child. Of those places, this was the most probable one.

Lights appeared ahead of him as a person entered his tunnel from one of the lateral passages. Caspian knelt down and watched. The person, a man with scraggly hair and faded leather armor, turned their back to him and continued walking. A sword hung in a scabbard at their side.

Slowing his breathing until it could scarcely be heard, Caspian crept up behind the man—or he tried to. The armored man must have heard him. He turned around, his sword slowly leaving its sheath.

Caspian reacted before the sword could be fully unsheathed, slamming his palm into the sword's pommel, forcing it back in. He then thrust his other palm into the man's nose, breaking it. Grabbing the man by the arm before he could stumble too far back, Caspian forced him onto his knees, unsheathed his sword, and held it to the man's throat.

"A little girl should be down here somewhere." The man's eyes flickered. "Have you seen her?"

"I don't know what yer talkin' about," the man said.

Caspian pressed his blade hard enough to draw blood. "I think you do."

"Heh, what's a brat like you gonna do? Kill me?"

Twitching, Caspian removed his blade, kicked the man onto his back, straddled his waist and stabbed him in the hand. There was a soft slicht!, followed by the sound of metal grinding against stone. The man opened his mouth in a scream, but Caspian slammed a fist into the man's jaw, causing his mouth to snap shut with a clack!

Blood spurted from the wound as Caspian pulled his blade from the man's hand. He placed it back over the man's throat, waiting for him to calm down before asking, "where is the little girl who was taken down here?"

"I... I ain't tellin' you nothin'," the man spat.

Frowning, Caspian placed a hand over the man's mouth, his fingers threatening to break the man's jaw. He then stabbed the man through his left hand. Swears and screams were muffled by Caspian's hand over his jaw. Once more, Caspian waited for the man to stop screaming before repeating his question.

"Where. Is. The. Girl?"

"She... she's in our hideout," the man moaned. Tears leaked from his eyes. This man, like most scum, was not as accustomed to pain, contrary to how his appearance might have lead some to believe otherwise.

"And where is your hideout?"

"I-it's just down that passage. You just keep going straight." The man looked up at him, eyes containing a silent plea. "Will you let me go now?"

Caspian needed only a moment to consider it.

"No," he whispered before slitting the man's throat.

The man's eyes went wide as a choked gurgling issued from his mouth. Blood bubbled from the wound. It dribbled down his neck and stained the walkway. The man twitched several times, his body undergoing convulsions, and then he went still.

Caspian dropped his sword and stood up, placing a hand against his face as he took several deep breaths.

What I just did was necessary.

If that man had been allowed to live, he would have surely gone to warn whoever had hired him, or he might have decided to repay his compassion with a knife to the back. Even if Caspian had knocked him out, the chances of him waking up and getting the drop on him were high—he didn't have anything to tie the man up with. This was the only way, the only thing that he could do to keep this man from interfering.

However, just because someone is left with no other option, it doesn't make doing what's needed any easier.

***

Just like the man said, there was a door at the end of the tunnel. Rusted and old, numerous scratches that resembled claw marks covered it. Caspian had once heard that drawgers used to live down here several years ago, though they'd long since been exterminated.

He heard voices coming from beyond the door. Placing an ear against the cold surface, Caspian strained his ear and listened.

"What's takin' Bandin so long?"

"Don't know. Maybe he had to take a shit, too."

Chuckling was heard. He wondered how amused those two would be if they discovered that "Bandin" was dead.

"Aw, man. I'm bored. Why the fuck do we have to stay in this place? I wanna go to find a good whore to play with."

"We were told not to leave. You wanna be the one to tell that woman that you couldn't stick around? You saw what happened to Desden, didn't ya? That bitch fried his insides!"

"Aye. Still, I'm bored... hey, think we could have some fun with the girl over there?"

Caspian heard a girlish whimper. Even though it was muffled, he still recognized the voice. It was Tiffania.

"Would ye both shut up! We were told to keep the girl unsullied! And you! Brat! Keep quiet before I carve ye up!"

Caspian had heard enough, more than enough. These people were disgusting, and their plan to sell Tiffania on the black market was even sicker. The time for deliberation had passed.

Steadying himself for what was to come, Caspian leaned back and wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his sword. He counted down to three within his head...

"Torjua."

... and then he blew the door wide open and rushed inside.

Caspian didn't bother pausing to assess the situation. There was no time to study anything. He rushed for the nearest figure, his sword already swinging. Crimson ichor sprayed from the man's shoulder as Caspian ran him through. Cries of alarm rang out, but he barely heard them over the pounding of his own heart.

He spun around when he felt a presence behind him. Swinging his sword, he knocked aside the blade that tried to pierce his chest. The man, an older man with graying hair and a scarred face, stumbled forward. Caspian could smell the stench of alcohol on the man's breath as he stepped aside, allowing the man to fall past him.

Not wanting to give him the opportunity to recover, Caspian sliced into the man's back. As blood sprayed from the wound like a broken faucet, the man tumbled to the ground, falling face first.

He didn't get back up.

"Bastard!"

A man with large hands and a pair of daggers charged him. The man swung his blades with reckless abandon. Caspian backpedaled as he zigzagged left and right, dodging. He could feel the air being sliced with every swing, feel his hair being buffeted whenever a dagger came too close to his head. During the next series of haphazard swings, Caspian stepped outside of the man's guard, moved past him, and swung his sword.

The man sank to his knees after Caspian's blade passed through his torso. His shirt becoming stained with crimson, he pressed a hand to the wound, and then pulled it away and stared at the blood covering his palm. And then he died, falling onto his back, where he lay staring up at the ceiling with sightless eyes.

Caspian, his breathing heavy, wiped the sweat from his forehead. He then heard muffled cries and turned to see Tiffania, tied to a chair, blindfolded, and with a dirty rag shoved into her mouth.

Rushing over to her, Caspian knelt down and pulled the rag from her mouth. With nothing blocking her vocal chords, Tiffania released an ear piercing shriek.

"Tiffania! Tiffania, it's me! It's Caspian!"

Caspian tried to shout over her, but it was no use. Tiffania's loud wailing drowned out his voice. Grabbing the blindfold, he pulled it off her head, and grabbed her face between his hands.

Tiffania stopped screaming when her eyes were forced to meet his. They were bloodshot and puffy and tears leaked from them, leaving tiny glistening trails down her cheeks. She blinked once. Then she sniffled.

"Y-you are..."

"Caspian."

"Caspian," she repeated.

"That's right," Caspian said. "I'm here to take you back to Erica."

"Big Sis..."

"Hold on one second while I get you out of these binds," Caspian grunted as he knelt down and proceeded to cut through the ropes tethering Tiffania to the chair.

The moment she was free, Tiffania launched herself at him. Caspian barely had time to react as she plowed face first into his chest. He would've said something, but when her tiny hands clutched at his shirt, which soon became stained with her tears, all words left him.

"I was so scared! I was really, really scared! Those people said they were going to sell me! They told me that I was going to be a slave, and that I was never going to see Big Sis again! And I... I... waaaaa!"

As the girl continued to bawl her eyes out, Caspian did the only thing he could think of at that moment.

He held her in his arms and allowed her to cry.