The tunnels below Plirova were long, winding, and often intersecting. The ceiling was low and Nannade was glad she had taken the padded leather cap. It spared her head a lot of bumps when running into the low-hanging wooden beams that were used to hold up the soil above. It reminded her somewhat of the underground of Kalonitz, although she never had seen much of it. She had a map of this underground, already outdated and inaccurate.

Nannade took a turn into a long, straight, and wide hallway with a higher ceiling. According to her map, it would take her straight to the entrance to old Pliranto, the corpse city consisting of the excavated and restored ruins that the underground and organized criminal world used as their base. The tunnel system she was in now was only the connecting system to allow the thugs, thieves and cutpurses to emerge and disappear at any point in the city. Not unlike those crates that Vlatiko had used as an entrance.

She passed a few people on the way along. She kept her cloak closed and hood drawn deep and nodded to everyone who passed her by in an attempt to seem familiar. She finally made it to a system of ramps leading deeper. She arrived on an old paved road running under the earth. The ceiling was much higher here, but a tall man would still have problems standing upright. By the dim light of her light-vial and an occasional vial-lamp affixed to a wall, she could see that many of the former houses still stood, some parts were restored with newer fire bricks, but nonetheless, the architects of Pliranto had raised a sturdy city.

The girl continued to walk on the main road, occasional alleys going off left and right. She came to a piazza, a large building ahead, maybe once a temple or administrative building, now some kind of headquarters of a criminal gang or brotherhood. Banners with a simple symbol of a red drop above a rectangle hanged on the outer facade, one each next to the entrance. At the sides of the piazza stood houses, many of them with men standing outside, guarding and advertising whatever was inside. Nannade could smell at least one brothel from where she stood. In the centre was the fundament of a statue which was already long gone, broken down, for the precious material no doubt, the fundament covered in signs of gangs, trying to mark their territory above the previous marks. Sitting against the walls on the piazza were drunkards and users of other drugs, groaning in deep inebriation.

Nannade turned to Aaka. “Where do you think we should start?”

“I told you, Nannade, I was told to not interfere with your tests any more. I was originally only chosen because of the forest of dreams. Otherwise the Lodge would have sent one of their own familiars along.”

Nannade sighed. “Guess I’ll just try to blend in and gather information for now.”

Leisurely, she walked towards something that looked like a tavern from the outside. Inside she found a rather small room with just three tables, all were already occupied by far too many patrons than originally intended. She decided to sit at the bar and ordered something alcoholic to blend in. She listened in on some of the conversations and could hear some cintezzian words that sounded familiar, most commonly loanwords from the old imperial language. She sipped on her cup of wine and although she was by far no connoisseur, she knew it was of the lowest quality.

It did not take long for her to get company in the form of a younger man in an outfit dominated by leather and metal rivets.

He talked to her in the cintezzian, which she still did not understand.

She turned to him and spoke in scholarian. “I’m just trying to find ym way around, if you don’t mind.”

The man took a step back “Ho there, kitten, no need to get so angry.” He said, in broken and somewhat simple scholarian. It already showed he was a thug of higher education, maybe a beneficiary of the university’s free education program. “i was just wondering, what is such a pretty girl doing all alone in this dangerous place.”

“As I said, I want to just get used to this place, I come from far to start new, okay?”

“If you want, I can show you a good place to hide, no one there to bother, I promise, my kitten.”

Nannade got irritated. “If you want, this kitten can turn your femur into her scratch pole.”

“No, no, I mean it, cutie. I can protect you. Many people will want to put you into chains and use you for your pretty body.” He raised his hand to stroke her cheek, but she caught his wrist and pricked it with her claws.

“Believe me when I tell you, that nobody better tries me.”

Someone on the table the man had come from raised his voice. “Oha girl, leave our friend Patti in one piece, the boss might need him.” It earned him some chuckles from the other patrons.

Nannade released the man’s hand. “Leave me be.”

She could hear Aaka in her ethereal voice, whispering in a mocking tone “Blending in.”

She finished her cup of wine and paid, with the local coin. Then she left the establishment. She needed to find a place to stay, gather intelligence on the target and plan her approach. More than just some communal sleeping room. She wandered the smaller alleys away from the piazza, pacing them up and down, letting her hands run over the ancient brick walls, and listening to the darkness, things to keep her head focussed. She came across a peculiar light in the distance, cast by several small candles standing in a small alcove in the wall of a house. In front of the alcove knelt a woman, praying. Nannade could hear the tears in her voice. As she approached closer, the woman noticed her and was startled. She spoke to Nannade in cintezzian with a begging undertone. Nannade tried to look as unintimidating as possible, but the woman still kept kneeling on the floor and begging her. She took a look at the alcove. It had the size and position of a window, the candles stood on the sill, and on the wall behind them was a mural that looked old and chipped, but the colours were still vibrant. It showed an old woman with empty, bleeding eye sockets, pouring a green liquid from a black vial onto a finely prepared roasted boar. She smiled with black lips and green teeth.

The woman was still begging her something, so Nannade knelt down to her and spoke soothing words in scholarian. The woman seemed to respond well to this and soon calmed down. Nannade made a gesture to herself and said her name. The woman seemed to understand returned the gesture, stating her name to be Gracia.

Gracia and Nannade spent some time trying to exchange words and Nannade soon began to pick up a few new words of cintezzian that were close enough to some words she knew in old imperial and Nannade managed to get a few things across to her in the dead language, such as that she was looking for information.

They were interrupted by steps and guffawing coming down the alley. Nannade could see a group of thugs coming their way. Gracia got up and led Nannade down another alley by the hand.

Past locked doors and rebuild ruins, Gracia pulled Nannade along in the dim light of a tiny bulbous vial that she had hanging around her neck like a pendant. They finally arrived at a door with a a proper lock and Gracia opened the door. The insides of the house were made up of crude furniture consisting of barrels and crates. In one corner, Nannade could see two beds and much else indicated that two people were living here.

Gracia sat down on one of the beds, beckoned to the other and said “Paolo”. Much of what she said implied, that Paolo is, or was, her brother, and that she has been praying for him. When Nannade asked who she was praying to, Gracia only said “Gora”. Nannade had never heard of such a deity, but there were many gods worshipped around the world, and this part of the world hid from all eyes.

Their conversations were not fruitful, but Nannade understood more and more. She eventually got out her rations and offered Gracia some. They ate together in silence and Gracia offered Nannade to stay in her humble home, as long as she promised not to take anything. Nannade accepted, for now. There was not much she could do anyway. She hoped to get a hold of one of the cultists, but for now, having a base of operations was enough. She decided to start by updating the map and handed it to Gracia and asked what parts of it were wrong.

She didn’t get very far into looking at it cluelessly when there was a knock on the door. Carefully, Gracia opened. It was the thugs from earlier. Gracia talked to them, but they did not seem to be interested in her and simply forced their way in against her resistance. One of the five grabbed Gracia by the neck and held her tight, the other four stood in front of Nannade with crossed arms. Patti stepped forward and once against started talking in broken scholarian.

“Look here, kitty. This whiny hag here recently asked us to lower her rent because her brother died, but suddenly, she lets someone new into her house without telling us, so we’re upset about that, naturally.” He turned to Gracia and punched her in the gut. Gracia let out a pained cry, but tried to hold back tears. She said something to Nannade that she couldn’t understand, but Patti simply punched her in the face to shut her up. He turned back to Nannade. “Anyway, if you want to cough up the rent for the month plus the... administrative fees right now, we’ll be on our way.”

Nannade had to bite her lip the entire time. “Let Gracia go first and stop hitting her, then we can negotiate.”

Patti and his four boys chuckled. “Negotiate? There’s no negotiation here. The rent’s the rent and that’s it. I offered you a safe place for free earlier, that was your chance to negotiate. Pay up.” He finished by spiting in her face.

Nannade felt a strong force inside of her ready to lunge, but it steadied itself. She knew this was not the time. She was not in danger and she was not at an advantage in this place. This was not some far-off dirt road where she could just leave a bunch of corpses laying around. She took deep breaths and closed her eyes. Finally, she was sure she was able to speak calmly.

“How much is it?”

“Fifty Plirenni plus ten as an administrative fee.”

“I don’t have that much in Plirenni, but I do have Communion silver.”

Patti grinned. “Well, we charge an exchange fee as well.”

Nannade removed her entire money bag from her belt and threw it to Patti. “There´should be some extra in there. I want to have a talk with your boss, relay my request.”

Patti took a look inside the money bag and smiled. “Alright, I think we can do that. We’ll come for you when a spot is open.” With this, the men left the house and closed the door behind them.

Silence had returned. Gracia looked at the girl and wanted to assist her, but Nannade had already wiped the spit from her face.

With an ethereal whisper, Aaka spoke to the girl. “that was well-composed. I expected you to fight back.”

“It wasn’t me that held me back. The serpent told me to wait for a better time to strike, I was in no danger if I complied. Their guilt will not fade, but the circumstances will be better at a later point.”

“Still, you gave them all your coin.”

“It was barely more than what they asked for anyway. In return, I got myself a ticket inside. And I can take as much from them as I wish. The serpent is not interested in earthly possessions of dead men walking.”

By Gracia’s expression, Nannade could tell that she had no idea who she was talking to. She was still somewhat afraid; her cheek was still red from the punch. Nannade beckoned her to open her mouth so she could take a peek inside. It did not seem like anything was broken or too badly bruised, but the smell was abhorrent, it made Nannade realize how right Garetas was when he always told her that her teeth were too pretty to neglect them.

They exchanged a few more words, but Nannde was at the end of her capacity to guess the meanings of badly pronounced old imperial words. She took the map back and sat on the free bed. Then she took a few Plirenni she had left out of her boots, gave them to Gracia and said “for food”.

“I am not so stupid as to run around the criminal underworld with no local currency as a backup plan.” She said to Aaka. “Garetas always did the same, always had a few coins with him, even during missions.”

She decided to start taking notes by the light of her vial. It would take a long time to plan this mission and she did not have a great start. She’d set out to spy on the gang members the next day. Maybe from there she can find out who the cultists among them are. This place had plenty of dark corners for her to observe from, and if she still needed more, she had all the flux she needed to make more.