He woke up, surrounded by ivory pillars, confused he lay there for a bit trying to regain a sense of his surroundings. Then a piercing pain stabbed his sides, and he jumped up and looked around in panic for the source of the pain.

Spotting no immediate attackers around him he sniffed the air. There were faint traces of a rat in the air, an older and notorious member of his old warren famed for his ferocity. Inspecting the source of the pain he noticed that he had a wound in his side, his fur around it covered with dried blood.

Wincing at the pain with every step, he scurried out of the ivory pillars to find a safe spot to hide and to consider what to do next. It was not safe here, the members of his old warren would undoubtedly kill him as soon as they would see him. Something must have scared off the old rat for him to still be alive.

Scurrying along the wall in the darkness he made his way through the sewers, all the while considering what to do next. Best it would be if he would move far away from the places he knew, and maybe find a new warren to join, where they wouldn’t know his scent.

He had never traveled far from where he had grown up, but to his best knowledge, it would give him the best opportunity to stay alive.

But when he considered moving out of the sewers to the surface world as an alternative his heart trembled with fear. He had heard the tales of the large monsters that would toy with one until one was dead but would keep you at death’s doorstep immeasurably long whilst being tortured physically and mentally, giving the illusion of escape. Not to mention the loud bitey monsters that would bite you in half with one bite or break your neck by shaking you with a giant’s power. Maybe it was better to travel within the sewers themselves, there were still tunnels he had never explored before, and the big bad things were often loud enough that they could be evaded easily, if only you paid attention to your surroundings.

So the little rat scurried on, making his way through the sewer, still within known tunnels, not knowing that he was being followed by three rats that followed the scent of dried blood, of which one had scars covering his body and an angry glint in its eyes.

--------------

Crag stood at a split in the sewer trying to remember which way was the shortest to his bounty spot. Scratching his butt he cussed at himself for not marking the way back. He had been too excited with his haul to think about the future.

He shrugged and decided to take the right tunnel. It was to the right so it had to be right, right? Happy with his argumentation he started into the right winding tunnel. Trailing his clawed fingers over the lichen-covered walls, leaving tear marks in the lichen with his sharp nails he hummed a little tune. To anyone listening it would sound like a dog being strangled, but luckily nobody was listening.

A loud panicked squeak stopped his humming and he stopped to listen from which direction the sound had come. He was on the way to his old bounty spot, but he had no guarantee that there would be new food to be found there, and a few rats would make the shaman equally happy. And this sounded like a rat in trouble, which could mean an easy pickup of the carcass or wounded animal, which he would turn himself then into a carcass.

Pricking his ears he heard another pained squeak from in front of him and the sound of what might be a scuffle. A grin crept on his face, showing pointy teeth. A small chuckle escaped his throat before he set off to the place where a fresh bounty was undoubtedly waiting for him in a puddle of fresh blood.

--------------

With a sigh, she opened the flat desk chest with security reports. The sun was shining outside and she would rather prefer to take a stroll along the keep’s walls to inspect the defenders than to be stuck here in her office, reading the reports of the city. But duty was duty, and this is part of it.

“Do you fancy taking this over for me?”

A cat stopped washing for a moment to look at her unimpressed, before resuming to wash. He had taken up a spot on the carpet where the sun hit its red-striped fur giving it the impression as if it was on fire.

“I guess not then.”

Resigned to her task she took the first document from the chest and unfolded it. Twenty-two reported pickpocketing events, two pickpockets caught, no loot recovered. Well, that was better than yesterday, but uninteresting nonetheless, there wasn’t much you could do about pickpockets as long as people kept flaunting their valuables as if pickpockets didn’t exist.

She marked the paper with her quill and made a few perfunctory notes at the bottom of the paper. Folding it up she tapped her chin with the paper whilst leaning back. Maybe she could get the funds to get someone to follow a pickpocket to their loot drops, to investigate their structure. It would have to be a top-level rogue, and those weren’t cheap.

She made a note to herself to investigate the prices of rogues that could carry out such a task. Just as a measure to keep pickpockets on their toes so they wouldn’t grow too bold and keep pickpocketing at a minimum. At the very least it would look good in the yearly presentation to the guild masters that their funds were put to good use to keep the streets clear.

She put the document in a drawer her assistant would check a few times a day and closed it with a little bit more force than needed. She wanted to be out there in the beautiful weather. Who knew when the sun would return in this dreary season, this might even be the last day with sunshine for this year.

She took the next document from the drawer and unfolded it. As her eyes scanned the lines on the page a frown built on her face. A very high-level thief had broken into the high mage’s quarters, using artifact grade tools to break past the wards and shields. The thief had stolen a pouch with gem shards and left other valuable items behind.

Someone wealthy or a powerful group must have paid this thief handsomely to risk his life for a bag of gem fragments. The guards had retrieved all the fragments when they had caught the thief and kept them in secure storage for investigation. The thief had been identified as “Aemlalk the Ingenious”, a level nineteen thief. She whistled in appreciation. A top-level thief indeed. This break-in might even have broken him through to Noticed levels, a level achieved by rarely anyone on X’cel. It was a shame he had died, he would have been a great addition to her forces, especially if he had broken through to Noticed rank.

She scribbled below the report

“Inspect the fragments for origin and power. Interview the high mage Prysm Duha about the fragments and break-in when he returns, investigate which organization or noble ordered Aemlalk to break into the high mage’s rooms to steal the fragments specifically.”

Putting folding it together she put it in her drawer with a satisfied smile. Now here is something that was a challenge to find out, instead of the daily drudgery she had been dealing with the last 3 months. At first, she had thought being promoted to capital city captain had been the crowning achievement of her career, she had been so proud, Chredae Sipkaroz the Capital City Captain! Only to find out that it meant a lot of boring paperwork, and less actual fighting, organizing troops and facing enemies, as no wars were going on, no sieges, not even an occasional incursion, as there was peace with all the neighbors.

She might have the highest achievable rank in the military, having the entire military might of Prekonat to her disposal, but little good it did her, as she was chiefly occupied pushing papers for logistics and internal state security, as in securing roads, getting rid of bandits and criminal gangs. At least now there was a proper challenge for her skills to put her teeth in, and perhaps an excuse for her to get out of this damned office.

With a sigh, she took the next paper from the chest and scanned over the lines. Oh great, a fresh goblin infestation in the sewers. Where did those buggers keep coming from, all entrances were sealed up. With a frown on her face, she scribbled a short note below it.

“Send the aspirant trainees to clean it up”

Putting it in the drawer, her gaze drifted towards the window in her office. If only she could go outside right now.