As it turned out, Cari just assumed the reason they’d brought home three steaming loaves of sweet bread with the largest hammerclaw lobster they could find was because Mond had gotten his hands on a barrel full of cane syrup.

Mond had said the best lies were the ones that were true, and indeed, on their way back to the candy shop, they’d stopped by Quincy’s to retrieve the barrel Quincy had procured. Though, that didn’t stop Cari from wagging her finger at Sally when they walked in. Tay and Mond had been out on business all day, and she’d been left to manage the candy shop without any help.

Thankfully, though Tay grew a little nervous, Cari’s berating didn’t break Sally, and the younger sister didn’t say a peep about where she’d actually been all day. She eventually evaded Cari’s dissatisfaction and made a break for the stairs. As soon as she began to scamper up them, Tay saw her grin lighten with snowy white illumination as she pulled out her new cards.

“See anything interesting?”

Cari had been busy counting coins from the money she’d made in the shop that day. But now her gaze was up, and fixed on him.

“Uh, interesting?” Had she also gotten a glimpse of Sally and her new cards?

“Yeah,” Cari said. “Oh, I mean, I always get a kick out of Candlecorner. All the lights and flames, and you can always find something that you want to buy just around every corner—I guess that’s why they call it that. It’s probably one of my favorite areas in Duskborough, aside from Peace and Quiet.”

“Right, yeah,” Tay said. “I really enjoyed the, uh, candles.” Tay accidentally inflected his voice toward the end of his sentence, which might’ve made it seem like he asked a question. Thankfully, Cari hadn’t noticed.

“Really?” Cari said, sliding a handful of Gylls across the counter. “I can’t honestly imagine a thief-type like you would be all that fascinated in candlecraft. Aren’t there better things for you to get your hands on?” And Cari wiggled her fingers at him, in front of a mocking smirk.

“There are. Candy, for instance.” Tay scooped his hand into a barrel full of toffee and grabbed no less than ten pieces.

“Hey! Those are for customers. We don’t pay you to eat the merchandise.”

Tay smirked back at Cari, and stowed the toffees in one of his pockets, right next to his stamped Ranking Card. Then, he said, “I’m sure you can forgive me this once. I was the one who bought tonight’s dinner after all.”

Tay rapped his knuckles against the side of the wooden crate. Hammerclaw lobster wasn’t so terribly expensive—two Gylls for a large one. This had cost him three, but that shouldn’t have been anything for Cari to raise her eyebrows at.

But if she had any opinion on his generosity, it was cut off by Mond fumbling and cursing with the barrel of cane syrup behind them. He was having trouble on account of his bad arm.

“You should go and help him, Tay.” Cari crossed her arms. “That was your job after all. Actually, remind me: what did I say I’d do to you if Mond lifted a finger?”

And Tay spared not a second in rushing across the shop.

~~~~~~~~~~

After dinner and a couple more pieces of toffee than he really should’ve bothered eating, Tay tossed and turned in bed as the sugar pulsing through his mind kept him from relaxing into a peaceful slumber. He did his best to get comfy and warm, but the extra energy coupled with the day’s events made it nearly impossible to close his eyes for more than a couple seconds at a time.

He’d done it—he’d actually won his first Runicka tournament. That meant he was four more away from reaching Iron. And once he did that, it would be up to topside to track down Rantho and win back his mother’s amulet.

And from there… well, he’d figure that out when he got there.

For now, he just took solace in the fact that he wasn’t terrible at Runicka anymore. He’d gotten better—good enough to actually take home a stamp. It wouldn’t be long before—

Before—before—

The floorboards, just outside Tay’s door, creaked. It wasn’t loud. And if he’d been asleep, he wouldn’t have woken. But he wasn’t asleep, and the boards kept creaking.

Which could only mean one thing: someone was outside his door. And they didn’t want to be heard.

The same nervous itch that had come over him earlier returned, pinching the back of his neck. It had only been Sally before, but what if these were assassins sent by Rantho?

What if Rantho had heard that he’d beaten Mond in a tournament? Now their comeuppance had arrived to ensure they leaved the city, bodies exempt.

Quietness was a particular skill that Tay could call upon whenever he needed, and so he raced silently as a mouse to the door. He turned the handle and pushed it open without so much noise as a breath would’ve made. There was nobody in the dining room though, so far as he could tell.

But there was a hint of a shadow vanishing down the stairs. He’d just missed them—whoever they were. Tay was determined not let them flee though. So, quickly as he dared, he slid on his shoes and tiptoed down into the storefront.

Tay peeked around the corner, and amongst the barrels and crates of candy sitting in the darkness, a small figure, with a ring of white hair braided just above her forehead, crouched next to the shop’s window.

Sally.

Sally had once again gotten the jumps on him. And again, with how she turned back and gazed into the darkness of the shop, not seeing him though, it was apparent she didn’t want to be seen.

She left the shop without so much as a sound, opening the window and sliding out instead of risking the door and the bell that would ring with it. Tay mimicked how Sally had left the shop. He made sure that the window was fully closed before he left too. Just in case Rantho did actually send assassins.

Following Sally proved to be both trivial and a challenge. She’d spent years traversing the back alleys and crannies of Peace and Quiet, and that especially showed at night. More than once, Tay lost her amidst the darkness. He only found her thanks to the easy-to-spot halo of white hair crowning her head.

That, and he could make out her white eyes in the darkness still, somehow, whenever she looked back to make sure nobody was around. But where was she going that she didn’t want to be followed?

That question soon answered itself, as Sally came to a conjunction of four alleys and raised up a hatch that dropped down into a sewer tunnel beneath Peace and Quiet. She vanished down it and closed the hatch behind her. Tay came up and breathed quietly for a couple minutes, both to give Sally space to get ahead of him and wondering why in the world Sally was going into the sewers?

When Tay opened the lid, he stared down into a hole filled with nothing but the void. The void, and a ladder that led down into its unknown. He couldn’t leave Sally alone wherever she was going though. So, he made sure not to slid on the slick rails as he descended into the tunnel.

At the bottom, Tay found his footing on a iron-railed, narrow cobbled path, which seemed to border a wider waterway. And it stunk. If he wasn’t already used to the stench from his arrival to the city, he would’ve had to plug his nose.

As it was, he was only concerned about Sally. He couldn’t see her in either direction. But if he listened carefully enough, he could hear the pattering of her feet as she ran through small puddles in complete and total darkness.

As a thief, one might’ve expected Tay to be totally comfortable in utter darkness, but the truth was that Tay was pretty married to his sense of sight. He’d discovered all his prospects with his eyes, and worked out strategies on alleviating merchants of their wares all in broad daylight. Complete darkness was a stranger to him.

Which made it a good thing that he could follow the echoes of Sally’s footfalls. He kept a hand on the iron railing as he trudged on through the darkness after her. Eventually though, those footsteps faded as Sally sped even further ahead.

Tay grew nervous, and removed his hand from the railing to try and pick up his pace. But he only succeeded in turning himself around. Bends and turns in the path only confused him more. Until he was entirely convinced he'd lost himself, along with Sally.

Then he heard the echoes of laughter. Sally’s laughter. Tay forced his body in that direction, and only narrowly managed to keep himself from stepping right into the waters of the sewer.

Then, around a corner up ahead, Tay saw light. White light. He hurried his way toward it. The laughter gave way to a voice.

Sally’s voice.

“I’m sorry,” her echoes said. “I’ve just been a little busy, is all. Hey, there’s no reason to get mad! I’m here now, aren’t I? Hold on. Don’t…”

Tay raced onward, leaping entirely over a small gap in the pathway, waters rushing underneath, to come into the light. Don’t—don’t what? There was fear in Sally’s voice, he knew it, and he’d be there to protect her against—

A monster?

Snowy white light plumed off of a creature twice his height. Its back was currently to him, so he could make out the bald tail that curled between two furry legs.

It was thin as a scarecrow, and had the head of a rat, or something akin to it. Its teeth were square though, like that of any person. But its eyes…

Those were white. Snowy white. The same as Sally’s. The same as an Order revenant’s.

And, Tay instantly knew, without doubt, this was a revenant.

Sally stood just underneath its lithe but overwhelming form. She had her white eyes turned up toward it, with her mouth wide open. Tay caught sight of the glowing white scythe the revenant held just behind her.

But then Sally jumped as her eyes darted toward him, and she shouted, in a tone of bewilderment, “Tay?”

The revenant cried out, and craned its head to look at him, white eyes squinting. Then it hooked one of its long arms around Sally, yanked her off of the ground entirely, and vaulted itself into the darkness, illuminating the tunnel as it fled from him.

“Fourteen Above, don’t do this,” Tay said, charging after the creature. “Not now. Don’t do this.”

Who had sent this revenant? Why had Sally come down here to meet with it? He had so many questions, and with how far away the white light was now, he was only getting further from any answers.

It quickly became apparent that he wasn’t going to have the speed necessary to catch up. He needed something else. Something extra.

A revenant of his own, perhaps?

But the only card he currently had on him was Garudigas—the one card he knew the least about. And if visualizing the cards related to how much he knew about them, then how much harder would actually summoning them prove?

“Let go of me!” echoed from ahead. It was Sally. She was struggling against the revenant.

So, Tay could summon a revenant if it meant saving her. He had to, or else she would be lost.

“Let go of me!” It echoed again and again, and each time, his hand came closer to his pocket, where Garudigas waited.

Yes! Unleash me! The voice rang cold in his ears. As he held the card, keeping it close to his chest as he ran after the nearly-imperceptible white light ahead, it pulsed with heat.

Tay hadn’t the first idea on how to bring a revenant out of their card. Just because Garudigas was willing didn’t meant that he had the ability to do so. He assumed that if summoning revenants was easy or intuitive, Mond or Atro would’ve already taught him how. But he didn’t have the luxury of time now.

“Can we do this?” Tay asked, looking down at the shifting and rainbow-wreathed artwork of Garudigas, Eternal Devourer. “Will you come out?”

Summon me forth, and I shall come, Garudigas replied, voice echoing not along the sewer walls, but within the confines of Tay’s mind. I must be free of this prison. Bring me forth, weakling!

Tay frowned down at his card, but breathed heavily as he pushed on ahead, struggling but doing his best to keep up with something that wasn’t even human. His mind felt focused—on point—like it could accomplish anything and everything effortlessly. It was the same state of being he fell into whenever he was partaking in a small heist. The same state of being which knew that one small mistake could result in a whole lot of trouble.

Tay pinched Garudigas between his thumb and forefinger, and exhaled even as he raced after the revenant. He would rescue Sally. He’d bring for the Eternal Devourer as a revenant, and just like how Mond had rescued him with the Skywing Lord, he’d rescue Sally.

Tay closed his eyes for a moment, and threw the card. “Come forth, Garudigas!” he shouted.

Weakling! Garudigas’s voice roared in his mind. Your will is weak! You’re a fool. A fool, you hear?

And with a rainbow light trail, Garudigas soared through the darkness, then did a loop before plummeting straight into a puddle of water. Tay had not stopped in his run, and quickly bent over to scoop the card out of gunky water before speeding on his way again.

“What did I do wrong?” Tay panted.

It’s not about calling me forth, you fool, Garudigas said. I can’t bring myself forth. You have to be the one to do it.

“I don’t even know how to begin with that.”

Pity. Nor do I. You must learn!

“Does it look like I have the time right now?” Tay said, scampering on through the darkness.

But he now noticed that the white light was only just ahead, around the corner. And he could hear Sally’s voice too again. She wasn’t laughing this time. She was—she was shouting?

“Get your hands off of me,” Sally said. “You know what you’ve done. We have to go back for my—”

Tay slid to a stop once he came around the corner. The revenant had released Sally from its clutches, and she was standing with her back to him, hair a little ruffled, but not particularly looking any worse for wear.

The revenant’s blank, white eyes locked with his own, and he could hear it breathing—or whatever it did—because its chest most-certainly did not rise and fall to take the same breaths that Tay’s lungs were working on catching up with.

Sally followed the revenant’s gaze, and spun around and saw Tay. Her face seemed more confused than frightened, but that hardly mattered. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he knew he couldn’t let this revenant steal her away again.

Tay stepped forward, hands raised into fists that likely wouldn’t do much against that sharp scythe, and said, “Sally, get behind me. I’ll protect you from—”

The revenant groaned, spun about, and then leaped off into the darkness.

“—that?” Tay finished.

“Oh, no! Don’t go! Come back!” Sally raced after it but then stopped throwing up her hands and then stomping her foot into the ground. She spun about and then grumbled on her way back over to him.

“Great,” she said. “Well that’s just great, Tay. What are you doing here?”

“I, uh,” Tay muttered, but he was admittedly more than a little caught off-guard. “I thought you were in trouble. I heard you sneaking out and followed you down here.” The darkness finally swallowed up the last of the white light, and they lost anything by white to see each other by.

So, Tay turned Garudigas up and used the card’s rainbow glow to brighten the space between them. Sally’s eyes seemed eerie in near darkness, reflecting much like a cat’s might.

Using me a mere candle? Garudigas said. A fool, I tell you. A fool.

“Hey, at least I’m not throwing you into another pile, now be quiet,” Tay said.

“Actually, I always bring candles down here, if they’re too proud to be used as one.”

Tay almost said that sounded good, before he caught himself. “So you can hear him too!” This whole time, he hadn’t known whether Garudigas was unique, or if Rantho’s guards hadn’t smacked him too hard during their chase.

Sally pulled a small candle and a matchbox out of her pockets, but then nodded. “Kind of hard not to. That one’s a loud one.”

Sally got the candle lit, and Tay stowed Garudigas away, as they said, This one is fascinating…

“What do you mean Garudigas is a loud one?” But then the situation—their location in the sewers underneath Peace and Quiet, if they were still even underneath Peace and Quiet—came back to him. Tay then followed up his question by asking, “What are you doing down here, Sally? Whose revenant attacked you?”

A looked of confusion warped Sally’s face. “Attacked me? No, I wasn’t attacked. If you mean Scamper, then he wasn’t attacking me, Tay. You’d just startled him is all, and he was trying to keep me safe. I managed to explain the situation to him though and he put me down. I think he still wasn’t sure about you though, so he scampered off—that’s how he got his nickname.”

“Nickname?”

“Well, yeah! He hasn’t told me his name yet, so I figured I’d give him one until he was comfortable enough telling me, if he can even remember that is.” Sally gave him a smile, and then turned to face the darkness, candle as the only thing to cut through it.

“Wait, where are you going? We have to be getting back—you can’t—”

He almost told her what she could and couldn’t do. Did this not cross the line from earlier? They had to be far, far below Peace and Quiet with how far they’d run, and who knew if Tay could even manage to navigate them back?

But Sally didn’t seem bothered at all by that. In fact, she only gave him a small smirk. “Where am I going? I’m going after Scamper. Maybe you are a fool, Tay?”

And, in Tay’s pocket, Garudigas burned warmly in agreement.

“You should come too—you do owe Scamper an apology for startling him, after all,” Sally said. “If you can keep a secret, that is. You can’t tell Cari. And you can’t tell Mond either. He’ll only tell Cari. Deal?”

Sally looked up at him with her bright eyes, and it was plain she was just excited to be going after her revenant friend, however that worked. Her feet shifted on the ground, and she kept turning her head, as if hoping that Scamper had just returned to them of his own accord.

“I suppose it’s only fair I keep my peace about this, since you did the same for me today,” Tay said.

“Fair is fair,” Sally said, smiling, then spun about to brave the darkness of the sewers.

“But hold on. Will you at least tell me how you’re friends with a revenant and why you’re meeting with one down here in the sewers of all places?”

Sally was already moving though. She waved to him, and called back, “I think it’s better if I just show you.”

And so, Tay followed.