The Sentinel had unlatched the box. A groggy messenger beetle crawled out, before being snatched by the huge woman and hurled towards the window. Its little wings flapped in a blur of movement before it zoomed out the window heading towards Stalakk canton’s water repository in the far distance. The repository, crucially, was where the so called Jasper could be found. Zalu had no doubt, as she watched despairingly, that the little beetle would soon deliver the Arch-Sentinel’s horrific request, to burn down a village, to Jasper and then the butchery would soon commence.

“Messenger beetles are not to be taken anywhere, except to their intended recipient” the Sentinel growled

Zalu’s grandmother shot up from her chair, with a level of purpose and energy Zalu didn’t expect from someone as old as her. Before the Sentinel or Zalu could react, the old woman’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. A hot, stuffy atmosphere suddenly smothered the once cold room. Zalu itched herself, irritated the abrupt of imposition of humidity. She stared in bewilderment as a dim, red mist floated out from Zalu’s grandmother’s tear ducts, just before Sentinel Lupa burst into flames. A roaring shriek erupted from the suddenly burning Sentinel. Her skin started to shrivel and peel as she groped at her flesh, desperate to extinguish the fire. Zalu leapt our of her chair and opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. After a few tortuously long seconds, Sentinel Lupa collapsed in a smouldering heap on the ground, her skin blackened and sooty.

“W-What the blazes was that?!” Zalu exclaimed, her eyes brimming with accusation at 5e old woman

“We should leave. They’ll come looking for her” Zalu’s grandmother hobbled around the room feverishly, her eyes consumed with purposefulness “You’re not ready… But I suppose you’ll have to be”

“Nana what are you… The beetle just flew off, what am I supposed to do now. Just what the hell wax tha-“

The old woman’s face was lit up with growing excitability. She grabbed her tea and crossed the dim room towards a rocky alcove in its corner. Zalu watched uncomprehendingly, falling silent, partly from shock, as her grandmother raised a wrinkled hand to the stone and pushed against it gently. Her eyes widened as the rock emitted a loud crunch before moving to the side and revealing a hidden entryway.

“Well come on then! Don’t leave me waiting girl!” an excitable almost giddy expression could be seen on her grandmother’s face

Zalu, having become somewhat used to strange occurrences by now and too bewildered to argue, wordlessly obeyed and followed the old woman through he entryway and into a dank and dim passageway. The Sentinel’s charred corpse continued to crackle and emit smoke as they left.

Orange candle-flame shimmered in its sconces and made shadows dance on the cave’s walls. The narrow passageway felt endless, even longer than the corridors Zalu walked through on the city’s surface. She wondered just how deep it actually went, and how her Nana had so effectively concealed its existence from the authorities. She had innumerable questions she wanted to ask, but was too stunned to do so. She crept stiffly after her grandmother, who strode with a mysterious air of confidence.

“Nana where does this lead?”

The old woman remained silent, her face uncharacteristically solemn. The labyrinthine cave system eventually opened out into a chamber constructed out of greenish, grey bricks. Zalu shivered at the enormity of it. Lurid tapestries lined the walls. A bonfire crackled at the chamber’s centre, blanketing the room with grey wisps of smoke. She coughed involuntarily from the fumes. Numerous green-robed figures thronged the chamber, falling silent and turning to face the pair as they arrived.

Her grandmother strode stiffly into the room and through the crowd. She was suddenly flanked by a previously hidden company of spear-wielding guards. Cowls hid their faces from view, but Zalu made out watchful piercing eyes just below the rims of their green hoods. An air of tension blanketed the vast room. Zalu followed the old woman gingerly, biting her lip and trying to remain composed despite the ominous quality the whole situation possessed. Looking up, Zalu saw the chamber stretch upwards forever. Seeing beyond a certain point was made impossible by a thick shroud of smoke that swarmed around up above. What Zalu guessed to be a company of foreign mercenaries stood watch from an overlooking balcony, aiming crossbows down at the pair. She fixated on one of them in particular; a tall, swarthy figure with a face covered in protruding purple scars and an eyepatch concealing his left eye. Tucked deep inside the crowd of green-robed figures, Zalu noticed someone else that took her interest, in the far corner of the chamber- a corpulent man displaying a grim expression upon his sallow face. Slumped on an extravagant throne, she watched as he fumbled inside a silver bowl and produced a handful of plums. Drawing nearer and nearer to him, Zalu cringed as he shoved the handful of figs into his gob and let purple liquid seep down his chin.

“Greetings Duke Natow, your lordship. I wish to extend my thanks to your excellency for our warm reception in your hall” Zalu heard her grandmother say saccharinely to the throned man as they arrived beside him

“Let’s not mince words you old hag. I demand to know by what right you strut into my hall and disturb me” The man Zalu presumed to be the Duke Natow slurred, his mouth brimming with fig juice.

A long tense silence followed his crass greeting, Zalu saw shocked rage displayed on her grandmother’s face; she expected trouble. The old woman abruptly threw her head backwards and produced a deep throaty laugh. Much to Zalu’s confusion the Duke Natow did the same. Green-robed figures struggled to stifle chuckles of their own. Only Zalu, it seemed, wasn’t up to speed with the apparently hilarious joke. Reigning in his laughter, the Duke Natow hoisted himself from his chair and took a few paces forward before coming to a halt. Zalu stared in horror as the fat man’s face began to morph and change. His bulbous nose narrowed, his piggy eyes widened and lengthened and even his hefty belly shrunk somewhat. When the transformation was complete, a totally new and different man had apparently materialised wearing the Duke’s clothes.

“So? Whad’ya think?” the new man said, his voice warm and inviting in stark contrast to the former Duke’s low growl.