Ow…

My head slams into the side of the rowboat, and I groan. Even with all my training, Meera’s slap is something else. Opening my eyes, I see her standing over me, water dripping from her clothes. Some color’s returning to her lips, and she nonchalantly bends down and picks up her Rainstopper mask from the floor. After a moment, she walks over to me. Fixing her feline-face back on, she lends me a hand. Is this a trick? I give her a look which she ignores.

“Was that really necessary?” I ask as I take her hand.

“That’s for leaving me down there for so long,” Meera replies. Pulling me up, she reaches over and pats my cheek gently. Ouch…still stings. For a second, I swear I feel her hand tremble before. Regret? But then Meera yanks it back and turns her face away. “Next time don’t be late. And do it yourself. I was really scared, you know…”

“Uhuh,” I’m doubtful. “You sure held your breath for a while after we pulled you up.”

“Err…I couldn’t tell what was going on. I used the Vice Secthead’s false death technique to stay alive down there…but I pretty much had no control after that. If no one pulled me out, I was a goner! That’s why I put my faith in you, Boss!”

“Right…”

“What? Boss, it’s true. I couldn’t move a muscle! Totally out!”

“S-u-r-e.”

“Tch. Are you doubting the word of your number one employee?”

“Meera, your lips were twitching.”

“H-e-eee! Really? Uh…well, it’s Elina’s technique so I’m…not very good at it, yet? Hehe…”

This girl…is a hopeless liar.

*Tap*

The boat gently wobbles as I step in and give my security a big hug. She gives a little gasp of surprise.

“B-Boss?!”

“Just stop, Meera. You don’t have to lie to me.” I smile, pressed up against her wet body. She’s actually quite cold and stiff as a board. Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I squeeze. “You were only down there because of me. I know you always have my best intentions in mind. So I’ll believe you this once. This one’s on me. I’m…sorry. I was late. But maybe…next time don’t scare me like that?”

…

“Oh…Boss…you’re actually apologizing?” Meera’s body trembles, as if afraid it’s a trick. But when I say nothing, she relaxes and gives into the hug. “Well this is different.” Slowly, we rock with the boat, linked up amidst the bobbing waves. Her body gently warms up in my embrace. A few shivers run through us. Meera is soaking wet, but I don’t pay that mind. I really wonder…how much longer could you hold your breath? If the Ferry-Rat hadn’t come…would I have gotten you out in time? Her warm breath tickles the back of my neck for the longest time. She murmurs softly, “Why are you being so nice?”

“Call it a Christmas bonus.”

“What’s…Christmas?”

“It’s a time when stupid people give each other nice things.”

“I…see.” Meera takes my word for it. And then slowly pulls away. Her voice is a bit unsteady, as she stretches her arms and shakes her legs. “Alright, Boss. Time to get back to work.” Meera’s eyes give me a meaningful look behind her cat-mask. Following her gaze, I remember where we are. And our mission. Yea…the Ferry-Rat. The Demi in question has regained his breath while Meera and I were…distracted. He regards me for a moment and then goes to pick up the set of oars. I cock my head, still dazed from so much time underwater. We came to capture him. And yet, he ended up…saving us?

“You know why we’re here,” I say. It’s a statement. Not a question.

“What do you mean by that, friend?” The Ferry-Rat says nonchalantly as he sets the oars on the sides of the boat and begins to row. “I have no idea why you came. Unless you’re with the Omniscient Guard. But I don’t think you’re one of them. Nevermind your lack of armor…they wouldn’t stop to help young Demi’s. That’s why I helped you by the way. Not that I need a reason to stop anyone else adding their corpses to this accursed place. But clearly, you have a conscience. So enlighten me, what exactly are you lot doing here? And why have your men been chasing me? Was half the city watch not enough?”

“Trying to distract me won’t help,” I feel kind of bad, saying this kind of stuff so soon after he helped us. But the mission is the mission. “You were tasked with bringing back information. Considering you saved my employee here, I can overlook the fact that you abandoned the Stranger’s cause. But I’ll need you to tell me what he wanted to know. No lies please.”

“Stranger? I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the Ferry-Rat says this so casually that the denial on my lips dies before it can leave. What…? He has to be lying. But Demi’s usually suck at lying. Well, Demi-Rats are known to be more devious but I assume that’s just a stereotype. I take a deep breath, suddenly feeling like I’ve lost the initiative. The Ferry-Rat stops rowing to adjust his glasses and regards me quizzically. It’s either an impeccable act, or he’s telling the truth. “I’m afraid the only ‘cause’ I’ve ever agreed to is helping Demi’s. Don’t believe me? Well perhaps you’ve heard my name before. The Ferry-Rat, Jasi, at your service!”

“That’s who we’re looking for. The Ferry-Rat.”

“Well, unless you’re looking to leave Merekeep, friend, I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for you.” Jasi nods at the oars in his hand. “This is my profession. I ferry Demi’s out of the city. There’s no one better at navigating the undercanals than me. So tell me, what exactly is it that you think I know? If you want information on my past clients, forget about it. I won’t betray another Demi’s trust. ”

“I…I don’t know.” The beginnings of a headache are building up again. A big one. I shiver and Meera rubs my back, flashing a concerned eye my way. Really? She’s the one that almost drowned but MY body is the one that’s cold? I try to think, but it’s a fool’s errand with my head out of sorts. “It doesn’t make any sense! I think…he wanted to know something about the undercanals. Information…passages. Maybe it has something to do with this place? I don’t understand. If it wasn’t because he told you to research this place…then how do you know the undercanals so well then? And why are you taking children down here? If Meera and I hadn’t been here, these kids would have been screwed for sure!”

“The reason I’m taking Sila, Nika, and Jinta out of the city should be obvious,” the Ferry-Rat regards me curiously. I sense a bit of disdain in his look. “Between the Black Assassin’s organization and the Omniscient Guard’s reaction, Merekeep has become inhospitable for my people. Friend, you don’t look like somebody who would turn your eyes away from the truth. Surely you’ve seen it?”

What? What do you mean?

“We built the Black Assassin’s organization to help the Demi’s.”

“I didn’t realize forcing children to work for scraps was…helping.” The Ferry-Rat sniffs. His expression changes when he notices that I said ‘we’. “So you’re with them. I regret saving you now. If you would be so kind as to leave on the next stop, we should part ways.”

“H-Hold on!” I frown, getting kind of mad. “It’s true, we reward our volunteers generously. But no one’s forcing anyone to do anything!”

“Why don’t you ask Nika about his brother then?” Jasi’s voice becomes dark. “Where is he now? Why can’t they be together? It’s all because of the Black Assassin’s damn crusade. They’re just as bad as the slavers.”

…

…

“You’re lying.”

“Friend, I’m not.”

“I am the Black Assassin. And that’s not how I run things.”

“What?” The Ferry-Rat shows some surprise for the first time. He looks up at me. As does the little girl Sila. “You? Please, friend, that joke is in poor taste.”

“Don’t believe me?” I smirk. Reaching into my coat, I remove my Midnight Roc mask. Holding it up to my face, I turn so they can see me. “Matches the wanted posters doesn’t it?”

“Mister?!” Sila yelps in fear. Her face twists into one of absolute terror as I let the mask fall from my face. Why…why are you afraid? What am I missing? “Nika was right! You really are one of the bad people!” For a second, we all just take in the facts. Sila tries to hide behind the Ferry-Rat, and I watch her reaction with a sinking heart. Jasi’s warm face has frozen into one of disgust and revulsion. He’s stopped rowing and the boat has begun to drift dangerously. I would have expected this kind of reaction from the Omniscient Guard. And yet…somehow, these Demi’s seem to hate me.

“Boss…I have to tell you something,” Meera breaks the silence. She comes up next to me and whispers in my ear. “To be honest, I didn’t want to worry you. But some of the Demi leaders…Mitra, Naario, and Jero especially, have been…using alternative methods to recruit faster. We didn’t tell them to do it. But it helped us grow our network so I figured you wouldn’t mind…errr…”

…

…

“Did Kisa know about this too?” I sigh. My headache is now full throttle again. Meera’s face is torn, but eventually she nods. “You two kept this from me?”

“We…didn’t think you’d care.” Meera smiles awkwardly. “You always said we should do anything to take down Selena faster.” Jasi and Sila are watching us whisper. Their furry ears twitch and suddenly I recall their extra sensitive hearing. What a mess. So we…I…really caused this huh? I mean to be honest, I don’t mind if the end result is good. But seriously, we actually forced kids to work for us? I started this to avenge Natalia’s parents…not create more victims. Meera bows her head contritely. “Boss? I…I’m sorry-”

“It’s fine, Meera.” I wave her away. “You were only doing what you thought was best for me.” Turning to the Ferry-Rat, I rub my nose, feeling awkward. “Sorry, you two. It seems I owe you an apology. My organization has been…recruiting a bit aggressively. Please understand though, it was never my intent to drag Demi-children into this fight. Once we return to the surface, I will…clarify the recruitment policies with my employees. You can be certain, whatever else happens, Demi-children will not be forced to enter our ranks.”

“You’re really him…the Black Assassin.” The Ferry-Rat seems to have been listening in. His sharp Demi-Rat ears are tough to fool. “You didn’t know, did you? I’ll hold you to your word. However, you do realize that your actions…those attacks of yours? They’re forcing the Omniscient Guard to act. And the Guard knows that my people are helping you. They will punish us. Soon, there won’t be a place left in the city that’s safe for a Demi.”

“I’m aware of the issue.” Chewing the inside of my lip, I shrug. “It’s an unfortunate side-effect of bringing about change. I’ll…think of something to deal with it. Perhaps, we can even work together. I’ll instruct my followers to bring children to you. And anyone else that can’t fight. You smuggle them through the undercanals. Outside the city, I have a place they can stay until it’s over.”

“Until what’s over?” The Ferry-Rat looks at me quizzically. I smile, showing him my canines.

“Everything.” Putting my Midnight Roc mask back into my coat, I stand there bare-faced in the cold. Let’s put our cards on the table. “I need to ask you a question, Jasi. To be honest, I came here with a man. I call him the Stranger, but others call him Shadow. He’s searching for you. And I don’t know why. But according to him, you know something important about the undercanals. Something that could topple the Daggas and help free the city. Any idea what that’d be?”

“Something that could topple the Daggas clan?” The Ferry-Rat laughs. “Do I look like someone that could bring down the strongest clan in Merekeep? If I had such a power, Selena would never have taken over in the first place. At least before she came, our people had some dignity. Now though, Demi’s aren’t allowed to work in the palace anymore and I’m just a retired architect. What could anyone want from a sewer engineer?”

“You…designed the undercanals?” I freeze. “Hold on, all of it?”

“No, the undercanals are ancient. I merely maintained them for the royal palace. And made expansions. Back then they called me Royal Architect Jasi. I was the best at moving Merekeep’s unwanted crap out of the city. To be fair though that hasn’t changed. I’m still ferrying the people no one wants to see out of the city. But now it’s not for him. It’s on my own terms-”

“Boss, get back!”

*Svit*

…

…

Why’d he stop talking?

“Jasi? Meera, let go of me! What are you doing?”

“Huurk-!”

*Slump*

The Demi-Rat in front of me topples over. Sila screams. There’s no fountain of blood. No flashy gore or anything like that. One second Jasi is talking to me. The next, he’s slumped over with a knife in his neck and the boat is rocking wildly. Huh…he’s…he’s DEAD?! Meera immediately grabs my shoulder and throws me behind her. She spins us around and around, trying to discern where exactly the knife came from. I reach for the future instinctively, even though I know it’s a bad idea. A shooting pain spikes through my head as reality rebounds and fractures. Damnit, still no good!

*Graaawrrr*

A deep throated moan comes from everywhere. It vibrates like the demented howl of some gargantuan beast. The dark green water, lit only by guidebones, begins to ripple everywhere. As if someone’s attached a giant subwoofer underneath the surface and is playing bass down in the deep. The water…jumps. Droplets dance and hop about like millions of bugs. The hell is making that noise? Is it that corpse thing again?

*Graaawrrr*

*Graaawrr*

*Graaawr*

The noises gradually get quieter with each rumbling roar. I reach down and pick up Jasi’s strange sealed lantern as Meera takes out her sunstone. Together, we shine it about the water. On the other side of the boat, the poor Demi-children have awoken. Three little Demi Raccoons, two boys, one girl, cower in the corner, whimpering beside Jasi’s still warm corpse. I consider going to him. Seeing if he can be saved. But I know that spot in the neck from Romy’s lessons. Jasi’s dead, through and through. And even if he wasn’t, I only know one healing spell. But, it can’t reverse death. Elina’s time reversal spell…she warned me never to use it again. Even if I was willing to…he’s already dead. But who…?

“Boss, there!” Meera hisses in my ear. She points and I stare over her shoulder, following her finger. There’s something moving in the darkness. A spot of light. Hopping from column to column, pipe to pipe. Gradually, I realize it’s another lantern. “It’s Echo! She killed him!”

“Echo?” I don’t understand. “That doesn’t make any sense. The mission was to bring the Ferry-Rat back! Echo always follows the Stranger’s orders. She wouldn’t kill him!” However, as I say those words, my eyes go back to the throwing knife in Jasi’s neck. They certainly seem like an assassin’s blade. And Echo’s one of the few people skilled enough to kill someone while we’re watching. I call out over the dancing water, “The hell is going on?! Why did you kill him! Echo!”

*Splash*

“M-Mister!”

“Help!”

“What is THAT?!”

Three sets of terrified Demi cries hit my ears and I whip around to see a rotting hand on the other side of the boat. Pale white, skeletal and devoid of blood, the fingers clasp the wooden wall and tilt the boat as they try to lift something over the edge. Sila tries to run over and bite it with a transformed jaw only to squeak as a slimy skull hauls itself into the boat, its empty eye sockets glowing a ghastly red color.

“Eke!”

“Boss! Your Demi’s are in trouble!”

“I got it-!”

[Frozen Water of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

Chanting rapidly, I throw out my palm. Though the Stranger said to use fire magic, I can smell the thick, disgusting smell of gas down here. It reeks of sulfur and methane. Even summoning ice crystals, I’m terrified that they’ll spark on something and blow us all to hell. This would be alot easier if I could SEE whether or not this is going to backfire!

*Kacha Kacha Kacha*

Three fist-sized shards of ice materialize in front of Mephis’s glove and accelerate into the hellish skull’s face as it enters the boat. It’s flaming eyes flare up with each impact and it’s blown backwards into the water-

*Splash*

“Yea!”

“Get em, Mister Mage!”

While the Demi’s are celebrating however, Meera presses a hand against my back. I can feel her maneuvering behind me, covering my blind spot.

“B-Boss! They can fly…err swim! Be careful!”

What?

“The heck is that supposed to mean?” I turn around only to catch Meera’s back. She snarls at me, over her shoulder, struggling against another skeletal zombie. “What are you talking about?”

“I got this side, Boss! You…watch out!”

*Splash*

“MISSSSTER!”

I reel around, at the Demi’s scream. It isn’t fast enough. A ghastly skull laughingly grins at me, right in my face. Red eye sockets burn with some infernal flame and I gulp. The zombie from before is back. But it isn’t just climbing into the boat. No…this time, it’s flying. Or rather floating. My eyes travel down to where its legs should be. Instead of two separate limbs, there is only one giant trunk of serpentine twisted flesh and bone snaking up from the water. As if this corpse is simply the end of a humongous tentacle. The skull’s jawless mouth gnashes what’s left of its teeth and I feel like I’m staring at a puppet.

*Clack Clack Clack*

And then it shoots towards me-

F*CK! Why is it so fast!

[Frozen Water of My Soul-

Too slow! Not going to make it!

*Puchi*

Abruptly, the entire skeleton crashes into me. However, instead of latching onto me and tearing me apart, it is oddly still. I’m sent tumbling back amidst the shouts of Demi’s and Meera.

“Boss!”

“Mister!”

I’m so screwed…wait…I’m alive?

Slowly, I realize that the corpse atop me is inanimate. Actually dead. Just as a corpse should be. At my feet, the strange tentacle-ish trunk twitches and then stops moving. It’s been severed by someone’s sword stroke. The corpse is pulled off me by a hand, and I expect to see Meera. Instead though, I find a blank white mask with no mouth staring down at me.

“E-Echo?”

…

“You saved me?”

She doesn’t answer. Silent as always. Though she may be the Stranger’s jokester, I can’t deny the truth of it though. The girl who just killed the Ferry-Rat…has now also saved my life. Why does nothing you do make any sense? A slim hand is offered to me. And I accept it, letting Echo pull me to my feet.

“Thank you.” I nod to her. Wondering exactly what’s going on, I point at the knife in the Ferry-Rat’s body. Echo cocks her head slightly and I think I hear a sniff of disdain. “You saved me…but why did you kill him? I was talking to him! The Stranger told me we were trying to find out what he knows! What are you trying to hide, Echo?”

“I…was simply doing my duty.” A soft voice. So quiet I can barely hear it through her mask. And that’s it. She turns her back to me and raises her short sword. Violet blood drips off its deadly edge. “Do not use fire magic. She’s coming.”

“Boss! Are you alright?”

“Who’s coming?” I question as Meera runs over, her fan in hand. The Demi-children huddle closer to us, deciding that we are the lesser of two evils as red lights swirl in the darkness. I raise Jasi’s orange lantern, miraculously still intact, and hope that the seal hasn’t been broken so we don’t all blow up. The water’s surface is dancing violently, furiously. There are things floating over the surface. Corpses like the one I just fought. They rise up, several body-lengths out of the water, like erect snakes, on their nightmarish fleshy trunks. Dozens of them. Hungrily staring at us. They start to move towards the boat… and then…

*Plop*

*Plop*

*Plop*

*Plop*

*Plop*

Suddenly, all of them sink underwater.

*Graaawwwr*

The water roils. It bubbles and splashes up over the sides of the boat. If I had to describe it, it’d be like a rainstorm turned upside down. Droplets of water rise up and splash into our faces, falling in reverse. A horrifying keening pressure drops down on me. Killing intent, power, seething rage and resentment, like nothing I’ve ever known before, it seeps out from that dark water.

“W-What’s happening?”

“Mister?!”

“Boss, this doesn’t feel good!”

“Echo, what is this thing-”

*Splash*

“Tehee…

…

Eheheheheheheheheheehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Food…FOOD…

FOOD AT LAST!

So…much…MANAAAAAAA!”