“This is useless,” Melodiana cries from behind a stack of books, “There are no references to xanDorian in any of these records, and if Beatrice didn't know about it how are we supposed to figure it out.”

“You have only looked through two books, and Beatrice fully admitted that ancient history isn't her focus so it is not her fault,” I tell her while closing the book in front of me, and sitting another on top of it. This one has an ornate cover on it, and it looks too new to have any useful information in it, “It’s a shame the archives were lost during the war.”

“What are the archives?”

“They were the largest collection of records in the known world collected by my people, apparently dating back to the beginning of the second era.”

“Maybe we could go to the ruins then, there might be something useful,” She suggests, looking up over the top of her book hopefully.

“It would be at minimum a weeks journey of hard marching there,” I can’t help but laugh a little, “And they weren’t destroyed, at least by my theory, they were lost.”

She gives me a confused look, “Can you explain that to me?”

“Well there are no records of the buildings be destroyed during the war, and the ruins are not in the rift were they should be. I also don't believe they would be deeper than what I had dug, especially since I had found other ruins that I was looking for. So it is more likely that they were… misplaced.”

“How can one misplace a set of buildings?” she asks exasperation clear in her voice.

“Quite easily apparently,” she rolls her eyes at me and sits back down.

After a few hours, minus a lunch break, we are no closer to finding the meaning of xanDorian.

“This is hopeless,” Melodiana voices another complaint from across the table, “The oldest information I have found is from the fourth era, and the only name that started with an x was Xantrim.”

“It means yellow bastard,” I yawn.

“You found the meaning of xanDorian?” Melodiana jumps up excited.

“No, Xantrim is an old language and it means yellow bastard, or more appropriately it was a way to call someone a coward.”

She slumps back down over the table and mumbles, “That’s not helpful at all.”

“None of the other spirits underneath me know of a xanDorian,” Shiva sighs, “and no one above me that is available knows either.”

“It was worth a try.”

“Orders for you,” a young male voice says from behind me.

I turn and see Marion’s current favorite messenger, and he is holding a folded piece of paper. I reach out and take it, “Thank you Samuel,” he nods, and is off again, more letters sticking out of his bag.

Lily:

Reports of discolored water and a foul smell have been received from the district where Mr. Carin, the man who went missing, in case you forgot, lived.

I pause while reading her letter and I feel my ear twitch in irritation before I stop myself, take a breath, and continue.

Take Melodiana and go into the service ducts, and see if you can find the cause. A guard will meet you at the access ladder with lanterns.

Be safe.

Marion Steele.

“You’re in luck,” I tell Melodiana, who is currently peaking over top of a stack of closed books, “We have orders to go investigate the aqueduct in the Crows district.”

“Alright let’s go,” she jumps up and she fixes the strap of her claymore around her shoulder. I stand up and readjust my sword belt before I start to pick up books, “Wait, what are you doing?”

“We have to put these back,” I tell her pointing to the shelf behind her.

“But there are so many,” She whines, “Do they not have workers to do this kind of work?”

“Don’t be in such a hurry, the Crows district is not going anywhere, and neither are you until we are done here.”

About half an hour, and many complaints, later we are standing in the Crows district.

“You do realize that you didn’t have to drag me here?” I complain while straightening out my clothes, and trying to catch my breath.

“It would have taken longer if we walked like you wanted to,” She shoots over her shoulder, as she turns into an alleyway.

“Perhaps you should have her enter foot races,” Shiva plans while still laughing in my ear, “She would likely be able to make quite a bit with that speed of hers.”

I sigh, thinking back to the blur of the city going by. She turned a twenty-five minute walk, into a less than seven minute run, and she isn’t even breathing heavy. I follow her around, if for nothing else than to escape the stares and glances of the civilians in the street.

A man in full uniform is standing at the end of the alleyway, guarding the open service ladder. At his feet are two lanterns, and Melodiana is already waiting there looking back impatiently. As I approach the guard salutes me, and when I nod to him he drops back into a more relaxed stance.

“Here are two lanterns, and a map of the districts aqueducts as well.” He passes a folded up paper to me.

“Thank you…” I look for some form of identification.

“Miles, Ma’am.”

“Thank you Miles,” I then ask, “Has anyone else been down?”

“No Ma’am you two will be the first, and my orders are to stand guard while you are down there and to let no others in. We also have other guards posted up and down the street and they will take up positions at the end of the alley as well.”

“Seems a bit much just to investigate an aqueduct,” Melodiana chimes in.

“Under normal conditions this would be,” Miles replies

“What makes these conditions abnormal?” I ask.

“The foul smell that has been reported,” He hesitates for a moment, “Frankly it smells as if something big died.”

“I see,” I nod before turning to Melodiana, “Let’s go.”

She nods and I light a lantern, hand it to Melodiana, and descend into the tunnel. Looking up I notice the first issue with our journey. There is barely six feet of clearance. Melodiana steps down and looks around and mutters, “Wonderful.”

“It will not be that bad,” I look up at her, “You will just have to bend over a little bit,” She just gives me a dirty look before we set off.

“These tunnels seem quite old, but they are in good condition,” Shiva observes.

“They were apparently built as the city expanded, and this an older section of the city. They must have some group of workers dedicated to maintenance.”

The tunnels are approximately five feet wide, with a roughly two foot pathway to walk on. According to the map, if you could call it that, they are also rather maze like as well. They stretch from the river and into the city, and then they eventually lead back to the river.

There are tubes that lead up the walls, and are engraved with many different sigils, every several feet as well. These are likely how water is actually drawn into the city.

“So where are we headed exactly?” Melodiana looks over my shoulder, holding the lantern up so I could see.

“A ways in that direction,” I point of to my left, “I think.”

“That is very reassuring of you.”

“Well this is a very broken map,” I say, as it is more of a pass so many junctions turn left kind of map, than an actual layout of the aqueduct, “It also only supplies a general area to search.”

“So do you think a deer, or some other animal died and got stuck?”

“Not likely, there are barriers around the river entrances to keep that kind of thing from happening.”

“I suppose they also wouldn’t send us down here if they thought it was just that,” She sighs, and I nod.

We pass some distance in silence when I catch the first faint scent of a decomposing body. I fold the map up, and light the other lantern.

“What is it?” Melodiana asks while glancing around.

“Well the good news is we are headed in the right direction, and no longer need the map.”

“And what is the bad news?”

“See you are catching on,” I tease as I draw a dagger and mark the wall where I turn, “The bad news is there is something dead down here.”

We continue on as I follow the scent as it grows stronger. After a few more turns Melodiana finally catches the smell as she gags slightly behind me.

After some more time, I pause and pull out a cloth and a vial from in my pack before I dab some vanilla on the cloth and wrap it around my face to muffle the smell, as it is too strong to reliably follow anymore. I also pass one behind me and Melodiana thanks me.

“Well from here we are just going to have to search,” I sigh.

“Well it can’t be too hard to find, there is not many places for it to be,” Melodiana points out.

I nod and begin to walk forward, but I stop almost immediately as I catch a faint sound that doesn't fit.

“What is”

“Shh,” I hiss. At the edge of my hearing I can hear a slight snapping sound, followed by a guttural sound that I can only conclude is laughter.

“I’m not comfortable with that being described as laughter,” Shiva objects to my thought.

I sheath the dagger, I then draw my Estoc. I turn to Melodiana and I place a finger on my lips, and she nods in understanding. I sit my lantern on the floor and I take hers from her, and measure it to have about half the amount of oil left. I point to her and then to the lamp on the floor and she picks it up.

I approach every junction cautiously, and making as little sound as possible. Even if Melodiana isn’t the quietest she is still putting in the effort she has shown in the past. Even Shiva is being quite, as I strain my senses to find the source of the sound.

As the sounds get louder, I begin to make out whispers in between the snapping, and laughing.

“I didn’t know that.”

I round another corner before hearing the next whisper.

“Still hungry.”

We are close enough now that I can tell that the snapping sound is the sound of bones being broken. I look back to check on Melodiana, and she is looking around with a short sword, for her, in her hand but she still seems calm. The tunnels are taller here so she can stand at her full height, and the river has gotten wider as well.

I pause at the next corner; I can see a faint light from down the tunnel, I take a breath and round the corner quickly, and quite a ways down I can see where it exits into the river. What causes me to stop is what is between us and that exit.

A shadowy figure is hunched over something on the ground. The sound is at it loudest and is caused as the figure reaches to the ground and pulls a bone that it then examines before it throws it down into the water.

The stench here is so strong that I can even smell it over the cloth.

The figure turns towards Melodiana and myself, and begins to stand up. As it does so I notice that it is tall, even taller than Melodiana. It is around forty feet in front of us, and I toss the lantern in my hand out in front of me as close as I can get it to the figure. Then lantern falls several feet short, and when it hits the stone it shatters and spreads oil that ignites.

The light cast by the flames only provides enough illumination to see past its waist. It has long, thin legs, thin enough to the point of being little more than skin stretched tight across bone. There are multiple lacerations along its legs as well, that ooze a black liquid. Past its knees a set of ragged trousers adorn its lower body.

It takes a step closer, and a slight breeze from outside causes the overpowering stench of grave rot to flood down the tunnel bringing tears to my eyes, and I hear Melodiana retching.

Its abdomen is as gaunt as its legs, and has chunks torn from it that also ooze the same liquid around protruding swollen intestines. Taking another step towards us I can make out details on its chest, and it is seared with sigils that I have not seen in quite a few years now. I hear a sob from behind me, and I sheath my blade, summon magik from around me, and get ready to jump as I can feel the angry sigils burning in front of me.

Taking its last step into the light it reveals its face, which is little more than a skull atop its neck. It is missing one of its cheeks, and through the ooze its razor teeth can be seen and in the place of its eyes a faint light is visible in its sockets. It slowly tilts its head examining us, and I form a defensive spell in preparation. It continues to tilt its head until it reaches the max point that a human would be able to reach, and then with a sickening crack of a breaking neck, its head continues to turn until it is completely upside down. It smiles at us, and its legs tense.

I quickly turn in place and throw myself into Melodiana who is still crouched down and looks very pale in the light I knock her over, the breath out of my lungs from the impact, and I release the magik I had gathered, and it shapes into a shell around us. The temperature around us drops almost immediately, and I can hear something on the ceiling above us. I begin to channel more energy into the ice around us making it thicker, and thicker, and I begin to change the outer layer to make it jagged and sharp.

“What is that?” Melodiana finally asks in a hushed voice.

Before I can respond It starts to shriek. It is a high pitched constant wailing, in contrast to the deep laughter from before; thankfully the ice muffles the sound a bit. It also begins to pound on the outside of the shell, a dull thudding and a cracking sound, that definitely is not my ice. This causes Melodiana to scream, and burrow herself closer to me. My headache begins after a few minutes, but I continue to thicken the ice around us.

…

It is so cold now that I can see my breath, but Melodiana's body is like a small fire next to me.

…

...

After some time, the screaming and the pounding finally pass, and in the silence all I can hear is the heart beat of the girl under me. The laughter starts, and grows in volume, a raspy heavy laugh. Just as abruptly as it started it stops, and in its place a whisper can be heard, though it is likely shouting at the top of its lungs through the ice.

“Mutok ciel cader Ranarre Cin,” it calls in a gravelly voice.

I don't know how much time has passed before I can no longer sense the burning sigils nearby, so I dismantle the shell from the floor and attempt to shove it off…and after a moment of struggling I determine that I am getting nowhere. “It’s your turn Dargoth,” I sigh weakly.

“Are you okay?” She asks sounding truly concerned. I nod my head and rest it on her chest. I do not see how she manages it but after a few minutes the shell is off of us and with a splash it is in the water. “What was that?” she asks breathing a bit heavily.

“That was a problem,” I mutter as I roll off top of her, “We need to go see Marion right now.” I attempt to stand, but my legs won’t support me.

“You used a large amount of magik projecting that shell from nothing,” Shiva says.

“Yes, but I wasn’t sure that a thinner shell from the water would have kept it out.”

“There are likely more missing bodies than what are known,” she sighs and I can’t help but agree with her.

Melodiana has her back to me and is watching back and forth, “So what are we going to report this as?”

“That was a Ghoul,” I cough, and she turns toward me, the fear obvious on her face.

“I thought that knowledge was supposed to have been destroyed, and forbidden after the war.”

“That’s the problem with dead gods; they don’t want to stay that way and certain individuals are quite susceptible to the whispering from beyond the Ether Veil.”

“So what do we do?”

“Well first we need to go report,” I try to stand again, but end up sliding back down the wall.

“Are you hurt?” Melodiana asks concern replacing the fear on her face... this girl is to open.

“But it is nice of her,” Shiva whispers in my ear.

“I will be okay after a bit,” I try to comfort her, “I just used too much magik without a catalyst.”

After I try to stand again, and fail again, Melodiana asks “If you will be okay in a bit why don’t you rest for a bit and then we can go.”

“We don’t have time for me to rest,” I complain as I try to stand again, feeling useless at the situation.

As I begin to fall again, Melodiana steps forward and catches me and sits me back down on the floor gently, “If you keep being stubborn you are going to get hurt.” I try to stand back up almost immediately, and she places a hand on my shoulder holding me down, “If you insist on going right now then we will do it my way.”

“And what is your way?” I ask.

“You sound exhausted, little princess.”

She pushes me, before she turns around and sits on the ground in front of me, “Grab on.”

“You have got to be joking.”

“No, I am most serious. Now grab on,” She says looking over her shoulder, I just stare back at her and she sighs, “If you won’t do it this way I will take matters into my own hands.”

“You are not going to carry me through these tunnels on your back,” I protest, “We won’t even fit.”

“Hmm that is a fair point,” She nods while looking back at me, “I guess we will have to do it your way then. Just remember you chose this.”

“I have not chosen anything,” I retort, as she stands up and dusts herself off.

“For being exhausted to the point of being unable to move, you certainly are being quite noisy.” She bends over me.

Before I can protest farther she scoops me up in her arms, one arm under my knees, and her other around my torso, “Wait, put me down.”

“Like I said you chose this,” She looks down to me as she begins to walk toward the end of the tunnel.

“I did not choose this,” I complain trying to get out of her grip, but she just pulls me closer to her, “And where are we going, the way back is in the other direction?”

“Well that thing could be waiting for us to try and go back through the tunnel and with you in your current condition that would likely be fatal, so we are going this way where there is nothing trying to kill us. Now just hold still for a bit and we will go and report to Miss Steele.”

“She does have quite a bit of wisdom in that head of hers every now and then, doesn’t she?” Shiva teases.

As I concede defeat in this argument I pull my tails up and around my hip and rest them across my chest. I notice something else as we begin to head toward the exit, Melodiana is so very warm.

“What are you doing now?” She asks sounding slightly irritated.

I look up to her confused and Shiva informs me “You are snuggling up closer to her.”

“You chose this,” I shoot back at her, and she just sighs.

As she steps over the body on the floor I can see that it is damaged to the point of being unidentifiable.