In the morning I left my room at the inn to go to Koyl’s room and found him already awake and pacing back and forth. Judging by his eyes, he hadn’t slept more than an hour or two, and there were bits of medication clinging to the underside of his nose. I certainly hope Vaozey isn’t planning on executing that raid today, I thought, Koyl is in no shape to be doing much of anything. Koyl hastily waved me in and gestured for me to close the door, then sat down on his bed and began grinding his teeth.

“This is a stupid idea and I’m an idiot for going along with it,” he clattered out, sounding like he was reading his own speech rapidly from a piece of paper.

“You need to sleep,” I said.

“Can’t,” Koyl hissed. “Nightmares.”

“Even with the znahdeyvtih?” I asked. Koyl pulled out some of the medication from his tunic, and I saw that the pouch was noticeably less full than it had been a few days previously.

“Makes it worse,” he replied. “Instead of being in the nightmare, it’s like I’m watching it and can’t stop it. Stupid shit doesn’t work anymore.” Again with the psychological issues, I sighed.

“Have you considered that using so much of it will only increase your tolerance to it?” I asked. “You have been using the drug every single day since it was given to you. Naturally, you would have adapted to it. You should try to forego it for a while.” Koyl frowned at me, then shook his head.

“And go back to screaming every night? Sure, let’s just get kicked out,” he snapped. A fair point, I admitted.

“Either way, sleep,” I said, “I’ll come back with the plan and explain it to you. Then you can make your decision.” Koyl grumbled something incoherent but didn’t refuse, so I left him in his room. Were the original creator humans this mentally unstable? I wondered, It’s a wonder these people can even function if temporary pain cripples their minds. I made sure to check with the front desk and ensure Koyl wouldn’t be disturbed before heading out, then made my way to the slums once again.

“Where’s the pretty boy?” Vaozey asked. It hadn’t taken me long to find her. Word had somehow gotten out that the two of us were acquainted, so when I decided to ask about how to find her I was surprisingly met with cooperation, and a few slum dwellers directed me to the spots they had seen her. I established a path, then extrapolated where she would be, and found her waiting in an alley near the border to the richer part of town.

“Resting,” I replied. “His participation depends on what you tell me today.”

“Was he up all night screwing shehpb or something?” Vaozey asked. “He seemed like the type for that.” I couldn’t get a read exactly on what Vaozey was thinking, but for some reason she was annoyed.

“Something like that,” I replied. “What’s the plan for the raid?” Vaozey looked around, scowled at me, then gestured that we should move further into the alley. About twenty meters in, she bent down and pulled at a grate on the ground, dislodging it and opening a hole that looked just big enough to allow her to slip into the sewer below. She gave me a look, then began descending into the darkness. After checking for onlookers, I jumped down after her.

Unlike Vaozey’s slow climb down into the sewer, my descent was rapid and punctuated by my ankles crunching under my weight, then rapidly fixing themselves. Vaozey just shook her head in response and began climbing back up.

“Why are you doing that?” I asked.

“You were supposed to put the grate above you,” Vaozey replied. “I suppose you couldn’t resist showing off. It’s very typical of you mercenary types.”

“Oh,” I grunted. Vaozey pulled the grate closed above her and then climbed back down the indentations in the brick wall. What little light illuminated the area was filtering in through the grate, with the rest of the sewer tunnel around us appearing pitch black beyond five meters or so. Water ran in the middle of the tunnel, which was around six or so meters in diameter by my estimation, and we stood on a slightly elevated flat walkway to one side of it. Runs north to south, looks like, I noted, Water is unusually clean, most be mostly drainage.

“Don’t fall in,” Vaozey advised.

“Predators in the water?” I wondered aloud.

“No, it’s just not always this slow, and not always in this direction,” Vaozey explained. “If they decide to dump one of the rainwater reservoirs or the tide swells too much it’ll gush out the other way for a good two or three minutes. Happens randomly, twice a week on average.” She walked over to a small pile of refuse and removed a wooden torch, then pulled out a tool from a pouch on her left hip and sat down. I watched with fascination as she began to use a flint and steel, throwing sparks against the torch without any measure of success. After about a minute, she smelled the stick, then sighed. Not enough oil, I guessed.

“We’re walking in the dark then,” she said, standing back up.

“Walking where?” I asked.

“Do you really think I keep my important things in that house I led you to?” Vaozey snarked. “I know the way, just stay close behind me. There should be enough light once we round the corner over there.” She pointed in the north direction, and I struggled to see anything resembling a corner in the darkness. I suppose I could just use light magic, I thought, she’s already seen it.

“Since you’re trusting me, I’ll help you out,” I said, trying to sound magnanimous. With a mental flex, a glowing purple orb appeared above my head, illuminating the area. The tunnel was actually around seven meters wide and roughly rectangular on top, with corners rounded by filth. The water channel in the middle of the walkways was four meters wide, with one and a half meters of walkable floor on each side of it.

Vaozey reacted badly to the orb, stepping back into a defensive position and grasping her weapon. A second later, when she hadn’t been attacked, she began to relax. “What is that?” she demanded, staring at the orb.

“Magic,” I replied.

“Obviously,” Vaozey grumbled. “Where did you learn that? I’ve never seen magic like that. Not even the Rehvites use magic like that.” That’s interesting, because as far as I remember there’s something like it in their holy book, I thought.

“I made it,” I replied. “I also used it on you, to blind you.” Vaozey Narrowed her eyebrows, then raised them in surprise.

“That’s what you did?” she blurted. “I thought you melted my eyes or something.” I probably could have done that, actually, I thought, but I’m not sure it would have lasted as long as nerve overload blinding. Then again, she recovered extremely fast, warbreed would have needed two or three minutes to gain vision back after a flashbang. Maybe I damaged the retina and her healing magic engaged.

“Let’s get going,” I said, putting the thought away for later when I was testing the magic on myself.

“How long can you keep that up?” Vaozey asked. “I don’t want to get stuck in the dark. If you can’t hold that for at least half an hour, just tell me now and save us the trouble.” In response, I summoned up three more lights on my chest and increased their intensity.

“I could do this for half a day, probably,” I said. Vaozey shrugged, then started walking northwards. Letting the extra orbs go out, I followed along behind her.

As we walked, Vaozey occasionally stopped to inspect various piles of trash, animal nests, and bundles of cobwebs. Inside each one, items had been cleverly hidden away from prying eyes. Long spikes for stabbing, torches, spare knives, pieces of armor that could replace Vaozey’s plates, and even wrapped rations were available for the taking. We should be under the slums by now, I estimated, this must be why she sometimes isn’t visible on street level. Finally, we came to a wall whose bricks looked disturbed, and Vaozey began pulling them out and stacking them beside her.

“This is very visible from the outside,” I commented.

“Shut your mouth,” Vaozey snapped as she stacked up stones, slowly revealing a hidden, hand-carved passage. I approached and helped, moving twice as many bricks in half the time, and before long the hole in the wall was large enough for us to enter. A two-meter-long passage led to a round, carved-out room with a table, cabinet, and papers strewn about inside it. Vaozey used her flint and steel to light a torch mounted on the wall, and I let my light magic face away. Vaozey ripped her mask off once the fire was going and set it down on the table.

“So, the plan?” I asked. Vaozey grabbed some papers from the ground, one that was pinned to the wall, and one from the table, then shoved them into my hands. I put them on the table and spread them out so I could examine them. As I did so, Vaozey removed her mask and placed it on a nearby wall-mounted hook.

“Read,” she commanded, and so I did. The papers from the ground were some kind of architectural diagrams, presumably of the temple, marked up with various notes about where guards were supposed to be and what rooms contained important individuals. Entries and exits were marked, and there were a number of possible routes sketched out with notes on each one like “fastest” and “kills the important npoyt first.”

The paper from the wall was a date and time, and I struggled to tell exactly how long it was from the present. Finally, the table paper was a drawing of a round object that vaguely resembled an analog clock. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an analog clock, I realized, I only know what one looks like from virtual training. Still, unlike a clock, the round device had six hands with three lengths and approximately three hundred notches around the outside. Two hundred and eighty-eight, I guessed, twenty-four multiplied by twelve.

“This is one of the identification devices?” I asked. In response, Vaozey walked to the cabinet and opened it, pushed several things that nearly fell out back inside, grabbed a piece of metal, closed the cabinet, then tossed me what she had taken out. Though damaged, the metal object was obviously the thing depicted in the drawing, though it was missing four of its arms and had a large gash on the side. The construction was remarkably sturdy, and my light touches on the hands revealed that I couldn’t turn them on their own.

“I took that off a minor noble a year ago,” Vaozey said. “Can’t use it, obviously, but if you look on the back you’ll see how it works.” I flipped the device over and saw a series of ornate engravings depicting six smooth circles. Curiously, I tapped one and felt that it was slightly loose. However, trying to turn it using the friction of my finger didn’t work. I understand, I thought, the internal resistance of the mechanism is so high that it’s only practical to turn it with force magic. The hands are connected with a gearing system that makes it near-impossible to operate in reverse. With a mental flex, I grabbed the top circle and twisted it, hearing gears grind around inside the device. Flipping it back over I saw that one of the broken hands had shifted. With a grunt, I pocketed the device to show to Koyl once I got back to the inn.

“This date, it’s a day from now, right?” I asked, holding up the paper with the largest writing on it. That’s not much time, I thought.

“Very perceptive,” Vaozey mocked.

“Any reason for that date?” I asked.

“Simple,” Vaozey replied, “it’s the aotkeylawtz, the time of year when the day and night are the same length. It’s sacred to Luwahriy, and Rehvites also hold a private ritual in their temples for it.”

“Wouldn’t you prefer to raid the temple when it’s less populated?” I suggested. This is going to be a hard sell for Koyl, I thought.

“Oh no,” Vaozey grinned. “No, I want there to be plenty of soft targets. They’re going to learn exactly what it’s like to be preyed upon, and I’m going to be the teacher.” Reminds me of Taaljheyz, I thought, She's doing it to enjoy the suffering of others.

“My goals are not the same as yours,” I said. “You need to know that going in. I am not doing this to inflict casualties, but to gain information on my long-term objectives, as well as a way out of this city without having to fight the guards. There’s no point in involving myself in a large fight to avoid a large fight.”

“I know,” Vaozey replied, “I don’t like it, but even having someone else there to draw specific attention away from me will help tremendously.” Except that's the whole reason I'm intending to go with you, I wanted to say, you are supposed to be the distraction. Have I not been clear enough? What do you mean by ‘specific’ attention?

“I will not be participating in the fighting unless I’m forced to,” I declared, to make my position extremely clear before addressing the other issue. Neither will Koyl, I thought, he might even just run, if he bothers to show up at all.

“Oh, but you will be forced to,” Vaozey retorted. “You want to know about the noypeyyoyjh, right? And you want one of those identification document templates? You want important information, stuff you can't just get from kidnapping a random Rehvite and torturing them.”

“That is correct,” I nodded.

“Then you’re looking for the top seytoydh npoyt in the place,” Vaozey replied, ripping one of the papers from my hand and slamming it on the table. She pointed to a small room, far away from any doors on the second floor of the building, labeled “Yehpjheytae Ngaywzmael’s bedroom.”

“The leader?” I asked, just to confirm that I understood.

“We aren’t exactly Zihzehshehsk,” Vaozey replied. “Most of these idiots are small time in the overall structure of Rehv’s temple, they paid their way inside for connections. Yehpjheytae though, he’s the one who originally came to preach in our city, and he’s got two yihzhae Rehvite warriors as security. Barely ever leaves his room, too, except for events of course.” Of course, I echoed disdainfully. I briefly thought about asking what yihzhae meant, but decided it was probably yet another expletive that I hadn’t yet been exposed to.

“How strong do you expect these warriors to be?” I asked.

“Strong enough that the reason I’m even asking you to come along is because of them,” Vaozey replied. “To be clear, both might not be there, but I expect at least one will be. What, you scared?” Considering that she probably fights Rehvites who are as strong as those adolescents were regularly, that isn’t encouraging, I thought.

“I told you, I’m not getting involved in combat if I don’t have to,” I repeated. “The presence of highly-trained fighters is something you didn’t bring up before this meeting, and is absolutely a factor in my willingness to participate.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, these seytayb own a city,” Vaozey snapped. “Their presence here is practically a coup. It would be were it not for the fact that they don’t challenge our government's power, just our religion. They aren’t ex-mercs or bandits, you might have to fight someone you can’t just overpower with magic. I thought you had a spine, I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

“And that raises another question,” I continued. “These people own the city, therefore doesn’t doing this have the potential to bring your government down on your head? I don’t plan on getting caught and I will be in disguise, but you will be recognized. Are you prepared to be an enemy of the state, should you survive? What are your plans to evade capture?” Do I have to kill you at the end of this to avoid being caught? I thought.

“Nobody in Pehrihnk is going to care about this shit,” Vaozey retorted. “They don’t care enough to save their own people because we’re not part of Klehkah. Do you think they want to admit that there’s essentially a rebellion going on under their noses? This is Mehzowrow’s problem as far as they’re concerned, and Owsahlk is the only Rehvite city in Mehzowrow with political significance. What happens inside these walls is going to stay here, they’ve made that very clear. As for evading capture, I've been doing it for years.” She seems to believe what she says, so at least there’s that, I thought, Koyl has the right idea here, run at the first sign of trouble. If she makes it out, I'll probably kill her just to be safe.

“So this ‘high priest’ or whatever his rank is, he’s leaving his room for the aotkeylawtz?” I asked.

“He’s going to be right in the middle of the room over here,” Vaozey said, tapping the stage in front of the lecture hall. “You can ask him politely for the information you want, but I doubt he’ll have much to say unless you get forceful, and you might not have the chance to get forceful unless you convince him to come with you.”

“Naturally,” I muttered. “What is your actual plan of attack? What method are you employing?”

“What, and ruin the surprise?” Vaozey snarked. “You’re not participating in it, so don’t concern yourself with it. Trust me, I’ll grab plenty of attention, eyes will not be on you. All you need to focus on is getting what you’re there for and keeping the yihzhae that I can't handle on my own busy, which you’ll likely have to do anyway to get to the high priest. You win, I win, Rehvites lose, simple as that.”