“A meeting with the enemy. Great.”

“You’ll be disguised as one of mine. How close do you need to be?”

A shiver wracks me, thinking of the cold Curse that’ll flood through me, but for this, it’s worth it. “Get me close, I’ll do the rest.” But I’m bringing back-up, I think. I’m not trusting this lady entirely. Yeah, I’ve known her for a while… but she’s also leader of a criminal underworld. It would be idiotic not to take some precautions.

Silver steps into the light behind Nika. I can’t help my grin. She turns, following my gaze behind her, blinking in surprise. She licks her lips, giving an appreciative stare at his broad shoulders and trim waist. I clench my fist around a knife until my knuckles bleach white in an attempt to keep from re-organizing her face.

“Ooh, la la, handsome. Who’s this?” She bats her eyes, and for once… this is actually a woman with long enough lashes she doesn’t look entirely inept at flirting. Instead… she looks experienced.

Not that I care. At all.

Silver, King bless him, barely glances at her before moving his eyes to me, roving me up and down and lingering on my eyes, searching them. “Ready?”

Madame Nika crosses her arms, shoving up her chest even as she pushes out her bright red bottom lip. “Get this close to a sicarius filius and he’s taken.” Her lips twitch, and her eyes show amusement more than I would think considering her words. But there’s a hint of sweat on her brow.

“Ready,” I reply to Silver, letting my eyes crinkle to show a small smile since he can’t see my lips beneath the mask.

“Madame, shall we?” An elderly gentlemen with rags for clothes offers Nika his arm.

She takes it, her hips swaying gently beneath a red dress that shows her comely figure quite more than is proper.

As we walk, I gently try to connect to my Gift. It’s been… kinda odd. Almost like she’s ignoring me since I asked her forgiveness. And yet, I need her, just as she needs me.

But when I get close enough, the blasted thing stings the heck out of me. I stumble, Arin catching me before I actually fall. He raises a brow in question and I shake my head, mouthing later.

He nods, but I can tell he doesn’t like it.

That’s the least of my issues. What if I get below and my Gift doesn’t respond? All I was trying to do was find out if Nika had any plans on top of what we’d made, but it doesn’t even wanna help me ensure I’m not walking into a trap. My Gift still feels bereft, a pool in the wide expanse of my soul which is inky and… unsettled?

She’s almost like an introvert who’s over-socialized and doesn’t want to be bothered.

I debate pushing it, but decide to wait. I’ll beg and plead and get down on my knees and promise anything when we get to where I need it. But for now, there’s no reason to risk the Curse popping it’s head up.

Nika leads us to an inn. A proper inn in mid with well swept thrush and clean tankards and patrons with cotton skirts and well-darned tunics. She sways to the counter, leaning over and beckoning to the inkeeper. The man finishes wiping a tankard, his face as rock-hard as a dragon scale. He comes over, an eyebrow rising. She presses a kiss to his lips. He leans back, a smile twtiching at his lips.

He goes through swinging doors into the kitchen. The sweet scent of mutton pie and sizzling pork fat turns my stomach, and I try to swallow past the nervse buzzing in my throat. Don’t think about it. Just don’t. But still, I already feel the heaviness of earth above my head, pressing down. But I’m not even in the Underground yet.

The inkeeper leads us to the cavern stocks beneath the first floor and lifts a trap door set nicely as a row of hard liqour shelving.

We follow Nika, the darkness closing in despite the waterlights set in the walls and decent head room above. Silver squeezes my shoulder. His eyebrows are lowered, lips pressed into a fine line. I give him a sickly smile. I’m gonna have to deal with this. We’re going to be down here a while.

Sweat trickles down my spine despite the cool breeze flowing through the caves from little slits in the walls.

We walk through many branching tunnels and dark stairs before emerging into a lighted platform some six stories above a large underground city. I stop, taking in the sights before me. I’ve been here before. Hence my… reluctance of being Underground. I’d gotten caught by a nasty Guild leader from one of the lesser guilds, not one of the big four: Thieve, Gaurd, Smuggler, and last but not least, Assassin.

The lesser guilds are like little dogs yapping for attention to the wolves of the bigger guilds. It’s a dog eat dog world, but it has it’s time and place, something I learned quite by accident when I first met Nika. We’d had a bit of a spat. I beat her at knives, she knocked my tooth out, and we’d called a truce.

Back to the lesser guildmaster and… yeah. When I was taken by him, he’d locked me in darkness. It was a room so small I’d barely been able to crouch and could feel my shoulders touch the sides. It was the worst experience of my life sans seeing my brother strung and whipped.

It’d taken an eternity for Ran—with Nika’s help—to find me, and the guild was exterminated by Nika, along with any who’d seen my bloody face was tracked down by Ran. Not that they’d be able to recognize me.

That was when I’d known Nika was an ally, if not an entirely trustworthy one.

But before me… this is the part of the Underground I’d not yet been introduced to. The breathe-catching, awe-inspiring hold of the old dwarves.

Before me spreads the spider-webbing Undercity. A steep staircase treads down, descending into a round, plate-like flat area set in the center of a large cavern area. Many dark, looming openings that range in size from just bigger than me to larger than a building are dotted all about the walls encasing the the center mass of city. Those dark areas stretch to other Guild territories. Permanent round waterlights of silver lights up the bowels of this place. There are many passageways branching off, and they’re all interconnected. I would not dare traverse these mazes alone. The few times I requested a guide to find a murderer or rapist deep in these tunnels and underground cities… I was utterly lost. Ran could likely find her way, but she refused to descend into these depths, saying it gave her indigestion when she came to rescue me.

This is where I imagine the Library is also expanded down into. These are the areas most topside are entirely unaware of.

Above, inset into the ceiling about fifty stories up, is the largest waterlight I’ve ever seen. It glows like a moon hanging up there. I’ve often wondered if these old mage powered lights would someday give out. Many do, depending on the mage who crafted them and their Gift, some last mere years and others centuries.

“Beautiful, is it not?” Nika comes beside me, linking a hand in a pocket on the side of her dress.

I nod, the wonder I feel at odds with the cold fear that is slowly giving way to ease as I realize how much room is down here. It’s almost as if I’m not Underground at all… and that eases some of the tention.

“He’s been shining there since the dawn of the Guilds, and the history is largely unknown. But it takes a Sixth of a time to recharge it.”

I blink, tearing my eyes from the gently glowing orb in the sky to Nika. “What?”

“It takes crystals the size of your pet’s paw and diamonds to feed the thing. Costs a fortune. Ever wondered why we steal? It’s because our housing is daggum expensive.”

I blink again, but before I can open my mouth, she’s gone, hopping down the steep stairs like a mountain goat.

I glance at the city housing—as Nika called it—as I follow her down.

The homes, shops, inns, and various establishments are built into the brown walls like an overgrown beehive. They are the same tones as the walls around them, rising in cylindrical patterns, some reaching and crisscrossing until almost to the very top of the cavern walls.

Certain ones have the same flags in front to denote different shop owners. Most of the people down here ride blind, overgrown lizard creatures called Kuzats. I’ve never cared for them, myself, but Mistress Nika has a love for the things, I’ve heard. They sure are rampant here, leaning against buildings and sunning in the waterlight.

She bypasses her guild home that looks something between a mix of a beehive and a dirt dobber nest, but about fifteen folk emerge. I get a good glance beneath some of the hoods and feel a chill in my soul. Each one has a similar hair color to me. Dirty blond, lighter sandy blond, slim features, small lips, bigger lips, etc. One even has a slightly crooked nose.

When we turn the corner, Nika takes us into a hidden cave, navigating past tables filled with silver and gold jewelry and crates.

The fifteen that look like me follow close behind as we reach deeper into the bowels of Nika’s territory, and my palms slick with sweat as I have to remind myself we’re all on the same side.

“Breathe, mau tigress.”

I suck in a breath through my nose, noting Silver’s hand on my shoulder and his eyes sneaking glances at my face, then around at those following us.

“Do you hear my handsome voice?”

I pinch his arm, and his chuckle rumbles through his chest and does strange things to my mind, making me forget about the walls pressing in and instead hear the deep rasp of his breath as he leans in.

“I know what you think of me now. There’s no way I’m letting you forget.”

I lean away, pushing his face out of my space. “Down, boy,” I mutter, and he leans back, a broad grin stretching his cheeks.

We reach a plain area that holds a table and a stool with a mage-glass on the table. Madame Nika eyes me up and down. “With your hair like that, you look like a boy.”

Silver steps forward, eyeing her with something like distaste in his cold eyes and tense shoulders.

“Lay off it, handsome. We both know it’s true. Likely on purpose. Smart, convincing the populace you were a man. Keeps your secret tighter, and information is the number one most powerful item in the worlds.” That’s not at all terrifying. “Now then, lets see, you’ll need a second twin.” She points to once of the fifteen. “Elise, come here.” The girl comes over, standing beside me.

She picks up a lock of the girl’s hair that’s a darker brown than my own. She looks familiar, but I can’t quite place her. “Nope, return to your duties.”

The girl bows and disappears from the room.

“Take a diamond on your way out for your mother. But put back the emerald, you little thief!”

Her head pops back in, a wide grin stretching her lips before she pulls back out. Madame shakes her head, a gentle, motherly smile on her lips. “That girl’s going to bankrupt me, but it’s so hard to find good help these days.”

Gregory shakes his head, a smile turning his lips. “You’ve had that kid since she was barely old ‘nough to beg in the streets without bein’ trampled. Whatever she does is ‘cause you taught it to ‘er.”

“Hush, now, dear. No need to be spreading my secrets.” Is Nika blushing?

I exchange a glance with Silver. His eyebrow twitches as if it wants to lift and he runs a hand through his toupee-ish hair.

Yeah. I don’t know how to take her, either.

Nika snaps her fingers, and the knowing grins of the girls along the wall disappears. She points to another, and we go through six before Nika nods. “Would you be a dear and cut your hair, Pixie?”

“Of course, Madame!”

“Now, wait, there’s no need for that. Your hair is beautiful!” I know the pain of parting with hair… or maybe I just had an unhealthy attachment. Could be either.

Blonde eyes that are a little too green and face that has a little rounder shape to be mine peers at me. She pats my shoulder, but I grab her other hand before it can dart into my pocket.

She grins unrepentantly. “It’s no big deal, ma’am. I’ve always wanted to try short hair.”

“And it’ll sell for a pretty penny, too, dear. Now, get to it. We’ll be leaving in a half-turn.”

Her and the rest of the girls file out the door. “And don’t forget the gifts for your parents and siblings!”

Thank yous filter back from the passageway leading to the treasure cave.

“They’re going to be the death of me, Greg.”

“You gave them life, they only seek to repay your generosity.”

“By stealing from me?” She crosses her arms, scowling. “Anyway, Ria and handsome, we will be meeting with a representative of the Serpents Guild. You will ride in on Gregary’s stomach and we’ll trade you out for Pixie so she may do some snooping.”

My brain glitches. “I’ll be… what?”