Salt and limestone covered the walls. Crystal and brittle rock interspersed, creating a formation that, in Reysha’s experience, was unique to sewage systems near the ocean. The presence of salt was why the redhead had left behind her original target. The man had stopped in a hidden room and started playing cards. Not a productive thing to observe, particularly when there was such an interesting clue in the environment.

The tunnel system existed to bring water out of the city. Whether that was rainwater, bathwater, or urine, the liquids that were supposed to flow through these tunnels did not contain enough salt to drench the entire air with it to the degree that it started settling on the walls. In order for there to have been this degree of salt in there, some part of the canalisation needed to have an influx of seawater.

Something that was very, very interesting for Reysha. Seawater flowing into the channels at some point harboured the potential of something travelling with that seawater. The salt was a trail – a trail to a smuggler’s den.

‘Like snails, criminals leave a sticky path,’ Reysha thought and then giggled quietly to herself. ‘Nope, can’t do it. The Apexusisms just aren’t the same if they don’t come out of a hunk with a straight face… or a blob… or out of whatever shape he takes that day.’

The ground crunched under her feet. Usually, a Rogue would have attempted to keep their footprints concealed. As even Reysha’s first teacher had said: Sneaking and Stealthing is only worth so much if people can chase you. However, this path was frequented and much of the dust and salt consolidated into a firm walkway. An additional pair of feet wouldn’t be spotted.

The smell of salt in the air shifted from stale to the fresh ocean breeze. Simultaneously, the light levels in the tunnels rose. Distantly, Reysha could hear the pitter-patter of water. Then, she picked up voices.

Slowing her step, Reysha carefully approached. If ever there was a time for caution in this endeavour, it was when approaching the centre of the criminal operations in this city.

Although the smell remained strong, the environment shifted drastically. The utilitarian tunnels of the sewage system were replaced with decorated walls, enveloping a decently sized pool. Buildings half extended out of the rock and likely much further in. About four dozen people were hauling goods off and on small merchant vessels – the kind only used in cities with extensive canal systems. None of them looked like they would have survived one bad day at sea.

The pool the boats swam in was a large, circular thing. The ocean water flowed in through a short cave system. Two heavy steel doors, much of them covered in rust and marine life. A couple of much narrower streams went into the sewage system. One of them Reysha carefully followed into the open chamber.

The people working the boats were well-fed and they joked with each other jovially as they went about the work. None of them looked at Reysha, as she advanced down the catwalk around the edge of the pool.

The crates getting loaded into the ships contained all manner of things. Meat, art, wine, documents, metal – most common were old porcelain and books. After things were picked up at the harbour, they likely ended up here for further distribution. This was where all the expensive items were stored and in the world of the lawless, the crime boss rarely was far away from where their money was.

Reysha marched towards the largest of the few buildings. This complex rivalled a large storehouse, which was impressive for something located within solid rock. Beyond that, however, it was exceedingly average in its form and function. The decorations along the walls had been added generation after generation, the designs shifting throughout. At times knots were carved into stone, at others a half-complete picture of a serpent. Concentric squares surrounded the door of the central building.

The door was the greatest obstacle Reysha had faced yet.

It was a simple wooden one and it did not appear to be locked. Even if it had been, Reysha could have pried it open with her thief’s tools. Rogues learned lockpicking for reasons of greed. Dungeon chests were sometimes locked and sometimes was often enough to pick up a trait that was useful outside the dungeon as well.

While she could have just opened the door, the act of doing so would inevitably draw eyeballs. Stealthing masked manipulation of the environment only to a limited degree and, at her level, she couldn’t just open and close a door without anyone noticing. An alternative had to be found.

Or she could just get lucky and have someone leave the room.

Reysha heard the steps just in time to back away. The door flew open, a broad-shouldered man stepped out, and shouted a joke over his shoulder. In the second it took those words to be delivered, Reysha slipped into the room. A bit of a tight squeeze, but she was used to squeezing by large men. Apexus took up an absurd amount of bed space.

‘Really fortunate he’s a calm sleeper,’ Reysha realized. Now that her man had decided to grow to a truly herculean size, him rolling the wrong way while they were unconscious could crush a kitty in ways the redhead did not enjoy. ‘The threat of loving a boulder of a man.’

While the leisurely thought bounced around her head, Reysha looked around the building. It only had a single room and extended several metres into the solid rock of the carved mountain range. It was an odd mixture between office and warehouse. Crates were stacked up to the ceiling around the walls, filling out shelves, and just generally dominated the space. At the back, a clearing had been made for a large desk, a number of refashioned barrels serving as stools. Only the chair behind the desk was truly luxurious. A piece of white wood, with cushions of intense red bolted to its back and seat.

In it sat a lanky man. He had long hair, bound into a ponytail. Originally it had been brown, but sun and salt had bleached it to a soft blonde tone. He wore a simple, white shirt. The lack of discolouration to it made it more impressive than any fancy tailoring. His natural thin build combined with his muscles to a build that evoked the image of ship rows in Reysha’s mind. Sturdy, despite the relative narrowness of the intertwined fibres. He was tanned. Blue eyes drifted over a parchment he was holding. His dark lips were curled up from the memory of the joke that the leaving man had told.

‘Too bad I’ll have to ruin his day a little bit,’ Reysha thought and got closer. She had either found the leader of the operation or someone so high up in the food chain that they were privy to most things. Either was good enough for Reysha.

The Rogue quickly grabbed a piece of writing coal and parchment from the table. Two items small enough that she could move them without getting noticed. Then, she retreated to a corner of the room outside the reading man’s periphery. Quickly, she wrote a few words. She made sure every letter was as clear as possible, to not cause any confusion with the locals. The script of this Leaf had become more cursive than was common for the Omniverse. They were still the same letters though.

‘The Adventurers want to speak to you,’ the message read. Reysha put it on the table and sat down on a crate at the edge of the room.

It didn’t take long for the man’s eyes to rise from the paper he was currently reading. He stretched his shoulders, yawned, and froze in both motions when he spotted the parchment on the table. He blinked two times, put the current report aside, and picked up the short message. He read it several times, trying to parse any hidden meaning. Then he looked around the room. “Is anyone here?” he asked, not loud enough to alert the people outside. “Redhead?”

Shortly after he said that word, his eyes stopped at where Reysha sat. Not moving, the tiger girl grinned, while he narrowed his eyes. It was like a farsighted person trying to narrow in on a book in front of their nose. Ultimately, he failed to spot her.

Reysha moved to one of the barrels in front of the table and dropped her Stealth. “Gotta compliment your senses,” she purred, and the man whipped around to face her. Leaning onto the table, the tiger girl raised one hand and whimsically wiggled her fingers in greeting. “Hi.”

“…hello,” the salt-bleached man responded and put the message down. “Any reason you lead with this?”

“Just applying some lessons I was taught. When dealing with people who don’t know or don’t respect the extent of Stealth, it’s a nice way to test their character by leaving them a message and reading their reaction.” Reysha shrugged. “Didn’t think much about it, just wanted to try it.” A wicked little smile spread on her face. “I did learn that you know about me though.”

“Of course, I do… whiskey?” the man reached under the table and brought forth a half empty bottle of golden alcohol.

“…Lemme try a little sip,” Reysha requested.

Two glasses were put on the table, both of them filled, and raised in toast. Reysha downed the liquid swiftly. A terrible mistake. Every muscle in her body felt like laundry that had been treated the wrong way and was now shrinking three sizes. “That’s fucking vile,” she retched.

“Not much of a drinker?” the man asked, amused.

“Not anymore…” Reysha grumbled and put the glass back on the table. “Ya wouldn’t happen to have a mantis shrimp around here? That’s what they’re called, right?”

“The toe splitters?”

“Yeah, those fuckers. I want to put one in the whiskey.” The statement caused immense befuddlement on the criminal’s face. Reysha couldn’t help it. She started laughing.

The unsteady tones of the tiger girl's amusement echoed through the room and, inevitably, through the door. It burst open, as the same large man who had let her in, checked on who had made it into the boss’ office. He and two other men poured into the room, and all were equally confused when they saw the redheaded tiger girl struggle to keep her balance on her seat.

Reysha held her breath for one moment, seeing the additional confused faces. Then she resumed laughing. Louder. Tilting back dangerously far, she kicked the air and held her stomach.

No one knew what they should do or think about Reysha. All of them had heard of the adventurers and of the brown woman with the cat ears among them. Her capacity to drop in and out of awareness had been reported on. Knowing all of that and seeing the gorgeous, leather clad woman in person were two different things. Especially when that woman kept slapping the desk with her open palm.

So they just stood there, waiting for their boss to give them an order, while the boss just sat there, trying to work this out.

Reysha’s roaring laughter gradually calmed to a little giggle. “You’re certainly as… eccentric as tales of adventurers paint your folk as,” the leader suggested carefully.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m the special kind of… hehehe… crazy.” The Ragressian ran a hand through her wild mane and directed her eyes back to the boss. Every bit confident that she could outmanoeuver all of them, she put her back to the three men still in the doorway – and the entire rest of the smugglers peeking in from outside the building.

The leader of the operation only now realized the depths of the black that surrounded her blue eyes. The shade of her skin, the darker tone of the stripes, the black of her sclera, layers of progressing darkness that surrounded the intense blue of her cat eyes.

She put her elbow back on the table and extended her hand. “Reysha,” she introduced herself.

“…Lanak,” the man introduced himself and shook the hand. “How did you find us?”

“Oh, you know…” Reysha suppressed her presence in a swift burst and hopped from one seat to the other. To her, it was just a swift bounce. To them, it was like she had teleported. Everyone’s eyes snapped from where she had sat to where she was now. “…I have my ways.”

“A better question then: why did you find us?” Lanak asked, remaining calm even now.

“Big news to ya, I know, but me and my party aren’t native to this Leaf… if I told you we call ourselves the Change Seekers, what do you think of that?”

“Honest answer? I think that’s a really random segue,” the criminal leader responded in a dry tone. “Otherwise, it sounds like you’re in the begging business.”

“I knew it,” Reysha grumbled. “Gotta workshop that name again…” The tiger waved off. “Sorry, was just on my mind. We’re trying to get a read on this whole Leaf. We got some books, but they’re kinda, sorta, really boring and one-sided. Thought I’d try to find the people not so fixated on the accepted truth.”

“You want to learn the actual history of this world.” Lanak slowly nodded to himself and stood up. “Truth be told, we don’t have a lot of reliable information,” he said, while searching through a couple of crates. “The broad strokes of widely accepted history are true. The god made this Leaf, he governed it for a little while, then he decided he wanted to try again elsewhere. The old text make that sound like the norm?”

“Far as I know, it ain’t even the norm that gods stay physically in a Leaf they make. They kinda just get it done and then bugger off,” Reysha told him. “Ain’t exactly a clear situation though. Each god is different.”

“Interesting… in any case, the whole situation went to shit when the first Maya rose up. He was a powerful mage with powerful allies, who took over the land of Mayana. He barred food delivery to the city at the Stem. Since outside traders had already lost most of their interest, the city was struggling and quickly collapsed into food riots. Refugees flooded Mayana. The instability gave rise to the rigid caste system. That’s our version of events anyway. There’s a great many holes in all of that.

“The Walled Cities came about around the same time, in response to a rise in piracy. In order to erect the defences swiftly, the local governors enlisted the refugees and the poor, promising them basic shelter and sustenance in return for their labour.”

“And so the slavery started,” Reysha stated. “Remarkable it survived though.”

Lanak shrugged. “They exchanged their freedom for safety. Fundamentally a trade people should be capable of making. With enough money, everyone can buy their freedom back.”

Reysha hummed. Still sounded like a terrible system, but at least there was a way out of the slavery. That was more than the castes offered. Although the worst of the castes did have more freedoms than the best of the slaves. ‘Man, that’s messy,’ she thought. ‘Not that home was any better with the frequent assassinations…. Maybe everywhere is always a mess.’

Lanak returned to the table with a thin book. Once it was placed in front of her, Reysha flipped through the pages. Surprisingly, the letters had the sharp form of print. “You have a press?” she asked.

“One has to find ways to keep forbidden information alive,” he told her.

Reysha browsed the book for a little bit longer, before closing it and putting it in her adventurer’s bag. Lanak’s eyes went wide when the entire object just disappeared without a trace into the deceptively small satin container. “Well, this was productive,” Reysha hummed. “Guess I owe y’all a few things in return – honour among thieves and all that.” She turned and looked past the men in the door. “I’m expected back by next morning, so feel free to ask me a few questions about what’s going on beyond this world.”

They did.