The Pearl Of Vynes - Chapter 26 City Sewers

Alice woke up in a small bed, a candle lit by her bedside where she could the muffled shouting and celebration of another work day below. Her body hurt, worst than what sparring she and Miles had done on the trip here. Staring at her arm the whole it was wrapped but she could see and feel it was heavily bruised from the fight. The door to the room opened and she saw Miles came in.

“Ah, you’re up good. I was starting to worry you’d just sleep the whole time we’re here”

“Miles, what happened to me?” Alice asked worringly, she felt a broken arm was an expectation from the spat earlier.

“Hmm, how to explain it. Well I don’t entirely know what happened there but it seems you might just have a little magic in you”

“Magic?” Alice said confused.

“Yes, the physical prowess you showed is definitely strange. Especially for your size. I believe you might have fortification magic” Miles said with his finger set in a lecturer’s position.

“You’re body for a brief period will have extreme strength and speed, that goes above and beyond anything you’d call human. However it has the unfortunate side effect of damaging the user as you over exert your body, hence all the brusing and possible broken bones if you’re not prepared”

“So what do I do about it?” Alice asked.

“Train obviously, you’ll be just as much a danger to others as you would be to yourself if you don’t learn how to control it” Miles said.

“For now you’ll need to rest and recover. You’re lucky to not be worst off” Miles patted her head.

Alice relaxed back down on the bed and fell asleep instantly. Miles looked down at her and noticed her necklace had fallen out from underneath, the attachment was glowing incredibly fierecly like he had never seen before.

“It can’t be” Miles whispered to himself, if its true they just might be in more trouble than they had bargained for. Blowing out the candle he went to bed himself, it was a long time since he heard of the Pearl of Vynes.

Alice could feel a burning on her shoulder, searing into her arm and causing her to scream. Miles woke up suddenly and ran to her side as she clutched her arm while she writhed in the bed. The dream protection spell was being purged and he couldn’t tell who was going after Alice. Placing his hand above the pattern he poured magic back into the pattern working up a sweat from him. The pressure bearing down trying to break through the spell was of something ancient. All of a sudden the pattern disappeared instantly, throwing Miles back from Alice’s side. Alice started to relax on the bed and was resting quietly again. Getting up Miles was started to fume, there was only a couple of people that could possibly out do him, and they all should’ve disappeared a long time ago. Sighing and getting back on his feet he looked over at Alice, sleeping peacefully again. He was gonna have to poke around the capital to see who was really behind messing with Alice. He set a fury in him he thought he had lost a long time ago. Walking out of the room and tavern the streets were unnaturally quiet and devoid of life. If he was going to find anwsers he was going to have to go to the top people themselves. Walking around he could see the large statues representing the gods that were prayed to. One in particular was going to keep his interest as he looked for the temple of Moira. He stopped in front of one of those statues, placing his hand on the stones surface and whispered a chant underneath his breath. The statue began to glow with a blue light and formed into a lady with a floating dress, Moira the Lady of the Ocean. Looking down she saw Miles below and smiled.

“My dear Seth, it has been so long” Moira spoke to him, her voice seemingly floating on the air itself.

“I go by a different name now my lady but I have more pressing matters. It seems the Pearl of Vynes is going to emerge once more” Moira pursed her lips in concern.

“Truly, it cannot be emerging unless one has found the missing chip in its orb and that was lost to the seas eons ago. Have you been involved in it”

“Someone’s been messing with my pupil, and I feel the two are connected. There has been some interesting developments that I would say were far from human”

“But what is to be human Seth? I would say your pupil may have to follow through. The Pearl has a mind of its own outside the influence of us Gods. Although you were absent from its creation we poured our blessings into this one object in the hopes to raise this land again from destruction we had caused long ago. After people began the Pearl began to crack and lost its powers, although it may still choose an heir to invoke it again”

“Invoke?”

“The one chosen will be a host to the Pearl, something has caused a rift in this world again”

“I have a feeling it may be within this city though, everything I’ve seen is pointing to the its return”

“And truly whoever comes to be its heir will forever changed the course of history for people. Sadly I must go” Moira said sorrowfully, “Oh how I have missed you Seth” Moira stretched out her hand and placed it along Miles’ face. Slowly Moira faded back into the statue form and Miles stared at it silently.

“It’s never easy, it’s a wonder I even stayed that long with them” Miles said with a huff making his way back to the tavern.

The sound of a closing door awoke Alice, the soft sound of rain hitting the windows broke much of the silence in the room. Glancing at the entrance, she saw Miles carrying some supplies with him.

“Ah, you’re awake good. I was worried you’d be sleeping forever” Miles said. Alice sat up but a sharp pain in her arm halted her, glancing down at it she could see that the pattern that was there earlier was burnt away. A huge welt was on her arm and Miles came over to her.

“I brought a healing salve to make it easier for you” Miles said as he took a jar out of the bag, opening it up he took a small amount of brown wax and applied it to her wound.
for visiting.

“You had been sleeping for a week now, you had me worried and I’m sure you’ll be very hungry now. There’s some food on the table and you can eat it when you’re ready” Alice glanced over and could see a still steaming bowl of soup, a number of vegetables were floating in the liquid. Miles bandaged her arm and handed her the bowl.She ate the food ravenously, stopping to swallow it before starting again.

“I found more about who was behind the attacks back in Rift, and I was hoping you were ready to fight again”

“I’mfeh reeeedy” Alice said with her mouth full.

“Glad you’re enthusiatic about it, sadly we’re going to have to skip you’re training. I think it’s a bad idea to let you go in still so green but at the moment we’re incredibly pressed for time. When you’re finished I’ll see you outside, we’ve got work to do” Miles said, getting up from the floor and walking out the door. Alice slurped down the last of her meal and got out of her bed. Her legs felt almost like dead weight to her but after a few minutes she could stand again. Going over to her pack she grabbed a new pair of clothes, strapped pants and basic leather coverings on top of her linen shirt. She strapped her dagger into her belt and slipped on her boots. Opening the door Miles was leaning on the wall, in a state of pondering barely paying heed to Alice’s existence. Alice coughed and Miles snapped of his reverie.

“We’re off, follow me. I’ll explain more as we make way” Miles said walking at a brisk pace. Alice kept up, though despite being bed ridden for so long her legs welcomed the walk after being crapped for such a period.

“There’s been a number of rumours of people going missing here in the capital. There was no monster sightings but its too similar to the events in Rift to simply let go. If we can follow the events we might just catch this man” Miles said, Alice by his side.

“Do you think I’ll be able to keep up?” Alice asked. Miles laughed,

“I’m more than certain you will, I’m more worried you’ll go overboard” Miles remarked. Alice beamed in appreciation, hopefully she’ll be able to keep herself under control while in the fight. Miles went from store to store, asking the same questions about the rumours of the missing people. Everyone replied it was near tent city, the extreme poor side of the city. Thanking them for the information Alice and Miles made their way there, the place were only the neglected and poor could survive. Wondering through the sitting peasents, the squalor was rampant and the smell of sewerage was slowly becoming overpowering. Suddenly a pipe jutted out from the outer wall, a small pool of sewerage was flowing and spread out towards the the river to carry it away. A large grate covered it but as Miles approached he could squeeze through.

“I know it smells bad but from what I can tell this seems to be where it comes from” Miles gestured inside the pipe. Pinching her nose Alice followed through the pipe grate and they trode through the small river flowing through.

“There are pipes running all over the city to funnel and flush out the sewerage” Miles said, fishing out a lantern from his pack as the further they went it began to be incredibly dark. Alice was still fumbling in the dark after Miles

“How can you stand the smell?” Alice asked Miles. Miles turned around, a peg already clasped on his nose, pointing at the peg. Miles passed one back to Alice and covered her nose, it didn’t get rid of the smell but it made it tolerable. As they were wading through Miles swung the lantern back and forth, the light of sound of scuttering caught their attention. Miles turned the lantern forward shining the light forward. A sudden glimpse of fur and flesh rose up, issuing a loud squeak and running off further into the tunnels. Miles started cursing under his breath, taking Alice by surprise with his vocabulary.

“Rat people, I knew they existed but I didn’t think they had infessted the city already” Miles said muttering to himself.

“How do you know they’ve infested here?” alice asked.

“When there’s one, there’s a thousand more you haven’t seen lying in wait. The bastards breed like crazy, and are a match for any man in combat” Miles was still cursing to himself as he worked his way through the slowly rising sludge. The glimpses of the large rats became more frequent, the size could easily tower over her. Suddenly the pipe ended and they both entered into a huge room. A large pool of sewerage was in the center, small shadows ran along the pipes and fixtures covering the walls. Alice stared as the walls were covered in ratmen, a whole wall of writhing masses of fur and tail. The rats tried to crawl over each other as they made their way up along the makeshift ramparts. Miles swore but then the glint of all eyes were on the two of them. The mass had stopped moving and everything was quiet as the flow of water was the only sound made.

“Run” Miles said. The rats suddenly started dropping down the floor and pursuing them.

“Run” Miles shouted as he ran past Alice, Alice was close behind running at full pace in the pipe. Miles rummaged around in his bag as he ran, Alice could see the rats catching up to them filling the pipe as they went.

“Miles, you better do something quick or we’re all rat food” Alice screamed at him. Miles sounded a cry of glee as he produced a bomb.

“Are you insane? We’re gonna go with rats as well” Alice shouted, the rats were so close to Alice now she could see the yellow fangs open and ready to bite her in two. Miles threw the bomb behind but it didn’t explode, instead it formed a white wall behind. The screams of frustraions behind them signalled the brief halting of the rat tide.

“That’ll hold the bastards for a little while” Miles remarked. Miles went back to his old routine of swearing under his breath as he shone the lantern to the pipe openings around them. Alice was trying to catch her breath.

“Looks we’re lost, dammit” Miles swore. As Alice looked around one of the pipe openings, a whisper so faint called her into the direction of one of the pipes. Slowly she started walking down as the whispers became stronger.

“If we take this route here, I think we’ll find a way out” Miles said looking at the pipes.

“Alice?” Miles said as he looked around, Alice had disappeared.