Shadow of the Blade

The Underground Town

TALON:

It's as dark as a starless night down here.  I need to strike a match to see anything.  The black cat is just up ahead.  The fact that the cat seemed to be waiting for me and looked like he was leading me here really kind of grated my nerves.

The path downward ends eventually and takes me to a carved archway that leads straight into the town.  I flick my match out.  A carved archway?  Really?  Did the archway have 'Welcome to our hidden secret underground city' engraved on it?  For someplace so much on the down-low it seemed kind of strange.  

Nonetheless, the cat struts right through the arch and gives me a backward glance before he bolts off.  Good.  I can stop fixating on a stupid cat and get to the task at hand.  Finding and eliminating the witch.  I walk down the empty predawn streets and study my environment.  The surrounding streets made a grid and they all have street lanterns to illuminate them.  Closed shops are all around me.  I take note of each one:  Bookshop, candle shop, apocathary with strangely shaped bottles in the window.   Might be a place to start.  Leather tanner.  Weapons master.  Now that's more like it.  At least I can pretend I have legit business to do there.  Teahouses up ahead and machinery I have never seen the likes of before and they actually have an inn.  I didn't think many people would be welcome to visit a place tucked away like this.  There was something that was not quite right here though.  I could feel it.

I make note of each alley I pass.  The kind of place I always feel most comfortable.  These alleys redefine the term 'down a dark alley.'  It must be strange to live in a place where the sun never shines down on you.  I push these thoughts out of my mind.  I have a witch to find.

I run into a shop sporting cards and a crystal ball.  more likely than the apocathary.  I would remember its location.  I move on, keeping out of the center of the street and close to the walls.  Tea houses line the next block along with a bakery.  On one of the last streets there at the end is a shop with old Ionian runes etched above it along with a wheel,  a symbol of the wheel of fortune and an Ionian superstition that if you keep a wheel around, fortune will always turn in your favor.  Less conspicuous than the fortune teller and most likely the spot.  I would case the joint in the daytime, if daytime is even a thing around here, and get down to business in the evening.  I should be in and out of here in the same day.

I sit down on the ledge of the fountain in the middle of the square and waited for the townspeople to get up and start going about their day.  Then I could go to the weapons master and pretend I have a different kind of business to conduct.  I probably wouldn't look so out of place there.

The town rises from slumber around me with suspicious stares and muted whispers.  I'm used to this kind of welcome.  Although I don't look so much different than an Ionian kinkou or member of the order of shadow,  I'm smart enough to know when to make my presence known and when not to. Seeing as how I am already standing out, I'll go to one of the teahouses for breakfast and then to the weapons master.    

I determine which tea house to land in for a while.  I see one I like and there it is, tucked away, barely visible but there it is.  The symbol of the order of shadow.  We're pretty far from Zed's dojo and home but this I know now:  That's what feels off.  This town has aligned itself with Zed and his shady magic.  No wonder I'm here to kill this witch.

The stakes have risen but this is the kind of thing I do.  I know what the game is now.  it is what it always is...you figure it out for yourself or you don't play.  I'm ready.  I duck inside the teahouse.  only a few patrons are there probably leftover from last night.  or our out with the early worms cause there are surely no birds down here underneath a mountain.

I drop my mask since it always makes people uncomfortable.  I need to play nice for now.

A cautious man comes up to me offering a pot of tea and sticky rice.  "never seen you around here."   he says warily "You from The first-lands?"    

As if I live here, I use my best Ioinan accent.  "I stay there sometimes." I hear the lie fall from my lips.

"So, you know the order?"  He asks cautiously.

"Zed and I have known each other for a long time" I reach for the tea he brings.  That much is true.  The Ioianian war is over but I hope one day they send me to take out Zed.  The general says it's a sunk cost and I never do anything I'm not getting paid to do but I would love to pop out of the shadows he loves so well to slit his shifty throat and see if his shadow seeps out of the wound and fades into mist.  Out loud I say " I have never seen anyone fight with the zeal of Zed."  Another truth.  Zed is a freaking zealot for sure.   The man gets instantly more comfortable with me.  I can see it as his guard falls down.

"I'm here looking for a special object for the order."  Forget the stop to the weapons master.  Let's get right down to business. After all,  I didn't come here to play around.  There had to be some kind of object.  there always is, in the mix with witches and sorcerers.  Some cursed Darkin blade or magic box.

  "Oh, your here to see LunaBella."  he leans over and refreshes my tea.  I've already inspected it to make sure nothing I would object to is in it.  I guess I've gotten paranoid over the years.  I've seen too much.  

I nod.  "Wintersong"  I reply.   He gets even more comfortable, certain I'm down with the kind of shadows I can feel all over this town.  I may lurk in the shadows.  I am the blade's shadow but I have no desire to cut a deal to make shades of myself to kill for me.  I'll do it all by myself.

"Lunabella doesn't come out much but she should be in her shop later today.  You can wait here until then if you like."

Good to know she doesn't get out much.  I'm sure I can be in and out without anyone any the wiser of what I'm up to.  And if she's never around she won't be missed for a while. I might kill this guy on the way out too.  I really hate to leave any loose ends.

I nod, hand him a coin, and thank him for the tea.  There's a paper on the table and I start to read it.  I don't want to talk to the guy too much. It would create opportunities to give myself away and I simply can't have that.  

So I wait.  Much of what I do is a waiting game.  And it's not usually someplace as comfy as a teahouse.  This is gonna be a cakewalk.