The Arcane Trilogy: Better Call Paul - Book 1

Chapter 19: Belly of the Beast

Panic had begun to beset Paul, which each passing step causing tidal waves of fear to roll lover him. He had to. He had no choice. If Sevika was going to get out, he needed the money, and he had to get Sevika out or else he would not live long enough to enjoy the wealth that had been bestowed onto him. Fortunately, this wasn't the first high pressure situation of Paul's life, so that particular conundrum did not cloud his judgment completely. He quickly swung by the cheapest clothes store he knew and hastily bought the longest and cheapest overcoat in stock. The long black coat of choice still looked as if it was well maintained, so it would stand out to anyone who decided to pay attention to Paul, but Goodbrook thought that it would be better than nothing, considering the suits he owned were of a much higher quality than the average Zaunite's choice of apparel. It was as Paul had left the shop, an even more daunting realisation pierced through him.

The air.

Zaun's air was well known to be rather unpleasant to topsiders, and Paul was a born and bred piltie since day one. He rattled his mind with all the possible choices laid out to him. He could spend more time looking for a respectable merchant and buy a mask from them, but then Paul thought about Sevika's words even more. He had to go to a warehouse district of some sort. From her directions, it seemed like it was well hidden and out of the way, which made sense considering the huge amount of wealth that was involved. That meant that Paul could potentially avoid unwanted attention, so if he wore a respirator that screamed 'I am from Piltover', he would not need to fear that a disgruntled Zaunite would take issue with him. However, as Paul thought more, he realised that it most likely wouldn't be as simple. He did not know the undercity. What looked like an abandoned alley could actually be a hive of cutthroats for all Paul knew. He had to blend in as much as possible. With all that in mind, he chose to go down with no mask, hoping that his inside wouldn't bleed out from every hole in his body the second he stepped foot into Silco's realm.

After securely fastening his newly acquired overcoat, Paul begun his journey as the orange hue of the evening sun fell over Piltover. After crossing the bridge, he wandered into the quiet and lonely streets of southside. His restless eyes scanned in front of him, shooting his gaze at every little disturbance or noise that he heard. He only saw a few residents going about their days, but none of them took notice of the lawyer, much to Paul's relief. After a few minutes of following a path that closely followed the coastline, the lawyer turned left at the first chance he had. After following the path for a few minutes, Paul's eyes fell upon a well that fit Sevika's description. After briskly heading over to it, he glanced down into the black chasm to confirm the well was indeed empty. He then looked up to his left to see a poorly lit alleyway beckoning him. After a deep breath, he tentatively approached, slowly tip toeing into the gloomy pathway. Paul's eyes snapped to a dimly lit lamp ahead of him. Like a moth to a flame, he approached the source, scanning the area around him. Off to his right was a run-down building with an interesting front door design. There were several engravings on its surface, much like much of the architecture in Piltover and some corners of southside, but it also possessed a circular window frame that was directly attached to the top of the door and arched around to the side. It made it almost look like a keyhole that would unlock the door to a completely different world.

Seeing no other promising directions to follow, Paul gently pushed the door open. The creaking sound echoed through the hollow building. He looked up to see a couple of paintings that scattered across the drab pink walls, which had clearly seen better days, as Paul could spy several openings that exposed the wooden bones of the building as well as chunks of the wallpaper hanging on by threads. Several spots of greenery sprouted from the nooks and gaps in the infrastructure of the house, spreading their way over the cobblestone floor beneath him. The lawyer then turned his attention to the main focus of the room, which must have been the access lift that Sevika mentioned. Paul slowly entered and scanned the lift's interior as he inspected the lever that he assumed activated the contraption. He pulled down on it, whirring the lift into action with metallic thud, as the two lamps that hung from the front corner of the box snapped on.