Blood Ties, Part 14
You decide that informing Ceriss of what you've learned would be the best strategy; not only would it be safer to have help in dealing with this strange sewer network, but it should also allow you to make at least a bit more headway with the heroine herself. Accordingly, once Janessa departs on her chosen task, you set out in the direction of the palace district. After all, regardless of the nocturnal vigil that she's taken on, Ceriss must still have daily duties in court as well.
Dressed in the finery you chose for Niko and radiating the sense that this is your natural habitat, no one questions you as you move through the streets of this rarefied environment, surrounded on every side by the grandiose governmental buildings that house the machinery of Vekmar's politics. You let yourself meander and mingle, striking up conversations, especially whenever you can recognize someone from the party you attended.
It takes a while, but by talking to enough people you manage to unobtrusively piece together a good place to intercept Ceriss between her duties, and you head there without delay. Soon enough, you manage to locate her walking between buildings, wearing another elegant and jaw-dropping black dress. And she's accompanied by yet another familiar face.
Lord Hastrik is walking alongside Ceriss, complaining animatedly at her about difficulties in acquiring siege weapons for the army as the two of them make their way through the streets. The anxiety you saw at the party—the concern about others' perception of him—is apparent in far greater force here. You can see the insecurity in every blustering protestation he makes.
Listening to him, you soon suspect that he isn't very well suited for this prestigious role he's claimed in the war effort. And what's more, you suspect he's fully aware of this. He just can't admit it. You can practically taste his desperation, his need to shift the blame.
Ceriss, by contrast, handles him with ease. Even as tired as she is from how hard she's pushing herself, watching the two of them verbally spar is still the political equivalent of watching a scrawny child try to wrestle Khaytala. She effortlessly interweaves both her rhetorical skill with her mesmerizing sex appeal, using it to throw him off balance even as he tries to angrily disregard her incisive retorts.
It's obvious that Hastrik—like most people—lusts after her. Even though by the standards of his social circle she's a "dirty" tiefling, albeit one tolerated for her power. As such, losing face in front of her must be all the more intolerable. Both because of his desire... and because of his shame for feeling it. But in the end, all he can do is posture, drawing himself up as ramrod straight as he can and glaring down imperiously at the gorgeous woman who is calmly running rings around his assertions.
Eventually he storms off, leaving Ceriss to sigh and shake her head wearily. You wait for a bit, then take the opportunity to rush up and greet her. "Ceriss? Ceriss! I'm so glad to see you; there's something I must tell you!"
The sorceress turns at your words. "Niko?" she asks, surprised. "What is it?"
"I found something!" you blurt out, making sure to speak like you're rushed and excited. "I... I kept trying to think of how the killer you're looking for might get from place to place without being spotted, and I had the idea to take a look at some of the sewer grates around the city, and... well... they've been secretly altered, so they can be opened by a hidden catch!"
Ceriss frowns. "That is... troubling..." she says. "Can you show me?"
You lead the way through the streets, to an out-of-the-way grate you picked out earlier as a good one to examine without interruption. Ceriss is puzzled at first when she looks at it, only for her eyes to widen as you slide your fingers in just the right way to trip the hidden latch, and with a grunt you tilt the grate up, revealing the open passage beneath.
The heroine is silent for several seconds, as she considers the implications, looking truly worried at what you've shown her. Then she makes up her mind.
"I'm going to lay down more of my detection wards before nightfall," she says, as she kneels at the opening and peers inside. "Inside the sewers, this time. Whoever is using them as secret passages, I very much doubt they're up to anything good. And... if it is the killer, and we can track his path down here... this could be what we need to finally catch him."
With that, she lowers herself down through the hole into the darkness beyond. It's a tight fit, but with a bit of maneuvering she gets herself into a position where she can whisper a quick incantation and release her grip, levitating herself down into the sewer below. There is a pause, followed by a gagging sound and a whispered string of curses.
Glancing down, you see that Ceriss is floating with her entire body locked rigidly in place, her face screwed up in an expression of distaste. It seems that, in her urgent haste, the sorceress didn't fully appreciate just how unpleasant the stench would be, once she fully descended into the sewer itself.
You carefully smother an amused smile. You doubt these conditions would have given more rough-and-ready heroines like Khaytala or Verika much pause, but Ceriss' more refined nature leaves her far more pained when confronted by the realities of traversing the filth of a city.
That said... despite how utterly unpleasant she clearly finds this task... she doesn't let her revulsion stop her either. Not when another night's delay might give the killer another chance at some unlucky prostitute that no one else cares about. After a few seconds screwing up her resolve to face the pungent waste and shit, she grits her teeth and pulls a wand out of a concealed sheathe at her hip, using it to inscribe a set of runes into the sewer wall.
The sigils flare briefly, then vanish from obvious sight, though your impossible senses can still detect a tiny hint of magical energy where they lie hidden. Satisfied, Ceriss floats down the tunnel some more. You swing yourself into the hole after her, your boots landing with a splash in the current of filth that you begin to wade through. Ceriss glances back at you, surprised. "You don't need to come with, Niko," she tries to assure you. "I can handle this on my own."
You shake your head. "Two pairs of eyes are better than one," you say. "You never know. I might notice something the killer left behind on these late-night forays of his. I think it's worth a try."
Ceriss hesitates, but seeing the determination in your eyes, is ultimately unwilling to fight you on it. Certainly she can't dispute your eye for detail, given that you noticed the grate system in the first place. The two of you make your way through the cramped, noxious culverts. Even to your smaller Niko body it feels claustrophobic and cramped, and Ceriss has it even worse in her (extremely awkward) attempt to levitate while staying out of the stream of waste, and also keeping herself compact enough to absolutely avoid touching any of the filthy walls.
She does not look like she's having an enjoyable time. At all. "When I get back to my home, I'm burning this dress," she mutters, half to herself.
You glance up. "But... aren't there cleaning charms that would—?"
"Cleaning charms would only get the smell out," she retorts. Though you get the feeling she's more grousing to vent than anything else. "The dress would still remind me of doing this."
Still, you manage to make headway, moving through the labyrinthine system, Ceriss laying down more wards at each junction or grate that you come across while you cut across the city toward the red-light district where the killings have been taking place. You clearly won't be able to cover everything before nightfall... but if you can cover enough to deduce your quarry's path...
Suddenly Ceriss freezes, holding up a hand to silently halt you, her expression suddenly focused and intent. "Wait," she said. "One of the wards I set on a different rigged grate... it just went off. And from what I can tell... whoever triggered it, they're coming this way."
The two of you exchange a quick look of surprise. What would the killer be doing down here in the middle of the day? Then Ceriss starts to move. "Stay back," she insists, her voice dropping to an urgent undertone. "In fact... you should get out of the sewers altogether if you can find another grate you can open." With that, she takes off in the direction from which you came.
You wait for a moment, trying to decide your next course of action. You're not sure exactly sure what is going on... but you want to be able to guide whatever happens. Straining your senses to detect the distant sounds carried echoing down the tunnels, you determine that Ceriss has positioned herself for an ambush, using her best guess of her quarry's course based on the tripped wards.
And it does seem like she will intercept them. Straining your senses even harder, you listen for the movement approaching the trap she's laid. And... based on the sounds you can hear them making...
Oh.
Oh shit.
As they get close enough for your inhuman ears to catch distant echoes of conversation, you suddenly understand exactly who created this secret method to move through the city unseen by its people. You also understand the nefarious purpose they had for doing it. You burst into motion, hurrying as quietly as you can after Ceriss.
You reach her well before the quarry arrives, causing her to turn worriedly. "I couldn't find a grate," you whisper by way of explanation. "And I thought... well... that the safest place to be was with you."
A complicated series of emotions run through her face at the earnest claim. But before she can respond, the sounds get close enough for even her to faintly hear. She turns back to look down the tunnel she's peeking around, her body tensing for action.
"It... sounds like there's more than just one of them..." you whisper. She probably already realized it, but you just want to make absolutely sure of that. "Is this really the killer? They might not even be related to him after all."
Ceriss raises her finger to her lips in a gesture of silence as her quarry continues to approach. Really, even now they're displaying impressive natural stealth. But their guard is down—thinking themselves safe in their home turf—and they're not quite taking all the precautions they could be. Against the two of you, that isn't good enough. Closer and closer they come...
...until finally, the small figures of three ratfolk walk around a bend in the tunnel and into view.
Once they're close enough, Ceriss levitates out into the open as well. "Halt," she says, raising a hand. "I am an agent of the royal court. And I would like to ask you some questions about the interesting modifications you seem to have made to our city's sewer system. As well as why you made them."
The ratfolk's eyes go wide, and two of the three turn to bolt. But they don't stand a chance. With a few blindingly-fast motions of her wand and a quick invocation, Ceriss traces pale white runes above the surface of the stream of filth. It immediately starts to flash-freeze, expanding forward from that point with astonishing speed. The wave of ice quickly catches up to the fleeing ratfolk, at which point it forms into frozen chains and manacles that surge up to bind and constrict, locking them in place.
The apparent leader of the trio, however, stands her ground—and the wave of ice parts around her, leaving her unbound. Ceriss levitates forward, advancing down the tunnel, while the ratfolk regards her unflinchingly. She hides it well, but you can see the desperation buried deep in her small black eyes, as she tries to think up a response.
Which is when you make your move.
Leaping out from around the corner, you run to interpose your body between Ceriss and the ratfolk, your arms outstretched protectively. "Wait!" you beg, kneeling down in the sludge to better cover her. "Don't hurt her, please! I understand what's going on now!"
Of course... it's not that you think for a moment the ratfolk is actually in any immediate danger from the heroine. Ceriss is clearly using the minimum possible force, and there's no way she wasn't intending to hear her captives out. It's just an emotional tactic. Paint the ratfolk as needing protection from her wrath (in the eyes of the innocent, wide-eyed boy) and it will increase her instinctive desire to prove that's not the case.
You'll take any edge you can get.
Ceriss hesitates, while you press on. "We had something like this back home in Aspar," you continue earnestly, spinning an off-the-cuff tale that's as full of shit as the water you're kneeling in. "The ratfolk there had tunnels too! I didn't recognize them because ours weren't using the sewers, but it must be the same thing here! It was all just because of the hardships they faced. People who kept attacking them, treating them like vermin to be exterminated. They needed a way to scavenge without drawing too much attention, to keep themselves safe! It doesn't have anything to do with the killer you're hunting at all!"
Of course, there's already little worry of Ceriss confusing them with the killer. What you need to do is sell her on the idea that this elaborate system they've created with the grates is for self-preservation alone.
And not—just to pick an entirely random example—a system created to help these ratfolk serve as more effective spies for Kovora.
"The boy is speaking truth, mistress mage," says the ratfolk, her high-pitched voice joining in with yours diffidently. "If it is pleasing you... I am known by Meska. We are only wanting to avoid the sight of you big ones. For the bad times will always come, when that sight is too often drawn our way."
Ceriss frowns, conflicted. "I... understand that you have been ill-treated by the cities on many occasions," she says, hesitantly. "But... you must also understand, to have penetrated our entire infrastructure like this, without anyone realizing... I can't just ignore a danger to our security like that. Not without further investigation, at least."
And "further investigation" is exactly what you need to avoid. Still, you don't need to persuade her not to report this indefinitely. You just need to stall long enough to finish corrupting her.
Rather than argue directly for stalling, though, you take an indirect approach. "Oh, of course!" you say, nodding while giving Ceriss your best hopelessly-naive look. "I'm sure that an investigation would show that there's nothing to fear. And... if a heroine like you spoke up for them, I'm sure that would stave off any rash attacks before the investigation could prove it!"
That causes Ceriss to flinch. She definitely has a more realistic appraisal than "Niko" about how much influence a tiefling like her would have in terms of stopping an angry mob, should word of this get out. The wrongness of your "foolish" comment helping to persuade her of just how much could go wrong, should she make a wrong move.
For a long time, she is silent. You say nothing, just keeping the full force of your innocent, hopeful gaze fixed on her. "I... will keep this to myself for now," she finally says, sighing, her words coming slow and hesitant like she's trying to convince herself. "After all, aside from minor meddling with public property, I... have no evidence you've actually broken any laws. But I will look into the matter on my own, when I can."
Which means it's time to bring it all together. "That's wonderful!" you say, beaming. Then you turn to Meska. "And... and maybe there's something you could do right now, to help prove that you're good people! We're trying to find someone. A murderer. The only reason we were down here is because we thought he might be using the sewers to evade notice during the night."
Meska shakes her head. "We ratfolk are moving through these tunnels. Especially at night. That time is best to scavenge what the clan needs, under cover of darkness, as you see. If one of you big ones is also moving through the tunnels at that time... the clan would not fail to notice this."
So. The sewers themselves are a bust as the method for how the murderer is getting from place to place without anyone seeing him. However... the excursion may still prove quite useful nonetheless. You could probably leverage the situation to convince the ratfolk to aid you, framing it as a show of good faith to help win over Ceriss by helping to catch her prey.
Unfortunately, since Ceriss is here, you won't be able to ask them to use their spying skills for any part of your mission that she wouldn't approve of. Still—on the balance—you get the distinct impression that "Niko" has impressed Ceriss with his selflessness and kindness, his willingness to look past the surface for beings that most would discount. If also exasperated her, just a bit, with his lack of common sense.
You feel that you could even try to bring up a subject of conversation with Ceriss, along with everything else. Though given everything else that needs to be sorted out, you're quite aware that any topic you raise, you probably won't be able to address it in as much depth as you would have without so many distractions. Still, even just a few tidbits of information gleaned on the right topic could prove invaluable.
