The smoke was still funneling out from the den, the drafts from the sewer helping to coax it in the direction of Ephin and Beth. They both perched on the steps that led up to the street level, wondering how to proceed.

“What exactly do we do without them?” Ephin asked.

“We find them, obviously,” Beth said. She had tears in her eyes but would swear to anyone who could have noticed that it was only due to the smoke and nothing else.

“How? What if they caused this and if we go looking for them when they return to wait for us, we just go in circles?”

“Then in circles we go until one group catches up to the other,” Beth said, “but I refuse to just sit around and wait. They could be in trouble for all we know.”

“We aren’t exactly in a good situation ourselves,” Ephin muttered, “hey, we should go to the temple. That’s a safe haven, even for assumed criminals like us.”

“Didn’t you snitch out Jadon to the guards?”

“Not my proudest moment, I’ll admit. Anyway, if we try to make as much of the journey through the sewers, we should be able to avoid a lot of the patrols and then pop up from a different Brixith Order entrance. Sound good?” Ephin looked at Beth, trying to be upbeat for her.

“Sounds like a start.”

Ephin took that as a confirmation and started trying to work out which direction he should start walking, as the sewers had endless forks and joining paths. Feeling relatively confident in where the stairs down had pointed and the location of the closest entrance, he set off, making sure Beth and her murder bot were following.

The sewers were dark, unlike the path to the base of the Order, they were not lit with everflame torches and they were almost overflowing with water. The ice-cold remnants of the day’s snowdrifts flowed through the man made underground rivers, the water lapping up at Ephin and Beth’s feet as they hurried down the stone path, ducking out of sight of each floor-level grate, on the slight off-chance that someone would see them.

After Ephin had gotten lost twice and found their original direction again, Beth grabbed his shoulder, slowing them both down as she pointed to someone far down the path that they had just turned onto. The figure was crouched and appeared to be hiding from something out of sight, possibly to ambush them, although the sewers would be a strange place to wait for someone to attack.

Ephin and Beth, Hunter clanking behind as quietly as was possible for metal on stone, crept closer to the figure. The figure was in their path and they couldn’t go around without retracing their steps a good distance. In the cold, wet, dark sewer, they didn’t want to have to do that, if possible.

“Thank the gods you’re here,” the figure hissed at them. Straining their eyes, Ephin and Beth realized the person had been looking at them and watching them approach also, it was simply too dark to make out many of their features in the dark.

“Thank the gods we’re here?” Beth asked.

“Shut up,” the figure said, “they’ll hear you.”

“What will?” Ephin whispered, trying to peer around the corner of the wall.

“Do you have a death wish?” The man said, yanking Ephin back and making far more noise than Ephin would have made if he was allowed to simply look around. The splashing the two made as they stepped around in the thin layer of water on the floor made the man yelp in terror, the wets of his eyes now fully visible for all three others in the group. He pointed down at the ground, just a little way into the turning of the next path.

It was hard to see due to the lack of light, but both Beth and Ephin could work out what it was. A body, lying face down in the water, the looser fabrics of the clothing floating ever so slightly in the water. Then Ephin and Beth heard the rapid splashing of something rushing down the path over the water and the portion of the body they could see was ripped out of view.

“What the heck was that?” Beth whispered, her voice shaking like the ripples in the water. They could all hear the ravenous wet sounds of flesh being stripped from bone, mixed with the usual splashes of the water. Presumably what were the bones hollowly clanked across the stones as they were discarded, along with the dull thud of wet clothes.

“No idea,” the man said, “we were on a patrol when they struck. Thankfully they haven’t seen me yet, but I can’t move to save my life. My feet won’t move. You’re from the Order, right?”

“Sure,” Beth said, “what do they look like?”

“I’m not sure. Big, too big to be what I think they are, although my idea changes every time, I catch sight of one.”

“How many?” Ephin asked.

“Not sure either. Maybe three, maybe more? I can’t tell.”

“That’s useful,” Beth said dryly, “think we can take them?” She looked to Ephin and Hunter. Ephin simply shrugged, preparing for a potential fight and Hunter stood without acknowledging the hypothetical question positively or negatively.

Beth nodded to herself. Guess I have to take the initiative then, and stepped out, batting off the wild clutches of the terrified man. The looked down the murky sewer path, the freezing water rushing by in the stream on her left, splitting the sewer tunnel in two, a path on either side. She could see the shadows moving, regarding the new being. They then screeched and charged towards her.

Beth did not have time to fully register what was trying to attack her before Hunter came diving in front of her, tackling the first assailant, leaving the second to attempt to attack her instead.

She only had one glove remaining, which meant it couldn’t do as much as she had become accustomed to, however she still held some of her explosives that she had created. She pulled one metal plate out of a belt pouch and cracked it, bending it and releasing the chemicals within. She counted in her head 1, 2 and threw it as hard as she could at the charging shadows following the initial attacker. The bent plate dug into the next creature, due to its sharp edges, and the resulting explosion showed Beth exactly what they were dealing with.

The flames lit up the sewer tunnel for an instant, to allow her to see a swarming mass of things that were half rat, half spider. Each one was huge, the smallest the size of a large dog. They had skittering spider legs, covered in fur, and the torsos and heads of rats, swollen to imitate a spider’s abdomen. Each body had eight beady little black eyes shining in the firelight, recoiling before they were suddenly back in the shade and Beth was in all of their line of sight.

“This was a mistake,” was all she could say before her words were drowned out with the screeches of countless spider-rats.

Beth activated her glove, firing off blast after blast to keep the horde at bay, trying to pull out more metal cards to throw at them, but there were too many and they were much to hardy to be taken down by the concussive blasts. Hunter was standing shoulder deep in the water, midway through pulling himself back onto the path and Ephin was busy praying, hopefully to create something useful to fend off the beasts.

“Gods damn it,” Beth yelled over the screeching, “Where is the nearest exit?” The man was simply standing in shock, eyes closed and muttering to himself. Ephin saw that Beth was preoccupied and cut his praying short to slap the man, who snapped his eyes open, but did not stop muttering.

“The exit?” Ephin shouted, straining to be heard, “Where is it?” He then pushed the man down the path, trying to jolt him into action. The man regained his footing and looked up, into a splinter of light. A grate.

“Beth,” Ephin called, “get Hunter to boost us out of here. Switch and you can blast open this grate.”

Ephin ran to Beth’s side and soon enough, faintly glowing fists effectively walled off the sewer, hammering down at the abominations that came too close. With Beth’s instruction, Hunter did as Ephin had said and as Beth shot a couple blasts upward, the metal of the grate was ripped open, splintering onto the street above. Hunter then grabbed Beth and threw her upwards, sailing up and onto the street with a rough landing.

“Are you ready?” Ephin shouted to Hunter and the man. The man did not respond, however Hunter confirmed, kneeling down and preparing to hoist Ephin up when he came to position. “Last chance, sir.” The man stood still, unresponsive. “I’m sorry.”

Ephin let the wall of fists dissipate, sprinting towards Hunter and allowing himself to be catapulted into the air as the tide of screeching fur burst across the ground below him. The man as immediately swallowed up the swarm, his screams nearly inaudible over the screeches of the rats. Ephin hit the cobbled street next to Beth and the both looked down for but a moment before the creatures started following them up and out onto the street.

Similar to an overflowing brown wave coming up from the sewers, and just as unpleasant, the fur-covered spiders ran in all directions, pouncing on people that had not yet realized the horror. Anyone not immediately killed began to run as fast as they could away from the outbreak. Beth and Ephin were part of the crowd running, looking back only to fend off the closest beasts, or to check for Hunter, who never emerged. A passing patrol of the city watch saw the swarm from the end of the street that Beth and Ephin were running towards and looked at each other before quickly deciding it was better left to someone else; they also ran.

“This way,” Ephin shouted, turning the corner and seeing a sign of a tavern he recognized. They were not too far from the temple and now the city had a significant distraction for the guards, so they hopefully wouldn’t try to apprehend the two of them as they ran down the streets.

Eventually, Beth and Ephin finished off the last of the creatures chasing them, the swarm having spread out enough for the numbers to be less of a threat to them.

“What did we just unleash on the city” Ephin asked.

“Not us,” Beth shook her head, trying to catch her breath even as they continued running. “Chyringa.”

Ephin nodded, pointing up ahead to the roof of the temple, rising above the buildings they were running between.

They did not stop running until Ephin fist crashed against the front door of the temple, continually hammering until it was pulled open by the old familiar, and quizzical, face of the older priest Qodorn. Beth and Ephin rushed in before he could get a questioning word out and started heaving the door closed.

Ephin stumbled and collapsed onto a pew, breathing heavily as Beth looked at him, at the older priest and then further around at the full congregation.

“Hey,” Beth whispered in a carrying voice that everyone could hear, “get up, idiot.”

Ephin waved her off, leaning back and realizing he couldn’t as he bumped into an elderly night-touched lady who smacked him on the shoulder, swatting at him until he was standing once more.

Not speaking, Ephin waved Beth over and they hurried back out of the main chamber, into a back room, Qodorn following, and apologizing to the congregation.

“This had better be good,” Qodorn hissed as he shut the door behind himself, “and it better good enough to wait until after the service.”

“I don’t think anyone wants to be outside right now,” Beth said, sitting down in a chair and looking up at the old man.

“After the service,” he repeated before retreating out of the room and shutting the door once more. They could hear the muffled apologies through the wooden door before they stopped suddenly and the steps returned to the door.

“What do you mean by that?” Qodorn asked Beth as Ephin began to explain the whole story.