The dwarf led Maris further around the back of the Mining Quarters, leaving Wilhelm waiting on the bench, highly uneasy. At the rear of the building there was a backdoor, they went through after a quick glance back and forth. On the other side of the door, was a small room. There were steps leading down to another small room, with another door. They repeated the same thing, went down a corridor, to another door. Inside the last door was, of course, a small room, but there was also a thick metal latch covering most of the floor.
"You're doing alright?" he asked Maris.
"Yes." was all she said in response. That was just what you said when you didn't want to cause any issues. But truthfully, nothing was alright about slowly descending into the place she had always seen as unreachable.
The thin dwarf did his best to lift the latch, and probably could've done it at his peak performance, but Maris rushed in and helped him with it anyway, it was polite. Or maybe to some, insulting.
Beneath the latch was a rusting ladder that dropped into darkness below. When she looked over into the hole, Maris saw a faint light at the bottom of the ladder, gaining some trust at least that it wasn't leading straight into a bottomless bit.
"I'll go first." he said, as if the opposite wasn't entirely out of the question.
Gripping the ladder with shaking limbs and sweaty palms, the dwarf climbed down, very carefully. It was a while before there was enough room for Maris to go down as well. Once he was almost at the bottom, she grabbed hold of the cold metal bars and stepped down. She stepped and grabbed in a slow, rhythmic pattern, trying her best to not look down, keeping her eyes on the stone behind the ladder. She was going below the earth for the first time, and couldn't help but feel a new kind of pressure weighing down on her. She couldn't tell if it was just her imagination.
She finally set foot on the stable ground. At the bottom of the ladder was another corridor, this one much longer, and had stone surrounding it in every possible direction, except forward. They moved quickly along the tunnel, no longer at risk of falling, and desperate to find Clyde.
"I don't even know your name yet," Maris said, following behind the man.
"Loric."
She liked the name, "my name's Maris."
"I know." His flat answer jabbed at her sensitive heart.
"Right..."
The corridor had lanterns running along it, they created the light she had seen from above. Maris felt a nervous reliance on them. If they had burnt out, she and Loric would be left in the pitch black, forced to find their way out through touch. But the lanterns stayed burning, and at the end of the tunnel there was an exit in the form of, yet again, another large door. This one was the similar thick metal of the latch. There was a wheel handle to open it and Loric's hand reached for it, before pulling away.
"You cannot be seen by anyone. They will know immediately. I don't mean to scare you... but..." he stopped for a moment, something that Maris assumed would be a common occurrence.
"Maybe I should make sure the coast is clear. You wait here, okay?"
"Alright?" she shrugged, which wasn't really the same as a yes. But nevertheless, Loric twisted the heavy wheel and opened the door, peaking out before exiting and closing it behind him.
Maris sat down in the tunnel and put her head in her hands. What on earth am I doing? She thought. Or under, more like. She worried about what Wilhelm was doing, if he was still anxiously awaiting them on the bench. She hoped he went off and distracted himself with something, who knows how long he'd be waiting. She also worried about how long she would be waiting herself, for Loric to give her the go, sending her out into impending danger. She wondered if there was a type of magic she could do that would change her into a dwarf for the time being, but that wasn't really how it worked.
