Burning Night: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 18, Part 1: Natalina

"You know, there's something liberating about not wearing the coat," Coraline remarked to Natalina, as they made their way to the cargo elevator. "Suddenly people stop looking at me like I'm going to light them on fire."

Natalina smirked as the passing waves of people swept by them, indifferent as if she and Coraline were just streetlamps to dodge. It was hard to imagine being the centre of attention, to so many, on a regular basis.

"That's sort of what I'm going for. People with power tend to panic when that power is threatened, and your coat alone would give you the power of another gang boss down there," Natalina remarked.

"That's not entirely why I agreed to leave my coat behind," Coraline said. "There's an unwritten rule in the Guild about going into the Undercity. We don't do it."

"Why not?" Natalina asked.

"For exactly that reason. Any crafter is a battalion of firepower, in a single person. One graduated member of the Guild could walk into the Undercity, and make themselves a boss. In hours. The reason we don't is if the Undercity falls apart, the Undercity doesn't meet its quotas. Every reason that last op-ed piece of yours mentioned. We can't risk the quotas," Coraline said.

Natalina nodded, as they wandered into a massive warehouse with an immense, elaborate glass archway.

"What about potentials born in the Undercity?" Natalina asked. "What happens to them?"

"As long as they're weaker than the reject that eventually finds them, they're trained to become future enforcers. There's rarely any emphasis on self-discipline or restraint, so the training goes terribly wrong as often as not," Coraline explained, sombrely. "Often, even if the training takes, it means the teacher ends up that much closer to madness."

Natalina nodded. "And the potentials that are stronger than their teachers?"

"They're killed," Coraline said simply.

Natalina found herself unable to imagine a response. Instead, she quietly lead them to the cargo elevator and joined a small throng of people making their way inside.

The gate shut just as Coraline stepped inside, with a vicious bang that made the crafter jump.

Natalina smirked a little, as Coraline glared at the door indignantly.

"So, Coraline, why are you so interested in the Undercity?" Natalina asked, a few moments after the elevator began to descend.

"There's the reporter in you," Coraline remarked. "I'd rather not talk about it, frankly. We'll just keep calling it eccentric altruism for now."

Natalina nodded, not willing to press.

The elevator fell swiftly, but it was still several long minutes before the ride even began to slow, and several more before they arrived.

The elevator stopped at the end of a poorly lit cavern, one that smelled badly of ash, tinged with the sharp, acidic scent of burnt metal. Natalina wrinkled her nose and coughed once, but Coraline only smiled as the same smell left the crafter unfazed.

"At some point, this is what everything a Crafter does smells like," Coraline explained. "This is what some of my best work smells like, just as it's finished."

Natalina smiled and shook her head, bemused. She lead the way out of the elevator and stepped out into the faint torchlight reflecting off the seared stone.

"We're going to start our search at The Derelict Inspector," Natalina explained. "It's a dive bar, but I've always suspected the owner knows a lot more than he lets on. He was extremely helpful when I was working on that last op-ed piece, he knew a fair bit about the quota system."