Standing beside Athira on the rooftop of a high-rise with shifted Black simmering in his veins and just enough breeze to flutter his garments, Shift felt dramatic.
Not for the first time, he caught his reflection in the window of the large skyscraper across from them, hardly recognising the masked, cowled figure that stared back at him.
The outfit Athira had given him mirrored her own with a few key differences — notably, his full-length sleeves to her halterneck that left her runed arms and back exposed, but there was one particular detail that Shift found himself surprisingly disappointed about.
"Why don't I get a cloak?" he asked, tugging at the edge of the cowl sewn to his tunic.
Athira didn't even look at him before she answered. "Because if they grab your cloak, you're in trouble. If they grab my cloak, they're in trouble."
Still somewhat disappointed, Shift accepted that logic with a shrug and ran a hand over his clothes. "This all fits too well to be a guess. Where'd you even get my measurements?"
"There's literally a database that's updated daily by your fanbase dedicated to you on the net," she muttered, grabbing his arm and pulling him down. "It wasn't hard. Now get down before they notice you."
Shift did as instructed, crouching beside her and followed her gaze down to the alley below.
The large skyscraper across from them was, of course, Sirah's infamous casino-slash-hotel the Royal Hue, renowned for its questionably named club, 'The Underground'. Shift had always assumed it was just an edgy name to draw attention, but given the reason they were currently Owled up and perched on top of an adjacent high-rise, he was starting to wonder if someone had taken the phrase 'hiding in plain sight' one step further and hung a sign above the door.
There were six people loitering in the alley — seven if you included the one obviously guarding the side door to the casino. This far up, Shift couldn't make out a whole lot of details about them except the occasional shove.
"What are we waiting for?" asked Shift. The mask was crystal Black, as he'd learned when she'd pressed her fingers to his face to shape his own. Looking through it was like viewing the world through sunglasses, and it was surprisingly comfortable. "Are we sneaking in?"
Athira snorted. "No. I'm just waiting for that tall one to leave."
Shift quickly identified them as the one doing most of the shoving. "Are they a problem?"
"If by a problem you mean he talks too much and the only way to get him to shut up is to put his head through the wall, then yes."
Amusement curved Shift's mouth into a smirk. "Doesn't seem like much of a problem to me."
"The problem is that tonight, I'm in exactly the mood to do it."
He glanced at her, attempting to read her expression from just the exposed lower half of her face. The edges of her runes were still frayed, but by some small blessing, they didn't seem to have decayed further.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, tapping his head. "Y'know, in here?"
Athira grimaced. "A little worse than usual, but nothing I haven't handled before. You remember the plan?"
"I'm your apprentice," said Shift. "I stay close to you, keep my mouth shut, and stare down anyone who looks at me too long." He paused, trying to remember if he'd missed anything important and realised something. "You never did tell me why we're coming here first, by the way. I thought we were just checking out those buildings from the journal."
"We'll have time for that after. First, I'm going to ask Chief if he knows anything about the people controlling the Sleepers."
"Wait, Chief?" said Shift, frowning beneath his mask. "The head of the Underground? Purple with the Domination ability?"
"That's the one."
"Isn't that risky?" said Shift. "If he uses his ability, he can force us to do whatever he wants."
"He won't," said Athira. "He isn't sure he can control me, and ever since I haunted him for a week, I think he's terrified of finding out."
"You... haunted him?"
Athira turned her head towards him, the ghost of a smile flickering across her lips. "I wanted information. He wanted me to do a favour in exchange for it. I decided to make his life a living nightmare until he made an exception." Her attention returned to the alley. "Hopefully that exception still stands, because I really don't have a week to spend putting his bed on top of a skyscraper every night."
Shift smirked. "Why are the shortest people I know also the most terrifying?"
"Practice," she said, echoing his smirk. She reached for his hand. "He's gone. Let's go."
They dropped, landing in the alley with the announcing thud of their boots on the pavement. The woman guarding the door tensed, ready for a fight until she took one look at Athira's cloak and sighed.
"Great, now there's two of you," muttered the woman, reluctantly opening the door with a glance at Shift.
Athira swept past her. "Tell Chief I'm here to see him."
Shift stayed close as they headed inside, walking through a corridor lit by strings of multicoloured lights twisted along the walls. Past a few doorways and a corner or two, they reached a dead end with multiple elevators and a pair of individuals guarding them.
The guards made a half-hearted attempt to ask Athira for a passrune as she ignored them and placed her hand on the doors of the furthest elevator. Black spread across the surface, erasing the various trap runes hidden in the decor before she grabbed Shift's arm and phased them into the empty elevator shaft.
It was too dark to tell exactly how many floors they descended, but the elevator was still rumbling somewhere in the darkness below when Athira stopped, floating beside a closed set of doors.
"Remember," she murmured, her words just loud enough to hear over the dull thud of music coming from the other side. "Stay close, and keep your mouth shut. If you get recognised, I'll have to end every last idiot in this place to protect you and I have better things to do with my night. Ready?"
"Like undercooked spaghetti," said Shift, earning himself a confused head tilt from Athira. He grinned at her. "Y'know, like it could use another minute or two, but technically it's still edible? It's not my best comparison, but it did rhyme, so—"
He could practically hear the eyeroll in her voice. "I should let them eat you for making me listen to that."
"But you won't."
"Don't bet on it," she said, pulling him through the doors and into the Underground.
With the music loud enough to be heard through the wall, Shift wasn't surprised to find himself stepping into a strobe-lit nightclub — though describing it as just a nightclub didn't come close to doing it justice.
The space was huge, the ceiling maybe three floors high and speckled with a variety of runes, ranging from practical things like reinforcement and stability to the illusion runes that sent showers of starlight spilling onto the crowded dance floor below.
Everywhere he looked, there was something different. At least a hundred people were spread between the twin bars on either side of the room, the packed gambling tables on the left, and the several, plush-looking lounges on the right. There were fountains and dancers and gigantic light displays, and the only word that Shift could come up with to describe it all was extravagant.
Athira was interested in none of it, heading straight for the twin staircases on the far wall that led up to the empty balcony overlooking the club below. Shift stayed close, keeping his head forward as beneath the mask his gaze darted elsewhere, taking in the details of the room — and more importantly, the people who occupied it.
He could pinpoint the moment someone noticed Athira. Their smiles would slip, their eyes narrowing as whatever conversation they'd been participating in fell silent, the same way a forest might hush when a predator stalked by. People took one look at her cloak and stepped back to let her pass.
It didn't matter who. It didn't matter how many. Every single last person moved out of the Owl's way.
When they were halfway up the stairs — the one place that wasn't crowded with people — Shift leaned close to her ear.
"I think they'd have been less horrified had a squadron of Elites walked in here," he said. "What on Thols did you do to them?"
"It's more what they couldn't do to me," replied Athira. "Everyone in the Underground is required to swear themselves to one of the Nests. I told them I'd swear to any group that could make me yield. They were, shall we say, unsuccessful."
"Group?" said Shift, noting her smirk. "Show off."
"It got the point across at the time," said Athira. "I didn't want..."
They fell silent as a teenager came running up the stairs behind them, breathing hard.
Bile rose in Shift's throat as he noticed the scars just under the boy's neckline. He couldn't have been older than fourteen, fifteen at most, yet that all too familiar glint of wariness was already set deep into his gaze.
"Please forgive the interruption, Owl," said the kid, his gaze flicking nervously to Shift. "You've been invited to meet with Chief. If you'll follow me, I can lead you to him now."
"What a coincidence," said Athira dryly, gesturing forward with a hand. "After you."
The kid scurried ahead, doing his best to appear composed as Athira followed, entirely unconcerned while Shift, keeping his priorities in mind, bit his tongue and walked after her.
They reached the top of the stairs and walked along the balcony to a door at the centre. The kid wrapped his fingers around the handle, and when a click sounded, he pushed open the doors and stepped aside with a stiff bow.
Athira swept inside the room, and after a short glance at the kid, Shift squared his shoulders and walked in.
It was some kind of office, empty except for them and the furniture, which was almost exclusively wood. That made it expensive enough, but on top of that, the large desk, bookshelves, and high-backed, velvet-cushioned chairs were all carved with intricate details. Illuminated cases of alcohol lined the wood-panelled walls behind the desk, all neatly kept.
The door shut behind them.
Shift glanced down at the rug beneath his feet — a dark mauve to match the velvet on the chairs. "So, the Underground criminal empire is actually under the ground at the club called 'The Underground', eh?"
"You're doing a lot of talking for someone who's supposed to be keeping their mouth shut," said Athira. "But yes. As far as I can tell, the above-ground club was a hub for criminal activity when the Elites took control of Sirah ages ago, and it all expanded from there."
She picked up a book from the desk and inspected it. "This club down here is VIP only, short for 'very idiotic persons'. You only get in if you're sworn to Chief, or if you're gullible and have more pigment than brain cells." She put the book back down on the desk with a loud thud. "And if someone keeps me waiting much longer, I'm going to have plenty of time to go back downstairs and explain to those individuals just how rigged the gambling tables are."
The wall behind the desk split open, revealing a hidden doorway.
Four large, tough-looking individuals, all inked with the same violet tattoo on their throats, entered the room. They took their positions, two either side of the desk, straight-backed and steady as Athira just folded her arms, bored.
A few moments later, a fifth man entered.
Shift took one look at the man's dark, shoulder length hair streaked with violets and instantly recognised him as Chief.
"There's no need for threats, Owl," said Chief as he smoothed the folded-back cuffs of his coat and sat in the tallest chair behind the desk. He was well-built, with a rough, rugged kind of look that reminded Shift of a pirate. "I was engaged in another meeting and only just received word of your arrival."
"I'm so glad you were able to take time out of your busy schedule beating the hues out of some helpless idiot to meet with me," said Athira dryly, jerking her head towards Chief's blood-flecked knuckles. "What'd they do, bring you chilled water instead of iced?"
"A small problem with a group of vigilante elementals," said Chief, pulling a cloth from the drawer to clean his hands. "They forgot the difference between resistant and immune." His gaze landed on Shift, sizing him up. "Who's this? I don't tolerate outsiders in my Nest."
"He's not your concern," said Athira. "I am, and since you're probably late for your next appointment, I'll make this quick. I want to know where Reader's buddies like to hide out, who's behind the Sleepers — those violet slime slugs that keep popping up — and anything you know about Wardens."
Chief finished wiping his hands and reached for the glass bottle half-filled with an amber liquid on the shelf behind him. "Had anyone else dared march into my office and make that demand after so many weeks of absence, I'd have found a spot for them on my schedule."
Athira raised a hand, reaching out a Black tendril that grabbed the bottle from Chief's hand and set it on the desk with a bang. "And unless you want to find a spot on mine again, I suggest you start talking."
Chief met her stare, wrapping his hand back around the neck of the bottle.
"Reader's group isn't associated with a Nest, so even I don't know the locations of his hideouts," said Chief. He lifted the bottle off the table and poured some into a glass. "As for your other questions, I happen to know something of what you're referring to, but as per the rules of my Nest, I'll require a favour first."
An uncomfortable feeling coiled in Shift's gut. Favours in the Underground were something he knew far too much about. They weren't innocent, like picking up someone's laundry or helping them move house.
More often than not, an Underground favour involved someone getting hurt.
Athira folded her arms, her cloak pushed back just enough to bare her runed arms. "I'm sure you remember what happened last time you asked me for a favour."
"Unfortunately for you, that week is firmly in my memory," said Chief, swirling his drink. "I still want my favour. If you're after the Wardens, this favour will be as much for your own good as it is mine."
Athira stilled. "I could just force the information out of you."
Chief's bodyguards tensed, flickers of Colour dancing at their fingertips.
Chief, however, simply lifted a hand to call them off and downed his drink in one gulp.
"You could, and I allow you and your... apprentice into my Nest without a passrune because I respect that," he said, slamming the glass back onto the desk. "I grant you these meetings because I respect your strength, and because I've decided to spare my guards the broken noses you'll inevitably cause trying to locate me otherwise."
Chief poured out a second drink. "I draw the line, however, at giving you whatever you see fit to waltz in here and demand. It sets a bad precedent, and regardless of what you might think, this is my Nest — not yours."
He leaned back in his chair, boots up on the table. "So, you want information? Force it out of me again. Remind me and the other Underground heads of that strength. But if not?" He threw back his drink and held out the empty glass towards Athira. "My secretary will have the details on that favour." Chief lowered the glass, his eyes back on Shift with a wicked smile. "Maybe I'd even settle for your apprentice here swearing his loyalty to my Nest."
"Unfortunately for him, he's stuck with me until he pays off the uniform," said Athira, turning to leave. "I'll be in touch, Chief. Better make sure that bed of yours is still bolted down."
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A/N - Chief decided he had pirate vibes in the rewrite and I'm not mad about it