Chapter 6: Glowing Pants

"Try not to get used to it," Kai mumbled.

Garrick stepped away from the door and started packing a leather bag with bread, hard cheese, and rope, along with a small knife and a purse full of coins.

"Are you coming with us?" Kai asked.

"There was an inquisitor at my shop tonight, and she saw my hammer," Garrick said. "Once the High Priestess finds out, they’ll burn this building to the ground with me inside it."

"What about the gates?" Mira asked.

"We won’t be using the gates," Garrick said, slinging the bag over his shoulder. "I worked with smugglers about twenty years ago. There are drain pipes under the east wall that they open to release the river when it floods, and they come out on the riverbank about a mile outside the city."

"Are they safe?" Kai asked.

"They were safe twenty years ago," Garrick said after a moment.

"That’s not a yes," Kai said.

"No, it is not," Garrick said.

Mira climbed down from the loft wearing Garrick’s shirt with a rope tied around the waist to make it look more like a dress, and she had stuffed rags into the toes of a pair of massive boots. She looked ridiculous, and she looked like she would murder anyone who said so.

"Don’t," Mira said.

"I wasn’t going to say anything," Kai said.

[Your heart rate disagrees]

Garrick rested his good hand on his anvil and left it there for a long moment, and Kai realized this was the last time Garrick would ever see his forge. He was leaving twenty-six years behind for a man he had met that morning.

"You don’t have to do this," Kai said softly.

"I know," Garrick said. He took his hand off the anvil and turned to face them. "Let’s go."

They slipped out the back into the dark streets of the lower district, and Garrick led them downhill through so many alleys that Kai lost track by the fourth turn.

"Do I get any points for all of that?" Kai whispered.

[Yes. Garrick’s faith is now at 14%, and Mira is at 6%. You can count Elowen’s 1% too]

[You have gained 2 divinity points.]

"What can I buy with them?" Kai whispered.

[You can still purchase Minor Light. I would suggest learning it, because we will be traveling through tunnels, and tunnels are very dark]

"Learn it," Kai whispered.

[Skill learned: Minor Light. Divinity points remaining: 1.]

[Try to aim this one]

The city wall rose forty feet above them, and half buried in the rubble at its base was an iron grate that had rusted almost through. Garrick grabbed it with his good hand and pulled until it tore free with a loud screech.

The stench pouring out of the drain was even worse than the tannery, like a swamp that had died and then kept rotting anyway.

"Ladies first," Kai said.

"No," Mira said.

"Gods first," Garrick offered.

"Sure," Mira said.

Kai climbed down into knee-deep water so cold it made him gasp, and he decided he did not want to know what was in it.

"Minor Light," Kai said.

A ball of white light the size of a grapefruit appeared in his hand, floated there for a second, and then drifted down and stuck right to the front of his pants, so that his crotch was glowing.

[I told you to aim it]

"I wasn’t aiming it at anything!" Kai hissed.

[That is my point]

Mira splashed down into the water behind him, turned around, and saw the light on his pants.

"Why?" Mira asked.

"It’s a long story," Kai said.

"It’s been one day," Mira said.

"It’s been a long day," Kai said.

Garrick came down last, pulled the grate shut, saw the light on Kai’s pants, and closed his eyes like a man praying for patience.

"Can you move it?" Garrick finally asked.

Kai reached for it, but his hand passed right through the light.

[It will stay on for 10 minutes. So you will be glowing for 10 minutes]

"It’ll last for ten minutes," Kai told them. "Just follow the light."

"I’m not following that," Mira said.

"Then follow the dark," Kai said.

She grumbled under her breath, but she followed the light anyway.

The tunnel was a round shaft of old brick that Garrick had to stoop to fit through, and things scurried away from the glow. Every few steps, Mira slipped in the mud and grabbed Kai’s shoulder to steady herself, and on the third slip, she didn’t let go.

All the slipping had soaked her shirt up to her waist, and the wet fabric clung to her legs, so Kai kept his eyes pointed as far forward as the tunnel would allow.

[You are staring forward]

"Yes," Kai whispered.

[Because of her shirt?]

"Yes," Kai whispered.

[I am learning so many things]

They waded on for what felt like hours as the water rose to Kai’s thighs, and Garrick chose the way at two splits without hesitating, but at the third, he stopped.

"That doesn’t look right," Garrick said.

A hole had been ripped through the tunnel wall, and bricks covered in gray slime were scattered all around it. Deep gashes ran along the floor, lit up by the glow of Kai’s pants.

"What could make scratches like that?" Kai asked.

"Nothing that lived down here twenty years ago," Garrick said.

[Kai, something large is approaching from the tunnel to the left. It is attracted to light]

Kai looked down at his glowing crotch.

"Oh, shit," Kai said.

Something was dragging itself out of the left tunnel with a wet, slapping sound, and Mira’s grip on his shoulder tightened.

The creature came into view, a giant eyeless slug the size of a horse with a round mouth full of grinding teeth, and its pale face slowly turned towards Kai’s glowing pants.

"A gutter maw," Garrick said. "They come from the mines up north, Draven’s mines. I’ve never seen one this far south."

"How do we kill it?" Kai asked.

"We don’t," Garrick whispered. "We run."

The gutter maw’s mouth opened wide, and its teeth began to spin.

[Kai, it is very interested in you]

"DO NOT ADD THAT TO MY LIST!" Kai screamed.

Mira and Garrick both turned to stare at him, and the gutter maw pounced.

Garrick shoved Mira out of the way and brought his blessed hammer down on the creature’s head, and it screamed and slammed into the wall. But when it started to turn around, it wasn’t turning towards Garrick or Mira. It was turning towards Kai, because it didn’t want the other two. It wanted the light, and the light was on his crotch.

"Garrick, which way is out?" Kai yelled.

"The tunnel to the right! It leads straight to the river!" Garrick shouted.

"Take Mira and run!" Kai shouted.

"What are you doing?" Mira asked.

"I have glowing pants!" Kai said.

Kai sprinted down the left tunnel past the gutter maw, and it spun around and chased him.

"KAI!" Mira screamed.

[Your odds of survival are very low]

"You always say that!" Kai yelled.

[And I have been right about your odds every time. It just so happens that you keep living. I am starting to think your odds do not apply to you]

The tunnel grew narrower, and Kai could feel the gutter maw closing in, its rotten breath hot on his neck. Then the floor gave way beneath his feet, and he plunged into a pit of water at least six feet deep.

He came up gasping and realized the water had washed the light right off his pants, and above him, the gutter maw swung its head back and forth in confusion. Far away, Mira was calling his name, and a faint golden glow down the right tunnel could only be Garrick’s hammer.

The gutter maw turned away from the pit and started dragging itself towards that glow.

"No, no, no," Kai said. He grabbed the wall of the pit, but his hands slipped and he fell back into the water. "Syraphim, how do I get that thing back here?"

[You have 1 divinity point left]

"Do I have to buy Minor Light again?" Kai asked.

[No. You already learned it. You only need to rest for a while before you can use it again, and I think you have rested enough]

"Why didn’t you tell me that?" Kai asked.

[You did not ask]

Kai hauled himself out of the pit dripping with sludge, pointed straight up at the ceiling, and put every ounce of power he had into it.

"MINOR LIGHT!" Kai shouted.

The orb shot out of his hand and stuck to the ceiling right above the pit, lighting it up like a spotlight. The gutter maw stopped, turned around, and came racing back towards the light at full speed.

Kai flattened his back against the tunnel wall as the gutter maw flew past him, teetered on the edge of the pit, and then toppled in with a huge splash. The bricks at the bottom of the pit began to crack under its weight, and then they broke apart completely, and the gutter maw and tons of water went pouring down into whatever was underneath.

A long rumble echoed through the tunnels, and then there was nothing but silence.

Kai stood alone in the tunnel, covered in sludge, staring up at the light on the ceiling.

"I aimed that one," Kai said.

[You aimed it at the ceiling]

"AND I HIT IT!" Kai said.

[The gutter maw fell because the bricks broke. That was not part of your plan]

"I’ll take it," Kai said.

"KAI!" Mira shouted.

Mira splashed around the corner with Garrick behind her and stopped dead when she saw him alive. For a second, she looked like she was about to cry, and then she marched right up to him and punched him in the arm as hard as she could.

"OW!" Kai said.

"You idiot," Mira said, with tears in her eyes. "You idiot."

A ding rang in Kai’s head.

[Faith gained. Mira Vallen: 12%. Status: Angry.]

"Angry?" Kai said.

"What?" Mira asked.

"Nothing," Kai said. "Can we go now?"