Ashsib and the Cat Beast

Chapter Twelve

There was a stairwell on the inside balcony, to Ashsib's relief. Accepting strength and using it were two different modes of thought. He mounted the narrow stair and forced himself not to rush and catch up. Ashsib felt no obligation to go at the woman's pace again. Namere was already waiting by the very conspicuous trap door in the corner of the narrow room. It was more like a hallway or a large closet, though empty as everything was on Tarsiss so far.

"You didn't need to trick me, we could've gone a different way." He said sourly, "Staying together is better, anyway."

Namere heaved the trapdoor open, "But this is the way the Smiling Man went."

"It could be a trap all the same." Ashsib pointed out.

A stone staircase led into darkness under the floor. A warm bit of air wafted up from it, but otherwise it seemed innocuous.

"It could be." Namere agreed.

Remembering the Captain's words, Ashsib took the lead down into the passageway. Despite the gloom, he could see well enough to tell that it was a plain tunnel. It didn't look dangerous. Yet.

"You're superhuman, remember, show some confidence." Namere slapped him on the back painfully when he hesitated on the first step.

"I still don't believe that." Ashsib sulked, stepping out of the patch of light shining down and beginning a slow pace into the tunnel.

Namere sighed behind him and went quiet.

The tunnel echoed his footsteps loudly, and Ashsib felt like his breathing was close against them. It was unremarkable. As they went on, the walls remained smooth and the floor remained even. The idea of a trap went fuzzy, and the path was mindless to follow. Away from cloaks and masks, it all seemed even stranger that they were creeping around this town. If only they could just find the Triand Mermaid and sail away from this island.

"We're going to have to turn back soon." Namere mentioned out of the blue, startling Ashsib from his musing.

"You have a timepiece I don't know about? How can you tell time down here?" He responded, more grouchy from nerves than actually meaning it.

"Twenty breaths a minute, as we aren't doing anything strenuous, makes two hundred breaths roughly ten minutes. I expect we can return in five minutes if we rush, leaving us five more minutes to explore, or somewhere around a hundred more breaths." Namere answered.

"Counting breaths? Silent foot-falls? What are you, an assassin?" Ashsib scoffed.

"I was raised to be a warrior, yes." She, close behind him in the narrow passage, spoke stiffly and sounded offended, "Trained to carry Karihyou. My sister, too. It's rooted deep. Warfare has honed it during my service, as well. I apologize if you think I'm making it up, it's how I've lived my whole life."

Ashsib didn't know how to respond to that, in fact, it made his snark feel even ruder than he'd meant it. All she was guilty of was believing he could be strong. Still, she was dead wrong to rush ahead and her way of going about it had been mean spirited. He decided to stay mad.

There was a curve in the tunnel, and a room appeared. The two stepped into the harsh light without even thinking about it. It looked like a small warehouse, box shaped with white walls and cement floors. The windows were dark, but bright electric lights lit the place starkly. Stacks of crates, some of them from their ship's hold with the mermaid brand burned on the sides, formed a pyramid in the center of the space. On the top of the stack was a pretentious gilded throne, a prop from the theater they'd just exited, perhaps. A robed figure lounged on the apex in wait.