Unseen Academy

XXVII: Ryder-Merlot Guards

Mainland

They hated this assignment. Anyone who worked for the Ryder family hated almost any ‘quest’ that the Lord sent them on.  

If his youngest asked a favor, and from her it was always a favor and never a demand, it was usually pleasant. Often pertaining to finding a book, lending a hand with an animal, or most favorably: simply accompanying her while she gathered plants.

If the eldest daughter had a task, it was usually simple, passing a letter to the Lady Poppy, or Heir Syrah, picking up a new outfit for her...or worst case scenario; to hide something she had ‘acquired’.

The Lady Merlot tended to just like being read to, or some strong hands to move an instrument - so her daughters could give her a private concert whenever she was bedridden. The worst from her was when she suddenly needed a cleric at odd hours for one of her many conditions.

All tasks that to a point were expected of the staff of any noble house. The nuances may have differed, but it all fell well with in the range of what one expected with the job.

The Lord Ryder though…when he commanded something of the staff, they knew it was their unlucky day. Best case scenario the task was to find and bring back one of his daughters. Depending in which and their mood that could be quite simple or a royal pain.

Lady Olivia could almost always be found in a library, half the time asleep. She was always apologetic, and quick to comply. The most difficult part of finding her was knowing which library, and not missing her between the shelves.

Lady Abigale…the guards tried not to think about the difficulties she caused right now. That was yesterday’s problem - and while she was away at school they would get a long awaited vacation from handling that mess.

Today though was not a best case scenario. Today was a ‘teach so and so a lesson’ day. Today was a ‘go trekking through every place you would never in your right mind ever normally go, and find the piece of shit that had no right to be near my daughters’ day. Today was a very, very bad day. And it had all of the guards pulled for this little quest in a very foul mood.

Their quest was to find the filthy drow that liked to try and pretend to be Lady Olivia’s shadow. It was truly admirable how lady like she always behaved - no matter what towards. Someone, someday would be very lucky to have such a sweet tempered wife as her one day. As long as they could keep her safe from her own naivete.

Still, all the guards were on edge. Drows were nothing but trouble after all - bad luck at best and evil monstrosities at worst. Everyone understood why the Lord Ryder had sent them on this little mission, they just…didn’t like to be the ones on it.

They had been at this for a while now. Checking first the graveyard, and then the catacombs...rows of stone monuments housing dead body after dead body. Some open, exposed to rot after some grave robber or another had managed to get inside, and far too many bones lying everywhere for anyone’s comfort. Spider and cobwebs seemed to coat the ceilings and corners, and no one dared question the liquids they occasionally passed pooled on the ground.  The tunnels had seemed endless, and the deeper they got, the less effective their torches seemed to become.

They only managed to eventually find rotten food and signs that someone had been there - but no sign of a permanent residence. By this point the ossuaries had either all crumbled, or stopped being used. The floor was more bones than not, with the exception of what seemed to have been cleared to sit and eat.  The guards had dared go no further down, for they could hear sounds that clearly no humanoid, not even a drow, could make, and they dared not find out what it was.

For a short time, their search kept them above ground, asking around, and looking for clues. Now their leads lead them into the sewers - as someone was sure they saw him popping in or out of a sewer grate somewhere. Stupid sailors, already drunk enough that they couldn’t narrow down where they had seen him.

While certainly less creepy, the small party couldn’t really say that that sewers were any better than the crypts. The tunnels were fairly narrow, everything was damp with things no one wanted to touch - and the water, if you could even call it that, being too deep to really avoid. The dark and murky liquid soaking into their boots, and absorbing even into their socks, making this trek just all that much worse. They couldn’t even see when something would swim or crawl over their boots, making everyone a little more jumpy and skittish than normal. One of the newer guards even had fallen into the sludge at one point because a mouse fancied how dry her upper pants were compared to the rest of the sewers.

All of which might have tolerable if it weren’t for the smell. Every sort of rotting waste somehow made its way down here. Every chamberpot got drained, and all of it rotted and festered down here, collecting and stewing, with close to no real ventilation to alleviate the stench.

“Uh, boss, I uh, don’t think we are gonna find him down here…” one of the newer recruits tried to stutter out. Finally having enough of this place.

Kevin let out a sigh. “What makes you think that- now- and not when we were trudging through bones, or maybe still above ground...? Or perhaps before Joey fell into this muck. I can’t imagine she’s going to get the smell out anytime soon...”

Joey just grunted, she would have loved an excuse to not be down here, but hated the reminder of her earlier humiliation. She didn’t understand how water so thick could get everywhere so damn quick.

“Uh-I-uh - well I’ve been thinking…”

Everyone at this point had stopped their trudging through the sewers to listen.

“And um…well, I mean the sailor was drunk…but he’s still a-a sailor. So I-I mean, he-he-he probably saw the drow near the docs…”

“We already checked the sewers under the docks…” George replied, exasperated.

“...I-I-I know - I-I just, I mean maybe…he…left?”

Kevin was deadpan, and unamused. “So you think, after all this time of following Lady Olivia around...he just took a boat - and left?”

The inexperienced guard fidgeted with his spear, “Well…uh…”

“He-was…” someone else spoke up, “thrown out of the shop that had the uniforms for Unseen yesterday…”

A silence fell over the group.

George and Kevin both let out their own string of curses.  

Kevin face palmed. “George…please go verify this with the shop owner…” He said through grit teeth, before glaring at the newbie. “You - you get to inform Lord Ryder of your hypothesis.”

“I-uh - wh-wh-what?!” He nearly dropped his spear, fumbling with it. “T-t-tell the Lord?”

George started walking off, patting the guard on the shoulder before getting on his way. “Good. Luck.”

“Wh-whaaa? I - I can’t tell the lord that- that- that-”

“That you think the drow followed his precious daughter to the school that was supposed to finally get her far from him?” Kevin said through grit teeth.

    If he was right - their day just got infinitely worse.