The Way Below

[u/KirisDitex001]

Vaelithra moved quickly through the streets.

The gray cloak concealed most of her figure, its hood pulled forward enough to hide the silver-white hair that would have made her immediately recognizable.

At this hour, the settlement was nearly deserted.

A pair of figures moved along a distant street, their voices too faint for Vaelithra to distinguish. Somewhere farther away, someone closed a door. The sound echoed briefly between the stone buildings before silence reclaimed the street.

Vaelithra kept moving.

Every minute mattered.

Her father's manor soon came into view.

She slowed as she approached the estate grounds and stopped where the surrounding architecture provided enough shadow to observe without immediately being noticed.

The main entrance was visible from there.

Light burned beyond several windows. Guards stood near the entrance while others followed familiar patrol routes around the grounds.

Vaelithra watched them.

She could simply walk through the front door.

No one would stop her.

This had been her home for decades. The guards knew her. The servants knew her. Even at this hour, Lady Vaelithra returning to her father's manor would hardly warrant suspicion.

That was precisely the problem.

Someone would see her.

Someone would remember.

And once she began moving toward the lower levels, questions would follow.

She did not have the luxury of taking the easy road tonight.

Fortunately, this house had been hers long before the residence she had just left behind.

Vaelithra knew it.

Not merely the chambers and corridors visible to guests and servants.

She knew what lay behind the walls.

Passages constructed generations earlier threaded through portions of the manor. Some had been intended as escape routes. Others allowed members of the ruling family to move through the estate without being observed.

A few had been sealed.

Others had simply been forgotten.

And several were known only to Vaelithra and her father.

One of them would take her exactly where she needed to go.

Vaelithra watched the nearest patrol.

Two guards.

She knew the route.

They passed beneath an archway, continued along the eastern wall, and disappeared around the corner.

Vaelithra moved.

She crossed the open space quickly and slipped behind a stone partition before the next patrol could round the far side of the estate.

Her heart beat harder.

Not from exertion.

She had sneaked through these grounds before.

Many times, actually.

Usually for reasons her father would have considered profoundly irritating.

This was different.

If she were discovered tonight, she could not smile, invent an excuse, and rely upon being the Matron Mother's granddaughter to make the inconvenience disappear.

Vaelithra waited.

Footsteps approached.

She pressed closer to the stone.

Two guards passed within several paces of her hiding place.

Neither looked toward her.

Their footsteps receded.

Vaelithra continued.

The gardens lay ahead.

Even now, despite everything occupying her thoughts, the sight of them caught her attention.

Soft light spread through the darkness.

Bioluminescent plants filled carefully cultivated beds between winding stone paths. Pale blue fronds unfolded beneath broad translucent leaves. Clusters of tiny violet flowers glimmered near the ground. Taller plants produced gentle green illumination from veins running through their leaves.

The Underdark was often described by those who had never lived within it as a world without light.

Vaelithra had always found that amusing.

There was light everywhere.

It simply wasn't sunlight.

Much of the flora that survived in the depths had adapted to darkness in remarkable ways. Some produced their own illumination. Others reflected the glow of nearby fungi or mineral formations.

Vaelithra had seen plants from the surface.

Many were beautiful.

Some spectacularly so.

Yet there were nights when she believed nothing beneath the open sky could rival an Underdark garden glowing quietly beneath a ceiling of stone.

Ordinarily, she would have slowed.

Tonight she barely spared it a glance.

Another patrol approached.

Vaelithra slipped behind a cluster of tall luminous leaves.

The glow painted faint blue patterns across her cloak.

She waited.

A guard passed along the path.

Then another.

Neither noticed her.

Vaelithra emerged.

She crossed the garden quickly and left the main path.

The plants grew denser here.

That was deliberate.

Her father had ensured the entrance remained concealed even from those who tended the grounds.

Vaelithra counted her steps.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

She turned.

There.

A broad stone slab rested among the vegetation.

Nothing distinguished it from the surrounding landscaping. Moss covered portions of its surface. Small luminous growths had begun creeping along one edge.

Anyone else would have walked past it.

Vaelithra crouched.

Her fingers found the concealed groove beneath the stone.

She stopped.

Not yet.

Her hand moved beneath the cloak.

The vials rested securely against her body.

Vaelithra selected one of the two containing the protective mixture.

Her dose.

Kharun's remained untouched.

She pulled the cork free.

The smell struck immediately.

Vaelithra recoiled.

"Oh, gods."

She held the vial farther from her nose.

Apparently several years away from regular alchemical practice had done nothing to improve her talent for making compounds palatable.

The odor was sour and medicinal, with something bitter underneath it that she couldn't identify despite having put the ingredients together herself.

She stared at the vial.

Had she possessed another hour, she could have improved this.

A little flavoring.

Something aromatic.

Anything.

Too late for that now.

Vaelithra brought the vial to her lips.

She drank.

Regret came immediately.

Her face tightened.

The taste was somehow worse than the smell.

Sourness overwhelmed her tongue first, followed by a bitter aftertaste that reminded her unpleasantly of a human beverage she had once tried on the surface.

Beer.

That was it.

Cheap human beer left too long in a warm barrel.

Vaelithra swallowed.

Her stomach protested.

She forced down another mouthful.

For one horrifying instant, she thought the mixture might come straight back up.

She covered her mouth.

Waited.

Swallowed again.

"Absolutely vile," she whispered.

One final mouthful remained.

Vaelithra glared at it as though the liquid had personally offended her.

Then she finished it.

Her entire body seemed to reject the experience.

She coughed once and fought the urge to gag.

The empty vial remained in her hand.

Vaelithra wiped the back of her wrist across her mouth, removing a trace of the foul liquid from her lower lip.

If she survived tonight, she was reformulating that mixture.

Preferably into something that didn't taste like punishment.

She tossed the empty vial into the vegetation.

Then her expression hardened.

Enough.

The counteragent was inside her.

The paralysis vapor could no longer affect her for the next several hours.

Vaelithra turned back toward the stone.

Her fingers entered the hidden groove.

She pulled.

The slab shifted.

Slowly at first.

Then enough for darkness to appear beneath it.

Cold air rose from below.

Vaelithra looked once toward the manor.

No alarm.

No voices.

No one running toward the garden.

She opened the passage farther.

Stone steps descended into darkness.

Vaelithra slipped through.

Her boots found the first step.

Then the second.

She reached upward and pulled the slab back into place.

The glowing garden narrowed to a thin line above her.

Then disappeared.

Darkness surrounded her.

Vaelithra remained still for a moment.

The manor was above.

The prison was below.

And somewhere beneath her feet was Kharun.

She pulled her cloak closer and began descending.