“Did you hear something?”
A few of the workers alongside the miner looked up, but the majority continued to walk on. Everyone was skittish nowadays, especially with the dead up and roaming about.
The youngest miner kept his eyes tracing around the tunnel though, holding his lantern as far up as his scrawny limbs would allow. A few of his companions held up theirs in tandem, hoping to help.
“Sometimes water drips down from the pipes of the city,” one offered. “My brother helped lay those pipes but he says they ain’t that good yet. The aquaduct barely functions above ground, and the well system ain’t much better. The water comes up, but a lot of it comes back down before it reaches where it needs to be…”
A few others murmured their agreement and took that assurance, putting their lanterns back down and trudging ahead. The miner at the back stayed on edge, though.
“How often do you guys come down here?” he asked, eyes darting around the tunnel as he walked. “I ain’t never seen any other miners come down this low.”
“Well you ain’t never made a good buck before, now have ya?” one of the miners laughed, tossing around his pick as he walked. “The Gold
Chaotic pays well, gods bless the man, but there’s better money to be made with ol’ Greenie.”
The youngest miner seemed to sink further into his oversized uniform. “You ever see him?”
“The Green Chaotic? Nah. We just all woke up with the same scrolls at our doorsteps same as you. Benji over there was the first, he got orders to run down here nearly a month ago. He covered up about a mile of the first stretch of land just with some misplaced dynamite.”
A man from the front of the pack called back, “Got paid twelve days wages for it too!” The men all laughed, trading snide remarks. The youngest miner was poked and prodded by the others next to him, telling him to lighten up. In the moment of mirth, he lost his fear and stepped proudly alongside the band. He was going to go home and bring the missus a good dinner tonight. The demon would pay well for a little chaos down at the mines and-
The miner fell to the ground, bashing against an invisible wall holding him from progressing further. It was like a pane of glass spread out before him. The other miners walked on, but he couldn’t press onwards. He threw himself against the glass, knocking first and yelling and then finally banging against it and screaming for someone to notice him.
In desperation, he turned around trying to find the source of the magic. In the lamplight, just a glimmer of gold appeared far above him. He held up his lantern, straining to see.
On the top of the tunnel walls, a lone figure walked upside-down. Their cloak disobeyed gravity with them, settling on the roof of the cave as they slowly made their way towards him. The figure was bathed in shadows, picking their way among the stalagtites with such ease that the miner was convinced they were little more than an illusion or a spectre. And their face, on their face shone a cat mask of pure gold, turned into a burnt hue by the firelight.
The miner’s heart caught as he watched the figure approach. He had broken the law.
He twisted around, banging and screaming on the glass wall once more, but the other workers were nearly out of sight. All that remained was the near silent stepping of the figure as it approached.
In the blink of the eye, it descended upon him.
In the depths of the mines, a lone dwarven woman shuffled around in the Chamber of Antiquities. It was her day off, which she had been saving up for these past twelve years. Day after night, Veqin had kept true to her duties of serving the Goddess Hel, even sporting the deities famous looks and sacrificing the left half of her body to be consumed by the mites of the mines. Only the most dedicated were given such the privilege of the half-body, and Veqin was not only devout in her work but doubly as diligent.
However, after years upon years of managing she had managed to set aside a spot of time for herself. She wished to leave the underworld, at least once this decade, to go grab a cool glass of ale or spend the night by the lakeside. She was rudely interrupted while packing, however, by a band of spirits insisting that she return and deal with the latest intruder.
And what an intruder it was.
“You tell your bloody sodding father to get his paws off our domain,” Veqin demanded, spitting at the visitor. “We ain’t movin’ an inch here, missy, and the settlement was built an’toppa us!”
Yez sat crosslegged in the Chamber of Antiquities, perched atop a dusty set of boxes draped with torn canvassing. While her robes were still clean, Veqin had already been told about the bodies outside in the tunnels, so there was no feigning disinterest in the arrangement.
“That’s a nice sentiment,” Yez responded. “But I’m afraid it’s just not up to you or me. Any land excavated in the realm of Nidavellir belongs to the Gilded Cage, and this land is not only part of Nidavellir but even part of the mining system which the Cage owns!”
Veqin stormed up to Yez, pointing a bony figure accusingly. “You call off your diggers!”
Behind her, several other followers of Hel had gathered but kept their distance. There were not many who came down to these levels, and those that did often met a grisly end for trespassing on Hel’s turf. The Right Hand of the Gilded Cage was an exception though. Veqin might have had the gall to stand up to her, but the others were not so bold.
Yez didn’t seem particularly threatening though, on her own. In fact, lounging on the boxes she almost seemed somewhat unprepared for the confrontation. There was no army at her heels, nor did it appear she was armed with anything particularly powerful. When her cloak moved, there were clinks and flashes of light that were telltale signs of the thieves knives, but a knife would do little good against the goddess and her followers. The mask, on the other hand…
“Look, we can sit and argue until the cows come home, but I’ve got to collect rent by the start of the month,” Yez yawned beneath her mask. “-and if Hel doesn’t pay up, I’m going to be coming back. You’ve gotten a fair share of business down here recently with Bytor’s crew. Sounds like they wanted a share in, but how do I know that Hel herself didn’t have something to do with that?”
Veqin’s nose scrunched up as she faced off against the theif.
“You don’t own any stake down here, and you don’t deserve the money we’ve given you in the past. We’ve got no dealings with the demon lord-“
“He’s just a demon actually,” Yez interrupted. “Please don’t stoke his ego by calling him a demon lord.”
With that Veqin’s eyes lit up a harsh red. A dark energy began pulsing through her blood, and the other followers of Hel shrunk back even further.
“You’re asking for it, ya wee-“
Before Veqin could even finish her threat, a thin blade shot out from Yez’s hand as she swung her hand upwards. The impossibly frail piece of metal slid easily into Veqin’s forehead, making a sickening click as it touched against her skull. The hex markings along the metal flickered into life and a painful web of yellow magic began creeping out from the blade, growing like a fungus in tendrils across Veqin’s face.
Even as Veqin fell backwards, she released the power of Hel in a pinpoint burst, aimed directly at Yez’s face. The molten mass of energy crackled into dark red hues and its motion threw shockwaves across the room. As it hit Yez’s mask, the energy whined and contorted, before whimpering and dying into nothingness.
The rest of the followers pulled back Veqin and looked with fear at Yez as she gently tapped on her golden mask. The Right Hand of the Gilded Cage looked over those who remained with indifference.
“Well then,” she said, “do I need to come back, or would you just like to put the payment in the carts and send it off on the 1st?” A member of Hel stepped forwards. “We will see that Hel receives your message.”
“Mm, see that you do. It’s quite an exhausting walk down here, and I have more pressing matters to attend to than the dead.”
And with that, the cat-masked girl finally leapt up from her perch. Standing on the ceiling once again with her cloak following suit.
She began walking out the door, when the man who spoke raised his hand to stop her.
“Hold! Will she live?” he said, gesturing down to Veqin.
Yez stood idly on the ceiling, not really bothering to turn around but instead just swiveling her head back aways.
“Live? Probably not. Not that it matters anyways, seeing as you all love death so much. Plague blades are a bit too risky to use in the city, but they’re fun to use when I get the chance.”
Those huddled around Veqin suddenly bolted away, inspecting their hands for signs of the yellow fungus.
Yez kept a faint chuckle hidden beneath the mask and began to walk back up to the city.
“Have a good rest of the month!”