Holsley shoved another piece of cooked chicken into the cat's gob. She devoured it hungrily, purring as she did so. Anyone would think she had never been fed before, thought Holsley. Ahead, Roland gave him a worried glance.

The vents were alive with movement now. She had clearly raised the alarm and told the rest of the Whispers where they could find Holsley and Roland. Fortunately for them, though, they had a secret weapon.

'I'm going to remove the harness now,' said Holsley, reaching over to undo the leather straps that kept the cat's harness together. 'I'd appreciate it if you didn't scratch me.'

'Then do not do anything that deserves a scratch.' Tiacat licked her lips. 'Like removing the jewels of royalty.'

Holsley guffawed but quickly straightened his face at the look the cat shot at him. A second later, he was holding the harness in his hands and rushing it into his pack. They sat there for a moment, the three of them, while he organised his things. Somewhere up ahead there was movement in the vents.

'We've got to move!' Roland insisted. 'A second too long in here and there'll be no way out.'

'Okay.' Holsley leaned down towards the cat, who now looked like any other ordinary street cat. He wouldn't mention that though. 'Tiacat. You scout out the route ahead and shout, uh meow, if you see or hear anyone.'

'For more food?' she asked.

'You bet.'

'Won't they capture me if they see me?' The cat raised an eyebrow, or at least to Holsley it looked like it had. 'I don't know if I could handle that. You brutes are bad enough.'

'They're after us, not a cat,' replied Holsley. 'Besides, you look like one of the two thousand cats that live down here. That's why I'm asking you to do this.'

'Harumph,' Tiacat hissed. 'There is nothing but commoners down here.'

Despite the disagreement, Tiacat did as she was asked. She padded down the vent and turned the next corner, keeping a watch out for anyone nefarious coming their way. Holsley just hoped she didn't lead anyone straight to them, he was still a little bit wary about trusting her.

'What's the plan here then?' Holsley turned to Roland, who was caught in deep consideration. 'How are we going to get out of this one.'

'Well, we need to get out of the vents first,' said Roland. 'After that, we need to figure out how to get ahead of the Whispers. All the exits are going to be blocked by now.'

'Maybe we can trick them?' Holsley suggested. 'Make them think we're going one way but really go another.'

'Maybe?' Roland ran a hand across his sweaty forehead. 'It might be a good idea to steal some clothes first. Disguise ourselves.'

'Well, that should be easy,' replied Holsley. 'Do they have a laundry room around here?'

'Not here, but close.' Roland looked up at him. 'I know exactly how to get in there unnoticed, too.'

'This way is clear!' Tiacat called to them down the vent. 'This rough stone is murder on my paws, though. How long will I need to walk for?'

'What's she saying?' Roland asked.

'It's clear,' replied Holsley, choosing to omit the bit about the paws. They both proceeded to crawl along the vents in the way Tiacat had headed. They turned the next corner, following her voice, or simple meows as Roland heard them, until they found her. She was sitting at the next intersection, keeping an ear out for trouble.

'Go,' said Holsley and she rolled her eyes at him.

'Can I just say, one more time, how amazing it is that you can do that,' said Roland, watching Tiacat leap into action. 'How does it work? Why can't you keep casting spells all of the time?'

'It's not easy to explain,' replied Holsley. 'This is how the elves taught me, though. Imagine that magic, or the arcane as we call it, is the size of an ocean. Now, imagine that one person is a cup. A cup can only hold so much water before it overflows, right? Well, right now I'm about the size of a thimble, but every time I practice magic or learn more about it, my cup size grows. I can't do more than my cup allows.'

'Okay, I think I get it,' replied Roland. 'What happens if you overflow your cup?'

'Generally speaking, the cup breaks.' said Holsley seriously, then stretched out his hand. 'It's why I have these dots on my finger. They're to remind me when I'm reaching my limits.'

'Do those just appear when you learn magic?'

'No, the elves insisted I get them.' Holsley shrugged. 'I'm terrible at keeping track of stuff.'

'The way is clear,' Tiacat called from up ahead. 'There's some rumbling, but it's going the other way.'

The pair pushed on, eager to get out of the vents. That's why it was surprising when Holsley came to a dead stop. He was looking curiously through one of the grates in the wall, the ones that peered into the rooms around the underground keep. They had circled back around and found Tyla's room again.

'Holsley?' Roland looked back over his shoulder.

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The kerfuffle hadn't reached Tyla yet. She was dozing on her cot like a candle with the flame snuffed out. Roland doubled back and saw what Holsley was peering in at. He sighed and grabbed a hold of the bard's arm, but Holsley shrugged him off.

'We can't leave,' he said. 'Not yet.'

'What?' Roland asked. 'We've got to go.'

'Not until you've made things right with her.' Holsley looked Roland right in the eyes, his face stern and serious. 'You can't leave like this, Roland.'

'Holly, we don't have time.'

'Give her one of your ruby pieces.' Roland's stomach did a flip. 'Just one. That should more than make up for selling her grandmother's necklace.'

'I…can't.'

Holsley plonked himself down, folding his legs underneath him and crossing his arms. 'You said she was like a sister to you, right? Well, this is the perfect opportunity to make amends. I seriously doubt we'll be here again after this.'

'Do you really have to do this now!?' Roland barked, gritting his teeth. 'I could just leave you here, you know.'

'Sure, you could.'

Roland choked. He could feel the bile rising up in his stomach at the mere thought of leaving a ruby piece behind, but he knew Holsley was right. Despite how it made his stomach feel like he was being tossed around in the air, he did have to make things right. Through his pocket, he felt one of the pieces. The smallest one. Still worth a tight fortune. With a sigh, he pulled it out and approached the grate.

Holsley's smile was about as wide as it could get.

Roland did some quick calculations in his head as he tried to pry the grate loose. He had six pieces. One piece could buy a ship, another could buy a crew, and a third could provide them with the provisions they needed. The fourth he would need to buy information. He also needed a special kind of map, and he knew that wouldn't come cheap. That left a single piece spare. Tyla's piece.

'I just want to say that I hate you,' Roland hissed at Holsley as he climbed through the vent.

'First I'm hearing of it,' Holsley said through a grin.

With a roll of his eyes, Roland slipped into the room. His tender feet found the floor and quickly raced to Tyla's bedside. She had drool dripping out of her mouth. Roland winced. Her hair was lying about in untamed curls with her arms splayed out on either side of the cot. She looked like she'd collapsed into the position and promptly drifted off. She let out a snore as he approached but didn't stir.

Roland placed the piece on her bedside table with a quiet sigh. His stomach turned, and he clutched at it desperately. It gave a sharp pain that made his guts writhe. He considered briefly about leaving a note, but he was sure she'd get the message loud and clear. She'd be able to keep the piece too, he knew, as long as she claimed to have stolen it from Roland.

Holsley watched all this happen from the safety of the grate opening and couldn't help beaming with pride. This was something Roland needed to do, and he was glad to nudge him in the right direction. It was also something he needed to see Roland do. There had been a lot of speculation lately on the rogue's character, but seeing him now, Holsley knew that he could trust him.

The rogue climbed back up into the vents, replaced the grate, and then immediately threw up. It fountained out of his mouth and pool on the floor. Holsley leapt back, just avoiding the pungent spray.

'Oh!' Holsley rubbed his back when it was over. 'You okay?'

'Yeah.' Roland spat out the remaining bile in his mouth. 'I'm fine.'

***

With the help of Tiacat and a pocket full of squirrelled away meat, they were able to safely navigate their way around the vents and avoid trouble. Once out into one of the dark corridors that made up the underground city, Holsley gave Tiacat a well-earned pat and encouraged her to jump up onto his shoulders. Then they were away.

The laundry room was unguarded, and they slipped inside easily. The interior was simple. Nothing more than what was absolutely needed for the room to function. Shelves of neatly folded clothes, piles of clothes that needed to be neatly folded, and the various apparatus needed for the cleaning of said clothes. Buckets, boards, and soap.

It was truly fascinating to Holsley just how similar this room was to the one in the dungeons below the Old Stone Keep. If he didn't know better, he could have sworn they were the same place.

'You sure this is going to work?' asked Holsley, pulling a black cloak from the shelf. 'Won't it be suspicious with us walking around in hoods?'

'I don't think we have a choice,' replied Roland, also grabbing a cloak and throwing it on himself. Holsley did the same, albeit in a less flashy manner. 'You'll have a better time with it. They don't know what you look like.'

'What's the plan now then, Rolly?'

'Rolly?

'I'm trying out a new nickname. I'm Holly, you're Rolly.'

'Yeah, no.'

'Okay.'

'There's three main exits out of the city that lead back up into Tressa.' Roland swept to the door and peered out the gap. 'The first is called the ladder, which, as its name suggests, is a giant ladder that goes up for miles. There are the stairs we came down, and there's another set on the other side of the city.'

'Those all sound like they're going to be guarded.'

'That's exactly the problem,' Roland sighed. 'We've gotten out of trickier spots, but it's going to be hard.'

'Are there no other ways out?'

'Not that I'm aware of.' Roland looked back at him. 'Those are our only options.'

Holsley thought for a moment then, screwing up his eyes in contemplation. Then, he smiled, 'Maybe not.'

The bard crossed the room to the door and peered out of it. He found what he was looking for in an instant. Lying lazily against a wall just across the way there was a rotund ginger cat, who cared nothing about the frantic hurry the Whispers were suddenly in. Holsley pulled out some of the meat he'd scurried from dinner.

'What in the name of Tarazi are you doing, human!?' Tiacat hissed. 'That's mine!'

Holsley ignored her and tapped the floor to get the ginger cat's attention. 'Psst, hey! You want some food?'

This got their attention. The cat mewed softly and rolled onto its thick legs before plodding over, although rolling would've been easier for it. For Roland, he was watching Holsley meow at a pair of cats who were softly meowing back at him. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.

'What's this then, guv?' said the orange tabby, rubbing his head against Holsley's hand. 'You offerin' treats?'

'For information,' replied Holsley. 'We need to find a way back into Tressa. One the humans don't know about.'

'There's the cat steps,' he replied, plonking himself into a seating position. 'It's how we cats get in and out of here. The humans know about it though, innit, but they don't use it.'

'That sounds perfect,' replied Holsley. 'Where is it?'

'I don't know,' the tabby mewed. 'It'll be an awfully tight fit for a human like.'

'We'll take that chance.'

They spent the next few minutes going over directions while Roland kept watch. At the end of their conversation, Holsley gave the cat some food as a thank you, which earned him a quick swipe on the wrist from Tiacat. He yelped. She warned him not to give any more of her food away under punishment of death.

Fortunately, Roland knew where the cat was talking about. If they could get out that way, it made the perfect spot. Even if the Whispers knew about it, they wouldn't put too many guards in that area, and it was far enough away from the reach of the city that they shouldn't encounter too many people either. It would be a tight fit, though.

The pair ran side by side, Holsley leaning a little behind. Every time they saw a Whisper or heard footsteps, they ducked around the nearest corner or shot into the closest room. They took the venture slowly. One corridor at a time. By doing this, they made slow progress without raising suspicion.

Of course, neither suspected that they were being followed.

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