27th of Ash, 120
Arkash gripped the ground with his one claw and pressed his elbow and its stump into the same surface to try and steady himself as he lowered his legs and tail into the hole. A flex of his foot claws saw him grip the embedded, nigh-slick iron bars that acted as a ladder. Beneath the metal's grime was a chalky sort of rust and a certain amount of give that left the impression that the ladder couldn't be trusted to hold his weight. Even so, Asmodei had descended with general ease, right?
He never thought he'd have to climb with only one hand, and so he hadn't given the act much thought. But, he had an idea for a process. So, with a trembling hesitation through his entire form, he pressed into the cobbled street with his claws and lifted his stump arm. The pressure on his body drastically increased as gravity threatened to claim him, so he quickly put his arm back down to steady himself, then exhaled a shaky breath.
It probably wasn't that long of a drop. Why was he so afraid? If he wasn't paralyzed with fear, he would have slapped himself. After a moment or two of work, Arkash grit his teeth widened the grip of his feet, then quickly lifted his arm and dove the stump into the manhole, where he hooked the iron bar of the ladder with the very brief stretch of limb that extended from his elbow. His jaw chattered, and his legs remained rigid and still as he ascertained that he was stable. A deep breath loosed itself from his tense jaws, and he looked at his other hand a moment. With little thought, he lifted the limb... then his other arm slipped from the loose hold of the grimy ladder step, and he fell backward.
His eye widened in horror as he fell, and a swipe of his claws caught nothing but empty air as he tumbled into the darkness, only to meet a surface far sooner than he expected. He grunted as the air was forced from his lungs, then shivered in a way that shook his whole body. "That was close, huh?" Asmodei spoke with a grin. He was in the Avialae's arms; he was caught as he'd asked.
The rathari drew a deep breath of air, then exhaled deeply before he bared his teeth in a grimace. His lungs stang from the strain of a full breath; he still wasn't fully healed. He exhaled just as soon as he drew the breath, then nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, Az; you're a lifesaver."
"Stop falling from things and I won't have to be," he spoke with a smile that reflected in his tone, then let the rathari down. The lizard's eyes steadily adjusted to the darkness, and he sighed as he brushed off the grime of his claws into his baggy clothes. Meanwhile, Asmodei reclimbed a portion of the ladder, then pulled the lid over the manhole.
"Wait. Wait! What are you-!" Was all he could speak in protest before the two were swallowed by nigh complete darkness in the temperate dampness of the sewer. "I can't see a thing," declared the komodo dragon.
Asmodei chuckled a breath, then clambered down the ladder with audible, heavy steps. "If we left it open, someone would find it and know something's amiss. We can just mark this as the grate to open to get back home."
Arkash could only barely see the shape of his armor-clad form as he descended the steps of the ladder. "Well, that's great and all, but I can't even see the bag; it's pitch black in here." It wasn't, but Arkash felt like whining. Arkash's one working eye stung as the darkness lit up in a flare of amber, and he lifted his one whole arm to block the glare from his eye. He reeled and squinted in shock. What just happened? Did Asmodei catch fire? When Arkash looked, however, he saw no true flame, but a glowing blade that burned with flecks of amber in Asmodei's hand. the steel was embedded with fiery cracks that almost appeared to flow like magma, and Arkash could only look in awe at the spectacle. "What..."
"Magic, Arkash," explained the avialae with a triumphant grin.
"Funny... Really, what is that?" It wasn't any sort of necromancy or artificing that he'd heard of. Runeforging? Arkash knew barely anything about any of the world magics, but that didn't seem right to him.
"No, really. It's magic. Not the world magics you've heard of, but the power of a cardinal rune." The blade was warm; arkash could feel its heat just by standing close to it.
"That's illegal..." he retorted.
"So is murder," returned the false knight.
Arkash nodded; that was fair enough. "...Is it safe?" he asked as he leaned forward to siphon the heat it gave off.
"So long as you don't touch it, yeah. Just be careful, your depth perception is still a little off." Arkash furrowed the brow of his one eye into a glare. He knew that already. Even so, his mind was far too occupied with the awe of seeing magic for the first time. It was incredible; as though he had a portable fire that was capable of warming Arkash's ectothermic body. Precious, life-sustaining warmth was right there, magically conjured before him. To say the least, Arkash was impressed.
Even so, they were there for a reason. Arkash shook his head free from his trance-like thoughts, then drew a deep breath while he passively absorbed the warmth of the glowing blade, then looked for the bag. Asmodei had put it down near the edge of a trench that shined with a thick, murky, flowing liquid. The closer Arkash got to it, the more his nostrils burned at the stench. It was a slurry of human waste, garbage, and melted snow, and it smelled about as pleasant as one could imagine.
Regardless, Arkash took one of the dead rats from the bag and brushed it off before he lifted the carcass to his mouth and bit its head off. He chewed careful, then swallowed the broken pulp-like mixture of shattered bones, brain, and torn flesh. immense attention was paid to the swallowing process so that he didn't choke, but he found that he didn't choke as often with smaller bites. Another clamp of his jaws ripped another portion of the rat away before he approached the wall. He looked to Asmodei as he chewed, then swallowed the rat pulp before he pressed the rat half to the wall and began to draw with its blood.
While he worked on drawing an arrow that pointed upward, he asked "why didn't you tell me you were a mage?" His tone was flat, casual. It wasn't the most casual of topics, but Arkash didn't particularly care about Asmodei's abilities on any ethical level. As far as he was concerned, the law was the arbitrary ruling of one man. They didn't have to follow it.
"Never really had a good time," he replied, then held his blade a little higher to illuminate the blood-red marking that Arkash drew. It was a crude arrow, but it served as a marker all the same. Asmodei's answer made sense. If the avialae had sprung it upon him that he was a mage among everything else he'd learned just minutes after he woke from his coma, he would have been overwhelmed. Arkash nodded, then threw the rat half into the river that idly flowed by.
"Does Fayeth know? Is she a mage also?" Magic was rumored to do strange and wicked things to the bodies of mortals, perhaps Fayeth's curse was a result of that?
Asmodei seemed to inspect his work then nodded in affirmation, though he didn't meet Arkash's gaze until he verbally replied. "She is, far more accomplished than I, too."
Teach me. Those two words were on the prongs of his tongue while he stared at the amber cracks in the metal. He hadn't seen what the magic could really do, but it still left him awestruck, inspired; he knew he wanted it. Did it matter that it would corrupt his body and soul? No. He was already broken and bent out of shape, what could magic do to him that the humans hadn't already? "Do you think you'll show me how to do that sometime...?" he tried to ask with a hint of disinterest, but it surely came across as eager and hopeful.
Asmodei chuckled a breath, smiled, and shook his head lightly. Arkash's heart sank. "Maybe," he answered after a brief pause. "But it's not quite that simple; we can talk about it another time. Don't you want to find Cojack?" Asmodei offered an easy distraction, and Arkash took the bait with as much ease. He collected another dead rat, then looked about the scene of the sewer passageway.
Outer Nivenhain was due north of their position, and one of the tunnels lead that way. "This way," he declared with a point of the claw that held the rat, and after Asmodei collected the bag of dead rats, the two were on their way through the damp, leaky, amber-lit darkness of the dingy tunnels.
