"Here we are, the sewers." Kent solemnly gestured to the manhole cover. He was covered in soot from the explosions, his hair was a mess, and his shirt had been ripped. Though the last thing was his own fault but that doesn't mean that he can't be upset that he got a bit out of hand with the whole performance.
"Alright, then go down." Alix ordered making Kent fully regret all of his previous decisions.
"Come on, Al-Ahem! I mean, yes mother. Whatever you so wish!" Kent corrected his behavior and removed the manhole. He sighed to himself. 'I'm nothing if not honest. Some pirate.' He climbed down into the sewer with Alix following behind him. She had Mo float down on his own so that she could actually climb down the ladder.
The ladder climb was further than Alix originally expected but that was probably for the best as once she passed a certain point a horrible stench hit her nose.
'Man! This place reeks!" Mo exclaimed.
'Agreed." responded Alix. She eventually reached the bottom and grabbed Mo. She looked around the dimly lit sewers. It was as uncomfortably effective as any other sewer so Alix did not focus on the filth right now. She had to find the Djinns.
Kent grimaced from the smells. "Great Yoni's fortunes! This place smells worst than a ship's forgotten fish locker!"
"Get over it, Tyrant. Now tell me, do you know where that little side tunnel would be?"
"Yeah, I know it. It's a little forgotten part of the sewer. I used to hang there with my crew when I was younger."
"You played in the sewer?" Alix asked with clear disgust in her voice.
"I was an orphan. Where did you want me to play in my mansion's playroom? Maybe I could've gone frolicking in the gardens? The only place that I could play were graveyards, the sewer, or the Port of Filth docks. And we both know those docks aren't stable!" Kent started leading the way making sure they didn't step in anything...undesirable.
"Why didn't you just go to Marconix? I heard that the school doubled as an orphanage." Kent glanced over his shoulder.
"I did go there. Even stayed there for a few years. My crew and I wanted to find a more private place to have fun. We came down here and eventually found the old tunnel. After all, who the hell would willingly come into the sewers in a city filled with nobles and merchants?" Alix shook her head.
"Doesn't make it any less disgusting."
"Didn't I just say that was the point of coming down to the sewers?" Alix rolled her eyes.
'Hey, Lexi!" Alix looked down to Mo. 'Ask him about his crew! I want to know if they were real pirates! Or if he knew that crew that used to carry me around with em!" Alix raised a brow in interest.
So much time had passed since Mo's little flashback that she hadn't really had time to look any further on it. What better time than when you have a pirate right in front of you?
"Tyrant, I have something that I wish to ask you."
"Ask away, mother. I'm always free for you~" Kent really put sarcastic emphasis on his words but Alix knew that he promised to answer to her every beck and call so she continued.
"Do you know a lot about pirates?" Kent shrugged.
"I knew enough to have devoted my life to becoming a pirate at the young age of six. And it's been about thirteen years since then so I would say my knowledge is vaster than the sea! Ask away."
"Very colorful way of saying yes but okay. Do you happen to know of any pirates that used to travel around with a fish that looked like Mo aboard?" Kent pondered for a moment. Racing through the deep recesses of his pirate knowledge.
"Not to my knowledge. Though, there was the Sawledge crew who's jolly roger was a sawtooth if that's what you mean?"
"No that's not it." Alix felt a bit disappointed that she hadn't gotten any information when she suddenly remembered that she had a name.
"Wait! What about a crew with a first mate named Rendrick?" Kent came to a sudden stop. He slowly turned to face Alix, his eyes sparkled with joy and shock.
"By Rendrick, do you mean Rendrick Grifton? The first mate of the legendary crew of Sinbad!" Alix nodded calmly. She had several people in her life that would get hyper excited whenever speaking about topics that they loved so this sudden burst was actually on the lesser end.
"Are you telling me, that your fish could be connected to the crew that went missing about a decade ago? The crew that once tore across the seas reputed as the crew that would sink the world! That crew is connected to that fish!" Kent got very close to Alix literally shaking with anticipation. Alix tilted her head.
"They went missing? Why? What happened?" Kent realized that he had stepped a bit close so he backed up a step, cleared his throat and continued explaining in a much calmer tone.
"Well, that's a topic debated by pirates all across the sea. Some say that they were sunk by a leviathan. Others think that they may have just found a hidden island and stayed there with their riches. I'm on side hidden island because I've read that they were looking into some sort of hidden portal to the land of Saphriel the Primordial Elemental of Water. I think that they may have found it and just haven't come back yet! May've even become, like, ambassadors of the primordial or something like that."
Alix nodded and looked at Mo. 'You have any idea about what happened?"
'If I knew that then I wouldn't have asked you to ask for information from a pirate fanboy." Alix shrugged.
'I was just checking if you had recalled anything new about you time with the crew. You're always so snappy."
'That's rich coming from the Queen of Insolence. You pick fights just because you feel like it." Alix shrugged again.
'At least I own my bad habits."
"Yo, we're here." Alix looked to the front and saw the large side path before them. She instantly recognized it as the one that she saw from Trouler's image transfer. Though, not from nearly as low an angle
"Great! This is it, the only hint that I have for where Trouler is." Kent nodded slowly.
"Cool~ so can I go now?" Kent asked with pleading eyes. Alix met those eyes with her naturally cold ones.
"So you are planning on leaving your mother here alone to deal with a group of criminals? Some son you are, I should have brought one of my other kids."
"Yes, please do that! I was joking about the whole mother thing! If you have someone else that you could bring here then go get them and come back. Then I'll leave and we never have to interact again!" Kent saw a way out and grasped onto it as tightly as he could. Sadly, Alix grabbed a pair of scissors and cut that way out in half.
"That is not the deal that you agreed to Kent. You said that anything that I wanted you to do you would do it! Also you no longer have any choice. I have attached one of my Heartstrings to you thus we have a connection that can not be simply severed." Kent physically deflated as Alix reminded him yet again of his childish bet.
"Fine~ I don't know what your heart has to do with this but I'll keep my oath...mother." Alix smiled smugly.
"That's a good son. Now lead the way through the dangerous tunnel." Kent clicked his teeth and dragged his feet into the tunnel. Mo stared at Alix shaking his amazingly round head.
'You just have no shame do ya? Ya really are a sadist!" Alix shook her head.
'I am no sadist, Mo.' Alix grabbed Kent's heartstring, that she attached after the duel, and presented it to Mo.
'I am simply a sorceress performing a magic experiment with mortals and monsters alike." With that Alix followed Tyrant into the side tunnel hoping to find Trouler at the end of it.
However to her dismay, when Alix, Kent, and Mo arrive at the end of the tunnel they find no one there. No Djinns. No masked alchemist. No Trouler.
No Nuka.
...
Meanwhile, within the sea-level district of Pesinwok are the Djinns. Staying in a relatively quaint inn for the first time in their entire career. Though, they do not seem to be enjoying their stay as Joana is yelling angrily at Karic.
"What do you mean we can't leave, yet?! We did the job, we got the money so why the hell can't we LEAVE?!"
"The client said that she liked our performance so much that she wanted to make a long term contract with us. Of course, keeping the non-disclosure agreement active with the contract." Karic tried his best to hide his excitement when talking about the non-disclosure agreement but he couldn't help it!
This was his dream come true! A paying job where the boss wants them to remain anonymous. Joana, however, was outraged.
"I can not believe you! I thought we agreed to go public? To finally gain some notoriety in the Den. Then you go behind our backs and do this shit!?" Joana was understandably upset and so were the rest of the Djinns.
"Seriously boss, this isn't cool." Leroy said shaking his head with disappointment.
"I really thought we were gonna start making some real money so that we could actually be something in the underworld." Narie said with her dejectedly.
"I'm just so tired of sleeping in dumps and abandoned buildings." Ed said before Mund burst out. "Karic, if you weren't my boss I'd have already made you my new knife holster." Mund threatened.
Karic raised his hands in surrender. "Look guys, I get that you're mad, disappointed and Mund's feeling a bit homicidal but you haven't let me tell you the good news yet." The Djinns also stood in various states of upset but still waited to hear what Karic had to say. Karic paused for a dramatic moment.
"The client said that as long as things go well in her research, she'll pay us one hundred times the original commission." The rest of the group's jaws dropped in awe. They stood frozen for several minutes. Joana was the first to try to speak.
"B-but the original commission was already a thousand gold split between us. Th-that would mean..." Karic nodded.
"We'd be getting one hundred thousand gold! And we'd be paid monthly so it'd be 100k a month!" The Djinn's roared in excitement. Joana and Leroy hugged and started jumping up and down. Narie turned into her small form and flew into the air spinning. While Edmund had fainted and was currently laying on the soft floor with gold flooding his dreams.
Karic nodded with satisfaction. He was happy that his subordinates were pleased with the situation. "All that we have to do is make sure that bird doesn't escape and we watch this weird, little, pig thing until the client's done with her experiments." Karic pointed his head to the side of the room where Trouler sat in a cage moping.
"Then we'll be rich!" Karic said which was probably a flag but this job was easy! What could possibly happen before the end of the month that could ruin things for them?