As Alix and Kent walked deeper and deeper into the tunnel she couldn't admit that she was feeling a bit uneasy. Every step that the two of them took echoed through the tunnel for seconds at a time. If the Djinns were in a place this echoey she was sure that she would hear them by now.
Alix tried her best to ignore these sorts of thoughts and continued to follow Kent through the darkness of the tunnel only being lit by Kent's lightning spear. Eventually they saw a light ahead of them which filled Alix with a bit of confidence.
'Lights in the sewer normally mean that people are there. The only people that would be in the sewers are sewage workers or criminals like the Djinns and seeing as this tunnel is abandoned...' Alix let out a calming breath.
'...we should be getting ready for a battle!' Alix tapped Mo's fishbowl to make sure he was ready for anything that came up. She had used several catalysts while fighting Kent today so she was running a bit low but she was not alone here. Alix's eyes wandered to Kent's back where she could just barely make out the jolly roger of Tyrant Storm on his back.
She nodded to herself and trudged on ahead with their footsteps still echoing with each step. The group finally made it to the light and what they saw filled Alix with disappointment.
Alix and Kent exit the tunnel into a cavernous room that was oddly dry for a room in the sewers. In the room are filthy, old cages covered in rust and dust as though they had sat undisturbed for at the very least a year. Hanging low and loosely above each of these beast sized cages were lumi crystals that produced the light in the room. The cages filled the room in rows but none of them had any sign of life within them.
"There's no one here." Kent announced. Alix frowned at the boy.
"I can see that!" Alix snapped at the boy. She was feeling extremely frustrated. "It looks like no one's been here in ages!" Kent slowly walked deeper into the room.
"No, someone's definitely been here." Kent walked over to one of the cages and crouched to analyze it. "At least since the last time that I was down here."
"When was that?" Alix asked quickly.
"I was fifteen at the time, so around four years ago I'd say. My crew and I came down here because I'd heard some rumors about a criminal ring that ran down here."
"I don't care about the reason you came down here. Just tell me what makes you so certain that something's changed recently."
"You're so pushy, mother." Kent stood up and leaned against the cage he was inspecting. "It's actually my previous experience that makes me so sure. You see the lumi crystals hanging over these cages?" Kent pointed his resting hand at the low-hanging crystal seemingly trying to not move it.
Alix looked at the crystal and tried to interpret the boy's answer before he gave it. "Are you referring to the fact that lumi crystals use light mana generated from the Blaze to keep their glow? The fact that they are still filled with power proves that someone must have been down here to power them up and recently at that." Alix nodded to herself confident in her answer.
"Good guess! That's wrong though." Alix's eye twitched when she was called out for being wrong. "I just told you that this place used to be a little criminal ring, right?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with the light source?" Alix tapped her foot waiting for Kent to answer her question.
"I was getting to that mother dear." Kent held in all of his feelings of annoyance as Alix continued to express her impatience. "This place was actually used as a drug room. You ever heard of those? They're little illegal rooms where criminals supply people with drugs and let the do them here and stay overnight."
"That's an interesting piece of trivia but, you're still wasting my time." Mo looked over at Alix.
'Calm down a bit Lexi. He's trying to explain it. It's not his fault that he's so slow with it." Mo said trying, and failing, to defend Kent's stretching of his explanation. Kent sighed as he was tired of being interrupted but didn't let that affect his pace.
"The drug they did here was Tranquil-Blaze." Alix's eyes widened in shock then narrowed in confusion.
"But...Tranquil-Blaze isn't a drug it's a completely legally developed and sold alchemical product. Why would criminals need a drug room to let people use Tranquil-Blaze?"
"That's the trick." Kent pushed himself off of the cage and started to walk over to Alix. "The Tranquil-Blazes used by this little group were far more pure and powerful than anything that was being sold out there in the markets. It could mellow you out so hard that you'd basically feel like you were a cloud floating through the air. While it also burned so hot that you'd feel like you were sitting in the sunlight even within the confines of your own home."
"So while the original product was legal and essentially harmless. The group that ran this place found a way to turn it into a drug so powerful that it'd make elves jealous!" Alix grabbed her chin and looked back at the lights.
"Then, the reason that you were so confident that people had been staying here..." Kent nodded before Alix finished speaking.
"It's because these lumi crystals used to be souped-up Tranquil-Blazes that were being dangled above these cages to get customers feeling way more than just peaceful." Alix nodded solemnly.
She felt a bit more accomplished knowing that someone had recently been staying here based on both her and Kent's conclusions. However, that did not stop her from feeling disappointed by the emptiness of this room. She was really hoping that she would just be able to find Trouler and move on to the next step of finding Nuka immediately.
'That was just a frivolous hope, I guess." Alix's mood became less annoyed and more sad as this thought had donned on her. Kent did a final look around the room for posterity but could already tell that there wasn't anything else that they could really find in here.
"Do you have anywhere else that you could look for these 'nobodies' as you call them? Anywhere a little less...sewery?" Alix shook her head fully on instinct.
"If I had anywhere else to look do you really think that the first place I'd go is the sewer?"
"That's...fair. Just askin' in case you got any new information. I don't know how all of this works." Alix traced her eyes around the room and sighed.
"We should go. If there's nothing to find down here then there is no longer a need to be down here." Alix slowly turned to the exit of the room and walked out with Kent following behind her.
Their every step still echoing through the motionless, cavern of the abandoned drug room.
Alix, Kent and Mo had spent an hour and a half down in the sewer and got no new information. They went back to Hedgie's place and showered to get rid of the foul smell of the sewer as well as the dirt and blood from their earlier fight.
Alix then went to school for the day, albeit a little late. She did not wish for today's poor outcome to prevent her from continuing to progress.
That would just make her feel worse.
Alix took part in her sparring class with Vance and Bizen despite being late. "Just because you showed up late doesn't mean you get out of this!" Bizen argued to Vance's dismay. He and Alix just decided to go with it despite both not really feeling up to it.
The day passed at a snails pace as all Alix could think about was the meaning behind not finding the Djinns in the sewer. Them not being there meant that there was a good chance that they had already left the city. Meaning there was little to no chance that she would be able to find Trouler which further lessened the chances of her finding Nuka.
Alix sat in the library, blankly staring at the pages of a book on how different mana moves and how to work with and against the stream. Denver and Mo were there, as always, but they were joined by Stella Epedia and Dandelion Howard. None of them dared to approach Alix, however, as they didn't even know what was bothering her.
She just looked like she needed a bit of space to think.
'You know, just because the Djinns weren't down there doesn't mean that you won't find Trouler." Mo began to comfort. 'I mean, sure, it's gonna be a whole lot more difficult but that doesn't mean that you won't ever find him! What about the vision from the other day! Can't we use that to track him down?"
Alix moved her empty stare over to Mo. 'That vision was inside of a room that was cluttered with alchemy equipment and had no windows. I would say that I could use the sound of the ocean to lessen the search area but if you listen..." Alix paused for a second allowing Mo to hear the distant crashing of waves.
'...you can hear the ocean from most places in the city." Mo opened his mouth try to comfort the girl again but she seemed to be totally defeated. She had lost Trouler and Nuka at the same time. How else was she meant to feel?
'...Savior..."
'Mo please stop. It's already hard enough to try to think when I have a peanut gallery staring at me."
'Umm, that wasn't me, Lexi." Alix frowned at Mo.
'What do you mean that it wasn't you? Who else could it be?"
'...Savior! Helloo~ Is this the right person or is it Mo again?" Alix's eyes widened as a cute voice that she had only imagined rang in her head.
'Trouler? Is that you?" Alix heard a happy squeal in her head.
'Savior! You can hear me! Oh, I'm so happy that I can finally talk to you like everyone else!" A smile crept onto Alix's face. The fact that she could communicate with Trouler meant that he was still in the city!
'Trouler, where are you right now?" Alix got straight to the point. She did not want to miss this chance.
'I'm with those mean people that hurt you! I ran after them to get back at them for hurting my savior then I ended up in that place with the angry person and the bird!"
'The bird? You know where Nuka is?! Is she there with you right now?" Alix started stood up from her chair shocking the people around her. She seemed much better than she was before.
'No, she's not here but that gloomy looking pointy ear guy is! He's asleep on the bed, right now." Alix felt a tinge of frustration in her chest when she heard that Nuka wasn't in the same place as Trouler but that didn't matter right now.
She had a chance to find Trouler.
'Trouler. Can you lend me your vision for a moment so that I can try to see where you are?" Alix had first looked to Trouler's heartstring but it seemed that he was still just out of its range so she could only turn to this.
Within a second, Alix received an image inside her mind. She closed her eyes to focus on it. It was a nice looking room that seemed very large from Trouler's perspective. The room was very well adorned and gave a posh sort of air.
'It seems like he's in one of the fancy hotels, either in the sea-level district or below sea-level district.' Alix couldn't quite put her finger on which area he was in but all that mattered was that he was still in the city.
She still had a chance at finding him.