"You know, when I decided to go after you, rats didn't really make my list of possible issues," Feyla said, clutching a small crate of materials closer as another rat scurried past her and down the dark catacombs.

Sedgewick took a comforting step nearer and held the torch higher.  He'd wanted to carry the box but Feyla had noticed him favoring the good part of his back and quickly deduced that it was flaring up again.  Which meant no playing gentleman martyr on her watch.

"I'm sorry," Sedgewick said quietly.

"What for?" Feyla asked while they stepped around a large puddle.  The light from the torch reflected off the condensation on the stone walls, making thousands of tiny distorted mirrors along their path.

"Dragging you into this mess."  Sedgewick gestured to the tunnel but she suspected he meant something else.

Feyla elbowed him.  "I like 'this mess', thank you very much."

Sedgewick smiled sadly as if he didn't quite believe her.

"You'd be the only one, lady," Hobrin said as he came up beside them carrying the spell-weaver and a bigger box.

"I didn't pay for you to be annoying, Hobrin," Sedgewick snapped.

"'I didn't pay for you to be annoying, Hobrin'," he repeated back using a mocking mimic of Sedgewick's accent.

Sedgewick let his torch dip closer to the other man. Hobrin jumped back and sucked in a breath.

Feyla smacked Sedgewick's arm. "Be nice!"

"He's supposed to be showing us the way!  Not being irritating."

Hobrin kicked water onto Sedgewick. "You outta talk. At least when people don't like me, it's 'cause of how I look and not because I'm a—"

"Let's not fight," Feyla cut in, slipping in between them.  She turned to Hobrin. "Are we close to the hideaway?"

Hobrin stopped and set the crate down. "Nope. But this is as far as I can take you."

"Then why the gates are you even here?" Sedgewick shouted.

Hobrin smirked and lowered the spell-weaver off his shoulder. "I said it's as far as I can take you.  Once the city made the streets into rivers, they didn't really need these tunnels. Now they're just used whenever they need to get rid of extra water.  I keep track of when they're supposed to be used, but you can't be too careful.  Someone might make a mistake. Or try to run some sorceress out of hiding right when you're trying to get home for dinner."  He scowled at Sedgewick who smirked in return.  Finally, Hobrin reached into his pouch and pulled out a rat with a tattered green ribbon around it. "This here's Mrs. Sniffles.  She can sniff out a dry hideaway of Crayden's for us."

Sedgewick's ear twitched in annoyance and Feyla bit down a laugh at the sight.

"You expect us to follow a rat?" he asked, gritting his teeth.

"She's a good rat! Knows the whole place.  I trained her myself," Hobrin said proudly.

"Well.  That just fills me with overwhelming confidence."

Hobrin glared at him before stepping closer to Feyla. "Take a look, lady. See? She's something special," he said, a paternal pride in his voice.

Feyla stopped herself from backing away. She breathed in slowly before looking at the animal.  Mrs. Sniffles chittered at her pleasantly and Feyla cracked a smile. "I guess as far as rats go, she's kind of cute."

Hobrin's lips parted in surprise. He stared at her a moment before beaming as if she'd just told him he'd inherited a diamond mine. The smile reminded her of Crayden's except pleasanter—even with two pointy teeth. It had a certain genuineness to it that his cousin's lacked.  "I like you, lady."  He nodded to Sedgewick. "He ever kicks the bucket, you come and get me.  I'll make sure you get out okay."

"That's...sweet, Hobrin.  I think.  But Sedgewick's not dying anytime soon."

"Certainly not," Sedgewick muttered.

"He's not allowed to.  If he does, I'll just resuscitate him and kill him again myself," Feyla said, grinning at Sedgewick.

Sedgewick fought back a smile before turning back to Hobrin. "Release your rat. I'm not paying you by the hour."

"All right, all right," Hobrin grumbled.  "But get ready to run."  Hobrin pulled Mrs. Sniffles closer and whispered something in her ear before releasing her onto the ground.  She twitched her tail and bolted off down the tunnel.  Hobrin snatched up the supplies and everyone took off after her.

If Sedgewick had known the secret to finding someone hidden in Vacia's semi-abandoned aqueducts was stealing Hobrin's pet rat, he would have had half the black magic population locked up by now.

Sedgewick slid the torch into a holder on the wall and Feyla set her small crate on a table made of stone legs with a wooden slab laid across it.  Hooks hung on the wall with rolled-up mats firmly knotted onto them.  Hobrin slung the spell-weaver off his shoulder and started unfolding the legs on the partially damp floor.  The tunnel had been sealed off with only a barred drain at the bottom on one end and a thick wooden door closing out the other.  An illusion spell hung over the door, making it appear like the tunnel had already ended.

"That should do it," Hobrin said, wiping his brow.  "Here's a map to the surface."  Hobrin handed it to Feyla.  "I'm gonna head out."

"Thanks for the help, Hobrin.  You too, Mrs. Sniffles," Feyla said as the rat stuck her head out of Hobrin's pouch.

Sedgewick rolled his eyes and went back to checking that Hobrin had set up the spell-weaver correctly.

"A—hem."

Sedgewick glanced up to find Feyla tapping her foot with her arms crossed.

"Don't you have something to say, Sedgewick?"

"You...looked nice today?"  What did the woman want?  Gates, had he missed something?

Feyla huffed.  "To Hobrin.  For bringing us down her."

Sedgewick stared at her incredulously.  Surely she wasn't serious.  The man had been a nuisance who was just doing what he was told.  Why would he bother thanking someone who was barely competent? 

Then again, at least he did his job.  Which is more than I can say for myself.

Sedgewick struggled between his natural instinct to not give what he felt wasn't deserved and the nagging feeling that he wasn't really the one to judge.  "Thank you, Hobrin," Sedgewick finally said with a hint of reluctance.  Hobrin at least had a job, a purpose, even if it was just working for his cousin.  Sedgewick had—and was—nothing.  Or at least for the moment.

The man blinked at him in surprise before hesitantly holding up his rat.

Sedgewick sighed.  "And your pet."

"No problem."  He smiled slightly.  "Bye, Feyla," Hobrin added before closing the heavy door behind him.

Sedgewick went back to the spell-weaver while Feyla began prepping the supplies like she would in his lab. 

"Thank you," Feyla said softly.

"Hmm?"  Sedgewick sat up and turned to Feyla.

She smoothed her Battle Healer's uniform and kept her eyes on the table.  "For not arguing with me.  For just thanking him.  I—I don't think he gets that very much."

Sedgewick stood from the ground and rubbed his aching back.  He leaned against the table and realized Feyla's eyes had turned puffy and red.  "Feyla—"

"Did you see the way that jerk treats him?!  My cousin and I are like sisters and Crayden acts like his is disposable!"

"Feyla—"

"Children of interspecies relationships have a hard enough time with a supportive family much less one that acts like that," she spat out.  "And then he dared to say all those things about you!  I just wanted to put my hands around his smug little neck and squeeze and I—" She stopped and glanced down at her shaking hands, held out as if reaching for the object of her anger.  Feyla turned ashen.  She slowly closed her hands, swallowing as if sick.  "I...  I shouldn't think things like that."

Sedgewick wrapped his arms around her.  They stayed there quietly until she stopped shaking, neither wanting to be the one that let go.

"When we get your magic back, could you slam him into a wall for me?  Not enough to kill him, but..."

Sedgewick chuckled.  "Of course, my dear."

They reluctantly separated and Feyla smiled weakly.

"But if you want me to do that then I certainly hope your review of that book I gave you went well."

Feyla's eyes widened.  She laughed nervously and fiddled with her white tunic shirt.  "About that..."

Sedgewick gave her a deadpanned stare.  "I'm going to have to walk you through every step, aren't I?"

"Pretty much.  We barely touched on rune discs in my healer's training.  I was lost after the third chapter."

Sedgewick sighed.  Would nothing be easy?

                                                                                               **************

Author's Note: Whew. So sorry this was late, everyone.  I had a busy week and this chapter was deceptively difficult.  I had to cut and rewrite a whole section.  Blame Sedgewick; I certainly do. *glares at him*