"Let's use the tunnels."

"A plan that requires us to walk into the Basilica, in full view of everyone, and hope nobody speaks to us? I don't think so. We'll risk those tunnels."

Aliara nodded. "Good idea, Tey. I don't like the idea of walking right in to that nest of vipers. This way we can get the drop on them."

Mish'li sighed. "You are making a mistake. A terrible, dreadful mistake. But it is your mistake to make." She reached down into the chest and pulled out a cloth-wrapped bundle. "Take these, then. Those tunnels are no place to be unarmed. A word of advice: these are a last, last resort. You are probably better off using them on yourselves, if it comes to that."

Aliara took the bundle and discarded the cloth, revealing a pair of wavy-bladed drew kris. They shone with an oily gleam in the flicking candlelight. She picked one up and turned it around, testing its weight, with a distasteful expression on her face.

"They'll have to do, I guess..." Aliara sounded uncertain.

"Li! For Agamor's sake!" Teysa snapped at her friend. She turned to the drow. "Mish'li, thank you for these gifts. We will bring them back when we return."

Mish'li let out a short, sharp bark of laughter. "No, you won't. It is alright. I give you this gift freely. Still, it's better not to use them." She straightened. "Come with me. It is time you left."

She led them down the hall and down the massive staircase. It seemed to pass much more quickly on the descent, and soon they found themselves in the anteroom on the ground floor. Mish'li took a curving side passage lined with doors. She set a grueling pace, and Teysa and Aliara struggled to keep up. She abruptly turned in to a door that looked no different from its neighbors, following another short staircase down.

This one opened out into a vast, gloomy space. It took a moment for Teysa's eyes to adjust, but when they did, she realized she was in a vast kitchen. A patina of dust covered every surface. This room was clearly disused and had been for some time. Pots and utensils hung from chains above them, looming out of the darkness like baroque instruments of ****.

To their right, two heavy steel doors were set in the wall. Mish'li picked the farther one and pulled it open with a squeal of hinges. The sound made Teysa jump, but Mish'li seemed unconcerned, so she supposed the risk of being caught was small.

This door opened into a narrow corridor, which turned into a descending spiral staircase. The air grew cold and moist as they descended. The only light came from smoldering embers held in braziers along the walls-- it barely served to push back the gloom far enough that Teysa could climb down without tripping. Finally, the staircase came to an end, opening into a long narrow room.

Passing through, Teysa looked around. The room she was in was barely wider than the hallway upstairs. Both walls were lined with barred cage doors. They were in a dungeon of some kind. The cells looked cramped and decrepit-- a couple were furnished with stone benches, the others held nothing but rubble and trash. Scattered bones littered the floor of one, rusted manacles still wrapped around them. Many of the doors were partially collapsed.

Mish'li held up a hand to signal a stop. "Ware. The tunnels begin up ahead. This used to be a dungeon complex. These days, prisoners are all brought to the Basilica. Up ahead, something from the tunnels burrowed its way in here and made its lair. You can use that passage to get into the tunnels, but you have to move quickly. If you pass through its lair quickly enough you should be safe, but do not linger."

Teysa turned. "Thank you, Mish'li. Sincerely, our deepest thanks. I know you stuck your neck out for us. I appreciate that you are taking such a risk. I promise we will not let you down. We will find out what happened to Siri'ka."

The drow hesitated. Her face was as stoic and unreadable as ever, but she seemed to be trying to put something into words. "May... may the Mother of Spiders watch over you, Teysa and Aliara. I wish you luck."

Teysa smiled, and even Aliara gave a curt nod, though her expression didn't soften. Mish'li looked down uncomfortably, and emotion suddenly welled up in Teysa's heart. She threw her arms around the drow and pulled her into an embrace. Mish'li went stiff with surprise, and hesitantly hugged back.

"Take care of yourself, Mish'li. You stay safe too. You've done more for us than we could have asked. Whatever happens, you've done your best."

The drow withdrew awkwardly and bowed. "I will leave you then. Luck." She reached into her robe and pulled out a small glass ball. She waved it back and forth and it began to glow a soft, faint blue. She handed it to Teysa and stepped away. "Some light. Stay near it if you can. Shake it if it grows dim."

Teysa stood and watched until Mish'li had faded into the gloom, then turned back to Aliara. The half-elf was watching her quizzically. Teysa threw up her hands. "What? She helped us! I get the feeling that she doesn't like it here any more than we do. She can't being a drow."

Aliara raised an eyebrow. "Tey, you're soft-hearted. It's one of the things I love about you. But you don't know these drow like I do. Mish'li is using us. This is just some weird drow religious schism to her. That's how they operate. They have lesser races do the dirty work. This way, her hands are clean."

Teysa scowled. "Come on. Let's just go ahead."

The two women padded down the dungeon corridor. They reached the end of the line of cells, where the path opened out into a wide chamber. This was denuded of furniture, but a few discolorations on the ground indicated where some might have stood. A faint periwinkle glow came from somewhere above them. Teysa looked up, and her mouth hung open in wonder. The ceiling had a strange, smooth texture, and seemed to be plastered rather than bare stone. The material glowed with an inner light. It filled the room like starlight and gave their skin a strange bluish cast. Teysa smiled. "Li, it's beautiful! Can you believe this?"

Aliara barreled into her from behind. "Tey, didn't you hear Mish'li? Run!" She staggered off, righted herself and bolted forward. Teysa looked around. Behind her, something was running down the walls, dripping to the ground and pooling in the shadows. She gulped and sprinted forward, following Aliara's lead. The half-elf vaulted over a pile of shattered masonry, ducked under an outcropping of stone and vanished into a cavity in the wall. Teysa followed as best she could, bent nearly double to squeeze through the hole.

Aliara waited on the other side in a cave with rough-hewn walls. Stalagmites littered the floor and brackish water pooled in the crevices. "Li, I-" Teysa began, but Aliara held up a hand for silence and pointed at the hole from which they had come. Teysa strained to hear. Something on the other side of the wall was slurping, squelching.... She shuddered.

Aliara beckoned and set off deeper into the cave. She moved with easy grace across the uneven floor, but Teysa had to pick her way carefully between rocky outcroppings. The cave narrowed into a rocky tunnel, and Teysa began to see signs of construction. Here, stalagmites had been pulverized to clear the floor. There, a rust stain surrounded a cavity where a bolt of some sort had sat ages ago. Whoever had dug these tunnels had clearly not used them in years, though something had; they passed patches of ooze caked onto the walls and scattered bones that had clearly been gnawed. Mish'li's orb gave off just enough light to see a few feet ahead and behind, and Teysa held it close to her chest. If the orb broke they really would never find their way out of here. She tried to stay close to Aliara, to keep her in the bubble of light.

The air was cool and musty, but occasionally gusts of warmer air blew down the corridor. They carried a foul carrion odor, and Teysa could not help but think of them as the exhalations of some colossal creature whose gullet they were climbing into.

Up ahead, the passage widened. It opened out into a small cave, which had clearly been artificially widened. Two tunnels led out of this room on opposite sides. They paused to take stock.

"Which way, Tey?" Aliara asked. Teysa shrugged. "You're the expert at this stuff, Li. What do you think? I mean, I don't even know how to decide..."

Aliara crossed her arms. "I don't like this. We were warned there were things down here. Even accounting for Mish'li exaggerating the danger, we should have seen something by now. There's something wrong with these caves, Tey. I really don't like it. I know when I'm being tracked, and this doesn't feel like that. So are we really being left alone? Or is there just something stalking us that even I can't pick up on?" Her voice sounded strained. She was staring intently at the rock wall about a foot to the left of Teysa's head.

Teysa stood and put an arm around Aliara. The half-elf flinched but didn't draw away. She was trembling like a leaf. This is really messing with her. Teysa ran her hand through Li's hair, holding her close. "Shhh. It's ok. It's ok. We can take a break. I trust you. I know you can get us through this."

"It's not ok!" Aliara suddenly, violently pulled herself away. She snapped her head up and Teysa was astonished to see real terror in her eyes. "Tey, there's something out there! It's coming for us! It's coming for us! I can feel it! We have to go, Tey, now!"

Fear gripped Teysa's heart. She strained her ears, trying to pick something out. Did she hear something in the tunnel behind them? Something slithering over the rocks, something clicking across the stone floor? Was that movement in the gloom? Fighting to keep her panic down she looked at the exits. To their left the tunnel was slower and wider. Splintered bones lay scattered across the cave floor in that direction. To their right the tunnel was clear, with a narrow stream trickling down a groove worn in the floor and disappearing into the darkness. A slightly warm breeze blew out of the tunnel, carrying that faint rotten odor.

"Teysa, please!" Aliara's eyes were rolling wildly in panic now. Something was really frightening her. Teysa's heart pounded in her ears. She chose a tunnel and, grabbing Aliara's arm, threw herself toward it.