Return to Avana.

With relative ease, you land without even a thud atop the roof of Dragonhide Manor. You can see much of the city from here. As much as you like Castle Phoenix, you can't help but miss living here. This is the fault of Elok, or more immediately, King Thadius, the man who put a bounty on your head. There's no time to dwell on that, however. You instead hop down the backside of the manor into the yard, activating your Boots of Herbes to easy land on the ground. First, you try the back door, but it's locked. Not far away you spot obvious repairs done to the wall. It seems they needed to fix some things after your last fight here. It would be easy to break through, but you imagine there must be a limitation to the elixir's sound dampening abilities. Footsteps are one thing, but knocking down a wall is another.

After creeping around the side of the manor for a few more moments, you notice one of the upstairs windows is ajar. With a mighty leap, you grab onto the side of the building and begin to climb. You heave yourself up to the window in question and slowly nudge it open. You then crawl inside into a familiar sight.

Just down there was my room. It feels like so long ago. But it's time to make my way to the basement. There's no telling who lives in here, if anyone.

You first make your way down to the main floor. As you step off the stairs, you hear the sound of water running. Thankfully, you don't need to do much to remain stealthy, but you still remain low and approach with caution. You turn the corner into the kitchen, and that's when you see her.

It's unmistakably Anastasia Phairgem again. She must reside here, to watch over one of the tunnel's entrances. However, she doesn't appear at all like you're used to seeing her. Normally she's a modest, pure girl garbed in practical armour, and is a devout follower of the Church of Lasis--doctrine from Varat promoting chastity, order, and the like. Though right now, said armour is hanging from a stand adjacent to the sink. She stands there with gorgeous, bright red hair down past her bare shoulders, and would be complete if not for a single, dark crimson thong wedged between her cute perky cheeks.

She hums a happy song with joyful pink in her cheeks--completely oblivious that a pair of eyes has now seen her in such an impure state. The breastplate of her armour is in the sink, and she's scrubbing it shiny and clean. As she sings to herself, she wiggles her butt.

You can't help but watch for at least a few moments. Though just before you decide it's time to head to the basement, you spot someone coming around the corner. It's an ALICE. She stands there in the entrance of the kitchen for a moment before clearing her throat--unlikely such a thing is required with how her body works, but she isn't certain how else to grab the attention of the cleric.

Anastasia nearly has a heart attack. She turns and flushed red as she frantically tries to cover up her body--even below, despite wearing panties. She stumbles backwards, almost right into you, though you swiftly put more distance between you and the altercation.

"I w-was supposed to be by myself today!" Anastasia cries. She looks around in a panic for something to put on, but her armour is still on the stand, and her clothing is presumably elsewhere. "You can't just come in here!"

"I can," the ALICE replies. "And calm yourself. I do not care what I see you wearing."

"But I do!"

"It is important that we keep tabs on all important locations. You must be prepared for inspection. Our master trusts you, but that does not mean we need to be careless. Do you have anything to report?"

"No... and please do not keep looking at me. N-Now that you have seen me in such a state, can I even still marry?"

"You are a strange person. Carry on then. I am going to look over some things here, and then head back." With a short bow of her head, she turns and leaves the room.

Anastasia places a hand on her racing heart. She looks completely humiliated, even if it was nothing more than an ALICE who saw her (as far as she knows).

I guess this is one of their bases. Whether or not it's used for any experiments, I could call it one of the laboratory locations. It makes sense, given it's Avana's entrance into his tunnel. If there's one here and one in Tolis, he really does have full freedom to move any goods or people he wants through the entire empire undetected. I bet he makes a killing off criminals wanting to use it. That means that if I do follow it further, even if it doesn't go straight to Muian's old lair, it has to go somewhere important.

Leaving the poor cleric to her own struggles, you make your way downstairs yet again.

You still remember the wall that opened. It's at the far end, though it looks nothing more like every other wall down here. You slide your hands around for a few moments in search for this side's switch until you finally find the right brick to push. When you push it, the secret door sinks into the ground, revealing a spiral staircase heading down.