Made in Hell Chapter 9

I threw out my hand to halt the wood from slamming in my face.

“We were sent here by the kobold,” I informed the creature. “He said you could help us with something.”

The tabaxi glanced over my face, and he considered my violet, glowing irises for a moment.

“Why would I help you?” He squinted.

“We can pay you twelve pieces for your time,” Ashe answered for me.

“Twelve pieces?” a tabaxi thought aloud. “For what? What is it you need assistance with?”

“We need information,” I replied. “That is all. We seek to leave this place, and without the right information, we’ve hit a dead end.”

Like with the kobold, the tabaxi thought about my statement for a solid minute while he eyed the lanes both up and down, but then he allowed us to enter his hut with a single gesture of his paw. The tabaxi walked with a slight arch to his back as if the age had started to affect his bones, but he didn’t shuffle his great paws with each step.

The hut, unlike the other house we had been in, was one singular room. A bed was placed in the far corner, and a table sat in front of the window near the main door. The hut held the same scent I had noticed outside. He had recently cooked himself a meal, and the smell of the food was faintly noticeable.

The table only had two chairs beside it, so I allowed Ashe and the tabaxi to take them while I stood with my back to the window and crossed one foot over the other to hold my balance.

“Why do you want to leave, demon?” the tabaxi asked once we were settled.

“It should be no surprise to you that the Port of Rengfri is not a safe place for us to settle,” I explained.

“Why are you settling up here at all?” I asked with a tired smirk. “Thought your kind preferred to fester in the fire and brimstone.”

“We’ve chosen to seek better accommodations,” I said with a shrug. “Now, we need to find a temporary place to stay for the time being.”

“I cannot remember the last time I saw demons wandering around the Shadow Quarters,” the Tabaxi said as he stretched out his back against the seat. “Whatever you plan to do in these parts, it must be serious. Suppose you’re fixing to devour the incubi?”

“No,” I sighed. “We’re not getting involved in the issues of the Shadow Quarters.”

“That’s too bad,” the Tabaxi snorted. “I’d be happier to help if it meant your lot were fixing to knock those dirty bastards off their thrones around here.”

“The kobold said something similar,” Ashe responded with narrowed eyes. “He made it pretty clear the incubi are generally despised in this part of the quarters.”

“‘Despised’ is putting it lightly,” he snorted again. “There are many things I hate in this world, but I’d take any of them on if it meant I didn’t have to even think about the incubi for the rest of my life.”

“They’ve ruined your life, too?” I asked.

“Ruined?” the Tabaxi repeated, and he sent me an exhausted look. “I no longer have a life to ruin thanks to them. Tabaxi used to rule the Shadow Quarters before the incubi came into power. You’d find hundreds of us up in the trees at all hours of the day. After the incubi showed up, I was allowed to keep this hut, but everything else was taken from me. I am the last of my kind to live here, but the ones who were killed off had it easier. At least they got out early. I tell you, the incubi’s hold on this district has gone on long enough.”

“Well, that may be,” I replied, “but we don’t have any interest in dealing with their kind. We only seek to board a vessel at the docks. The issue we face there is that the wharves are overrun by the king’s guards and the Church.”

“Yeah, you won’t catch a demon slipping by their eyes out there,” the tabaxi snickered.

“Precisely,” I agreed. “Our plan is to get in contact with a syndicate who could possibly help us with this task. The only issue is we don’t know where, or how, to find an appropriate one without stirring up trouble for ourselves.”

“Help you?” The Tabaxi narrowed his feline eyes at me. “You can’t really believe the criminals around here would stick their necks out for a couple of rogue demons.”

“Oh, I’m sure they won’t,” Ashe purred before I could respond. “But regardless, what we plan to do with their necks isn’t of your concern.”

“Ashe,” I warned, and the demon pursed her lips into a deadly smirk.

The Tabaxi seemed to have understood our intentions clearly, though, and to my surprise, he didn’t look too rattled by the idea of us overthrowing a local syndicate.

“And so you’ve come to me.” He nodded and scratched his gray chin with a large paw. “You spoke to the kobold about this?”

“Briefly,” I replied. “He mentioned the gorgons at the palace, and a dwarf before him mentioned the vampires in the Grimmway, but they are of no use to us.”

“You need some criminals with connections in the harbor,” he concluded.

“They don’t necessarily have to be connected to the harbor,” Ashe pointed out. “If we must start with a lower operation, we can. We just need to know of anyone who has set themselves up well in these parts, and who can also slip past the watchful eyes of the Church and the guards. If their… change in management can be ignored, that will buy us the time we need to solve our issues with the wharves.”

“Well, that’s an easier task.” The tabaxi nodded. “Not too hard to find someone around these parts who don’t deal much with the wharves. Even easier to find a group that’s despised by most of the locals. What do you know of the dark elves?”

“I saw a group of them taken to the Church not long ago,” I answered with a shrug.

“Do you know of the group beyond the Grimmway?” the tabaxi asked.

“No,” Ashe responded for me. “We saw a vampire heading along that way, though.”

“Similar area,” the tabaxi confirmed. “You head deeper into the trees out there, and you’ll find a group of dark elves who run an illegal mining operation. There’s one elf who leads the whole organization, but last I heard, they had imp slaves to do the labor for them. They certainly have connections far greater than others around here. Can’t be touched by the Church. They’re set up even better than the damn vampires, and I’ve never heard a good word about them from anyone in these parts.”

“What do the incubi think of them?” Ashe checked.

“Couldn’t say,” the tabaxi admitted. “But they’re not too big on loyalty. Only thing the incubi care about is results. If you slip in there, and keep up with business as usual, you might just get by alright.”

“I like the sound of that,” I said, and my demon voice festered in my throat as a grin spread across my lips.

“Do you know where in the trees we’d find them?” Ashe questioned.

The tabaxi raised his giant paws in the air. “That is something I don’t know, I’m afraid. I heard the head elf of their organization ordered everyone to relocate out there a few months ago, but that’s all I can tell you, really.”

“That’s okay, we can try and find him,” I decided. “It’s a start, at least.”

“You might ask some of the trolls,” the tabaxi suggested. “Their kind usually converse with the imps, and since this new batch of slaves were dragged in recently, it’s likely the trolls will have heard a thing or two about the situation. They could probably tell you more than I can. You can find them all over the Shadow Quarters, but best to ask the trolls outside the Grimmway, just in case any prying ears are around.”

“Thank you,” Ashe said with a nod. “You’ve been a great help to us.”

“Does this mean you’ll scratch my back and kill a few incubi?” the tabaxi asked. “You look like a woman who could tear their fuckin’ faces off if you wanted to.”

The old cat-man’s sinister grin made the demon woman smirk, and she rolled her eyes playfully.

“I’m sure I could, but I’m not for hire,” she snorted. “We’ll pay you for the information, as we promised, though.”

Ashe got up and strolled over to me, and before I could dig the coins out myself, she slipped her hand deep into my pocket again. I grinned at her lusty pink eyes while she rifled around for a bit, but then she brought the twelve promised pieces over to the table and laid them out for the man.

“Here, hold on a moment,” the tabaxi muttered and stood from the seat with some effort. “For your kindness…”

Ashe and I exchanged questioning looks while the cat-man searched a few cupboards that lined one wall, found what he was looking for, and then closed the door. The ancient wood squeaked as the cupboard door closed, and when the Tabaxi turned back to face us, he had a cudgel in his hand. The handle was made of thick, aged wood, and there was a large, wooden ball at the top. The ball, however, had been coated in thick, rusty spikes.

“Take this. Much more common of a weapon for these parts than the blade at your side.”

I grasped the handle of the cudgel and felt the weight it held. It was an impressively sturdy weapon, and as I swung it around in the air a bit, an evil smile curled across my lips. I could already picture the skulls I could smash in with this thing, and the flesh that would drip from the ends of the rusty spikes.

I accepted the weapon even though I felt guilty for taking some of his items when he had so few. It had been a long fucking time since I felt guilty about anything, yet the dwarf, kobold, and the tabaxi had all been so helpful, and their meager offerings affected me more than I expected them to.

Maybe I’d been in this human form for too long.

We left the hut after bidding the tabaxi goodbye, and was much less irritated about our situation as we headed up the lane again. We had to find the group of dark elves who worked beyond the Grimmway and figure out what exactly they were up to out there. The sooner we worked out their set up, the sooner we could knock them off their asses for smooth take over.

“They keep giving us gifts…” Ashe said.

“It’s strange,” I replied.

“Or not,” she snickered. “They intrinsically sense your power and the change you are bringing.”

“I only want us to get out of here,” I said.

“Yes…” she purred. “But the small gift might earn them a greater reward later if you replace the incubi.”

“Perhaps.” I shrugged.

“Would you like me to track down some trolls?” Ashe asked as we went back through the avenues of the Shadow Quarters. “I can make quick work of the task, and I’m not sure you’ll be very popular among them. They might smell that stolen stash on you.”

I smirked at the notion as I came to a stop. “I don’t know if I like the idea of you strolling around this area alone.”

“Don’t you trust me to keep my claws in?” Ashe purred as she wiggled into my arms.

“I do,” I assured her. “It’s these incubi and the Blessed I don’t trust.”

“Atticus, I’ll be fine,” the demon said more seriously. “You don’t intend to keep me on a leash up here all the time, do you?”

“Only if you want me to,” I said with a grin.

“I want you to be happy with my servitude.” Ashe chuckled and left a hungry kiss on my lips, and I delved my tongue deep into her delicious mouth to make her go weak at the knees. Then I resurfaced, admired her pillowy cleavage, and nodded my approval.

“I’ll meet you back at the inn,” I told the demon woman. “I’m going to take a look around the Grimmway for a bit and see if I can’t catch a whiff of these elves. Then you can expect there to be all manner of tasty foods waiting for you, as well as my cock.”

“Then I’ll be back before you know it,” Ashe purred.

I watched as she jogged off in the opposite direction, and her silver-blue hair blew in the wind. Then she swore as she nearly tripped over her long dress, and I chuckled as she hauled the fabric up high above her silvery knees.

I didn’t continue walking until she was out of sight, and I made my way toward the grassy hill and into the Grimmway without really thinking about where I was heading. I hadn’t been on the surface world for a very long time, yet the map of Rengfri had quickly become lodged inside my head, and I was content knowing this place was becoming familiar already.

Now, I just needed to familiarize myself with the seedy underbelly of the Grimmway.

I came to a stop as I passed the fiery beacons that welcomed me into this part of town. To the left of me was the pathway that led to the inn and the eccentric marketplace, but there was also a path to the right which we were still to travel through. The dark trees towered high beside me, and even though the sun was still shining above, the area to my right was cast in deep shadows.

I reached the end of the right side path and noticed a few more buildings like the ones that surrounded the marketplace, and some more loud music was coming from one of them. Mixed in with the music, I could make out sultry laughs and giggles nearby, but then I heard voices directly above me.

“Ooh, look at that one,” a woman called down. “He looks like a lot of fun.”

“I’ll fight you for him,” another replied, and both of them giggled at their childish taunting.

I looked up to see where the voices had come from, and I noticed two black fairies were sitting delicately on one of the thick tree branches. They were about Ashe’s size and dressed in scrappy black skirts and corsets, and their large, gauzy black wings fluttered slowly behind them. From this angle, I could almost see straight past their black and white striped stockings and up their skirts, but I could tell by their deep red pouts that this was intentional.

“Come and join us,” one of the black fairies suggested as she wrapped a lock of her dark hair around her finger.

“We’d love to get to know you,” the other giggled.

I couldn’t help but smirk at the seductive pair. Black fairies, like most fairies, had a reputation for being clever, but they were also known to love the attention of men, no matter what species they were. I eyed their striped stockings one more time, but then I offered them a polite nod.

“I’d love to, but I’m busy at the moment,” I replied, and my demon voice slipped out a bit despite my effort to keep it in check.

“Ohh, we won’t take long,” one black fairy purred.

“Speak for yourself,” the other half-moaned while she eyed me with lusty eyes. “I’d love to take my time with this one.”

“Well, like I said, I’m busy right now.” I grinned and walked on.

“You know where to find us!” a black fairy called after me.

I kept walking and refused to look back at the sultry fairies.

The same string of lights had been placed high along the roofs of the buildings here, but one section wasn’t lit up like the others. Then I spotted what could only be a witch with stark orange eyes twirling her hands together as if to cast a spell, and all of a sudden, the darkened lights practically exploded as they were turned on.

I meandered through a few more fairies, witches, and orcs as I headed past the line of houses, through a small alleyway, and then into yet another section of the Grimmway. This area was somewhat like the main marketplace, with an old, moss-covered well in the center, and some shops and stalls around the circumference. A few more alleyways twisted their way between the structures, and one of them led into the surrounding grove of oaks. I stood at the foot of the alley and a distinct scent wafted over me.

It was a smell that was familiar to me, and one full of evil, but with a slight hint of iron and rust to it. There were vampires nearby, potentially only a few yards beyond where I stood, but given the time of day, there were none to be seen. I could imagine their coffins buried deep into the soil of the grove, with the undead beasts sleeping inside. Maybe I’d come back here later, once the sun had set, but that wasn’t at the top of my list.

I turned on my foot with the plan to leave this area when I noticed some dark elves buying something from a nearby stall. They were completely unaware that I was watching them, but they seemed determined to be discreet in their work.

I wondered if these elves were part of the group we were looking for, but their tattered red jackets, while made from velvet, didn’t give me the impression they were well off. This dark elf crime boss, whoever he was, wouldn’t be lacking in pieces, and this meant the majority of his band of elves would be dressed in only the finest garb available in these parts.

I brushed off the idea, but made sure to keep my eyes alert as I sauntered through this part of the Grimmway for a while longer. I saw only a few more dark elves, and all of them poorer than the last, and twice, I heard the same pair of black fairies murmuring in the treetops above me.

I was in a completely different avenue, though, so I knew the sultry fairies had to be following me around.

I sighed and diverted from my path, and on my way to the dwarf’s inn, I stopped off at a food cart and purchased four legs of meat and some apples the half-goblin had in a wicker basket. The assorted apples were bright green and deep red, and I could already imagine their juices dripping down Ashe’s soft lips and chin.

And then I imagined licking all the sweetness off her skin.

I couldn’t stop my mind from running, and as I set out the food in the middle of the table, I kept thinking about what Ashe was doing and if she was okay. I was comfortable with the thought that she’d be capable of taking on a group of trolls like I had, but the Blessed could have followed her through the streets, or the Lord Captains could have sent up an army of hunters. I knew we only had a limited amount of time to get to these dark elves and hopefully get out of Rengfri, but I kept wondering if there was enough time to complete all of that before more demons were sent in our direction.

I sat down on the bed and tried to focus on something else, but this was the only thing that circled around my mind. My body was telling me to go out there and find her, but I reminded myself that Ashe was a demon. Just because she was mine now, didn’t mean I had to go mad trying to look after her.

She was an Infernal Huntress, after all, and a vicious fiend on top of this, so I would just have to wait until she was back in the inn again.

Fortunately, I heard the sound of a door closing and then Ashe’s sultry voice before my impatience got the better of me.

“It smells delicious in here,” she giggled and sat down on the bed next to me. “The food smells almost as good as you do.”

I devoured the woman’s grinning lips while she hungrily returned the favor, and this one touch doused all my tension and replaced it with lust. I forced myself to stay on task, though.

“How did it go with the trolls?” I asked as I released Ashe’s lips.

“The ones I found weren’t up for saying much.” She shrugged. “But that all changed when I brought out this beauty.”

Ashe brought her glaive from her back and lovingly stroked the stock.

“You didn’t kill them, did you?” I chuckled.

“No, I only terrorized them a bit,” Ashe replied. “I knew you would need them alive if we had further questions in the future, so I refrained from gutting them or slicing them limb from limb.”

“Good girl,” I growled and kissed the demon, and she sighed contentedly.

Then I led her over to the table where our feast was laid out, and we began to devour the food without any hesitation.

“What information were you able to get?” I asked between bites from a juicy apple.

“They knew of the imps who were enslaved recently,” Ashe reported as she ripped some meat from a bone. “They also know of a man who works for the head elf.”

“A human?” I asked with a frown.

“That’s right.” Ashe nodded.

“Did they say any more about him?” I queried.

“Apparently, the elves use this human to pay someone off,” she explained. “He’s incredibly hard to track down, but they’ve seen him lurking around the Shadow Quarters every so often for ages now. According to a troll I threatened to castrate, the next payment is due tomorrow.”

“This is fantastic news,” I said with a scheming grin. “We need to find out who this man is, and track him down for ourselves.”

“And then what?” Ashe mumbled through her meat.

I thought over our options while I finished my apple and watched Ashe lick some greasy juices from her plump lips. We didn’t know anything about this group yet, apart from the scant bit of information we gained from the tabaxi and what the trolls gave Ashe. If we were to have any chance of taking over the dark elves’ organization, then we’d have to do it carefully while addressing every potential hole in the plan.

Finding out more about this human subordinate they hired would be one of those holes.

“We’ll find out exactly what this payment is and who it’s being made to,” I decided. “This should give us a bit more of an insight into the organization. The worst thing we could do is conquer these elves and end up sold out to whoever they’re paying off.”

“Good idea,” Ashe agreed. “The trolls had some ideas of where the payment may take place, but they also offered some information on the dark elves’ manor as well.”

“Did they?” I asked. “I didn’t have much luck looking around, although I have a better lay of the land now.”

“Well, according to the trolls, the dark elves’ manor is located on the outskirts of the Grimmway, just near the area that’s encroached by the outer forest,” Ashe explained as she snatched an apple from the pile.

“That’s not an ideal location,” I pointed out.

“It might be alright,” the demon woman said before she took a large and juicy bite of her apple. I could hear her purring with pleasure from the sweet taste, and I smirked as her eyes rolled back in her head for a second. “The trolls said the forest is walled off from that side, which explains why my LC had me enter from another part of the city to reach you the night I arrived.”

“It might explain it,” I growled, and Ashe sobered as she looked me dead in the eye.

“We can’t do anything about whatever the Lord Captains are up to, Atticus,” the demon woman reasoned. “Right now, we can only take care of ourselves.”

“True,” I agreed and took a steadying breath. “We’ll have to locate this manor and scout the area as soon as possible.”

“I’m sure we can sniff the place out,” Ashe replied. “I haven’t encountered these particular beings before, so it’s not like their scent is stored in my memory, but if they’re as evil as we hope, then it shouldn’t be too hard to track them based on a general location.”

“We can look for the scent of their slaves, as well,” I pointed out. “Degradation and misery will stand out enough.”

“Precisely.” Ashe sent me a sinful grin, and then she moaned through another bite of her bright red apple.

“The payment tomorrow is when?” I asked.

“Around midday,” the demon replied. “The trolls said it’ll go down when the sun’s directly above us at the only tavern on the northwest street beyond the bounds of the Shadow Quarters.”

“That gives us time to look for the manor all morning,” I decided. “We’ll start first thing tomorrow and then see about this tavern on the northwest street.”

The two of us finished feasting while the light dimmed outside the window of our room, and once I pulled the velvet curtains closed, I kicked off my boots, blew out the nearest candles, and then threw my jacket over the back of a chair. Ashe did the same with the candles on her side of the room, but when I turned around to face her, she was already completely naked with an obedient glint in her pink eyes.

“You mentioned something about your cock being at my disposal?” the demon purred.

“Get in bed,” I chuckled and undid my belt.

Then I ravaged the little fiend for the next few hours while the wavering music of the Grimmway drifted through the night. When I’d finally finished packing her tight pink tunnel with a gallon of my cum, Ashe was smiling like a saint, and she crawled into my arms with a shaky sigh.

“You fuck me so hard and deep,” Ashe mumbled sleepily. “I’m so happy I belong to you.”

“Me, too,” I panted while every muscle in my core burned with exertion.

Within minutes, the sound of Ashe’s soft, even breaths filled the room, and they lulled me into a dreamstate. We were both in a dangerous situation, and we didn’t know how long we had before more festering shit would be thrust upon us, but at least Ashe managed to sleep fairly peacefully at the end of another strange day, and so did I.

I didn’t know how long I was asleep for, but when I opened my eyes again, the sun had started to filter through the window. It wasn’t as bright as it was in the middle of the day, and there was still a hint of darkness outside which told me it had to have been pretty early.

Ashe’s eyes fluttered open when I stood from the bed, and she stretched out her back and sent me a subtle smile that brought a grin to my face.

“Are you ready to hunt down some dark elves?” I murmured.

“As long as we can involve some violence in the hunt, then I’m always ready,” she replied with a soft laugh.

“That will come in due time,” I assured her.

I peered out the window and spotted a few female half-elves in the street. They were all dragging a cart behind them, and I guessed they were about to set up their stalls for the day. I was relieved I didn’t see the glowing eyes of the Blessed, or even the bright eyes of a demon out there, and I decided the way was clear for us to head out now.

By the time I had redressed and pulled on my jacket and boots, Ashe had done the same with her cape, dress, and boots. She’d also rebraided her silver-blue hair, so her sharp cheekbones were on display, and I was pleased to find she looked as intimidating as she had when I first saw her stalking out of the shadows with her Hellhounds in tow.

Then we each slipped an onyx blade into our belts, I attached the cudgel to the opposite hip, and then I put some pieces into my pockets before I locked the door behind us.

We wandered through the winding lanes of the Grimmway without anyone paying much attention to us, and we meandered deeper into the oaken grove than either of us had travelled so far. While we walked past wagons, shacks, and stone buildings, I thought through what the trolls had told Ashe about the dark elves’ manor, and as the denser, greener needles of the outer forest appeared ahead, I squinted through the trees for any sign of a wall.

“You said the wall is beyond these dark elves’ manor?” I checked.

“It should be,” Ashe confirmed. “I don’t know how we get close enough to find this place, though. There’s hardly any homes up ahead, and the brambles are thick, but not enough to conceal us completely.”

“That’s okay, I’ll find a way,” I said comfortably. “Just keep your nose sharp.”

From what I’d gathered so far, the Grimmway ran in almost a ‘U’ shape within the grove of oaks, and the outer forest of Rengfri was just beyond the deepest curve at the back of this area. As we travelled farther from the music of the Grimmway markets and wagons, a mottled wall appeared ahead, and the ancient bricks stretched nearly ten meters above our heads. The oaks on this side grew so dense that they threatened to swallow the bricks, and the dark pines on the other side appeared to do the same. Where the two met above the wall, the boughs entangled in a blanket of knots, and it looked as if the opposing forests were trying to choke each other out.

We wove through the shadowy forest and avoided the dappled sunlight as much as possible, but then Ashe caught my arm to stop me

“Let’s try that way, first,” she whispered and pointed to the left.

“Lead the way,” I responded.

Our demon eyesight was advanced enough to give us a decent scope through the encroaching trees, but the small touch of added light through the canopy helped us find our way easier. Still, I couldn’t see a manor, or any buildings for that matter, and we walked down a bit further to try again from another angle.

We ended up repeating those moves for some time, but it gave us a better idea of where we were, and what to add to the map that had been created inside my head. While we searched I kept an eye on the sun, and I used it as a clock to work out how long it would be before the payment would take place.

I was surveying the area when Ashe suddenly grabbed onto my arm and pulled me to a stop. “What’s that over there?”

I followed the direction she was looking in and noticed a large, square building a few hundred yards ahead. Then I sniffed the air as we drew closer to the mysterious building, and aside from the scent of damp bark and soil, I picked up a menacing stench. It was complex and riddled with undertones of immorality, greed, and conceit, but there was a subtle hint of misery, too. It was the kind of hopeless misery a slave would carry around, and I exchanged a sidelong glance with Ashe.

“Smells promising,” the demon woman whispered.

I nodded in agreement, but then I kept studying the strange building as we carefully closed in.

The structure itself was a lot different from the others I’d seen scattered around the Port of Rengfri. Apart from the church, most of the buildings in this city were made from a dark wood or ancient stonework, but this one was a deep maroon red in color. It looked to have been built from some strange style of large bricks, but the structure showed signs of age, so I guessed it had been here in the woods for many, many years. The roof was made from gray slate, the edges of the windows were painted jet black, and the five chimneys that shot up from the roof were all just as grim to behold. A stone wall circled around the building, almost like a smaller version of the one that separated the Grimmway from the outer forest of Rengfri.

The large, old building certainly stuck out, and this caused some excitement to surge through my veins. Dark elves were known for being quite loud about their wealth when they had it, like the vampires, and this maroon and gothic building certainly betrayed that.

These dark elves were very well set up here.

As we got closer, I noticed a small, stone sign that had been attached to the short clay brick wall, but the sign was far too old and rundown for me to work out what it said. The glass of the windows were murky gray, and cracks ran down some of the brick walls, and a plethora of hedges, trees, and overgrown grass surrounded the entire property. From the outside, it looked like the place could have been abandoned, but the smell that surrounded it told me this was not the case.

“I have a good feeling about this,” I whispered as we both ducked behind a thick mass of thorny bushes.

“Me, too,” Ashe replied with an excited gleam in her pink eyes.

“The stench falls in line with our expectations,” I muttered, “and the wall of the outer forest is only a couple hundred meters beyond the grounds.”

“That wall’s too high for a demon to scale,” Ashe added. “And it looks like it continues all along this edge of the Grimmway. This could be perfect.”

“If we can confirm the dark elves own this place,” I whispered.

“What should we do?” Ashe asked.

I thought briefly about whether we should check the grounds on the other side of the large building, in case a stronger scent was picked up over there, but I had a feeling in my gut that this was the place to stay for now. We knew nothing of this area yet, and we couldn’t risk drawing attention to ourselves or exposing our plans before we’d even formed them.

“We wait, for now,” I decided. “Just in case anyone comes in or out of this place. Then we’ll head back through the Shadow Quarters in time to witness this payment changing hands at the tavern.”

Ashe nodded in agreement before she narrowed her pink eyes on the building through the trees. She didn’t move a muscle or even speak a word while we scoped out the area, and the work made my heartbeat level off at a steady, heady thrum.

It was good to be on the prowl again, and just knowing we were making headway on our targets brought me satisfaction. I didn’t even know how long we waited behind that mass of thorns, but the sun had risen slightly higher in the sky before long, and still, nothing had happened. Whoever did inhabit this place seemed to keep a very low profile, without even one being coming or going to visit the other homes or markets.

I finally nudged Ashe so we could prowl our way back through the trees to the Grimmway.

“We’ll return another time,” I decided. “Let’s check on this human the elves hired. That’ll give us some insight.”

Ashe and I kept our heads held high as we proceeded back through the Grimmway, only to blend in with the others around us and make sure it didn’t seem like we were up to anything. Even though the residents of this place were far from innocent, we were still new to the district, and it wouldn’t be good for them all to question our motives before we’d even settled down.

We reached the fire beacons without any trouble and then ascended the grassy hill leading to the rest of the Shadow Quarters. The trolls had told Ashe that we were looking for the tavern on the northwest street, and so we slipped through every alleyway and side street as we made our way over there.

Even after viewing only some portions of this quarter of town, I already felt more at risk in the outer areas of the Shadow Quarters compared to the Grimmway. Other undesirable creatures and beings still roamed these areas, but the scent of their unrest was too potent for comfort. They lived in a shadowy kind of fear, but in the Grimmway, it seemed all beings could do whatever they wanted, within reason, without anyone batting an eye.

Once Ashe and I reached the northwest street outside of the Shadow Quarters, I instantly recognized the area we were in, and I knew some of the beings around here served the Church. This was the area we’d scouted earlier before speaking with the tinsel fairy, but as long as we kept quiet and in the shadows, we would hopefully get past unnoticed.

“Hey, is that the tavern over there?” Ashe asked as she pointed through the street we were hiding in.

The building in question was dark with deep brown beams that criss-crossed along the front wall. The stench of fermented liquids drifted over to me, and wooden barrels had been abandoned at the side of the building while the glass windows were faintly lit from the lanterns inside.

I nodded. “It certainly seems to be.”

We made our way closer toward the tavern, but before we left the safety of the side street, Ashe peered up and down the lane to make sure the coast was clear.

“Okay, let’s go,” she whispered softly.

The two of us ran across the lane and then snuck up against the side of the tavern. From where we stood, in relation to the lane and other buildings, I knew no one would see us unless they were standing right in front of us.

Faint voices were heard coming from inside the tavern, but nothing too distinct stood out to me. That was, until we heard the sound of shuffled footsteps in the alleyway closest to ours.

An intoxicating scent of evil filled my nostrils with so much joy and excitement, I knew it wasn’t some ordinary person travelling the back alley of the tavern. The smell was too delicious, and it became even more intense the closer it came to us.

I could only hope this was who we were waiting for.