08 / Listen, Can You Hear It?

Belle's Manor was a monstrosity of a building, it had at least thirty floors, and from the look of it one hundred rooms per floor. This empire dominated the red-light zone. As I passed by the front of the building, I noticed an all too familiar guardian making his way into the Manor, Cedric Blackwell. I wasn't sure what he was doing but I needed to find Fiora before he did.

I snuck through the alleys searching for a way inside the building. I needed to infiltrate the inner sanctum, but I knew they wouldn't let me just go walking in there. It was for their privileged clients who happened to have lots of credits. I wasn't about to go and become one just to get inside.

The only doors on the building were the ones at the entrance, so I couldn't force my way in. All the buildings were close together, but none of them were as tall as the Manor. So, jumping from one to the Manor's roof wasn't an option. Seemed my only choice was to search the sewers below the streets to see if I could find a pathway. It appeared that luck was on my side since I found a sewer entrance in one of the neighboring alleys. 

I used my ether blade to cut the small lock on the cover and made my way down. The smell of feces and rotting garbage was so strong I nearly threw up. It was dark, but occasionally there was a dim light hanging from the ceiling lighting my path. Because all the water pipes ran through here there were small walkways on either side of the sewer, which I was grateful for. I determined my bearings and started off towards the Manor's sewer sections.

I walked for what seemed like forever as the sewer canals went on, branching off into smaller canals. It was hard to know exactly where I was, but I was positive I was under the Manor by this point. Just as I came up on a branch in the sewer canal someone popped out from the walkway in the wall bumping into me.

"Ow!"

I looked up to find a guardian sitting on the ground in front of me.

"I am so sorry!" She said as she hurried to her feet.

It appeared she was the female guardian who had saved me from the monster the other day.

"You're that guy from yesterday, the one from the beast incident!" She said excitedly.

"I think you got the wrong guy," I said as I tried to walk past here. She grabbed my arm and stopped me. She was a lot stronger than she looked.

"I'd recognize that mask from anywhere. I'm Azelae Ashbury, a class five guardian at your service. So, what are you doing down here in the sewers?" She asked tilting her head.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to get away from her now. I couldn't tell her I was looking for Fiora because she was a guardian. I decided I'd have to lie otherwise I might give away my real reason for being here.

"I'm hunting, and my target was last seen in Belle's Manor. More importantly, why is a guardian wandering around in the sewers?"

It was strange. Guardians abhorred how filthy the city was, so I couldn't ever imagine running into one down here. There wasn't anywhere they couldn't go in the city. They could enter any building no matter who it belonged to. It was an unspoken law that had to be followed or you could be severely punished. 

"Well, that's because, um..." She trailed off, "I'm on a special mission. Yeah, that's it!"

She was a terrible liar.

"Oh, really?" I said sarcastically. "And where exactly are you going?"

She looked toward the ceiling avoiding my gaze, "Belle's Manor…"

I let out a sigh. I wasn't going to interrogate her about it, mostly because I didn't really care. But it looked like we'd be stuck together until we got inside the Manor. 

"Well, I guess it would be more beneficial if we worked together and looked for a way to get inside."

Her face lit up at the invitation.

"That sounds great!" she shouted in excitement.

We continued on through the sewers looking for something that would lead us up onto the surface above. 

"So, what should I call you?" Azelae asked.

"Just call me Faux."

"Faux…" she said softly. "That's quite an interesting name." she giggled under her breath. 

I ignored her comment as we continued in silence as we searched deeper and deeper into the sewer. We were far into the inner sanctum at this point. But if we couldn't find a way out of the sewer soon, I'd have to give up and try again tomorrow night. Just when it seemed like we should give in and turn back I heard a shout.

"Hey, I found a ladder!"

I went over and sure enough, she had found a way out. 

"Good job," I said as I patted her on the shoulder, "Hopefully no one's waiting for us."

The lid at the top of the ladder was heavy and secured from the outside. I pulled out my ether blade and plunged it through the steel cover. Ether was usually strong enough to cut through steel. I happened to luck out and slice the lock as well. I peeked out to find that the exit led to a small empty shack. I pushed the cover aside and climbed out. Azelae followed just behind me.

Leaving the shack left me speechless. The inner sanctum was like a scene out of a picture. There was lush greenery everywhere. A carefully crafted landscape with grass growing in every corner. It was almost as if we weren't even in district seven anymore, but in some different city entirely. I had never seen something as tranquil in my entire life.2323

A long path led from the outer building down the middle to a large mansion in the middle. The path was lined with hedges and trees on either side. There were numerous smaller buildings scattered throughout the expanse of the sanctum. Each one was beautifully designed, with large wooden doors and walls made of specially carved stones rather than the usual steel and concrete. There were no windows, but the building was decorated so beautifully that it was hard to even notice.

I wasn't sure what Azelae was doing but I figured this was a good time to go our separate ways. I tried to dart off, but she refused to let me out of her sight. She reached out and grabbed the back of my shirt before I could escape.

"Wait, I'll help you get your bounty! And I promise I won't ask for any of the reward," Azelae said enthusiastically. "Think of it as an apology for stealing the beast from you. Please!" She clasped her hands together.

She must have learned that beast bounties paid well and felt bad for taking it. Plus, I knew I wasn't going to be able to escape her grip now that she got me.

I let out a sigh, "Fine, but you have to listen exactly to what I say, got it?"

Hearing this made her face light up. She almost looked like a dog after being praised. I had a strange urge to pat her head, but I resisted. With this, we somehow ended up exploring the inner sanctum together.

The first house we searched had a small display next to the door with a list on it. Each item in the list consisted of two letters and a series of numbers. Seemed like it was initials followed by the house they were located in. That made it a little easier to search for Fiora. We went from house to house searching the lists until I found a lead. One of the houses had "FD-21" on the list. That was her initials, but I couldn't be sure that was her. Either way, this was the only lead I had to follow, and we had almost searched all of the houses. The front door was locked, and I didn't want to break the lock with my ether blade, so we had to figure out a different way inside.

"You search around the left side, I'll search the right," I said to Azelae.

She nodded and hurried off in the opposite direction. On my side, I found nothing but a beautifully decorated wall. I went around the corner and found Azelae coming from the other side.

"Nothing on this side," she said pointing in the direction she came from.

"Same," just as I spoke, we both looked up to find an exhaust vent on the backside of the house about halfway up the wall. We both nodded in agreement. I lifted Azelae up and she was able to take off the cover and climb inside. I pulled myself up behind her.

We crawled through the venting until we found a vent leading to a hallway below. We removed the vent cover and slid down through the opening.

The hallway was dimly lit. At one end of the hallway stood the large wooden entrance door, on the other end a spiral staircase that led somewhere underground. The hallway itself was very plain, lined with steel doors on either side, there had to have been at least twenty doors on each side. Each door had a small display next to it that had the same number on the list outside, but a full name below it.

Azelae followed behind me as I checked the names on each door. There was a small window on each door that allowed you to see inside. They were plain rooms with a bed, shower, and toilet. Most of the rooms had someone trapped inside, but there were a few that were empty and unlocked.

I finally reached the door that had Fiora's name on it. She sat motionless on her bed. She was wearing a yellow dress, and her light blue hair had two braids near her temples that met behind her head. She had some sort of collar around her neck, this was most likely a slave collar that prevented her from acting out. Just as I was about to call out to her there was a series of beeps coming from the outside wooden door.

Someone's coming in.

I grabbed Azelae by the hand as we rushed into one of the vacant rooms. A man came walking in wearing a red suit and holding some kind of tablet. It looked to be one of the Manor's workers, they all wore the same color of red. He walked straight to Fiora's door, he entered something into the tablet then the door unlocked.

"Fiora, it's time." The man said with a serious tone.

She came out and started walking down the hallway. He followed behind her as they silently descended the staircase.

Azelae and I followed them down the stairs. At the bottom, a long hallway went off toward the center of the inner sanctum, where the mansion was. We followed them all the way to the end of the hallway where another spiral staircase brought us back above ground.

The stairs exited into a large circular room. Other spiral staircases lined the walls.

"This must be where all the houses lead," Azelae said, looking at the other staircases. 

There was only a single corridor that led out of the room. We moved slowly down it to find a larger room. It was filled with crates and cages. Big red curtains hung opposite us, creating the sense that some sort of show was going on. Fiora stood in the middle of the curtains, while the man stood off to the side. We made our way into the room, hiding behind some crates that were stacked up.

Suddenly a loud voice echoed through the mansion.

"Our next item is a female named Fiora Dupont, one of our most beautiful pieces."

With this, the man pulled away the curtain to reveal a large stage with a crowd of people sitting around it. Fiora slowly walked out into the middle of the stage. The crowd let out a round of applause and shouts.

"This is a slave auction," I whispered to Azelae. 

As time seemed to stand still while I tried to determine what I should do, I heard a voice speak to me.

"Save her."