In the Basement

-Dalen Capital, Slave Pens, Night, 2 DSTR-

Kalena marvelled at Lafayette's resourcefulness and ingenuity that seemed to know no end. Were all trade representatives from Dubois so talented and skilled as he? The man could have easily been a first-rate thief, or even a highly trained assassin...

She descended the shaft and let herself drop the last several feet, instinctively relaxing her legs and bending her knees to absorb the impact as she landed. The fallen trapdoor wobbled slightly, but more or less maintained it's position across the sharp wooden stakes.

“I'm down, safe and sound,” Kalena said as her eyes keenly scanned the dim and shadowy interior of the spike pit. The place looked like it had once been an ordinary basement room until someone had become a little creative in a macabre and brutal sort of way.

Lafayette lowered his short sword by its strap for her to grab. "It could be dangerous."

“We're dangerous,” Kalena replied with some bravado, and she caught the sword by the hilt and jumped agilely down from the makeshift platform, her boots hardly making a sound on the dusty stone floor that lay adjacent to the sharp rows of spikes.

She had only gone a few steps before she caught sight of a few impaled skeletons. Had they belonged to escaping slaves or curious trespassers? She didn't want to think about how that could have been her if her reflexes had been any slower.

She further searched about and spotted something metallic sticking out of a fresher body that still had flesh on the bones. Upon close inspection she saw that it was her lost sabre that had fallen down the shaft. She retrieved the sword and inspected it for damage, then wiped it clean with a handkerchief before sliding it back into its ornate scabbard.

When Lafayette arrived in the pit, as smooth as ever, despite his injured shoulder, she moved to give him back his short sword.

"I can use my knife worse comes to worse," he assured her, waving a hand at her to keep it.

"I appreciate the gesture, but I happened to find my sabre where it fell.” Kalena flipped back her cloak and patted the protruding hilt with a smile. It was good to be properly armed again, and she knew Lafayette would make better use of his own weapon. In addition to the sabre, she also had a fighting dagger and several more throwing knives.

The pair walked over to the mysterious door they had seen from above. She tried the grimy brass knob and found that it was unlocked. “So much for showing off my lock picking skills. They're really quite good, you know,” she told him, her voice hardly above a whisper now.

Carefully, she eased the door ajar and peered out at the subterranean hallway that lay beyond. The hall was lit by torches bracketed on the stone walls, and noticeably different than the confusing maze of corridors on the ground floor above them.

“I think we might have found the Employee section,” she observed wryly, keeping her voice low.

Not seeing any sign of anyone, Kalena looked to Lafayette to see if he was ready. He gave her a decisive nod, and she opened the door wider and silently advanced forward in a crouch with a throwing knife in her right hand and her duelling sabre still sheathed.

<Tag Lafayette>