Jane followed Isaac down a stone staircase under the inner courtyard's arches. Through a hay-strewn passage, they came to an angled trapdoor.

  “Be careful.” He said, handing her the Javelin. “I’ve added venom to the ends. It won’t kill you, but you’ll feel a burning for the rest of your days.” He hooked a small shield onto her back. “Remember to grab the poison and take the yellow door. Follow the path above the Rat’s lair; empty the poison onto the nest and get out the way you came.

  ~The Rat’s lair?~

  “They can’t reach you; you’ll be too high up. It’s a simple splash and dash.”

  ~Should I wait until I am more ready?~

  “You’ve just spent a year and a half training for moments like this. Or did we waste our time?”

  Jane looked away. ~No. No, you didn’t.~

  “Alright then. If you want to be trusted with the bigger tasks, we must know you can do the smaller ones.”

  The girl nodded sadly.

  ~Do this and go home.~

  “Remember, you’re thirteen, not a Tank. Good luck.”

  Once the doors were closed behind her, Jane took the stairs to a room with a half-empty bookshelf. There was not much to collect: a skull, a worn book, and a couple of red bottles, which she joked could have been health potions. Across the far end, a gutter had been carved into a shallow drain, allowing a stream of brown fluid to flow under an arch to the left. The girl turned the wheel next to the archway, lifting a wooden grate. Tying the rope around the hook, she looked into the low tunnel.

  This was a bad idea. She thought.

  Crouching down, she gripped the Javelin with both hands and proceeded on. Halfway toward the main entrance, the grate suddenly slammed down, locking her inside. Horrified, she staggered back and tried to lift it, but to no avail. Now she was trapped. With no other option, she carried on back toward the main sewer.

  I hate my life.

  Upon reaching the central area, she could not help but notice how open it was. The entrance resembled an amphitheatre with four tiers of stone arches stacked above each other, like the outside of the Coliseum.

  It was mostly dark, except for the sparse columns of ruddy light from above. In that moment, the rank odour hit her like a broadside crash, with a mixture of rotten eggs, foul meat and vinegar. Jane felt like she was going to pass out. She would have held it the whole time if she had a nose. Desperately seeking a way out, she carefully descended a rickety ladder onto the platform, where two paths met. The left first path led toward an storeroom lit by murky torch. The right path strayed toward the main tunnel, pitch black and emptier than a cursed soul.

  Jane found the storeroom to be surprisingly well-lit. It was as small as a cupboard with rotten shelves cut straight from an oak. A full-length specimen cabinet stood at the back, like the ones seen in a Museum. Inside the cabinet were various butterflies and insects encased in a glass box. When she reached the third drawer, it was empty except for an unusual-looking ring. Made of silver, the ring was set with a large oval stone resembling green marble. Trying it on, a warm, wet sensation ran the length of her arm.

  No more wearing creepy jewellery!

  Stepping away from the cabinet, she checked the nearby medicine chest and picked up a green bottle with a large skull on the label.

  Skull means Poison, right?

  Not wanting to come back, she slipped the bottle into her knapsack, took a burning torch, and quickly left for the nearby yellow door. Riveted and pressed in leather, it contained a single bar for pulling open. Jane tried the door. It was locked. She tried the door again to make sure it was not just stuck. It would not budge the second time, nor the fifth, when Jane pushed her leg against the wall for extra force. No luck; she was trapped.

  It just gets better.

  Exiting East brought her back out into the Sewer. The right path took her under a central archway, with other paths blocked off by rubble and debris. Jane also noticed a few ruins from ancient Rome and wondered if the history of this world was similar to that of her own. Half-hidden in blue light, she spotted several stone buildings with wide steps and broken columns. Shadow figures would dance into view, before melting back into the darkness. Jane gripped the handle of her sword, but questioned what use it would be against people made of nothing. She suddenly felt a pang of hopelessness. What if there was no exit? What if she never got to where she was supposed to be? Deeper into the sewers, she came across a broken railway bridge, as high as ten storeys, with tall arches.

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  To her left, a couple of ladders spanned a sizeable gap, above a pitiless, dark chasm. With no other options available, Jane decided to chance it. She saw how the second ladder ended on the roof of a fallen bell tower. How an entire tower got to be inside a sewer was beyond her. For now, all she could do was concentrate on keeping balance and not look down into the creeping abyss.

  Think happy thoughts.

  Jane carefully placed a foot down on the first rung to test the ladder's strength. She slowly placed another foot, not shifting the balance too much. It worked.

  So far, so good.

  Using Javelin as a balancing pole, she kept her pace slow and steady, conscious of any twitch or sudden movement that could send her spiralling toward the hideous nothing of unspoken twilight. After a tense few steps, she soon made it halfway between the two ladders and rested on a single column, no bigger than a suitcase. Peering over, she saw how the darkness seemed to claw at the rocks, as if to grab at unsuspecting tourists.

  The rest of the way proved just as intense, with the ladder wobbling violently causing her to jump the rest of the way, in time for the ladder to clatter and rattle all the way down. Finally across, she slid down the roof and found her way to the tower staircase. Once inside, Jane peered over the edge and was stunned when the light of a torch floated into view. The bloom of light was followed by what appeared to be a figure, drifting along on thin air. As far as she could tell, everything under the person’s waist was completely missing.

  A ghost! An actual ghost!

  Shocked, the girl ducked down below the panel. The figure paused at the doorway before turning to look in her direction. Luckily for Jane, she was spared the sight of its spectral form, for the stranger bore no face or features, just a blank, shadowy void where the head would have been. In the cold shiver of fear, Jane was also spared the sight of a ghost teleporting onto the landing below. It vanished once more and appeared across from her, looking around but unable to catch anything of interest. Satisfied, the faceless thing returned to the glowing ball of light and left the tower.

  To make sure, Jane remained on the floor and counted to six hundred. Feeling brave, she quietly tiptoed down the rest of the stairs and peered around the doorway. Unable to decide which way was safer, Jane spun around and pointed. Luckily, the left-hand door led down a series of wooden ladders onto a single path under the railway bridge. The further she travelled, the more chaotic everything became, until it no longer resembled a sewer, but a series of scattered planks and haphazard scaffolding.

  The only thing preventing Jane from continuing was a flimsy wooden bridge. It was barely even that, just a single plank with two ropes on either side, spanning a fast-flowing river of sewage. She grimaced. The water was the colour of walnuts, with thick white foam bunching up at the edges. It smelled as bad as it looked. Not eager to return to the haunted tower, Jane grabbed the ropes with both hands.

  Carefully, she inched across, hand over hand. The old rope felt slippery against leather gloves, and she could feel the waterfall's power rushing beneath her. She was making good progress until her spear slid into the roaring waters. Distracted, she panicked and lost grip, plummeting into the raging depths below. Jane was quickly carried away with the current. Unable to resist, she became a passenger to the fast-flowing waters. The powerful rapids battered her for a few more corners, until she was ejected onto a slippery bank and went flying over the edge of a cliff, onto staggered roofs of rusted shacks.

  She finally found the bottom, crashing into a heap on the edge of a giant basin. The girl shook her head and tried to get her bearings; no easy feat, seeing how her vision was still blurry. Once her sight had cleared, she could just about make out the surroundings. It was an old railway yard, with a turntable and several carriages scattered around. Jane tried to stand, but she was still reeling from the fall. Making an effort to sit up, she was rewarded with seeing something massive cutting through the soft beam of moonlight.

  A single red eye blazing from the half-shadows. Lifting her visor, Jane saw two storeys of angry, matted fur bearing down on her.

  Not good! Not good!

  The girl put a hand out in a feeble attempt at mercy, but the giant Rat was already hunched down in a readying position. Suddenly, the Javelin shot down and penetrated the beast’s skull with a wet Crunch! The Rat gasped out its final breath and fell over dead. Stunned, Jane got to her feet and approached the creature. Plucking out Chain-Maker, she shook blood off the tip and examined it up close. Unable to fathom what had taken place, she looked around confused.

  How? It was then. A nearby wall quickly collapsed, and an even bigger Rat burst through. Oh, come on!