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[Zincell]

Zincell's eyes opened wearily with some ambient noise from outside. She groaned slightly, her head hurt, every noise seemed so much worse than it was that she was instinctively filling her tinmind for hearing slightly to make it less bad, and her eyes hurt. She noticed a general numbness around her and began tapping her tinmind for touch--which intensified some faint pain she was feeling in her back. Then she noticed a mewling noise that-- faint thanks to her tin-filling-- was coming from right behind her. Finally, Zincell realized there was an arm right on top of her, and a leg on top of her own, and the notable nakedness of the torso of the figure behind her.

Zincell froze. Having assumed the worst, she turned her head to look at herself. She was fully clothed, so it wasn't as though anything unsavoury had happened, and she didn't remember anyone getting into bed with her. Turning slightly to her back she saw a face that made her blood run cold.

It was Desaree.

Desaree was cuddling next to her. With no clothing on her torso.

Her cheeks blushed again, her headache intensified slightly, and her ears turned red. Why was she there? Desaree nuzzled Zincell's neck and it suddenly didn't matter, she just needed to leave the bed as soon as possible. Hopefully without disturbing her sleep. Filling steel to make sure to make no sudden movements, she began what became some of the longest few minutes in her life as she slowly worked her way out of Desaree's grasp. Her ocassional moans and pelvis grinding made her tense, but after several minutes of subtly moving out, she managed to free herself. Once she was completely out from under Desaree, Zincell realized yet another detail about her current situation.

She was facing the wall. Which meant that she had to go over Desaree's body to leave the bed. Swallowing slowly, Zincell lowered the rate at which she was filling steel exponentially instead of stopping suddenly, and began filling iron-- gradually heightening the rate at which she filled. After she was sure it wouldn't jolt her awake, Zincell jumped over Desaree. Her landing was soft enough that she didn't hear it, though she was filling tin for hearing still, so she wasn't sure how soft that made it. Thankfully, Desaree slept through the whole ordeal.

Once out of the bed, Zincell took off the revealing shirt she'd been lent the previous night, and moved to her case to find another one. She opened her case and frowned. Her robes looked different than how she'd left them last. The untrained eye wouldn't have noticed it--heck, Zincell almost missed it herself, but there it was. The folds were off. Zincell had spent the first fourteen years of her life being taught proper folding and tea-brewing and organizing, among other things. Sometimes receiving harsh scoldings when her job wasn't done properly, or even beatings. Any time a coin wouldn't bounce off of her bed, it would be undone violently for her to re-do properly. Any time robes were folded wrong--so slightly wrong it was only noticeable if you had a ruler in your hand with which to check-- they would be thrown on the ground and she'd have to re-fold them.

She always folded everything right, if only subconsciously, because of this. And those folds were off. She lifted the first two layers of robe and looked at her metalminds. They were intact, as were her coins, so there had been no thief. Why would someone go through her things without stealing anything? Her notebook was also there and unmoved. Maybe no one had gone through her things. She'd let her case fall off her bed carelessly the previous night, maybe the folds had moved then? Yes, that had to be it, she was just being paranoid.

She took out a large-ish man's shirt and put it on. It had long sleeves--she didn't want to risk any more people learning of her metalminds than necessary, and opened the door. There was another shirt there, as well as new sheets for her bed, and she moved them to the table before heading downstairs.

Once downstairs, she sat by the bar among a medium-to-large crowd and said "Hi" to Heft. They exchanged pleasantries and when he asked how her night had been she cringed slightly.

"I slept pretty soundly... but I woke up with Desaree hugging me. Would you know why she was there?" She asked as he handed her a bowl of sweetened porridge.

Heft raised an eyebrow at her. "Maybe she fell asleep while trying to give you another try?"

He smiled at her, the kind of smile that implied he knew more than he was telling, and Zincell's eyes centred on her porridge as she began to eat while her cheeks reddened again. A few minutes later, after a small groan she'd let out, Heft offered her something for the hangover, which she declined. It would pass on its own anyway.

After a short while he asked her how much she remembered of the rules for her stay, which thankfully she remembered perfectly. Guests are allowed, but are not to be shown any of the contraptions, nor the private space below. No pets allowed, even if only for a visit. Sheets should be kept in decent condition. A washerwoman would come by in the mornings, bed should be stripped by mid morning to have the sheets washed, and a replacement set could be found at her room's door the following dawn. Floors should stay clean, wood should stay unscathed, and if anything were to break she should tell him or Jonesi about it. They were all very simple. He shrugged and nodded, everything should be fine then.

A few minutes later she had thanked Heft for his food, left the bar (which was growing noisier by the hour) and got to the shop. Zincell wasn't sure which way she was supposed enter the shop, so she came in the front door looking as inconspicuous as possible, and began looking for Jonesi to talk about that job he'd mentioned the night before.

Edited by KChan, 17 January 2014 - 03:51 AM.

[Pipes]

Pipes was sitting idly in the workshop half-dozing, he'd had an interesting evening last night. While Jonesi had been conducting interviews with the new girl Cell. He'd been tasked along with Yoosuk to scope out the girls room and reactivate the tracking and warning systems associated with the room, and run maintenance one everything.

When Cantor had arrived at the bar, the two grown men had to scramble into the basement hideout, and thus had been privy to the conversations that had occurred overhead. As they were not inclined to take a swim in the River Channerel, nor were they inclined to navigate through four levels of sewers back to the workshop without a torch. Simply they figured that it would be faster to wait for the girl to fall asleep.

So they waited for a couple hours, and as they were about to open the trapdoor Desaree had walked in. She was so inebriated that she did not notice the man in the process of crawling out of the floor, nor did she notice that he had quietly slipped back down. Desaree's moans and rather wet sounding kisses left little room for imagination as to what she was doing with the girl on the bed. And then Desaree passed out as she passed out making an audible plop as she passed out atop the young girl.

Pipes and Yoosuk carefully made their way out of the trapdoor. As grown men, especially as men employed by Mannair Meson, what they saw was a familiar sight. Like ghosts they moved through the room, finishing their work, cleared the nightstand of the two glasses of Heft's cure-all, and cleaned Desaree up a bit and moved her off the girl.

That done, they opened the other trapdoor, made their way through more navigable sewer routes, and returned to their beds.

So now Pipes was operating off of a half-nights sleep. Combined with the other nocturnal activities spread throughout the week following the executions, he was starting to wear thin. But more so through habit than anything else Pipes found himself waking at dawn and walking down to the briefing table.

For whatever reason Jonesi had decided that it was Pipes' turn to watch the girl. He was to wait for her to show-up, and then show her some of the main thoroughfares in the sewers, and if she proved somewhat capable then perhaps actually get some work done. Those were the verbal orders, yet Pipes' knew that Jonesi inevitably would continue to test the girl, and that he would likely be incorporated into events.

Pipes was suddenly brought back to reality as his daughter appeared in the corner of his eye. Recently they'd had a couple arguments for no reason that he could come up with. She was being difficult, and he was not looking forward to deal with a teenage daughter, especially now that...pain lanced through his heart. That's right. Pipes thought to himself. She's gone, my beautiful El is gone. Now his difficult teenage daughter stood in front of him, a woven basket in tow, She looks so much like her mother. Was all he could think.

"Dad, I have the leathers for the new girl." Mel told her father with a rebellious edge to her voice. She refused to make eye contact as she held the basket out. Instead she pointedly looked away from him and added on, "And the girl is here, came through the side door." with a hint of exasperation.

Pipes looked up and saw that his daughter was right. Cell was her name if he recalled correctly. Pipes took a quick look around the shop. The rest of the shop was full of skaa activity as men and women commenced with their departure or arrival according to which shift they had. Throughout this a scattering of noblemen studied blueprints and other various papers on the meeting table. And further inspection showed that the obligators were elsewhere, possibly in the back room with the records.

"Mel," Pipes said soothingly, "see if you can't help her change into the leathers and then guide her over here?" She looked at him with irritation but Pipes continued, "You know how people are when they see me sweetie, better a friendly female face than mine." Mel conceded the point, while she was used to a father with a deformed face, most people dealt with him with apprehension.

She marched off across the workshop, each step causing the basket set against her hip to swing. She's growing up Pipes thought to himself and I have no idea what to do about it.

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:32 PM.

[Zincell]

A young skaa girl carrying a basket walked over to Zincell and grabbed her speaking attention quickly. "Here. Come with me." Before Zincell could answer, the girl grabbed her arm and dragged her a few paces before Zincell sped up as she was led to a second-story room with bunks hanging off the wall, and the girl closed the door.

"Uncle says you're to work in the sewers today, and unless you want your clothes ruined, strip." She ordered. Zincell twitched back slightly, so in Luthadel nobles bowed to her and skaa girls younger and smaller than her ordered her? The southern isles were looking more and more attractive.

"Um, all right... turn around first" She told her, not wanting too much attention to be put on her bandaged arms-- too many people knew she was wearing metal already; if more found out, it defeated the entire purpose of the bandages in the first place.

"Fine, but I'll need to take your measurements and help you with the fitting. Besides we're both girls here." And then any hope of Zincell minimizing the amount of people who knew about her metalminds went down the drain. The girl gave Zincell some measure of privacy, obviously thinking she didn't need it thanks to her bandaged torso.

"Okay let's put on the linens first." She told her, handing her what seemed like the first of many layers of clothing without looking-- or at least that's what she wanted Zincell to think, she could see her eyes were open slightly.

"So who are you, anyway?" The terrisgirl asked while putting the linen shirt and pants on.

"I'm the one that woke up this morning to leave you a shirt that you don't seem to be wearing." She answered, getting hold of some of her sewing paraphernalia and beginning to pin and make marks on it.

"Um... sorry about that" Zincell apologized. No wonder she was so cranky."I was kind of hoping for a name, I'm Cell"

"Mel" She said, getting to work on pinning the shirt so that it became form fitting. After a few minutes of instructing Zincell to perform full range of motion of her arms and legs (windmill arms, bending her knees, lifting her knees high, squatting, etc.) she made more adjustments to the pins.

"I think your metal bracers are going to be a bother for you to work with." Mel told her after a while of grabbing her arms and tensing or loosening fabric.

"I don't think it'll be a problem" Zincell said, hoping she wouldn't press further.

"You going to wear them all the time?" She asked her, efficiently measuring her arms in different areas.

Zincell nodded and thankfully, Mel dropped the issue, apparently concentrating on adjustments she'd have to make regarding her metalminds. A moment later she asked Zincell to strip out of the linens, giving her a robe (technically someone else's) to wear while she made the adjustments, dexterously handling the scissors, needle and thread.

She finished after a few minutes and had Zincell put them back on. Then she brought out the wool padding. It was unevenly dyed grey, with splotches of black and white, but a good centimeter thick. The padding included shins, knees, thighs, a belly band, chest mantle, and elbows. Mel took out most of the arm padding due to Zincell's bracers, and trimmed a bit here and tightened a tad there until it was done.

Next they were onto the leather. She frowned when she looked at Zincells feet and compared them to the pair of shoes that she'd put in the basket. Zincell's feet were too big. She set them aside and went on to work on the rest of the leather. First Mel start got out a corset which bound her breasts and extended down to just below her hips. With some tighening of the lacing it with relative comfort fairly well. Next were the pants which were bothersome because the padding keept shifting a bit.

"You don't want the padding there, it'll chafe each time you take a step, see, you want it lower, more like here." Mel explained, moving it around and securing it with a pin as she figured out how to fix the problem. She had Zincell take off the pants again so that she could tighten the wool padding in the proper area before telling her to put the pants on again. They were baggy on her as they were made to be loose on a man. Next came a simple belt, and then a the mantle. Which again was too loose. Mel made a quick alteration adding two straps that secure it underneath Zincell's armpits. That done the bracers and gloves were added with minimal effort, although Mel did adjust the padding tightening it down in places. Shoe-wise, Zincell had to go barefoot, though she was given foot wraps to put over her feet (which already had bandages on them to cover her steelminds).

Once Zincell was properly dressed for the occasion, Mel began to lead her downstairs to meet with whoever it was she'd be working with in the sewers.

"Sorry again about you having to wake up early" She told the girl as they walked downstairs.

Edited by Thoughtful Spurts, 23 October 2012 - 03:55 AM.

[Pipes]

Pipes waited in his chair as the two girls went upstairs. He figured that it would take a while, Mel was trained to be a seamstress and would try to make the spare set of leathers fit as well as possible.

His mind wandered to the latest great conundrum. The Meson's latest pet project - remodeling the Casuana Ballroom. Normally he would not have been consulted for it, it was Yoosuk and Bilib's domain afterall. But Marcus had come up with the idea of hooking the pump for the fountain in the ballroom to a water shaft on one of the river wells. That is where Pipes came in so now he needed to figure out the practical reality of making things possible. Eventually he suspected that he would need to go down there to run a survey and sketch the layout down there.

Still, going to the Silver Quarter would be difficult, and most importantly it meant that they needed to cross the River. Once they crossed the River they would need to head past Kredick Shaw either by Old Wall or Southbridge. Southbridge would be the safer route, if a bit longer.

He was pulled from his thoughts as Grunt appeared. "Someone is watching the workshop again. The urchins have been running mild interference. Think they are interested in the girl?"

"Probably." Pipes replied speaking quietly, "I'll show her how to get here through the sewers today, give them less to watch if they are after her."

Grunt nodded and passed Pipes a haversack "From Uncle." Pipes took the bag, putting it with the other supplies and materials that they would need in the sewers. His business done Grunt silently moved down into the sewers probably moving back towards one of the lookouts.

Pipes started to inspect the contents of the bag Grunt had brought when the door to Mel's room opened and the two girls started to make their way down the iron spiral staircase. Pipes managed to hear some of the conversation, hearing his daughter say, "Word of advise, when we give you something, we typically want you to use it."

Pipes saw the girl nod and snswer meekly, Great, looks like a shy one. He decided to interject at that point. "Mel, mind helping?" as he indicated the various pieces of equipment that he had gathered in his cart.

Mel nodded, moving to neatly pack things away in an organized fashion. Tucking coils of rope, hooks, straps, and tools into the two leather sacks. Pipes let his daughter tend to that and decided to try to get to know Jonesi's latest potential member.

"Name's Pipes."

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:32 PM.

[Zincell]

Zincell hesitated for a moment as the man's scarred face surprised her, but she didn't stare longer than she would have at any other face out of politeness.

"Cell" She said, nodding respectfully.

[Pipes]

Pipes grunted in response, his initial impression of her was one of those prim and proper servants that followed nobility around. Even the heavy leathers did nothing to her posture or bearing. His experience was that a sewer dive had most men wishing for any job that was above ground and had fresh air. What it would do to a young girl with what appeared to be a house servants training, Pipes did not really want to comprehend.

Pipes took a look at his daughter's progress as she quickly and deftly packed the sacks. She came to the bag that Grunt had left and pulled out an oilskin bag and...breathing tubes? Jonesi wants to see how the girl can swim? Pipes thought to himself, but kept his shock hidden, which wasn't too hard considering that half his face was scar tissue. Well he'd get there when he'd get there. First he'd have to make sure that she learned how to get to and from her place, and if he was heading across the river the hard way he wanted to grab something from Heft's.

Mel finished packing handing each of them a pack. Pipes took his with practiced ease, tightening the strap across his chest and around his waist as Mel helped Cell with hers, making sure that everything was nice and secure.

"Follow" Pipes commanded, walking towards the nearest manhole, sliding down the ladder smoothly and waited for the girl to follow.

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:33 PM.

[Zincell]

Zincell grunted when she was handed the incredibly heavy bag. She took a deep breath, and put it on. It was quite an effort, but she decided not to start tapping pewter yet-- it had been an ordeal to get her clothes properly set up and she didn't want to spontaneously change her measurements. Zincell also began tapping her tinmind for touch at a medium rate-- it made her feel somewhat more sore, but it also emptied it in case she'd need to fill it soon, which she thought she might, if the previous days were any indication.

She slid down the ladder like Pipes had done, if somewhat more clumsily, and then the smell hit her like a wave. She cringed and began filling her tinmind for smell at a relatively low rate-- only to the point where it became more passable, she didn't want to fill it up too quickly. Zincell let out a relativelly long breath and then waited for Pipes to move so that she could keep following him.

Edited by Thoughtful Spurts, 24 October 2012 - 05:11 AM.

[Pipes]

As she came down the ladder he saw her visibly gag. He waited for the inevitable prolonged retching fit, but it never came. He'd heard from his son that she hadn't retched all over the floor when she had fallen to the basement in the first place. Still it surprised him that she hadn't shown a more visible reaction. He started walking across the staging area towards the appropriate tunnel, assuming that she would follow.

"First off, pay attention. Do as I say and you'll be fine." Pipes turned briefly and waited for her to nod before continuing, "Second, I'm showing you the path between here and your room. In the future you'll meet me or whoever you're to tag along with here in the staging ground. Understand?"

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:34 PM.

[Zincell]

Zincell nodded. "Yes, sir"

[Pipes]

Pipes grabbed a bundle of unlit torches, slinging it atop his pack and securing it. He took off without a torch walking into the darkness obviously expecting her to follow. He was taking a different path than the one that Jonesi took previously. The previous path was filled with several traps that Jonesi could have triggered to kill the girl if he thought her a threat, not that he would have thought to use them, but they were an option.

Rather he used one of the main thoroughfares through the sewers. His eyes slowly adjusted to the dim lighting. It wasn't perfect by far, the ground was uneven and intermittently had large stone cobbles embedded into the dirt. Behind him he heard the girl ducking where the ceiling came a bit lower. But thankfully the path was more dry than wet as two large trenches ran on either side of the path, carrying the bulk of the effluent out towards the river.

Eventually he found the crossroads that he was looking for, denoted by the Meson insignia, marking one of their establishments. It was a stone arch elevated over the sewer trench, it was about three quarters his height at the apex, and just wide enough to walk in a single file line. He backed up a bit before taking a running jump to cross the effluent trench, diving into the arch, allowing the leathers and padding to do their job. He crawled in farther and called out behind him, "You coming?"

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:36 PM.

[Zincell]

Zincell saw Pipes jump and gulped. Or at least, she thought she saw it, it was very dark, and while her eyes had gotten used to the darkness over the past year or so when she'd done most of her travelling by night and slept during the day, she wasn't as used to it as Pipes apparently was.

The bag was already some too heavy for her, and while she could walk with it on, she wasn't sure about jumping. Taking in a deep, unpleasant breath, she moved backwards to gain more space to run and began tapping steel a little to help her with the jump. When she landed she was glad she did, as even with the low tapping of steel, the relatively short jump was a bit too much for her while wearing the oversized and incredibly heavy bag, and she'd landed just in the border of the tube and slid. A short moment of fear passed over her as she slipped on a cobblestone, crashing on the floor inside the tube a thug. The reason for the padding became apparent.

After shaking her head-- which kind of revived the symptoms of her hangover for a moment there, a few intensified by her tapping of tin for touch, she began crawling into the tube behind Pipes.

"I'm here" She said, breathing slightly more heavily than before. Her back hurt now.

Edited by Thoughtful Spurts, 24 October 2012 - 05:00 PM.

[Pipes]

Pipes grunted in affirmative and continued to move. As they moved through the storm water tunnel Pipes could tell that the girl was already pushing herself. But they hadn't even been at this for more than twenty minutes, how was she supposed to last a full eight hour shift, even if he did take detours and breaks.

Perhaps he'd pick up a couple more items from Heft than he thought. After another minute of crawling they reached the wooden landing that preceded the final ladder's ascent to her room. He took care to show her where the switch was that would release the ladder from it's mooring, allowing it to release the segmented ladder as gravity and oil and clever use of ropes nearly silently created a ladder.

"This ladder leads to your room. I need to talk to Heft about something, so I'll be right back." Pipes told the girl as he took off his pack and started climbing the ladder. But as Pipes got near the top he heard noises. From the sound of it Desaree was still in the girl's room, and was amusing herself rather vocally.

It would seem that he would have to tackle today without any of Heft's medicinal aids. It would make the day harder, but not impossible, so he quietly made his way down the ladder.

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:36 PM.

[Zincell]

Zincell heard some of the louder cries, which sounded like Desaree, and an uneasy feeling filled her stomach and throat. What was she doing in her room? Zincell made a mental note of changing the sheets.

"Was there a problem?" Zincell asked Pipes when he started to come down right after going up.

Edited by Thoughtful Spurts, 24 October 2012 - 04:18 PM.

[Pipes]

Pipes shook his head, "Someone's in your room, I'll talk to Heft later." He grabbed his pack, re-securing the straps and the bundle of torches. "You lead the way back to the shop."

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:36 PM.

[Zincell]

Zincell swallowed and nodded, then began going over their previous steps. The crawling was the easiest part, but then came the trench again. And now she had less space to run on with which to pick up speed. Zincell's eyes now better adjusted to the darkness and she realized she was in a kind of dilemma. She had no room to build up speed and the jump was just long enough-- especially with her incredibly heavy backpack-- that she wouldn't be able to just jump off and make it easily.

So she paused and thought. There had to be a way-- and the fact that Pipes was just behind her saying nothing likely meant he expected her to know or figure it out. She took a deep breath-- through her mouth, of course, and then began undoing the straps on her bag. The jump wasn't that hard or long, she could make it if she didn't have the bag that weighed more than a small child on top of her. So she took it off, and after some moving around, got it in front of her, tapping pewter slightly and steel at a somewhat higher rate, she managed to toss it across the trench without it falling on the sewage. Once that was done, she let out a sigh, thankful for the relief of not having such weight on her back any more, and the rest was easy.

Zincell did the closest thing to standing up-- she was too tall for the hole, so she had to hunch quite a bit-- and then walked up to the border, with both hands on the wall inside the tube for balance. Once there she swallowed, and stepped out. Tapping steel to make sure her timing was right, she kicked the wall beneath her, pushing herself upward and outward, and it was enough for her to jump over the trench without getting wet.

It was also enough for her fall on the floor past the trench to be very painful and disorienting. She shouldn't have tapped steel that much.

[Pipes]

Pipes watched quietly. It seemed that something was off about the jump, a girl like her should not have been able to jump quite like that but he ignored it. For all he knew the girl was an Allomancer, and he'd been Smoking in any case.

He made his way to the edge, slipping the pack and torches off, keeping himself braced with his legs and an arm, and tossed them one by one towards the dirt path. That done, he shuffled around so that his back was turned towards he girl. He scooted backwards a bit till his heels could feel the edge of the hole, and squatted letting his thighs and calves reach maximum tension and he jumped. In the air he let his momentum carry him, his legs stretching out to their full extent, before he tucked them in towards his chest creating a rotation that allowed him to land on his feet. He nearly botched the landing though as he almost bent his legs too much to absorb the landing, but he recovered. He picked up his bag and the torches and looked at the girl, "Lead on."

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:46 PM.

[Zincell]

Zincell groaned slightly-- the pads had done their job of lessening the fall but it had still been painful and she was still tapping tin for touch so the pain she was feeling was around the same as it would have been if she'd been pad-less.

In any case, she stood up, moving her arm and shoulder somewhat before grabbing the pack again, putting it on with effort, and going back to re-tracing their steps until they were at the manhole where they'd started the journey.

[Pipes]

Pipes grunted as they reached the staging area. He pulled a torch out from the bundle, lighting it on a brazier as they took off towards a different path. Since Jonesi wanted to see if the girl could swim it probably meant that he wanted her to also climb down Ladder Eight. Everyone knew where Ladder Eight was you could hear the wind steadily blowing out of it from fifty feet away. As he reached a ladder he held the torch above it to test how hard the wind was blowing. The flame danced wildly as the wind fanned the flames, occasionally sputtering and bubbling, but it did not go out. Pipes mounted the ladder telling the girl, "Wait ten seconds and then follow me." and started climbing down it carefully as he carried a torch in one hand.

It was a long journey down Ladder Eight. Pipes recalled at one point in his youth he had tried to count the rungs in the ladder, he'd lost count somewhere in the three hundreds. He knew that somewhere along the hundreds the temperature started dropping and water started forming along the stone walls that made the shaft that they were in, as well as on the wooden ladder. As they reached the hundred rung mark he could feel the change in the temperature and called out, "Maintain three points of contact."

Edited by Lanscaper, 13 February 2014 - 07:47 PM.

[Zincell]

"Okay" Zincell said, as she went down the ladder. It was an incredibly long journey, and her arms were getting tired, but she just kept on. Her back was beginning to hurt more-- she had bruises across her back from the previous night's birching and she was growing sore all over. Zincell did her best to stay quiet throughout the journey down.

Noticing the absence of horrid smells, she stopped filling her tinmind for smell and started tapping it. Now she could notice smells around them as relatively strong, her clothes smelling pretty foul. Zincell figured they'd have to spend time in the other, fouler areas again, and wanted her tinmind for smell to be as empty as she could get it by then.

[Pipes]

Pipes continued his descent down Ladder Eight. The torch in his hand continued to dance wildly casting jumping shadows in all directions. Through his gloves he could feel the water making his grip slick, making him resolve to tighten his grip. Down, down, down he descended, towards the sounds of rushing water beneath him echoing across the stone walls. As he passed the near the two hundredth rung the smooth but square shaft around him turned to smooth but rounded stone. Still he descended. Finally he could see the first platform below. He set foot on it testing the structural integrity and found that it was still in good condition and moved to the side to make space for when the girl arrived. He set the torch in a wall bracket and removed his pack from his back bringing out a coil of rope and the pair of snorkels. He looked up and saw that the girl was getting near the bottom of the ladder, obviously tired from the long climb down.