A Set of Assets passed down after someone Dies

Emerging from the hellish depths, I am immediately situated in the thick of it. The market has been enveloped by an ongoing siege.

Elves, clad in the familiar scuffed armour and wielding the familiar weapons and shields out of scrap, are currently in the process of trying to tear down the gate with a makeshift ram. A constant stream of new elven combatants is flowing from the direction of our cave, taking the place of the fallen.

I think Loren's in there somewhere too; I can barely make out him barking orders in this scuffle.

"He is in there, leading the charge no less."

Isha must've spotted him. He's competent enough, so I can leave this to him.

The whole courtyard is littered with corpses of man and elf alike. It took a great toll, but this side of the wall seems to already be free from the overseers.

The humans, nestled up upon the wall, are throwing stones and all other kinds of miscellaneous items at the attackers. That's weird; I thought they would've opened fire with bows, crossbows and the like.

On the corpses close to me I can clearly see a few crossbow bolts lodged in them. Did they run out of bolts already? If that's the case, it'd be a great boon for us.

I am no expert on gauging the flow of a battle like this, but I get the sinking feeling that neither side is making much progress here.

The few stones thrown down are easily blocked by those carrying the shields. On the other hand, that gate appears very solid. The ram will need quite a bit of time to breach it, if it'll breach it at all.

I'll place Eleanor first. I have my pick from almost every abode that's not between our hideout and the market, really. After making sure it's empty, I place her onto the bedding.

I tuck her into bed. With the gaping wound on her belly hidden, she looks like she's just fallen asleep. Her missing soft, measured breaths are, to me, however, a clear indicator that she won't be awakened from this slumber.

"Sleep as much as you want. I'll take care of everything in the meantime. I'll be back for you, I promise."

What am I feeling right now? Sad, I think, for I've lost someone very dear to me.

But there is something else. Something way more insidious rising from beneath the depths. Something similar also flows into me from Isha.

I know this feeling very well actually; I've felt it all the time before I came to this world.

Hate. Utter hatred. A feeling more subdued compared to outright rage, but poisonous all the same.

I feel hate for this city that has made this life a living hell for me and those I care about.

I feel hate for the humans that run this city, every single day sentencing us to die yet again.

I feel hate for the singular human that created this awful place for nothing but profit.

Yet I feel awfully calm. If Isha's rage is to be likened to an erupting volcano, my hatred has to be a frozen wasteland. Calm, but maybe even more destructive in the long term. But for whom? My enemies or myself? Maybe even both?

If that is what'll carry me to a way to save Mother, so be it. I get up and start heading back to the market. On the way, I'll have to confirm something with Isha.

"So, Isha, what exactly can you do with these thorny vines?"

She hesitates for some reason. Is she struggling to explain?

"Right now, I care little for the 'how' or 'why'. 'What' is what I need to know if we are to cure Mother in time."

"So long as your body touches the ground, I can manifest these thorny vines and control their movement. The more I create and the more I move them, the greater the strain on your body."

I feel awful already with the clear lack of sleep, but I may have gotten dizzier since she helped me with them. I just attributed it to... well, just the entire situation that happened down there.

"When we are to face the guards, primarily use these powers to trip them up; I'll capitalise on any openings that you manage to create."

"Understood."

Returning to the market, my hunch was correct. No progress was made on either side. That gate needs to open, and it needs to open soon. Time isn't on our side here, neither for me nor for the rebellion.

The guards can just wait this out, as long as they manage to hold the gate. We are entirely reliant on the food and water coming in from the outside, after all. If they just wait for all of us to starve or succumb to that cough, they can just repopulate the slum with new slaves.

The objective is clear: open the gate. But how?

As I let my gaze wander across the battlefield, wondering how best to approach this, a chill runs down my spine. Someone's watching me, rather intently to boot.

I find the one currently boring holes into me with their gaze, to my surprise, standing in the entryway of the accountant's building. The very same I had just visited earlier today.

To my further surprise, the one standing there would be none other than the familiar redhead. I'd assumed she'd either be dead or gone by now. Why the hell is she still there?

As soon as she has confirmed I spotted her, she gestures into the building and vanishes into it. The same gesture I used with her that one evening; it seems like she wants to speak. I've got no other leads besides 'join the fray', so I might as well have a look, ascertain what she wants.

Sneaking over there proves no issue; the building appears to be already pillaged and is far enough from the gate. No one's paying attention to it; they all have bigger issues right now.

No one in the first room; I'll try what used to be Jesha's study. Sure enough there she stands amidst the ransacked furniture. The only thing still intact in here is the mirror, for some reason.

"So you're still alive; good to know."

She speaks with a cruel sense of detachment; it makes me sick.

"What do you want? Why are you still here?"

"I am to carry out Jesha's final orders before I leave the city. Checking if you are still among the living when the revolt starts is my first."

'The' revolt, eh? She was aware of it.

"Since you are, let us proceed. I wish to be rid of this place as soon as possible."

She grips the heavy mirror with both hands and shoves it aside, revealing a trapdoor underneath. She produces a key from underneath her robes and opens the hatch with it and gestures for me to enter.

"After you."

I am as of yet unsure if this is such a great idea, to put my trust in her. But I descend anyway. She follows suit, locks the trapdoor behind her and throws me the key.

"If you wish to return."

She grabs an oil lantern from the ground and lights it. Since I am by now well familiar with what a natural cave formation looks like, I can easily ascertain that this is a manmade tunnel.

"Follow me."

She struts off in the only direction available. I follow.

With her back now turned to me, I get a strange thought. Someone knew about our rebellion and my involvement in it, no less. The very same someone that sent down that guard into the mines.

My left hand, the one currently holding the dagger, trembles.

"She is one of the overseers. They are the enemy.

Is she responsible? Is she the reason Eleanor had to die? If she is, I-

"Don't get any funny ideas. While I am bound to my master's orders, if you attack me, I will kill you."

She noticed my growing bloodlust without even looking back. Am I that obvious, or is she that perceptive? My gut tells me she could actually follow up on that threat, but I have no clue as to why. Just who the hell is she anyway? Not a normal accountant, that's for sure...

We reach a small lit room with a bed, a chest and a ladder leading upwards. The tunnel also extends further.

"My orders were as follows: when the city falls, check if the kid is still alive. If he is, bring him down to the tunnel, explain where it leads and give him his 'inheritance'. Afterwards you may leave the city."

I lean against the wall. What the hell do you have in store for me, Jesha?

"Firstly, following the tunnel leads outside of the city. I will be going there after we are done here."

I don't plan on leaving, not just yet anyway.

"That chest over there contains your 'inheritance'."

"Why do you call it that, exactly?"

"Because Master Jesha instructed me to do so. I've got no clue either what he meant. He said it'd be of use to you once everything is over."

I kneel over the chest to inspect its contents. I find a familiar black and gold robe, the very same Jesha wore the day of our excursion. Furthermore, I find a sealed letter with the seal of a gryphon.

"Who else knows of this passageway?"

"No one still inside the city."

I'll leave this here for now; no use for garish robes right now.

"Finally, the thing you'll be most interested in, the ladder. It leads straight up through the wall into the control room of the gate."

Sounds too good to be true.

"As to how well it's guarded, I can't tell you. But I'm sure you'll manage. With that, I wish you farewell and the best of luck."

She leaves through the tunnel before I even get another word in. No matter. Jesha clearly has some vested interest in all this, he wants the city to fall. Why else give me this opportunity?

I'll have time aplenty to grumble about what his angle is in all this once Mother's safe. Now I need to act.

I climb the ladder.