Tencednil's shadow familiar is swallowed whole by a rat.

She shakes off her disgust and makes it fifteen feet from the horde's general mass, then launches a Color Spray behind her. Rats are probably less instinctual than spiders, right? This should work?

The rats stream fearlessly through the blinding light, but only momentum propels their still bodies to the other side.

The maze falls quiet, for now.

Anton rounds the corner and continues to sprint. "We're close to the ladder! Hurry!"

Julio follows.

As does Mika, once he gets over his nausea.

Yep running sounds like the plan here. The rats will be back soon, and if they're anything like spiders they're not going to be hampered by her stomping on them or anything. To the ladder!

The ladder is a little over half a minute of running ahead of them. They reach the cylindrical room with the sewage waterfall.

The sewers are thirty-five feet above them. Twenty-five feet below them, black water roils unnaturally. Tencednil can hear a distant rumbling.

Anton climbs up and over the ladder like a man possessed.

Julio tries to climb fast, almost slips off, and climbs the rest slower.

Mika's right behind Julio the whole way up.

With the humans in her way and her athletic inabilities making her unwilling to rush this, Tencednil takes a bit longer than Mika, but not too much so. Though she did almost slip for a moment there.

"I don't know how badly they caught the Spray. If they shook it off efficiently, they might already be chasing us. If we're lucky, still best we get out of anywhere they can see."

As Anton leads them through the sloping sewers, the rumbling fades away. He doesn't need to consult the map nearly as much as their first time through.

Around twenty minutes later, they walk up a steep tunnel and exit at 44 Stone's End.

KORVOSAN CARRIER
STARDAY, DESNUS 30th, 4708

SCANDAL AT HOUSE GREY, SECRET HEIR REVEALED

The weather worsens. Rain pours in loud sheets. The sky crackles with lightning. Three ships delay setting off until the storm passes. Gemshare Jewelers is robbed by an expert. The value of the stolen goods exceeds a thousand gold sails. Archbanker Darb Tuttle sells a regenerate.

"I know a fourth circle cleric. She should be willing to sell the ring at only a minor surcharge, and I can probably get a Remove Deafness out of her as part of that. We'd end up with maybe 19,000 shields. Have you managed to get anything out of the books?"

"Do I look like I've had time to read boo—"

"Anton."

He sighs. "No, nothing yet. Neither of us can read Necril and I've no idea what the red one's written in."

"I'm not going to open it until we know what the spells bound to it do."

"Tencednil, if your cleric can get us a good rate on the ring, we should probably sell through her. I know a guy who might be able to help, but he's no fourth-circle cleric."

"Definitely not, just hoped you had a lead on the books. I'll tell her the deal is on, then, the Abadarans can handle the details. We'll all go and give them the ring together, a joint account we all have to agree to use is easy. I have the contract written up here. If we sign it and have it sent, she can do the rest, and Mika's hearing should be back by tomorrow. Anything else urgent?"

Julio will read Tencednil's contract. What does it say?

The collective Parties 1 agree to yield unto Party 2 a ring which they attest under oath is a standard Ring of Protection, of the least grade...

Party 2 agrees to furnish unto an account held at the Bank of Abadar by the collective Parties 1 a sum of 19050 silver shields, less the price of one Abadar's Truthtelling used to confirm their oath...

Party 2 furthermore agrees to provide one casting of Remove Deafness to a recipient designated by the collective Parties 1 within a week of this contract's signature...

There are no obvious tricks here. Ulon teaches cooperation as much as trickery, and this isn't a sum to burn her reputation over even if she was confident in slipping it past them. And the Abadarans, who would probably notice and ask if there was a reason for anything strange.

(Tencednil has no issue showing her impatience as he goes over it closely, though. Yes he doesn't trust her, fine, but this is a simple procedure, a close examination is unreasonable enough to show some irritation about.)

"This looks fine. We ought to get going, then?" Only a fool doesn't go over contracts closely.