Kaelen stopped at a junction where the tunnel sloped downward. He closed his eyes and reached inward. He did not search for the presence of Jade herself.

  Instead, he searched for what he had . The sphere he had given Jade as a down payment. He had infused it earlier without thinking much of it, a simple act meant to buy her cooperation. His energy still clung to it, faint but distinct, like a fingerprint pressed into glass.

  Naturally, it offered no clear direction nor path to follow, only distance. He focused.

  There was a vague sensation. Kaelen opened his eyes.

  “Not that far from here,” he said to the empty tunnel. An echo came back, sounding like an invitation: .

  The sense tightened as he moved forward, loosening when he took a wrong turn, growing denser when he corrected course. It would take time, but this was a surer navigation tool than any map. With every step downward, the pressure increased.

  He felt feral eyes on him long before he saw them.

  Rats watched from ledges and pipes, not skittering away, not bold enough to approach, simply observing with an unnerving patience. Kaelen adjusted his pace, ignoring the rats watching from the walls. Somehow, they knew better than to interfere with his searches, although he had to smack a couple of them when they got too close.

  Their stillness was the giveaway. Wild creatures did not typically hold still like sentries. Something, or some, was holding them back.

  Familiars weren’t a novel concept, but usually they were limited to one highly domesticated beast. Controlling thousands of rats, on the other hand? That was unheard of.

  Kaelen followed the trail into older tunnels where brick gave way to rough stone. The sewer here, it seemed, had stopped being part of the city’s maintenance and became something else entirely. The markings on the walls changed, too. There were no gang signs nor warnings.

  The tunnel opened into a chamber wide enough to be a cistern. The ceiling was high, lost in shadow. Lanterns hung in iron brackets, their light weak and sickly. The smell hit harder here: rot, sewage, and something even worse beneath it.

  At the center lay a shallow pool of black water that did not reflect the lanterns. It ate the light, leaving its surface matte and black.

  Jade was there, too.

  She sat on a slab of stone near the pool. If the girl was frightened, she hid it well. A ring of ratfolk stood at a distance, thin and hunched shapes with wary eyes. Dozens of rats clustered at their feet.

  On a mound of rubble opposite her, a man in rags stood like a king who had mistaken trash for a throne. His hair was thin and dirty, and his mouth showed a row of dark, broken teeth as he smiled.

  The man lifted his arms just as Kaelen entered. “Ah! An honored guest! Let us not stand on ceremony here.”

  The man had the worst lisp Kaelen had ever heard, and yet it was the man’s speech that made him wince the hardest.

  “You are standing at the early steps of my empire,” the man continued, undeterred by the lack of Kaelen’s answer. “The Belowground, and I am its ruler, the Great King Rat. Now kneel, before make you.”

  Kaelen stopped three paces in, eyes sweeping the chamber once. A dozen exits, most too narrow for a man, but perfect for something smaller.

  “This?” Kaelen asked, letting his gaze return to the mound. “Your empire?”

  The Rat King bristled like a threatened animal. “What would a commoner know of empires? Not every head is fit for a crown.”

  Kaelen’s expression didn’t change, but his patience thinned by a measurable degree. “On that we can agree, you absolute fool. You will soon join the worms you cherish so much. Let the girl go and I promise not to prolong your suffering.”

  Jade’s eyes flicked toward Kaelen, then away, as if she didn’t want to look like she was relying on him. “Took ya long enough,” she muttered.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The Great King Rat snapped his fingers. Rats poured from cracks and holes in the walls, spilling into the chamber in a wave. Rather than immediately charging Kaelen, they arranged themselves in a loose ring, bodies pressed close together. A living boundary.

  Kaelen scoffed. “How thoughtful of you to bring me more target practice.”

  “Brave words,” the Rat King said, voice laden with satisfaction. “But I’ve seen your worth, back in the tunnels. You wield magic well, I shan’t deny it, but here you are vastly outnumbered, one against a hundred thousands.”

  Kaelen looked down at the rats, then back up. The Rat King’s smile widened, showing two rows of cracked brown teeth. “I know. I can smell the weakness on you. You hide it well, but you carry it like rot under a bandage.”

  Kaelen stepped forward one pace. The rats reacted but did not attack. They watched him, waiting for the command from their king.

  “So you keep pets,” Kaelen said mildly. “And you think that makes you… dangerous?”

  “They are not pets!” the Rat King snapped. “They are my subjects. They listen and obey. Like you soon will obey your rightful king.” The Rat King turned his head to Jade and added, “And your queen, too.”

  Jade visibly shuddered. “Stop calling me that, buggerface.”

  Kaelen observed the tightening circle of rats around him. “Let the girl go. I will not ask again.”

  “And why would I do that? If she is not to be my queen,” the Rat King said pleasantly, “then death can have her kiss.”

  Despite all the vermin around her, it was the man’s insistence on kissing that made Jade’s skin crawl. She clenched her jaw and stared at the floor.

  Kaelen’s eyes narrowed. “You are so intimidated by one man you would kill a child.” He shrugged. “Go ahead, then. She is nothing to me. Just a pawn.”

  The Rat King cackled. “What a sad excuse for a bluff! No, you clearly care too much for her. But I have a different deal in mind. How about you drink from the black pool here, and I will promise not to hurt my queen?”

  Kaelen glanced at the black pool. He could feel it now, even from where he stood. The terrible power it carried. “So that is your trick.”

  The Rat King followed his gaze with pride. “The black water, yes. One gulp and you will become mine the very same instant. Just another rat in my retinue.”

  Kaelen smirked. “And why would I ever do that?”

  The Great King rat cackled again. “Because your king commands it, you halfwit! As you stood there, I have already done the deed. Look closely at the torches near you.”

  Kaelen did. He hadn’t noticed it before, but the torches used something strange instead of dried wood. Something black and terrible. Whatever this black goo in the pool was, it seemed the torches used it as fuel. It was a potent incense.

  “Do you hear it now? The little voice inside your head. It is the voice of your rightful king. Your god. The smell is not as powerful as the taste of it, but none can withstand it. Not at this distance. Now, walk forward!”

  Kaelen obeyed. He stepped toward the pool.

  Jade’s head snapped up. “NO, DON’T!”

  “Quiet,” Kaelen said, even before the Great King Rat did.

  “Ah, so you have a bit of freedom left. That’s for the better. I will enjoy seeing your mind thrash against the cage I put it in. Now, bow down and drink. Drink to your king’s health!”

  Kaelen knelt by the edge of the pool and cupped a handful of the black water. It clung to his skin, oily and cold. He drank long and deep.

  The Rat King’s grin stretched wider. “Good, good. Like so, that’s right. Drink.”

  The taste was foul, like rusted metal and bile. Kaelen could feel the foreign influence surge immediately. It tried to root itself in him, overriding his willpower.

  The Rat King threw his head back and laughed. “Yes. You feel it, don’t you? The black tendrils inside your mind. The wave that drowns out your thoughts. The closer you are to me, the more powerful I become.” As if to demonstrate that, the bastard took two steps forward. “Your soul is mine to play with now, fool!”

  “NO! DON’TCHA DARE!” Jade cried again.

  Kaelen rose slowly. He looked at the Rat King for a long moment and then put his hand over his heart.

  “I am yours, my king. Forever and always.”

  The Great King Rat hollered. “Not for long, I’m afraid! You are a shiny toy, I’ll admit, but keeping you alive is too much of a risk. Here.” A rat brought Kaelen an ugly-looking dagger in its teeth. “Take it. Take this blade and plant it deep in your stomach. I want to see you bleed out like the little piglet that you are.”

  Kaelen closed his eyes and sighed.

  He moved faster than the Rat King expected. The blade slid forward and punched into the Rat King’s stomach with a clean, practiced motion. The man gasped as his hands flew to the wound. Blood seeped between his fingers, so dark it looked almost as black as the pool of water in the center of the room.

  “Oh.” It sounded like air coming out of a deflating bag.

  Kaelen held the hilt for a heartbeat, leaning close enough for the Rat King to hear. “My apologies. I think I forgot to bow.“

  He quickly slammed his forehead into the man’s face and felt something give way. Until he tried it, Kaelen wasn’t sure he would succeed in actually hitting the bastard. But it had worked before on rats, so why not on this vermin?

  The Rat King staggered back with a breathless howl. His face was a bloody mess. A gash opened up right above his left eye. It was deep enough for Kaelen to see a bit of bone.

  “You’re bleeding, Your Wormship. Though I must admit, red does look good on you.”

  The only sound the Great King Rat could muster was a pathetic whimper as he scrambled away from Kaelen.

  “You’re hurt? My apologies. What a nasty sound that was. I believe I just broke your orbital. But not to worry, I think I know how to make your face symmetrical again.”

  “Y-YOU SCUM!” the Rat King cried, retreating.

  Kaelen slowly moved towards him. “That voice you swore I could feel in my head? Were I eight hundred levels lower, perhaps it would pose a risk. But now? I don’t even hear it.”

  The Rat King’s crown landed near Kaelen’s feet. It had already gathered some of the man’s blood in its grooves. Kaelen picked it up, wiped the blood away, and threw the ugly thing away over his shoulder.

  “Now, Your Grace. I think it’s time we discussed the matters of your succession.”