He slipped through it through the archive fast. After all, he could not breathe in that split second or seconds as he moved within it. He landed on a stone after a few seconds. Just how many years had it taken Tatani to build this city? The air was cooler underground, but not suffocating. It moved in slow currents passing through the space, carrying a faint mix of damp rock, smoke, and something cooked.

Lived-in air.

If his speculations were right, then there had to be many openings leading above ground where the fresh air was coming in through.

Sagiri straightened slowly before he finally lifted his eyes to take in the view properly.

The cavern stretched wider than he expected. It had been shaped over time, cut, reinforced, and expanded. The ceiling arched high above, held by thick stone columns. Their surfaces were smoothed by hands and tools as if they had been built by the best architects of the central plains.

Light came from mounted fixtures along the walls. innovation casings holding low-burning flames or glowstones, spaced evenly. The place was just like a well-built city, but one that was pushed underground.

Where Sagiri had landed looked like a square. The city spread across multiple levels. Terraces had been carved into the cavern walls, each one wide enough to hold clusters of structures. The structures and houses were curved from the very earth itself, sections of stone cut inward to form rooms and halls. Doorways were squared, edges reinforced with darker stone or metal frames. Some were covered with cloth or wood panels, others were left open.

It did not seem like security was the issue.

Paths connected everything.

Main walkways ran along the terraces. Narrower paths branched off into living sections. Ramps had been carved between levels instead, wide enough for groups to move without slowing.

There was order in it.

This must have taken years to build, and sagiri had to marvel at the detail of it all.

Water ran through the city in shallow channels cut into the stone floor, guided along precise lines. It flowed from an upper source Sagiri couldn’t yet see, splitting into smaller streams that passed through different sections before draining deeper underground. The city seemed to still be asleep. Well, there was an essence of day and night here. It was a long night in itself.

sagiri took a step. He pushed out his senses, and he could feel the thousands of heartbeats in the city. It was big enough to shelter a few thousand people but not more than ten thousand. He took another step to leave the square. Of course, he could feel the alert hearts all over the city. They must have been expecting an intrusion.

good. because he was about to turn Tatani upside down.

The place was silent. The silence was peaceful. Perhaps after a decade of peace, the people in Tatani had long forgotten the terrors of war, and they could now sleep peacefully even with open doors. Even so, Sagiri could not imagine having to live underground for that long, where there was no sun.

A few steps into an alley, and he paused. Something was moving rapidly towards him. It was not a person by the way it was moving. Sagiri crouched low and waited. A few moments later, something came barreling through a wall and slithered to his feet.

Oka

The damned hunting beast.

It still remembered him and gave him away at war college, and now it had come looking for him again. Only this time, it was not hissing and looking at him as if he were the enemy.

"Now you look for me to save your master. " How hypocritical, Oka," Sagiri said with a shake of his head. Perhaps it was a good thing that Gavina carried his pets everywhere. Sagiri stretched out his hand, and the beast coiled onto it. It was shuddering with fear and anxiety.

"You owe me one when I find her. " You have to stop hissing every time you look at me," Sagiri said and rubbed the beast’s little head. It hissed at him but whimpered soon after. The beast was only using him and did not want his affection. It was behaving like a Tsanka woman. No one could afford affection in that clan anyway.

"Fine. behave. now take me to you, master," Sagiri said, and the beast did not hesitate to uncoil itself out of his hands and start crawling on the streets. It made sure to keep to the slightly darker parts of the street. The street was well lit anyway and did not provide much cover for hiding, but sagiri had to commend the beast’s effort.

Smart beast.

The beast broke free of the street and started heading westward. They had been going on for a few minutes when the beast paused and hid away. sagiri was too big to hide anyway, and so he just stood in the middle of the street.

A few seconds later, a woman passed by. It looked like she was going to the communal bath by her manner of dressing and the things she carried. It was natural for some tribes to let women wake up first to go to the communal baths, especially in the past. It seemed that Tatani did not have many facilities, and the women could wake up at dawn to head to the communal baths, and the men could do so after dusk. This way, the two could not collide.

Sagiri was clearly a man, and when the young woman turned around and saw him, Sagiri could see the visible fear in her eyes. Of course, there were cases of men who were perverted enough to peek at the women going to the baths wearing their nightgowns, but Sagiri was not that dishonourable. Even so, at the moment, it looked like he was a pervert.

"I-I was..."

Sagiri took a step forward to explain, but that one step ruined everything. The ladies’ eyes grew even rounder, and her mouth parted. sagiri knew what could happen next, but he could not just kill a woman for screaming at seeing a supposed pervert.

A night cuddling scream tore through the place, enough to wake the dead. Sagiri could not reach for his seals quickly enough, and he felt the scream in the bits of his bones. The woman proceeded to throw her necessities for a bath and turned around, bolting while she screamed.

"Why didn’t you warn me, Oka I could have turned around," Sagiri sighed. Betrayal was deep in his voice. Oka popped out of its hiding a few moments later, and sagiri could have imagined it, but the beast was smiling.

I should let you master be bred by these barbarians

At the woman’s scream, Sagiri could now feel commotion all over as the place stirred awake. Only one solution. to run.

"Let’s go!!" Sagiri said, but Oka was already slithering his belly off. Sagiri followed quickly. He needed to at least reach the girls before he was beaten to a pulp for being a pervert.

His plan to go unnoticed till he found them was now ruined.

Stupid Oka!