The stream tumbled noisily downward through the cavern, cascading over and around rocks in its effort to find lower ground. Light from Takri's lamp glinted off the damp walls of the cave as he made his way downward alongside the stream and towards Nasreen.
The stream will lead you to a place where it flows below the rocks. When it does, follow the wall to the right. You will come to an arch set in the wall that will take you to the catacombs. When Luka and I were children, we never encountered a living person among the dead but we did find many exits out into the city. I do not know if this has changed in the many years since, especially since the Swarm's occupation of the capital. Be watchful. Hungry people are desperate people.
Takri transferred the lamp to his left hand and drew his knife with his right before he stepped through the arch. Inside the catacombs he saw only stone walls and carved niches filled with bones stacked and sorted like kindling for the fire. The dead did not concern him as much as the living.
Turn to your left and look for red pebbles set among the bones. We marked the way back home with them when we were young. It is easy to become disoriented underground with no sky by which to navigate. Stay to the path or you may become lost.
Takri set off down the passageway, examining each pile of bones he passed for the red pebbles placed by the brothers many years ago. Two rights, then a left, then another right. By the sixth turn Takri could not picture the way back to the arch and the caves beneath the palace, but he kept following the trail Floryan and Luka left decades previous.
Count the stones, forty-two in all. Across from the last stone is a place where the wall has crumbled in upon itself. Climb to the top of the pile and you will find a passage you can squeeze through into the room beyond. This is your way into to the temple.
By the thirtieth pebble, Takri was beginning to wonder if he had counted correctly, but the crumbling wall was impossible to miss even without the red pebble set in the skull-packed niche across from it. There was no longer a need to squeeze through a small gap at the top of the wall. He could climb through the rubble easily to the room on the other side. But faintly, from beyond the gap in the wall he could hear a faint conversation. He scrambled backwards away from the gap and down the passageway, extinguishing his lamp as he rounded the corner and keeping his knife at the ready. He sat in darkness, back against the stone trying to control his breathing while the voices grew closer.
"Sasa, hurry!" The voice sounded young, like a child.
"I can't carry everything, Teo!"
"Then leave it! We can come back for more later."
"But what if it is all gone by then?" said Sasa. "What if they eat it all?"
"We can come back tomorrow," said Teo. "Mama needs what we have now. Come on, she will be worried and hungry if we don't come back soon!"
Takri heard a scrambling noise followed by two small thunks as the children's feet hit the floor. Light from a small lamp similar to the one Takri just extinguished spilled onto the passageway wall across from him. He moved silently away from it as the light grew brighter, hoping the two boys' way home wasn't through the passage he had decided to hide in. The two passed by without a second glance down his passageway. One appeared to be about ten summers old, and his brother to be around eight. Judging by their plain clothing they were commoners of no standing. At least one family in Adyll would not be going hungry tonight.
He waited until he could no longer see the light from their lamp, and then counted ten breaths before he struck his flint on the floor and lit his own. He stood up, dusted himself off, and returned to the crumbled wall. Climbing through, he found himself in another storeroom much like the one he left behind at the palace a few hours earlier, only this room was much larger. He followed a trail of spilled lentils to the place from which the boys had been stealing food, a clay container with its lid still askew. Takri kicked the lentils to the side, obscuring the boy's trail and then set the lid back properly. It was obvious Sasa and Teo were new to stealing.
You will find yourself in a temple storeroom used to hold food for those in need. The storeroom is in the eastern side of the building and is rarely visited. The temple brothel is on the northwestern corner of the complex. If you do not draw attention to yourself and stay clear of the high priest, your way should be safe. If Nasreen lives, and Baraz allows her to return to her work in the brothel, you will find her there. Tell the Procuress that Floryan sent you so that you do not make the same mistake he did with Yaril. And that she was right all along. Love is better than duty.