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Description
Rain in Undertown, well, maybe not so much rain as a light drizzle, still, it seemed to fit against the grey evening sky. To Tempest De Felle it was the most beautiful view of Undertown she had ever had the pleasure of seeing, it was a shame, perhaps, that she was seeing it only because of the job she had to do. Tempest turned her attention away from the skyline and settled back into her hiding place inside the dilapidated chimney of an abandoned steel works. She had been sitting there all day, and was starting to think she could just leave this particular job for today when the very person she had been watching for all those hours appeared. Silently, she drew back the bowstring of her crossbow and rested the butt on her shoulder. She crouched in the darkness of the massive industrial chimney until her legs ached. She had to get this right, there would be only one perfect chance to do this, and she would just have to wait. After a few minutes, her expert eye caught that perfect chance, he was standing at the window, and there was no-one else in sight. Tempest carefully took aim and, taking a deep breath, squeezed the trigger. A slight whoosh, a strange, squelching ‘crack’ and a thud later, and her job was done. Tempest quickly dismantled her crossbow and nimbly climbed down the chimney. She exited the factory the back way, so as to avoid the house with the dead man in it. She did not know why the people she worked for had wanted this man dead, more often than not it was an unpaid debt, but usually she didn’t ask, she didn’t particularly want to end up like the people she had to ‘deal with’. As she walked past the abandoned factories, Tempest couldn’t help wondering if the dead man had been found yet, she really couldn’t help it, she tried not to think about anyone she had ‘disposed of’, for if she started, she would never stop.
Once out of the industrial quarter, Tempest stopped at a tavern to change back into her robes, as she pulled of her black cloak and breeches in the poorly lit room she almost thought she heard a scream, though she shook this notion out of her head, and even if it had been a scream, she told herself, it could not possibly have been heard from so far away, unless it was a particularly loud scream, the type of scream someone makes when they find something horrific, something like…
She sharply pulled herself out of this train of thought, and hurriedly pulled her robes on.
As she walked across the square towards the baskets, Tempest could feel the winds picking up and the rain becoming harsher, she started to run, once she was directly under the basket pulling station she summoned all her energy and shouted up to who ever was working that day
“Hey! HEY! Anyone up there?”
She could make out a figure leaning over the edge of a basket
“What do you want?” came the tired reply
“What do you think? Just come down here, Ok?!” The basket puller wearily descended, and Tempest got in, by now, the wind was so fierce the basket swayed, the goblin pulling it seemed to be having a hard time, if she had been in a better mood, Tempest might have offered to help him, but right now, she was too preoccupied with her thoughts.

***

Trudging up the stairs of the school of light and darkness in sodden clothes, Tempest didn’t think she could feel any worse, unfortunately, she was wrong.
Pausing outside her dormitory door, she could hear voice, one she instantly recognised as Claudio, her best friend, but the other…
It was a female voice, quite high pitched and…she giggled! It had to be Amelia, only Amelia could make a sound that annoying, Tempest knew she should just go inside and face them, but she knew how much Claudio liked Amelia, and she hated to see them together, she had wanted to go inside to change, but instead she walked away, down the corridor, down the stairs and out of the large wooded doors and sat on the stoop out side the school, watching the rain come down in sheets. She thought about things for a while, her job, her friends, her school, she was graduating in 2 weeks, and had been offered a research post at the school, she didn’t know whether she would accept it yet, and they would need her answer by tomorrow. Tempest did not come from an academic family, her parents had been sky-pirates, her entire family had lived in the skies, but after her parent’s deaths she’d been sent to live with her step-grandmother, who didn’t believe that girls should become pirates, so young Tempest (or Siara, which was actually her given name, but she’d changed it herself, because it didn’t seem to fit) had been sent up to Sanctaphrax, the only way she could escape was through the drugs, she’d been addicted to elutiate for 3 years, the buzz it gave her had been indescribable, but it practically killed the rest of her life, she didn’t care about anything but elutiate, getting money for more of it. She’d gotten herself into a lot of debt, which was how she had got her job. She had owed money to a leguesman who did a little dealing on the side, she’d made a deal with him, she’d be his private hit woman, free of charge, and he’d get her more elutiate. That was the way it had worked until Claudio found out about her addiction, he’d got her off the stuff, helped her get her life back together. It had been hard, and to pay off her debt she had to continue working for her old dealer. But soon she would be out of debt, then she would leave Sanctaphrax, leave undertown and return to where she belonged, out there, in the sky.

The sky cleared suddenly, but tempest hardly noticed, in fact, she was almost in a trance until the door slammed shut behind her. Amelia feibex walked past her, ignoring her completely, as usual. Tempest couldn’t stand Amelia, she had everything, well, everything except a brain, she was rich, spoilt, pretty and the most popular girl in Sanctaphrax, there wasn’t a single male of a certain age who wasn’t totally infatuated with her, and that included Claudio. But now that she was out of sight, Tempest could finally go inside, she just thanked sky that Amelia wasn’t part of the school, she attended the institute of ice and snow, which, thankfully, was on the other side of the city.
Entering her dormitory, fell onto her bed, she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but, as always, she would not be allowed to
“Temp! Are you in there? Can I come in?” it was Claudio; he’d obviously been waiting for her.
“Yeah, I’m in here, come in.” She replied, trying to forgive him for disturbing her.
Claudio opened the heavy wooden door a crack, and peered in
“Are you Ok,” he whispered, uncertainly, “you weren’t in class all day and when I came up here to find you, well, I couldn’t.”
Tempest sat up, slightly dazed “yeah, I just got back, I was visiting my grandmother.”
“I thought you couldn’t stand her” said Claudio, coming fully into the room
“Yeah, well, she’s the only family I have in Undertown, isn’t she.” Tempest hated lying to Claudio, but if he knew the truth, He’d never speak to her again, and, much as she hated admitting to it, she needed him. Badly.
“Where you caught in the rain?” ha asked,
‘No, I just decided to have a bath, but forgot to take my clothes off. Of course I was caught in the rain!”
Claudio smiled, he was used to Tempest being in a bad mood, but her moods seemed to have gotten worse lately
“You don’t look so great, Temp,”
“You really know how to flatter a girl, don’t you?”
“No, I mean, you don’t look very well, you’re pale and stuff,”
Tempest got up and looked in the mirror that hung next to her bed, she did look pale,
“I guess I’m just hungry, when’s dinner?”
“Now I think, you want to go down?”
“Give me a second to get changed, ok?”
“Right, I’ll wait outside.”
Once Claudio was gone, Tempest studied her reflection in the mirror again; she was definitely paler that usual, which was saying something, as she was always very pale, it was another product of her addiction, along with tiredness, loss of appetite and the occasional bout of the shakes.
Changing into a dress, Tempest noticed that she’d put on a little weight, which made her smile. Fighting her addiction had left her dangerously underweight, and as she regularly missed meals, it was hard or her to put weight back on. Grabbing her favourite grey cloak and her spare boots, Tempest left her dorm, and went to dinner with Claudio.

Description
Rain in Undertown, well, maybe not so much rain as a light drizzle, still, it seemed to fit against the grey evening sky. To Tempest De Felle it was the most beautiful view of Undertown she had ever had the pleasure of seeing, it was a shame, perhaps, that she was seeing it only because of the job she had to do. Tempest turned her attention away from the skyline and settled back into her hiding place inside the dilapidated chimney of an abandoned steel works. She had been sitting there all day, and was starting to think she could just leave this particular job for today when the very person she had been watching for all those hours appeared. Silently, she drew back the bowstring of her crossbow and rested the butt on her shoulder. She crouched in the darkness of the massive industrial chimney until her legs ached. She had to get this right, there would be only one perfect chance to do this, and she would just have to wait. After a few minutes, her expert eye caught that perfect chance, he was standing at the window, and there was no-one else in sight. Tempest carefully took aim and, taking a deep breath, squeezed the trigger. A slight whoosh, a strange, squelching ‘crack’ and a thud later, and her job was done. Tempest quickly dismantled her crossbow and nimbly climbed down the chimney. She exited the factory the back way, so as to avoid the house with the dead man in it. She did not know why the people she worked for had wanted this man dead, more often than not it was an unpaid debt, but usually she didn’t ask, she didn’t particularly want to end up like the people she had to ‘deal with’. As she walked past the abandoned factories, Tempest couldn’t help wondering if the dead man had been found yet, she really couldn’t help it, she tried not to think about anyone she had ‘disposed of’, for if she started, she would never stop.
Once out of the industrial quarter, Tempest stopped at a tavern to change back into her robes, as she pulled of her black cloak and breeches in the poorly lit room she almost thought she heard a scream, though she shook this notion out of her head, and even if it had been a scream, she told herself, it could not possibly have been heard from so far away, unless it was a particularly loud scream, the type of scream someone makes when they find something horrific, something like…
She sharply pulled herself out of this train of thought, and hurriedly pulled her robes on.
As she walked across the square towards the baskets, Tempest could feel the winds picking up and the rain becoming harsher, she started to run, once she was directly under the basket pulling station she summoned all her energy and shouted up to who ever was working that day
“Hey! HEY! Anyone up there?”
She could make out a figure leaning over the edge of a basket
“What do you want?” came the tired reply
“What do you think? Just come down here, Ok?!” The basket puller wearily descended, and Tempest got in, by now, the wind was so fierce the basket swayed, the goblin pulling it seemed to be having a hard time, if she had been in a better mood, Tempest might have offered to help him, but right now, she was too preoccupied with her thoughts.

***

Trudging up the stairs of the school of light and darkness in sodden clothes, Tempest didn’t think she could feel any worse, unfortunately, she was wrong.
Pausing outside her dormitory door, she could hear voice, one she instantly recognised as Claudio, her best friend, but the other…
It was a female voice, quite high pitched and…she giggled! It had to be Amelia, only Amelia could make a sound that annoying, Tempest knew she should just go inside and face them, but she knew how much Claudio liked Amelia, and she hated to see them together, she had wanted to go inside to change, but instead she walked away, down the corridor, down the stairs and out of the large wooded doors and sat on the stoop out side the school, watching the rain come down in sheets. She thought about things for a while, her job, her friends, her school, she was graduating in 2 weeks, and had been offered a research post at the school, she didn’t know whether she would accept it yet, and they would need her answer by tomorrow. Tempest did not come from an academic family, her parents had been sky-pirates, her entire family had lived in the skies, but after her parent’s deaths she’d been sent to live with her step-grandmother, who didn’t believe that girls should become pirates, so young Tempest (or Siara, which was actually her given name, but she’d changed it herself, because it didn’t seem to fit) had been sent up to Sanctaphrax, the only way she could escape was through the drugs, she’d been addicted to elutiate for 3 years, the buzz it gave her had been indescribable, but it practically killed the rest of her life, she didn’t care about anything but elutiate, getting money for more of it. She’d gotten herself into a lot of debt, which was how she had got her job. She had owed money to a leguesman who did a little dealing on the side, she’d made a deal with him, she’d be his private hit woman, free of charge, and he’d get her more elutiate. That was the way it had worked until Claudio found out about her addiction, he’d got her off the stuff, helped her get her life back together. It had been hard, and to pay off her debt she had to continue working for her old dealer. But soon she would be out of debt, then she would leave Sanctaphrax, leave undertown and return to where she belonged, out there, in the sky.

The sky cleared suddenly, but tempest hardly noticed, in fact, she was almost in a trance until the door slammed shut behind her. Amelia feibex walked past her, ignoring her completely, as usual. Tempest couldn’t stand Amelia, she had everything, well, everything except a brain, she was rich, spoilt, pretty and the most popular girl in Sanctaphrax, there wasn’t a single male of a certain age who wasn’t totally infatuated with her, and that included Claudio. But now that she was out of sight, Tempest could finally go inside, she just thanked sky that Amelia wasn’t part of the school, she attended the institute of ice and snow, which, thankfully, was on the other side of the city.
Entering her dormitory, fell onto her bed, she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but, as always, she would not be allowed to
“Temp! Are you in there? Can I come in?” it was Claudio; he’d obviously been waiting for her.
“Yeah, I’m in here, come in.” She replied, trying to forgive him for disturbing her.
Claudio opened the heavy wooden door a crack, and peered in
“Are you Ok,” he whispered, uncertainly, “you weren’t in class all day and when I came up here to find you, well, I couldn’t.”
Tempest sat up, slightly dazed “yeah, I just got back, I was visiting my grandmother.”
“I thought you couldn’t stand her” said Claudio, coming fully into the room
“Yeah, well, she’s the only family I have in Undertown, isn’t she.” Tempest hated lying to Claudio, but if he knew the truth, He’d never speak to her again, and, much as she hated admitting to it, she needed him. Badly.
“Where you caught in the rain?” ha asked,
‘No, I just decided to have a bath, but forgot to take my clothes off. Of course I was caught in the rain!”
Claudio smiled, he was used to Tempest being in a bad mood, but her moods seemed to have gotten worse lately
“You don’t look so great, Temp,”
“You really know how to flatter a girl, don’t you?”
“No, I mean, you don’t look very well, you’re pale and stuff,”
Tempest got up and looked in the mirror that hung next to her bed, she did look pale,
“I guess I’m just hungry, when’s dinner?”
“Now I think, you want to go down?”
“Give me a second to get changed, ok?”
“Right, I’ll wait outside.”
Once Claudio was gone, Tempest studied her reflection in the mirror again; she was definitely paler that usual, which was saying something, as she was always very pale, it was another product of her addiction, along with tiredness, loss of appetite and the occasional bout of the shakes.
Changing into a dress, Tempest noticed that she’d put on a little weight, which made her smile. Fighting her addiction had left her dangerously underweight, and as she regularly missed meals, it was hard or her to put weight back on. Grabbing her favourite grey cloak and her spare boots, Tempest left her dorm, and went to dinner with Claudio.