Still gripping their arms, Vlad raised one foot. "Step with me," he told them. "Ready?"

Uncertainly, Yoshi and Liya obeyed. They took one deliberate step forward, then another, Vlad counting them out loud--and then on the third step, something lit up orange under Vlad's toe. As if in response, the blue plugs in Vlad's earlobes began to glow.

"And--turn."

Vlad swiveled his head around, and Liya and Yoshi followed suit. Everything immediately went black.

It took a moment for their eyes to adjust enough to see that they were not in total darkness after all. They were standing in the middle of a stone circle which was now woven through with dully-glowing orange lines in some kind of pattern. Just beyond it sat a table littered with things--a couple of lightbulbs, a flashlight, a glass float covered in netting. On the back of the chair at this table perched a pale, unpainted construct. It held in its mouth another lightbulb, and this one was lit somehow, lending a sallow greenish light to the darkness.

Beyond the edge of the construct's light, the room they were in seemed to actually be a huge cavern. Dark water of indeterminate depth pooled here and there, glinting in the construct's light, and farther away in the faint shafts of light that seemed to be falling from above somehow. The light just barely illuminated the shapes of pillars, some natural, some brick. Across the nearest body of water, which lapped up against the edge of the stone circle, the suggestion of a building could even be seen, with dark sagging windows and an empty doorway.

"Jeez, you two," Vlad teased, brushing himself off. "Can't stay out of trouble, can you?"

"W-wait!" Liya said sharply, as Yoshi looked around in surprised silence. "You just said you don't have magic!"

"Are we under Escalus?" Yoshi asked at nearly the same time, looking up into the darkness.

"I don't," Vlad told Liya primly. He picked up the glass float from the table, the construct peering benignly over his shoulder. The plugs in his earlobes lit with a neon blue light again, and the glass float responded in kind, filling with blue light that radiated. "I keep magic stored in my jewelry, that's all. And yes," he added, in response to Yoshi. "We're under the city."