Chapter 6 (Continued)

[AftermathGM]

He's ready. He tells himself he's ready, he takes that deep, deep breath and holds it. It's going to be fine, it's going to be fi--

Then Georg drives a fist into his gut and his insides feel like they've been crushed under a mountain. He can't breathe, he can't walk, he can't even think. His arms go reflexively to his midsection, which decides to void the morning's meal as he crumples against his assailant. As Georg lets him slide to the pile of rubbish, he lets out a low, whimpering moan and curls up into a ball. He won't be going anywhere or alerting anyone any time soon.

The back door is a simple one, and while there's a lock on it -- a familiar magically-powered lock that's commonplace throughout the city -- it doesn't appear to be engaged. A quick check of the handle confirms that. It seems the way into the building is now open.

[AftermathGM]

The back door to the factor's office opens onto a dark hallway. The floors are wood, but not well cared for from the looks of it. There's every chance that it's going to squeak at an inopportune time. Like so many of the buildings in this district, this one has simple construction with minimal embellishment. It's functional, not pretty. The ceilings are low enough that Georg probably doesn't want to jump very high and the walls are paneled in plain wood washed with a pale white finish that deters mold and rot, a perpetual problem down lower near the water.

There's a flickering light globe suspended from the ceiling farther down the hallway, providing enough light to see that there are single doors to either side of the hallway which ends in another single door, with an open passageway to the right of that door. It's too dark to see what lies down that passageway.

As soon as Asra steps inside where she can no longer see the sky, her nausea and disorientation ease though they don't completely go away. Whether that will continue to be the case the next time she uses magic is yet to be seen.

Before continuing down the hallway, Georg and Asra stop to listen. There are voices coming from somewhere down the hall, but they're so faint and indistinct that they must be either beyond the door at the end of the hallway or down the passageway.

[Asralynn Beauchaud]

Asra takes a few deep breaths to calm her no-longer-tumultuous stomach, glad to see that the interior is not spinning nearly so much as the exterior. She looks at Georg weakly, but resolutely, and nods to let him silently know that she is ready to move forward.

The voices up ahead are troublesome, but could be the ticket to finding out where Iana is being held. Holding up a hand to signal Georg to wait, she creeps further down the hall towards the noise. She's the better candidate for this kind of eavesdropping anyway, considering her soft slippers and the fact that she doesn't weigh as much as a horse.