Timestamp: 25nd of Fall, 518 A.V.
Kelski hurried. There wasn’t much else to do but gather supplies, check in with Ebon, and meet Snowflake at the entrance to Gil’s underground passage to his lab. Kelski wanted to be back quickly but Naska had requested something odd of her before she returned. The Shadow had wanted her to cut a double length of two foot of rope and dye each length a bright but contrasting color while she was at her workshop. Kelski hadn’t wanted to take the time, but she’d found out through experience it was easier to do what the Shadow said than it was to ignore what it told her. Naska’s lessons had been to important.
So, when Kelski was ready to go, rather than cut her climbing rope, she took another rope she had at The Gem which she’d used to hoist the weathervane upon the roof and hacked off two lengths of that. Then she’d dug around in her workshop until she’d found her pearl dyes and made little pots of that dye, just big enough to fit the small coils of rope – one in red and one in deep blue – so that both ropes were a contrasting color. The ropes were quickly dyed, not having to soak like the pearls themselves did to absorb color, and where rung out and quickly set aside. Then when she was ready, she returned to where Snowflake was and met Naska, with her still damp two-foot lengths of ropes and an attitude that bespoke an almost unwelcome interlude was coming.
The intermission wasn’t welcome. Kelski was still a bit upset at the delay in her return so she could have a lengthy lesson before descending back into the mines beneath the city and finding the mage once more.
Naska insisted though.
Repelling, as part of climbing, was dangerous, and she wanted her charge prepared. Kelski had promised Gils that she'd return, and return promptly and he'd sent a guide with her to ensure it. She knew Naska ultimately was right when she stated Gilthas had spent hundreds of years beneath the surface of Sunberth and that a bell or two longer would not hurt him. But still the Kelvic wasn’t happy.
The Shadow was waiting, Snowflake beside her somewhat impatient. The Brat seemed to have been having an argument with the Shadow, which amused Kelski to no end. Kelski knew from experience that Akajia’s minions were not the easiest to dissuade, especially not for a Nightstalker. So in the end, rather than arguing, she simply took the time to learn what Naska wanted to teach her before they proceeded back into the deep.
And what Naska wanted was a camp, close in to the entrance, safe, where the shadow could spend some time teaching Kelski some knotwork and climbing, Kelski looked for a spot. She walked until she found a likely spot, searched the darkness with her lamplight, and not seeing anything amiss called on her magic. Kelski had long since learned the source of her power was a core deep within herself. She could stoke that core and pull a great deal of djed at once, or she could lightly tap it and just augment her vision with aursitics and look for living things - their auras - in the dark. Kelski did that now, pulling just a tiny bit of djed in order to flare her aursitics vision, looking for hidden auras in the dark. She found nothing, scanned hard, and decided here was her safe place.
That being said, she made camp... the Shadow overseeing her work.
They set up a little camp a bit into the ruins, and Kelski took out the still damp ropes, one red and one blue, and Naska got started. “You need to know five basic knots to start out with when you are repelling, Kelski. The first is the foundational knot for the figure eight follow through called simply the Figure Eight. You use this knot to create the next knot.” She said, then carefully began to instruct Kelski on how to tie it.
