My party breathes a short-lived sigh of relief upon reaching the sewers on the far side of the Lost Factory, followed by gagging at the pervasive odor of the sewers. Although we managed to avoid serious injury, that's only due to our Elite rank greatly reducing the damage from mundane sources.

"I'm starting to really hate traps," Rowan grumbles as I heal his cuts and bruises. "At least when they're not our traps. Any chance we can add some of those to Hebron?"

"It'd take a lot of metal," I say.

Jade glances back over her shoulder at the dungeon. "Too bad we can't just pry out a couple of those 'mashy spike plates' as you called them and take them home."

"We wouldn't have even been able to walk the streets carrying those monster scythes," Melody laments. "We're already going to attract attention wearing these clothes and carrying this equipment. I'm going to have to cover my hurdy-gurdy in the unlikely event someone recognizes it as contraband. At least we should be safe now here in the sewers. I'm familiar with it and there should be nothing but Basic-rank rats and slimes."

"Maybe we could swipe some clothes and have Drake enchant them to be magic disguises?" Jade says. "Making us look like normal Gleams instead of dark-haired and wearing weird clothes? If he could make us look like metal monsters, seems like that'd be easy."

"I could try, but the spell doesn't last forever," I say. "I'd need to reapply it regularly and it would definitely fail at a bad time eventually. You'd need to learn the skill yourself. As a Rogue-type class, it should be well within your wheelhouse. You learned a different enhancement skill than me from the Secret Garden, but it should still work."

"How did you even figure out how to do that?" Rowan wonders. "I suppose you did pick a class based on items. But I would have never even thought of that."

"Who would have thought you could fool a dungeon by picking up a monster part?" Jade says.

"I'm quite sure I didn't actually fool Gleam itself," I say. "But it was playing along so it could let us through without just handing it to us. It wanted to test us, not kill us."

"Like an aunt playing peek-a-boo with a baby," Melody says with a grin.

Misty uses her frost wand to try to push the sewer stench away, but this results only in a brief reprieve and now we're cold too.

After a long day of crawling around in the Gleam Underground, we reach a manhole cover with bright orange shafts of light streaming through the small holes.

"Alright, I'll head up and see if I can find some clothes for you," Melody says. "Misty, want to go shopping with me?"

"I'm not the sort of girl who goes clothes shopping for fun, but under the circumstances, I'll do it."

Melody laughs and says, "We're not browsing for a whole new wardrobe. Just gifts for your elderly aunt and uncle, we'll tell them."

The two teenage girls head up into the streets and push the manhole cover back into place behind them. Rowan declines the chance to go up and get a breath of fresh air, and remains vigilantly guarding me and Jade.

After a short while, they return with a few items. Melody hands Jade a frilly pink bonnet, and passes me a flat-topped brimmed hat.

"Alright, this hat is hideous but show me how you did it," Jade says.

I describe the method I used, and channel my new skill into the hat Melody brought me while imagining the typical sort of white-haired elderly uncle who might wear something like this. It's a new item so it hasn't accumulated essence from being worn, only from when it was made. A female [Apprentice Tailor], according to [Psychometry]. I don't want to look like her, so I focus on the ideal image of an old man instead.

I put the hat on my head, and summon a [Ghostly Watcher] to look at myself from a distance because I don't have a mirror. Ugh, uncanny valley. As a Chrome Reaper, I probably wouldn't have fooled anyone that knew what a Chrome Reaper was supposed to look like if the dungeon hadn't played along.

Jade has had a little experience with Invocations, and follows along with what I'm doing as best as she can. She doesn't have [Chameleon Aura] or [Imbue Item], but the skill resonates well with her class and other skills.

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Jade Hebron is using Invocation (Illusory Mask)</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

"I got it!" Jade exclaims, pulling the bonnet onto her head. The air around her ripples like water, and the image of an elderly aunt shimmers into existence around her. I can see straight through her and her features keep shifting.

"You'll need to focus more," I say. "Keep your vis steady. Right now it's trying to be every potential aunt who might wear that bonnet. Pick one and hold that face firmly in your mind."

We keep practicing it for a while until we're confident in being able to keep our disguises up in public. By this point, the light falling through the manhole cover has turned red.

"Good enough to pass, I think," I say. "Let's go find a guest house, unless you want to sleep in a sewer tonight."

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"By the cores, I want a hot bath," Misty says. "This frost wand you made me is fantastic but I feel like I'm going to need to soak for an hour to get the ambient chill out of me."

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>You have discovered Camden.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

We emerge from the manhole into an alley into the red light of evening. The streets have grown eerily quiet in this late hour. I spot the green paint of a guest house, but we're intercepted by a pair of uniformed enforcers just outside.

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Name: Talon (?) Gleam Tiganna</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Race: Human | Gender: Male | Rank: Heroic | Tier: Master | Class: Sensible Sergeant</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Disposition: Neutral | Mood: Bored</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Name: Larch (?) Gleam Tiganna</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Race: Human | Gender: Male | Rank: Elite | Tier: Journeyman | Class: Perceptive Guardian</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Disposition: Neutral | Mood: Anxious</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

"You," demands Sergeant Talon, a brick wall of a man in a white and blue uniform with three stripes. "Who are you and what are you doing out after curfew?"

"Since when is there a curfew?" Melody demands.

"Since Chief Warden Peace Camden initiated it six months ago," says Sergeant Talon.

"Terribly sorry about this, sir," Jade says. "I am Jade Harrow. My brother and I were escorting our niece, nephew, and their friend on a sewer run but we lost track of time. We're on our way to the guest house right now."

"Ugh, you certainly smell like it," Sergeant Talon says. "I'm sure you want to get into a bath, so we'll make this quick."

"Something's not right here," Guardian Larch mutters, a wiry man in a matching uniform with only two stripes. "How do we know you weren't having secret meetings with dissidents or trafficking in contraband?" He glances to the Sergeant. "We should search their packs."

"You don't need to search our packs," I say, waving a hand at the Sergeant.

The man is not impressed. "I'm afraid we do. Please remove your packs, place them on the ground, and step two meters back."

I let out a heavy sigh, spinning up a couple of soul fractals to try to think of a way out of the situation.

Illusions over the packs? It's too late now. I would have needed to anticipate being searched. I don't even know what they might consider contraband.

Use my wand to put them to sleep with [Serpent's Bite]? That would likely only lead to more trouble even if it temporarily got us out of it, and I don't have confidence in being able to knock out a Heroic before he could call for backup.

Try harder at the mind trick thing? I'm better with skills that affect items, not people. Except for one part… I scan their quest logs. Sergeant Talon practically has a law book written into his.

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Name: Evening Patrol</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Quest Giver: Camden</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Description: Patrol the streets of Camden each evening from 6 pm to midnight.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Name: Enforce the Curfew</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Quest Giver: Camden</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Description: By order of the Chief Warden, civilians are not allowed outside without permit between the hours of 9 pm and 6 am.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Name: Keep the Silence</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Quest Giver: Camden</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Description: Musical instruments, sheet music, and recordings are forbidden contraband in Gleam Topside. Destroy any you find and arrest those found carrying them.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

I don't think so. I reach out with my vis in a surge of [Defiance] and delete the anti-music quest, then make sure Guardian Larch doesn't have one either.

Sergeant Talon blinks, his aura rippling with puzzlement, and he exchanges a look with his fellow enforcer.

"Never mind," Sergeant Talon says mildly in some confusion. "It seems we don't have to search your packs after all. Let us escort you to the guest house doors. Wouldn't want you to get lost along the way, would we?"

The guest house was already in line of sight, but the two enforcers make absolutely certain that we make it to the doors and go inside.

I go up to the receptionist and repeat my story about sewer runs, complain of getting lost, and rent a suite for the night. I feel well in over my head here and would probably be quite screwed by now if the cores weren't playing with kid gloves. Once in private, I waste no time in conjuring a [Ghostly Messenger] to let Basalt know where we are.

My ghost finds Basalt awake despite not arriving until after dark, and I telepathically fill him in.

[Camden, huh,] Basalt replies. [Ah, there it is. Still in the northern area. What was the name of that skill again? I want to try getting into places by holding a clipboard or something.]

[Invocation (Illusory Mask),] I tell him. [I want to try looking into the bell tomorrow, at least scouting it out if not doing anything with it yet. I need more information.]

[We'll be ready, but remember that Westminster is close to the middle of the domain. It'll be half an hour flight at best if we have to get all the way there and we don't even know if flying over it is doable.]

[If you don't hear from me tomorrow, assume I've been arrested or something and come rescue me, please. Those guards were confused but they're not stupid.]

[Roger that, Cap'n.]

When I wake up the next morning, Jade is in the suite's common area with a pile of scarves, swapping them out and using [Illusory Mask] on each of them. Before my eyes, she switches from a scrawny old man, to an overweight middle-aged woman, to an adolescent boy.

"Drake! This skill is so cool!"

"Whose laundry did you take and are they going to notice it's gone?" I ask.

"I found it in a closet full of winter clothes," Jade says. "Nobody's going to notice for a few months, I'm sure."

"Well, someone might notice that we're wearing thick scarves in August," I say.

Jade takes off the green scarf, the curly blond hair of the boy switching back into Jade's normal slightly longer dark brown hair. "Maybe, but I'm sure someone's going to keep an eye out for 'Jade Harrow'."

There's a knock at the door. Through the wall, I scan the aura of someone outside.

<table class="chapter-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Name: Hope Camden Gleam Tiganna</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Race: Human | Gender: Female | Rank: Basic | Tier: Apprentice | Class: Apprentice Hearthkeeper</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Disposition: Friendly | Mood: Hopeful</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Jade quickly tosses the scarves under her bed and pulls the pink bonnet back on, and I grab my hat. Our disguises in place again, I go over and open the door to reveal a teenage girl dressed as a maid.

"Good morning," Hope says. "I hear you folks got in late last night. Do you have anything that needs to be cleaned? Is there anything I can get for you? Can I bring you breakfast?"

"… are we the only ones staying here right now?" I wonder.

"No, but the old Wizard down the hall never wakes up before noon and will yell if he gets disturbed in the morning. Ever since they put in the lift guards, business has been slow. I hope you didn't have too much trouble getting here."

"Nope, no trouble at all," I say.

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