Asenath is going to love this. 

Once she forgives me.

I might as well steal this fish. If I can get all of them outta here before Catra is able to call any guards over, I could find a place to give them some water, and let them live so they can rebreed. It won’t be easy, but after tonight, a lot more of us will be able to create our own underground tanks.

I take the sharp end of my pickaxe and continue my best with carving handholds for the sewer grate. It worked for the last one in the other room.

“Hey!” 

I jolt. Ah. Palace guard. I think his name’s Pamiue. I also think he still has the scar I gave him.

“You!”

Yep, that’s him alright. Man, when you have to exert yourself trying to pull something loose, you can’t really blend in at the same time. One thing I’ll give this guard is he’s light on his feet. If I’d heard him come in, I wouldn’t have been so naive. 

“Hello, old fr-” I don’t finish the last sentence, on purpose. When you talk, your opponents expect you to keep talking. I guess Pamiue hasn’t really learned his lesson not to let his guard down. I hit him over the head with the thick end of my pickaxe, and I then do a kick to trip him. He lands with two different bruises on his head.

I overhear commotion a few floors above me. No time to waste. 

I go a little less gracefully on cutting the grate loose. Still, I’m more excited than frightened. 

When I know I’ve got it, I angle it so one side is sticking out, then I head to the fish tank and whack at the glass with my ax like a hammer.

The fish pour out with a hole the size of my head, with my headdress on. As they’re flowing to the grate, as well as the water, I throw it right off, and they pour down the hole. I hear the appropriate splashes. I then run over to the slave quarters I helped empty, just barely remembering to go back for the gold I swiped and left over after bribing everyone to help me out.

I lift up the other grate, and jump down the dark hole. 

I land nicely on my feet, and grip the two handles of the wheelbarrow behind me. It’s quite heavy, even for me, but I know just a little bit out of the sewer of the palace, and I’ll be able to dump them through a line that will bring them back to the river. Just have to do that. And take a few for my wife. And partner. And boy.