When Valerie had suggested bringing in Arden, she'd been hoping he would talk a bit of sense into List. Maybe suggest some refinements to plan and a better timetable. 

She hadn't expected him to look dead at her and ask, "What do you think?"

Then she had to think about hitting the Pavers. Really consider it, like it was a viable course of action, and not just a crazy idea spun out of the head of a revenge-hungry hellborn. Because Arden did. If he hadn't, he'd have shut them down then and there.

And that was how the three of them ended up climbing down a well at the edge of town, Valerie and Arden dressed in outfits List had "found" that would blend in with bandits and thieves that ran with the Pavers.

A quarter of the way down, Valerie, in the lead again for some gods forsaken reason, found a part of the wellshaft that was recessed from the rest. When she pushed on it, it slid away, revealing itself to be a door. She had to admit, it was a pretty good secret entrance. The facade on the door blended with the rest of the wellshaft, and it was far enough down to make spotting it difficult without being so far down that the climb would be a hassle.

Inside, they found a stone tunnel lit by the same kind of smokeless torches found in the Scaled Maiden, ending in a set of stairs. No sooner had List and Arden gotten inside than a figure appeared at the top of the stairs, and all Valerie's whole body froze.

The Paver walked down the stairs, absentmindedly chewing on a bagel. Without so much as a glance at Valerie and barely half of a nod toward List and Arden, he strode straight past them to the door, gripped the remainder of his bagel in his mouth, and began climbing up and out of the well.

Only when he was gone did Valerie remember how to breathe.

"That was too close," she said.

"We're fine," List said. "I told you. All we have to do is look the part, act like we belong here, and we'll have free roam of the place."

"It does make a degree of sense that they would only expect their own members to enter through the wel," Arden said. "Still, rather sloppy and overconfident on their part."

"I'm not complaining," List said as they all head up the stairs. "Let's find wherever they keep the loot, and clean them out before . . ."

List trailed off as they reached the top of the stairs, and ran straight into another pair of Pavers, who were both staring at them. A look of realization of what was happening slowly passed over their faces, and List muttered a curse. Arden cleared his throat, and readied his cane.

Two minutes later, Valerie and List were dragging an unconscious Paver down a blessedly empty hallway, with Arden close behind and carrying the other.

"What are we doing?" Valerie asked. "There's no way no one heard that."

"So hurry up before someone sees us," List snapped. She grunted, straining under the dead weight of the man. "Ugh. Why is this fucker so heavy?"

"There," Arden said, pointing to a door ahead. "There's not enough structural space for a full room behind that door, it should be a closet."

"Perfect. Hold him, I'll get the door," List said, immediately shifting all the weight of the Paver onto Valerie.

Valerie grunted, nearly losing her footing, and only now did she stop to wonder why she and List had gotten the fat one. Arden's hunch turned out to be correct about the closet, but what turned out to be the problem was getting both of the unconscious bodies they were carrying into it and getting the door shut without horrifically mangling anyone's bones.

"Just shoves his legs up, like—no, up."

"He doesn't bend that way."

"Here, move the broom."

"Be quiet!"

"If we stack them stood up—"

"They don't stand!"

"Just lean them against—no, shit. Just use the door to push him. Just use the door!"

And that was how another Paver walked down the hall to find three people halfway through frantically trying to shove two unconscious bodies into a broom closet. All three of them froze, as did the Paver.

Arden coughed.

"Hello," List began. "I'm sure this looks quite odd, but there's a perfectly ordinary explanation for this."

The Paver gave a very slow nod, then screamed at the top of her lungs, "WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"

"Oh fuck this," List grumbled.

She gave up on the unconscious man she was carrying, let him fall face first into the ground, and instead grabbed a broom out of the closet. Her tattoos ignited in a brilliant red glow, and red lightning crackled across them and down the length of the broom.

She dashed forward, taking the Paver's legs out from under her with one swing and then bringing it down on her like an axe. It was just a broom, and yet Valerie felt the thud that reverberated through the floor from the impact.

"Stay down," List snarled, and the Paver let out a groan of compliance.

"Fascinating," Arden breathed. It was the first time he had ever seen List fight, and his mind was alight in curiosity. He immediately wanted to see more of what the hellborn could do. And as luck would have it, he was about to get several more demonstrations.

Hurried footsteps were echoing through the halls, headed towards them. Valerie searched around, picking up a shortsword off one of the men they'd knocked out. List clenched her broom tight, a grin breaking out on her face.

Then the Pavers were on them.

Xigbar set his screwdriver aside as he finished the repairs to his newly pilfered wristbow. The craftsmanship of the weapon was impressive, even in the mangled state he'd gotten it in. A couple of the springs and joints needed replacing, but all of the major components had been intact. After only an evening and a day of working on it, it was as good as new.

Experimentally, he tried the safety a few times, letting the limbs spring into place and then folding them back up. 

Perfect.

The door of the workshop burst open, and Arthur Masters, staggered into the room. A short, bedraggled mess of a man with a mop of brown hair and a face perpetually overdue for a shave, the official leader of the Shadefall Pavers had never had the most put together look. Right now, he was looking absolutely ragged, a wild look in his eyes and tiny slashes all across the sleeve of his shirt.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Arthur asked, pointing a cudgel in accusation.

"What happened to you?" Xigbar asked.

He got his answer a moment later when a broom handle jabbed Arthur in the chest, and he tumbled into the room, knocking over a workbench full of tools on the way down. The broom's wielder followed a second later, and Xigbar's brow ridges shot up.

The hellborn girl from his robbery yesterday stood in the doorway, holding a broom like a battleaxe and crackling with red lightning all across her body.

"Who said you could run?!" the hellborn shouted, before she suddenly caught sight of Xigbar. "You."

"Hellion!" Xigbar greeted. He had about a dozen questions, but none of them were quite so urgent as the murderous look in the girl's eyes. "Think fast!"

Xigbar's armband expanded, transforming from a piece of jade jewelry into living, breathing snake, which Xigbar promptly flung straight at the hellborn. She swatted the animal away with her broom, but the move bought Xigbar time to draw his longknife.

Red sparks danced in the air as Xigbar's blade met the girl's broom, and a faint tingle ran into his palm. The exchange that followed remind Xigbar a lot of the time an old woman had chased him away from her bakery, the major difference being that when the hellborn's broom brushed over his leather armor, it left dozens of thin scratches in it, as if the bristles were made of steel.

"Arty?" Xigbar called out. "A little help?"

Arthur finally dragged himself up off the floor, and threw himself at the hellborn, forgoing the weapon in his hand and opting instead for a full bodied tackle. The hellborn braced with her broom to meet the tackle, but it took pressure off of Xigbar, and he immediately began stalking around to get an angle on the hellborn's back.

Just when he thought he had one, he felt a blade against his throat.

"Remember me?" Valerie asked.

Xigbar stiffened, but only for a second. "Blondie! Nice to see you again. Did you need something?"

"You could say tha—hey!"

Xigbar threw himself back and into Valerie, sending them both to the floor in a heap that he nimbly rolled out of. She was on her feet just as quickly, and the two of them immediately crossed swords.