Inspecting the wall just below the window, the ever-wary gnome notes with some dismay the numorous cracks that could serve as handholds. A sprawl of the dry, black ivy he had seen elsewhere could also provide handholds for determined infiltrators.
The good news was that, with the shutters shut and secured, it would be hard for anyone outside to exert enough leverage to break through and enter the room.
=======================================
The Hive Ward was the blackest part of Sigil figuratively and literally; even though both Anthony and Lilly could see perfectly in pitch darkness -- a legacy of their very different ancestors -- the steadily-thickening nighttime mists served to obscure the way ahead. Still, the aasimar tout knew his path by heart. A body didn't need sight to tell him when he had entered the Hive Ward; it was the stench of death and still water coming from the Boneyard Pond; the sucking, muddy, unpaved ground pulling against your boots; the unintelligible ranting of bubbers lying in the streets and the short, wet screams of the poor sods who met their ends in dead-end alleys.
Anthony knew better than to linger in any one spot for long, and Lilly -- who had apparently taken his admonishment to "stay close" to heart -- was practically treading on his heels, nervously peering this way and that. Odds were, the Sensate was seriously re-considering her decision to accompany him in the first place.
A scattering of impromptu bonfires marked the boundary to the Marble District, home to the ward's high-ups -- which, here in the Hive, meant that the cases were (relatively) large and (generally) free of leaky roofs and cranium rat infestations.
The house of Dinah Harin was a squat, razorvine-covered building that served both as a residence and a place of business for herself and her small network of touts and runners. As the two plane-touched entered, Kalel, the grizzled old bariaur who set himself up as something like Dinah's bodyguard, greeted them inside.
"Dinah's in the her quarters," the bariaur grunted, straight-to-business as usual. He then gave a slight grin. "You taking care of yourself, Anthony?"
[/sblock]
