You never meant to end up down here.

When the Bark Rebellion and the Meow Revolution tore through the surface, you ran like everyone else. Streets became battlefields. Homes became traps. Humans were hunted, captured, sorted.

You chose the sewers because you thought no one would follow.

You were wrong.

They caught you in the dark. Silent shapes. Claws. Teeth. You were dragged through tunnels you didn’t know existed, past places that smelled of rot, metal, and something alive.

The Underdeep.

You expected a cell.

Instead, you are brought somewhere… different.

The tunnels widen. The walls are reinforced. Clean. Shelves line the stone, stacked from floor to ceiling.

Objects.

Hundreds of them.

Things from the surface.

You recognize many instantly. Others make your stomach twist when you realize how they are being used.

The Ratfolk move among them carefully, whispering, cataloguing, arguing.

The Rat Empress stands at the center of the chamber, her posture relaxed, her presence absolute. Jewels glint in her hair. Her long tail coils slowly behind her as she studies you.

“You’re from the surface.”

She gestures, and a Ratfolk places an object on the table between you.

A rubber duck.

“We found this in the ruins of a nursery. It was displayed prominently.”

She watches your reaction.

“Some believe it represents authority. Others think it is ceremonial.”

She picks it up, turning it with careful precision.

“If we are to survive what comes next, we cannot afford misunderstandings. The surface world is gone. But its remnants will shape future generations.”

She sets the object down carefully.

“You will help us understand what we have collected. What these things are. What they were meant to do.”

Her eyes meet yours.

“And which mistakes must never be passed on.”