Inspect toilet

You inspect the porcelain toilet closer, peering over the rim of the bowl. It is a beautiful construct, a kind of shining navel with a removable seat. The craftsmanship of inherited objects like these is well beyond that of any mason you have ever met. Every single dwelling in your building has one of these somewhere, and it is theorized that they all connect at a central point somewhere beneath the city. Pipes like intestines jut from behind the bowl and burrow into the floor. If the rumors are true, a mouse could probably use these things to travel between any given toilet in the entire world.

 

Sometimes you dream that you are a mouse or fairy. In these dreams, you squeeze into the pipes and whisk yourself away to distant lands, spying on kings and pilfering coins from merchant lords. Sometimes these wonderful adventures turn into nightmares. As you travel deeper and deeper into the network of pipe roads, the heat rises. The metal walls close in and become scorching to the touch. You find yourself in the vast belly of a beast that never sleeps. You get lost and slowly die as the concrete monster digests your soul.

 

You push that thought out of your head and remind yourself of your quest.