Alistair and Willow stood at the edge of the pool, surrounded by Midhir, Arwen and Lonan. They both held their weapons tightly as they prepared to cast their resonances. As the gems embedded into their weapons began to glow, a soft wind blew against his face, and the water began to swirl.
Alistair raised his spear over his head, then struck the ground with its haft. A clear sound rang as the crystal’s glow strengthened, and the water in the pool flowed aside, creating a wide tunnel that stretched into the darkness.
“Jump,” Willow stepped forward, into the pool. Strong winds swirled around her, catching her mid-air, and allowing her to slowly float down.
Arwen was the next to jump into the now empty pool, followed by Lonan. Midhir and Alistair waited for last. The winds Willow created caught them before they fell. Their slow descent into what seemed like the abyss began.
Seeing the wall of water swirling quite a distance away from them was both awe inspiring, and nerve wrecking at the same time. He couldn’t even imagine how much water there was, though somehow Alistair didn’t seem even a little tired.
Soon, the light coming from the temple began to fade. They were simply too far down, and the wall of water all around them seemed to absorb it before it reached them. The glowing flower Midhir carried lit up their surroundings still, but a mix of blue and crimson light only served to make their surroundings seem more terrifying.
It was a few dozen heartbeats before they saw the ground, and about that much more time passed before their feet finally touched the sand-covered surface.
Lonan breathed an audible sigh of relief as soon as the winds around him vanished. With visibly shaking hands, he wiped his forehead and took a few deep breaths. “I’m too old for this…” his voice was shaky and weak.
“I doubt you’re quite that old,” Willow chuckled as she let him hold onto her for a moment until he could trust his knees not to give out.
Midhir knelt and ran his fingers through the sand. It was a fine, white sand. He dug a little deeper, expecting to find the cavern floor, only to see more of that same, white sand. It almost reminded him of ash, with how fine and pale it was.
He saw movement with the corner of his eye. His head jerked to the side as he looked at the wall of water about a dozen steps away from them. Was it just the movement of water he saw, or was it something else?
With a tight jaw, he stood back up. “What now?” he glanced at Alistair.
They couldn’t see anything beyond the swirling and howling wall of water. There could have been an altar just a few steps beyond its edge, and they wouldn’t know.
“What do you think, historian?” The young Orlein heir asked, glancing at Lonan. “Where do you think the previous inhabitants of these lands built more?”
Lonan visibly flinched upon hearing his name. He nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the others. “I’m not certain-“
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“Guess, then.” Alistair curtly said. “Time is of the essence, and we haven’t made any tangible progress.”
“Right…” Lonan muttered. His gaze scoured their surroundings. He squinted, trying to see beyond the wall of raging water. After a moment, he crouched and took a handful of sand in. “Clearly this place has been submerged for quite a while,” he let the sand fall back down. “On a side note, I’m amazed by your ability to control water so well.” He pointed at the sand with a half-smile. “You even dried the sand.”
“What?”
Midhir’s chest tightened. The sand was dry. And Alistair was surprised about it. He turned his gaze to the wall of water swirling around them. The sand just next to the water was a darker colour. Hesitant, he walked to the edge of the small, round area Alistair kept free of water, and touched the ground.
Small drops of water fell on the back of his hand. His fingers touched the cold, wet sand below. He squinted, trying to see beyond the wall of water. Everything beyond the raging wall of water was distorted. He could see the sand beyond it, but it looked like it was in two different colours – darker nearby, and lighter farther away.
“Light!” Arwen’s voice rang, startling him. The young woman’s staff glowed brightly as she cast her resonance. An orb of light formed between the three prongs of her staff. As soon as it grew to the size of a child’s head, she opened her eyes. “Something is wrong in this place,” she glanced at Alistair before lightly waving her staff.
The orb of light floated off, towards the wall of water. “The Old Faith has its hold here – even one of its beings of worship was here until it perished in Midhir’s hands.” She walked behind the floating orb, and only paused when it reached the edge of the water. “Please stop your resonance, Alistair. We aren’t in need of it.”
Willow’s eyes shot wide open. “What?” She exclaimed loudly. “We’ll drown!”
Arwen shook her head. “No, I don’t think we will.” She pointed upwards. “I don’t think the water will reach us at all. Alistair, please trust me.” She looked at the young Orlein heir with a confident look in her eyes. “You’re only blocking out path now.”
“I’ll recast it if you’re wrong,” Alistair took a deep breath. “Either way, we won’t drown,” he reassured Willow. Then, the glow on the crystal embedded into the haft of his spear faded.
Water crashed down from above, and it rushed up from below. For a split second, his mind refused to believe his eyes as the water flowed upwards, finally returning to its calm quite far above them.
It felt like they were looking at the surface of a lake, but the lake was upside down. Even looking at it made him dizzy as it defied all logic, and all laws of nature. Even a tear in the veil wouldn’t change how gravity itself worked.
“Divine beings protect us…” Lonan’s whisper broke the charged silence. He clenched something under his coat – a pendant, or something similar hanging from a golden chain around his neck. “How did you know?” His dumbfounded gaze turned to Arwen.
“The sand was never wet.” She replied coldly, her gaze fixed far away. “We are not alone.”
Beyond the seemingly endless white sands illuminated only by her light and the blooming flower, two glowing blue dots rose from the sand.
Her eyes shot wide open. In a hurry, she pushed herself off her rocking chair, startling the snake sleeping curled up by the window, and the cat napping by the sun shining through it. She stumbled over the stacks of books in the back of the room, ran out into the hallway, and hurried through another door to reach a basin filled with what looked like water.
“By blood and ancestry, memories shared, and bonds forged, show me my daughter. I command thee as the Crimson Witch of the Sands, do my bidding!” her voice rang clear, her command echoed through reality, through a veil unseen and reached through space and time.
She saw a pair of blue eyes, fixed on a blue-crimson glow that wasn’t of this world.
“Why are you awake?” She whispered, brushing her crimson locks of hair aside. “That won’t do, it’s not time yet. I yet live.”