Cooper was falling. He felt his shoulder throb from where it was hit, felt one of his shoes and pant legs get wet as he dropped closer to the water, then something was grabbing the back of his shirt. It was an odd feeling. Clearly, something was there, and was real enough to stop him from falling into that water. But it didn't feel substantial. It was like if water could make a hand shape and grip things.

Then he was yanked forward, smacking into the ground on the other side, where his friends where.

"Are you OK?" Rasha asked.

Cooper just coughed. He pushed himself to his knees and opened his eyes, getting a view of Wesles' magical, shimmering, arm as it pulled itself back into his poncho, and disappeared.

'Ah.'

Yeah, Cooper had forgotten about that too.

"That's handy," he croaked out. Everyone stared at him with less than impressed looks. "Oh. Right. Believe it or not, I wasn't trying to make a pun." He turned to Wesles, and smiled as gratefully as he could. "Thank you."

"Anytime. But canI restit now? Allthis stretching is draining the power. I'll haveto tryand putsomemore magical energy in."

"Well, you've still got a little while before you reach the cultists," Elice said, turning towards them. She spoke so slowly. "You should be able to recover by then. And might I suggest, staying underground as you go? These old tunnels stretch beyond the current borders of Springfrield, and while I suppose someone was in them, you're less likely to run into trouble now than on the surface."

She glanced at the direction the assassins had been. They could no longer see the other side of the sewer. The rocks from the cave in effectively blocked the view. Might be for the best. Cooper didn't think the masked figure would be happy if they figured out everyone had escaped alive and, relatively, unscathed.

Rasha meanwhile, followed up on her point. "And Elice has a boat. So we don't have to walk in the sewers the whole way."

"That-that sounds good," Cooper agreed, standing up and trying to ignore how injured he was. He was getting really tired of getting banged up. He turned to Elice. "But it's your boat. Does that mean you're coming with us?"

Evin scowled. "I'd rather walk."

"Don't be stupid. I was planning to come with you either way," Elice said. "You got in trouble so quickly, and you can't deny my abilities would come in handy against the cultists." She turned to Evin. "Can you?"

Evin looked like he was contemplating a murder, but he couldn't really argue. He shifted his weight and opened his mouth, before giving up, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking away.

Elice turned to the rest of the group. "Should I take you to my boat?"

"Yes. Please," Cooper said.

Elice turned and silently led them a bit deeper down the tunnel. The boat she led them to looked an awful lot like a yellow rubber lifeboat. But it was a bit bigger, and the controls for it were a bit smoother when Elice got in and started the boat. It moved faster than if you tried to row it, but it went smoothly, not bumping through the water and spraying them with the gross stuff.

Cooper took a seat at the edge and leaned against the wall. He was sore from all the falling, and having things crash into him. And they'd been running around for a while in general. Not that he would complain, or ask Rasha to heal him. She was still learning, and he didn't want to ask too much of her. But he would enjoy the chance to catch his breath.

"How did you find us? Anyway?" Cooper asked. He started tinkering with his flight shoes while they spoke.

"Elice's Link," Rasha explained, sitting up straight. "The one she handed us."

Right. Rasha was the one who kept a hold of that.

Elice nodded. "They contacted me as soon as you went through a door they couldn't follow. Although, it was something of a lucky guess that you were down in these tunnels. If you hadn't fallen through, we would've wasted time going down here to check for you."

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"Well, uh. I'm glad you did."

It was silent again for a moment. It seemed everyone could use the time to catch their breath, and take stock. While Cooper worked on his shoes, he noticed the port on Wesles' arm as getting more light. Must be putting magic back in.

Moon and Fleck were also taking a rest. It had been hard to convince Fleck, but they're been going on foot or on the wing since they got here, unlike the riders who got to take the subway and a boat. It wouldn't do them any good to be exhausted by the time they reached Wren.

"What isit you cando anyway?" Wesles asked Elice. "You're powers seem kindof random."

Elice frowned. "I don't think it's any more random than other clerics, but yes, my specialty is a bit different than most. You've seen my best ability. I can attack people, but only with the force they were going to use on me. And like all clerics, I have to be careful not to kill anyone, in the process. I can also cast a variety of curses, as you know."

Evin glared at her. Elice's expression was less angry, but also very intense as she glared unblinking and unapologetic. Then she turned back to the controls and continued.

"But I suppose you could put my curses into two broad categories. One is, on its own, unchanging. There's nothing you can do to change it through behavior or actions. But those are the kinds of curses that can be removed by curse breakers. The clerics blessed by the God of Tyby are particularly good at that. Or, I suppose, the curse would break when I die."

She sounded surprisingly accepting of that.

"The other type is like Evin's there. Those are harder for curse breakers to deal with, and will last after my death." She gave Evin a pointed look. "Because there's already a loophole to get rid of them. In his case, it's to be less of an exploitive creep. This is also were things like using true love to break a curse comes from. There's a cure built in. Generally a bit easier to cast. Higher success rate, as the Gods aren't going to just hand out the other type."

'Huh.'

"Your own God is the one from Morgou, right?" Rasha asked. "That's really cool."

Elice nodded and smiled, just a bit.

There was a God for each planet, even ones like Tetra and Everlyn, where no people were from. The clerics only got their power from one. Humans (and colbbers) usually got their power from the God of Morivon, that being their home planet, but there were clearly exceptions.

Then, Cooper was interrupted. By the dragons.

Fleck had gone from lying down, recovering from the long walk they'd taken so far, to bolting up and moving again. Moon jumped in front of him, tried to demand what was going on.

He made a frustrated roar that got louder in his throat the longer it went on.

"Wren's in trouble! She's in trouble now!"

What? She'd been fine for hours. What changed?

"Evidently a lot. And you guys better hurry up," Moon urged, going after Fleck.

The two dragons were still closer to the cult than they were, and she didn't think Fleck could be encouraged to wait any longer.

~~~

Aside from the screen fashioned as a window, the room Wren had stumbled upon was a normal bedroom. There was a bed with a red and white patterned quilt on it pushed against a wall. A dresser with one drawer partway open, and with a lamp turned off on top of it, sat nearby. The screen pretending to be a window had a sill, and there were a few things on that.

Wren walked closer to it.

There was a plant. And it was real, Wren could tell. Maybe this weird screen window did give out UV light.

There was also a small collection of rocks, five of them. While most of them seemed ordinary, one drew her closer. It was red, shiny, and almost perfectly round. It seemed to be darker near the center than the edge, like looking at a strange eyeball. It was also exuding magic. Sort of.

The power of the universe was flowing through it, like it flowed through most things. But it wasn't all passing through. Some was getting stuck, like putting powder in a strainer. Most of it fell through, but the parts clumped together would get stuck. Not that magic clumped. . .

'I get it,' Fleck told her, urging her to move on.

Wren picked it up, rubbing her fingers along the top. It was about the size of a mandarin orange. Small, but just the right size to grip in her palm. It felt nice. Comforting, somehow. And Wren didn't put it down. Her grip was still on it as she slid to the last item on the ledge.

The last thing was a framed photo. It showed a tall lean elf woman, with rolling brown hair and eyes. She looked a touch older than most elves Wren had seen, minus the headmaster. The eyes and smile seemed tired, but sincere, as she held the other person in the picture high enough up to be in the frame. The other person, a little girl, was young. Five? Or she would if she was human.

'Or should I say fully human.'

It was hard to tell given the age, and picture quality, but there was something very familiar about this image. A round face. Straight brown hair. Pointy ears. Green eyes. Like when she'd looked in the mirror almost every morning on Iva.

'That's me, isn't it?' Harmoni thought.

The younger Wren in the picture was smiling, but was looking more at the woman than the camera, and had her mouth open like she was saying something.

Wren leaned down and reached her hand out. She wasn't sure what she was planning to do. Just pick it up to get a better look? Take it with her? To where? Take it out of the frame to see if something was on the back?

She didn't get the chance to figure it out. At that moment, the door opened, and Wren leapt back.

"And what do you think you're doing in here?" Anvon asked.