In the kitchen of the Flopping Fish, dark waters broiled gently below the open hatch in the floor. The crew was spread around the kitchen, some observing as Kieren drew the ritual diagram on the floor surrounding the hatch while others leaned casually against counters and walls.
"Are we sure the titan's not in there?" Cameron asked.
"As sure as we can be," Victoria said, "Kieren's already checked with a smaller ritual and didn't find him, but there's no guarantees."
"If he is, that's where the contingency plans come in," Autumn said.
In a distant corner of the kitchen, Iris was reassuring Milo, "listen, I might have to blip around a lot in there, so stay close to Autumn and Titus, they'll keep you safe. No one's expecting you to fight, just stay out of the way until we need you and everything will be okay."
"I don't know about this," he admitted, "I don't think I should be here."
"You can leave if you want, or just stay out here with Kieren, but I promise this is an adventure you'll be glad you had."
"What if I'm not built for adventure like you?" he asked.
Iris laughed, "I'm not built for adventure either, do you have any idea how many times I've almost died?"
His eyes went wide.
"Nevermind," she said hurriedly, "don't think about that." She took his hands in hers and looked him in the eyes, "I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."
He nodded, but said nothing.
"Iris," Autumn called out, "are we a go on contingency plan F?"
"Yep!" Iris called back, patting the bottomless bag on her waist, "it's all here."
"We're almost ready," Kieren announced.
The crew gathered around the hatch as Autumn spoke, "alright, everyone grab a potion. Remember, we'll be underwater the whole time, so only Victoria and Jacquie will be able to talk while we're in there. While we're inside Victoria will be in charge, but she won't always be with us so it's up to us to remember our roles and placements. Does everyone remember the hand signs?"
Everyone nodded or murmured yes.
"Kieren will keep the portal open as long as we need, but remember these potions only last an hour. Victoria will be keeping time and will alert us when we need to go."
Pocket watches weren't cheap or easy to come by, so Iris had offered up the broken pocket watch from one of her first quests for the mission. It was useless in that state, but after working late the prior evening Milo had managed to repair it -- though not without quite a lot of complaints about how he doesn't usually work with such small machinery. When Autumn said her name, Victoria pulled out the pocket watch to ensure it was still functioning, and nodded affirmatively.
"Any questions?" Autumn asked. When no one replied, she looked towards Iris, "drop me some rocks."
Iris turned her bottomless bag upside down and shook it, dropping several large stones onto the floor. Autumn picked them up one by one and placed them against various parts of her body, morphing them into pieces of stone armor and a long stone spear with a barbed tip. Next, she grabbed her potion from the crate and held it up to the others. The assemblage of adventurers shared awkward glances, then hesitantly held up their potions to join her silent cheers.
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"Ready," Kieren said as the ritual diagram began to glow.
Autumn downed her potion, and the others followed suit. It was salty and gritty, like salt water mixed with sand, and they each responded with grimaces. A few seconds after drinking her potion, Iris felt a stinging sensation on either side of her neck. She reached up to feel the skin and found what felt like open wounds, but before she could panic she saw the same wounds opening on the necks of her companions and recognized them as gills. Meanwhile, Victoria shifted into her spectral form, and Jacquie grabbed hold of his necklace and activated it, causing a bubble to expand from the medallion and float up to envelope his head with a soft “pop.”
"Here we go," Autumn said, taking the first leap into the open hatch and disappearing into the dark water.
Titus followed her without hesitation. Cameron and Eli held back, eyeing Jacquie intently. Sensing their distrust, he held a hand to his chest in mock offense, then leapt into the portal. Iris took the hat from her head and stuffed it in her bag with one hand, holding Milo's hand with the other right up until her turn to enter. She squeezed tightly before letting go, and then jumped into the water.
It felt like jumping feet first into a lake. The water enveloped her body and worked its way into her ears as she instinctively squeezed her eyes shut. The weight of the water was firm and heavy, but not crushing. To the senses of her Awareness of Matter ability, however, it was overwhelming. There was no semblance of emptiness anywhere within reach, every inch of space was cramped with the pressure of thick matter squeezing away the void far beyond her senses and her mind screamed that this was unacceptable. She squeezed her eyes tighter and clenched her fists as she tried to ignore her magical sense and force away the dreadful sensation that came with it.
Hands clasped her shoulders, and she heard garbled, unintelligible words. She opened her eyes to see bubbles floating up from Milo's mouth, his eyes wide with concern. She released a sigh to calm her nerves, and watched her own bubbles float up between their faces. A smile crossed her face and she was about to laugh when Milo clamped a hand over her mouth and shook his head quickly. Right, she thought to herself, gills or not it was probably not a good idea to fill her lungs with water.
The hatch had deposited them in a small wooden shack with a single door. She could see Jacquie just outside the doorway, and Cameron soon dropped into the shack from the portal in its ceiling. Iris and Milo swam their way outside to make room for the others, where they marveled at their surroundings.
They were in what appeared to be an undersea garden amidst a vast expanse of impossibly clear water. Rows of coral took the place of bushes, swaying towers of seaweed replaced the trees, and all manners of barnacles and sponges clung to rocks that lined the winding paths of the garden. In the first few moments alone, Iris spotted a dozen types of fish and crustaceans navigating the garden, including a striped black and white fish with fins that resembled flowing hair and what looked like a tiny shark with the front half of its body replaced with the head and claws of a lobster. She smiled at the thought of calling it a sharbster.
Beyond the edge of the garden was a soaring castle that would look straight out of the picture books her mother read to her as a child, were it not dilapidated and crumbling and underwater. It had four towers which framed a massive block of a central structure, which itself had several shorter and smaller towers jutting out of it in seemingly random places. Beyond the castle was the would-be sky, the distant surface of the water illuminated by a bright light that she could only imagine must be a sun.
Her captivation was interrupted by a glimpse of Autumn in her periphery, waving her hands wildly to get everyone's attention. She and Titus were weighed down by their armor and able to walk on the seafloor, while the others in the crew could swim freely. Cameron and Eli soon emerged from the shack and swam towards Autumn and Titus, followed by Victoria moving quickly through the water in her spectral form. Iris nodded at Milo to go ahead while she hung back for a moment longer to take in the amazing view.
After Titus joined Autumn in frantic waving, and Iris accepted that no amount of gazing up at the undersea castle would ever be enough, she blipped towards them. There was a loud boom, and when she reappeared the water pressed against her like crashing stones falling on every inch of her body, her muscles and bones alike ached and her head felt like it might collapse in on itself. After an instant the sensation passed, and she opened her eyes to see the shocked and bewildered faces of her companions. She twisted in the water to look behind her, and saw nothing. She looked back to the others with a confused expression.
"Iris," Victoria said in her ghostly voice, "you just exploded."
"What?" Iris garbled, the last of the air in her lungs bubbling out of her mouth.