Bel frowned as she looked around the steamy, geyser-filled room. “Well, I guess that we’ll have to hope that the Dark Ravager’s people left a path leads around all of this somehow.”

The geysers popped and gushed while the three watched them warily.

“So…” Bel hesitated, “should we make a run for it?”

Flann looked like he was about to object, but Orseis scooped him into her tentacles and took off running, laughing wildly as she splashed through the super-heated water.

“Orseis, wai– dammit!” Bel rushed after her, doing her best to stay ahead of the geysers that seemed overdue.

The path was still roughly visible from the scuff marks on the ground, and it didn’t lead them straight into any of the seemingly bottomless pools. They passed by a pile of disintegrated scraps that Bel guessed were the remains of some empty sacks before turning around a large stone column that filled the middle of the chamber.

And then the path lead straight to a dead-end. It ended at another pool, this one larger and more ominous that the others but still just as impassible. They stared at it, and then they all backed away to the safety of the stone column. As they watched, a rush of bubbling water pushed up from deep underneath the surface, forming a dome on top of the water before it burst and sprayed in every direction.

This geyser spewed more than just water though – a large, short-limbed serpent had ridden it to the apex. The serpent flipped over at the top of its arc, and its two sets of eyes locked onto them. Then gravity reasserted itself, but before the serpent fell halfway it opened its mouth and spat a fireball in their direction before diving back through the hole.

Flann raised his hands and redirected the fire, splashing the bright arc against the rocky floor. The small fox grunted with effort as the flames licked around them, but none came close enough to do them harm.

“That one didn’t look like the others,” Orseis spoke, her eyes wide.

“Yeah,” Flann panted, “the firebreathing, horns, and legs were new. Not a typical fish.”

Bel tugged nervously on her snakes. Even the little magma spirit felt slightly cowed. “It wasn’t scaled like a fish either; more like a lizard. Maybe we should back up and rethink this. There could be a–”

Her train of thought was interrupted by a subtle thrumming on her ear. “Ah, it’s my brother.”

They retreated quickly for the beginning of the cavern, away from the fire spitting serpent and steaming geysers. Bel pinched her earring between two fingers to activate the call.

“Hey James,” she greeted.

“Hey Bel, you still doing okay down there?”

Even through the distorted sound of her earring, Bel thought that her brother sounded worn out.

“We’ve had some, uh, hiccups.” She glanced back into the dangerous room. “We were about to take a break. How are you doing?”

“Things are nuts up here.”

He paused, and Bel could picture him angrily rubbing at his hair.

“Don’t pull your hair out, James,” she teased him.

The quiet sound of his chuckling followed over their connection. “I know you’re doing the more dangerous things, but it’s just so frustrating up here. Everyone is so short-sighted.”

James sighed loudly. “Beth wants everyone to join her army and conquer Satrap; Hanti wants to conquer Satrap, but she wants to be the one leading the army; and Robète wants everyone to just – I don’t even know what she wants – make friends and sing songs together.”

“Sounds rough.” Bel glanced at her magma snake, who was still staring back in the direction of the flame tossing lizard. “I think that we’re making good progress down here though.”

“That’s nice. I’m glad you’ve gotten something good out of the experience. Beth wants you to come back though.”

Bel’s blood drained from her face. “What? Why? We need to find a way into Satrap, don’t we?” She couldn’t help her voice going a little shrill.

“Hanti is raising hell that you aren’t coming back. She’s saying that you’re deserting. Don’t worry too much about that, Daran says that Hanti can’t actually do anything to you, and it’s not like the rest of your group didn’t know that it was dangerous.”

“Sure, but–”

“Beth also just wants your report. If you’ve scouted more information about the second level, then she thinks that’s enough of a success for her to maintain her influence over the process.”

“So she doesn’t trust that I can make it any farther?” Bel asked. She couldn’t keep an angry note from creeping into her voice.

“That’s not what I said.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? She thinks that we made it through the Barrier, and Kjar tricked the Dark Ravager using me as bait, and that’s it for me? That there’s nothing more I can do?”

Bel gnashed her teeth and her snakes hissed into the air. “What about my mother’s expectations? She’s a goddess you know – she probably knows a bit more than Beth does. And Kjar even said that I could go under the Barrier.”

Bel glanced at Orseis. “And what about all the people in the Golden Plains who are at the end of their compatible matches? All those different people who are at the dead end of a long line of semi-humans? What happened to helping them?”

Bel could hear James making noises of frustration from his side of the call. “Look, Bel, I completely agree with you,” he pleaded, “the people should come first. We don’t need war to help the people out here, and we definitely don’t need all of this useless politicking. I don’t know what else to say though, I’m just a messenger.”

Bel could hear his voice growing faint; their ranting had taken up all of the earring’s energy. “I think you’re fading, James.”

“Dammit. Look, just stay safe down there. And come–”

The connection weakened to the point where Bel could only hear a faint buzzing. She sighed and released her earring.

Orseis and Flann shared a look.

“So,” Orseis said slowly, “we’re going back?”

Bel looked at the tentacled girl; a girl who just wanted to meet a nice guy who didn’t mind that she was bald and had tentacles for arms and ate ten meals a day. Bel fists tightened she clenched her jaw. Maybe it was her little magma spirit that was filling her with righteous indignation, but maybe it was okay to get angry.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“No. Hell no. We’re not going back.”

Flann’s ears flattened unhappily. “Bel,” he said carefully, “we both heard your side of that conversation. We’re being asked to come back, aren’t we?”

Bel’s snakes darted angrily. “That’s such a pile of lizard scat, and you know it. What happened to all that concern you had for the fate of the Golden Plains?”

Flann summoned another glowing orb and tossed it back down the path, lighting up the expanse of the wide chamber. “Look, Bel, even if we want to go farther this is a dead end.”

Bel gestured back towards the end of the cavern. “The path leads straight to that pool. It seems pretty clear to me that we’re supposed to jump in.”

Orseis waved a tentacle. “Whoah, remember that scaled serpent? I don’t want to die down here.”

She pointed her tentacles at Bel. “Not to mention that you’d cook.”

“The Dark Ravager’s people made it,” Bel challenged. “Why can’t we?”

Flann shook his head. “How strong were the ones you met on the other side?”

Bel frowned. Nebamon was pretty tough – probably a bit weaker than Beth, somewhere early in his third core maybe. Maybe Ken too. Rikja…well, she was weaker than Flann, so she was probably just in her second core. And who could tell with Crystal.

“I think that some of them were in the second core. They weren’t much stronger than I am.”

“Ah, some of them, but some were stronger, yeah? I don’t like our odds with that serpent, young’un. Avoidin’ stuff like that is how you get to be my age.”

“Yeah,” Orseis added, wringing her tentacles nervously, “and if we go back we can tell people about what we found down here. Then the next group can come better prepared.”

Bel thought for a moment.

“Sure,” she decided, “that makes sense.”

Flann and Orseis breathed sighs of relief.

“I’m still going deeper though. There’s no guarantee that anyone else will actually come down here.”

Orseis’ writhed with frustration. “But–”

“I’m not changing my mind,” Bel insisted. “Think about Cleis – he was obviously meant to sabotage the mission in the first place. Sure, maybe Hanti sent him just to embarrass Beth, but what if there’s other politics going on too?”

Bel strode to the nearest non-geysering pool. She tentatively poked a finger in and immediately pulled it out before inspecting it. Hot, but not immediately scalding. At least at the surface.

“Hey Flann, let me use your fishing net.”

The fox frowned. “The ability o’ some mollusk isn’t gonna take care of that serpent, young’un.”

“Sure,” Bel agreed, “but let me borrow it.”

Seeing that she was about to reach in with her bare hands anyway, Flann opened his pack and handed it over. The handle was broken into two parts that were held in place with a pin, and once Bel assembled it she could a stride and a half farther than with just her hands.

“Thanks!” Bel plunged her arm into the pool, waving the net around for anything on the bottom. Her feet slipped on the slick rock and she fell farther in, but she could feel a sudden weight at the end of her arm.

Orseis yelped with worry and rushed forward to tug Bel out of the pool. Her arm emerged red and irritated, but Bel grinned with triumph as she pulled a full net from the water.

She pulled a wriggling eel from the net and smacked it into the ground to subdue it. Then she reached into its core and felt around for any useful abilities.

“You want to eat this, Orseis?”

“What? Sure. No, wait, you need to stop doing this Bel, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Bel tossed the dark-skinned eel to her tentacled companion and grabbed another water dweller from the net.

Orseis handed the eel over to Flann. “Can you cook this?” she asked sheepishly.

“Girl, you have got to get your hunger under control.”

“I’m growing.” She leaned closer to Flann to whisper. “What are we going to do about Bel? Do you think it’s that new snake?”

Bel snorted. “I can hear you, you know. And what if it is the new snake? Maybe angry and stubborn is good if it means we won’t just go along with dumb decisions.”

Bel finished picking through everything in the net with a snort of dissatisfaction.

“Look, people are dying in a war in Satrap. The semi-humans are running out of time in the Golden Plains. I’m running out of time to do something about Technis before my mother blows her top and annihilates the continent. I’m not going back.”

Bel plunged her arm back into the water. It burned, but she gritted her teeth and pushed through. As she was waving her arm around, it bumped into something cool and soothing. She moved her limb and brushed against the source again, only this time it was accompanied by a stinging and burning sensation as whatever she’d touched retaliated. Bel immediately scooped it up in her net.

It was some kind of pink jellyfish. Bel ignored the throbbing in her arm – both from the heat and the jellyfish’s venom – and touched a finger to the bell of the creature. The tentacles had been even hotter than the water, but the bell was cool to the touch. It had to have some kind of temperature manipulating ability. Bel trickled her essence outward, but easily overpowered the simple creature.

There! Bel grinned with victory as she felt it; something that shifted heat from one part to another. The moment she fully understood the ability, the creature’s core finally shattered. That was fine, she would just catch another.

“Bel, I think you’re going too far,” Flann cautioned. “Let’s just report all of our discoveries at the surface. Our group was never meant to be this small, or to make it to Satrap in one try.”

Bel shook her head. “No. Hanti is going to try to blame everything on me, and Beth will be fine throwing me under the cart if it helps her hold on to power. You two go back, blame everything on me, and tell Beth and Hanti about the second layer.”

Bel was momentarily distracted by the distressed flashing of different colors across the skin of Orseis’ head and neck. The tentacled girl stared at her, her eyes wide and pleading. “Bel, I totally respect what you’re saying, but that serpent was scary. If you dive into that pool you’ll probably have to fight it.”

“I don’t think so,” Bel disagreed. “The Dark Ravager’s people went that way, and they didn’t have to fight the serpent or it wouldn’t still be there. There must be a way past it.”

Orseis opened her mouth, but closed it a moment later. Her brow pinched as she considered Bel’s words.

Flann bonked her on the head with his staff. “Don’t you go gettin’ crazy ideas too.”

Orseis scowled and pushed his staff away. “She’s got a point though, old man.”

Bel reached into the water once again, searching for another jellyfish.

Flann and Orseis fell into an argument, but she ignored their background noises. Her hand finally closed around the cooling bell of another jellyfish. She didn’t hesitate to haul it to the surface.

She took a moment to clear her mind before pushing into the creature’s core. It only took her a second to find the ability she wanted. Bel pushed her senses through the pattern inscribed into the creature’s channels while she forced the essence within her own core to flow through the same design. Once she was done, the core of the jellyfish crumbled, but Bel had succeeded at inscribing the thermal redirection ability.

It took a surprising amount of space – six strokes of her unbound core – but if it got her past the serpent it would be worth it. Now she just needed to test it.

Bel tossed off her bag and jumped into the hot pool. As she descended beneath the surface, she caught sight of Flann and Orseis frantically waving at her to stop. She waved back at them, a wild grin on her face.

Causing a bit of chaos always felt so liberating.

The heat closed around her body immediately and she felt as if she’d jumped into a pot of soup, but she quickly channeled energy through her new ability. It took her a few moments to get a grasp on it, during which her skin began to turn red like a beat. Once she figured out how the ability worked though, she shunted all of that excess heat into her magma snake.

She figured that the spirit hadn’t burned her, even though it still had the appearance of semi-liquid stone. If any part of her would be able to handle the extra heat, it would be her new spirit snake.

Her body relaxed with immediate relief as heat transferred into the snake. The water around her head boiled as all of that heat was squeezed into the tiny space of a head snake, but Bel felt fine. Her head snake was fine with it too; Bel could feel that she’d gone limp with pleasure, happily floating around in her zone of boiling water.

Well, the little magma spirit had been excited by the thought of a volcano, so a bit of extra heat was probably fine.

She kicked her legs, done with her successful experiment. Bel couldn’t keep the grin off of her face as she burst through the surface of the pool, creating her own geyser as the leaped from the water.

She flashed a thumbs up to the her relieved companions. “It’s all good!” she declared. “I’ll just send all the heat to my new snake.”

Bel bent down to retrieve her bag. She cinched all of the drawstrings of the oiled bag tightly in an effort to keep everything inside more or less dry.

“Whoah there,” Flann cautioned, “you’re not just going to rush back to that big serpent, are you?”

Bel grinned. “Of course!”

Flann paused, and Bel worried that he or Orseis might actually try to stop her.

Orseis stepped forward. “I’ll come with you. Maybe if I’m one of the first people of the Golden Plains to show up in Satrap I’ll be able to find a mate quickly. If I have to compete with everyone else I don’t know how that’ll go.”

She waved her tentacles to quiet Bel’s objection. “I know you’re gonna say that people will be fine with my tentacles, but I know that humans like hairy things. My best bet is getting there ahead of all the people with cute ears and long tails.”

“Uh…” Bel stared, momentarily speechless. “That was totally not what I was thinking. But I’d be happy if you came along.”

Bel glanced at Flann. “Although maybe you could go with Flann and make sure he gets back okay.”

She felt suddenly guilty. She hadn’t been thinking about how her choices were going to affect her companions at all.