Underwater, there was no way to tell the time. Little light filtered down, so it probably wasn’t day yet. While I finally had a mechanical watch, tucked away in my storage ring, I didn’t want to risk it.
But although I couldn’t be sure, we couldn’t have spent more than half an hour swimming through the ruined city. It wasn’t that big, especially since this was just the part out in the open, but I wanted to be careful. Spirit beasts lurked here, and other dangers.
Something I should have realized was that unlike electricity, technology running on qi wasn’t affected underwater and didn’t need the same infrastructure. Storage formations would probably be emptied by now, but qi infused into materials or even robust enchantments could still work. That’s why I could still sense qi in this city if I focused on it.
A few times, we looked into buildings. Even those that were still more or less standing were anything but intact. Most of the furnishings inside were gone. The most we found were a bit of ceramic or stone hearths. Unless they’d been preserved very well, any writings would long be gone. But it certainly felt like the city had been abandoned, people taking all of their valuables with them.
That only changed once we started nearing the cliffside. From here, I could tell that some of the caves weren’t really accessible from the ground. It was possible there had been ladders or rope lifts here, but maybe they were only intended for cultivators that could fly. Most were at least roughly on the level of the ground, though. Especially those towards the middle, where structures of stone rose from the ground and cliffs, as if they were hewn directly from the stone. Or formed by earth cultivators. A bit of qi lingered here, in the structures themselves or objects within.
The first trap was easy to miss. I’d already started another swimming movement when I noticed it. I flapped my arms, trying to push backwards. I probably looked ridiculous. But I managed to stop myself from touching the thin net of qi woven across our path, if only by millimeters. I grabbed Al and moved us backwards a meter, to prevent him from accidentally getting caught.
He hit my shoulder, glaring at me. I shrugged and gestured ahead of us, then shook my head. Then I turned back towards the net, taking a closer look.
It was clearly very old and in a bit of disrepair. I could sense where a few strands had unraveled further down, where it was tied across the structures. I couldn’t sense anything connected to it. Perhaps it was just an alarm, or whatever it was supposed to trigger had declined. But I’d rather not take any chances. Slowly and carefully, I let a few wisps of darkness affinity qi out of my meridians and guided them to lie across the net. It vibrated just slightly, but my effort seemed to do its job of smothering it. I slowly gave it a bit more power, forming a proper technique from the basic elements, and watched as they ate into the net. After a few minutes, a hole big enough to swim through had been created, and I carefully withdrew all of my qi.
That seemed to have been the only safety measure, though, or at least the only still functional one. I swam a little higher, channeling qi into my eyes to look for any other dangers. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful. There weren’t even any strong spirit beasts here. Although I couldn’t look into the caves very well.
Al seemed to grow tired of waiting and started swimming again. I quickly got ahead of him, giving him a shove to express what I thought of that action, but continued the way he was going. We didn’t need to talk to decide on our target. A cave entrance in the middle of the range with the most fortifications, stone guards posts built beside it. The heavy wooden door that had once closed it was still mostly there, although someone must have attacked it, leaving it cracked in the middle with a gaping opening into the cave beyond.
I checked it carefully before swimming through. On the other side, the tunnel we emerged in was narrow and low enough that I would have had to walk if this wasn’t underwater. I considered using a light, but didn’t want to attract attention. Al’s cultivation of darkness affinity qi would have to be enough to help him see.
From the entrance, we continued into a cave system that must have been partly natural but expanded by cultivators. A few times, other tunnels joined this one. I stretched my senses as far as I could go to check them, but had us continue on our way. I was pretty sure we were on the right path.
A few times, we passed what I pegged as guard posts. A few other doors held up our progress, all either demolished by some previous explorer or worn away enough by time and decay that I didn’t have a hard time clearing them. As we continued, I realized this had to be the castle of Old Riacis. The last line of defense, a fortification at the heart of this city. It was a pretty good position, building into the rocks like this. I wouldn’t want to assault this with an army. Especially if you wanted to capture its interior intact. And there were the paths to the surface as backups, perhaps hidden exits. But this meant that this was likely the home of the ruler. Perhaps even the Sea Queen. We were on the right track.
Finally, after what felt like kilometers of narrow tunnels but probably wasn’t, we emerged into a larger cave. Although hall might be a better term, since it had clearly been worked to seem more like a typical room. There were even windows carved into the walls, probably with enchantments formerly inside them to show light or even illusions of outside scenes.
We looked around carefully, but besides a few half-rotted chairs, there wasn’t much to see. Two doors led farther into the castle. But I decided to take a break here. Al had been flagging, and our breathing techniques didn’t make things easier. I’d been getting used to it, but the last few minutes it had started to become annoying again. I took out a sealed bottle of water and passed it to Al. He didn’t even hesitate before snatching it and trying to find a way to open it enough for drinking without letting the contents mingle with the sea water. I debated putting up another air bubble, but he seemed to have found a way, using qi to move the lid before drinking.
After a short break, we continued on. I was getting sick of these underwater caverns, and Al must be, too. I was also still worried about Tenira and the others, but pushed that aside to focus on our situation.
After this entrance hall, the next parts of the structure seemed more like a typical building. Instead of cavernous tunnels, it looked like the inside of a castle. But unlike the city outside, there were definitely signs of a fight here. I paused at a scratch gouged into the walls, feeling with my finger. Definitely at least ten centimeters, and from the width, maybe a blade. No wonder we didn’t find much of anything intact in the following rooms.
The structure was large, but almost completely empty. I strained my qi senses to try and get some idea of the layout. It was a good thing I had an eidetic memory. Al too, since he’d finally officially shown it a short while after his soul journey. With that, I managed to get something of a mental map of the structure. But we didn’t check every room, and instead kept heading deeper into it. That was where anything of value would be, and hopefully a way to get to the path into the upper caves and to the land on the surface.
Finally, we reached another reinforced door. This one wasn’t damaged much, but gaped open, its hinges looking a bit melted. I carefully pushed it farther open and stepped inside the room. We emerged into another hall, this one about the same size but a little grander than the other one. Reliefs were carved into the stone of the walls, a little withered but still decipherable. There was a raised dais at the other side of the hall, and I could even see a small depression where a throne might have stood.
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The room seemed empty, so we swam forward, glad for the higher ceiling. I had just started looking at one of the scenes depicted on the walls, trying to make sense of the groups of ships in it, when I realized it wasn’t as abandoned as it seemed. I felt a presence approaching so quickly that I barely had enough time to turn around and pull Al back before it thundered into the room.
It took a moment for me to make sense of what happened, since the spirit beast was densely shrouded in water and darkness qi. It looked like a huge turtle. Or tortoise, I wasn’t clear on the difference. But it had a large shell that looked like pure rock, hard to distinguish from the surrounding caverns. It might have been stealthy had it not been charging towards us with glowing white eyes.
I pushed Al away and drew my dagger, facing down the spirit beast while my guts clenched nervously. I didn’t have much experience fighting underwater, and this one looked strong, probably the equivalent of the sixth stage at least. This wasn’t looking good. I tried to gather my qi.
A beam of boiling hot water carved towards me, and I just managed to duck. I could hear it digging into the rocky wall behind me. But I didn’t let it faze me, and instead focused on finishing my technique, drawing light qi from my core around me. This looked like a tank, so Light’s Speed might let me kite it.
Just then, the spirit beast twisted, faster than anything as large as a draft horse should be able to. Rocky spikes growing out of its carapace missed my face by centimeters.
I dodged backwards, cursing internally. This one was fast, maybe faster than me even with the buff. I quickly gathered some darkness qi and threw it at the charging beast while I kicked off from the wall to launch me to the other side of the room. The technique splattered against its carapace, not producing more than a light sizzle. I’d need to get the eyes to have any hope of doing damage, but that was easier said than done.
It chased me around the room for a bit more. I fired off another few techniques. Only one of them managed to catch it in the face. It flinched back and shook its head, but I couldn’t see any serious damage. That had probably only pissed it off.
Suddenly, I sensed Al coming up behind the spirit beast, slashing at one of its hind limbs with a sword he must have taken from a storage item. But the spirit beast sensed it, too, whirling around before I could do anything. Al dodged its kick, but then it headbutted him away. My heart clenched as I saw him pushed through the water until he thudded against the opposite wall. Without water to cushion some of the momentum, that could have killed him.
I ducked and tried to get back to him, swimming in an arc. The turtle stopped, though, turning so it could see both of us. For the first time, I was sure that this was an intelligent spirit beast. I slowed and raised my hands, trying to show that I didn’t want violence and was only trying to care for my little brother.
Its eyes narrowed. ‘You feel faintly familiar. Why is that, intruder?’ The voice in my head sounded old, deep and a bit scratchy but still sharp.
I swallowed. ‘I don’t know, honored old one. My little brother and I are simply trying to explore this place and find a way back up without running into malevolent spirits after us. I apologize for disturbing you.’
While I spoke, I inched backwards, getting closer to Al. I snuck a glance at him and was relieved to see him turn back around, groaning and holding his side but clearly awake and conscious. He blinked a bit, then bowed toward the spirit beast as well. ‘Me too. Forgive the intrusion, honored elder. We didn’t know anyone still lived in the ruins of our ancestors.’
‘Your ancestors, hm?’ The spirit beast slowly swam closer, scrutinizing us. ‘That might be so. You both have the same cultivation talent my lady once did.’
I breathed a covert sigh of relief and took a pill from my storage ring to give Al. If this spirit beast was old enough to remember when this place was occupied, and favorably disposed towards our ancestors, we might even get their help. Al took the pill and swallowed it quickly, and I sensed the qi working to repair the damage he’d received.
‘Are you the guardian of this place?’ I asked hesitantly.
The turtle snorted. ‘Only insofar as I have taken it upon myself to keep trespassers out. I was a little one when this place still had a queen, but I would rather not see its legacy tarnished. This is my home now. This fortress was razed in the struggle after Inera’s death, and then the people abandoned the whole city as it sank beneath the waves.’
I nodded. ‘If you like, I can make sure people are discouraged from visiting this place.’
The spirit beast’s eyes narrowed. ‘Can you? Very well.’ Their face swung toward the door on the opposite side of the hall. ‘Take a look at this.’
I swam closer, channeling some qi to my eyes to make sure I didn’t miss anything. There were runes inscribed in the door, creating a formation array. They weren’t ones I was familiar with, though I could guess this was some sort of ward. There were inscriptions on and to both sides of the door. I only recognized a few words from the texts I’d looked at before going to sleep what felt like days ago.
The one that stood out the most was Inera. I shook my head at the sight. It was pretty clear to me now that I’d been named after her. It was basically just a different form of the same two words. Before, I’d assumed I was named after my grandmother Iniris. Well, maybe both.
‘This was our ancestor’s seat of power, wasn’t it?’ I asked softly.
The spirit beast swam beside me. ‘So, you are one of Inera’s brood’s descendants. I thought I recognized those gray eyes.’ They snorted. ‘Useless cowards, the lot of them. Fighting over their mother’s seat while their vassals sharpened their knifes against them. Which one’s are you?’
I frowned, and noticed that Al got a little closer to us. ‘My mother is head of our clan now. Her grandfather was Rikilo, one of the Sea Queen’s grandsons, I think, who led the clan while they were establishing themselves in the Empire.’
The spirit beast shook their head. ‘I remember that one as a little child. His father was the worst of the lot. So they made nice with the Empire, did they? Sounds like you’re heirs to not much more than spineless pride.’
‘We’re also heirs to the Empire,’ Al shot back, glaring at the big turtle.
The spirit beast withdrew their head a bit, blinking at him.
‘Our ancestors learned from their mistakes,’ I put in, laying a hand on Al’s shoulder to calm him. ‘They didn’t return to fighting each other. Our clan grew strong, and our grandmother claimed the throne. Our mother is Empress now, and we’re her two oldest children.’ I raised an eyebrow. ‘We weren’t defeated by the Empire, we’ve taken the Empire. And now, I’d like to take a look at what our ancestor accomplished.’
For a moment, the turtle just looked at me. Then they sent bubbles upward in an obvious laugh. I suspected they were originally more of a land animal. ‘Fine, then, little princess. I suppose this is your legacy. I will help you get through the door. Put some qi in after I do.’
Frowning, I watched as the spirit beast touched their snout to the formation at the door, letting some of their qi flow into it. I couldn’t quite make sense of the way it flowed through the formation, but the door shifted just slightly. Hesitantly, I laid my hand on the door as well, and pushed some light and darkness qi into the door. This time, I could almost sense the formation hesitating. But after a moment, some of the runes lit up, and the remnants of qi in the material holding the door activated.
Of course, the mechanism was old, and the door not maintained. It scraped against the ground, and I had to heave against it to help get it open. It stopped after a bit, not opened completely but at least far enough a person could get through. Probably for the best.
I turned back around to see the spirit beast had retreated further and settled down on the floor in the middle of the room. They settled their shell over their legs, but led the head poke out. ‘Good luck, young ones.’
I nodded at the spirit beast, then stepped through the door, Al behind me. As soon as I did, I noticed one clear fact: There was a pocket of air on the top of the short hallway we entered. Looking more closely, I could see a formation flickering on the upper parts of the wall. A similar one, just stronger, was placed further down at the next door. Perhaps the next section would actually be dry?
I pulled out my knife and carefully walked forward. Time for some more exploration.