I blinked away the mess of sensations and tried to focus on the world around me. “Okeria, do you have anything watching the main gates?”

“‘Course I do. And I’ve got ‘em set ta automatically pick up anythin’ that relates ta Scalovera or any of our other enemies.” He responded immediately. “Why? Ya feel anythin’ specific inside of this mess?”

“I don’t know what I felt.” I sighed and pushed my way through the miasma of strangeness. “I saw Keratily walking into the city without her armor on, and Scalovera welcoming her like an old friend. You’d know if that was happening right now, right?”

Silence. “Okeria?”

Much to my surprise, Jun was the one to answer me. “He’s checking all of his surveillance stuff right now. At least that’s what he’s telling me he’s doing, since I can’t see his interface. Can you get back into the vision, Seb? See if Keratily’s hurt at all from fighting Inopsy?”

“Good idea.” I said with a nod. The sensations flowed back over me when I stopped fighting them, and this time, it resumed from exactly where I’d left off.

Keratily smiled kindly and nodded at Scalovera, but didn’t move at all to return his offer of welcome. Her lips opened, but no sound came out at all. She spoke for a handful of seconds, and with every word, Scalovera’s expression grew strained. His smile was tense, and his eyes held something close to fear but even closer to annoyance. When Keratily finished speaking, he opened his mouth in turn and spoke tense words that barely moved his lips.

She raised both eyebrows, yet her expression stayed perfectly the same. As if he were delivering her news she already knew. He grew more and more frustrated as he spoke, his gestures widening and becoming increasingly manic in an attempt to sway or convince Keratily of something I didn’t know. If it was recent, it was probably to turn against Okeria. And if it was a long time ago… I honestly didn’t have a clue.

The sensations faded away as Keratily walked right past Scalovera and gently patted him twice on the shoulder. All the colour faded from his face at that simple motion, and four small crystals blossomed on his shoulders, forming an invisible rectangle that cut through him like a knife. Keratily didn’t look back as Scalovera fell to his knees, struggling to breathe, and summoned his armor out of desperation. When he managed to catch his breath, he turned and screamed out in the direction Keratily had been walking. At least that’s what I imagined him doing since his armor shook like a newborn deer in a cold wind.

She was already gone.

It didn’t look like they’d left on good terms. But it also didn’t look like Keratily had been hurt in the slightest, which could’ve been thanks to her armor, though I’d expected Inopsy to do enough damage that we wouldn’t have had to worry about her for… well, for longer than this.

“I can’t tell when this was, sorry.” I relayed, then tried to replay what I’d just seen. The sensations drained away and left me with nothing but a small feeling of emptiness. “But either way, it doesn’t look like Keratily and Scalovera are on good terms.”

“Ya didn’t have ta tell me that. But Keratily simply bein’ in the city is more than enough ta mess up what we’re tryin’ ta do.” Okeria grumbled as I resumed walking. “From what she told us herself, she’d burn Rainbow Basin ta the ground if she thought it’d get her Juniper. And I’ve got a bad feelin’ she’s not too pleased with me after I threw Inopsy at her. She’s a neutral party at best, and an opportunistic antagonist with far too much power at worst.”

Jun snorted out a humorless laugh. “She’d side with Scalovera if he gives her what he wants. And I don’t think he’d have any problems promising one of his enemies to her loving rootia.”

“Exactly what I just said, albeit phrased differently.” Okeria agreed. “Alright, I just scanned through all the surveillance for all the gates I’ve got. Nothin’ is outta the ordinary for the past few days, and I’d been watchin’ a lot closer for the weeks before that. What puts the fear of the gods in me though is the question of if this happened while I was out at Walkalong on Persephonia’s behalf, or if it was months before.”

“Why does that matter?” I asked.

“‘Cause it means Keratily could’ve had a hand in puttin’ Scalovera up in a seat that was rightfully mine. Thevin’ and life-ruinin’ old thing she is, I wouldn’t put it past her.” Okeria spat. I heard him stomp around for a few seconds while he muttered to himself, then he sighed and slammed something against his armor. “She must’ve had some sorta agreement with Scalovera ta get all her descendants ta go through her instead of to the other Keratilys. But that still don’t fit with why she’d betray what we had goin’ on just for Scalovera’s sake.”

“Maybe she didn’t actually do anything.” Jun suggested.

I heard the whiplash in Okeria’s voice when he next spoke. “What’re you insinuatin’, Juniper?”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“She never saw it as playing both sides. She got whatever she wanted, however she could get it, and that’s it. No matter who got rich or got hurt in the process.” Jun said bitterly. “Obviously she thought having you on her side was for the better, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t taking advantage of Scalovera too.”

Okeria was quiet for a good long moment. Perfectly quiet. My own echoing footsteps were the only sounds that reached my ears, and even the colourful sensations seemed to dull in the face of Okeria’s introspection.

“...You’re probably right. I’m still treatin’ her like she’s got some sorta goal beyond what she’s shown us. But that ain’t right, is it?” Okeria chuckled somberly. “She’s only in it ta get what she wants, and she’ll drown the whole world if it means she can take just a few breaths more. From now on, we go forward with the assumption Keratily’s somehow made it into Rainbow Basin without my knowledge, and we assume that she’s made a deal with Scalovera ta get the only thing she’s lookin’ for; Juniper and continued access ta her family. Even if Moricla’s prunin’ the family tree back on Sotrien.”

“That’s one way to put it.” Jun said. “Seb, you’re getting closer. Do you want us to meet you halfway?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ll be there in a minute. Should we look out for anything else, Okeria?”

“Drown me if I know. We gotta worry about Keratily, Scalovera, and Endra all at one time; that’s a little worse than anythin’ else I’ve had ta deal with. Especially if Endra decides she wants ta launch a full-scale invasion of this place.” Okeria said as if he were addressing us over a war table. “Sebastian, ya got some of that water in ya. How’d ya manage it? Is it somethin’ ya could easily reproduce for us?”

“It fell out of nowhere into my hands. So… no, sorry. I don’t have a clue.” I said as I brushed aside a piece of cloth that had fallen to cover my path. There was a fairly large chunk of it ripped out, as if someone had barreled through it at high speeds. Probably me. “I’ll second the garden idea, though. Unless there’s a huge kitchen somewhere on this floor that’s connected to the reservoirs.”

“Kitchen, good call. Were currently somewhere that looks like a… how would ya describe this place, Juniper?”

Jun blew out a noncommittal breath. “It’s like… some kind of really boring spa? There’s fountains all over the place, and a lot of indents that are probably meant for hot baths, but all the furniture looks cheap or easily movable. Kind of like the same stuff we saw in that hazard, Seb.”

“That’s exactly what I thought, too. But a spa?” I asked as I rounded a corner that opened up to a massive room. One that looked like half of a children’s spray park, and half stereotypical roman bathhouse. All of the reservoirs were positioned above fountains and pits, which were glassed over by a thin sheen of something that I hadn’t seen in the dark. “Huh. I’d call this more of a bathhouse than a spa, but either works. Is that you way down the other end?”

“I think so. HEY!” Jun yelled and waved vigorously. Her voice played double in my ears, confirming what would’ve been very terrifying if it turned out to be wrong. “I saw you wince. Any idea how we’d get this place up and running again?”

Okeria turned and nodded at me as I ran over, then gestured at one empty pool that was far, far bigger than the others. Yet it was still shallow enough that I’d have to sit down on the edge to get the non-existent water over my shoulders.

“I feel like I’ve seen somethin’ like this before, and it was definitely in somethin’ Persephonia had on her person at one point or another. If I was more of a history buff, maybe I could tell ya what purpose this place served, but I’d say it’s pretty safe ta assume this was a religious thing one way or another.” He said with a flick of his wrist that caused the air to crack with a tiny peel of thunder. “Not one of Thraiv’s temples, though; I’m familiar with all the architecture that’s been used ta worship her over the millennia. Skies above, it could just be some kinda god-agnostic grounds of prayer that Acasiana’s people went to ta relax.”

It was the central rest area, so that made sense. I nodded and leaned down to see if there were any identifying markings in the pool, but it was perfectly smooth. Which was probably dangerous as hell when there was water in there. The thought of slipping and cracking my head on the side of that thing was more than enough to make me shiver, but that brought one more thing to question.

Why had Okeria suggested we look at the gardens when this place was so obviously meant to use a fuck-ton of water? A… fuck-ton of water. In a place that was once built right underneath an aquifer. In a basin that had been drained by the Staura so they could live there.

“Okeria, why did you think we should go look for the gardens?” I asked as I stepped out onto the glass. It easily held my weight, and I glanced up at the reservoir above me right after. It was so full of water, and even if it was moving dangerously fast, there was no way it wasn’t supposed to fill the pool under the glass.

“I… don’t know. Somethin’ about this place didn’t seem like it was meant ta have water. Which now that I’ve had more than a few minutes ta think, that don’t make much sense at all.” Okeria joined me on the glass, then gestured for Jun to join us. “Juniper, did ya feel somethin’ blockin’ your perception of this place? Like… ya couldn’t understand its real purpose until it was pointed out ta ya?”

Jun shook her head. “Honestly, I thought you were being sarcastic. But if you weren’t, then that would have to be our clearance, right?”

“We simply did not care.” Mortician chimed in. “And now that we have added to the conversation, we will go back to being silent.”

“Ya do ya.” Okeria chuckled. “Alright, so clearance don’t just mean ya get ta say who comes and goes. There’s a real good chance I won’t be able ta understand what this place really is unless one of you three spell it out for me, so I’m not goin’ off on my own while we’re here. Oh, and I’ve got stuff on me ta repair broken glass.”

I knit my eyebrows together and stared blankly at Okeria’s visor. Why would he say–

A blade of something so hot that it sliced clean through the glass below us blinked into being, then disappeared as the floor fell out from beneath me. And a miasmic rainbow of precious water spilled out in a torrent from above.