Emily’s friends seem to calm down at Tom’s words, an air of resolve settling over them as Emily continues to reassure them.
“It’s not like I’m planning on being stuck down there forever,” she says, steadying Juliana’s still-shaking hand with a light squeeze. “Worst case scenario, I can lead us back to this tunnel, and I think I may have a solution with spatial magic. It will just take a while.”
Inventing new teleportation arrays isn’t exactly easy.
Dante and Ivor grin as if they were expecting this, while Enzo, Tom, and Hester all give small sighs of exasperation.
“Why didn’t you start with that?” Hester mumbles. “We wouldn’t have had any doubts if you hadn’t said we couldn’t come up through this tunnel.”
“No,” Emily says with a small smirk. “I said it wouldn’t be easy. I think I’ll be able to force my way back up through the current in the tunnel. So, if I invent a new short-range teleportation array and carve half of it down there, then half up here, I could bring you all up. It would just take me a while to create a full teleportation array - I’ve never done any work with large-scale spatial manipulation before - which is why I think it will probably be faster to look for another way out instead.”
And I want to ease Jules into the idea of what I’m about to ask her to do. I don’t want to traumatise her too much…
The memory of Juliana’s mutilated corpse flickers across Emily’s mind as she glances guiltily at her girlfriend, the weight of her broken promise twisting her thoughts.
But maybe scaring her a little wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Maybe she will adapt and consider travelling with me if she gets used to confronting her fear…
“I’m honestly surprised you’re not confident you could create a new spatial array within minutes,” Tom says with a grin, pulling Emily’s attention back to their conversation as he sits down to take his shoes off.
“Large-scale arrays are complicated,” Enzo responds while copying him. “It’s reasonable for her to take an hour or so.”
Emily ignores their jabs, giving a small, reassuring nod to Ivor, the last person not getting ready to swim, glancing between her and Juliana with a concerned look. As he turns away, Emily gently pulls on Juliana’s hand, guiding her away from the group. They walk down the riverbank a little before an invisible bubble wraps around them, blocking their voices from reaching everyone else.
Emily stands before Juliana, taking both her hands and looking into her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Emily asks gently.
“No,” Juliana says, tears in her eyes that pull on Emily’s heartstrings, the twistings of guilt in her chest only worsening. “I don’t think I can go down there. I’m sorry. I don’t want to ruin your expedition, and everyone else is prepared to keep going, but-“
Emily pulls Juliana into a hug, cutting off her spiralling panic and turning it into a quiet sobbing against her shoulder.
Is it too much for her?
Emily bites her lip in disappointment and frustration, drawing blood as she brings a hand to Juliana’s head, wiping the crimson liquid away in the process.
It’s not like I can really leave her here. Even if I leave everyone else with her, they’re dead if a single third circle beast attacks them. Maybe I’ll do the array to get us down?
Emily keeps stroking Juliana’s hair, giving her time to calm down while she starts running through ideas to avoid the underwater chute. Once Juliana stops shaking, Emily holds her tight for a short while longer before pulling back and gently running a hand along her cheek, wiping away the tears.
“What about if you stay in contact with me the whole time and keep your eyes shut?” Emily suggests, receiving an instant panicked head shake in response.
“Not being able to see anything will be way worse.”
“What about if I keep a light around us?”
Juliana goes quiet, glancing between the water and Emily, a silent war raging in her head.
She’s considering it? Can she push through her fear?
A small seed of hope plants itself in Emily’s heart as she waits. After a minute of deliberation, Juliana lets out a sigh and drops her head back onto Emily’s shoulder.
“We’ll be able to breathe the whole time, right?” she asks weakly.
“Of course.”
“Okay,” Juliana whispers, her grip around Emily tightening. “I’ll try.”
A small smile cracks Emily’s lips as she places a kiss against the side of her girlfriend’s head.
“Thank you.”
They separate completely after another minute, the invisible barrier around them disappearing as they return to their friends who are all waiting by the water’s edge, their shoes and cloaks tucked away into Tom’s bag. Thankfully, none of them asks any questions about Emily and Juliana’s conversation as the two quickly prepare to enter the water as well.
“So, how are we doing this?” Hester asks as Emily sends the last of her excess gear into her belt.
“The tunnel is too narrow to fit any more than one person at a time,” Emily explains. “I also suspect you and I will be the only ones with a hope of fighting the current close to it, so I suggest we enter the water with a small gap between each other and just go straight for the tunnel.”
Nods of acknowledgement spread across the group quickly.
“Who first?” Dante asks, leaning towards the water and shifting from side to side, seemingly impatient to dive in.
“It depends,” Emily says, reaching into her belt and pulling out a few light packs. “We don’t really know what’s down there, so it’s probably safest if I lead. But, if you’re dying to go down first, you can.”
Dante flashes a confident grin that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, presenting his chest for Emily to clip a light pack to his armour.
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“I’ll go first then. I want to see what’s down there.”
Is he impatient because he doesn’t like the unknown?
Emily nods, looking between the rest of her friends for complaints and seeing none.
“In that case, we go Dante, Enzo, Hester, Tom, Ivor, then me and Juliana. Sound good?”
Everyone agrees, and Emily clips a light pack to Enzo and Hester, before walking up to the water’s edge.
“I’ll stay by the tunnel and guide you all down. Allow twenty seconds between each of you hitting the water so we don’t get congested in the tunnel,” Emily says, gesturing for Dante to follow her as she flashes Juliana a comforting smile. “I’ll be back for you after everyone’s gone.”
Receiving a less than confident nod from her girlfriend, Emily shares a knowing glance with Ivor before placing her Gills to her mouth and stepping out into the water.
He should help keep her calm until I come back.
Emily sinks into the swirling currents, falling down towards the tunnel without much effort on her part. She casts light as she sinks, conjuring a glistening white orb to dispel the surrounding darkness and reveal the tunnel at the bottom of the riverbed. Before the fissure can pull her in, Emily uses a mixture of earth and metal mana to weigh herself down, reaching the rocky surface below before casting a spell to soften the rock, bending it with delicate mana manipulation to reach up and wrap around her feet before solidifying, rooting her in place beside the hole.
She looks up, watching Dante sink towards her quickly at an odd angle, struggling to stay upright in the current. Emily reaches out and grabs his arm as he comes close, letting his feet sink into the hole first before pulling both his arms in to cover his chest. She makes eye contact with him, the crinkle in his eyes the only sign of his signature grin hidden behind his shifting mask, and lets go, watching him vanish in an instant.
She then turns her gaze to the surface again and, after a short wait, sees Enzo quickly approaching, sinking feet first towards her with his arms already wrapped around himself to reduce the influence of the current. Emily reaches out, grabbing him before he can hit the tunnel, killing his momentum and lining him up to enter smoothly.
She repeats this with Hester and Tom, sending them off to join the others in the deep tunnels below. As Ivor arrives before her, weighing himself down with mana in a similar manner to her, he gives her a small nod and signs, “Good luck,” before she releases him and he shoots down and away.
Emily releases the rock’s hold on her feet and kicks off, rising up against the current and kicking her powerful legs to propel herself towards the surface. She emerges in the centre of the river and sees Juliana sitting on the riverbank, staring back at her while fidgeting awkwardly with the Gills in her lap. Emily swims over, places both her arms over her girlfriend’s lap and rests her chin on them as she looks up at her.
“You ready?” she asks gently.
Juliana shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, then releases it slowly as she opens them again and nods. Her fear is still evident in her eyes and the slight shaking of her hands as she brings the Gills to her face, but she pushes forward nonetheless.
Emily floats back a little bit, offering both of her hands for Juliana to take before carefully pulling her forward, and lowering her into the water. Juliana shivers as she enters the river, glancing down nervously as Emily tilts, places a foot against the riverbank behind them, and pushes off, propelling them out into open water.
Kicking fiercely to keep both of them afloat, Emily pulls Juliana in close, wrapping her arms around her and leaning in to whisper in her ear, the mask on her face barely impeding her speech.
“Just relax and hold on tight, I’ll keep it nice and bright so you can see the bottom at all times, okay?”
“Hmm,” Juliana hums along with a meek nod, so Emily slows her kicking.
They’re pulled down in a controlled manner, and Juliana’s grip on Emily tightens as they dip below the surface, as if trying to crush the air from her lungs.
So much for relaxing.
Emily keeps pouring mana into her light spell, penetrating through the thick underwater darkness and keeping a beam of light illuminating their path down to the dark hole below. They sink down, and Emily once again anchors herself to the floor next to the hole, this time doing the same for Juliana.
She taps Juliana’s shoulder, gently trying to pull back to communicate. Juliana doesn’t budge at the first tap, but after a few seconds Emily taps again and she complies, slowly relaxing her grip and pulling back a little, her arms refusing to leave Emily’s sides completely.
“Would you rather go in first and hold on to me, or go in second and I hold you?” Emily signs, patiently waiting for Juliana to let go with one hand and sign out a response.
“Go in second,” she manages, her hand shaking the whole time.
Emily’s heart aches to see her in such distress, but she quickly pushes the feelings to the back of her mind.
“Through the tunnel fast or slow?”
“Fast,” Juliana responds with more certainty than Emily expected.
“Okay, you’re going to have to let go of me. Keep your arms tucked into your chest. Don’t worry, I won’t let go of you.”
Juliana frowns, but reluctantly nods, slowly prying her remaining hand off of Emily before wrapping both her arms around herself like a protective blanket. Emily releases the rock from her feet, letting herself float sideways to hover above the hole that tries to whisk her away. Her feet slip into the tunnel and she quickly spreads both her legs to press against the tunnel walls, slowing her descent as her hands run down Juliana’s sides, then her legs, coming to rest in a firm grip around her ankles when Emily’s entire chest is buried in the riverbed.
Juliana’s gaze remains locked on Emily the whole time, following her down in the light of the glowing white orb still floating overhead. Emily pins her legs against the tunnel, rooting herself in place as she nods to Juliana and waits for a response. Juliana seems to gather herself, taking one last glance up towards the surface and noticeably shivering before locking eyes with Emily and nodding back.
Emily bends the rocks around Juliana’s feet back down into their original place and relaxes her legs a little, slowly pulling Juliana into the hole. They lower gradually until Juliana is completely within the narrow tunnel, the orb of light following closely to keep her comfortable.
Fast it is.
Emily pulls her legs in, completely releasing her grip on the walls and letting the current take them. They shoot down, the walls racing past in their small bubble of light. Emily watches her feet, bracing before the first large twist in the tunnel, using her legs and a small burst of water mana to dampen the impact. She repeats this over and over, kicking off the walls with her bare feet and guiding them with a steady flow of mana each time the tunnel threatens to smash them into the hard rock walls, trying to make the chute less traumatic for Juliana.
They fall for a minute and soon hit the bubbling swell that signals the exit. Knowing what to expect, Emily calmly rotates as she’s shot out into the open air, letting go of Juliana with one hand and moving it to the small of her back before releasing the other and sliding it up her legs to sit behind her knees, never breaking contact. She uses the Air Walker to create a small, vertical platform like last time, wincing slightly as her already bruised feet slam into it while she catches Juliana in a princess carry.
They come to a complete stop mid-air, before falling slowly as Emily twists to land on her feet on another invisible platform. Juliana looks around the surrounding pitch-black darkness, disoriented and shaking slightly as she processes the air replacing the water around them, before wrapping her arms around Emily and burying her face in the crook of her neck. Emily gently strokes her hair, drying them both with a quick cast of cleanse while walking through the air to the bank where she can sense their friends.
The small, pulsing orb of light above them barely fends off the encroaching darkness, and they’re within an arm’s reach of their friends before they see them, huddled together in a small circle, faintly illuminated by their light packs. Tom jumps as Emily appears beside him, before stepping aside to let her into the circle and glancing down at Juliana’s still quivering form.
“Is sh-“ Tom starts asking about her, only to stop suddenly when Emily turns a cold, warning glare on him, sending a shiver down his spine and forcing his words back down his throat.
She silently raises a finger to her lips, warning him not to bother Juliana while she’s still in distress, before her gaze warms and she turns her attention to the rest of the group.
“Did you enjoy the trip?” she asks.
“It was a rush!” Dante eagerly responds. “Though, being thrown into the air in the pitch black was a little unsettling.”
The others nod in agreement, and Enzo quietly grumbles under his breath while rubbing his elbows: “Personally, I would have preferred not getting slammed into the tunnel walls every few seconds.”
Nobody responds as they all quietly nod in solidarity, their hands drifting towards the various scrapes and bruises they gained on the rough trip.