(Strive 11:2)

I tried to help Artem build a raft out of palm timber and fronds, but after he pronounced me useless for the fifteenth time, I decided to demote myself to tree-cutting duty. Well, it was more like tree-punching, Minecraft-style, since I didn’t have a machete or cutting tool. All in all, I found it therapeutic and enjoyable, and fortunately, we weren’t bothered by any other crabs.

“That seems like enough logs, don’t you think?” Selene’s voice came from behind me.

I turned to see her standing there with El snoozing on her shoulder. She looked calm as ever, running a hand over the raccoon’s back absentmindedly. Behind her, a swath of felled palm trees littered the island. Artem was lugging one over to the raft which seemed almost completed.

“Guess I overdid it.” I gave her a rueful smile. “You know how us industrialists is and all that.” I cringed inwardly. What was I saying? I still didn’t fully know how to act around her, this pretty young woman who by all accounts should’ve been grieving. If her composure was an act, she could’ve won an Oscar for best leading. “How are things with you? Is everything okay?”

Her eyes met mine, and she tilted her head slightly. “You mean regarding Yao’s death?”

I opened my mouth and closed it. “You know, you’re pretty direct, for a fortune teller. Yeah. I’m just—I mean, I’ve never been married, but in your place, I feel like I’d be crying in my room for a month.”

Selene was quiet for a moment. “I just don’t see the point,” she said. “What will be, will be. What has happened, has happened. We do the best we can in the reality that remains.”

“Yeah, but…” I hesitated. Who was I to try to convince this poor lady to mourn? It wasn’t any of my business. “Never mind.” I quested for a more neutral subject. “So where in China are you from? My parents are from—”

Artem hollered at us, and it was time to board the boat. We walked over across the sand, careful to step lightly to avoid waking any crabs.

“The twin city of Fenghao,” she said, so much later I’d almost forgotten I’d asked. “I worked at the royal residence there as a shrine maiden.”

“Fenghao?” I wracked my brain. “I haven’t heard of it.”

“That’s alright,” she said, stepping over a piece of driftwood. “I’m told it doesn’t exist anymore.”

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Bolstered by our twin auras, Artem and I launched the boat, while Selene and El waited on deck. As the vessel began to float, we vaulted aboard to join them, and I had to admit that for all his faults, Artem was a deft shipwright. The knots were lashed tight, the logs packed into neat rows. There were even two benches for us to sit on, and notches for oars carved from scraps of palm. It was awkward for El to hold the oars, so she appointed herself ship mascot and moral support.

Slowly, our little party rowed the boat away from shore. The lowering sun cast the sky into layers—deep blue over bands of blushing pink and orange, all resting on red firmament. Without a moon to make tides, the sea sat silent and still as blackened glass, except where the ripples of unknown creatures disturbed the surface.

“What do we know about M—about the murderer?” I asked.

“That she’s a cunt,” Selene said casually.

There was silence in the boat for a while, aside from the rhythmic sound of rowing.

“Okay, that’s definitely true. What else do we know about her?”

“She’s a Corpus user,” said Artem. “But focused on agility more than strength. That path’s equivalent to our Harden ability is an aura called Quicken.”

I remembered the green of her own bracelet and the speed of her movements, and decided that checked out. “So in addition to that, she has a second kada with teleportation.”

“Not teleportation,” said Selene. “Interchange. It’s an ability that swaps the positions of two living entities. On the magic branch of the Kinesis Aspect.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Do either of those bracelets have a second Aspect?”

“No one has a second Aspect,” Selene said. “We know there’s a slot for it, as it’s part of Hilbert’s standard spiel. But the method to obtain one is an open question. For now, we’re limited to the one from the Room of First Principles.”

“We need to climb further,” Artem growled. “The eggheads at Systems Research can jerk themselves off trying to reverse engineer the kada’s inner workings all day, but in the end, they’re just twiddling their thumbs.” He slapped his oar down harder than necessary, and the boat jumped. Then, it jumped again. The water around us became suddenly turbulent with bubbles.

“These quakes happen a lot, huh?” I said.

“Uh, guys.” El looked down into the frothing waters. “Something’s coming—”

With a roar, the surface was breached by a sparkling behemoth, a translucent whale that shone in the colors of the sunset. It seemed sculpted from ice, but its movements weren’t limited; on the contrary, it slipped through the water with great agility. The boat rocked as it slapped its tail down on the water, sending waves in all directions. The thing was massive, staring at our ship with smooth featureless eyes.

The ice whale roared, and from its mouth came a rain of icicles. We all ducked, and I watched as the shards of ice thunked into the wood, points protruding into the inside of the boat. Almost immediately, water started to leak through the holes.

El cast a Firecracker at it that chipped some ice off the whale’s surface, but it only seemed to anger it further. “Looks like another job for the Human Torch,” she said.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that without burning the boat down.” I gripped the side of the vessel with one hand as it rocked in the waves. “Okay, I do. But it sucks.” I told Artem my idea, and he gave me a nasty grin.

“I like it,” he said, which is how I knew it was a terrible idea.

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“Let’s go,” said Artem, straightening. He moved his fingers through the hand signs of Power Strike, and his kada flared red, reflecting off the facets of the icy whale. “No time to waste.”

Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto his interlaced fingers. “I trust you,” I said untruthfully. “On my count. One, two—”

With a great shout, he flung me like a rocket into the air.

“Fuck you, Artem!” I cried, but the howling wind ate my words. My hand moved, and I became a fiery missile, burning across the reddened sky. Now I could see that Artem’s aim was true, and I would come down exactly where the whale’s blowhole would’ve been. The bastard even gave me some spin, like a football. I tucked my arms and legs in and braced.

Then came impact, like slamming into a wall. My body drilled through the ice with the enthusiasm of an Alaskan oil baron, and although the friction slowed my rotation, I had already penetrated the outer shell, and my overflowing heat did the rest. I melted a thin, claustrophobic channel through the body of the whale. As quickly as the ice melt filled the tube, it vaporized from my aura and turned to steam. When I couldn’t bear the feeling of being trapped any longer, I detonated.

Cracking ice sounded like a glacier cleaving in two, and suddenly I was falling through the blue and white to splash down into water. I gasped, opening my eyes, and beheld an underwater city.

It was Shinar, visible somehow below the sea. The spell-moon glinted with a dull pearl-like luster, a round clamshell of high walls enclosing it. For a moment, it brought to mind that other submerged city, Atlantis, and I wondered if I swam down far enough if I’d fall out of the sky on the floor below.

Then I was back above the surface, gasping for air. Floes of ice surrounded me, as well as multi-colored Swedish Fish candies and small golden tokens, and I saw the boat a distance away, rowing slowly toward me. I turned over onto my back and floated, watching the stars wink on one by one, while I imagined myself beating the shit out of Artem.

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We made landfall just as the last blot of red was fading from the sky, near a rocky mountain and the thunderous roar of a waterfall. There was a pool under it, but no sign of the way to the next floor. It was too loud to speak, as the falls drowned out our voices, but I could see the worried look on Selene's face even as the sky darkened. They made a few quick hand motions back and forth that eluded me: Selene’s were fluid and graceful, while Artem’s were rigid and harsh.

Then, Selene’s fingers danced, and an orb manifested above her like a miniature moon, casting a brilliant white glow over the whole area. It was her Lux lamp, I realized, and it made mine and El’s look like children’s toys. Even so, we didn’t see any signs of the way upward.

While we searched the area, El washed her candies in the pond. I stood next to her to peer into the depths of the water. Nothing. Then I looked up at the waterfall, squinted, and grinned. Of course.

I turned to the party. “I'm about to do what's called a ‘pro gamer move,’” I said, knowing they couldn’t hear me over the roar of water.

They looked at me bemused, but I was too giddy to care. Holding my breath, I ran towards the screaming torrent and plunged in headlong. The immense pressure pounded down for an instant, then two, before the pounding abated.

I pushed wet hair out of my eyes to reveal a large cavern decorated with torches on both sides. Brightly painted masks hung on the walls and thatched grass covered the ceiling and floor, framed by bamboo and rattan like in a tiki bar. I moved deeper into the cove until the roar of the waterfall became muted behind me and triumphant text lit up my vision.

Secret location discovered: Atlantis Resort!

Sublocations are as follows.

Atlantis Resort Lodging: Free use of rooms to rest!

Atlantis Resort Restaurant: Exchange tokens for delicious tropical food and beverages!

Atlantis Resort Arcade and Midway: Use tokens to play games with unique and powerful prizes!