They stood next to the old brinstahl elevators the next day, “You’ll be fine, Lomp. We’ll beat you there and you’re carrying cargo essential to the investigation.”
The odd man out had vivid memory of their trip to Deep Falls and wasn’t excited to double down on the experience. Cira used this angle in combination with her eleventh sample jar stored in the boat to convince him to take the elevator. Of course, he was nervous that Pappy would reprimand him for letting the sorcerer out of his sight. This was a matter of life or death though.
Once that was settled, Cira shuffled some more jars out of her ring to make room for various food items: loaf of bread, block of what turned out not to be cheese, one fresh worm, and an orb of some not-quite-dairy sandwich spread since containers couldn’t be stored.
Once that was settled, Cira convinced everyone to go on a detour to the New Shore District to plunder the closest dock for a few crates of mana potions. Lomp started getting really nervous at this point, so Cira cast an illusion to make them invisible. It was hard to argue at that point and he’d already agreed. There were also a great many stacks of titanium building up on the docks, so someone was sure to hear about that soon.
The elevator door closed shut, and the sound of grinding metal could be heard as the artifact started up. They’d see Lomp again sometime tomorrow. Without ado, the sorcerer and her witchy companion took a different elevator back to Uru, cutting a few hours off their trip.
One concern that was building in the back of Cira’s head was the ever-growing cloud of nymphs. It was the type of thing that doesn’t really impact you, so you let it get out of hand. In this way, she found herself with a swarm of a hundred nymphs.
Nina was no help at all. The little salt nymph only got up to stretch her wings once or twice a day at most, sitting on Aquon or Cira’s shoulder when it wasn’t out. Every time she was asked a question, she would stare blankly or hide in her hat, but you could tell she was still looking at you because the hat was water.
When the elevator arrived in Uru, they waited a few minutes and the nymphs eventually fluttered up through the ground. Cira didn’t want to go into town for fear that they’d get roped into something. The church was still a silhouette to her, but it wasn’t something she felt like shedding light on today. It didn’t seem they could help her with the plague.
“Are you really sure this is safe?” Nanri looked at the pump inlet.
“With proper precautions,” Cira nodded, “It should be safer than my trip down.”
“Alright, I’m trusting you…” She motioned to the cloud behind Cira, “But, what are you going to do about them?”
She shrugged, “They either follow us or they don’t.”
She handed Nanri her the Ring of Undrowning since it’d be easier to protect herself with a spell than another. Then they stepped out onto the water with a little magic before walking across it towards the artifact.
“I should be able to stop us if need be,” Cira continued, “But be ready to protect yourself at a moment’s notice. I can’t guarantee we won’t encounter an obstruction or other unforeseen obstacle.”
The witch looked nervous, “Okay… Too late to back out now. Do I need to do anything else?”
Cira shook her head and walked closer, “Not really. Just hang on tight!” She grabbed Nanri around the waist and released Surface Step. They plunged into the frigid water and sank. Once her companion was nice and secure in Aquon’s grasp, Cira let the current pull them in headfirst.
She also did Nanri the consideration of putting up a simple barrier around her to make the ride a little smoother. Instead of the rough salty tunnel from before, this was a long tube of solid brinstahl with a diameter almost two Cira’s high. It was one solid piece, and she didn’t see any seams as they zoomed by.
The witch was holding on tight and hiding her face in Cira’s chest for a few minutes until she got the courage to peek out. Water rushed by them, but it could hardly be felt. She was like a kid standing on the bow in a strong wind, her eyes open in wonder.
Nina looked almost the same—she floated beside them both with her wings spread out, like she were gliding along the breeze effortlessly. Nina weaved back and forth, dipped to the side then righted herself. She looked like she was having fun.
This brought us to our flock of nymphs. They were doing the same. All of them, gliding behind the pair at a distance as they rushed through the island in the giant metal tube of the ancients.
The destination was clear. The surface. Cira distinctly remembered a similar sized metal hole above the reservoir. It wasn’t gushing nearly as much water as the pump was sucking up, but there were two of them. Where else would it be going?
Cira did not wonder such trivial questions as she stared forward into the current. Aquon had stretched out a fair deal ahead to detect anything that may be in the way but she wanted to stay on her toes, as any responsible sorcerer would.
Hmm… What’s going on up there? It’s not an obstacle, but oh—She inwardly gasped—the water’s diverting!
They were travelling at many times the speed of her new boat. Once Cira figured out what was happening, they had already entered a curve in the pipe, their barriers grinding against the brinstahl. Cira tried to put the brakes on, but it was too late, “Wha—”
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“Ahhh!!” Nanri screamed.
As they flew through the dark chasm, all they could see was each other and darkness. Cira whipped her hand, and another Lamplight flew out behind them. The shiny pipe they just exited from had a big hole in the side, blasting water down into an abyss.
Cira desperately grabbed for any water nearby, but it wasn’t enough to stop their momentum. They too fell into the abyss. Aquon refused to move salt so Cira frantically called upon Prismagora who flashed into her hand, right in time to illuminate the entire chasm. She saw water rushing up from below to meet them and crashed into it, hardly afforded time to cut through for a soft entry.
They were submerged before getting whipped back and forth by opposing currents. The witch clung on to Cira like a new set of robes as she tried to get the water under control. They were dragged against the ground until Cira finally figured out which way was up and let out a concentrated blast. Water exploded and they were thrown against a hard salt ceiling, rolling to the ground with a thud.
Cira groaned and spit water from her mouth, “Heal…” She sat up with a distinct frown on her face. She looked over Nanri who was perfectly fine, having been wrapped safely in Aquon’s embrace. She still clung to Cira who tapped her on the head, and they met eyes, “My bad…”
The witch’s eyes went wide and she glanced around before taking in a deep breath and laughing in Cira’s ear. She detached and rolled over, holding her sides and busting up, “That has to be the most fun I’ve ever had! Looks like we didn’t make it all the way though.”
Looking around, there was a large pool with water gushing out of it. They could hardly hear each other over the sound. To their left there was a large hole under the pool dug into the salt and it went down an indeterminate length into the depths.
“Ahh,” Cira said, “So that’s what happens when you do that.”
Nanri cocked her head, “Do what, now?”
“Over there,” she pointed to the center of the room, “We fell directly into this island’s spring. Tried to send us back down to Deep Falls too.”
This explained why she had such a hard time gaining control of the water back there. They were getting churned around inside until she managed to push them both to the bottom, just barely out of the current’s range. That’s where they found a new, far less tumultuous current that dragged them towards the Deep Falls express chute before Cira blasted them into the ceiling.
“You okay, Nina?!” Cira shouted with a start. She hadn’t seen her since the tube. “Oh…”
Her thumb-sized face poked out of hidden jewel of Aquon before she emerged and took her seat back atop it, still wearing her hat.
“We made it all the way to the spring…” Nanri spoke with bated breath, “I’ve never been here before.”
“Pretty, isn’t it?” The other nymphs all floated down from the chasm above, spreading out around the spring chamber, dancing through the air. “The nymphs seem to like it here. Maybe we should try to drop them off.”
Nanri wasn’t following, so Cira held up a finger to wait a moment. She walked around the pool tapping on the walls. There was a little flash with each knock. On the opposite side she paused for a moment then knocked a few more times high and low, “Here should do.”
And her Staff of Springs was reduced to a nymph’s chair as Cira again made Prismagora appear. Light didn’t go great with geomancy, but this staff wasn’t so stuck up as the other. She began pulling salt out of the wall then shooting it down the hidden river. The hole turned into a tunnel that Cira walked down as she worked. All Nanri could see was a dark hallway and a stream of salt flowing out. After a minute the salt started gushing.
She waited around in the Lamplight left behind for a short while, watching the river of salt until it calmed down. The witch timidly crept down the corridor, conjuring a little metal shield to keep the salt out of her shoes. The Lamplight didn’t follow and she soon found herself in a dark hallway, stepping carefully with her left hand against the wall.
After two or three minutes slowly poking around in the dark, Nanri almost turned back. Then, she saw a bright blue light from around a corner. She could finally see. At the end of the hallway she found the sorcerer bathed in the not-quite-golden light wearing her Cerulean Robes. Her blonde hair hung past her shoulders and she stood there looking into a large chamber with salt crumbling all around it.
“…What’re you doing?” Nanri asked.
They stood on a ledge molded from salt, overlooking a small chasm with waterfalls dotting the edges and disappearing into the darkness. Above, the salt fell away, leaving a smooth contour into an ever-expanding cavern, forming bumps or shifting directions here or there.
“Ah, there you are,” Cira stood there with crossed arms and turned around, the staff of light floating in front of her and glowing the color of earth magic. She spoke with passion in her voice, “I found this chasm! So close to the spring, too. I thought expanding here would be perfect, but now I have to condense the salt in places to reinforce existing tunnels. It’s getting rather tedious. Wanna help?”
Above their heads, salt nymphs lazily fluttered around in the blue light, some poking their heads out of the wall. Nanri could swear their number increased again. She looked at the salt as it fell off the walls and converged, swept away in the current down the hall.
“C-Can I help?” Nanri asked timidly, “How do you even know where the tunnels are?”
“Oh, let’s see,” Cira thought for a moment, “Are you familiar with spatial… witchcraft?”
“No…” She shook her head, deflated, “I can’t mold much other than titanium with any control at all.”
The sorcerer looked over, “Interesting… Are all witches like that? Even this ‘great Silver Witch’ I keep hearing about?”
“Mostly… That’s why witches are such masters of their element,” She looked at Cira with uncertainty, “At this point I feel like you could take on Salina with that water staff of yours, though, so I don’t know anymore.”
Am I useless to her? Nanri’s thoughts grew dark, Maybe I’m no help at all… Why did I even come here? Cira is such an incredible witc- sorcercer, but so kind. She doesn’t treat me like her lesser just because I’m weak, like those jerks at the academy. Or push me around as the council does. I didn’t spend my whole life honing my witchcraft to waste my youth in some hole moving metal for Earth Vein. There has to be more than this… That’s why I came.
She looked at Cira who just smirked, “Perhaps I will one day.”
She told me there’s more than this. When I look at her that’s all I see, like a distant sunrise. But, she’ll be gone in a matter of days… and I’ll be back at the bottom building a prison for nymphs, and—Is the New Shore District any better? It’s the same… but for people… Cira spent an hour doing what I’ve been here months for, and the nymphs are already appearing. She’s amazing.
“What’s wrong?” Cira saw the despondent look in the witch’s eyes and tapped her on the shoulder, “Is Salina your friend?”
Nanri was caught off guard and laughed into her hand. “No, that’s not it…” She’s leaving. So, I’ll just watch her while I can. I’ll only grasp what’s within my reach! The sun comes and goes. There’s at least something I can do right now. “How about we break for lunch?”
She conjured titanium plates and silverware from thin air. That put a smile on Cira’s face, “Good idea. After lunch you can practice with salt too. I bet I could make a staff out of it for you to work with.” A loaf of bread appeared above her palm.