Tentatively, everyone started walking down the staircase. Squishy led the way, with Addie right behind him. Nettal was behind Addie, and Lotty was in the back, his hooves clip-clopping with each step down.

Just like the ruins above, the staircase was pitch black. The only source of light came from Addie’s soul flames which she had balled up in her hand. They cast shadows down across the gray stairs and particularly made Squishy’s shadow seem elongated and strange.

The ceiling was a perfect mirror of the stairs below, to the point where Addie wasn’t sure if the staircase might actually be upside down somehow. The walls of the staircase were the same rough gray stone bricks as the rest of the ruins.

Soon, Addie was able to make out a light source of some kind permeating from the bottom of the staircase. Or at least, she assumed it was the bottom. The light bounced into the staircase tunnel by reflecting off of some kind of brown-looking floor. Addie couldn’t quite make it out, yet.

“Hey, I see the bottom of the staircase!” Nettal grabbed onto Addie’s sleeve and pointed down.

“I see it, too.” Addie glanced at Nettal and then shook off her arm from her sleeve.

Addie ran down a step, then she held her hand out for Nettal to grab onto.

“Let’s see what’s down there, let’s go!” Addie started running down the stairs, Squishy hot on her heels.

He overtook the girls. Addie watched as his front toe-beans stepped off the final stair and down onto a brown dust covered floor. He took another few furtive steps forward before he sat down and stared up at the ceiling.

Addie hurried to see what he was staring at, dragging Nettal along with her. Lotty’s hoof steps clacked against the stairs in pursuit.

The bottom of the stairs opened up into a vast spherical cavern— all made up of smooth brown stone the color of the floor. For a moment, Addie wondered why this cave was brown when the others had all been gray. The walls were smooth, but not sanded or anything. It was a big naturally formed spherical cave. Addie idly remembered the pattern left behind in a tub of ice cream after taking out a big scoop.

The round cavern walls went all the way up to a dome ceiling. The only part of the room that didn’t make her feel like she was inside of a ball was the floor itself, which was perfectly flat. Addie quickly glanced behind her shoulder to look at the staircase. It was the only blemish on the walls: a square cutout to make room for the staircase.

Addie let the soul flames in her hand go out. Just as she suspected, somehow this entire cave was lit up. It was strange, Addie couldn’t see a light source on the walls or ceiling, yet the entire room had perfect lighting.

“Addie, what’s that?” Addie rolled her eyes at Nettal’s question. She had been asking that a lot lately.

“What?”

“Over there.” Nettal pointed to the center of the ground, where a giant black puddle formed about two meters across. It rippled once and went still.

“Weird.”

“Everything we do is weird,” Nettal replied. “Do you wanna check it out?”

Addie shrugged. “Sure.”

The girls walked up to the big puddle and peered down into it. Addie couldn’t see the bottom, it was just a purely black surface. Around the walls of the pit, she saw some jagged spikes, also formed of the same brown rock as the rest of the round cave.

Nettal screamed. One of her feet slipped a tiny bit over the edge. She swung her arms around to catch herself, and Addie got ready to jump after her. Luckily, Nettal regained her balance before Addie had to act.

Nettal fiercely turned around to stare at Lotty, who had his tongue out. Nettal’s hand looked wet. “Why’d you do that?!”

“Did he lick you?” Addie asked incredulously.

She didn’t get why he would do that. Looking into his eyes for a second, she thought she saw a mischievous spark. It reminded Addie of Christena’s pranks. Addie agreed with Nettal though; She didn’t want to fall into the black pit either.

Nettal furrowed her eyes at Addie for a second before she turned back to Lotty. “No more licking people above creepy black pits!” She put her fists on her hips and glared at Lotty sharply.

Lotty put his tongue back in his mouth.

Addie heard chortling from just next to her. “No laughing, Squishy. That’s mean.”

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“Yes, my lady,” He agreed easily and turned his head away. He still had the corner of his mouth upturned.

Nettal moved her eyes back to Lotty. “Alright, Mister!” Nettal said a bit rudely, “If you think it’s so funny then you test it out for us.” Nettal harrumphed.

Elegantly, Lotty skip-trotted closer to the portal. He angled his head sideways so that he could take a good look at the black puddle thing with the eye on the right side of his angular head. After staring at it for a moment, he tentatively raised his front right leg and dipped the very edge of his hoof into the surface.

The black surface rippled outward, reinforcing Addie’s image of it being liquid in some way. Nothing else happened.

Lotty lifted his hoof back out of the blackness, and the surface of it rose slightly as he did so. It fell away from his hoof with another ripple. No residue or anything was left behind on his hoof. He brought it up to give his hoof a good look at anyway. He put his hoof back down on the cavern floor while he looked up at his bonded.

“Huh.”

“What?” Addie asked excitedly, “What is it?”

“He said it felt like both hot and cold all at once. Not really sure what he means.”

Addie moved forward a bit so she could lay down on her stomach and put her head over the pit.

“Wait!” Nettal cried out to Addie’s right.

Addie dipped her hand into the puddle. With the same reflex as touching a hot stove, Addie jerked her hand out.

“He’s right,” Addie started standing back up.

“You can’t just do that! What if you’d gotten hurt?” Nettal waved her arms.

“It’s fine, Lotty’s fine isn’t he?” Addie shook her head. “Besides, what I wanted to say is that— you know when you first touch hot water after being outside during winter? It’s like that! It was hard to tell if it was hot or cold.”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re ok.” Nettal forced a smile.

“Of course I’m ok! Anyway, you can just heal me if I get hurt.” Addie proclaimed.

“What? No! Err, that’s not...” Nettal sighed. “Look, that’s a dangerous perspective to have. Try not to get hurt, ok? What if you get hurt so bad I can’t heal you anymore?” Nettal’s eyes started going puffy.

Addie hadn’t considered that yet. Her heart sank at the thought. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Just try to be more careful, alright? I don’t want to be here alone.”

“Even if I’m hurt or gone, Squishy will protect you, right?” She glanced down at Squishy.

“Of course, my lady. But do try not to injure yourself. I’d rather protect you.” His starry eyes sparkled.

Squishy’s triangular ears perked up and rotated behind them. He blurred as he turned all the way around, looking back at the staircase.

At the same moment, Addie’s book ejected itself from her soul. It started forming words into the air, but before she could read it Squishy’s telepathic voice pulled her attention to him.

“Addie, look,” he said. A growl started rising up in his throat.

“What’s going on?” Nettal asked as she turned her head from side to side.

Behind them, back at the staircase entrance, a cool mist started easing its way out toward them.

Addie felt Nettal tug on her poncho sleeve again, but she didn’t move her eyes away from the incoming fog.

“Addie,” Nettal said fearfully.

“I see it,” Addie replied.

Squishy was still growling.

“Not that.” Nettal squeezed Addie’s arm.

Addie followed Nettal’s pointed hand up to the words in the soul book.

*Embrace Ennulis. Jump into the deep dark.*

Addie turned her head from side to side, first looking at the black pit and then again at the fog. She did that a few times before she looked back at Nettal with wide eyes.

Nettal looked back at Addie and gave a determined nod.

“What about Realmspace?” Squishy interjected quickly. “I’ll take us out to safety.”

“It won’t work,” Addie said at the speed of thought. She flashed images of the fog somehow putting them in the mountains after they went to Realmspace last time.

With her right hand, Addie firmly grasped Nettal’s hand. With her left hand, she motioned palm up to Squishy. He quickly ran up the proffered arm and settled around her shoulders like Fluffy often did with Christena. Nettal’s right arm swung around and lifted Lotty up from underneath. She carried him in the crook of her elbow. Good thing he was so little.

Together, they leaped forward into Ennulis’ embrace.

It felt like jumping into a cold lake. Or maybe a hot bath. Addie wasn’t sure but it felt like that stinging border where your body hadn’t yet decided the temperature of the water. Even though she had jumped into it, Addie wasn’t expecting to go into freefall. She felt her stomach inch upward into her brains as they continued to fall faster and faster downward, surrounded by an inky blackness.

At least her grip on Nettal’s hand was strong, and she could still feel Squishy’s claws grasping slightly through her poncho as he desperately held on. Despite her surroundings being the consistency of honey, it paradoxically didn’t slow down their fall at all. Addie wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold her breath. Maybe she would need to punt everyone into Realmspace, just so they wouldn’t splat when they hit the bottom of this thing.

For a moment, the inky blackness lit up, and Addie quickly recognized her soul book streaming back through the tar and reaching out for her. She allowed it back inside of her.

Not wanting to go splat on the ground, Addie focused her spatial sense down below her feet, as far as it would go. She still couldn’t see the bottom of it, so they just kept falling. Once she saw the bottom, she would briefly punt everyone into Realmspace to slow down their fall.

Honestly, Addie was surprised she had this much time to think. They were still falling, and because of that, there had been plenty of time to come up with that plan. Addie kept holding her breath, but she still didn’t need to breathe yet.

She looked to Nettal on her right, whose green eyes were glowing brightly. Addie briefly wondered why she was using her magic, but then Squishy spoke up through their bond.

“I believe she is healing us in such a way that we do not need to breathe.” The tips of his claws were still slightly poking through Addie’s clothes.

If Nettal was taking care of that, then Addie just had to make sure she timed their landing correctly. She focused on her spatial sense, waiting to see the ground.

The fall wasn’t quite so bad now. At some point, the feeling of her stomach dropping had gone away, but Addie didn’t know why. It almost felt like she was floating. In fact, Addie was starting to wonder if they were really still falling at all. It’s not like she could see anything in here to help her find out. And she couldn’t feel anything nearby with her spatial sense either. Were they still falling?

Nettal’s eyes started flickering, and with it came brief spouts of Addie’s lungs begging for air.