Clouded blackness gave way to a sky crowded with glittering red and white jewels. One distinctive, deep red star hung on the horizon. Its light converged about a singular spot to create a pupil, with tails of light extending off each side to form a lense. That star, Maln’s eye, would soon set for the tenth time and usher in a new year.
Adanna’s excitement had blossomed from anxious waiting into unrestrained delight. She could hardly believe that Tanabata would begin so soon. Visions of stunning displays, sap-lit fire workings, and sweet, savory, and spicy foods from each booth coaxed her attention away from the now. Best of all, there’d be no more dives for weeks.
The glimmering stars dimly illuminated the barren, frozen flats. That icy expanse stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see, gently reflecting the twinkling starlight. Without Lus, there was barely enough light to see the jagged silhouette of Sableshore, breaking the horizon in the distance. It would take hours to return.
“Where do you think our next dive will be? Adanna said, scrunching her face in annoyance. “The other side of the Andhera? The moon?”
A sudden set of frozen gusts broke the calm, forcing a chill between her skin and hooded fur calarite cloak. With a long exhale, she snugged it closer.
“Quite whining,” Ren’s voice said through filtered cloth as he rummaged through their sled. “It’ll only make it more miserable.”
Adanna kicked a clod of stuck freeze, skittering it across the ice and hitting the sled with a thunk. She would whine when she felt like it. Blast the cold, the wind, the ice, and especially these damned pools. She walked up to the edge of today’s hellish pit, grimacing.
“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
At the edge of the perfectly circular hole, Adanna slipped her feet from calf-high boots. This pool was relatively broad at four paces in diameter—the krystos that made it must have been enormous. The cold assaulted her feet as soon as she stripped off her stockings. Stuffing her stockings into her boots, she tossed them into the sled with a beautiful arc.
“Ouch! Watch it!” Ren yelled.
“Gotcha!” Adanna laughed.
In one quick motion, Adanna shoved her feet into the twinkling waters and screamed. In seconds, they were numb. She forced her breaths steady, inhaling the bitter air and exhaling clouded bursts of condensate. Sitting at the pool’s edge, Adanna peered into the inky black.
The placid pool revealed a dim version of herself. Adanna’s short-cut hair, dark skin, and light freckles remained vague in mirrored starlight. She kicked her feet, and the heavens danced at her command.
Another gust blew over them, violently rattling their sled.
“Void take us; that one was brutal,” Ren said, sitting at the icy bank across her. He followed her lead, slipping off his boots and dipping his bare feet into the pool. He didn’t even wince, the showoff.
Adanna hated this part, but “a reminder of the cold kept a diver alive.” It was her mother’s mantra. At this point, it was part of her soul. Despite the Moment within, ready and eager, Adanna resisted using it. To forget was to be careless. To be careless was death.
Cringing as her feet shifted from numb to painful, she looked starward toward Maln. That was the shortest path to the day star, Rosol—Gus had shown her on one of his maps. The world was so big that Sableshore wasn’t even a freckle.
“Ever think about leaving?”
“I’d like to bathe in Lake Valkar.”
“What about out there?” she nodded starward. “Ever thought about traveling the Iko?”
Ren rubbed his scruff. “I guess not. Where would you go?”
“Somewhere warm,” she laughed. “I could pass for a Lesh in Cabor—travel from city to city. Maybe even to the capital one day. Trying all the foods along the way, of course.”
Cally chirped at Adanna, and she turned to her. The calarite lay curled into a large lump beneath their wooden sled. Her rows of saucer-like eyes stared at her curiously. They seemed to hold a question. With Cally’s quirked head and high-fluted chirp, it was as if she was saying, “Are you okay?”. Adanna laughed before kicking a splash in Cally’s direction. She was unbothered as the icy droplets beaded and slicked off her dense white fir.
“Worry about yourself,” she said, smiling.
Cally replied with a soft and, somehow, offended trill before nuzzling her long, sleek head back into a nook between her powerful hind legs.
Ren cleared his throat. “I’d go with you if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Thanks Ren. Now hush, let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
Breathing deeply of the frigid air, Adanna relaxed. She let her eyelids close as her attention wandered outside of herself. That perception, akin to a shadow's shadow, traveled through the long tunnel of ice and water hundreds of feet before any clarity. Finally, the ethereal glow of Moment bloomed in her consciousness, like a flower opening and stretching towards the light. It was deep — possibly the deepest ever, although she couldn’t be sure until she had counted the seconds herself.
“Why are we always stuck with dives like this?” she said, eyes still closed.
“It’s deep?” Ren asked dumbly.
“Obviously. It’s a pile of stinking, hot shit.”
She’d seen enough and relaxed back into visual sight. Ren’s grinning face greeted her. Adanna raised her eyebrows, daring him.
“You’ll have to go to the Iko for those. We only do cold shits here.”
“Shut up,” Adanna said, but couldn’t help chuckling. “It’s not fair, is it?”
“We’re the best,” Ren said, shrugging. “The hardest chisel would be wasted on the softest stone, no?”
She flicked a glare at him. He wiggled his brows tauntingly, which soured her mood further.
“It’s a wonder,” he said, “that a diver as talented as you would dread it so viciously each and every time.” He stood up and stripped off his cloak and shirt, revealing a too-hairy barrel chest, impressive musculature, and a bit of a pot belly.
She lifted her legs from the water before standing and followed with her cloak, although more carefully. Next, she worked off a thick undershirt.
“It’s not comparable,” she said, voice muffled until the shirt slipped off, exposing her bare chest to the cold. “I don’t have the necessary adaptations.” Adanna turned and presented a profile before cradling an imaginary bulk at her belly and miming a jiggle. “Unlike some more…fortunate divers.” His offended face sent her cackling.
Ren worked off his pants.
“And if you could cook, perhaps you’d earn some insulation of your own.”
hand to her mouth, Adanna mocked offense.
“Clean plates speak for themselves,” she said, dropping her pants and undergarments.
Now totally nude, Adanna laughed manically. Ren looked at her like she was insane, and she probably was a little. Who wouldn’t be? The cold was unbearable. It clawed inside her, hungry for warmth—it found it quickly. Her teeth chattered like dice in a cup, and her limbs shivered uncontrollably. It wasn’t long until her chattering slowed and her limbs steadied. Her body was surrendering to the cold. Finally, Adanna let herself use her Moment.
She willed a fraction of the power to escape, forcing it into the open through her skin. Warmth enveloped her, sending pain spikes to numbed limbs and shielding her from the cold’s worst bite. Adanna stocked the flame hotter by pushing out more Moment. Soon, sweat beaded on her skin before running in rivers and freezing in puddles as it pooled along the flats. Steam roiled off her body in waves as the frozen winds battered her. The combined sensations were distinctive as they were familiar—a strange dance of ice and fire.
A careful balance was needed. Too little, and Adanna couldn’t resist the cold. At the same time, too much would risk running out before the dive’s end—or, at worst, lighting on fire. Just as a hammer, millstone, and rope each had their harmful potentials, Moment was nothing more than a tool. When used correctly, it was a powerful tool. Respect it, but never fear it.
Adanna gathered and folded her pile of dropped clothes into a neat stack before placing them beneath the cart. Cally languorously uncurled and gracefully flowed onto all four of her long white legs, stretching each of her limbs before sauntering to Adanna’s side.
The calarite stood two feet taller than Adanna as the creature perched on her hind legs to sniff the breeze. Adanna rubbed Cally’s webbed front paws, evoking a satisfied trill. Cally circled and stretched out her long, tapered head for more pets.
“So needy,” Adanna said, scratching the spots Cally liked along the length of her long neck. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”
The calarite flared her nostrils and trilled.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
It was hard for the unfamiliar to tell how a calarite felt. With their nictitated eyelids, a double row of nostril-like holes running along the length of their mouthless snouts, and complex tonal language, most found the creatures too alien to decipher. For Adanna, it came effortlessly; the gentle flutes Cally purred as Adanna scratched were an unmistakable mix of appreciation and contentment.
Patting Cally on the neck, she turned to dig into her pack, propped up on the sled. She wound her ballast belt about her waist and fastened a slip knot to secure it. Adanna checked that each flat stone was in place securely before fishing out a sheathed, latched dagger and securing it onto a belt loop. As she walked back to the pool, Adanna thumbed the tops of those smooth stones comfortingly. These had been her mother's, grandfather’s, and farther still before they fell into Adanna’s ownership.
Adanna and Ren gathered at the pool, with Cally falling in place between them. The calarite stared at the pool with her triple set of beady black eyes, tilting her head back and forth. She surveyed the dive as Adanna had. Finished, Cally excitedly chirped, hopping back and forth at the pool’s edge.
Thoughts and fears melted into a deep, relaxed focus. All was the dive. That old, familiar fear—claustrophobic darkness and suffocating cold—awaited her. Far beneath the surface. Far from breath—surrounded by oblivion.
It caused a primal panic in the unfocused. That panic would elevate the heart, and that would be it. The void would claim you. Embracing fear was the key. Channel that fear into action, turn weakness into strength. She lost herself in deep rhythmic breaths that magnified her singular attention to the now. Fear gave way to presence.
Twenty heartbeats later, each slower than the last, and they were ready. Adanna grabbed onto the leather harness that fit across Cally’s slender chest by the handle—Ren grabbed the handle on the other side. After a staccato of pitches, the three leaped head-first into the black.
The cold swallowed them as icy waters rushed past in a blur. Adanna held tightly to the harness and worked in sync with the powerful calarite strokes to swim through the tunnel of ice and water at a steady clip. It wasn’t long until she had to equalize.
Ten, she counted.
Even with her eyes open, Adanna could perceive the otherworldly glow from the Moment-laden plants far below. The darkness left little else to perceive.
Twenty, she counted, growing worried.
Adanna plugged her nose and blew to equalize as her eardrums hurt again. She maintained the constant stream of Moment outwards, reinforcing her barrier of warmth. They dived deeper still.
Thirty? Thirty heartbeats was the deepest they’d ever gone, and they were still going. Panic threatened to creep into her focus, but she shoved it back. There was light in the distance, visible light. It was dim and ghostly before growing into a vibrancy that had her squinting. After forty heartbeats, they finally arrived.
The ice tunnel walls opened up suddenly into a world of vivid colors and light. The intensity was nearly overwhelming, casting living shadows onto the landscape of the ocean floor. Branching groups of lumivine and fluxflora spread out in all directions, creating a net of light and heat that made the light dance.
An absurd variety of life gathered to that light and warmth. Adanna saw five calp grows just a short swim away. The haul would be plentiful. The long and spiraling blue-green plants grew in tight clustered groups periodically along the branching lines of light.
Adanna turned to Ren, waiting for her lead. She signed to him quickly.
Forty heartbeats.
Ren shrugged. Let’s hurry, then.
Adanna pointed to those nearby grows. Ren nodded before swimming off in that direction. Adanna swam in the opposite direction, towards a farther group of calp grows gathered near a cliff-like drop-off. Beyond that, stretched the abyss. As the best chisel between the two, she supposed she deserved it.
Swimming to the floor bed, she let herself float there. The warmth radiating off the flux tickled her stomach. Everything in the deep had a purpose, even if it was hard to see. The flux and lumi exchanged heat and light to create pockets of livability in the deep where other life could flourish, like the calp.
All types of creatures scuttled about, attached to rocks, or buried in the sand. Adanna maneuvered herself across the sea floor by pulling along the lumivine, hand over hand.
A patch of strell peaked from the sands to her left. Each looked as if a strand of hair had hair, and they used those thin filaments to grab debris from the water. They extended out of the soil curiously before shooting back down when she ran her hand across their tops, kicking up jets of sand in their wake.
The calp grow floated just ahead, their slender stalks stretching high off the sea floor. Methodically, Adanna severed the majority of the calp's length with her knife, ensuring enough remained for regrowth. It was difficult work, with the thick, hearty base resisting her obsidian blade. Plant after plant, she methodically harvested each tough, fibrous plant. The cut calp floated upward, buoyant by the embedded grains. Cally shot overhead to collect them, joyously chirping with each pass. The calarite would drop them off at the tunnel entrance, where they would float to the surface to collect.
Despite Adanna’s many dives, the beauty here was still breathtaking. She wondered if anything could compare to it on the whole of Calaria. As much as Adanna hated the cold, she loved the splendor beneath the ice. It was a sight reserved for only a few, and she drank it while moving from grow to grow.
Fist-sized klackers, their tightly overlapping flat rock defenses wielded like a soldier’s armor, walked confidently across the sea floor on their four articulating tentacles. Fish, in all shapes, sizes, and colors, darted from her path, the smaller of which hid within the calp. As she harvested, panicked silhouettes would dart out to seek shelter elsewhere.
Within about ten minutes, she had harvested most of the calf on the ridge. A few clicks made her turn, and she found Ren waving for her from a distance. Finished, he floated close to their entrance. She clicked back, communicating she would be along shortly.
Towards the edge of the drop, one remaining sizable calp grow remained. Adanna moved with precision and careful grace, slipping carefully past vents spewing murky water and avoiding the invisible currents by their tells in the vegetation.
The life around her suddenly retreated as she approached the dropoff. Lumivines dimmed, klackers shut, strell sunk into the sands, and the fish slipped under the lips of rocks or nestled within thicker foliage. Something was happening, something Adanna had never seen.
Adanna flattened herself to the sea floor, grabbing the thick, coarse lumivine to steady herself. She ebbed and flowed with the gentle sway of the water, looking all around her. There was nothing.
As her eyes scanned the abyss, a glint brought it to a halt. She peered, squinting into the black, but there was nothing to see. Had it been her imagination? Against the darkness of the abyss, she could keep her eyes open and aware of her surroundings while opening her perception to Moment.
Adanna had never seen the rosol. Despite Gus’ descriptions and analogies, the concept seemed fantastical.
“The day star isn’t something you can intellectualize; you must experience it. You’ll know what I mean when you see it.”
The explosion of Moment light in her mind felt like how she’d imagined the rosol to look.
A chill ran up her body like a sharp wind. Moving slowly, hand over hand backward by leveraging the lumivine, Adanna inched away from the drop-off. Illogically, that blazing image in her mind seemed enough to scorch her to ash. Shaped vaguely like a sphere, it appeared stationary in the black. Within that sphere were limitless complex workings of Moment that warped and overlapped into mesmerizing geometries. It was mesmerizing.
A silhouette of incredible size peaked into the vine light from the shadows. Adanna almost gasped.
Its body was a sinuous ribbon that extended into the void. Its leisurely movements betrayed its enormity, moving with fluidity and grace as it undulated toward her. Glittering, iridescent flattened spikes overlapped along its length, scattering the light into a rainbow of colors. Its head had to be at least twenty paces across with a face without a mouth, similar to a calarite’s. Five enormous eyes adorned its face, four as deep and dark as diving pools, while the center blazed with pulsating Moment energy.
A krystos, she thought, disbelieving her own eyes.
She turned and swam, powerfully and dangerously, back towards the entrance. Ren and Cally waited distantly at the tunnel entrance. They weren’t looking her way—they didn’t know. Her lungs burned, hungry for breath.
Ren smiled at her, signing something she didn’t bother to read. She frantically motioned that they surface. His face dropped, concerned, as he tried to peek past her while moving to his side of Cally. Adanna grasped her handle as Cally started chirping wildly in a panic. Adanna made sure Ren attached before checking behind her. The krystos was a heartbeat away.
Clicking her tongue twice, the group shot up into the funnel-like tunnel. It was as fast as Cally had ever pulled them, and Adanna struggled to keep her grip. The tunnel grew hot, impossibly so. Glancing down, she found a forge red krystos a breath away, creating a boiling, bubbling steam. It cut through the ice like it wasn’t there.
Adanna clicked her tongue, rushing Cally, and she picked up speed. Then, Adanna held Cally as close and tightly as possible, squeezing her eyes shut and counting.
Thirty, twenty, ten, and then they burst into the starlight and splayed onto the ice. Scrambling, they sprinted to the sled and threw on boots. Not bothering to dress further, Adanna whistled to Cally at the sled's front.
Cally paced distantly, her fur raised on end as she chirped dissonant—she wasn’t listening. Adanna whistled again, louder. The calarite turned to Adanna, and they locked eyes. Cally glanced back at the hole one last time, now shooting steam jets into the air as the krystos closed in. She turned and sprinted homeward towards Sableshore.
“Cally!” she yelled, chasing after the calarite. But she was a hundred yards out and barely visible in the starlight in seconds. Ren caught up to Adanna, eyes as wide as hers felt.
“Do we run?” he said, shocked. “How long until…”
The ice cracked and groaned before splitting in a burst of light and sound as the krystos erupted from the pool. Adanna turned to stare at the magnificent creature, spiked scales glittering in the starlight. It shook its massive head, freeing the calp that clung there into all directions to smack wetly onto the flats. Despite most of its length remaining below the ice, it towered high. All five eyes locked on the two of them.
“What do we do?” Ren said, frozen.
Adanna stood, just as petrified, staring back in terror. It stared at them. No, it stared at her. For some reason, she could feel its attention wasn’t on Ren. As it stared, it remained still, as if waiting. Beyond reason, she closed her eyes. And there, she found it.
Moment from that fifth eye shimmered and shifted like thick water before warping into complex shapes and patterns. Adanna tried to respond with a shape channeled within her body, but she had never attempted to control the flow like this. Regardless, she tried, willing the power into eddies and streams—the channeled current ebbed and flowed like the gently swaying in the deep, breaking apart whenever she lost focus. It was like trying to wrangle in the ocean.
She pushed harder. Adanna ignored everything else to gather her attention inward. After an indescribable amount of time, she’d formed her Moment into a thick stream, changing its direction, weaving in and out until closing the loop. And it held. There, she kept it until her focus finally snapped like a frosted branch.
Sweating, she opened her eyes and gasped for breath. The krystos tilted its head left then right, eyes locked. It slithered from the enlarged pool until its head was within ten paces of her.
Face to face, Adanna could make out the smaller, thread-like structures within that central, Moment-filled eye. Those threads connected in a complex network of lines and angles forming the internal structure of the eye, converging at an opaque iris filled with Moment.
It waited there, perhaps demanding more, but she had nothing to give. The krystos startled them as it slipped away suddenly, back down into the depths at a speed that defied its size. Soon, they were standing there alone. Adanna looked to Ren, who looked back at her, mouth gaping and eyes wide.
“What in hells just happened?” Ren said, shock turning into untamed laughter. He grasped her bare shoulder, shaking her. “Adanna, are you in there? What did you do?”
Blinking, she noticed how freezing she was. Whatever happened had fully drained her of Moment, and she shivered against the stark, chilled air.
“I think,” she said, her teeth chattering, “I spoke with it.”