The obscene volume of rushing liquid roars with ferocity as it charges past us, only barely curving enough for us to pass. Yalun and I hug the left wall, keeping as far from the deadly water as feasible. Śuri strides ahead of us, unconcerned.
Grímr stands the closest to the immense stream, his wings clamped to his sides as he carries Leal and her enshrouding sphere of water forward. The slightest clip of his wing into the flow almost tore the wing right off his body.
He said he was alright, but the snap I heard didn’t sound great. The wing still moves freely, so it’s not broken at least. I’ll need to keep a close eye on him; I don’t want him to be ripped away from us in the stream just because he stretched his wings.
Inside her orb of water, Leal’s eyes stay glued to the stream ahead of us. A small stream shoots forward from her sphere into the larger flow, likely to spread her will. A second stream flows into her back, returning from the water that crashes into the wall behind us.
I turn back to watch the water where Leal’s influence obviously loses its grip. The stream curves back in on the wall like a sledgehammer, powerful enough to warp the metal and splash water everywhere. Thankfully, the water that comes close gets collected by Leal’s orb, but it’s still a frightening sight.
The heavy flow is intense enough that even as skilled as Leal is, she has to put all her focus on angling it away from us at our front. She can’t worry about the damage it causes when it leaves her control. I’m just glad that the momentum of all that water seems to be enough to stop it filling up our walking space.
The sound is deafening. I’m certain Śuri just said something, but the crashing of water behind us is just too intense.
Seriously, how have the walls not crumbled from such strength?
Apparently realising the problem, Śuri spreads his flame to me and Yalun. Once again, I get to feel that incredible black flame. It is subdued, controlled as to not overwhelm me, but the heat is undeniable.
“Our path is to the left. Only another hundred metres now.” With our flames connected, his voice comes through with clarity, even over the deafening water.
I nod back in understanding, but how can we tell Leal and Grímr? It’s not like this method of communication would work with anyone other than an áed.
As I watch Leal’s focused gaze, I consider it probably better not to distract her, even should I have a way to do so through that barrier of hers. She’s more intent on the flow ahead of us than I’ve seen her. This task might have been too much to ask from her, but I’m glad she can hold out.
I don’t think I have to say how worried I am about the consequences of her stumbling now.
Eventually, we find the hole Śuri told us of. The wall is shattered in places and remoulded in others. It’s clear Śuri’s fire burnt away some of the wall, but the flow must have torn off loose sections.
It is obviously not meant to be a passageway, what with the many exposed inner workings in the walls — at least those not already ground down by the heavy stream — but it leads to a hallway completely unique from the one we’ve been wading through.
Now in this offshoot corridor, Leal visibly sighs and drops the sphere of water surrounding her. We are still completely submerged, but the further we move through this side hallway, the less the intense flow affects us. Leal holds off the surrounding water with far greater ease than she has for the last while of walking.
Unlike the wide entry hallway — or cannon barrel — this area appears much more likely to be intended for people to walk around. It still keeps the same sort of aesthetic with metallic walls with the long sweeping lines of some inscription, but there are doorways along the walls and even an open area at the end of the short hallway.
“Thank you, Leal,” Śuri says, the sound of water no longer deafening. “How do you think you can manage here?”
“The water pressure is high, but it shouldn’t be an issue to hold it off.”
As she says so, the water around us spins, twirling around us in a way not unlike my fire twisters. I take a moment to realise Leal is doing it intentionally; her face now calm and relaxed. Maybe the twisting motion makes it easier for her to hold off the pressure of the water?
Now that she doesn’t need to put in too much focus, Leal climbs down from Grímr’s back. With how long this trip is taking, we might be stuck in the wasteland a lot longer than expected. I’m worried that they might get annoyed at staying out here. The wasteland isn’t comfortable in itself, and now I’ve dragged them to this dangerous place.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Thanks for that, Leal. You didn’t have to do this,” I say as I join her side. “You too, Grímr.”
Leal glares at me. “Are you kidding? You think I would miss this?” her gaze travels along the hallway to the open space. “We had to abandon our last attempt, but this time I want to learn more about this place.”
I turn to Grímr, but I can tell he’s smiling down at me, despite the bird’s beak being unable to make such an expression.
“You do not have to worry about me, Solvei. This has been enjoyable. Far better than waiting around for months in our team’s cabin.”
I’m not that transparent, am I?
“Come on Solvei, I need to see where this leads.” Leal grabs my arm and leads me ahead of the grand elders.
The spinning water stays centred around Leal, so the others are quick to follow.
We stop before one of the doors lining the hallway. The separation between wall and door panel is clear, but there is no door-handle. Leal taps all along the metal plate, looking for some way to access, but there is nothing. Even when she creates that odd analytical lens of water over her eyes, she simply shakes her head with disappointment.
As I step up beside Leal, I realise just how tall the doorway is. It rises over even our ursu’s head. Whatever made this place must be rather tall. That, or they just like a lot of room.
I place my hand on the metal and push my ethereal flames through. It is far faster to spread through metal than stone, so it only takes a few moments to breach. The interior of the door is filled with a bunch of pipes and dense air that immediately incinerates at a touch of my fire. They don’t explode, simply puff out of existence.
As I push further, reaching for whatever is on the other side, I recoil. The sting of water is painful even if my flames are ethereal. I snap my arm away from the wall, pulling back on my fire.
“The other side is flooded,” I say as I step away.
Leal and I turn to the open area at the end of the corridor in unison, ready to explore whatever lies hidden. I may have been terrified of all the water surrounding us until now, and while the water swirling around us still concerns me, my curiosity is screaming for me to explore.
“Wait, Solvei. What was that?” Yalun stops us before we can rush ahead.
“What was what?” I ask, unsure of what she means.
Yalun motions to the unmarked door. “What were those flames? Did you push them through the metal?”
I look at her in confusion, but notice Śuri staring as well. “They were my ethereal flames, and yes?” Is that strange? I thought for sure something I’d achieved with my control would certainly be something any of my elders could do.
“Can you do it again for me?” she asks, spreading her flames into mine.
I do as she says and watch her eyes widen as my flames completely pass through air and metal without interacting with either.
“That influence,” Yalun says. “The Void’s touch is thicker than ever when your flames are in this state.”
What? But I only recently achieved ethereal flame. They didn’t come after the Void Fog made its changes. I thought it was the same effect as when my flames would pass through inscriptions, like back in the library with Leal, which was long before the Void touched me. Is that wrong?
“You two can explore the oddities of her fire at a later time. Remember where we are,” Śuri says.
Yalun reluctantly backs off and I return to Leal’s side, who’s watching on with an analytical eye.
“You didn’t know that fire was strange, did you?” I whisper to her.
“Solvei, everything you do is strange. I’ve told you before, right? The way áed control fire goes against everything I’ve been taught.” Leal turns back to the end of the hallway. “I’m still concerned about what will happen after you reach this binding threshold. Both yours and Yalun’s energy signature is far too subtle; it makes me uncomfortable.”
Right. Leal still thinks I might lose who I am when I increase my binding. Though, now that I think about it, that sounds scarily close to the dangers Yalun speaks of grasping too much binding at once.
“You know, it’s like you said: us áed are strange.” It’s actually the fleshy races that are strange, but whatever. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’ll be as much me when I reach the threshold as I am now.”
She looks down at me for a few moments before shaking her head with a chuckle. “Yeah, of course. I shouldn’t expect anything else but the obscene from you, right?”
That’s… not an insult, right? No, I am just going to assume it’s a compliment. A strange one, but a compliment regardless.
As we approach the end of the hallway, I grip my spear in a standard stance. The area is flooded and there may not be anything to fight, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.
A large staircase is the first thing to catch my eye as we walk out of the hallway. It fills the back quarter of the room to our right. Simplistic and even steps lead up to a second and third floor, where it branches off into other hallways. The top of the stairwell curves to the back corners of the room, spiralling up to many more floors above.
To our left is a wide opening, about the size of a cube’s hallway. I’m guessing it leads to one of those bridges on the docks.
The room itself is cubical. Tall, metallic walls lined with strange vertical rails and indistinct inscriptions circle the room, making way for holes at each floor. Each of those holes appear much like the entrance to the hallway we just left, and sit an equal distance from each other along the interior walls of the room.
Everything is still flooded, but the water is clear, so even with Leal swirling it around us, visibility is good.
Not even this place has remained undamaged by the overflowing water. Sharp rods by the sides of the stairs are the only indication they once had handrails. The straight rails along the walls occasionally have some broken mechanism attached. It is only because there is one platform on ground level that remains intact that I can even tell what they are meant to be. The appearance is very much like those elevators the centzon used, though without the visible gears and pulleys.
“So… where to?” I ask. There are so many hallways to explore.
Śuri steps forward. “Well, I want to see the source of all that water, so I’d say the main hallway at the top of those stairs.”
Together, we climb the stairs. For better or worse, we’re heading into the depths of the island.