Siren's Reach - Fallen Lands Book 3

Scraper poison, not story content. Do not click.

Scraper poison, not story content. Do not click.

"Well," Sibylla began as we took our first tentative steps into the Reliquary, her voice echoing faintly off the ruined walls. "At least this place had the sense to drain itself of seawater. Guess we're done with all that mermaid business after all. Tragic, really."

Amélie's ears twitched toward a sound before she spun and pointed toward the far end of the chamber. "Oh, do not worry, dear sister. There is still water pooling back there! You will have plenty of opportunities to swim."

Of course, it was just a puddle, water dripping steadily from somewhere above, barely deep enough to wet our ankles. But the way Sibylla's face fell, like someone had told her her favorite curse had been outlawed, was enough to crack the spell the desolate place had been casting over us. Metaphorically, at least. Everyone's shoulders loosened a fraction, though the emptiness pressing in felt no less heavy.

If anything, it grew stronger the farther we stepped into the room. It was almost as if the walls themselves were humming, some demented lullaby pitched just below hearing. I didn't so much hear it as feel it: a faint pressure behind my ears, a weight on my chest, coaxing me forward even as my instincts screamed to turn back.

Before the unease could swallow me whole, Alice pointed to a pillar near a wall. "Look at that. That grating on the wall looks like it was made for climbin' up to that ledge, but it's gotta be at least two stories off the ground." She glanced around and pointed to another spot. "And over there. No way up to that platform I can see, and it's even higher. Might be the water ain't as gone as we think."

"Oh no," Amélie answered in a near whine. "Please tell me this whole place is not a giant puzzle?"

"What do you mean?" Lilith asked, and we all turned to face her. "There is enough rubble in here. It is entirely possible that parts of the room collapsed when the island sank, or with whatever madness has been going on here. I don't think anyone has ever documented a dungeon like this before."

Sibylla snorted. "Link has. He was a famous adventurer from our world. Once, he had to dive into a temple and solve a bunch of puzzles by raising and lowering the water level with levers. It was the only way to reach spots like those up there. On the bright side, I don't think we're going to have that problem."

Her words made me even more nervous, and I began taking in the room in more detail while Amélie grumbled back, "And why are you so certain of that? So far, I think this is looking very similar."

"Because," Sibylla said, "The odds of a dungeon being created with the exact same mechanics as The Water Temple are incredibly low. This isn't even a temple; it's a reliquary, even if it was very weird that we had to go through a temple to get in here. And secondly, I don't see any way to go down. Pretty sure the first step of the water temple is to swim down and find a mermaid waifu."

"And yet," Amélie retorted, "None of that explains…"

But I stopped listening. My attention had been captured by the idea that this was, in fact, some kind of puzzle, and I put my full concentration into figuring out exactly what that meant. My eyes roamed over every inch of the cavernous room's walls, climbing up and up, following what might have been a path. Even the bottom floor had walkways raised around two feet high to give the impression of a direction to follow. I suspected some of what I was seeing higher up were sections of walls that could fold down into bridges, or walkways that could swing out.

The room was heavily engraved, its walls etched with scenes of natural beauty. At our level, the carvings depicted enchanted forests, lush and full of life, with similar creatures gathered in peaceful groups. Some figures were raised from the mural itself, nearly forming separate statues in a few places, though many of those had been damaged over time.

As the walkways rose higher along the room's tiers, the forest gave way to swamp. The groupings of creatures changed, with fewer of some and more of others. The walkways themselves narrowed, mirroring the shrinking patches of land shown in the carvings. Above the swamps came islands, scattered and sparse. The patterns changed again, and by the sixth story, the land was gone entirely. Only the ocean remained, its life depicted as thriving below the waves.

There were small dais around the room, many in fact, and each had a statue of one of the animals from the murals. Dozens of them, all in different poses and facing different directions, but matching the level they were on. Some had been damaged, a few shattered entirely. That could be a problem.

But then I noticed two very important things. First, at the highest level, pressed against the ceiling, was a set of double doors. I couldn't see far into the hallway beyond them from this angle, but I could see in at all because the doors had been ripped apart, their frames twisted, their hinges barely holding onto the splintered remains. And second… I felt cold water slap against my ankles.

It wasn't much yet, just a creeping sheet rolling across the floor. But when I glanced back at the "harmless" puddle Amélie had teased Sibylla about, it wasn't a puddle anymore. The water had risen enough to submerge the base of the pillar Alice had pointed out. It poured steadily from a crack along the far wall now, the slow drip replaced by a quiet, unrelenting stream.

"Uh… this can't be normal," Alice said, watching the thin tide inch forward.

"I'm starting to think maybe it is…" I replied, looking at the paths around the room.

The wrongness in the air pressed tighter, like the unseen hum in the walls had shifted pitch, pushing us forward in tandem with the water. It didn't feel like part of the room's challenge at all, but more like something was trying to exploit the sudden stress to break through our mental defenses. Like something wanted us to keep moving, and standing still was somehow not allowed.

My eyes went back to the towering murals. To the broken statues and scattered platforms, each one a higher, narrower ledge. The forest to swamp, to island, to sea… it wasn't just a story. I was right. It was a path, or at least, a climb.

"Up," I murmured.

"Up where?" Sibylla asked.

I pointed to the highest walkway, the shattered double doors gaping near the ceiling like a challenge. "There. If this place is filling, the puzzle isn't about lowering water. It's about getting to those doors before the whole chamber becomes a death trap."

Sibylla groaned, "Figures. I finally make a psychic squid monster body, and now I gotta use legs." Alice shot her a look. "Weren't you just fussin' 'bout bein' in the water not five minutes ago?"

"Ah!" Sibylla said, raising a finger, "I was complaining about mermaids. Squid monsters are great."

"Can we get moving?" I broke back in with some exasperation.

With all the fun of trying to jog in water, we finally started moving up onto the first set of raised walkways. Each one was just high enough to make the ankle-deep water pool into a network of slow-moving streams a few inches below us, the depth increasing as the floor sloped down across the room. At first, it was almost calming, like a river system winding through a quiet garden. But then the streams began to fill.

I saw shadows in the water first, and soon after, a fin broke the surface. Then another. Within seconds, the water below us was alive with shapes. Sleek barracuda, schools of needle-toothed things I didn't recognize, even a few sharks with jaws too wide and eyes too human. Most of them moved like predators should, quick and searching, their movements sharp enough to make my muscles tighten on instinct.

But the longer I watched, the more wrong it became. Half the fish weren't… right. Some were just bones, fins moving in jerky fits as if something invisible was puppeteering them along. Others were alive but malformed, a third eye bulging from a jaw, gills opening and closing in places where no gills should be. A few twitched in the water like they were alive one moment, dead the next, and back again.

Mutated, dead, or whatever they were, they still had teeth, and there were a lot of them.

"I think it's time to run," Lilith advised, and no one argued.

She led the way, picking up speed as we crossed toward a place that looked like it might lead to a ladder up. As we passed, we saw panels sliding open, letting in more water and more of the fish. Lilith picked up the pace to make sure we stayed ahead of it. I wasn't sure how she was choosing our path with so many branches splitting off, but she kept us moving in what felt like the right direction. Only once did we have to jump a two-meter gap to keep going. Only…

She hadn't studied the room like I had. All of these side paths were meant for groups to break off and complete parts of the puzzle. In theory, we could just shift and float up to the open door above, but not with mutant sharks hunting us! Still, we had a little time. We were outpacing the rising water, buying ourselves a few precious minutes to figure out how to climb.

I spotted a larger statue on a raised dais. It was the perfect place to stop, take in our surroundings, and make a plan. I pointed at it, opened my mouth—

And was interrupted by a loud, resonating groan.

Metal shrieked, tearing and snapping, sharp enough to make my teeth ache. Then, in a roar, dozens of hidden floodgates burst at once. The water surged upward like it meant to swallow the room whole.

I turned and shouted, "Sibylla!"

The moment her eyes locked on mine, I used [Heroic Leap], launching myself up to the next level, puzzle and ladders be damned. She caught on instantly, vanishing into a shadow and reappearing beside me a heartbeat later. I didn't have to explain. She was already pulling a rope from her storage and throwing it down.

Lilith came through the shadows next, grabbing the rope and helping us brace. Even with her weight added, the jets of water were sending up a blinding spray. We started to slip on the slick stone as Alice and Amélie grabbed the rope.

Our cries of alarm must've told them what was coming, because no words were needed. Amélie shifted into a seagull, the only avian form she knew, and shot up toward us like a bullet through the mist.

She landed at the end of our line, shifting back and snatching the rope. I heard the violent rush of water below us and knew that Alice was using her whirlpool spell. When I looked down, the water was already up to her knees. Rather than trying to fight back the creatures in the water, she'd targeted herself, making the nearby water a vortex of death. She tried to climb again, and we all pulled, bringing her up far faster than she could have made on her own.

We fell back from the ledge, panting and soaked, but there was no time to rest. Staggering at first, we pushed forward, the paths still rising with every step.

"We can't do the puzzles!" I huffed out between breaths. "We're going to have to climb again! Let's get as high as we can first!"

Just as the words left my mouth, the walls groaned above us again, another deluge of water pouring down as more of the dungeon's mechanisms failed.

"I take it back!" Amélie yelled into the cacophony. "I would very much like those levers!"

I was about to fire back something appropriately sarcastic when the rain of water, sharks, and mutations was interrupted by something new: eels. Several of them, each over a dozen feet long, writhed down from the flood above.

"Those will be able to reach us if we wait!" I shouted. "I have to jump now!"

Everyone skidded to a stop. We repeated the climb, this time to a ledge barely below the geysers above. The strain from the rapid jumps, the chase, and the endless pull of water was starting to wear on me, but we didn't have a choice.

I landed hard, feet sliding on the stone, only to have Sibylla step from a shadow and grab my hand to steady me. Lilith followed, and Amélie shifted, spreading wings wide. She leapt into the air and was nearly to us… And a tentacle lashed down from the water above, snapping toward her like a whip.

The barbed suckers slashed through the mist, but she twisted around the strike, shifting in the air to punch the squid-thing right in the eye as she passed. It wasn't a strong hit, but it was enough to trigger [Sacred Strike]. The smell of seared calamari hit us as we grabbed her wrists and yanked her to safety.

As the rope fell toward her, Alice did an impressive run up the wall before jumping and catching it, and used the momentum to swing up and away from a snapping eel. We hauled her up fast, just as the water slammed against the ledge below.

Only then did we look around. The island murals now surrounding us were a perfect depiction of this level.

The paths below didn't exist here. At least, not as they had been down below. We were on a platform, and the only way forward was a climb on a narrow ledge for three meters to the next. Lilith sprinted across the thin strip of stone, Sibylla close behind her. Amélie shrugged, foxed, and was on their heels.

"I… I can't do that!" There was something of panic in Alice's voice that seemed very out of character, and she looked like she was fighting the urge to step back.

I was at her side in an instant, swinging her up into a princess carry and giving her a reassuring smile. "I got this one."

She didn't return my smile, but she didn't fight me either. I ran forward in a sprint and leapt to the next platform. I didn't bother to stop and just led the way, platform to platform, until we were clear of the jets overhead. The last jump, I heard something break the surface of the water behind me, but I didn't look back. The water was already an inch deep around my boots when I landed, and the moment I saw an opening to the next level, I leapt.

Another [Heroic Leap] so soon was a massive drain, but I kept Alice in my arms and landed on shaky knees. The others joined a moment later, each in their own way.

Thankfully, this layer had paths again, though many were broken. Bridges hung half-lowered or needed to be rotated into place. As we caught our breath and searched for a way forward, one thing became painfully clear. There weren't enough of us to solve any of these puzzles in time.

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Worse, somehow, the creatures in the water seemed to have all figured out exactly where we were. The churning chaos below wasn't just from the falling jets, but from all of the different fish, sharks, and stranger things tumbling over each other in their frenzy to reach us.

We only had one layer left to climb, but we were going to need to cross most of the room to reach it. With how fast the water was rising, I didn't think we were going to make it this time. But that just meant that part of this run was going to be the hard way; there was no reason to give up.

My eyes swept the chamber, searching for the mechanism to unlock the next path and catching sight of strange angelic fish statues on several of the murals and daises. Before I took a step forward, Amélie put a hand on my shoulder to stop me and shook her head.

"I have an idea."

She moved, swift and deliberate, turning nine different statues in different directions before shoving the last one off the ledge. It fell with a crash, smashing into one of the larger eels below. A moment later, a section of the wall beside us groaned and folded down, forming a bridge to the next path.

We wasted no time before sprinting ahead. Amélie's eyes practically burned with white light as she repeated her uncanny puzzle solutions in rapid succession for the next three platforms… and then I had to punch my first shark. It was more of a claw than a punch. Maybe even a slap, and the claws were a happy coincidence. But it didn't matter. Our time was up.

The shark had piled up over the others, practically being tossed at us, but the next thing, whatever fishy hellbeast it was, just lunged. I caught it in the face with a [Sunray], then held out my hand toward Sibylla in silent request for my halberd.

For a few heartbeats, the swarm roiled, darting and circling, like they might burst onto the walkway any moment. But then, as if a silent signal reached them, the movement stopped. One by one, every creature froze mid-current, tails swaying just enough to keep them in place.

And then they all turned. Every skull, every glassy eye, every hollow socket, angled toward the same wall on the far side of the chamber. There was nothing there. It was just a smooth, cracked stone wall.

But I could feel it too. The same pressure that had been behind my ears since we entered, the same weight on my chest, now so sharp it almost felt like a string pulling me forward.

In perfect synchronicity, the swarm began to swim. Slow, deliberate, and uncaring of the walls or each other, they drove themselves into the stone. The first ones hit softly, tapping like rain. The rest followed harder, thrashing, scraping, their bodies breaking apart one by one as they kept trying to force their way through the wall.

The sound of wet impacts and grinding bone echoed up through the room in a rhythm that somehow matched that relentless pounding against my mind. I didn't realize I'd stopped moving until Sibylla's voice nudged me back to the present.

"Creepy aquarium later. Puzzle now. Unless you want to join the feeding frenzy…?"

I spun, thinking her words were for me, but everyone had been just as drawn in, and just as startled. Amélie nodded and answered, "Yes. Of course."

I followed her sloshing steps before looking ahead. "I don't know how many more of these we're going to make it through. Soon we're going to be swimming."

Grinding stone heralded another bridge moving into position, and Amélie returned to our side. "The water is slowing down. We might make it."

We all stepped forward the moment the bridge connected, but no one was willing to answer her and jinx us. By the time the water reached our waists, we'd made it nearly to the far side of the room. The staccato thuds of flesh against stone had finally stopped. That end of the chamber was little more than a red stain, thick with floating corpses.

None of us looked back anymore. We'd stopped the moment Alice announced she'd know if anything started swimming our way. I wasn't sure if that meant she'd been watching what was happening against that wall the entire time… and I was afraid to ask.

Amélie came to a sudden stop ahead, looking around in confusion, and then just turned back to the rest of us and shrugged.

"Looks like the rest of the puzzle here collapsed. I think we are going to have to swim for it."

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a massive cuttlefish shuffled up beside me, somehow managing to blow bubbles. Sibylla's illusory voice was all smiles, "I knew you missed the squid."

I just shook my head. "It's not even that much of a swim. Maybe twenty yards and a little bit of waiting for the water to reach the stairs."

Alice patted me on the shoulder. "Just let her have this one."

I let out a long breath and nodded. "Alright. I think I will go scout ahead. No need for us to be surprised coming over that ledge." Sibylla raised a tentacle arm, waving it around until she had my attention, and then my halberd appeared in it. "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this."

"And don't go past the steps!" Lilith added, making me roll my eyes.

I took the offered weapon and hopped up out of the water, landing on a platform of air. "Don't worry. I just want to see ahead. I'll wait for you all before I go anywhere."

I foxed where I stood, letting all the cold, salty water soak out of my clothes and rain down below. Then I padded toward the stairs. Just putting a paw on solid stone again sent a wave of relief through me. At least, until I neared the top.

The shattered doorway led into a dark hall. I could see a good distance down its length, but it just kept going, long and narrow, like the endless tunnels of the first dungeon I'd ever entered. I was almost disappointed to have so little to report to the others, until I felt the fur on the back of my neck begin to stand.

I shifted, spun, and raised my weapon, but nothing was there. Slowly, I made my way back to the bottom of the stairs, scanning the room. I paused just before the final stair. Most of the fish were still now, either floating belly-up or slowly drifting away in death or madness. But something was… off.

The pile of bodies near the wall, where they'd flung themselves again and again, shifted. It wasn't from the current. I narrowed my eyes, and there, just above the waterline, I saw them. Two gleaming eyes, far too wide apart, glinting gold in the dim light. Motionless and watching. I stared back, not sure if it was a trick of the light.

They blinked. Something was beneath the surface, nestled in the bloated tangle of fish and bone, hiding under the carnage like a hunter in brush. I had a better view this time when the bodies shifted. It wasn't just waiting. It was feeding.

I took an involuntary step back—and the eyes vanished, slipping below without a ripple. I nearly jumped out of my skin when something touched my back. Only Sibylla's voice stopped me from whirling and striking.

"What is it?"

I shook my head, swallowing. "I think it's time to move on."

She gave me a concerned look but followed my gaze and nodded. The others joined us much as they'd done earlier. They weren't as upset about abandoning their rest as I'd expected. Maybe it had something to do with all the drifting blood and bodies in the water.

While the others prepared, I watched the water for any sign of movement, but whatever was down there was staying well out of view. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, and it wasn't my only concern. The water had slowed its rise to its initial speed, but beyond that, it had shown no sign of stopping.

The moment everyone was ready, Lilith and Sibylla led the way down the long, dark hall beyond the doors. The moment I stepped through the threshold, [Starlight] filled the corridor, but its obsidian walls looked no less endless.

In only a few steps, Alice moved to walk beside me.

"You alright? You look like death just tapped you on the shoulder."

I took another glance back the way we'd come before answering. "Just.. something in the water. It gave me the creeps. I didn't want to find out what it was."

She raised a brow. "You messin' with me? No? Well, whatever it was, it was dead. Nothin' was alive down there when we left. I kept my eye on it the whole time, right up till the end." Her tone was abnormally carefree, exaggeratedly so.

"But—" I started, and Amélie spoke over me.

"Evie, you have been really stressed out since we came in here. I understand, this place has us all on edge. Just try not to see monsters in every shadow."

That... was annoying. "You know how in every horror movie ever, someone says, 'oh no! There is a monster!' and then everyone tells them they're overreacting, and then they all die?" Amélie slapped the back of my leg with her tail and gave me a meaningful look when I shot her a glare. "Yes, Evelyn. I know. But obviously, there is nothing out there."

I opened my mouth to object, but then stopped and took in her insistent expression. The way that she was emphasising her words, completely flippant about potential danger. And Alice's entirely out-of-character response. They did know, and something about that thing made them think we needed to pretend we didn't. That only made me more nervous.

Clearing my throat, I nodded. "…. Right. You're right. I'm just… over-reacting."

Sibylla chose that moment to chime in, "Be that as it may, we should pick up the pace. Has anyone else noticed this hallway is at a slightly downward slope?"

That made everyone turn, looking back toward the wide, high-ceilinged room slowly filling behind us in this relatively narrow hall. It was enough to urge us to pick up our pace. No matter how far we traveled, though, the tunnel only looked the same ahead.

The moment we all caught the faint groan of shifting stone and the first rush of distant water echoing behind us, everyone moved. We didn't need to say anything. We just ran. The tunnel sloped downward in a gentle decline, but it felt like we were sprinting down the side of a mountain. The walls were close, the floor slick, and somewhere far behind us, the Reliquary's trap had finally decided to spring.

The sound of the water grew louder with every step, like an angry tide squeezing through a narrow gap. Its ominous rush echoed and rebounded in unnatural ways, warped by the dungeon's broken magic that made it feel as stretched out and wrong as the hall we fled down. We had no way of knowing how close it really was, even as it felt like it would crash down on us at any moment.

Alice shouted something, probably about the grade or something about the tunnel ahead, but her voice was swallowed by the thunder growing behind us. I reached out and took her hand, knowing I was stronger and faster than she was. The idea caught, and Sibylla took the lead, pulling Amélie with her. I ran just behind Lilith, struggling to keep pace on the uneven floor. I glanced back just once and regretted it immediately.

The tunnel behind us had vanished into violently rushing black water, eating up the corridor like a beast with a thousand mouths. One final, desperate cry left Alice.

"Shift!"

And I finally did, my own warning reaching out to Amélie and Sibylla through magic as I was consumed in a flash of light and a cascade of water. In the next heartbeat, the roar overtook us, and my world was chaos. My mind hadn't caught up. One moment, I was half-running, half-sliding, barely keeping my footing… then the water slammed into us like a falling mountain while I was mid shift. Cold, churning, and impossibly strong.

It wasn't like diving into the ocean. The expected flood of new senses I'd felt in my previous shifts was lost in the chaos. This was like being taken, thrown, and crushed. I didn't even know if I was upright. I only knew I needed to find the surface.

I'd managed to keep my last breath in my lungs, thank the stars, but it wasn't enough. I thrashed upward, kicking hard, pushing through the dizzying swirl of stone and bodies and broken magic. I couldn't see the others, but I felt them. Alice's hand still gripping mine, Sibylla's familiar magic flaring against my side.

Then, air. Only a pocket, high against the tunnel's ceiling, but I reached it, gasped, and managed to pull Amélie up beside me. Alice rose next to us a heartbeat later, eyes glowing faintly as she tamed the chaos just enough to carve a second's safety. Long enough to breathe.

Sibylla wasn't far behind. She surfaced with Lilith wrapped tight in her many arms, her black tentacles wrapped protectively around her like a shield. Neither of them needed the air, but the false safety of being together was good for all of us. But we didn't have time to orient ourselves.

The current surged suddenly, faster and stronger, just as the world tilted. The floor fell out from beneath us. Gravity twisted sideways, and with it, so did we. We were flung down through a narrow breach into some kind of twisting shaft, the water turning vertical around us like a whirlpool caught mid-spiral. The tunnel behind us vanished, and we fell.

We never hit the bottom. Or, if we did, I couldn't tell. One moment, we were falling through the water, tumbling and spiraling, limbs flailing for control with the stars spinning overhead, and then… nothing.

There was no impact, splash, or even a feeling of slowing. It was just sudden stillness. The current vanished as if it had never been, leaving me drifting suspended in the water. My hair drifted aimlessly, and the few bubbles that escaped me calmly drifted away in no particular direction.

The others were scattered around nearby, all slowly turning in place like marionettes with their strings cut. No one sank or rose, and with a sudden spike of fear, I realized that there was no up. I spun and almost panicked, until I caught sight of the stars.

They were soft and distant, glowing gently across the ceiling far above. Reassuring as they were, the sight felt too far away to be any real ceiling. They shimmered like reflections caught in a perfect mirror, untouched by the chaos we'd just come through. It gave the impression that the shaft we'd fallen from no longer existed, and it'd taken any air that might have been above us with it. I was handling it better than I expected, but likely only because my lungs weren't burning yet.

Still, the longer we hovered there, the more wrong everything felt. The water wasn't moving at all, and the pressure was all wrong. And something else. It took me a moment to understand. It was something in the magic, almost as if this place was barely holding itself together, and yet, it was somehow separated from the rest of reality. Like we were somewhere else entirely.

I gave a gentle sweep of my tail, pushing myself closer to the others when I caught movement in the corner of my eye.

I turned slowly, heart thudding in my ears, and caught a glimpse of something pale slipping between bodies tumbling in the dark. I thought it was a fish, but the color was bone. I caught half a spine, curled like an eel. Another flicker went by too fast. The blur of a jawless head and fins in places that made no sense.

I closed with the others, turning my back in the only safe direction. Whatever was out there, they were watching, and there was more than one.

They stayed just far enough out that we couldn't get a clear look, but I felt the moment they all turned, their gazes shifting. And we all knew why. We'd felt it, too.

A single note of pressure rippled through the world, brushing against my skin as much as my mind. The impossible beauty of that sound was both simple and pure, conveying only a single idea.

"This way."

The tension immediately drained from my muscles. The relief from knowing undoubtedly and exactly what I needed to do was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. I hadn't even realized how afraid I'd been. This place was so wrong. I didn't belong underwater, not like this. And this room? I was nearly certain that the room wasn't even part of the dungeon. Who even knew what ridiculous new problem I'd just dragged my sisters and friends into, let alone how I was going to get us out of it?

But that single call, that wonderful, soothing call, had pushed all of that to the back of my mind. She was waiting for us, and all of those worries twisting my guts into knots died at the sound of her voice. Why worry about any of that? There was only one thing we really needed to do. Only one thing that mattered. And it was so very simple.

I twisted my body in the direction I—we needed to go, leaned forward to kick with my tail, and …was promptly yanked back to the others. Sibylla floated in the center of the group, a small, familiar spirit mouse on the brim of her hat and a fresh bite mark in the middle of her squiddy face. Everyone looked as dazed as I felt, but my head was rapidly clearing.

My eyes darted up with the motion of something large passing overhead. Some kind of colossal shrimp, a few meters long. It wasn't the thing I'd spotted watching us in the flood chamber, nor part of the swarm of creatures that had been stalking us here. Just how many things were in the water with us? I twisted, looking around, spotting movement in the shadows, but almost always too far away to get a clear look at, especially with all the broken bodies and debris that had fallen into this strange place with us.

But then, my attention caught on a star. It was wrong. It stood right at the edge of a constellation that hadn't left the sky since I'd come to this world. Only, that was a spot that should have been empty darkness in the night sky. I blinked at it in confusion before tracing my way across more unfamiliar lights. It took several seconds to put it all together. These stars and the wrongness of them, it wasn't just that they weren't in the right places. They weren't there at all. It was an illusion, some part of this trap trying to confuse my trait and ruin my ability to navigate.

Once again, Sibylla's illusory voice dragged me out of my thoughts.

"That's not good."

I turned, still feeling a little confused and almost answering aloud before catching myself and responding in kind. "What's not good?"

She gestured, and I watched as another creature, something akin to an eight-meter-long hammerhead, swam toward the call. It reached a point where the water seemed to flow more strongly, and then began to vanish. Nearly the entire front quarter of it was gone when it suddenly stopped, thrashed once, and then seemed to be violently pulled the rest of the way forward, disappearing entirely.

I looked at her again, wide-eyed, but she pointed back toward where the shark had vanished. I turned and watched for several seconds. Nothing happened… but then, not far from where the shark had disappeared, bits of fin and a few teeth reappeared on the far side of the current, lazily drifting away.

"That's not a current," I sent to the others. "And… It's not an illusion. What just happened?"

Alice drifted up beside me. "It's like the water just ends, right where that thing vanished. Like the edge of the damn world. That shark looked like it came apart at the seams or somethin'. But that don't matter. What does is that wall's comin' our way."

"And here I was worried about running out of air," Amélie said. "Has anyone else noticed this place doesn't feel like the dungeon? I think somehow that fall took us to this weird place. There has to be a way back."

"It's a trap."

We all looked at Sibylla. She hadn't taken her eyes off the shimmering current where the hammerhead had vanished.

"But not a dungeon trap. This isn't dungeon magic." Her voice was quiet, but absolute. "I think someone put this here to kill anything that made it inside. Maybe even weaponized the Siren's call just to drag victims into that death wall faster."

Amélie grabbed on to her words like a lifeline. "Then there must be a way out! Why else would they bother? We need to find it."

Bubbles floated up from Lilith's mouth, but whatever she'd tried to say was lost in the water. Somehow, that didn't stop Alice from understanding and translating.

"Lilith says more things are swimmin' up behind us. They gotta be gettin' in from that way."

"Then let's move." I agreed. "Better than sitting here waiting to die."

Alice hugged Lilith to her chest and surged forward. Only then did I realize Lilith hadn't had a chance to put her fins back on after we'd fallen into the water. At least for this, it didn't matter. We moved as quickly as we could manage, staying well clear of the dull-eyed monsters moving ever toward the call. There were dozens, and I was starting to think there must be more than one entrance to this place. It didn't really matter. Staying here was certain death, even if we didn't know where we'd get out.

It was nearly two minutes before I spotted something out of place. A blank patch in the stars. At first, I thought it was more of the illusion distorting the sky, but as I watched, it slowly migrated across the constellations.

"There! Watch the stars! That's got to be it!"

The others followed to where I pointed, and Alice let out a whoop, pulling ahead.

"You're right! There's fresh water pourin' in over there!"

We chased after the strange blank patch through the stars. We all knew it was a race against time, either to run out of air or to be too caught up in the trap to escape.

The rift pulsed as we approached, warping the water around it. It shimmered faintly, the perfect reflection of water in the dark, and I felt a tug in my chest the closer we came. It was like some instinct telling me I was reaching for a lifeline, and I needed to give it all I had.

Alice reached it first, pulling Lilith with her. Her confidence in our salvation must have been absolute, because she didn't even slow. The two vanished in a single flash, like fish darting through a curtain. A ripple echoed outward from the point of contact, and the rift began to really move. It shot forward, and we had to put on a burst of speed ourselves. I was sure that if it got any faster, Amélie and Sibylla wouldn't stand a chance of keeping up.

"Go!" I cried, and Amélie didn't hesitate. She grabbed Sibylla around the middle, and the two of them followed.

The portal leapt forward faster than even I'd expected, and I kicked hard, throwing everything I had into one final burst of speed. But just before I reached it, I felt something. That familiar creeping sensation on the back of my neck. A presence behind me.

I didn't turn. I already knew what was there. I felt the water react to something large moving in the shadows, somewhere I knew would be hidden in a blind spot, lurking just beyond the drifting corpses and twisted debris. Watching and feeding as before, and far closer than I ever wanted it to be.

I knew with a bone-deep certainty that if I slowed, even for an instant, it would close the gap. So I didn't. I trusted the stars, and I dove.

The world twisted around me, dragging me through a tunnel of impossible pressure and silent magic that tasted like salt and regret.

Then…

Air! I reacted almost automatically, barking out a desperate laugh and gulping in a breath that tasted like the breeze over the ocean after a storm. In that first second of relief, I could tell I was falling, though not how far I had to go, or over what. Still, I knew that if I was falling, so was everyone else. I threw out my [Levitation Aura] as far as I could and spun to face down to make sure I'd not missed anyone.

The others were all there and safe, though they all seemed to be recovering from a little panic. We were still at least a dozen meters in the air with water below, though I wasn't entirely confident about how deep it was. I began channeling the wind to push us all closer together, pulling myself down toward the others and taking in the scene around us along the way.

I'd expected to pop out into water somewhere with how much had been pouring in through the rift, but instead, we'd somehow made it to the tropics. At least, that's what it looked like. The whole area was dotted with hundreds, if not thousands, of islands. A network of pristine water flowed between them all, filled with colorful fish, vibrant plants, and, occasionally, very large crabs.

The whole thing looked like a massive labyrinth, and at its center was a much larger island. I was sure you could see it from anywhere with the small mountain that took up all the space beyond its sandy beach. But I noticed something equally important. There was nothing between us and that mountain right now. I had plenty of mana, great regeneration, and while the water below was beautiful, I didn't see a single reason not to just pick up the wind speed and fly us directly to the center.

And the moment I dared to put a smug smile on my face is when the air began to fill with a sound akin to static on an old TV. There was a loud pop, and my spells felt like sand slipping through my fingers. We all began to plummet toward the water.

Scraper poison, not story content. Do not click.