Emily’s friends seem to calm down at Tom’s words, an air of resolve settling over them as Emily tio reassure them.

  “It’s not like I’m pnning on being stuck down there forever,” she says, steadying Juliana’s still-shaking hand with a light squeeze. “Worst case sario, I lead us back to this tunnel, and I think I may have a solution with spatial magic. It will just take a while.”

  Iieleportation arrays isly easy.

  Dante and Ivrin as if they were expeg this, while Enzo, Tom, aer all give small sighs of exasperation.

  “Why didn’t you start with that?” Hester mumbles. “We wouldn’t have had any doubts if you hadn’t said we couldn’t e up through this tunnel.”

  “No,” Emily says with a small smirk. “I said it wouldn’t be easy. I think I’ll be able to force my way back up through the current iunnel. So, if I i a new she teleportation array and carve half of it down there, then half up here, I could bring you all up. It would just take me a while to create a full teleportation array - I’ve never done any work with rge-scale spatial manipution before - which is why I think it will probably be faster to look for another way out instead.”

  And I want to ease Jules into the idea of what I’m about to ask her to do. I don’t want to traumatise her too much…

  The memory of Juliana’s mutited corpse flickers across Emily’s mind as she gnces guiltily at her girlfriend, the weight of her broken promise twistihoughts.

  But maybe sg her a little wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Maybe she will adapt and sider travelling with me if she gets used to fronting her fear…

  “I’m holy surprised you’re not fident you could create a new spatial array within minutes,” Tom says with a grin, pulling Emily’s attention back to their versation as he sits down to take his shoes off.

  “Large-scale arrays are plicated,” Enzo responds while copying him. “It’s reasonable for her to take an hour or so.”

  Emily igheir jabs, giving a small, reassuring nod to Ivor, the st person not getting ready to swim, gng between her and Juliana with a ed look. As he turns away, Emily gently pulls on Juliana’s hand, guiding her away from the group. They walk down the riverbank a little before an invisible bubble s around them, blog their voices from reag everyone else.

  Emily stands before Juliana, taking both her hands and looking into her eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Emily asks gently.

  “No,” Juliana says, tears in her eyes that pull on Emily’s heartstrings, the twistings of guilt in her chest only worsening. “I don’t think I go down there. I’m sorry. I don’t want to ruin your expedition, and everyone else is prepared to keep going, but-“

  Emily pulls Juliana into a hug, cutting off her spiralling panid turning it into a quiet sobbing against her shoulder.

  Is it too much for her?

  Emily bites her lip in disappoi and frustration, drawing blood as she brings a hand to Juliana’s head, wiping the crimson liquid away in the process.

  It’s not like I really leave her here. Even if I leave everyone else with her, they’re dead if a sihird circle beast attacks them. Maybe I’ll do the array to get us down?

  Emily keeps stroking Juliana’s hair, giviime to calm down while she starts running through ideas to avoid the uer chute. Once Juliana stops shaking, Emily holds her tight for a short while longer before pulling bad gently running a hand along her cheek, wiping away the tears.

  “What about if you stay in tact with me the whole time and keep your eyes shut?” Emily suggests, receiving an instant panicked head shake in response.

  “Not being able to see anything will be way worse.”

  “What about if I keep a light around us?”

  Juliana goes quiet, gng betweeer and Emily, a silent war raging in her head.

  She’s sidering it? she push through her fear?

  A small seed of hope pnts itself in Emily’s heart as she waits. After a minute of deliberation, Julias out a sigh and drops her head bato Emily’s shoulder.

  “We’ll be able to breathe the whole time, right?” she asks weakly.

  “Of course.”

  “Okay,” Juliana whispers, her grip around Emily tightening. “I’ll try.”

  A small smile cracks Emily’s lips as she pces a kiss against the side of her girlfriend’s head.

  “Thank you.”

  They separate pletely after another mihe invisible barrier around them disappearing as they return to their friends who are all waiting by the water’s edge, their shoes and cloaks tucked away into Tom’s bag. Thankfully, none of them asks any questions about Emily and Juliana’s versation as the two quickly prepare to ehe water as well.

  “So, how are we doing this?” Hester asks as Emily sends the st of her excess gear into her belt.

  “The tunnel is too narrow to fit any more than one person at a time,” Emily expins. “I also suspect you and I will be the only ones with a hope of fighting the current close to it, so I suggest we ehe water with a small gap between each other and just ght for the tunnel.”

  Nods of aowledgement spread across the group quickly.

  “Who first?” Dante asks, leaning towards the water and shifting from side to side, seemingly impatient to dive in.

  “It depends,” Emily says, reag into her belt and pulling out a few light packs. “We don’t really know what’s down there, so it’s probably safest if I lead. But, if you’re dying to go down first, you .”

  Dante fshes a fident grin that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, presenting his chest for Emily to clip a light pack to his armour.

  “I’ll go first then. I want to see what’s down there.”

  Is he impatient because he doesn’t like the unknown?

  Emily nods, lookiween the rest of her friends for pints and seeing none.

  “In that case, we go Dante, Enzo, Hester, Tom, Ivor, then me and Juliana. Sound good?”

  Everyone agrees, and Emily clips a light pack to Enzo aer, before walking up to the water’s edge.

  “I’ll stay by the tunnel and guide you all down. Allow twenty seds between each of you hitting the water so we don’t get gested iunnel,” Emily says, gesturing for Dao follow her as she fshes Juliana a f smile. “I’ll be back for you after everyone’s gone.”

  Receiving a less than fident nod from her girlfriend, Emily shares a knowing gh Ivor before pg her Gills to her mouth and stepping out into the water.

  He should help keep her calm until I e back.

  Emily sinks into the swirling currents, falling down towards the tunnel without much effort on her part. She casts light as she sinks, juring a glistening white orb to dispel the surrounding darkness and reveal the tu the bottom of the riverbed. Before the fissure pull her in, Emily uses a mixture of earth aal mana to weigh herself down, reag the rocky surface below before casting a spell to soften the rock, bending it with delicate mana manipution to reach up and around her feet before solidifying, rooting her in pce beside the hole.

  She looks up, watg Dante sink towards her quickly at an odd aruggling to stay upright in the current. Emily reaches out and grabs his arm as he es close, letting his feet sink into the hole first before pulling both his arms in to cover his chest. She makes eye tact with him, the kle in his eyes the only sign of his signature grin hidden behind his shifting mask, as go, watg him vanish in an instant.

  She then turns her gaze to the surface again and, after a short wait, sees Enzo quickly approag, sinki first towards her with his arms already ed around himself to reduce the influence of the current. Emily reaches out, grabbing him before he hit the tunnel, killing his momentum and lining him up to enter smoothly.

  She repeats this with Hester and Tom, sending them off to joihers in the deep tunnels below. As Ivor arrives before her, weighing himself down with mana in a simir mao her, he gives her a small nod and signs, “Good luck,” before she releases him and he shoots down and away.

  Emily releases the rock’s hold on her feet and kicks off, rising up against the current and kig her powerful legs to propel herself towards the surface. She emerges in the tre of the river and sees Juliana sitting on the riverbank, staring back at her while fidgeting awkwardly with the Gills in her p. Emily swims over, pces both her arms over her girlfriend’s p as her on them as she looks up at her.

  “You ready?” she asks gently.

  Juliana shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, then releases it slowly as she opens them again and nods. Her fear is still evident in her eyes and the slight shaking of her hands as she brings the Gills to her face, but she pushes forward heless.

  Emily floats back a little bit, both of her hands for Juliana to take before carefully pulling her forward, and l her into the water. Juliana shivers as she ehe river, gng down nervously as Emily tilts, pces a foot against the riverbank behind them, and pushes off, propelling them out into open water.

  Kig fiercely to keep both of them afloat, Emily pulls Juliana in close, ing her arms around her and leaning in to whisper in her ear, the mask on her face barely impeding her speech.

  “Just rex and hold on tight, I’ll keep it nid bright so you see the bottom at all times, okay?”

  “Hmm,” Juliana hums along with a meek nod, so Emily slows her kig.

  They’re pulled down in a trolled manner, and Juliana’s grip on Emily tightens as they dip below the surface, as if trying to crush the air from her lungs.

  So much for rexing.

  Emily keeps p mana intht spell, peing through the thiderwater darkness and keeping a beam of light illuminating their path down to the dark hole below. They sink down, and Emily once again anchors herself to the floor o the hole, this time doing the same for Juliana.

  She taps Juliana’s shoulder, gently trying to pull bamunicate. Juliana doesn’t budge at the first tap, but after a few seds Emily taps again and she plies, slowly rexing her grip and pulling back a little, her arms refusing to leave Emily’s sides pletely.

  “Would you rather go in first and hold on to me, o in sed and I hold you?” Emily signs, patiently waiting for Juliana to let go with one hand and sign out a response.

  “Go in sed,” she manages, her hand shaking the whole time.

  Emily’s heart aches to see her in such distress, but she quickly pushes the feelings to the back of her mind.

  “Through the tunnel fast or slow?”

  “Fast,” Juliana responds with more certainty than Emily expected.

  “Okay, yoing to have to let go of me. Keep your arms tucked into your chest. Don’t worry, I won’t let go of you.”

  Juliana frowns, but relutly nods, slowly prying her remaining hand off of Emily before ing both her arms around herself like a protective b. Emily releases the rock from her feet, letting herself float sideways to hover above the hole that tries to whisk her away. Her feet slip into the tunnel and she quickly spreads both her legs to press against the tunnel walls, slowing her dest as her hands run down Juliana’s sides, then her legs, ing to rest in a firm grip around her ankles when Emily’s entire chest is buried in the riverbed.

  Juliana’s gaze remains locked on Emily the whole time, following her down in the light of the glowing white orb still floating overhead. Emily pins her legs against the tunnel, rooting herself in pce as she nods to Juliana and waits for a response. Juliana seems to gather herself, taking o gnce up towards the surfad noticeably shivering before log eyes with Emily and nodding back.

  Emily bends the rocks around Juliana’s feet back down into their inal pd rexes her legs a little, slowly pulling Juliana into the hole. They lradually until Juliana is pletely within the narrow tuhe orb of light following closely to keep her fortable.

  Fast it is.

  Emily pulls her legs in, pletely releasing her grip on the walls aing the current take them. They shoot down, the walls rag past in their small bubble of light. Emily watches her feet, brag before the first rge twist iunnel, using her legs and a small burst of water mana to dampen the impact. She repeats this over and over, kig off the walls with her bare feet and guiding them with a steady flow of mana each time the tuhreatens to smash them into the hard rock walls, trying to make the chute less traumatic for Juliana.

  They fall for a minute and soon hit the bubbling swell that signals the exit. Knowing what to expect, Emily calmly rotates as she’s shot out into the open air, letting go of Juliana with one hand and moving it to the small of her back before releasing the other and sliding it up her legs to sit behind her knees, never breaking tact. She uses the Air Walker to create a small, vertical ptform like st time, wing slightly as her already bruised feet sm into it while she catches Juliana in a princess carry.

  They e to a plete stop mid-air, before falling slowly as Emily twists to nd on her feet on another invisible ptform. Juliana looks around the surrounding pitch-bck darkness, disoriented and shaking slightly as she processes the air repg the water around them, before ing her arms around Emily and burying her fa the crook of her neck. Emily gently strokes her hair, drying them both with a quick cast of se while walking through the air to the bank where she seheir friends.

  The small, pulsing orb of light above them barely fends off the encroag darkness, and they’re within an arm’s reach of their friends before they see them, huddled together in a small circle, faintly illuminated by their light packs. Tom jumps as Emily appears beside him, before stepping aside to let her into the circle and gng down at Juliana’s still quivering form.

  “Is sh-“ Tom starts asking about her, only to stop suddenly when Emily turns a cold, warning gre on him, sending a shiver down his spine and f his words back down his throat.

  She silently raises a fio her lips, warning him not to bother Juliana while she’s still in distress, before her gaze warms and she turtention to the rest of the group.

  “Did you enjoy the trip?” she asks.

  “It was a rush!” Dante eagerly responds. “Though, being thrown into the air ich bck was a little uling.”

  The others nod in agreement, and Enzo quietly grumbles under his breath while rubbing his elbows: “Personally, I would have preferred not getting smmed into the tunnel walls every few seds.”

  Nobody responds as they all quietly nod in solidarity, their hands drifting towards the various scrapes and bruises they gained on the rough trip.

  KeroKeron