Chapter 195: More than one way in

Chapter 195: More than one way in

“Still round the corner, there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

As the morning sun filled our sails, we approached the southern side of the aisle, hoping to find a new road or secret entrance to Wester Ponente. We had anchored below the horizon from Wester Ponente, so we had to start our approach in the middle of the night to arrive at the island with the morning light.

I had never explored the outside of Wester Ponente after the tendency of goblin sharks to find themselves drawn to me anytime I dared to put a toe in the water. Now that my mana cores had finally formed, I was able to stop my mana from leaking out. It was hopefully safe for me to swim, or at least safer for me to swim with sharks. Maybe it was time to explore, especially with the underwater guides that I had in Hulio and his friends.

“Ready?” Arawn asked. Namir would not be joining us. Instead, he would climb the cliff alongside the water cascading down the southern falls. He was just waiting to see us disappear into the depths before returning to the family to let them know what we were up to this time.

“Let’s see if we cannot find another way in.” I nodded, resolved.

“We’ll see you on the other side then.” Captain Kashif optimistically stated. The newly risen wreck, I had been tempted to call the Phoenix due to its reborn nature, would be sailing back to port without us. If we found our way in, then that is how we would return. If not, the Neriad would swim to our port while Arawn and I would climb the cliffs. However, I might leave him and fly up once I got enough height to stay airborne.

The six of us stood on the railing and jumped together. While my senses and skills meant that diving into the deep was not quite as terrifying as I might have once found it. I still found it daunting to delve into the depths where the sea monsters could come from any angle at incredible speeds. I was Olympic-fast compared to my own world and able to keep it up for far longer due to my stamina, but the Neriad still swam in circles around me.

I cheated swimming under the southern falls, using the power of the waterfall to push me ever deeper.

As I fell behind the Neriad by unspoken agreement, they paired off and returned to Arawn and me to help pull us ever deeper. With the two of them pulling, we were able to speed up further. The pair of them undulating on either side of me. It was at the limits of the sunlight zone that they came into sensory range.

I strained my eyes and saw the glint of gold. Diving deeper and drawing closer to the glint, I saw two golden crowns atop two gigantic statues of Neriad. Impressive stone tridents crossed between them. They stood guard against the southern sea of the Azimuth Ocean. A large triangular pointed entrance below their crossed blades was filled with a solidified river of lava. It spilt out in an underwater bridge descending into the twilight zone to the seafloor far below. We had found the former entrance to Zavaria.

It felt a little like discovering Atlantis. The idea of discovering a civilisation that had disappeared into the depths of the sea in a single day and night of misfortune. It was awesome. Seeing the underwater statues guarding the entrance into what the Neriad had once called Zavaria, was humbling and nearly took my breath away. The giant statues of two Neriad warriors guarded the former entrance to the isle, and they stood unmarred by time on either side of gigantic open rune-carved bronze doors.

The entrance would have been in perfect repair if not for the plume of hardened lava that spilt forth from the open entrance to the former city or Zavaria. Hundreds of years later, you could see how the lava must have burst forth out of the inner volcano, chasing the surviving Neriad out of their home and filling the huge tunnel behind them as they fled.

Watching the Neriad surrounding me, there was a mix of emotions flitting across their faces, from excitement of rediscovering the ancestral home of their forefathers to despair of ever being able to reenter through the wall of near-solid stone that now barred their path. It left little to the imagination about what had happened to the rest of the city and explained why we had never encountered any ruins before. They had to be buried beneath hundreds of feet of lava. The inner lagoon was far shallower than it must once have been when listening to their descriptions of what once used to exist.

It was time to see exactly how solid the wall of lava blocking the entrance was. We approached the cold lava to see just what my magic could do. I laid my hands on the wall in front of us. Using my seismic sense, I could tell that the lava was not anywhere as solid as it looked from the outside.

While we had discovered a fascinating ecological niche, I did not have time to watch with patience what would happen to the dying mana motes. Our time was running out if we wanted to find the exit before our air ran out, and after the failure of my first attempt, I was less than keen to create more air down here with magic. Who knew what else that might attract?

The Neriad travelled slower than they had out in the open Ocean. They seemed to be taking things carefully. Cautious, they avoided anything glowing. They stuck to the ceiling of the underwater lava tube or the sides where there seemed to be less natural luminescence.

Though not always.

Our presence startled a small school of flashlight fish who darted ahead of us into the waiting arms of glowing blue crystal jellyfish. Their death spasms helpfully pointed out the poisonous nature of the jellyfish floating on the right-hand side of the tunnel. We switched to the left, safely passing the stationary floating death. They seemed to be happy to bob about with a fresh meal entangled in their stinging cells and tentacles.

We had travelled further than I had ever travelled underwater before, but I was beginning to run out of air. Unfortunately, as far as my senses could tell, we were still a significant distance from the centre of the island. The somewhat poisonous nature of the hidden ecology within the underwater tunnel made me hesitant to try another air bubble. I did not want to find us surrounded by the floating glowing crystal jellyfish or suddenly find the glowing blue grass-like carpet of the tunnel come alive and swarm us.

I did not know what would happen, and we had nowhere else to escape to other than ahead or behind us. I pulled hard on Hulio’s hand, halting our group. Not wanting to speak lest it attract some other unknown danger, I pointed at my throat and up, miming my need for air soon. I could go for a little longer, but I doubted it would be long enough to reach the middle of the island and its lagoon. I touched the ceiling above using seismic sense to see if we were any closer to the surface. But we weren’t.

Arawn and his pair of Neriad joined us. Immediately understanding my predicament. We turned to Arawn. He gestured that he was fine for now but would also soon need a breath of air. I could think of two options. First, same as the first time, we take our chances with whatever else my mana might awaken. Second, much the same as the first, but this time we attempt it on the roof of the tunnel after shaping a breathing bubble pocket in the stone. That way, at least we would be out of the water on a defensible shelf should we awaken anything, and standing out of the water, the majority of the threats, such as the glowing blue crystal jellyfish, would become significantly less threatening.

While I had thought through my options, Hulio had pulled a slate from his pocket. While it was possible to talk underwater, it was not if you were trying to conserve your oxygen and talking would only waste it. Regardless, we did not really have time for us to discuss our options independent of our high dexterity stats; a written conversation was still going to be a lot slower than a spoken one. We did not have time for it. I reached for the ceiling again after gesturing how I could mould it into what I thought would work best when Hulio motioned for me to wait for a second. In the blue glow of the cavernous tunnel, he wrote two words on his slate, “Wylde Glei.”

Confused, I gestured with my hands to show I had no clue what he was talking about. But Arawn seemed to understand, pointing to Hulio as if expecting him to produce whatever Wylde Glei was. Instead, he added, “Help Breath. Neriad's secret! Keep?” Without thinking, we both nodded in agreement. It appeared he was more worried about what our mana might attract than breaking any secrecy. Or perhaps they had always intended to trade it if they had it on them in our hour of need.

He produced two sealed ‘pills’ which he handed over—then started writing again. “Hold in mouth. Bite open. Inhale the elixir. Breathe Seawater.”

He wanted me to do what???

That seemed like a recipe for disaster and one where my convulsing body would struggle to create the air bubble needed for me even to attempt to empty my lungs again. Though that raised a passing question if water had 20 times less oxygen than air, what stat did I need to increase to allow underwater breathing? Strength to allow the alveoli to pull oxygen out of the water or endurance to allow the body to function on less oxygen? No one had ever mentioned it was possible to breathe underwater, but now supposedly this, wylde glei would allow us to?

His last two words, “Trust me.” Left little else for me to do. But it seemed to be enough for Arawn, who took a ‘pill’. I watched in apprehension as he filled his mouth with air, bit and inhaled the elixir. Was that it? He didn’t turn blue or convulse. But that was the easy part. It was going to be harder than that to breathe in water and possibly a lot more painful, even if it did work.

I readied my mana to create a pocket in the stone and an air bubble in case this didn’t work.

I watched him breathe in the seawater . . .