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 Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:34 am
What Alastor had simply described as a cave started off simple enough, but rapidly shifted into a winding, twisting underground labyrinth. Parts of the caverns had been worn away from flooded water, and sometimes the smooth stone was almost even a comfortable walk.
Alastor enjoyed none of it. A thin layer of water covered the ground, and he seemed to stomp into it with a little extra effort to make sure that his disdain was audible without him verbalizing it.
In some ways, this had been an easier path than the forest. There was no debris to walk over, no mud to get stuck in.
In other ways, it was infinitely worse, and Alastor would have been happy to describe to Sessrumnir all the ways he hated this.
There might have been other ways into the depth of the cavern, but this was the one Alastor knew best because this was the one he’d gotten trapped in before. The path wasn’t perfect; there had been a lot of damage over the years. Some passages were blocked off completely, and some were entirely underwater.
All of them were dark. No matter how much light they had, it wasn’t enough.
The shadows had become emboldened since they entered the dark pit–or, maybe the desperation was just starting to sink in. The flashlights flooded the space in front of and behind them, and yet the shadows still managed to snag their clothes, or pinch and scratch. Sometimes it would get a good grip on one of them and try to drag them into the water–most notably just a moment ago when they were wading chest deep through the waters.
Alastor had gotten yanked under, and when Sessrumnir pulled him up he was fine, just agitated. He’d already been wet from the rain, but he had the distinct impression of a soaked cat. He couldn’t kick or stomp the shadows when they came at them from the water, and he had his own problems with it.
The current carried them somewhat, but he hated that too.
It was hard to tell how far they’d have to go to find the source of the Chaos, but the GPS regularly indicated that they were getting closer.
But, the closer they got, the deeper they went.
Alastor’s skin prickled. His heart hadn’t stopped pounding. Movement in the corner of his eye–whether it was a shadow, or Sessrumnir, or his hair–made his bristle. He was trying to hold himself together, but it wasn’t easy down here.
It was everything he hated, again. Worse.
He’d narrated a bit as they walked, because he hated the silence. He told Sessrumnir how he’d been stuck down here before with a broken Henshin Pen and no way to call for help. How he’d taken refuge in the cave to avoid his would-be assassins, and should have been fine had the weather not trapped him in the caverns.
He’d told Sessrumnir that there was more water this time, but suggested that maybe it wasn’t as bad. Probably because he was powered up. Because he was going into it with Sessrumnir.
And yet, there was still unease in his voice. The sound of rushing water echoed loudly in the distance, far away but disorienting anyway.
Sometimes, the shadows whispered to them. Twice already it sounded like Amarynthos and Ephesus were calling for help. There had been splashing, and then silence.
The current carried them downwards again, and the water was cold. The trail of golden fireflies had thinned; they were sparse before, but now they were a rarity, like the Core struggled to guide them much down here. There were a few splitting paths, and while some had been dead ends, they’d followed the GPS and seemed to still be getting closer.
Really close.
The shadows scurried like rats, avoiding the light when they could. Sometimes, a shadowy figure would stand before them, like a faceless monster just watching. Eventually, the light would burn it away, but it wasn’t long before something else replaced it.
It was unnerving.
They were down so deep that the thunder was a distant rumble, and only the worst of it reverberated through the cave.
The Chaos was heavy in the air, sickening. Sometimes, it moved past them so quickly that it felt like there was wind swirling around them.
Alastor had been quiet for a moment, but the GPS chirped again.
It looked like they were almost on top of it.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:35 am
The darkness was unnerving. Sessrumnir already didn’t like to sleep in complete darkness, so the thought of their flashlight breaking and being thrown into pitch black sounded like a horrible idea. Luckily, Sessrumnir was probably a bit paranoid on that front, and made sure they had a few backup flashlights in their subspace in case that very thing happened. Or if they lost one in the water.
He held onto the GPS, determined not to let it slip from his hand. Not when they were so close to finding what they were looking for.
He also didn’t want to let the heaviness of the Chaos be what led them. He would rather look for the tiny fireflies of light or the GPS Soleiyu put together.
There had been momentary panic when Alastor was pulled under the water, and the mood and atmosphere was so miserable that Sessrumnir couldn’t even comment on how Alastor looked, soaking wet in all his clothes.
But even with the darkness surrounding them, it was easy to tell where Alastor was -- the light from the Core was still sticking to him. If it wasn’t for that, he might not have been able to grab him from the water as easily.
Thankfully, Sessrumnir was somewhat illuminated as well. He had the orb around his neck, but he soon realized why the stone in Alastor’s ring looked familiar to him.
“Makes sense Percy would have some of Jupiter’s stones used for this,” he mumbled into the darkness, just barely above the sound of rushing water for Devyn to maybe hear him. It glowed on his finger. Not as bright as a flashlight, but enough.
“I can handle whatever it throws at me, so don’t worry. Just focus on destroying it,” he said to Alastor as he reached out to give his shoulder a squeeze.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:43 am
Alastor looked miserable soaking wet; he’d tied up his hair to keep it out of his face and somehow his makeup still managed to look nice enough on him but he almost wasn’t even thinking about that right now.
“I will,” he promised, because right now he wanted to tear it to shreds. He wanted to absolutely decimate every ounce of Chaos. He wanted to burn it off of his world, and he wanted it to hurt.
He wanted it gone before it hurt Michael, before it hurt anyone else.
And, he wanted it to suffer.
But, if it got a quick demise, fine. There was no vengeance to extract that could make up for what it had done. In his heart, he knew that it wouldn’t bring him any comfort to know it had suffered–if it could have even.
He glanced at the ring for a moment; more than once, he’d reached up to grab the necklace for comfort only to find it hadn’t been there. The first time, he’d almost panicked. Every time after that he’d just shook his head, exasperated with himself.
It was in good hands with Sessrumnir.
The GPS pinged again, but they met one last obstacle. The water was rushing around them, but the cavern closed up. It was impossible to walk at their natural height; they’d have to duck to make their way through a small pass. Alastor could already see that there was no way to get through it without having to go underwater.
But, the GPS said it was right on the other side, and as thunder rumbled, there was an echo from beyond the wall that seemed to promise plenty of fresh air.
The water would carry them down, probably quickly. It wasn’t too dangerous on its own. They might be separated for a moment.
The shadows moved desperately, worriedly. The ground trembled.
He placed his hand on the rocky wall, well aware of the way the water seemed to be trying to suck them through the channel, three times their width but only half their height. He pushed into it and it seemed sturdy enough, but they wouldn’t be able to pass through together without it being dangerous. Someone had to go first.
Someone had to wait.
“There’s not any other way forward than this, is there?”
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:55 am
Sessrumnir made a face as he looked from the channel to around the tunnel they were currently in. It was going to be dangerous, no matter what, but he didn’t like the idea of being separated from Alastor, even though it seemed as though that was going to be their only option if they wanted to hurry up and get to the source of the Chaos.
“I’m the better swimmer, so either I go first and make sure the way is clear, or you can go first, just in case what we’re looking for is right on the other side,” he suggested, although he wasn’t happy with the suggestion.
“I don’t like this. How long is your sash? We could… I don’t know. Tie ours together or something.” He didn’t even really have a sash, but he had some belts. And the chain of his stormglass was pretty long.
He looked at the GPS again and grit his teeth in frustration. He knew his family -- their families were back at the Hall, probably fighting to keep the Chaos at bay from attacking it. They didn’t have the luxury of waiting or hoping for another way through.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:03 am
Alastor was visibly reluctant. “It might be long enough. As long as it doesn’t get tangled in something.”
Or twisted around someone’s neck. Or–
Something bad could happen. A lot of bad things could happen.
Worse things, if they didn’t find the source of the Chaos now.
They’d been picked at by the Chaos, harassed a bit, but there was a strangeness to all of it–like it was going through the motions, but it wasn’t all there.
If Alastor was right, that meant that it had been focusing its attention on trying to get to the Core. They hadn’t gotten a message from the boys or anyone else still at the Hall to update them, but that didn’t mean things were going well. Maybe, maybe it was a good thing if it was going after the Core, because that meant it had left itself more vulnerable, now.
He just hoped this wasn’t a trap of its own.
Alastor unwound the sash from his waist; there were a good few feet there, but he wasn’t sure that it was going to be enough. He held one end and handed the other to Sessrumnir. “Let me go first. If the current’s too strong I won’t be able to make my way back, and you might be the better swimmer, but you’ve also got more strength you can draw from than I can.” Senshi had the advantage of magic–not that Alastor had been keen to use his recently–but he knew that Sessrumnir granted its Knight a boost of physical strength, and Michael was already more built than Percy had ever been.
“If I go first and get stuck somewhere, you can rescue me easier than I can you. But it’ll take less than a minute for us to find out what’s on the other side of this wall.”
Although, judging from the way the GPS was blinking, he was already pretty sure he knew what they’d find.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 1:05 pm
Sessrumnir hated everything about this. There was just no telling what to expect, but he nodded as he took hold of the end of Alastor’s sash, wrapping it once around his hand so he gave Alastor as much of its length as possible.
“If you can’t get through in thirty seconds, I’m going to be getting you out,” he warned. He knew Alastor was capable, but he also wondered how much he was forcing himself to be okay.
There was a cold chill down the back of Sessrumnir’s neck, but a glance over his shoulder only showed the cave walls being lit up by the flashlight he still carried.
He reached out to give Alastor’s arm a squeeze and nodded to him.
“Deep breath. You’ve got this,” he said, hoping he would see him again very soon, and that they’d be able to make some progress in clearing out the Chaos hiding there.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2022 2:17 pm
Alastor laughed briefly, dryly, but he nodded. “Yeah. All right. See you soon,” he promised, because he did not break his promises and they were so close. Even the length of his sash was too far away from Sessrumnir, but if it was their best bet…
Then he wasn’t going to drag this out for any longer than he needed to.
He wrapped the sash around his hand loosely. “If I let go, it’s only because it’s safe for me on the other side. And you, too. I’ll meet you over there.”
He sounded confident, even if it was just another lie. He didn’t want to go into the water, didn’t want to go into the dark water. It was cold, and it felt like it was moving much father now, and though he shined the light into the tunnel he was going to swim through, he couldn’t see much. So, it was best to just get this over with.
He sucked in a deep breath and dipped below the water. The light from his flashlight disappeared almost instantly, and it was only a second before the sash was taut, and then–
Stillness.
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