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"Well," began Stromboli slowly as he looked around, "would it have been somewhere a little less like a cave?" His voice echoed slightly, and there was no view of the ceiling from where he was standing. In fact, it was dark all around them. He couldn't tell where it went in each direction, either. On the one hand, he was glad they had chosen someone else for the first endeavor, because he hadn't even visited his own wonder yet. But by the same token, he had heard from Basiluzzo that their wonders were on a desert world. That couldn't be farther from what surrounded them.

After all, as much as Stromboli couldn't see the water crushing around them, he still had a... sense about it. An inkling it was there, like an entity all its own, waiting to get a closer look at them if they only gave it the chance. And color him crazy, but he didn't think letting the ocean get a closer look at them was necessarily a good idea--

"I don't suppose it's, like, in a throne room or whatever," Basiluzzo ventured, rubbing the back of his neck and looking around them. "You know, somewhere distinctive and easy to find." Or however Abzu had been in the past. Some sort of important room if not a literal throne room. "Well, we might as well get walking I guess, if it says its over that way."

Now, what they were supposed to do about the lack of light, he had no idea. He had wind on lock. Light? Not so much. His own wonder was only lit up because he'd gotten the mirrors to bounce light around, plus some solar-powered lanterns he'd brought for those corners that the light didn't reach as well as he'd like. Maybe it would be helpful when they went to his wonder, but it wasn't going to do much good for Abzu.

"If I'd known we were going to be doing this, I'd've grabbed a lantern from my place." There. He could throw that out there, at least.

The echoes of their voices took him by surprise, but he supposed there wasn't much to dampen their words in this area. ... Probably. The hell did he know, he could barely see anything. He could tell, loosely, where there were structures of some sort but the teleportation had plunked them where he presumed they were closer to the press of magic. "I mean, this whole place is a bit cave-like." His brows knit as he took Pendour's offered hand. "Think it's in the same kinda enclosure your place is in, Pen? Just... deep."

Very, very deep.

"Appreciate the lantern offer, but I think we're on our own here anyway. I have a few battery-powered flashlights in my subspace which may help," he fished them out with his free hand, offering one to each of his fellows. "Only so much that can pierce the darkness of the literal sea floor, though..."

He flicked his flashlight on to display just how little the flashlight was piercing the darkness. It was doing something, at least. Abzu smiled to see the etchings on the ground below them, and quickly made sure to redirect himself and Pendour around a statue in progress. Or had gotten broken? He couldn't quite tell. "Appreciate the assist, really. I don't know what I'm walking into." As he stubbed his foot on something that had been shoved onto the ground by ... whatever left everything so scattered, he muttered a, "perhaps literally."

Abzu tried his best to lead them, following the directions that it felt like the Code was trying to issue him. He faintly saw a glow on the ground which gave him an idea of where he was going, but dodging around shattered and scattered art and musical instruments and making sure they didn't walk into walls of different sectioned-off rooms were taking quite a bit of his attention.

"From my memories, don't think I had anything of a throne room around here." As fun as that would be, honestly-- "I get the impression I just floated from place to place, checking on people. Sometimes playing them music. I know there's a few stages, uh,"

he squinted.

"Somewhere."

Admittedly, this was not where the Code usually dropped him. For one, where he was usually dropped had more sad attempts at lighting he had installed.

Pendour gripped Abzu's hand a little tighter as they found themselves dodging broken statues and various other pieces of rubble. Nobody could see well down here, but with her eye, she was at even more of a disadvantage. She took one of the flashlights to try to help, but even so she knew there always might be something she didn't see.

There might be something that none of them did.

Although, even in the little that she could see, she found things that struck her as familiar. There was the tilework, for one, and just the way that artistry and care were worked into the smallest of details wherever she looked. There was more marking this place as Neptunian than just the water.

Basiluzzo's suggestion of a main stage was a good one, and Pendour nodded as he spoke. "It being somewhere like that would make sense," she said. "Somewhere important."

Abzu walked like he had a destination in mind, though, and so she followed.

Stromboli and Basiluzzo were both thoroughly distracted by the architecture that surrounded them as they descended. While Stromboli was more reserved about it, staying to quiet 'ooh's and 'aah's, Basiluzzo was openly admiring some of the banisters around the stairs. To their credit, though, neither one of them tripped or fell over anything. They were at least heeding the directive to watch their step.

But eventually Stromboli turned from the railings to gaze further down the stairs. Unintentionally echoing Abzu's train of thought, he wondered aloud, "so do you think it goes deep deep? Like, under the seabed, even." How the glass around them wasn't cracking under what had to be enormous pressure from the water was beyond him. Impressive, but almost as spooky a thought as pondering the leagues of water themselves. All it would take was one crack--

Nope, nope, nope, time for a different train of thought--

"Shame we can't see any fish on the outside."

Though, really, would he want to see what kind of animals would live this far down?

"There's apparently hydrothermal vents somewhere around here according to what I overheard the scientists talking about in my memories." Abzu enjoyed the conversation of fish honestly. It was interesting to think what might have been this deep, especially because even on Earth the deep sea was woefully unexplored. It was just hard to get to, and the pressure must have been so massive outside of these walls--

He was glad they were in there in any case.

"Maybe we are under the sea bed now. Though I think the ground is getting flat now..."

Abzu pressed his foot down as if he was about to take another step. The mild stumble as he rebalanced told him all he needed to know about that. Flat. Where the hell were they?

"The Code is around here somewhere, I can tell..."

The flashlights were only helping so much, but as he looked around, he became pretty certain this was a stage. Perhaps the stage of a different sort, considering the set of stairs they had just come down. "Is this some kind of amphitheatre?"

Not that they could see anything--

The push took him to the center of the stage, where the ground felt even more messed up. Like the stairs, they were cracks and holes, and it looked like the same tornado that had taken out the stairs came through there too. But something was below. Something was telling him something was below.

He bent down, grabbing at some of the planks and tiles and shoving them aside.

Below laid a glowing source.

... In deep water.

"... s**t."

Oh. There it was. The others seemed worried about the fact that it was underwater. While they chatted about scuba, and how close you needed to be in order to resonate, Pendour slipped their hand from Abzu’s and walked over towards the cracks in the floor that he’d opened up. She shone her flashlight into the water, taking a closer look.

Depth made a big difference here. She didn’t want to offer to help if she couldn’t, and while her magic gave her many benefits, it wouldn’t protect her from deep ocean pressure.

“I can try,” she said eventually, looking up. This pool seemed more self-contained. The Code was deep, but hopefully not dangerously so.

She ran a hand over her neck, and the ethereal gills appeared there, distinct from her glowing scales. “I’ve never told any of you, have I?” Encke knew, but he wasn’t here. “I have a bit of extra magic. I can breathe underwater.”

It was one of the few useful things Irving had taught her.

“I should be able to get it.”

"I think you might need to," noted Basiluzzo dryly. "Not like any of us know how to breathe water." At least, last he checked, but life was full of surprises. Could they even survive out there? It was below everything and connected to the wonder, which gave Basiluzzo some confidence, but that wasn't relevant if they couldn't get to it in the first place.

Speaking of surprises, Pendour’s gills took him aback for a second before he recovered. “Alright that’s cool as hell.”

"Think you spoke too soon." Stromboli's teasing was gentle, though his eyes were on Pendour. Would they be alright? It was dark. It was somehow even deeper than they already were. They could tell roughly how deep the Code had to be due to the light it was emitting, but that was basically it. There wasn’t a whole lot else to go off of.

Basiluzzo smoothed a hand over his hair. "Yeah, yeah," with a roll of his eyes toward his father again, he turned his attention to Pendour. "What Abzu said. Don't get the bends. Not sure if the protection of," he glanced up, once again, in wonder, "whatever we're in extends that far."

His fatherly instincts kicked in, and Stromboli quickly offered, "If it feels too dangerous, get yourself out of there. We'll figure it out." He didn't want Pendour getting hurt. A part of him felt bad that his Sadie Basket didn't have a mobile subspace version...