The water stopped.

Aidari looked straight at her.

The thin, icicle like bars were pressed into the far wall of the cave still obscured by clouds of chilling fog and rusted chains clanging ominously between the pipework fuzed within the stone. Caught in a trap of Aidari's own making, Nemera continued to wade closer little by little and counted the seconds with every puff of her cigarette. They didn't have long.

"The Sunstress can't comprehend that the Traited curse could ever affect them. They won't even acknowledge the Ashes of the Fallen. So how do you know..." Aidar croaked, her voice cracking under the weight of stringing so many words into a sentence.

"Just a theory. Much like your own involvement in this." Nemera admitted honestly, opting for a more measured response than her earlier interrogation in an attempt to reassure the girl.

Aidari's purple skin warped slightly under the moisture, delaying by a fraction each time as if Aidari was not quite sure how to react to her statements. Her nervousness seemed to flicker between anger and apathy only to blaze with the unfamiliar heat of embarrassment, betrayed by the disappointed expression on her face. But...it wasn't just her expression.

The Stormspell elf's once lilac cheeks turned blue, a deep blue like the sea only to match the grey slate stone around her for barely a moment. Close enough to touch the bars, Nemera tried to reach out with her Shadow Trait and help her but with every attempt her shadows seemed to...slip through. She had assumed everything unusual was down to her own tiredness but there was no denying it anymore.

Aidari wasn't just a Stormspell mage. She was an illusionist.

"Besides, I'm more concerned about why a Stormspell apprentice is trying to hide what they look like." Nemera said evenly, attempting to keep her tone casual despite her growing irritation over being constantly lied to.

The numerous shallow scratches against Aidari's arms now matched the deeper gashes in the walls, four sets of claws with one broken slightly wedged into the stone. Far less intentional like collateral damage from being lifted away in flight. It was the similar scrapes Nemera had gotten many times from Moonshear. There was no mistaking a dragon had been here.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Aidari retorted, the familiar, well practised Neridian beginning to slip.

Nemera grimaced at the lie. She was guessing Aidari's accent was self taught to mimic the hours of interrogation from a certain Sunstress actress. Had Nemera not had Siara jabbering in her ear throughout the tunnels she doubted she would've been able to catch the similar inflections she could only describe as 'trying too hard.' But she had to admit Aidari was much better at it than Siara.

"Your tone of voice isn't Neridian despite your admirable attempts to copy it. You chose to hide your appearance instead of healing your injuries. Dirt under your fingernails that doesn't match the stonework. Scratches that haven't healed. Water a Pyro Trollian can play freely in because you didn't want to hurt him. Yet you're still here. Waiting."

"Shut up!"

The weather violently changed to a freezing cold that turned rain to sleet and eventually, snow. Despite the chill that now clung to Nemera's neck, she pushed it to the back of her mind and tried to piece together the last few theories she had left.

Forewarn Cliff. The Dropspire Arches. The Brink.

Much like this farce of a case, Nemera felt like she only had a third of the information and the one third she did have was a rush through a city she barely got a glimpse at. An entire cliff face was destroyed yet the horizon had barely shown it within Floodbound. Those precious arches had been the opening statement to arriving through the other side of the Brink but judging from the stones impact they had been damaged facing the opposite direction.

Not away from the Brink. Towards it.

Siara had confirmed she was the only Traited invited but...Nemera didn't need the claw marks on the nearby wall to prove that dragons had arrived long before she did. They couldn't fly over or through the water barrier and the silver banners that adorned Floodbound proved the Brink had been opened for some sort of festivities. The vague recollection of some kind of celebration niggled in the back of her mind but all she could think about was her tone deaf quip about her staying here.

Aidari had tried to escape.

The day Nemera had arrived in Floodbound.

The green cloaked boy from before had been startled to see her, the Rainfall Brigade hard at work attempting to fix the damage. But...what if they weren't fixing it? What if they were hiding it? They weren't nervous to see a Traited. They were nervous to see her. They hid the entire event from her. They hid an entire cliff face from a single person. But not for her. That hadn't expected Nemera's arrival. They had called for Master Midari.

"Hell's teeth, you've probably been locked up before and confessed to avoid any more conflict. You thought with new leadership you'd get a fair trial only to be moved here. I'd be mad too. I had to hide in the damned sewers." Nemera deduced, trying to make light of the situation to settle her rapid heartbeat.

"You've no idea. Not everyone is privileged enough to walk around however they like. Especially in a city like Floodbound." Aidari retorted, the once intricately worded conversation falling into the realms of a petulant child, too concerned by winning the fight.

The icy water Nemera waded through was a familiar sensation, like being submerged in Basra's sand but far more fluid like the illusion was bound into the elements itself. With every step that sunk into the Pressurehold the rigid stones no longer buckled under the water pressure and Nemera felt her legs and mind unwind from the illusion.

"I'm sure the Sunstress would agree with you. Considering we're in the same boat." She quipped, pulling a particularly jagged rock free from her hat.

Nemera could understand the reason for the lie. She always did. Whether it was someone wanting to see a loved one for the last time or vowing revenge on those who had slain their kin. Even an accidental death had some form of lie to it. Lying to themselves that they would be alright and that it wasn't their time. Even Nemera lied to herself every day Moonshear remained at her side. But she had Comet to bring her into the light. Shadow Traited or not she would have to be Aidari's.

"You're wrong. I'm nothing like you Deathkeeper."

Nemera blinked.

As if being doused in cold water the lack of anger washed over her in an instant, Aidari's last ditch attempt to infuriate her barely doing enough to put out her cigarette. Nemera had forgotten how much she hated that title. Basra had fallen out with her over it after one too many drinks. Perhaps a broken nose was too far but after everything they'd been through and how hurt she had been after Moonshear's betrayal Basra wanted someone to blame and Nemera was the closest target.

After all, the Deathkeeper protected the dead and the living but Moonshear made them both believe they could bring anyone Nemera back through the Glowing Fields. How wrong they had been. Basra still wanted to believe the illusion of choice was there. A coward just like her Agar was. All she could do was preserve the memories of the dead. Willowstone was just part of that.

Her Master's treasured hat was still plastered to her head, the last cigarette still burning away despite everything Aidari had thrown at her. The brim fell low beneath her gaze, leaving only a faint amber hue that reminded her of her work in Willowstone and how many sunsets she had seen since that day. It hurt. But not as much as the thought of leaving Aidari the way she was now.

"Perhaps. But you're not here to destroy Neridia. You're stuck here because your Agar is here and you can't leave without them."

With the finality of her cigarette stub, Nemera shoved the last bit of her Shadow Trait into the rickety pipes.

The once perfect crack that ran down the wall split in two, ripping open the curtain of ice and fog for one brief second of sheer, permanent darkness. No longer slick with rainwater the rugged stonework overwhelmed the flimsy, ice laden bars protruding awkwardly at different angles, the lack of weight from the falling water shrivelling to dust as the entire Pressurehold upended itself.

She might've missed Aidari's initial deception...but that kid still had a long way to go.

The cold, bracing water now evaporated under the strength of flame and shadow overlapping to create not just a physical illusion but a feat of trickery that had started long before Nemera agreed to partake in this discussion. The moment Comet fell asleep. All she needed was a bit of luck.

"Was it really that obvious?"

Nemera almost tripped over a loose cobblestone. There, slumped in the far corner was Aidari. The real Aidari. No more bars or chains, no crazy weather patterns simply...a child hiding from the world that hurt her. Still bound in the same discoloured rags she had been from the beginning, her strands of long, lanky hair that had fallen over her face were tugged free from its hood. Free from her own Trait for the first time.

"No. But Trait rarely is."

The sinking feeling in Nemera's gut turned ice cold at the truth, hardly believing she had been right but the terror in Aidari's eyes almost made her double take. No eerily beautiful face, no elven features. Just a girl too exhausted to do nothing but stare.

"What now? I don't think I can move and once the Brigade sees me they'll...."

Aidari didn't have the strength to finish.

Rising from her awkward half crouch against the now missing bars, Nemera tugged off her infamous coat in one quick motion and half tucked it around the young girl's shoulders. She didn't want to think which weighed more.

"I know things look dire for you. If you tell me what happened, I can help you find who really did this." Nemera insisted, trying to keep the young girl awake.

Her hand brushed against her Master's hat, fingers twitching with every convulsion that wracked through Aidari's body and sat next to her. Nemera shoved all of her hatred and anger for Neridia down for the moment and gently placed her hat onto Aidari's head. Her eyes never left the inhale and exhale of a Traited abandoned by her partner.

"I can't tell you."

Nemera looked up. Two sets of manacles still hung on the wall. The reminder of Siara's dismissal of child slavery left a sour taste in her mouth. The migraine that threatened to pinch under her eyes forced Nemera to focus, to listen but much like Aidari beside her the pull of sleep was too great. She hadn't rested in days and despite this creepy, chilly cavern Comet was so warm and inviting. Heck, he too was asleep.

"But I can show you."

There, pressed gently in Aidari's lap was a small, blue book.

Meaningless to elves but to a Traited it was the highest honour one could give. It was the heart of their Trait, their entire being that Nemera watched over and without it they would only be ash. Siara's words about a Last Witness rang in her head like the Pulse she had been taught so long ago. If she couldn't bring back everyone with her necromancy then she would remember them. Wordlessly, reverently, Nemera picked up the flimsily bound grimoire and closed her eyes.