Slap!

Astrid tumbled from the portal, through empty space itself, before hitting the surface of some foreign realm with a bone-crushing force. Her ankle twisted on impact; she felt and heard the snap of it in her very blood. It echoed against every synapse. A pained scream forced her lips apart.

Crushing, cold water flooded into her lungs instead.

Bubbles of precious oxygen exploded around her head in dizzying, swirling dots. Water. That blasted portal—of your making, don't forget—had dropped her and Sebastian into an unknown body of hellish water. If it were as dreadful as Infinite Pond, Sebastian would surely die of fright.

The thought had just registered when the water itself tore into Astrid's soul with invisible claws and yanked.

She twisted wildly as a marionette with snipped strings. Memories of bloated, dead flesh and cannibal, delirious merwomen strangled her chest. Heavy, she sank. In response, the water pressed closer, sensing her fear. It tightened around her in the same way her cuff constantly imprisoned her elbow.

This time, however, the feeling threatened to kill her.

Off!

Get.

It.

OFF!

Her fingers scrambled for the copper band, feet kicking tirelessly upwards to where the water surely must break, head swimming in sudden horror and emptiness, but—the cuff wasn't there.

Her elbow was bare.

Dammit.

The cuff lay back in those blasted tunnels where Matthias had removed it before shoving her and Sebastian through the portal and into the third task.

That being the case, what was causing this?

Arulonite. A lot of it. An entire mine of it.

Perhaps this hadn't been her best laid plan.

Some realization, one that shimmered with screaming importance, lay just out of reach, but even as Astrid stretched for it, the current dragged her under. The pressure of it pounded against her head like chains. She sank deeper, ears popping. With it, her hope died. Her lungs burned, her ankle screamed, and then the twisted, terrifying images came:

"Gaia frowns upon thine brow, sinner."

A dark, narrow stone box. Clinking chains of mildew and bone growing from the shallow depths of the tomb. Earthen, metallic threads looped around her ankles and wrists. Scalding her throat—

"Deceiver," the water hissed, tearing into the vision and shattering it apart.

—a pleading, pained expression drooped the once proud eyes of Matthias, stuck in an endless twirl with an enchanting woman with long hair made of flames. Pillaging from the captain's soul all that made him who she admired. The legs of the fiery enchantress morphed into scales that glinted like swords—

The water churned, a cyclone of a casket. "Thief of the realms."

A blade of water struck the image of Matthias and the enchantress before Astrid could shout a warning; the woman's jaw unhinged to reveal a barbed tongue of flickering flames before splintering like broken glass. The vision fractured and wavered until another took its place.

—a king planted a mighty boot atop her spine, the gleaming, jeweled crown upon his black curls refracting the colors of a rainbow like the drum sticks of the Iced Guards. When he twisted to look down upon her dirt-streaked face, a sharpened sword appeared in his grip. A blood-sword. It was doused in so much sticky, ruby liquid that it appeared aflame.

"Only death awaits a villain," Sebastian said before the sword swung above his head and came down on her neck—

"No!"

Unknown hands pumped into her chest, a rhythmic but frantic beat. A mouth hovered over her own, hot breaths puffing against her cold cheeks. Liquid burned in her lungs, rattling around like loose, damp bones. Perhaps this was it: death. The water had finally claimed her.

"Come on, Astrid!"

The voice sounded far away, from above, but she knew it couldn't be true because only the Abyss awaited the likes of her.

"Breathe!"

More pounding beneath her sternum as someone tried to snap her ribs. She didn't bother opening her eyes; she did not wish to see whatever vision the water had created for her this time.

Something hot and wet clamped over her lips, sucking her final breaths from her.

"Breathe for me!"

A vile potion burned up her throat before erupting from her mouth.

Astrid convulsed and spluttered, heaving precious air into her lungs while her traitorous body tried to rid her of it all. Life and death. The two opposing sides fought against each other, trembling her muscles and forcing liquid from her eyes, nose, ears. Fingers that were not her own fisted into the back of her neck. The relentless pounding returned but, this time, against her spine.

A boot on her spine. Threads around her neck.

Whatever air she had managed to claim coalesced into a rasping, painful scream.

She jerked away from the unknown hands on her back, fingers slipping in the bits of pebbles beneath them, legs scrambling for purchase, finding none, before collapsing back onto her stomach. Another torrent of bile seared upwards from her stomach and out through her mouth and nostrils. Her entire body shook, but she still managed to kick the arms reaching for her and scuttle away to the trunk of a half-fallen tree.

"Stay away from me!"

Half mad, her arms flung around the width of the worn trunk. It was far too large, but it provided a grounding sense of protection amidst the insanity. The rough bark scratched the side of her cheek in tandem with the grating cough that ravaged her chest.

"It—isn't—true!"

"Please. You need to calm down." The soothing, deep voice was familiar; it offered her little comfort. "You nearly drowned!"

The last words she had heard spoken from that voice had been ones of death. Her elemental connection sprang forth with a fury she could hardly contain. Threads of Earth carrying a moss-filled, rain-dewed scent washed over her; she grabbed at them clumsily. Felt the way the delicate threads wrapped around her knuckles, connecting her will to the pebbles she had felt earlier, but she desired anything but delicacy. She wrenched her hands apart, fingers splayed wide.

"Don't you dare," Vision-Sebastian warned before the pebbles shot up from the shore and pelted towards him.

"You are not real!"

He swore but reacted like she had anticipated. The atmosphere between them grew thick and heavy, a storm gathering its strength, as Vision-Sebastian called forth the wispy threads from the air. Astrid flipped over the trunk of the tree, landing on the other side of it, but the pebble retaliation never came. She dared a peek around the safety of her tree. Instead of firing the rocks back at her, Vision-Sebastian had manipulated Air to brush them to the side. Like they had been nothing more than bothersome gnats. They lay, jumbled into a haphazard pile of a broken rainbow beneath a bush of brilliant, purple hydrangeas.

Astrid blinked.

Color. It bloomed everywhere here.

Those visions had been nothing but dark terror.

Sebastian swiped a hand across his brow, smearing the blood that had pooled there. It seemed two of the rocks had hit their mark, at least. Astrid was afraid of looking any higher than his eyes for fear of the crown she would see upon his head.

"Look at me, Astrid," he said, tone careful. Too careful. She clenched her fingers into fists. "Please. It's the lake's waters. Holalethe. The curse, it affects you because—" His words trailed away—"It doesn't matter. I pulled you from the lake. You're safe now."

"Holalethe?"

The familiar name triggered her heart into a slower stutter. Holalethe Lake. The third task. The quill. Oh! It came in a slow rush. The portal plan. Her senses trickled back to her one by one, pieces clicking into place. The water had affected her because of the curse. Because she was cursed, but of course Sebastian would be too thoughtful to remind her of it. That, more than anything, convinced her that, perhaps, this was not a vision of the water's horrific making.

No one had offered her kindness in those visions of madness.

Her spine sank against the bark. "Seabass?"

His name quivered on a question.

"Astrid." She heard his hesitant steps crackle along the rocky shoreline as he approached her ancient trunk of sanctuary. "Are you hurt? Thirsty? I could get you water, obviously not from that blasted lake, but I could find something. I healed your ankle, too. It looked broken, and I—"

A strangled sort of sob escaped her tight lips before she grabbed Sebastian by the ankle, wrapping her arm around his leg. It was the closest part of him she could reach, but she pressed her forehead into his shin anyways to keep herself from crying.

She almost succeeded at it until Sebastian's fingers brushed the top of her soaked, knotted hair and said, "Will you throw more rocks at me if I hold you?"

Half-choking on tears and a single laugh, Astrid shook her head. Without hesitation, Sebastian sank down next to her. She didn't have the foresight to release his leg, probably because it was the one thing holding her to this moment, so it took a few seconds for him to find a reasonable position. His arm wrapped around her trembling shoulders, tucking her into the warmth of his side. Her head found a spot between his neck and shoulder. She hid her face there. His skin was damp and cool.

For a quiet moment, she allowed herself to not speak. To not even think. But she could feel the thoughts bouncing between Sebastian's mind and against her own. Not yet wanting to talk about what had just occurred, she blurted out, "The portal dropped us into Holalethe." 

Her words jumbled in the material of his wet shirt.

"Yes, so it seems, but how?" Sebastian tugged at the hem of her tunic, pulling it lower over her thighs when she shivered. If she wasn't so exhausted, she would have been mortified that she had traveled through a portal without trousers.

Still, she didn't answer his question.

Undeterred, Sebastian tucked her closer. "Portals need anchors; one at each side."

She tried not to gag on her next words. "Agreed, but normal portals don't appear from thin-air; nor do they suck you in like a giant whirlpool."

"You're saying you don't think that was a portal?"

"Not a normal one." She peeled away from him to look into his face. His thick brows were drawn across his forehead, damps curls plastered over his ears. Some of the truth wouldn't hurt. "Remember when we first touched?"

A hint of pink highlighted his sharp cheekbones. His fingers slipped down the curve of her shoulder. "What do you mean by touch?"

It was her turn to flush. "In my mother's Keep. I had already intertwined our Spirits' threads by then; when my hand touched yours to pull you away from the Monverta, we set off that explosion."

"Both literally and figuratively."

She rolled her eyes. "Right."

"Our spirits are no longer connected though," Sebastian reminded her. "We released them weeks ago."

An unstated question of trust hovered on the bow of his lips. One that she hurried to reassure. "Of course, yes, but—" Just moments ago, when they had kissed, the world had shifted. Astrid could still feel the vibrating energy of the elements that had swarmed between them. Around them. Within their very souls. She cleared her throat. "Back there, before we got here, when our mouths—when we—when they touched. Did you feel it?"

By the Scribes! It was far easier to keep her gaze on him by imagining his face as a grotesque, bulbous mountain troll. Similarly, Sebastian's knees twitched, the rounded tips of his ears flaming, but his eyes narrowed in serious thought.

"I did, but I just thought..." His words whisked away. "I mean, I thought it was because of, well, that. The—er—kissing." He coughed shallowly. "Because it was good?"

Her shivers were no longer from the cold dampness of their clothes. She wasn't sure whether to laugh at the absurdity of it all or run. If she hadn't just nearly drowned, she would have opted for the latter.

"It was!" Good, gods. "Good, I mean. Though somehow I doubt when romance novels describe earth-shattering kisses they actually mean the earth shattered."

Sebastian's thumb brushed a distracted circle against her shoulder. "I know what you mean." His gaze wandered to the silent, pebbled shore of the deceivingly innocent lake. "So, our Spirits' threads found each other in the—uh—passion of the moment and created a portal."

"I struggle to find another explanation."

"Suppose that means no more kissing, then?"

Astrid spluttered on her next breath before barking out a laugh. "How very logical of you."

He hid his embarrassed amusement in the curve of her shoulder, his grin tickling her skin.

"Until we get answers, that is." Astrid released the admission on a slow breath. "Serah should know, I would think."

"I hope she's alright."

Astrid nodded. "Didn't Pavel's memory speak of how Serah traveled to the Eyelesene Glaciers alone? The glaciers, Bash. Where Spirits haunt every icy foothold until they find a naive human to inhabit and possess. I would think this would be a lovely moonlit stroll compared to that."

"Right."

A comfortable silence blanketed them, and both of them leaned into it. Even Sebastian, the king of recitations and curiosity, withheld his thoughts, allowing his arm to encircle her shoulders. His fingers traced idle patterns into her goose-bumped skin. She wondered if he also realized this could be their last peaceful moment before the noise of their realm invaded them once more. Holalethe Lake spread out before them, the white-capped water splashing silently against the colored pebbles of the shore. Somewhere beneath those crystal blue, clear waters, the Black Quill awaited. Back in Rainier, her father lay trapped in his own Monverta. In Halorium, her mother expected her to return with Sebastian and the quill, to hand over Sebastian to her mother's will.

For her father.

As had been the plan.

Though Sebastian had agreed to it, did it make her deceit any less wrong?

Sebastian nudged her in the ribs. "If you're going to think about it, you may as well share what happened in that lake aloud. Release the burden. That is, if you're comfortable doing so."

Astrid blinked. That was not, in fact, what she had dwelled on, but now it resurfaced. Those memories. She glared out into Holalethe where the water gradually grew into darker shades of blue. In the middle, it flowed nearly black. It looked incredibly deep. She wondered if that was where the arulonite had threatened to drag her to its dark, murky depths.

"Did you not feel anything?"

"Not from the water, no." He hesitated. "I heard humming. A song. Before the portal tore the sky. Like those times you sang when you helped me heal myself and then Serah."

She twisted towards him. "I don't sing."

Even though his brows furrowed, the corners of his lips twitched. "Regardless, it's what I heard, but from the water—nothing. Nothing but a tingle."

Astrid snorted. "A tingle?"

"An awareness," he corrected. "From the Black Quill, I imagine."

"So, you are meant to follow the tingles to the quill?"

He shrugged. "We have nothing else to go on until Abel makes it here with Pavel's Monverta."

"If she makes it."

"She will."

She found she couldn't even argue with him further on that particular point. Though she loathed to admit it, the very earth would have to split open and swallow every living creature entirely to prevent Abel from reaching them here.

"Singing, tingles, what could be next: a nude jig?"

He offered her a brief grin. It was an expression he would have been weary of sharing with her not all that long ago. But then his gaze lowered, expression softened, thumb tapping against the back of her hand. "So, the water?"

If he was on a mission for answers, nothing would deter him. Besides, she found she wanted to share it. With him. She sighed; it sent a shiver down her damp spine. "Monstrous."

His thumb stilled.

"It was terrible." It was strange how the words practically fell from her in relief. A burden he was willing to help her shoulder. "The water wanted me dead, Bash. Wanted my soul. It smothered everything but fear and hatred until I—" Her eyes trained on her lap— "I saw you."

"You mean when I pulled you from the lake?"

She shook her head, throat tight. "Before then. There were visions. You wore my mother's crown. Held Matthias's blood-sword. You brought it down on my neck."

Sebastian recoiled. His breaths sucked inwards, dragging his fingers from her, but she gripped his wrist. He couldn't go far. "I don't even like knives." Odd thing to claim considering his tone was sharp enough. "Astrid, I—" His thought cut off abruptly, rearranged itself into a truth he needed to tell her—"I think I've seen that vision."

It was her turn to pull away. "What? You said that water did nothing to you."

"Not from Holalethe." His flesh vibrated beside her. "Davina's Monverta. In the Keep when we released the elements, but why would your father show me that?"

Astrid bit her cheek. You are cursed, her brain hissed at her. Your blood is cursed.

Perhaps her father hated her as much as the arulonite did.

She felt a thumb brush her chin, turning her head. The earnest plea in Sebastian's expression stuttered her heart. "I would never, Astrid. I couldn't. I'm sorry for what I did in those visions, but I swear to you I will never have to apologize for doing such a thing in this life."

"Please." Astrid steeled a breath and met his gaze. "You cannot make promises you may be forced to break."

Torture was the desperate way their eyes flitted over each other; his flickering between her own like secretive words lived in each of her irises. Hers drifting from the slope of his nose to the curve of his mouth—I will never have to apologize—but she would. She was buried alive in unspoken apologies. It destroyed her, how their bodies craved each other, their faces twining closer. Nearer. His breaths swept hot and enticing against the sensitive, chapped skin of her lips.

Astrid turned her head. "Don't."

Sebastian paused and pulled back. "Oh, right." He ran a sheepish hand over his jaw. "The portals."

And though she nodded in agreement, she wasn't sure that had been why she had stopped him at all. 

- - -

Oh, Astrid. Whatever do you mean that the portal was your plan? Hmmm...

Poor Bash. 

Until next time!