Chapter 29: To Sink
The women of Nythera gathered in a silent ring around the pond, pushing their kids back as they watched the Other Kind and his little friend exchange words.
Aside from that, the other sisters chanted softly. Singing praises and prayers to him.
K stood at the water’s edge, helmet tucked beneath one arm while the other rested against the clasp securing his armor.
The Elder stepped forward.
"You must remove it."
K frowned.
"My armor?"
"The spring rejects burdens carried from another world."
He glanced at Kagu, who floated beside him from her outlet perched safely on a smooth stone overlooking the basin.
"I still have my combat suit underneath."
"That must not remain."
"This isn’t like the ritual so why should I go butt naked?"
The elder shook her head but didn’t give him a response.
One by one, K disengaged the magnetic locks holding his armor together. The breastplate clanked onto the stone. Shoulder guards followed, then his gauntlets, greaves and utility belt. Each piece landed with a heavy metallic thud until only his dark compression suit remained, clinging tightly to his frame.
He let out a low rumble before peeling off the combat jumpsuit.
Several of the younger women watched with open curiosity. Iniko smacked one of them on the shoulder.
"Eyes up."
"I was only looking!"
"You were staring."
"So were you."
"I was making sure our Other Kind wasn’t cheating."
"Cheating?"
K sighed. "I can very much hear you."
The women burst into laughter.
Kagu folded her tiny arms. "Well...this is awkward."
"You aren’t coming?"
She pointed dramatically at the water. "Do you see what I’m made of? Electronics, K. Water and I have a very complicated relationship."
"I need you documenting everything."
"I know."
She rummaged through several holographic menus before producing something no larger than a marble. Her outlet shook and the marble materialized. A tiny silver sphere. It tossed the sphere towards him.
"Aqua-autonomous reconnaissance drone."
"English, Kagu."
"It swims."
"It can survive underwater pressure?"
"It was designed for deep-sea exploration." She puffed out her chest proudly. "And thanks to me, it won’t become expensive scrap."
K slipped the tiny sphere into the pouch he had strapped around his thigh.
"If I lose this—"
"You owe me three months of processor upgrades."
He ignored that.
The Elder approached once more. "The moment you cross into the spring, do not resist where it leads."
"What if it leads nowhere?"
"It won’t. It will never lead you astray for you have come this far." She stepped back. "The spring has been waiting."
Silence settled over the basin.
K inhaled deeply before stepping into the pond.
The water was warmer than he expected.
It climbed over his feet. His knees. His waist. His chest. Then he leaned forward and disappeared beneath the surface.
...
Sunlight filtered through the crystal-clear water in shimmering columns.
The pond wasn’t particularly deep, at least it didn’t look like it was. Not at first.
He continued descending until the rocky floor came into view beneath him.
Nothing.
No fish.No weeds.No algae.Not even drifting particles.
It looked abandoned.
He reached the bottom and frowned.
"That’s it?" His voice echoed.
K froze.
"..."
He had spoken. Underwater.
He slowly inhaled.Clean air filled his lungs, not water.
"What..."
He looked around himself in disbelief before taking another breath.
Still air.
No burning lungs or choking on salty water.
A strange current brushed against his legs.
It wasn’t water.Something lighter.
It flowed through the stone beneath his feet.
K lowered himself and placed a hand against the rock.
The ground trembled.
A thin crack spread beneath his palm before widening into a circular opening.
Water rushed downward.
Without giving it a seconds thought , K stepped into it.
Immediately the world around him changed.
The pond vanished above him. Darkness swallowed everything. The tunnel stretched endlessly downward, illuminated only by faint golden-blue veins running through the surrounding stone.
He continued descending.Far deeper than should have been possible beneath a pond. The current carried him effortlessly until the tunnel widened into an enormous underground cavern.
K pushed himself against the current carrying him, slowing his descent.
"..."
It was beautiful.
An entire world hidden beneath Nythera.
The spring flowed through empty space like a river suspended in the air itself but underwater, winding between colossal stone pillars that disappeared into darkness above.
Still...
Nothing lived here.
No signs of fishes or aquatic life. Just silence and the quiet rush of moving water.
Then he saw it.
A structure half buried beneath centuries of mineral deposits. It resembled no human architecture. Gigantic white rings surrounded an immense stone monument, each ring carved from smooth porcelain-like material.
Vashki.
His pulse thundered in his ears as he swam towards it.
Ancient symbols covered every surface. Though worn by time, he could still make meaning of what they once were.
She who gave life...awaken...Other Kind...returns what...divided.
Below it,
Open...inherit...heavens’ grief.
K stared for several seconds. Then reached toward the enormous stone doors.The moment his fingers touched them, the entire structure shuddered. Ancient mechanisms groaned. Stone ground against stone.
A deep rumble echoed throughout the cavern.
The doors slowly separated and a violent surge erupted from within. A shockwave blasted through the underwater spring.
It shot upward. Straight through the pond and across Nythera. The forests bent violently. The oceans rose in towering waves.
Every woman within the settlement instinctively dropped to one knee as the wind swept across the village, their Efun glowing brightly as they convulsed and chanted in tongues foreign to them.
Far away...
A priest in another world suddenly stopped speaking and collapsed as well.
...
Back beneath the spring, the chamber opened completely.
Inside rested a large woman. She slept upon an enormous stone dais, her hands folded peacefully across her abdomen.Long black hair floated around her like ink spilled into water.
K’s breath caught.
"No..."
This wasn’t the Shira he’d spoken to.Her pale silver-blue hair was gone, in its place flowed hair darker than the emptiness surrounding her. The soft blue bioluminescence beneath her skin had vanished as well replaced by crimson light that pulsed faintly like cracked veins stretching across her body.
As though something inside struggled to remain contained.
The structure rumbled once more and then, her eyelids fluttered open.
Every trace of blue he remembered was gone. Both her eyes, entirely black. Even the whites.
They found him immediately. He couldn’t tell how he knew but for some reason he could tell.
"Khae’el..."
Her voice echoed through the water without disturbing it.
She smiled. Rows of impossibly sharp fangs caught the crimson glow.
For one terrifying heartbeat, K wondered whether he’d made a mistake.Then tears welled within those endless black eyes, forming into thick globs of bubbles before floating upwards.
"You came..." Her voice broke. "You truly came."
She rose, drifting with the water towards him.
Despite her immense size, every movement was graceful. She reached out carefully, almost as if she was afraid he would disappear. Her fingers closed gently around him.
He weighed nothing. Heck, he looked like a speck of dust on her palms.
"Thank you..."
The water surrounding them exploded.The spring roared.
Above the surface, the peaceful pond erupted into the sky, bursting though the treehouse. A pillar of water hundreds of meters high burst upward, drenching the surrounding forest.
The women cried out, scrambling from the incessant spray of water.
"Iniko!"
The Elder stumbled backward as the basin split apart.
Something emerged from it.
First came the black hair, pale shoulders streaked with crimson light. Then the gigantic figure herself.
Onik’Shira rose from the pond as though the earth itself were giving birth.She cradled K carefully against her chest, shielding him from the torrent cascading from her body.
No one dared move or breath.
Every woman in the settlement stared.
Their Efun markings ignited simultaneously. Golden light raced across every arm. All at once.
They fell to their knees.The air trembled.
Shira looked across them with exhausted eyes.
"So...they survived..."
A weak smile crossed her lips.
Then pain twisted her expression. Cracks spread rapidly beneath her skin. Crimson light poured through them like molten fire. Her knees buckled.
K looked up.
"Shira?"
She barely seemed to hear him. Her gaze drifted toward the distant horizon. Hatred unlike anything he’d ever witnessed filled those black eyes.
"My children..." Her voice echoed across the valley."...in pain." Another crack split across her arm and she began to shrink, her muscles and bones contracting as they pulled into each other. "They took my people..."
Her breathing became ragged. "No, I have not abandoned you..."
She clutched at her chest."I will..."
The entire forest fell silent.
"...avenge them."
Her now shrunken body collapsed back toward the pond. Before K could react, he was gently pushed free from her grasp by the last of her strength.
...
Several kilometers away...
A supply crate inside Horizon’s cargo bay shifted.
The lid slowly lifted.
A tuft of ginger hair appeared.
Lex stretched her arms before climbing out with a smug grin.
"So much for leaving me behind."
She dusted herself off and wandered toward the rear hatch. The moment the ramp lowered and she stepped, warm Nytheran air greeted her.
So did it’s gravitational pressure.
"Oh shit!" Her knees buckled as she fought to stand upright. "Woah!"
She slowly marched towards the dense forestry.
"I should have tailed them!"
She cut down a few shrubs and bushes as she made her way through them.
The weather here was warmer and not in a good way.
"Can this sun just let up?"
Almost as if it heard her, a shadow swallowed the sunlight.
"Huh?"
High above the clouds, a massive porcelain-white vessel pierced Nythera’s atmosphere. Its crimson engines carved blazing trails across the sky.
Lex’s sour mood vanished.
"That..."
The ship continued descending. Stopping a few feet in air where K’s ship sat.
"Holy shit, it’s a Vashki ship!"