The dark hole of the well swallowed the little fox in a hungry instant.
Her small naked and pale body vanished into the darkness like a cry echoing between old stones. The wispy tail, red and white, was the last thing to disappear beyond the edge, consumed by the abyss.
SPLASH.
Then, chaos. Frantic splashing. The sound of thin arms slapping at the water's surface. Legs kicking against the liquid void in a desperate dance to stay afloat.
"Lirka!"
I threw myself against the well's edge. Cold rock pressed against my stomach. Rough stone scraped my palms, but I felt nothing. I leaned into the emptiness, throat burning. Below me was only a circle of darkness and that violent thrashing already slowing down, becoming heavier, more gurgling.
She can't swim. Neither can I.
"Oh for Eteria, the water must be freezing down the well. I'm coming!" Cora's voice exploded from the window above me. Her footsteps rushed toward the stairs. "Arek, hold on! I'm coming, don't move!"
But her help was far away. The stairs. The hallway. The kitchen. The garden. She needed just too much time.
The sounds from the well were already changing. Weaker. More gurgling.
"There's no time, Arek!" Sipar shouted from the window, his face pale as wax. He'd leaned dangerously from the sill, knuckles white from gripping. His gray eyes, always so calm, always so rational, were now filled with terror.
I peered into the well again. Absolute darkness. The sounds were getting weaker and slower.
She's drowning.
My knees trembled. My breath caught in my throat. I took a step back, and the word that came out burned my tongue with a bitter sting.
"Magic."
No. I can't. Not after what happened. Not after—
But Lirka was dying.
"AREK!" Sipar screamed my name like a slap. "Help her! Find a way!"
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. And I sensed it.
Water. Cold and alive. Frantic around a small body that was fighting.
And beneath, worse, the water pressing into Lirka's lungs.
My heart clenched so hard it hurt.
The water in Lirka's lungs pressed against my mind, heavy, freezing, lethal. Her mouth opened, swallowing freeing water.
I knew it without seeing it.
Liquid filled her throat, choked the scream before it was born. The fox's panic flooded into me. Primitive and blind. A body that knows it's dying.
I'll drown too. I'll hurt someone.
But she was drowning now.
No, she can't die! Not…again…?
The thought came unclear, but absolute.
I won't lose someone else.
Not today.
Not her.
I opened my eyes and the world around me was illuminated by a different light. More vivid, more alive.
I saw the residual raindrops falling from the apple tree, each one a small sphere of azure light. I saw the moisture in the air, invisible before, now brilliant like stardust.
I stretched my hands toward the well.
I inhaled and exhaled deeply.
I closed my fist, but couldn't finish closing it, as if there was resistance. I sensed it. I was gripping the water at the bottom of the earth.
The well's water began to vibrate.
A low hum, deep, rising from the stones like the breath of a sleeping giant. I felt the vibration climb up my arms, through my shoulders, filling my chest.
I breathed again.
No water in the lungs.
My hand moved toward me with fingers contracted until they cramped, gripping something invisible but resistant, like grasping solid smoke.
The water beneath swayed, dense, reluctant. It didn't want to move.
It's heavy.
I used my other hand too. The grip felt stronger now.
"Calm down, Arek." I told myself. "Remember, what did Tyeron say?"
I opened my eyes.
"Quantity and purity?" I expanded my mind.I could clearly see the water beneath my feet, which was abundant and crystalline.
"Distance." I took a step toward the well, unsure if just one step would make a difference.
"Breath of the Gods." I squeezed my eyes so hard I saw stars. "And what's that supposed to—"
Enough. Open it.
Something fractured inside me deep inside, and a seal cracked open.
This thing that had always been closed, locked in my chest. And now it was open.
And from that opening, it flowed.
An enormous amount of something, pouring through me. Not blood, not liquid: more like pain but without the agony. Pure flow.
I witnessed it. No, I registered it.
It moved inside me and stretched through my hands in a thin thread that passed beyond the ground and spread into the water.
I increased the flow, somehow.
The veins in my arms seemed ready to burst. The pressure inside was building and they were swelling.
I pulled again. Harder. More decisive.
I forced the water to respond and obey.
Not like it had before, shy, uncertain, a drop at a time.
It responded like a soldier to his general. Like an ocean to the moon.
It obeyed. It obeyed my command.
It didn't fall. Didn't overflow.
The water exploded upward, a serpent of liquid crystal defying every law, every logic, everything the world said was possible.
I lost my balance tugging at that immense force and fell hard, my back hitting the soft grass. My hands stayed high, shaking with effort.
A liquid column burst from the well. A serpent's snout with an open mouth, biting the morning air. The water spiraled upward in an ascending helix, defying every natural law.
The serpent rose. And kept rising, pointing toward the white clouds. It wouldn't stop.
Too much. It's too much. How do I stop it now?
But I couldn't stop it. I could only watch as my power grew beyond any limit I should have had.
The water column continued to grow, higher and higher, thinner and thinner, until its peak pierced a cloud. A liquid bridge between earth and sky, so majestic and impossible that my brain struggled to grasp that I had created it. Or moved it so far. So big.
"Arek, how... how much..." Sipar had become a stammering puppet, framed in the window. His voice far away but clear with a high pitch. Emma clung to his arm.
The water serpent towered over the temple, over the garden, over the city's roofs. A living column twisting in the sky.
Then, it faded away and vanished.
It didn't collapse. Didn't fall.
It simply dissolved. As if it evaporated in an instant, sucked up by the sky itself. The last drop disappeared into the clouds with a silver flash.
A surreal emptiness fell over the garden.
I pushed my palms against the grass and stood. In that movement, I glimpsed the kitchen entrance.
Cora. One hand on the threshold, the other in front of her mouth.
They're all afraid. I knew it. I shouldn't have…
I didn't have time for this now.
Then it started to rain.
A thin drizzle, almost impalpable. Tiny drops falling slowly, caressing my face, my hair, the apple tree's leaves. The air filled with sweet moisture and with it came rainbows.
Everywhere.
Arcs of light interweaving in the saturated air, transforming the darkness into something unreal. Brilliant and unreal.
My hands trembled. The veins pulsed. The pressure was gone now and only cold inside my chest remained. The rainbow danced in front of my nose, transforming the garden in a shimmering carnival.
"Lirka."
I leaned over the well's edge and peered down.
Did it work? Is she alive?
The well seemed dry. I couldn't detect the slightest trace of water inside it. But I couldn't hear any sound either, and like before, I couldn't see anything beyond the darkness inside.
"Lirka. Are you okay?"
The echo of my voice returned distorted, with no answer.
My heart stopped.
I drained it all.
I climbed with my knees onto the low wall, scraping myself. A stone shifted under my weight.
"Easy, Arek." My voice echoed in the void.
I could wait for help. I could not jump.
There was no time to hesitate. I grabbed the rope, rough, thick, and wrapped it around my forearm and I launched myself into the darkness.
Before plunging into shadow, the last thing I caught in daylight was Cora emerging from the threshold and screaming.
"It's not tied!"
What…Shit!
The words crossed my mind the same instant the rope went slack and I fell in the hungry darkness.
Stones flashed around me in gray that grew darker and darker. The circle of light above me narrowed.
I reached inside. I need to… The power responded. I reached out for something. Anything.
Suddenly one of the stones along the precipitous path extended outward like a grey finger.
"Yes!"
But the celebration died in my mouth. My breath came out in a strangled cry as my trajectory carried me crashing with full weight onto the stone beam.
THUD.
My ribs crushed and all the air exploded from my lungs in an involuntary groan.
The world burst into white stars that reminded me of the rainbows above.
I can't breathe.
The longest moment of my life was right before I could catch my breath. Mouth open. Lungs locked. No air coming in, no air going out. Just the dull panic of a body not responding.
Then—GASP.
Air returned in a painful hiss.
"Ahhh. Bad idea, Arek. Really bad this time."
The rope tied to my arm continued its race to the bottom, unspooling with a constant rustling.
I glanced down into the darkness. Deep. And down there was an orange stain, motionless.
"I'm..." My breath was returning bit by bit, each one was a stab through my heart. "I'm about halfway."
I hurried and tied the rope to the stone beam. My fingers trembled as I tightened the knot, two loops, three, then I pulled hard. I checked and it held. I hoped at least.
"Arek! By Eteria, how are you?" Cora's voice boomed in the well from above, distorted by the echo.
"A bit breathless, Cora."
Her face was a shadow in the distant blue circle above my head. Tiny. Almost unreal.
"I'm not at the bottom yet," I shouted upward. "I see Lirka. She's at the bottom and not moving."
Actually she was moving because she was trembling. The well's frozen water must have left her frozen, but I didn't have the heart to say it.
I gave two strong tugs on the rope to make sure the knot held and the stone beam held. Solid and reliable.
"I'm going to get Tyeron!" Cora's voice, already distant, running.
"Okay. I'm going down in the meantime."
I gripped the rope with all my strength. My hands were already burning from the first attempt, raw skin rubbing against rough fiber.
I descended the other half of the road separating me from the bottom, hand after hand, little by little. My arm muscles grew heavier and heavier, shoulders burning with the strain.
Almost there.
"Hang on, little fox," I said just before letting go of the rope.
I touched the dry rock beneath. Goosebumps broke out across my skin, the few hairs on my arm standing on end seeking warmth that wasn't there.
The well's bottom was wide, cold and dark. The humidity inside was minimal, the water serpent must have drained even the water from the rocks. The air tasted of dust and dead stone like a cold sandy desert.
I turned and Lirka was there, enveloped by thick shadows.
She was curled up like a wounded animal. Ears flattened and lips blue. She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered with that dry sound like clashing bones, but dry. Completely dry.
I rushed to her and wrapped my arms around her.
She was cold as wet iron. Motionless. Lirka's skin didn't yield under my fingers: rigid, unnatural.
"I need to warm her up. I need something. I need.." I expired. "Fire!"
But there was no fire down here. No warmth. No flame. No heat.
"I have to warm her up. I have to do something."
I squeezed my eyes shut for the umpteenth time with a force that stung my temples.
"Please, please. Something. A bit of warmth."
The Breath of the Gods inside me swirled wildly searching for something, a minimal spark to cling to.
There was nothing down here.
I was the only warm thing in this damned well.
Then a weird idea: "Yes. Me."
She needs to warm up. Even if it means emptying myself of the heat.
I tightened my arms around that limp little body. I sought warmth in my chest, in my arms, everywhere. I pushed it toward my palms, concentrated, until I felt them burn.
Small sparks danced in the dry, cold air as I rubbed Lirka's smooth pale skin.
Warmth flowed from my arms, from my chest. Even from my legs and feet.
All was channeled to my palms.
Lirka's skin slowly took on warmth again. The warmth grew under my fingers. Then it became hot.
But my body was abandoning me quickly. I couldn't feel my toes anymore. My back was ice. My lips trembled. All the heat inside me was being channeled to her and I was freezing.
Doesn't matter. She needs to warm up. She needs to live. Please.
I kept rubbing, pushing warmth. Freezing myself to keep her alive.
Suddenly a fox ear twitched slightly.
Then both.
The pointed ears lifted, standing up sharply. Her eyes, one amber and one black, the pupils wide and different, flew open.
"Lirka, I... I... I'm sorry!"
Her pupils moved around, looking for focus, then they found my face and contracted.
I was ready for anything, except that tiny fist that collided with my cheek the same instant I said those words.
CRACK.
The impact was so violent it made me lose my grip on her tiny body and sent me staggering two or three steps back, rolling on the ground.
What—
I slammed against the rock. My breath came out in a grunt. The metallic taste of blood in my mouth.
I turned, dazed.
Lirka was in front of me in an attack position.
Feet planted on the ground, legs bent. One hand on the ground for balance. The other pulled back, fist closed, ready to throw another punch.
Her sharp teeth were bared, too white in the dark. Her ears were pulled back.
A bestial growl raised from her figure echoing on the dark stone that surrounded us.
She tensed her legs and flattened her tail, preparing to jump with the full force of her bestial muscle.