GPCiMW Chapter 23 (Patreon)

Daphne had been right. It probably was for the best that I did not know what was coming, because I would have been tense the whole trip and my reaction would have probably given something away. That didn’t stop me from being absolutely furious with her about not warning me, even as I held desperately onto her assurance that everything would be alright in the end.

Screams echoed off the smooth walls of the shaft as the eight of us plummeted into the depths of the earth, the last dregs of dayling trickling through the gap that had opened in the earth beneath our feet providing just enough illumination to see the walls and each other, but nothing of what lay in the inky darkness below us. After several feet, packed dirt and clay had given way to glass-smooth stone, flecks of quartz, mica, and other minerals shimmering weakly in the otherwise featureless rock tunnel, but offering nothing to grab onto nor way to slow our fall. 

Kazuma’s accented voice rose above the rest of the din, his words thick with fear. “If we survive this, Wyll, I’m going to kill you!”

“Not if I get to him first!” Teveus bit out, the echoes of his words falling away above us.

I said nothing, my eyes wide as I gazed down into the blackness beneath us. In a few years, maybe even just a few months, something like this would have been easily dealt with. I could have slowed my fall, flown out of the hole, or maybe even teleported right back into my room. As it was, I was at the mercy of whatever reason Daphne seemed so sure we’d all survive this mess.

“How is this my fault?” Wyll whined.

Kazuma’s only response was a wordless snarl. 

I tried to focus on my breathing, but my throat was choked with a mix of terror and creeping doubt. Air howled in my ears and battered against my nose and mouth whenever I tried to inhale. I knew it was all in my head, that you weren’t supposed to have trouble breathing in freefall, but it was one thing to know something, and quite another to feel it for yourself. 

I’d never liked heights, hated roller coasters, and loathed not being in control of my future. The darkness below us hid just how far down the vertical shaft extended, but I’d never found ignorance to be comforting. This was worse than standing on the edge of the roof of my apartment building. Worse than that horrible trip to a nearby amusement park I’d taken with my mundane classmates. 

I turned my head to peek at Daphne, who was falling just above me. She had her arms and legs spreadeagled, her knees slightly bent and her arms angled up above the rest of her body. Her hair streamed out behind her in a river of silver barely contained by the band of leather holding it back and even in the darkness I could see the glee on her face, and feel an echo of it rippling down our bond. Here we were, lost in the woods and plunging into some kind of pit trap, and she was having the time of her life!

The doubt in my throat itchy at my mind, dark and cloying. What if Daphne was wrong? What if she’d somehow lied to me? What if this was some sort of trick or scheme? A witch shouldn’t be able to plot against her coven lord, but Daphne had already defied plenty of other expectations I had for what a witch could or couldn’t do. I’d never heard of any seer half as powerful or precise as she seemingly was. What if she was hiding something else, something dangerous?

I pushed those doubts to the back of my mind, but couldn’t––wouldn’t––crush them completely. I’d already decided to trust her. Had told her that this was her last chance. Daphne hadn’t lied to me. Couldn’t lie to me. Somehow, this would all work out. We’d all be fine.

Our fall ended as quickly as it had begun. One moment we were hurtling into the darkness at terminal velocity, the next the shaft opened up into a dimly lit chamber big enough to fit a house with room to spare with a mirror-smooth pool of water at its center. 

I had a moment to muse that, at the speed we were falling, real water would behave much like unforgiving stone. Even if I had time to angle my body into a dive, the pool looked much too shallow to slow me before I pulped my skull against the stone beneath.

Than we came to a stop just inches above the water, as abruptly as if we’d slammed into the earth but without the accompanying bone-shattering and organ-pulping collision. Magic rippled across my skin, smooth and cool like a powdering of snowflakes that vanished as quickly as it had appeared. In the water I could see my own face reflected back up at me, my eyes wide and face pale. No matter how much I believed in my mind that Daphne hadn’t led us both to our deaths, it was hard to suppress my body’s natural reactions—especially when I didn’t particularly want to do so. 

We hung motionless for a heartbeat, just long enough for Kazuma to release a strangled “Wha—“ that turned into a shout of surprise, then plunged into pleasantly warm water just deep enough to reach my hips had I been standing up. Having been about to say something myself, I got a mouthful of water for my trouble, but had the presence of mind to get my legs under me.

I emerged from the water like a breaching whale, spluttering and shaking. Water sloughed off my robe leaving it perfectly dry, but neither my boots nor the rest of my uniform were nearly so lucky. I was soaked to the bone and bubbles rose up around me as my not-quite-that-waterproof boots rapidly filled with water. 

I blinked the water out of my eyes and looked around. Like Daphne had promised, everyone seemed to be alright. Teveus was using his witch as a handle to pull himself up, Wyll and June were both clambering out of the water themselves, and an already standing, dry-haired Kazuma was holding Haimi—on whom the water rose considerably past her hips—against his side.

It took me a heart wrenching moment to find Daphne. She was kneeling right behind me, her eyes closed and a look of intense focus on her face. The end of her long ponytail hung in the water, but her face and the rest of her hair were dry, telling me she’d probably landed on her feet like Kazuma had.

Through the crystal-clear water, I could see her hands sweeping across the smooth stone beneath us with deliberate slowness. I took one look at her, then deliberately shuffled to the side to stand between her and the other three Wizards in our group.

I coughed up the last of the water I’d nearly inhaled, then cleared my throat loudly. “Everyone alright?”

Kazuma’s grip on his witch’s shoulders tightened until it would certainly leave a mark. He had her pressed up against his side, and there was a slightly wild look in his eyes. Despite that, his response was measured and spoken with forced calm. “Aye.”

“Yeah,” Teveus agreed, rubbing water out of his eyes with his fists, and Wyll echoed the sentiment a moment later.

For a few seconds, the cavern was silent but for our heavy breathing and the soft splashing of water. Then Kazuma, his voice having regained some of his usual good humor, asked, “Where the fuck are we?”

No one (except maybe Daphne, but she certainly wasn’t going to say anything) had an answer for him.

We all looked around, even the others’ witches peering curiously at our surroundings. The cavern we’d fallen into was anything but natural, just as the pit clearly hadn’t been. It was perfectly circular, with a domed roof and gently sloping floor. The walls were smooth and polished to a shine, and two circles of evenly spaced glowing stones set some distance apart along the wall and ceiling filled the space with a soft, even light. 

Water filled about half of the chamber’s floorspace, clear as glass and warm enough that I was surprised there wasn’t steam rising off of it. It was a lot shallower than I’d thought at first, only a few feet deep at the center of the hall and getting shallower and shallower as you got closer to the chamber’s walls. The air was cool and crisp, without any of the stale, musty smells I associated with being underground. 

Directly above us was a circular opening, but instead of a long, dark tunnel it looked as though it opened directly onto the forest. I could see the canopy seemingly just a few dozen feet away from me, the setting sun illuminating the sky in a riot of warm tones. It was rather beautiful, actually, not that I could fully appreciate it with the cold air biting at my face and my soaked pants and underclothes clinging to my skin. 

I took a tentative step and found that, unlike the walls and ceiling, the floor wasn’t actually perfectly smooth. Instead, it was textured with tiny bumps barely visible to the naked eye that still provided excellent footing, even when fully submerged. 

I tilted my head to the side and looked at my surroundings with new eyes. The soft, warm lights. The magically heated pool. The skylight. All of it painted an interesting picture. 

Unfortunately, what I didn’t see was anything useful. Like a door. Or maybe a very tall ladder. The room was completely empty but for the eight of us, and we were now even further away from the school than we had been before. At least this was almost certainly the place Daphne had Seen that we would end up. Hopefully she also knew how to get out of here, because I was starting to get a little bit tired, thirsty, and peckish, and I wasn’t super keen on drinking from this pool. 

“Look,” Wyll suddenly called, and I turned with the rest of us to find him pointing at one seemingly unremarkable patch of wall. “It's a doorway!” It took me a few moments––and several steps closed––to notice what he had; a faint, door-shaped seam in the otherwise featureless rock, one of the glowing stones positioned at its very center. 

In silent agreement, we all headed towards the possible door, water splashing loudly around us. I glanced over my shoulder and felt my breath hitch when I realized that Daphne was nowhere to be found. I swallowed past it and continued onward. She’d warned me something like that might happen, though I hadn’t expected it so soon. 

Hopefully none of the others noticed. 

Having landed on the far side of the pool from Wyll, I was the last to reach the wall. He was already trying to pry the door open, doing his best to wedge his short nails into the seams in the wall. He wasn’t having much luck––the gap was very narrow, only visible from a distance because of the strange play of shadow over the groove.

Teveus was––much more practically in my opinion––instead studying the light stone positioned almost like a doorknob. It was bigger than I’d thought at first, about the size of my palm and extending a finger’s width up past the surface of the stone wall. It was perfectly cylindrical, though the edge wasn’t at all sharp, and looked even smoother than the walls. It glowed with a soft, amber light, dim enough that I could stare directly at it without hurting my eyes. The light seemed to be coming from within the stone itself, rising from the depths of what I could not see was a slightly cloudy crystal. 

Teveus’s fingers hovered a few inches away from the surface of the crystal and he turned towards me and Kazuma. “What do you think?” he asked softly.

I shrugged. “The fall didn’t kill us.”

Kazuma snorted in amusement. “Better you than me!” He sobered quickly, tilting his head towards Wyll who was grunting comically with exertion as he scrabbled at the wall with his nails. “Walls seem safe enough, and I’ve seen light crystals like these before.”

Teveus stared at it for a moment longer, then grabbed his witch by the wrist and tugged her forward. “Touch it,” he ordered the tall, well-built witch. Ryba obeyed mutely, brushing the tips of her fingers against the crystal before letting her hand fall back to her side.

Nothing happened.

Teveus frowned. “Harder,” he demanded, “press your hand against it.”

For a moment, the experiment seemed just as unsuccessful. Ryba’s palm obscured the crystal completely from view, visibly darkening the floor in front of us, but nothing else seemed to happen. Then she shifted her weight and there was a soft click, barely audible over Wyll’s ‘efforts’.

Teveus rapped his knuckles against his witch’s forearm and she took a step back in time for us to see the light crystal sink smoothly into the wall until it was flush with the stone around it. Then the wall rumbled as the entire door slid back a full inch, then swung open onto a dark hallway.

Wyll threw his arms in the air in celebration, sending droplets of water flying in all directions. “I did it!” he cheered.

Teveus groaned and Kazuma covered his eyes with his hand. 

I just sighed softly. Maybe Kazuma would make good on his promise to kill Wyll for getting us into this mess and I wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. Or Teveus would.

Probably not. 

I wasn’t that lucky. 

The four of us crowded around the open doorway, peering into the darkness beyond. I wrinkled my nose when water dripped from Teveus’s hair onto my already damp arm, but didn’t relinquish my spot in the middle of the group. We were leaving wet footprints and puddles in our wake, but most of the water seemed to be draining swiftly back into the pool.

The warm light of the hall only penetrated a few feet into the gloom, illuminating more bare stone, four non-glowing cylindrical crystals, and little else. From this angle, it was impossible to say if the hallway extended just a few meters into the wall, or perhaps went on for miles. Perhaps this place was even connected to Aglakok somehow, this hallway leading off into some professor’s private office. 

Kazuma frowned and bent down, running a finger along the floor just past the door. He rose to his feet and showed the rest of the thick layer of dust covering the digit, then gestured towards the obvious mark he’d left on the floor. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been this way in a long time. Years, maybe.” His frown deepened. “I think so, at least. I don’t really know how quickly dust accumulates in a place like this.”

I kicked myself mentally for not noticing what Kazuma had immediately spotted. In that case the space either wasn’t connected directly to Aglakok or the connection was hidden somehow. Otherwise the Academy’s wards should have directed some of the slaves to come by and clean up. The dust also probably meant it didn’t belong to a current student or professor. 

Teveus took a step forward, but I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Here, give me a second.” I drew on my magic, teasing forth a single spark and carefully shaping it into the desired form. Then I flicked my fingers and a streak of white light shot several feet out into the darkness before coalescing into a pale orb the size of my fist that cast a bright, steady light in all directions. 

“Oh, shit,” Wyll turned towards me, his eyebrows shooting up. “You can cast a spell already? That’s so cool, man! I thought we weren’t supposed to be learning any spells for a few more weeks, though?”

Teveus answered his unasked question before I had to. “Not a spell, just a cantrip. Still pretty handy though.” He also turned towards me, raising a single eyebrow. “Would have been handy to have while we were falling.

My cheeks reddened. I hadn’t thought of that. “I uh, need to concentrate to do it. Hard to focus when you’re, you know…falling.”

He clicked his tongue. “Fair. Can’t say I was in any mind to be casting anything either.” He glanced towards the orb, then averted his eyes from the bright ball. “Not that I can do that. All I can manage is making ice cubes.”

Wyll bounced up and down in excitement, rising up on his toes before rocking back onto his heels. “Wait, what’s a cantrip? How’s that different from a spell? And you can make ice cubes on demand?”

“Wyll, do you ever look at your textbooks?” Kazuma asked softly.

“Only when I need to!” He rocked back on his heels again, a pensive expression on his face. “Haven’t needed to yet, so uh…no!”

Maybe I’d been wrong and Kazuma was going to make good on his promise! He certainly looked vaguely murderous.

Teveus sighed. “A spell is a complex structure of form and purpose that becomes imprinted on a wizard’s soul. A cantrip meanwhile is just a little toy, a minor magical effect that even a child can manifest if they’re careful and dedicated enough. A training tool that lacks any true substance.”

“Hmm…I don’t get it.”

“Read your textbooks, Wyll, and maybe someday you will.”

Wyll grinned. “I’ll think about it!”