In the gap between Lena’s heartbeats, Lightning and Wind answer to my will without a whisper of resistance. A shimmering storm of crackling light and roiling air spread across my body, devouring the bck smoke where it dares to reach for me.

  My soul groans, shuddering around the crack. The pain barely registers. I watch the tendrils spread and multiply, drifting toward me. My movements feel sluggish as I push back, hurrying to get closer to Lena and get us both out of here.

  Goddess, none of this makes sense. The abstract shouldn’t be chasing me, shouldn’t be trying to snake around my sphere of hungry Lightning to reach for Lena.

  The moment I'm close, I release the bulk of my magic, and everything snaps back to full speed. Tendrils sh through air that smells of storms, Lena's worried readings become a half-heard question, and my worries begin to take shape.

  When this is over, I decide, I’m going to scream. Roar, really. Vent this bubbling heat, this rage at everything this Delve has become today. I am tired, I am bruised, and something inside me is bleeding. I feel worn through by a thousand problems, damaged and chipped like the sword of a careless soldier.

  For now, though, we have to go. Take this Heart, reach Verity, and leave the yer. From there... well. I can only pray it’s just the yer sinking, or we all might just die from decompression trying to escape it.

  “Ssstay behind me,” I hiss out, Lightning arcing between my cws. “Get ready to—”

  A cluster of tendrils binds into a rope, lurching forward—

  It burns in a fsh of purplish light before I can so much as raise a hand to stop it.

  “I-Ivy!” Lena stutters out from behind me, “T-that was the blessing, I think. I felt it! W-what’s going on?”

  Gods, I wish I knew.

  A sh of smoke bursts from the gloom, and I just barely dance out of the way. Her blessing is reacting to this? A barrier against pressure, from a God of protection and healing? More questions, no answers, as usual for today; I shove that thought aside and focus on what actually matters in the moment. Carry Lena, look for the spider, find our padin before the depth alone kills her. Wind answers the call, pouring on as I spot a safe course.

  In one smooth motion, I step behind her, dip down, and pull her up into my arms. The moment she’s braced against me, we plunge off the side of the bridge.

  The wind whips around me, twined with wisps of my own magic. Flickers of purple light glint in Lena’s eyes, but I don’t dare look up— I have to make sure we nd safely on the bridge below.

  “Lena, Depth!” I snap. Knees bent, Wind in the proper shape, grit teeth to compensate.

  “What’s—”

  We hit the bridge with a thud and a crunch, hard enough for my boots to break the surface— hard enough that even with bent knees and a dreg of Wind, the judder stops Lena's words short.

  I gnce up, pulling my boots free of the sticky ooze. Bck smoke creeps along the bridge and down through the air. Down towards us.

  I can feel a new ripple now, too. The ripple of a rift— what else could it be, with the Heart already taken?

  “One t-thousand sixty marches,” Lena says, her voice strained. “Ivy, w-what's happening? Please.”

  Verity... Gods, I can't see the spider. No fshy magic to draw my eye. No room for mistakes, so I’ll have to sweep and watch my route. I push aching muscles into a run, pumping my legs and drawing on my memory of our route. Should be marks where I nded on our way over here.

  The waves grow stronger, drowning out the curve of the Delve pressing hard against my magic. Looking back won’t help anything.

  “Ivy?”

  My heart twinges. Damn, I'd forgotten.

  “The Delve is sssinking,” I hiss out, seizing the rumble in my chest and holding it. The feeling is soothing, rhythmic; a gentle grounding for my wandering thoughts. “Happenss when Delvess ssstart to fall apart. Ssshouldn't be happening.”

  Lena takes a shuddering breath. “G-gods. I'm s-sorry.”

  “Sshut it,” I snap, whipping my tail into a passing pilr. Where is Verity? We need to find her. “Not your fault, I told you that. Depth?”

  Her limit's one and half grand marches, and that's probably under far kinder circumstances. Leap up, bend knees, run, run, run. I need to be faster. I can feel the Delve sinking, even if the exact numbers escape me... but even as the Depth seeks to strangle me, the pressure enables my body to change once more.

  Something shifts. Bones creak, muscles twist, my cws press into the leather of my boots.

  “One thousand one hundred. Gods, Restoration, please...”

  Less than I’d feared, worse than I’d hoped. The waves have drowned the curve, swallowing it like a ship lost at sea. What if I don't find her? What if the spider— no, she's a Padin of Adamantine. Servants of the Sun Regent, breakers of crowns, hands of Justice herself.

  “But.” Lena's voice hardens. “We'll m-make it. I know we will.”

  Hah.

  Well then. One thing to hope it, another thing to hear it. Keep it together, Ivy.

  I push harder, leap higher, strain against the limits of my body. I feel a string of pops along my heels, joints stretching and mending.

  A flicker of light, a familiar tik tik tik in the distance.

  Lena speaks and acts for the both of us, with joy dawning on her face and warming her voice. “There! I see her! Oh, thank the Restoration.”

  A hulking mass of monster, a glimmer of Sun. Verity, alive and fighting. I can hear her, too, the cshing and crackling of Fire and metal.

  Thank the Goddess for that. That should've been me fighting the monster, I could have—

  No, Ivy. That would’ve been far, far worse. Swallow your pride.

  “Depth,” I hiss out.

  “One thousand, t-three... hundred...”

  Joy should plunge back into the cold depths, but I let my heart cling to it. Better than being miserable.

  Better than looking back and seeing what's become of the smoke. “Faster, then. Got enough magic to hit the damned thing?”

  “To help her? O-of course.”

  I could follow the natural path of the bridges, certainly. But her smouldering bridge is perpendicur to us, and with two massive jumps I could be there.

  It's an easy choice. My body's already started to change, after all.

  Cws shred the leather of my boots. The bones in my feet groan, twist, and stretch, drawn out to a more suitable shape. Muscles fray and reweave, dragged into pce by shifting tendons. My body shifts forward, pushed up on rising heels, pulled back by a slight thickening of my tail.

  I'll savor the changes when we get out of here. For now, I bunch my legs, pulling and pushing on new muscles, and jump.

  Then, with the wind dancing in my hair, I look back.

  A writhing maw of darkness, dragged forward by countless tendrils of smoke. The howling, hungry nothing of the abstract bares its teeth, eager for another taste of my soul.

  I wouldn't survive that, I'm certain.

  My knees— and ankles, Goddess, that'll take getting used to— bend to cushion my nding. The thud is the same, but Lena jostles less and my extra muscuture can handle more force.

  Halfway there. Verity's got her shield up, holding the ember-coated spider at bay. One forelimb is missing, and its shell is coated in cracks. There's even a few small fires guttering, burning away the fungal sacs that'd given us so much trouble before.

  Her eyes catch on mine, and a smile flickers across her blood-stained lips.

  “One thousand, f-four hundred,” Lena says shakily. “Isn't that close to her limit?”

  “Just in time, then!” Verity shouts hoarsely. “Figured I wasn't...”

  I jump before I can hear the rest, drawing a hasty structure of Wind around myself. Maybe the fungal sacs are gone, maybe there's more; now is not the time for gambling on the former.

  Fighting is a gamble, too. I want to fight, to rip this monster limb from limb.

  But there's something far, far worse behind us.

  “Hit it as hard as you can,” I call to Lena, watching her expression. “Body first, legs after.”

  A thousand feelings churn in her eyes, and I can name none of them. She nods jerkily, looking away. Wind gathers in her hands, and I turn my focus to the bridge.

  Fire bursts from Verity's shield, and the spider flinches back. A crescent of Wind erupts from Lena's raised hand, smming against its body with a satisfying crack. She follows it with two more, one carving a wet gouge through its body, the other shattering the chitin of one of the monster’s legs. The monster slips, scrabbling for grip and lurching away.

  A perfect opportunity. We need to end this fast.

  My tail swings out, spinning us to the side, and a pulse of Wind catches the air whistling past. Another pulse adds to our bleeding momentum, forward and downward as I pour Lightning into my feet. One leg back, the other extended to focus the force.

  “Brace,” I hiss, tightening my grip on Lena—

  Cws meet chitin in a wet, bone-jarring thud, and the chitin gives way. Pain shudders up my leg as I sm through the grey ooze, Lightning scorching the shell and searing away everything my cws touch. The monster shrieks, thrashing, lurching; the air chokes with rancid ash and sulfurous smoke.

  And then, announced by a thunderous crack, silence.

  The monster falls apart in two halves around me, tumbling into the depths. I watch for a heartbeat, tracing those vile comets with trails of revolting ooze.

  But there’s no time for more. No time to breathe, to think, to savor the victory. Lena is safe in my arms, her breathing sharp and rapid; Verity drags herself to standing, wiping blood and ooze from her face. White-gold eyes fre to life in darkened sclera.

  “Got the Heart?” She rasps.

  I nod. “I lead, you follow. Lena, depth?”

  Lena’s eyes snap wide, and her cwed hands scrabble for the meter. “O-one thousand, four hundred seventy,” Lena reads off, voice unsteady. “Are you feeling al—”

  I jump away before she can finish the question, teeth grit against the pain in my hip.

  She won't like the answer.

  After minutes of terse running and climbing, the portal is in sight.

  Just like that.

  No monsters to rip apart. Nothing to fight. Just three exhausted women, and one thousand, eight hundred marches of depth. I should be eted at the sheer simplicity.

  But with the long climb ahead of us, there’s plenty of time for something to go wrong.

  Verity is holding up. Her face is hard, nearly impassive; the blood trickling from her ears and mouth doesn't seem to bother her.

  But we're almost there, at least. There’s a dreg of pride to be taken in seeing through the portal, proof of the stability I’d imparted; it offers a view of gravel and a dead river, an unbroken horizon of shattered stone.

  I can't help but see a noose instead.

  “You're... hah,” Verity starts, voice hitching. She's running alongside us now, specifically on the side Lena can't see. “You’re... hrk, hesitating.”

  “If it's the— the yer that's sinking,” I say, hating every word of it, “Then we'll... step through and get pressure sickness. Or.”

  “Or?” Lena murmurs.

  “It could be the Delve itself. Not... not a damn clue how we'd survive that.”

  “Oh.” Verity sighs, jogging ahead of me. Her voice is hoarse and rattling, but she somehow manages to sound almost casual about it all. “We'd best get going, then.”

  I can't even muster the energy to be angry at that.

  “I'd ask if you'd... gone mad,” I say, straining to force some humor into my already-fatigued voice, “But I think it's what's keeping me sane.”

  “It’s,” Lena starts, leaning into my chest, “We've been like this... um, wound up? For hours. Hard to be scared.”

  “Starts to feel like it's— like it’s normal, yeah?” I snort, picking up the pace. Running is a bit odd, with my feet like this, but I'd seen plenty of Magebloods do it before. I'll manage; my burning lungs and aching everything are far worse. Speaking of— “Verity. Pressure sickness. Know how to ease it?”

  “High mana burn!” Verity calls back. “I'll—”

  She coughs, spitting something out and wiping her face. “I’ll manage, Goddess willing. Had all those blessings, and. Ach. T-they didn’t mean a thing...”

  A jab at her using mana like a Judician is on the tip of my pointed tongue, but I can't push it out. Not when I'm watching a padin struggle under the pressure. Gods, I'm starting to feel it, too; we can't be far from two grand marches, and my soul is starting to ache in new pces.

  And of course, the main fear goes unaddressed. If the Delve really is sinking, what could we even do about it? Lena might be fine for a time thanks to that blessing, but I'd be pushing it and Verity could drop dead at any moment.

  And if we die, no amount of divine protection will get Lena out of here.

  Finally, though, we arrive at the portal. Verity slows to a stop, leaning against a tower and fshing a tight smile. I'm only a half-second after, bending down to let Lena get back on her feet. I look back—

  Nothing, drawing ever closer. Even if it's just the yer that's falling, I can't afford to leave this portal open. For us, for Craumont, because by the Gods I will buy my city more time.

  I gather my thoughts for a heartbeat, watching Lena stretch and firmly look away from the nothingness. I take a long breath, too, to keep my voice stable.

  “Lena, Verity, you go first. Need to fray the portal on this end,” Verity's eyebrows shoot up, and arm creeps across Lena's face. “No risk. Just makes closing the portal easier.”

  “Trying to give us a scare, eh?” Verity smirks, flicking her wrist. A shield fshes into being, broader and taller than her usual. “Lena, let's go.”

  Lena holds my gaze a moment longer, hesitating. “B-be safe, Ivy, alright?”

  I nod. Bit too te for safe.

  With that, Verity goes through, and Lena follows.

  I raise a cw, pouring my will into it, and walk to the portal on my new feet. A single swipe of that pitch-dark cw is enough to cut through all my hard work, tearing threads and shredding that crisp portal-fringe.

  When I step through, what will I see? They haven't quite made it through, I can't see them yet; will Verity be coping with pressure sickness, or will we have to pn around crumbling souls?

  With one st look at the rift, creeping ever closer, I step into my flickering portal—

  — a cold tendril wraps around my leg, clinging even as I pass through. It pulls, dragging against the force of my passage, scraping against my scales.

  For the moment it takes to gather my will, the two forces slow to a standstill.

  But Lighting and Wind answer the call, as they always do. Lighting crackles and hisses, arcing along my body; Wind swirls and slices through everything around me.

  My cws emerge from the portal, then my arm, and I drag myself fully onto the third yer. The tendril slips from around my leg, but that hardly soothes my worries.

  The pressure, thank the Gods, eases. We're not utterly damned, it seems. A choking weight lifted from my shoulders, one I can revel in: Lena is here too, and Verity is stumbling—

  Pain. My magic, seething and rupturing, bubbling like hot sludge. Joints ache, my vision darkens, my cws crash into the gravel. Countless wriggling somethings pulling themselves free of my fracturing soul.

  My heart thunders, my blood pulses. Crimson sptters across the ground, and I can only dimly hear Lena's shouting.

  If I'm feeling like this... Gods. Verity. I can see her out of the corner of my eye, dragging herself off the ground with Lena's help. I don't dare look closely.

  ...The portal is still open.

  For a moment, I’m somewhere else; gasping from popped lungs, crawling to a portal in a darkened room.

  Get up, Ivy.

  I focus on the sensation of gravel against my tail, rhythmic and soothing. It is my anchor, my weight on the scales that allows me to brace on a knee and stand. Wind and raw magic rush to knit the shorn muscles and cracked bones.

  Turn, one step at a time. One foot after the other.

  A hand on my shoulder, another at my waist. One taloned and bloodied, the other with the barest hint of cws.

  “Hate to s-say it,” Verity's voice trills in my ear, wavering and ragged, “But something's coming though. We n-need to—”

  “Closse it, I know,” I hiss back, and I finally look up at the portal.

  Flickering purple light, sputtering across the portal's surface— Lena's blessing at work, glowing like stars against a backdrop of nothingness. Smoke roils as I look into the abyss, and...

  The abyss peers back.

  Instinct overtakes conscious thought, lurching forward with a snarl. My cws catch on the threads of the portal with one hand, drawing on a Heart with the other. There is no time for a meticulous stitching of delicate thread; I yank seams together with pitch-dark cws and pour my will into thick ropes of gold.

  Tendrils yank at my cws, purple light burns them away, and Verity holds me steady. A wall of Wind pulses out from Lena's hand, shredding what her blessing fails to catch.

  I pull, I snarl, and as Verity's hands begins to slip—

  With a roar and a burst of my own sputtering magic, the portal sms closed. Not sealed, no; not when I need the bulk of the Hearts' power for getting us out. Just... stitched closed.

  A breath. A still moment, with only the sounds of three pounding hearts and three ragged sets of lungs.

  Verity drops to her knees with a cng, and I barely avoid following her down. I put an arm around Lena, just to make sure she doesn't do the same.

  Where do I even start this time?

  “Goddess,” Verity groans out, wiping a slick of blood off her face. I've never been so relieved to see someone do that before, honestly. “Kill me now. Just a little. Pressure sickness h-hurts.”

  “It always does. Congratutions on the new depth record,” I manage, gathering my thoughts properly. Verity flops an arm up to wave me off, and if it didn't look so forced, I suspect I'd find it funny.

  Granted, I did try and make a joke myself. I suppose I deserve that.

  It’s a little less pleasant when I see the blood seeping out from my scaled hands.

  “Let's move away from the portal and rest,” I decide aloud, “We'll need to... rest and recover, before we can make our way out. I'll get the salve ready, maybe a potion if it'd help.”

  “I've, ach, still got the jar from earlier,” Verity grunts, fishing the jar from her belt. “Might need help getting my—”

  A wheezing cough rips through her body, exiting as a thick gob of blood. “—my back,” she finishes, forcing the words out through grit teeth.

  “Gods, Verity!” Lena calls, stumbling over to Verity. She drops to Verity’s side, one hand pressed against Verity’s chest, pushing her back up.

  It means neither of them see that I stumble at the loss, barely held up by my tail and sheer will. The pain refuses to ease.

  Lena leans back, exhaling sharply. “We can do it. We've- we're almost done, aren't we?”

  We are, aren't we? It's only been a few hours, but those hours have dragged on agonizingly slowly.

  I don't dare tempt Mireise myself, though. The Goddess of Adventures does have a penchant for fortune and misfortune.

  Once Verity drags herself off the ground, we begin the agonizing, quiet process of ascent with a rest and rations. Salve for bruises, a potion to take the edge off Verity's pain, and tea that we absolutely oversteeped.

  Did I... Did I see something, down there in the abyss? Did I imagine it?

  Or are we all too terrified, too exhausted to dare discuss it?

  Hah. I wish I could hate this damned city. It certainly seems to hate me, same as always.

  Origami_Narwhal