Page 14 of The Awakening of Essensia

She straightened. The way out wasn’t the way she had come. His final words had been a clue.

She began crawling. The chamber was several feet wide, solid unforgiving stone in every direction.

Except one.

A tunnel sloped downward at the far end. She strained her ears. The faint lapping of water drifted up to her like the sweetest song she had heard.

This was it.

When the tide rose, it would fill the chamber, and she could float back to the ledge above. She would live.

But how would she live?

Working the orchards?

Tending to the sick?

No. That would not be her fate. She would need to find another way out.

Vaelira crawled, hope driving her faster now. The tunnel narrowed, and the sound of water grew louder. Her hand slapped into an icy puddle and she recoiled, gasping at its bite.

The tunnel was submerged, the way to the cavern blocked.

She cursed loudly, then shuffled awkwardly back up the incline, dreading the wait in the darkness. The slow rise of icy water as she waited to reach the ledge. Just the thought of it exhausted her.

She stopped her retreat.

Was she going to give up, after everything it had taken to get here?

If she returned without the marker, it was over.

The thought of emerging from the cliff empty handed was like a knife to the stomach. She could already picture Commander Lysander’s face, and the disappointment she would find there.

Then she pictured another face. A Captain’s face. And the lack of surprise on that face was what broke her.

Fear gnawed at her insides, but something steadier rose to meet it.

Breathe.

Move.

She turned back towards the flooded tunnel, heart pounding, her limbs growing heavier with each passing moment. There was a glow in the water, pale and shifting, like a living thing breathing beneath the tide.

Daylight.

She would have to do this now, or she wouldn’t be able to do it at all. Exhaustion yanked at her again, and she shook her head hard. She couldn’t let it drag her under. She scrambled forward, took a deep breath and dove.

The cold tore through her, pain blooming in her ears. Her lungs clenched but the tunnel widened beneath the water. She kicked hard, using her arms to pull herself along the tunnel walls.

Not much further.

The tunnel dimmed and panic surged. Her lungs constricted, burning and bellowing for air. She pulled, kicked, and thrashed until she burst from the tunnel, floating in a large expanse of water, her limbs flailing around her in the black.

There was nowhere to go. No clear path forward.

The darkness closed in, and her vision blurred.

She needed to breathe.