Valeria sighed deeply as she stepped back from the lift panel.

“There’s no way I’m going to get this damn thing to move,” she said with a deep scowl. “The power requirements are too great for me to power myself, and besides, I think the lift has been physically locked wherever that Nestor guy took it, but I can’t say for certain.”

[But it isn’t going to move?] Naiad asked.

“No,” Valeria said as she stood up and stared at the panel with a look that spoke of nothing but violence and fury at this deceptively simple enchantment that was preventing her from following Nestor. “This is only a controller enchantment, and a secondary one, at that. All it does is call the lift, it doesn’t actually have anything to do with how the lift functions. With the lift otherwise disabled, this enchantment is useless.”

The two stood there in the hallway for a long time, neither saying a word. They hadn’t spoken much in the half-hour or so since the fight with Nestor, focusing almost entirely on trying to catch up with him after he fled.

“Do you… why do you think he looked like Leon?” Valeria hesitantly asked, her face becoming lined with worry.

[I don’t know…] Naiad responded as a look similar to Valeria’s passed over her bronze features. [I can say that that was Leon’s body, though. Somehow, this ‘Nestor’ seized Leon’s actual body.]

“What?!”

[It was Leon’s body, but it wasn’t Leon in there,] Naiad continued, her tone turning fearful. [I’m… not certain Leon is still alive…]

Valeria’s look of worry deepened into one of fear and horror. At that moment, to her, it seemed like she’d convinced the man that she loved to accompany her to find her father, only for him to die, and they didn’t even succeed. Instead of returning home with Leon and her father, now it was starting to look like she had lost both.

She immediately dropped down on a knee and started working on the panel again, though she knew it was probably pointless. It was a simple enough enchantment that if there had been a way to get it to work that she could find, she would’ve found it by now. But she couldn’t help it, and just waiting around wasn’t something she was good at.

After a few minutes, though, she had to stop, for she heard the sounds of something sliding to the floor from behind her.

Turning and drawing her weapon, Valeria was, instead, greeted by the sight of Naiad sitting on the ground hugging her legs, her forehead pressed against her knees. The sight of someone so powerful and aloof in such a vulnerable position had her gawking for an almost unseemly amount of time. Eventually, though Valeria relaxed and hurried over to Naiad instead of fruitlessly examining the enchantment behind the control panel.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in concern as she kneeled down next to the river nymph, wondering if perhaps Naiad had been injured in a way that she hadn’t been able to see.

Naiad lifted her head enough to look at Valeria, her lake-blue eyes shining with tears. But she said nothing, and dropped her head back to her knees, conveniently lowering her head down far enough that Valeria couldn’t see the emotions playing out across her face.

It was clear enough to Valeria that Naiad didn’t want to talk about whatever was going on, but Valeria wasn’t in any mood to let this go. In their situation, she considered anything that could drop Naiad to the floor too important to let slip past.

Sliding over next to Naiad and taking a seat, Valeria remained quiet for a short moment, then asked, “Is it about Leon? And his body being stolen?”

Again, Naiad said nothing, but Valeria did her best to put pressure on her to talk with her presence.

“If you need to talk, this… isn’t the best time, but it may be your only chance to vent if all this goes pear-shaped,” Valeria stated as her eyes drifted back in the direction of the lift. With it out of commission, she truly believed that talking for a while might help them to clear their heads and think of something else to try. As they were, they were stuck and going nowhere.

[It’s… nothing,] Naiad said unconvincingly into Valeria’s mind.

“Are you sure it’s nothing?” Valeria quietly asked, trying to be as supportive and calming as she could. “I know that we’ve had some… differences of opinion for a while—and that’s understandable given where we stand—and I would like to apologize for anything I’ve said that might’ve offended you. At least in the past few hours, I’ve been stressed and anxious, I’ve been dreading seeing my father again, and Leon’s missing. I was unable to use those emotions for anything else, so I lashed out at you, and for that, I’m sorry.”

She heard Naiad sigh, with it being perhaps the only time she’d ever heard the river nymph make an audible noise.

“I would also like to thank you,” Valeria continued. “Without you, I would’ve been killed here by those golems. I don’t think I would’ve even put up a good fight, they would’ve torn me to bloody ribbons in no time flat.”

[It’s… Do you know how Leon and I met?] Naiad eventually asked, cutting off anything else that Valeria might have wanted to say, her tone just a little annoyed and a lot depressed and melancholic, as if she were remembering something painful.

“Something about him stumbling upon you in the forests east of the Border Mountains and you helping him to get back to Legion lines,” Valeria answered. “He wasn’t too specific, I just thought it was something that was only for the two of you to know.”

[Elise knows as well,] Naiad explained. [I… did some things to him. Some things that were almost too much for him to forgive, and it made our relationship from there on… difficult…]

Naiad proceeded to tell Valeria the story of Leon being brought to her by one of her subordinate nymphs, and their subsequent interactions, ending with her dropping Leon off back in the forest after extracting a pledge of support from him.

“That…” Valeria murmured, not knowing quite what to say and being more than a little angry, offended, and disgusted all at once.

[It wasn’t my proudest moment, though it’s one that I only started regretting lately,] Naiad continued. [Especially over the past day. I almost ruined something magical and that brings light into my life before I had it out of my fear of turning into a Gorgon. I love Leon more than I ever thought possible, but my fear nearly cost me his love. He forgave me, and for that, I couldn’t be more thankful, but it doesn’t erase my shame…

[And now, with what that other Gorgon told me, I know that Gorgonism isn’t even incurable, that it could very well not even be a concern for me anymore!]

“That’s… a good thing, though, right?” Valeria asked. “I mean, you and Leon have a stable relationship, and now you can set aside a fear that almost made you do something heinous and irreversible.”

[Maybe…] Naiad replied. [Or, maybe with the reason for our coming together in the first place now gone… it will change what we are. What we mean to each other. It renders us obsolete!]

Valeria nodded, understanding on an intellectual, if not emotional, level.

“I… don’t think that anything is going to change for the two of you,” Valeria said. “Have you seen the way he looks at you? He’s not going to let you go for anything. I doubt he even cares about Gorgonism anymore—or, at least, he’s not scared of it. I’d be willing to bet you could transform into a Gorgon right in front of him and he wouldn’t let that change your relationship at all.”

Naiad lifted her head again and glared at her, as if silently accusing her of not knowing what she was talking about.

“These things, what we are and who we are related to don’t matter to him, at least not in the ways that they might matter to us,” Valeria further explained. “If they did, I don’t think he’d have ever let me go. My father ordered his father’s death. My father personally killed his grandfather. I think anyone else would’ve killed me as soon as they could’ve, or used me in some way to try and strike at my father.

“But Leon didn’t do that. I know that he wanted to, but he didn’t, and instead took me in when I was my lowest and gave me the support I needed to get back on my feet. It’s his actions that count, not his words or his thoughts.”

Valeria almost was tempted to try and pat Naiad on the shoulder as comfortingly as she could, but she refrained at the last second. She didn’t think the river nymph would’ve appreciated it, and a moment later, Naiad asked something that would’ve frozen her, anyway.

[How do you know he has forgiven everything? That he won’t go back on his word to you to let your father go? I can sense a lot of pain and anger and frustration whenever he looks at you.]

“He… does?” Valeria asked, having never really gotten that impression from Leon. He’d always seemed genuine and up-front whenever he affirmed their agreed-upon peace. However, the more she thought about it, Leon had reassured her quite a number of times, perhaps more times than someone who wasn’t contemplating breaking that agreement might.

‘Or maybe I’m overthinking things…’ Valeria thought to herself, trying to batter down those thoughts.

“He’ll stick to his word,” she said with as much confidence as she could muster, but it wasn’t much. “I trust him. Our past is kind of rocky, but despite all of that, I know him, and I trust him. He won’t break his word to me.”

[I hope you’re right…] Naiad said, though she hardly sounded convinced.

“I am,” Valeria replied, her confidence a little more apparent.

Naiad seemed to take a deep breath and then straightened up. [No use stressing about it. Being stuck here won’t do us any good.] The river nymph stood up and made for the door, with Valeria right behind her.

“Did you think of something?” Valeria asked.

[You could say that,] Naiad replied as she raised a hand and conjured a small water dragon. With a wave of her hand, she sent the dragon careening down the hallway toward the door, showing Valeria exactly what was on her mind.

The dragon smashed into the door, exploding into a torrent of water that then came flooding back toward them.

Valeria saw that the door was completely unscathed, without even the barest hint that an eighth-tier equivalent magical being had just tried to force her way through. “I… think all you’re going to accomplish with that is making our feet wet…”

[We’ll see…] Naiad replied as she conjured another water dragon. [All I need is a little bit…]

“… Of what?” Valeria asked as the second serpentine dragon was sent on its way, only to meet with the same success as the first.

[Such a door can’t be airtight, can it?] the river nymph asked as an explanation as a third dragon appeared at her side. [I don’t need much, I just need to get enough water through the cracks…]

The third dragon was sent charging down the hall and smashed against the door, without any effect that Valeria could see. A fourth and a fifth followed, and she couldn’t help but marvel at the powers that Naiad commanded, for she wasn’t even breathing hard despite this impressive display of magic. However, her lack of obvious success made the only thing that Valeria was happy about was that the water Naiad was conjuring was apparently being drained somewhere, for the water level wasn’t rising.

After a dozen water dragons crashed against the lift door, Naiad finally stopped.

[That ought to do it…] she murmured into Valeria’s ear as she led the younger woman over to the door. [That had better have worked because I can’t maintain that pace for every door we come across.]

“I should be able to handle those,” Valeria responded a little defensively. “It’s just that this damn lift isn’t following the commands I’ve been giving it!”

Naiad didn’t say anything, but instead pressed her hand against the doors. Valeria sensed some kind of magic pulse push out of the river nymph’s arm and into the door, and a moment later, the door practically exploded as all the water that Naiad had managed to force into the tiny almost imperceptible gaps and cracks flash-froze. The door wasn’t so much damaged, though, as it was completely popped out of its frame, accompanied by a flash of white light as the enchantments within it were disrupted. The door then fell backward into the lift shaft, not hitting anything for a worryingly long time.

“Holy hells!” Valeria cried as she ducked back from the sudden onrush of ice.

Naiad, however, took a few steps forward and stuck her head into the now-accessible lift shaft. After a moment, she then turned back toward Valeria and smiled.

[I can see the lift. It’s far, but not out of reach.]

Valeria joined Naiad at the door and stared down into the inky black abyss, and far far below them, she could just barely see the top of the lift shining in the dark, much farther below them than she’d thought even the deepest floor they’d been to had been.

“I can’t jump that far,” she said with a worried look.

[Who said anything about jumping?] Naiad conjured another water dragon that swept her up as easily as such a thing might if it were made of flesh and bone. [Follow me down.]

The dragon then surged forward into the lift shaft and turned, crashing into the walls of the lift shaft. It then angled down, carrying Naiad down the shaft about as safely as such a thing could. Valeria almost expected the thing to fall, but when she saw the ice along the wall left in its wake, she understood: the dragon was anchoring itself to the wall with ice, keeping its descent completely under control.

Valeria stared in amazement at the degree to which Naiad was able to control her magic, and quietly wished that she could do such things as well. She silently swore to herself to double down on her training when all of this was over, and then she called upon her power. Without hesitation or another moment of thought, Valeria threw herself into the shaft after Naiad, using her ice powers to anchor her feet to the ice left in the river nymph’s wake, using it like a rail that she then slid down with ease.

It was an exhilarating descent. Valeria moved at speeds along the walls of the lift shaft that would’ve made a mortal sick, but instead, she had fun, and she had to fight the urge to laugh and holler as she descended. By the time she joined Naiad at the bottom—or, at least, on top of the lift where it had come to rest, the doors that Naiad had forced open still lying on top of it—her face was practically split in half by her uncontrollable smile.

But, she hadn’t had so much fun that she hadn’t been able to notice something unusual about the lift shaft: it had a subtle twist to it, with each floor not directly underneath the one above or directly above the one below. It was as if the entire facility was designed like a spiral staircase, with the floors as each stair that extended off the lift shaft, or the central support for the staircase. It was a strange feature that wasn’t otherwise apparent, not even when using the lift, but it allowed for each floor to have much more vertical clearance than they might otherwise have since there were no floors above them.

[We’re here,] Naiad said. [Whatever Nestor is doing, he should be on this floor. Let’s go crush him and take Leon’s body back.]

“I’m with you all the way,” Valeria said, smiling at Naiad as she said this. To her surprise, Naiad actually smiled back, though it was so quick that Valeria almost missed it.

Before Valeria could comment on it, though, Naiad tossed the fallen lift door away like it was made of driftwood and then smashed through a maintenance panel on the roof of the lift, allowing the two ladies to then drop down into the lift itself. Valeria wasted no time and got the main lift doors open, allowing them onto the floor where Nestor had fled.

Her smile died as they pushed into the hallway beyond. She still hadn’t found her father, and she had no idea how they were going to drive Nestor out of Leon’s body.